MoP Beta - Group Composition viability (ongoing process)

[Mokoi]

First off.. I want this to be a thread where people can discuss various combinations, or groups for MoP. We are all kind of watching things, reading notes etc. For me, I like doing the theorycrafting. I like to know what options I have, and which ones offer me the best chances for success.

OBVIOUSLY this is still speculative. If you do not like speculation, please just move on. If I end up being the only person to use this thread, that's fine, too. I need a place to put my thoughts. If anyone else finds them useful, bonus. If not, no worries.

Since I am a 10 boxer, I will discuss both 5 man teams and 10 man teams. Sorry to those who do not have 10 (yet .. /evilgrin )

I will try and rank them, give them scores or points, and then calculate (at least how I would calculate them) which teams offer the best viability and stability.

Feel free to add, discuss, but not to flame.

One post, One Team.

I will use the following measurables to determine an overall "viability score" for each team. This final score, much like an IQ test is not an actual score, but a theoretical score. It may not have any bearing on if the team is good, fun or popular. It is merely my way of making sense of a huge amount of information.

Survivability - X/10
Pretty self-explanitory. How hard is it to kill the team? How much damage can the team endure while still being competitive? What kind of defensive cooldowns or passive damage reduction does the team have?

Damage - X/10
Can the team dish the damage? Ranged and Melee will have similar criteria. Can you stay on target? Are you mobile?

Healing - X/10
Can all team members heal? What if your healer dies? Healing is scored not just by what the dedicated healer (if there is one) can do, but overall healing. 4 shaman can still easily heal themselves if a paladin healer dies, but 4 warriors will be up shit creek.

Ease of use - X/10
How do abilities work? Can abilities be easily macro'd or are many good abilities passive? How much micro-management is required for the team to be effective? The more "no-brainer" abilities the better. Can I spam one button and my class fulfil it's role effectively?

Synergy - X/10
Does stacking this team offer buffs that they would not otherwise have access to if it were a solo toon? ie: multiple paladins can give both blessings, but multiple druids can not buff anymore than one druid can. Take into consideration heals, abilities etc that may affect multiple allies. 5x Wild growth is amazing, but 5x prayer of mending overwrites itself a lot, minimizing it's effectiveness.

Crowd Control - X/5
Obvious. Is the team able to lock-out, stun, incapacitate or otherwise CC a target, or multiple targets. Is this CC easy or difficult to use? (ie: 5 polymorphs are more difficult than one aoe fear to accomplish)

Longevity - X/5
Does this team rely on a resource that is limited, or scarce? ie: mana users run out of mana, DKs never run out of runes. This is primarily concerned with long fights, either in a BG or arena, where a team may face the challenge of "running out of steam". ie: a shaman with 0 mana is useless.

Flexibility - X/5
Does this team have multiple roles, for things like dungeons. When you need to do a quest or a dungeon run,or while leveling, can you queue for LFG / LFR easily. Can you switch to a tank spec and tank that world boss, or BG boss? Can your DPS switch to a healing spec and heal this raid? This dungeon? For this BG?

Recoverability - X/5
Whathappens when we wipe? or when we have lost 3/5 characters? What kind of ressurection or battle res have we got at our disposal? can any member of our team res any other member? ie: 5 feral druids will recover much easier than 5 rogues. In some situations, like AV.. we might need to res our toons instead of letting them res at a GY and run all the way back. We might have to use a rebirth in combat easily to continue to fight. (yes, we have mass res, but that's equal across all boards, and so can not be taken into account)