Comparison of squads for 5 man dungeons

[Perrigrin]

@nodoze - thanks - I should have mentioned, on a PVE realm and will only PVP in BGs (and then not boxing).

And to expand my question - Do you think the 4x DPS warrior + Heal Shaman would clear 60 instances better/easier/faster than a 3x mage, war, priest setup? I know that wasn't my original question :P

[nodoze]

@nodoze - thanks - I should have mentioned, on a PVE realm and will only PVP in BGs (and then not boxing).

And to expand my question - Do you think the 4x DPS warrior + Heal Shaman would clear 60 instances better/easier/faster than a 3x mage, war, priest setup? I know that wasn't my original question :P

Yes that is my understanding and that is big part of the reason many people are running with "Melee-Cleave" setups over "Spell-Cleave" setups. There are great videos on youtube showing both in action and contrasting and comparing pros/cons.

For motivation purposes you can read the following regarding some relative bench marks which among other things compares the DPS of Warriors vs Mages:

https://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/...l=1#post420038

The thing I like about the melee-cleave approach is that it is based on an endless resource (Rage) instead of Mana and the DPS scales to good size mob packs (ideally max of 6 or so if my memory is correct?) so you can just be a buzz saw and keep running (as long as the healer(s) keep up). Paladin healer(s) make a great complement with melee cleave as they are the most mana efficient healers in the game with the right talents. At first glance a single Paladin is a little scary with no active AoE (or even AoE-ish) heal but this can be offset by the Warriors running with Crusader Enchants using BloodThirst on targets judged with Seal of Light giving lots of healing on Warrior hits helping soften healing spikes (especially when they work up to dual-wielding!). If incoming damage still seems too high even with all that you could swap a DPS boosting Blessing for 'Blessing of Light' on the Warriors until the gear improves. Personally if I was on a PVE server, with no other goals except dungeon grinding efficiency & feeding my Paladin gold/drops, I would try to go with 4 Warriors and likely tilt one Warrior toward being more Tanky & push Aggro on him (in gear/talents/stance/etc) and let the others go full out ham on whatever gear/spec/etc is best for DPS (though all would be doing as much DPS as the Paladin could handle). With that in mind were I to be running a Shaman instead of Paladin on a PVE server, provided my assumptions in my previous post are valid, I would still run 4 Melee-Cleave Warriors with Crusader and instead focus on totems that boost & maybe heal the warriors (including WindFury) & trying to get away with rank 1 Chain Heals (the most mana Efficient) and see if i can mix in mana totem without sacrificing warrior efficiency. In the end if you have to sacrifice a totem &/or talent that would otherwise boost your Warriors but instead use it to regen your Shaman's mana and that keeps you from stopping to drink you may find you prefer that more and the sacrifice is worth it.

The above being said, I am on a PVP server and want 2 Healers for PVP, which pushes me toward 3 Warriors+2 Paladins and while that will certainly drop DPS for the group and I will likely have more spiky damage (as I run all 3 tilted DPS) both will be partially offset with 2 Flash Heals & 2 Blessings/Auras/Judgements & running both Paladins up with the melee and attacking as well. After 5boxing & 10boxing Shaman in BC+ in many ways I would prefer WPVP with 4+ Shaman with Turret style Chain Lightnings, Chain Heals, and instant Ghost Wolfs but since my disabled bother's and my focus are historically tanky Duos in BattleGrounds (traditionally duo Paladins) I really have to go multiple Paladins & at least 1 Warrior to support that.

Since you confirmed you are on a PVE server the remaining questions that come to mind are what roles (DPS, Heals, or both) do you want to push in BGs, WPVP (main only), & in Raids?

Once that is known you hopefully can get a good single spec that does what you want to do on your main at cap in the desired content yet still allows you to efficiently support your dungeon grinding (non PVP) Warriors.

Since I only boxed Shaman on the Alliance-side in BC & WoTLK I found the following Guide to be interesting and likely would be a good starting point for you:

https://classic.wowhead.com/guides/s...ds-classic-wow

If you were solely focused on dungeon grinding and gold making efficiency with a Melee-Cleave group you may want to look into the something around the 'PVE Deep Restoration (tank / melee / Hunter group)' spec.

Since you want to also do PVP, if you want to be the best healer you can be in PVP, I would think you would want to look more at something based on the 'PVP Deep Restoration' spec.

Alternatively for PVP, if you want to be more Hybrid with good damage yet still have good heals, you may want to look at something based off of the 'PVP Hybrid' spec.

Note that while I liked that above guide I linked I don't feel qualified to evaluate those builds so hopefully others will chime in and indicate whether they agree with those builds or not and/or offer some alternative builds.

Personally I like the playstyle of big front liners face-tanking over frost kiting &/or sheeping before pulls when multiboxing so I would personally choose the melee-cleave approach over spell-cleave approach (plus the only thing I hate more than having to stop to CC prior is having to stop to drink after)... In the end I don't have a choice with my goals factored in as my brother will only play a tanky melee with me so I am just glad that the combo that meets our goals happens to be very efficient.

[fenerous]

@nodoze - thanks - I should have mentioned, on a PVE realm and will only PVP in BGs (and then not boxing).

And to expand my question - Do you think the 4x DPS warrior + Heal Shaman would clear 60 instances better/easier/faster than a 3x mage, war, priest setup? I know that wasn't my original question :P

I haven't tested it myself, but I'd imagine 4 warriors with crusader enchants plus a shaman would destroy pretty much anything in their path. Even if the shaman gets aggro, they are beefy enough to stay alive until one of the warriors picks up the aggro (I tanked every dungeon in vanilla with my guild as an enhance shaman).

Dropping WF totem with 4 warriors each equipped with the hand of justice just sounds hilarious to me.

[nodoze]

I haven't tested it myself, but I'd imagine 4 warriors with crusader enchants plus a shaman would destroy pretty much anything in their path. Even if the shaman gets aggro, they are beefy enough to stay alive until one of the warriors picks up the aggro (I tanked every dungeon in vanilla with my guild as an enhance shaman).

Dropping WF totem with 4 warriors each equipped with the hand of justice just sounds hilarious to me.

Yeah I was wanting to try Crusader Enchants on both an Ironfoe mainhand with Thrashblade offhand & hand of justice and windfury.