DK+3xRet and Healer Partner

[Boyl]

I have a new Ret team in the works, inspired after a long, long break from multiboxing to try out what is looking like a nice flavor of boxing groups. My current situation is as follows (only relevant characters shown):

Acct1: L80 Druid, L71 Pally, L64 DK
Acct2-4: Newbie Pallies (currently L20)

I will be powerleveling them in instances using the geared Bear tank until about L60ish, then had planned to switch over and run DK+4xRets to instance level and quest level. I don't really plan to use the Acct1 Pally, although he certainly is an option if I wanted to do a 5xPally setup.

From reading about everyone's experiences, it seems like the following is a common experience:

* More than 3-4 Pallies starts to be overkill from a buff perspective
* A DK is a really nice addition for PvP due to DG, Slows, and awesome melee buff synergy, and can also be a nice Instance tank because of the buff synergy.
* Reasonable arena success is possible with either 5xRet or DK+4xRet

As a long-time 4xElemental shaman with a healer partner, I wonder if a DK+3xRet + Healer partner setup for 5v5 is about as equivalent? Has anyone here tried such a comp with anything notable to report?

I generally prefer to quad-box BGs and Arenas due to my computer's performance issues, and just like having another set of eyes with me in the arena. For BGs, I have always felt that 5 characters at once started to become more of a liability on the smaller maps like WSG/AB.

I think I wouldn't mind going full 5-box for instance running, but I would rather keep it down to 4 for PvP purposes. Your thoughts and experiences are appreciated.



(Alternatively, I also wonder if adding a non-boxed partner with a healing debuff (MS, Aimed, Rogue,etc) might also be interesting... )

[Ualaa]

Kromtor is running 1x DK + 4x Ret, controlling all of them.
There is no dedicated healer there, and he's 2300+.

Not sure how -1 Ret +1 Healer would work out.
Probably fairly decently, but you are trading burst/dps for survivability and flexibility.

[Talos]

Ive been running my Protpally/4ret team now for over 1 month
Already i am able to clear almost all the heroics (bar the last boss in PoS and the last boss in HoR)
I havent needed a dedicated healer once.
Divine storm + Judge of Light + Lifeward enchant on protpally is more than enough to heal me trough trash.

I also use 3 different /click macros.
All 3 of them have the usual CrusaderStrike, Judgement, Divinestorm
1 of them links to Excorsism with /stopcasting
1 of them links to Flash of light on themselfs with /stopcasting
1 of them links to Flash of light on tank with /stopcasting.

I press the 1st one on trash and bosses for as long as i can
i press the 2nd one when taking to much AoE for divinestorm to heal up (used a lot before i was geared, now i hardly use it anymore)
i press the 3rd when i want some extra heals on the tank withouth interupting their dps.

besides that i use ISBoxer which allows me to pass mouseclicks for selected areas together with Grid addon and Clique addon.
This allows me to click on the Grid frame of any pally in need of heals when i need to.


But yeah a dedicated tank wil make things easier, but imho with 4 rets who needs a healer ?
Same as Prot/4shaman some people like to run them all elemental.
Once your tank is geared enough he hardly needs healing in most heroics.

[Multibocks]

Talos how are you automatically healing your tank with flash of light? I basically use a castsequence for my rets, are you using a /click to get the tank targetted for the heal?

[Boyl]

I re-read my post and realized I wasn't terribly clear...


For PvE, I plan on running DK+4xRets. Enough people have proven that it's capable, so I'm not worried about this.

My DK+3xRet with Healer Partner inquiry was mostly related to 5v5 Arena...

Sorry for the confusion!

[remanz]

1 less ret. Your burst suffers. I think you might have problem killing people. With that said, if you run with a offensive healer (disc priest, shaman). Then I think it will work. Defensive healer won't work IMO. pally healer (no way). druid (probably not, cyclone is good, but no purge).

I tried this briefly with a druid. dk + 3 paladins + 1 druid. My druid healer got zerged while I was just boucing around in CCs. I am not very geared, but it showed a trend. People are all running around with 30k hp nowadays. No purge, no heailng debuff, no bloodlust, you are not killing anyone.

Overall, adding 1 healer didn't improve my survial much since he is zerged first. And my chances of killing someone drops a nouch due to 1 less dps.

[Boyl]

I think that a shaman healer partner would be nice for Bloodlust, but they are so very squishy... Hmm.

Maybe a warrior or hunter that can add MS debuff... Thanks for relaying your experiences Remanz!

[remanz]

I would say disc priest is ideal. As melee, your biggest enemy is kitting. They will try to go around the pole all day. You better kill them within Hand of freedom duration. Once freedom out, you would have a hard time catch them. They will snare you. and takes sometime for you to dispel. Not to mention you don't have dispel on 5 with 1 GCD. You have to dispel twice to free up all of your guys (only 3, or 4 paladins + 1dk).

This is where disc priest come in, mass dispel is awesome. Imagine this, you go after frost mage, he novas you and blinks out of your hammer of justice stun. You freedom yourself and death grip him back. Now it is time for him to iceblock. Your priest friend spams mass dispel in your area. This dispels the snares on you. and more imortantly, it dispels his iceblock. Only priest allows you to do this. And defensively, disc AOE heal + shield is second to none.

[Talos]

Talos how are you automatically healing your tank with flash of light? I basically use a castsequence for my rets, are you using a /click to get the tank targetted for the heal?

Ill explain my setup a bit more in detail.
Im using bartender so the syntaxes are different if you use another bar mod.
Im not ingame now so dont mind the spelling:

First off the buttons that are used:
Macro1: /castsequence Crusader Strike,,,,,,,, (enough comma's to reset on cooldown depending on your keymashing speed, check the wiki for information about clickmacro's if you are new to this)
Macro2: /castsequence Judgement of Light/Wisdom/the3rd one,,,,,,,,,,,,
Macro3: /castsequence Divine Storm,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Macro4: /cast Excorcism
Macro5 /cast [target=player] Flash of Light
Macro6 /cast [target="Nameoftank"] Flash of Light


3 click macros as mentioned in my first post
clickmacro one: This one casts excorcism on the target
/click "Macrobutton 1"
/click "Macrobutton 2"
/click "Macrobutton 3"
/click "Macrobutton 4" <- excorcism
/stopcasting (this prevents casting when Art of War isnt procced)

clickmacro two: This one casts Instant Flash of Light on themselfs during massive AoE
/click "Macrobutton 1"
/click "Macrobutton 2"
/click "Macrobutton 3"
/click "Macrobutton 5" <- FoL on themself
/stopcasting (this prevents casting when Art of War isnt procced)

clickmacro three: This one casts Instant Flash of Light on the tank when tank is taking a beating
/click "Macrobutton 1"
/click "Macrobutton 2"
/click "Macrobutton 3"
/click "Macrobutton 6" <- FoL on Tank macro
/stopcasting (this prevents casting when Art of War isnt procced)

These 3 macros i have on button 2, 3 and 4.
On my tank i have the same tank macro bound to 2, 3 and 4.
No matter which button i press the macros on Macrobutton 1,2 and 3 go on as usual and resetting after the proper,,,,
The only thing changing is what they do after those.

When i'm in need of some real healing withouth stopcasting interfering i press my button 1 key which only has tank macro on the tank and Nothing on the Rets, this allows me to Click on my Grid addon (wih ISBoxer relaying mouseclicks to the rets and not the tank) to heal withouth /stopcasting interfering.

Hope that clears a bit more up.
If you got more questions let me know.

[Ualaa]

Nice write up, Talos.
Interesting to see how people accomplish things.
Thanks for sharing.