Viable 5 man melee setups for PvP

[Gala]

In Classic Concentration Aura from Pally isn't an option for a Shaman team as Pallys are Alliance only and Shamans Horde only.

You are obviously right. Still need to get used to the fact that paly and shami are faction restricted in classic XD

W/o concentration aura I think that for ele shamis the casting delay when taking dmg gonna be a serious issue when it comes to lightning spells.
Eye of the strom is only triggered from physical crits and as far as I know there is no shami set bonus that would reduce the cast delay on lightning spells. Hardcasting lightning bolt will easily take over 4 seconds when there are opponents that spamm aoe abilitys such as blizzard and rain of fire on the shamis.

[Mercbeast]

I don't think that adding a hunter would be worth it. Adding a range dps to that setup would make everything even more complicated than it already is. Also, the hunter and the 2 palys wouldn't have any fear protection whatsoever.
There is also the option to just multibox exclusively warriors and find a seperated healer for the back up. That would probably work best.

After all I think that just like in TBC and Wotlk, the classic 4 ele shami and healer setup will be the best comb in PvP. Holy paly seems mandatory for that setup because of imp concentration aura.
It's interesting that the shami sets have mixed stats of strength and sp. It might be a option to play a ele/enh hybrid build just like 31/20/00. Close by opponents could be killed with a two hander that is imbued with WF and hard to reach opponents with lightning spells.

Big reason why Ele shamans were popular, is we didn't have IWT. Casters auto turned to cast, hunters and melee didn't, so without IWT they were effectively terrible.

People are underestimating the effectiveness of warriors here I think, and perhaps hunters, since we will have IWT. 4 warriors barreling into a group out in the world is going to kill people so fast, that even if a mage scuttles away to drop blizzard snares, or a warlock starts fearing people off, the damage is going to be done quickly. This isn't going to be arena PvP, where everyone is ready, with their arena frame mods etc.

In fact, 5 hybrid druids would be utter hilarity. If world PvP is your goal, you'd probably be hard pressed to find a more enjoyable group than 5 druids, or maybe 1 rogue and 4 druids. Feral charge out of stealth, regrowths out the wazoo, bash, etc etc. Although now that I think of it, 2005 was like the golden age of the hybrid druid builds, and I'm not sure if they were nerfed by summer 2006

[Apatheist]

People are underestimating the effectiveness of warriors here I think

It really depends on the situation. If you charge into a raid with 4 warriors you're probably going to die. If you're part of a zerg vs zerg fight though where you're not the only target, you can definitely do some work with warriors if you're patient and dive at the right time. Especially as alliance with paladin healers. Preemptively pop freedom, death wish and skull and your warriors are effectively immune to all CC for the next 10-30 seconds with a 60% run speed buff. You will just chainsaw through people as fast as you can get on them.

However, if the enemy is smart and just focuses you you will still die fast. SL Warlocks just mashing DoT's on everything from range would probably contribute more to a PvP raid and stay alive longer.

Completely agree on the druids. 5 Druids would actually be a pretty fun group to play for world PvP ganking. Open with pounce, rake and then moonfire/IS. I'm pretty sure most people would just die to your DoT's. Only issue would be AE fears. You'd really need to farm PvP trinkets asap. It actually wouldn't be a terrible dungeon group either. You could heal for days cycling 5 innervates. I might end up giving this a try at some point.

[nodoze]

... Completely agree on the druids. 5 Druids would actually be a pretty fun group to play for world PvP ganking. Open with pounce, rake and then moonfire/IS. I'm pretty sure most people would just die to your DoT's. Only issue would be AE fears. You'd really need to farm PvP trinkets asap. It actually wouldn't be a terrible dungeon group either. You could heal for days cycling 5 innervates. I might end up giving this a try at some point.

Interesting! If you did 5 druids would specs would you run all 5 in for Dungeon clears (all the same or not)? Would you have 1 as your main healer and supplement with the others as needed or actually cycle between the characters?

What specs would you run for World PVP Ganking (the same for all 5 or different)?

Especially interesting if the 0/30/21 Druid spec is the one spec to rule them all :-) https://classicdb.ch/?talent#0ZxxhscMdxVxckxo.

[Apatheist]

Yeah, the HotW/NS spec is pretty much best all around for PvE/PvP. I'd probably run in spell damage gear and just swap into form for stealth.

