Have you changed your team comp?

[Lyonheart]

Short version: Has anyone switched their team of warrior.healer.3xmages to paly tank? or replaced a mage with a warlock? or both? Looking for advice from you!

I am 36 with my team, currently Warrior+Priest+3Mages. The group can get it done for sure. I am progressing through SM and its all good.. BUT! I have to port back to SS when my bags are full and or I need to repair. I'm guessing this will always be an issue got forward. SM is a little more punishing for this due to it being in a horde zone. I hate the long run there! Just not sure if that is a reason to switch up my team ( adding a warlock for summons extra utility)

Another issue has been discussed a lot. The AoE threat of the tank. I can make it work, but it takes a time and a lot of work to make it happen. I cant pull too big of packs or someone always dies ( i only attempt large pack when the mobs are green to me ) I am getting better at it though. My question to those of you who have switched from warrior to prot paly tank. Is the aoe threat much easier to maintain? would it be worth it to PL a paly to replace my prot warrior? I'm mostly interested in advice from anyone who has actually made this change in their team. I know a lot of people were talking about adding locks for eye pulling/summons and paly tanks for better aoe threat.

[nodoze]

Tank+Priest+2Mages+Warlock is one of the most common PVE dungeon grinding team compositions (along with Tank+Priest+3Mages).

Having at least 1 Warlock for just the eye pulls alone have been worth it for many people (with the extra buff/stones & summons all being bonuses).

In those configs Paladin is a popular Dungeon Tank choice for Alliance not only because of good AoE threat but almost more importantly being able to reduce the other team-mates threat by 30%. Multiple people have reported great success from Pally tank but I don't remember off hand anyone switching a Warrior &/or Mage to a Paladin &/or Warlock.

You are smart to ask for experiences from those who have actually switched though I fear there may not be many people who have done both on current live servers to any decently high levels to give you relevant feedback.

If you do decide to add a Paladin+Warlock and can't particularly power level them you could level a 2nd team of Paladin+4Warlocks (or whatever) and at least leverage them for crafting cooldowns. Getting them to 35 would be the exact level needed to start that passive income (you could switch the Warrior & Mage to that as well).

The other added benefit of extra Warlocks is you can park them at strategic locations to summon your team there.

I hope you get multiple responses but in case not I figured I would give you what input I could...

[Apatheist]

Paladins have solid AE threat early game just from consecration and retribution aura. They only rely on gear to survive. Warriors rely on gear/consumables for both threat and survival. So, while the paladin might be easier early on, warriors will equal and then exceed them at AE tanking as your gear progresses. Late game warriors can manage AE pulls that paladins won't survive.

Also, I've said it before but it's worth mentioning again that paladins support warriors better than priests. If you're going with a paladin tank then priest makes sense because you already have ret aura and salvation. A paladin healer will increase a warriors effective AE TPS immensely.

[nocops]

The amount of time it will take you to level a lock will greatly exceed the amount of time saved in ports. Perhaps just triage the loot and only take greens, blues, stackables, and valuable greys/commons (like weapons). Invest in better bags. I think you are better off to just keep grinding. After sixty you could use a mage to powerlevel a team of warlocks for ports to the common areas.

Also, consider powerleveling a warlock to twenty now (have your mages follow the lock out of combat and fireblast on round robin). Leave the lock outside SM in a safe spot and swap over to port when needed (obviously, whatever account has the lock can't port, so probably pick the account with the toon that dies the least and needs to repair the least)

[Vipeax]

That's what you get for playing the wrong faction. I think SM is the only dungeon / level range where you will ever encounter this issue. I wouldn't change a composition just for SM. Adding a warlock will destroy the combat mobility of your group as well as decreasing the effectiveness for a lot of its utilities (chain frost nova, counter spell, arcane explosion, cone of cold) so as soon as you swap in a warlock a lot of these complications will harm you. As an Alliance player having a warrior in your group as a tank will always be a second choice, since the paladin has the easy aoe rotation and buffs, while the warrior brings no synergy.

[Lyonheart]

Wow! didn't expect so many replies this fast. Thanks for the info guys! I think ill PL some warlocks at some point. Ill stick to my original team for now 8)

[Apatheist]

Are you using battle shout? If all of your characters are within 20 yards battle shout should now be generating more threat than demo shout on large groups.

And you put your first 2 talent points into arcane subtlety on the mages?

[spdy]

Started with Warrior 3x Mage Paladin and swapped the Warrior for a Priest and went with the Paladin and the AE threat + salvation really made a difference for me. Its so much easier to AoE and it also fitted my end-game plan to main the Paladin as a healer.

Good reference for my setup. One of the reasons i made the switch.
https://www.twitch.tv/deepgift/videos

But there are counter examples from the horde side.
https://www.twitch.tv/isabellae/videos

If you are alliance both setups are fine. For smooth sailing i think Paladin is easier.

[Lyonheart]

Are you using battle shout? If all of your characters are within 20 yards battle shout should now be generating more threat than demo shout on large groups.

And you put your first 2 talent points into arcane subtlety on the mages?

I have been using a combo of demo shout and bat shout..should i just be spamming battle shout? I do have the 2 points on arcane subtlety..although i also cone of cold the packs

Started with Warrior 3x Mage Paladin and swapped the Warrior for a Priest and went with the Paladin and the AE threat + salvation really made a difference for me. Its so much easier to AoE and it also fitted my end-game plan to main the Paladin as a healer.

Good reference for my setup. One of the reasons i made the switch.
https://www.twitch.tv/deepgift/videos

But there are counter examples from the horde side.
https://www.twitch.tv/isabellae/videos

If you are alliance both setups are fine. For smooth sailing i think Paladin is easier.

thank you..i think ill level up the pali as he gets rested exp.

[nodoze]

... thank you..i think ill level up the pali as he gets rested exp.

Why not hedge your bets and level up Paladin+Warlock?