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PALADIN + 4 MAGES
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I have really enjoyed this group composition for a year and a half. Lots of explosions, plenty of one shooting. My first love is running instances and is primarly why I box. So I've taken this type of group through many difficult situations and a lot of success. But I wonder if I'm missing something? A little extra healing would be very nice, but not at the expense of a lot of DPS.

Could my play style be too primative? Are fights supposed to last longer and so require a healer? Are longer fights better than shorter? Normally my group can burn down a group of elites, especially with sheeping, in 30 seconds or less.

Should my Pali be spending more time building agro, gettiing healed by a healer of some sort and mages casualy buring down the mobs one by one that way? That sounds like it would work and be more "sophisticated".

Here is a summary of what I like about this composition:

Paladin healer/tank
Most would say I need a healer, but in SFK my healer was being killed first thing. In WC my healer didn't seem to help a lot. And most often the healer is just taking up space because the paladin does a great job staying alive.

Mage AOE
I love the raw firepower my four mages bring to the table along with massive AOE damage, that can in itself bring down elites when desperate.

Mage crowd control
Very nice to sheep four at once and then burn them down at me leisure.

DPS
I can often bring an elite down before it gets to the group. With normal content I can one shot a good part of the time.

So what am I missing out on without a dedicated healer? If I started again I would go with a PALADIN + 3 MAGES + REST SHAMAN. The extra healing and rezing could be very nice in instances.


PALADIN + 3 ELE SHAMAN + 1 REST SHAMAN?
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I have considered running a Paladin + 4 Shaman.
But I'm concerned that I don't have crowd control and the AOEs stink. But perhaps this is made up for by being able to take a beating? I have even taken a starting group for a test run and did enjoy it alot. While in the starting area one shaman did die! Crazy, must have not being paying attention, my fault for sure.

I've read everything I could find on running this type of group. This composition is so popular that I'm considering spending time leveling a new group from scratch. I suppose fights will last a bit longer than I'm used to but the overall strategy might replace sheeping for doing more tanking. They could pound on my pali all day long while I mash the heal button while buring down the mobs one by one. I can't wait to try.