Heroics w/ Melee team

[Ualaa]

It does take a bit of time.

Running dailies with the team, should get you over 1k a day.
Which can be used to buy some BoE's, which will help out a lot.
You're better off with several iLV 200-213 pieces, then with a big 245-264 piece.

Also, if you can run several random heroics as only a tank.
Over the course of a weekend, you should have a lot of gear.
And the tank is the key position for most boxing teams.
With decent gear on this toon, everything else is so much easier.

[Lax]

I started gearing up in *normal* ToC because it's easier epics than most pre-ICC heroics, for equal or better ilvl. Plus you can run it however many times a day you want. Highly recommend that and normal mode of the ICC 5 mans for starter gear. See if you can go forgemaster on pit of saron normal mode for example, and you get a pretty sweet weapon (two ton hammer) -- way better than anything you're going to get out of heroics and pretty much good until you can finish heroic pit of saron to get a beheader (or get battered hilts). And yeah, if your tank is not defense capped, definitely try to get that first.

[BrothelMeister]

Properly geared ele shaman do not go oom.

By properly I just mean crit (crits cause clearcasting, which saves mana) combined with a Tstorm in between pulls, or during, and I never go oom.

Even with a bad tank, I can still fly through heroics without stopping.

[Fat Tire]

It cant be overstated enough with melee. You need to get the best weapon you can get as soon as possible. It is such a difference maker, its a little upsetting that blizzard designed melee around it so much.

It makes buying hilts worth it if youre brand new 80 imo

[Zappy]

I'll throw my 2 cents in -

I just got to 80 and am trying to gear up my 5 paladin team - 1 prot, 4 ret. I have reasonably "OK" starter gear - I mean, other than most of the crafted epics I have the recommended minimum gear to begin doing heroics.

I'm getting my ass kicked in a most brutal fashion. My gear simply is NOT sufficient to do more than handle trash and - if I get lucky - a couple of bosses in the earliest heroics.

If trash is giving you a problem, I would suggest that you set up some sort of CC method, then right before each pull you hit your CC button and mass repentance 4 of the mobs.

For bosses, learn to rotate Divine Shield / Divine Sacrifice into your casts and you should have a good solid 40 seconds of huge damage reduction making healing a lot easier.

[Boylston]

Cannot emphasize enough that weapons on your rets will help keep your tank alive better...

When they do more Divine Storm damage, the whole team gets more heals. Beg, borrow, or steal your way into some better weaponry. Run heroics in LFD with each pally solo if you need to. The ICC heroics and PoS normal mode (for 219 hammer) are very good options.

[Ragewolf]

Thanks again. So for a poor 5box team that wont be buying hilts whats the best weapons to farm for?

[kate]

If trash is giving you a problem, I would suggest that you set up some sort of CC method, then right before each pull you hit your CC button and mass repentance 4 of the mobs.

For bosses, learn to rotate Divine Shield / Divine Sacrifice into your casts and you should have a good solid 40 seconds of huge damage reduction making healing a lot easier.

I can handle the trash easily - the problem is on bosses that do any kind of AOE, I take so much damage so quickly on everyone that I either have to completely stop DPSing to heal or die to the AOE. Any kind of gimmick that requires everyone but the tank moving away I'm screwed on because it's ALL melee, and they can't do damage at range.

The thought is that once my gear has gotten better I won't have to stop DPSing to heal - I'll be able to mix n' match. But this is a LOT more gear sensitive than it would be if I had ranged DPS. With all melee, gearing up my tank first is important, but if my DPS isn't reasonably well geared (better than the minimum starter-heroic stuff, I think) they get creamed.

[Fat Tire]

Thanks again. So for a poor 5box team that wont be buying hilts whats the best weapons to farm for?

Golden fist weapons......made out of accumulated gold coins






















































Then trading those for hilts or 1800 weapons.

Seriously, why go thru the pain. There not that expensive.

[Lax]

I can handle the trash easily - the problem is on bosses that do any kind of AOE, I take so much damage so quickly on everyone that I either have to completely stop DPSing to heal or die to the AOE. Any kind of gimmick that requires everyone but the tank moving away I'm screwed on because it's ALL melee, and they can't do damage at range.

The thought is that once my gear has gotten better I won't have to stop DPSing to heal - I'll be able to mix n' match. But this is a LOT more gear sensitive than it would be if I had ranged DPS. With all melee, gearing up my tank first is important, but if my DPS isn't reasonably well geared (better than the minimum starter-heroic stuff, I think) they get creamed.

Which bosses in particular?

For ones with whirlwind (skadi, gal'darah, commander in nexus, marshal in toc, etc), I stop my healer from following or IWT, and I set him back 20-25 yards. When the boss starts to whirlwind, I switch to my healer and hit follow to make everyone follow him instead of the tank. Then I can run with him and my other guys are already on their way out of trouble. When whirlwind is done, I can hit IWT and continue to play from the healer, or switch back to my tank.

Of course, if you dont have a holy paladin that doesn't work so well You will have to set up a way to heal quickly with FoL on AoW procs. It's harder to have 4 rets than to have one holy while gearing up.