How's Everyone Progressing so Far and What's Your Group Comp?

[Mercbeast]

Anyone tried a 4 melee + pally / shaman comp? Curious how 4 war / shaman would work out. PvE and PvP

So, I'm running 4x warriors + priest, not exactly the same but close. I'm 56. It's a pretty slow composition in comparison to mage/warlock groups. If your endgame goal includes a lot of world PvP, I'd probably look towards running TWO healers and 3 warriors. It's a very easy group to shut down and pick apart. I can't tell you the number of times a single mage my level has initiated on me and killed my entire group, or the majority of it with just frost nova, arcane explosion, and a single counter spell.

Paladins present some things that a priest doesn't, but blessing of freedom x2 would be a game changer, and the ability to cross heal with 2 healers in open world PvP would be pretty useful considering how easily you can get dunked in classic. For leveling you could run of the paladins as the tank.

One thing I'd recommend for all warrior teams out there that are dungeon grinding. Do not typically run a tank, or a warrior in defensive stance. Keep all your warriors either as arms or fury spec, and if a specific boss requires it, put one in defensive stance with a shield. Now, when you enter a new dungeon, and if things are difficult for your 2h or DW warriors, equip them all with 1h weapons and shields for a level or two, and keep them in berserker stance.

A warrior in defensive stance will gobble up threat, and gobble up rage. When all your warriors are in berserker stance and you're cleaving, one warrior will get ahead on rage generation, this will in turn turn all mobs onto that warrior due to the damage that warrior is putting out. This will snowball that single warrior into crazy DPS mode for a warrior.

Running ZF graveyard pulls, it was not uncommon for one warrior to end up doing 300-350 DPS on a 6 pull, and then the other 3 warriors to do 80-120 DPS each, sometimes some might spike up into the 200's. The end result of 4 warriors in zerker stance is one warrior monopolizes rage. If that warrior is in defensive stance, they can't really turn that incoming damage into outgoing damage.

You can finesse this as much as you want, with talents do you want to start one warrior off in defensive, then swap to berserker for WW spam? Ultimately, your party DPS is probably at minimum 2x higher by not having a tank monopolizing rage, because if the guy monopolizing rage is in berserker stance, it can do as much damage as the rest of the group combined.

[nodoze]

So, I'm running 4x warriors + priest, not exactly the same but close. ... If your endgame goal includes a lot of world PvP, I'd probably look towards running TWO healers and 3 warriors. It's a very easy group to shut down and pick apart. I can't tell you the number of times a single mage my level has initiated on me and killed my entire group, or the majority of it with just frost nova, arcane explosion, and a single counter spell.

... Keep all your warriors either as arms or fury spec, and if a specific boss requires it, put one in defensive stance with a shield. Now, when you enter a new dungeon, and if things are difficult for your 2h or DW warriors, equip them all with 1h weapons and shields for a level or two, and keep them in berserker stance.

A warrior in defensive stance will gobble up threat, and gobble up rage. When all your warriors are in berserker stance and you're cleaving, one warrior will get ahead on rage generation, this will in turn turn all mobs onto that warrior due to the damage that warrior is putting out. This will snowball that single warrior into crazy DPS mode for a warrior.
...
You can finesse this as much as you want, with talents do you want to start one warrior off in defensive, then swap to berserker for WW spam? Ultimately, your party DPS is probably at minimum 2x higher by not having a tank monopolizing rage, because if the guy monopolizing rage is in berserker stance, it can do as much damage as the rest of the group combined.

I am running 3 Warriors+2 Paladins and echo the above (especially if you are on a PVP server).

Cleanses plus Blessing of Freedom really unlocks your Warriors in PVP.

Duo Paladins are unique for PVP healers in that they have the highest innate damage mitigation, the only class with 100% push-back resistance, the most de-buff clearing options (only single class that can clear 3 debuffs), and have 2 bubbles + lay on hands...

Your points regarding rage monopolization make a lot of sense and I think I may be not using my rage as efficiently as I should be. I have been running Arms heavy on my "lead warrior" so I can change stances without dumping all rage & Fury heavy on the other 2 who are auto-following (and just keeping them focused on DPS).

Up to 30 I have been charging in on all 3 (with the lead in first as the other 2 are auto-follow and thus have a slight delay) which usually results in my lead warrior getting initial 'sight' aggro from all mobs. I then try to focus the group on 1 mob at a time (that I judge with both 'Seal of Justice' and 'Seal of Light'). On mainly boss fights I try to keep the boss on my lead warrior (change to defensive stance to taunt if necessary) but let the adds' aggro ping-pong while we focus them down first. My slave warriors basically haven't been stance hopping hardly at all till 30 (mainly only change stances on them if/when my lead goes down which happens rarely).

At 30+ I am not sure how best to initiate as my slaves can't charge in Beserker stance. Are you charging on all 4 in BattleStance and then swapping to Beserker? Are you losing the 12 rage from Charge when you swap to Beserker or are you also popping Bloodlust for 22 (12+10) rage, spending that, and then switching? Or are your warriors running arms and thus don't lose rage?

