The ease of shaman groups

[Multibocks]

So I have done a few groups to 80 and I want to share an revelation I had today. I had shelved my shaman group to try other things in WoW and I decided to fire them up again today. I can't express how easy a 4 shaman + tank group is compared to others. The survivability and functionality is ridiculous compared to many groups. Now I have not done a mixed group, and maybe I will some day, but I guarantee you that 4 shaman + tank is about 10 times easier than any melee team + healer or healer + ranged + tank.

Currently I have a 5 druid team, 5 paladin team, 4 DK + druid team, and have tried all mage and warlock teams. They just don't compare to the power and ease of playing shaman. After realizing how much I am struggling on the other teams I am really hesitant to play them anymore.

I know this is completely subjective and no evidence to support it, but it's really hard to express how much I can relax while playing shaman versus the OMGIMGONNAWIPEHURRYANDPRESSEMERGENCYBUTTONORITSOVE R... CRAPEMERGENCYAGAINWHATDOIDONOW??!

I'll take the relaxed gaming, thanks

[mmcookies]

shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, stop it you'll get us nerfed again

[Pallarfo]

The one team i completely lack, is shamans
Currently I'm 5 boxing with pala/priest/hunter/2x mage combo, and i am able to clear some heroics.
I can imagine with shamans things must be a bit easier. (totem farm)

[Multibocks]

Well with paladin + 4 shaman I can negate using mana totems and this means 4 healing totems (1k+ per tick is seeeeeexxxxy) That alone allows my dps to be uninterrupted on most bosses for at least the first 30secs of the boss fight. Add BL and most bosses are almost dead by that time. However, seeing people post mage screens of 7k+ dps is "hmmm" worthy indeed.

[Pallarfo]

I'm not at 7k dps with the mages far from it.
Pala sometimes gets above the 2k, mages+hunters are between 1.2k and 1.8k.

[Multibocks]

You need to add at least one shaman for lust. Seriously, that spell is worth every pixel.

[stoat]

Even with the dk nerfs when I run dk + ele shamans I barely heal (using death strike as the primary attack instead of scourge strike) in heroics (other than for gimmicky things like enraging trash that doesn't get targeted first). As for leveling, having 4 resto shamans healing when you are boosting from 60-70 really helps speed up the pulls. Kind of an apples an oranges comparison since I boosted my shamans with my 80 dk, but my priest + 4 lock team that is currently 65 is a royal pain in comparison.

4 aoe healers if you need it
4 great dps if you don't
3-4 healing totems that equate to rolling a rejuv on every char
fear removal
grounding totem farm
4 fire/earth eles if everything goes tits up
haste and more haste
high armor - can eat some hits

[shaeman]

Shaman really are too good to ignore.

Now that I'm backing off from all my guild commitments I'm going to get my shammys levelled.
I'm actually looking forward to the levelling process. I'm just going to keep them permanently queued for AV while I'm out and about questing.

Initially I'm going to going to Box 3 (from 66 to 72) then pick up my 4th Shaman.
I'll have a horde pally I can use for pve - and if faction transfer comes out I'll swap my Alliance shammy to horde, to give me my 5 for BG's and ultimately for arena.

[Ualaa]

My first to 80 team was/is 1x Prot Pally with 3x Elem Shammy and 1x dual-spec Elem/Resto Shammy.
The team could take solo elites 2-3 levels above them, while leveling up.
I've not raided with them, as a group, although the pally and one Elem shammy has a bunch of Naxx gear now.

I've got 5x Balance Druids at 60, which I'd like to level at some point.
I've got 5x Disc. Priest at 60, which I'd also like to level at some point.

Prior to boxing, I had leveled several toons to 70th, single boxing.
Two of these joined the first team, Pally and Shammies.
But five more have sat at low 70's or 70, through WotLK.

I recently decided to level these "orphans" as a mixed team.
75 Feral Druid, 74 Disc Priest, 73 Elem Shaman, 70 Demo Warlock, 70 Marks Hunter.
To mix it up, this team was going to do instances instead of questing.
One boxing, a Feral druid clicking each move as needed is a strong option.
Unfortunately, I cannot seem to come up with a castsequence which holds threat.
Consistently, the Priest takes threat on secondary targets from heals.
Often enough to be irritating, the Shaman (chain lightning) and Hunter (multi shot) take aggro too.
Utgarde Keep (level 71 recommended level) was *FAR* easier with 70 Pally/Shammies.

My Druid's click sequence was: Enrage (1 per fight), Demoralizing Roar every 12 seconds, and looping Mangle, Swipe, Maul, Mangle, Swipe, Lacerate when Roar was not firing. I had the glyph for Maul to hit additional targets.

Priest was precasting Prayer of Mending and PW: Shield, with a Renew early. Used Pain Suppression and heals manually. Had both Target=TargetTargetTarget (targted Druid always) heals and G-Keys for specific character heals.

Hunter was Hunter's Mark, Serpent Sting and Misdirection once per fight. Arcane Shot, Chimera Shot, Multi Shot as cooldowns permitted, with Steady Shot when everything else was on cooldown.

Shaman was Elemental Mastery when available, Flame Shock every 18 seconds, Chain Lightning every 4.5 seconds and Lightning Bolt when others were not on cooldown.

Warlock was Demonic Empowerment when available, Agony, Corruption, Immolate as they expired, Lifetap every 40 seconds (for the glyph bonus), and S.Bolt spam when others were on cooldown or waiting to be recast.

The dps was good with the mixed group.
Boxing the druid, I couldn't build secondary threat nearly as well as the Pally.

Pally would Consecrate early, and have Holy Shield up all the time. Initial threat would have them hit the Pally, and Holy Shield was enough threat from their own attacks, for the shammies to never take aggro. Boxing the Druid has nothing of this sort.

No comparison between the two.
Level 70 Pallies+Shammies had a much easier time (fewer deaths too), then a 75 tank, 74 healer...

Have respec'd the mixed team, after a few dozen attempts to tweak their macro's.
The mixed team is now...
Balance Druid, Shadow Priest, BM Hunter, Demo Lock, Elem Shaman...
And leveling via Pew-Pew in BG's.

[Siaea]

And that's why the shaman group is so popular, almost to the point of being cliche. I started with 5 shammies and AV was an utter blast (they called me the 'turtle breaker' in BC AV). Add a tank and you have everything you need for heroics, to the point of facerolling once you start really gearing up. I rolled a priest /4lock combo for PvP after I started doing mainly PvE on my tank/shammy group, but decided to level my previous 'main' shammy for a 5 shammy PvP group again, especially now with the uber totem farm buff.

BOY, I can't wait till Monday and I'm in my new house with new cable. I haven't played in a month, so I REALLY can't wait to try these new buffs out.