Paladin and 4 x Mages

[daviddoran]

When I first hit 70 on all 5 toons, I was running pally priest and 3 mages. Having a healer means every encounter can be done the "proper" way, or at least the way it was designed. Fights go smoother, if slower, but overall you will have a more even experience. I personally wouldn't run without a healing class. When I run pally with 4 shaman, i dont heal often, but when I need to, the shammys are right there.

If you want to go PvP, the paladin as holy will be a great healer for your mages.

[Seldum]

I can talk a bit about the druids in a team.

I run 5x druids. I originally choose this as I was a bit uncertain about which group composition I should pickup. And people generally said druids was okey for Instances. And they are. Im not in heroics or anything, just focussing on leveling atm.

Im a casual player and plays maybe 2 times a week, so its also easier for me to only have one class to manage and to read up on when changes arrive.

If you include a boomkin in your group you would need to manage the Eclipse Proc to maximize the dps on this toon. I don't know if the extra management is worth the efford of the buff.....

I have enjoyed playing with the druid team so far and I hope they will be good enough for the end game stuff when I reach it at some point in the far future lol

[Ualaa]

My first team: Paladin + 4x Shaman.
My second team: Disc Priest, Mage, Feral Druid, Elem. Shaman, Warlock.
My third team: 5x Boomkin.
My fourth team: 5x Warlocks.

The boomkin team is my favorite (most fun) so far.

I'm not sure if I'll run heroics with them, if I do will just need to dual-spec one to resto and another to feral.
The Moo's seem to have run everything on heroic, so 5x druids is definitely doable in heroics.
I really like his video's (see movie forum), because they are all very high quality.

I do plan to extensively BG with them, and arena for points (not a lot of controlled burst, so not likely to get a high ranking).
Stealth via cat form to anywhere.
Force of Nature, broadcast onto a healer.
Starfall and Hurricane, broadcast onto a group (very strong AoE potential).
Can 5x Rejuvenation, 5x Lifebloom, 5x Regrowth stack for serious HoT power.
Moonkin form is high armor vs melee.
Typhoon on round-robin will be fun to knock opponents back.
Battle Rez on round-robin will be useful.
Tranquility on round-robin at the back of a group, can add heal power too.

I have an example of how to manage Eclipse procs in my IS Boxer guide.

[Seldum]

The Moo's videos is a real inspiration to me. I love them and have seen em many times.

I doubt ill ever be as skilled as him with the amount of time I spend on wow.

I have only once done some pvp on my mage, and I loved it. I think I was "okey" for a n00b. Ill defenitely going to try some 5xboomkin pvp at some point....

I have an example of how to manage Eclipse procs in my IS Boxer guide.

I have read it and its awesome. Haven't implementet it yet as im only running quests atm.

But im definetly going to implement it when I reach the lvl cap at some point.

[Starbuck_Jones]

If you make things dead, then you are doing it right.

[ericforsell]

Good point.
And if you have some cool explosions and pyrotechnics while you do it, so much the better!

[Jubber]

Eventually if you plan to run heroics having some form of offheal is necessary even for geared tanks. You don't need a dedicated healer but heals coming in from somewhere no matter how small is better than your tank stopping what he is doing to heal himself.
Tank stopping to heal = no blocking meaning more damage is coming in anyways so your tank heals will probably be moot anyways. 4 ele shammies gives you healing totems for off healing power and then the shammies themselves can cast heals when needed using any number of them 2,3, or all 4.
Same with 5 pallies.. 4 ret pallies provided little off heals with divine storm and when needed you can macro any number of them to give you a boost in healing. This goes for any offspec that can heal.. 4 pure DPS classes will eventually be able to blow up the bosses when geared out without the need for heals, but getting to that point will not be easy in itself.

[ericforsell]

I got up to 60 with my four mages and paladin and could do every instance without too much trouble. But BRD was the roadblock and was in a different class than the previous instances I was in. A healer became critical at this point. And yes, a paladin healing herself during a fight can be frustrating, but at least the healing helped agro and I did alright. From what I've read four Shaman can be excellent DPSers. Hope I can get the same pyrotechnics out of them though.

I'm starting over with four Shaman and a paladin. I've never played Shaman and now I'll be playing four at once!

[Ualaa]

I'd build a click castsequence for the shammies.
I actually gave my roommate the same sequence my 80's use, and he's in the 50's.
Had to add more comma's, he spams a lot faster.

Even with spells missing (won't have Lava Burst) until 75th (or so).
The sequence cannot do anything on that press, so that entire castsequence does not impact you.
And when you visit the trainer and add a spell, its already built into your sequence.

For PvE, a click sequence is probably the best way to DPS.
For PvP, you'll want the control of manually casting everything.

I've found with Pally/Shammies, I micromanage my totems the most.
DPS or Tanking is mashing a sequence for both sets.
I have Call of the Elements (default), Call of the Ancestors (AoE) and Call of the Spirits (PvP) stomp macro's.
But also have several on round-robin: Earth Bind, Fire Elementals, Tremor and Thunderstorm.
And then several sets where they all drop: Cleansing, Grounding, Magma, Searing.
I have 3x Healing + 1x Mana on its own bind too.

The pally manually casts Avenger Shield, Divine Plea and Sacred Shield.
Forget the name of the other one, which is talented where the pally takes 40% of the group's damage.
Also have Hand of Protection and Divine something (50% dmg reduction) as a /cast [target=targettarget] type macro -- you can "taunt" even a taunt immune mob like this.

Shammies have Heroism on their own key, but that's way down the road.
Water Shield is used 95% of the time, Lightning Shield if I'm being AoE'd.

I have the weapon enchants for both classes on the same key.

[Jubber]

You are using old content as a judging point for your team. The difference from BRD to BC instances is another huge jump. From BC to Northrend dungeons is an even bigger gap. All of azeroth was nerfed to allow faster leveling.
I am not trying to deter you by any means, just letting you know alot of teams are viable to start. Once you get further you will realize this.