I don't like that Fury Warriors lose rage when changing stances & I think ultimately my Fury warriors are not getting the bulk of the damage and thus often not leveraging their talents like Enrage & blood craze...

Once I got Beserker at 30 I have been thinking I should have just repeced all 3 to Arms mainly so I can stop worrying about switching stances (as I keep at least 25 rage when switching stances as Arms) and so all 3 can have Sweeping Strikes.

What specs do you recommend for your Warriors to level 40 and then to 60?

Do all 4 run the same specs?

[sethlan]

My 2nd team is currently 4WarLocks+Priest though I am thinking of swapping a warlock for a Mage for water and ports.

I thought about it too, but thing is with the priest, you can go disc and offheal a bit plus keep priest far back so if you die you can res, running back to your corpse takes a ton. what about 1 mage 1 priest 3 warlocks

[sethlan]

I'm only level 28, almost 29 on my 5x ele shamans, i zoom through the dungeons - only problem is, you run out of mana fast so you gotta bring extra water. I like a bit challenge - you can always res if one of them die, etc. Second team will be 1 priest 4 warlocks or just go pure DPS and go with 5x orc hunters.

[nodoze]

My 2nd team is currently 4WarLocks+Priest though I am thinking of swapping a warlock for a Mage for water and ports.

I thought about it too, but thing is with the priest, you can go disc and offheal a bit plus keep priest far back so if you die you can res, running back to your corpse takes a ton. what about 1 mage 1 priest 3 warlocks

Yeah I was thinking of changing my 2nd team from Priest+4Warlocks to Priest+3Warlocks+Mage mainly so I would have access to a Mage & Warlocks for both teams.

The other thing I may consider is that, if I find that I really like melee-cleave at cap for max dungeon grinding efficiency, I may instead want a 4th Warrior to convert from 3Warriors+2Paladins to 4Warriors+Paladin for dungeon grinding things I have on easy farm.

If a 4th Warrior for max Melee-Cleave ends up being my focus then my 2nd team may end up being a more traditional:

Warrior+2Warlocks+Mage+Priest.

That 4th Warrior would likely be the same account as my brother's Paladin which is the character he would be on when he is doing stuff solo... That would work out nicely so he could just leave that Paladin where-ever he wants as I would no longer use him for dungeon grinding.

[nodoze]

I hit a wall lvl 32 Alliance team. Everywhere I go in contested I get camped by skulls. Right now I am living in SM trying to instance grind but it's boring as hell.

Very sorry to hear and I hope things have improved some.

Which server are you on?

How are things going now?

Are you at least able to get into SM consistently (even if boring)?

[Vise]

This is my first time playing WoW and using Isboxer. However I am a long time EQ boxer. Figured Since I never gave WoW a shot I would this time around.

My current setup is Warrior, Shaman 4x.

My warrior is Prot
3 of my shaman are Enhancement
and the last shaman is Resto

Currently level 51 and starting to grind arena for the savage set. I stream often and will give a link next time I start streaming.

[Mercbeast]

I am running 3 Warriors+2 Paladins and echo the above (especially if you are on a PVP server).

Cleanses plus Blessing of Freedom really unlocks your Warriors in PVP.

Duo Paladins are unique for PVP healers in that they have the highest innate damage mitigation, the only class with 100% push-back resistance, the most de-buff clearing options (only single class that can clear 3 debuffs), and have 2 bubbles + lay on hands...

Your points regarding rage monopolization make a lot of sense and I think I may be not using my rage as efficiently as I should be. I have been running Arms heavy on my "lead warrior" so I can change stances without dumping all rage & Fury heavy on the other 2 who are auto-following (and just keeping them focused on DPS).

Up to 30 I have been charging in on all 3 (with the lead in first as the other 2 are auto-follow and thus have a slight delay) which usually results in my lead warrior getting initial 'sight' aggro from all mobs. I then try to focus the group on 1 mob at a time (that I judge with both 'Seal of Justice' and 'Seal of Light'). On mainly boss fights I try to keep the boss on my lead warrior (change to defensive stance to taunt if necessary) but let the adds' aggro ping-pong while we focus them down first. My slave warriors basically haven't been stance hopping hardly at all till 30 (mainly only change stances on them if/when my lead goes down which happens rarely).

At 30+ I am not sure how best to initiate as my slaves can't charge in Beserker stance. Are you charging on all 4 in BattleStance and then swapping to Beserker? Are you losing the 12 rage from Charge when you swap to Beserker or are you also popping Bloodlust for 22 (12+10) rage, spending that, and then switching? Or are your warriors running arms and thus don't lose rage?

I don't like that Fury Warriors lose rage when changing stances & I think ultimately my Fury warriors are not getting the bulk of the damage and thus often not leveraging their talents like Enrage & blood craze...

Once I got Beserker at 30 I have been thinking I should have just repeced all 3 to Arms mainly so I can stop worrying about switching stances (as I keep at least 25 rage when switching stances as Arms) and so all 3 can have Sweeping Strikes.