Actually, in spell damage gear you probably wouldn't even need to try to open with bleeds. Opening with 5* starfires out of stealth would probably instagib most people I'd guess? Never actually tried it, it just seems like a weird alt group if you're bored.

[Gala]

I don't think that shockadin boxing gonna be viable in PvP. Holy shock has a 30 sec CD in classic and only 20 yards range.
Shamis have better mana management, more heal, better fear protection and abilitys with +36 yards range. They just seem overall stronger.

[sethlan]

What's the worse for the boxer. Fear, I think going undead is pretty neat. eat the body to gain health, and forsaken. Plus use pvp trinket. I'd love to play 5 shamans, but I think 5X warlocks can do some serious damage, dott anything that tries to get away....or kite you.

I'm thinking that 4x warlocks and 1 mage can be fun... If we change to 3x warlocks, 1 priest, 1 mage. Can be interesting, stamina buff, intellect, do to all the buffs and fast travel, dispells, mage can slow the target down that anything starts to charge you... also get some heals from the priest as disc.

[nodoze]

What's the worse for the boxer. Fear, I think going undead is pretty neat. eat the body to gain health, and forsaken. Plus use pvp trinket. I'd love to play 5 shamans, but I think 5X warlocks can do some serious damage, dott anything that tries to get away....or kite you.

I'm thinking that 4x warlocks and 1 mage can be fun... If we change to 3x warlocks, 1 priest, 1 mage. Can be interesting, stamina buff, intellect, do to all the buffs and fast travel, dispells, mage can slow the target down that anything starts to charge you... also get some heals from the priest as disc.

Your effectiveness in PVP somewhat depends on your efficiency in PVE grinding and you have no true PVE Tank option and I would have concerns relying on pets if no /focus solution is found before Classic goes live... Assuming you have the gear PVP performance-wise that sounds consistent with & temporarily countered by:

It really depends on the situation. If you charge into a raid with 4 warriors you're probably going to die. If you're part of a zerg vs zerg fight though where you're not the only target, you can definitely do some work with warriors if you're patient and dive at the right time. Especially as alliance with paladin healers. Preemptively pop freedom, death wish and skull [of impending doom] and your warriors are effectively immune to all CC for the next 10-30 seconds with a 60% run speed buff. You will just chainsaw through people as fast as you can get on them.

However, if the enemy is smart and just focuses you you will still die fast. SL Warlocks just mashing DoT's on everything from range would probably contribute more to a PvP raid and stay alive longer. ...

While undead are very nice I will main a Paladin thus have to go Alliance. If I recall correctly Alliance Dwarf Priests also have Fear Ward to preemptively protect themselves or an Alliance party/raid member and the Horde doesn't have a Fear Ward option.

[Apatheist]

Just a full feral tank spec. Something like: https://classicdb.ch/?talent#0zLVcoZxxxscMdtL

People often overlook improved thorns in vanilla. It's actually pretty solid threat builder as a tank. You deal 130% threat with all damage in bear form, including auras, so between ret aura and thorns it'd be something like 50 damage and 65 threat every time a mob hits you.

You can also get a few items like the cloth helm from the last boss in Gnomeragen (forget what it's called) and the ring from the golem boss in BRD that has armor and does damage whenever struck. Gift of arthas is a cheap consumable that applies a debuff to everything that hits you that causes threat, crystals from Un'Goro, etc.

Then just spam swipe/maul.

[nodoze]

Just a full feral tank spec. Something like: https://classicdb.ch/?talent#0zLVcoZxxgscMdtb

People often overlook improved thorns in vanilla. It's actually pretty solid threat builder as a tank. You deal 130% threat with all damage in bear form, including auras, so between ret aura and thorns it'd be something like 50 damage and 65 threat every time a mob hits you.

You can also get a few items like the cloth helm from the last boss in Gnomeragen (forget what it's called) and the ring from the golem boss in BRD that has armor and does damage whenever struck. Gift of arthas is a cheap consumable that applies a debuff to everything that hits you that causes threat, crystals from Un'Goro, etc.

Then just spam swipe/maul.

Thanks for the 14/35/2 spec! Really wish these forums could give points as you would have a million thanks by now .

Considering my goals and what I like to play I may just go 2 Paladins+2 Warriors+1 Druid instead of 2 Paladin + 3 Warriors...