Full Melee team viable in expansion?

[crowdx]

Hi all,
so I have just hit lvl 70 on my 4th team and started to wonder about melee viability in Cataclysm. My current team is really going to be used to fill out some spots in my other teams and I have a 5th I am going to level which at that point would give me the option of a full melee team.
So my question now is, with my recollection of the Burning Crusade, a lot of dungeons needed specific classes and group make ups to clear the heroics. I know in Cataclysm they want every class viable in a group but I am wondering will a full melee team really be viable, especially from a healing aspect (I remember some group combinations were quite hard to heal as a main healer due to the high spikes of damage taken from certain classes).
Anyone got thoughts on this? Or even thoughts on what the best team combination will be?

[Shodokan]

Right from the get-go? Absolutely not. The only real classes capable of any sort of healing are ret paladin and enhance shaman. Enhance does not heal as well as ret and it sacrifices a ton of damage to do it (as does ret, but they have more buttons in general). Feral druids need to shift out to heal and i don't think their heals have the potency required to sustain damage in heroics like you are seeing required.

Eventually? Eventually i think that a team of 5 paladins could do it, as it stands now prot paladins can solo most of black temple, mag, etc etc... with the nerf to death strike i'm not so sure about dks but they are technically a possibility as well.

The only real problem is CC at that point, which when you outgear content by two tiers of raiding gear that should not really be a problem. To start? It will be.

I mean, it will be a challenge to do heroics as a boxer IMO, so if you enjoy melee classes then you are going to need to find workarounds for the shortcomings. It's not like shaman who can build heals into their DPS macros and if their crit is high enough be able to sustain it due to clearcasting etc.

Either way. Good luck.

[kate]

I have been thinking about this a bit too. Initially, with my Paladin + 4x shaman team, I was thinking about having it so that the shaman could all dual-spec elemental/enhancement (except for one that would be elemental/resto) just in case there were any fights where melee were better than ranged. (Un?)fortunately, I haven't run into any situations where melee would make short work of something but ranged would have difficulty, so I never tried it.

I will be making an all Worgen, all Druid team - though I'm not sure if my DPS will be feral or if they'll be balance - or maybe dual spec to try both.

[crowdx]

So then for starting the expansion, will a tank, be it pally, warrior or DK plus 4 shammies, be a good team or will they be missing something another class could provide? My current thoughts are 3 of the same class for dps, I am working towards 3 locks, mages, shammy or hunters (hunters are my least favorite).
Not entirely sure on heals, I have always liked my druid but with the tree form having a cooldown now, I am not sure how this will work when he comes under pressure due to no content currently stresses a teams healing. I do have all the other healing classes too but not sure if any will have an edge.

[Ualaa]

I would think, a healer + tank + 3x melee DPS would be doable for pretty much everything.
You'd have the entire team in melee (aside from the healer), which means most of the puddles of acid will be in a smaller area, making them harder to avoid... and all four toons will likely eat point blank boss AoEs or the odd cleave.

I don't see 5x DPS, no healer spec among the group as being that viable initially with any class combination... you might be able to brute force through some things as Rets, but they would have a harder time then Tank + Healer + 3x Melee or 3x Range.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Define viable.

[Feider]

I hope it is. My melee team will be my first to 85. Warrior tank, Resto shaman with rogue, cat, enhance dps. They've been fun at 80

[BrothelMeister]

My melee team of 4 rets + Blood DK is at 78 and horribly geared for their level, and the dungeons aren't too bad.

As with ANY boxing comp, if you want to do it enough, and apply enough effort, you can make anything work. I fully intend to run the 5 melee characters together to level in Cata.

[Shodokan]

My melee team of 4 rets + Blood DK is at 78 and horribly geared for their level, and the dungeons aren't too bad.

As with ANY boxing comp, if you want to do it enough, and apply enough effort, you can make anything work. I fully intend to run the 5 melee characters together to level in Cata.

Current dungeons require no CC or any real coordination though, so making a comparison to viability in dungeons now and in the future doesn't hold water very well.

[Ualaa]

I'll level up as 5x Cats.

Will PvP as 5x Cats as well.
Same toons, but a bear and a resto, for PvE dungeons/heroics.