What specs do you recommend for your Warriors to level 40 and then to 60?

Do all 4 run the same specs?

I honestly don't know what the best spec is. I feel like my biggest power jump in the entire game was when I first unlocked sweeping strikes with whirlwind (I later spec'd out of arms to 31 fury). Being able to charge in, in battle stance, pop sweeping strikes, and then swap to berserker stance and start whirlwinding, that was so much opening burst damage.

The spec I am currently running has me 31 fury, but I now also have tactical mastery and anger management, so dropping rage isn't a huge problem. All of my warriors have run the same spec more or less, the exception is that 2 of my warriors have dropped points into piercing howl and maxing out blood craze, I don't need all my warriors to have 5/5 improved battleshout.

Typically what I do is, I swap everyone into battlestance, charge, spend that rage immediately on battleshout/demoshout/thunder clap, and then swap to berserker and start spamming whirlwind and bloodthirst. If charge is down, I'll pop bloodrage and walk the warriors in, or pull to the warriors. If I outlevel the content and survival of a pull isn't really an issue, I add cleave into my rotation on a higher priority than bloodthirst. So my DPS spam button will be basically WW->cleave->bloodthirst. If survival is an issue, it means I need to spike things down quickly, and cleave is pulled from the rotation, and left on a separate hotkey as a rage bleed on aoe pulls.

I'll say this, with 4 warriors, charge into sweeping strikes into berserker to whirlwind, might just be the best build for a full team of warriors. I'm going to stay the course now with 31 fury. Fury has better sustain, it's true, but with 4 warriors sweeping strike ww spamming, you might not actually need much sustain.

In general, I only use battlestance to initiate when charge is up. I dump that rage into debuffs/buffs, and then swap to berserker. If I was to start all over again, I'd PROBABLY stay arms for the entire ride. So, to give you an idea, I started off full fury. When I hit 31? I swapped to arms to get sweeping strikes, and rode that to 36 when I got whirlwind, and then respec'd back to fury. The only thing I missed from fury, was piercing howl. It's just so damn convenient for kiting, re-positioning, running for your life, or catching that runner that your hamstring round robin didn't.
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Between the two specs, sweeping strikes is the analogous pick for death wish, but, they just are not equivalent, moreover, enrage tends to only benefit that one warrior that starts to monopolize rage. Whereas, charge->ss->zerker->ww is going to be on almost every pull, and it MELTS stuff.

When fighting a boss where I need a tank, I'll equip a shield and swap that one warrior to defensive stance, and let the other 3 stay in berserker, or delay charge them dump their rage and then swap to berserker. When content is difficult, I will equip a shield on one of the warriors, when I engage, I will pull to me usually, only auto attack with the 3 "off" warriors, and spam battleshout 4-5 times on the warrior with a shield, then open up with the other 3. This tends to secure most of the threat on the warrior with the shield, and since they are in berserker stance, they can still put out a decent chunk of damage while monopolizing all that incoming rage.

[Mokoi]

with one warrior using all the rage, wouldn't it make more sense to use 3 other melee to maximize buffs or something? like one warrior and enh shaman, rogue, etc? or do the warriors not monopolizing the rage still do better dmg than the other melee options

even one warrior, 3 hunters and a healer?

[Kruschpakx4]

warriors are quite tricky to play especially since you dont want to spend rage on cleave on the toons that dont have aggro...you lose quite a lot dps there

when I played that on pservers I was only using whirlwind in berserker stance (as 2h fury) and manually cleaving if more than half the warriors were above ~50 rage. I didnt really find much use for bloodthirst until 60 since it scales with ap and my gear sucked except weapons. And yeah cleave eats your auto hit so a warrior that doesnt get hit wont ever get the rage for whirlwind...I played that combo with shaman and even with windfury i struggled so much for rage i was barely using cleave. Maybe you try out on a mobpack how your group dps changes if you leave out cleave/bloodthirst and just auto hit/ww I think it should get higher, especially because it helps to spread aggro somewhat evenly on 4 fury warriors to get more enrage proccs it makes a huge difference since enrage is 25% damage.

Also, if your healer can manage it, dont do thunderclap either. In pre raid bis gear (as far as I got) it was hell of fun to play with the shaman totem twisting for extra 4% crit inbetween windfury and 4x hand of justice, dw (flurry axe in OH) and 7% hit thats where this combo is really going to wreck shit. If you ever get that to t2,5 gear and have some healers in your back and bags full of free action potion you have instant r14

I make a macro for all the abilities I don't want to interrupt BS. So I'll make a macro that is like /cast [nochanneling] heroic strike. This lets you continue spamming your DPS without interrupting BS procs. Then just make a macro to cancel channels, if you need to reposition while one or more characters are spinning to win.

ok good to know this works, its quite funny I'm already way past 50 and I can still keep up with frostmage damage over the course of an entire brd run as an enhancement shaman with that damn weapon. I also made some mistake earlier weapon imbues flametongue/frostbrand can procc of it except windfury. Makes me wonder if warriors do better with flametongue totem then once they got the spin going.