Guide: Trinity Comp (Tank/3x BM Hunter/Healer

[Feint90]

DK and monks are both good picks I think.

DK's always a strong pick because of the self healing and with the return of AMZ you have a good party wide magic defensive + he gives a battle rez (which is important to consider if you don't pick druid healer or run boomkins).

I do see Monk pulling ahead for a hunter trinity comp, especially if you run a druid healer (because of the brez). Because of the way monks stagger damage and the fact that you have 3 spirit beast heals (+ potentially druid resto affinity passive) that can consistently reduce the stagger on your tank (or burst if you combine them), you will have very consistent tank damage. Another bonus for the Monk is the 5% physical damage debuff he brings which if you run hunters, is a straight 5% damage increase for each hunter. I also see it as a bonus if you run a druid with a monk is that they share the same armor so you can easier trade gear between them and put the gear where it is most useful (within the boundaries of personal loot rules of course). Of course Monk is a slight gamble because he is currently broken and they might just nerfhammer him into the ground.

Personally like DH tanks but they have too many gaps in defensive to be stable (which if you run 1 character is fine, but not for multiboxing).
Paladins are strong picks with dps that exceeds some dps classes but they have a few changes that I dislike (like the nerf to their big heal).

Healer wise shaman becomes an extremely strong pick if you choose not to go the hunter route with the nerf to bloodlust scrolls. And since as a multiboxer you don't have people scattered too much you won't lose out on the weakness of shamans. This becomes especially true if you have secondary healing capabilities on your tank and DPS to offset potential weak single target healing.

Druids are a good pick and if you can get the HOTS rolling (which someone made a topic about on these forums not too long ago explaining how) then you are golden. Only questionable part here is mana usage (is that still a thing?)

I am really looking forward to Shadowlands. With all the changes going on I might step away from 5x Druid and go BrewM/Hunters/RDruid (I always main a Druid), but time will tell.

[nodoze]

... Druids are a good pick and if you can get the HOTS rolling (which someone made a topic about on these forums not too long ago explaining how) then you are golden. Only questionable part here is mana usage (is that still a thing?) ...

Is this the HoTs rolling discussion you were referring to? :

https://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/...l=1#post263876

I did an advanced search for rolling and rolling HoTs and that one from 2010 was the one that came up... Prior to finding it I was thinking of doing something in ISboxer with a timer to reset but seeing that macro resets it with combat makes me think to some degree doing it in the WoW client may have some advantages.

[Feint90]

Is this the HoTs rolling discussion you were referring to? :

https://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/...l=1#post263876

I did an advanced search for rolling and rolling HoTs and that one from 2010 was the one that came up... Prior to finding it I was thinking of doing something in ISboxer with a timer to reset but seeing that macro resets it with combat makes me think to some degree doing it in the WoW client may have some advantages.

This is the one:
https://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/...d-optimization

On the other topic of covenants:
Depending on the bonus and the viability of the covenants for each role, Zok's idea to make a team for world content and a team for dungeons and simply switch out certain characters may be the way to go.

If you are trinity and necro's turn out to be the best pick, just add 2 hunters for world content and you can do it all in 1 go. Then you can potentially make a team consisting of your tank/healer and fillers to do the content on them, assuming they benefit from the same covenant. I would personally not go for 3 teams if they end up being split as that would just be a hassle.

Also according to Preach, the Night Fae weekly seems to be the best for resources so if you are boxing druids, going NF (which as of right now is only slightly behind Venthyr DPS wise), will give you a little boost in resources, pretty much free.

[nodoze]

This is the one:
https://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/...d-optimization

On the other topic of covenants:
Depending on the bonus and the viability of the covenants for each role, Zok's idea to make a team for world content and a team for dungeons and simply switch out certain characters may be the way to go.

If you are trinity and necro's turn out to be the best pick, just add 2 hunters for world content and you can do it all in 1 go. Then you can potentially make a team consisting of your tank/healer and fillers to do the content on them, assuming they benefit from the same covenant. I would personally not go for 3 teams if they end up being split as that would just be a hassle.

Also according to Preach, the Night Fae weekly seems to be the best for resources so if you are boxing druids, going NF (which as of right now is only slightly behind Venthyr DPS wise), will give you a little boost in resources, pretty much free.

Thanks for the link.

For me my two mains will be my Protection Paladin Tank and my Resto Druid Healer and the 3 Hunters are just there for Dungeons.

I think my Paladin Tank will be Kyrian no matter what for both best Tank ability for 5mans but also for Class Fantasy/gear images/etc...

My Druid will likely be both what I raid on & be my primary 5box healer and I will likely go with whatever is optimal for raid and 5man Resto Druid performance (Night Fae?) even if that means I have at least 2 different Covenants to deal with...

I feel like I don't fully understand what will be optimal for dailies/weekly or what not yet but ultimately I am OK with having multiple sets of 3 hunters (or other alts) of that really helps my two mains (and the Druid is likely the overall priority since it will be my primary Raiding main).

Eventually I think I will want at least 2 other tanks to be able to contrast/compare to the Prot Paladin (DK and Guardian Druid for sure and maybe a BrewMaster). Healerwise I will also want at least a Shaman so I likely will be leveling up at least a second team... Something like at least these 2 Teams across my 6 accounts:

Team1) P.Paladin+R.Druid+3BM.Hunters
Team2) B.DK+R.Shaman+3BM.Hunters (or maybe a different DPS).

If I do the Shaman on a different account than the Druid I guess I could maybe do some Guardian Druid Tank testing with the Shaman without leveling up a 2nd Druid though if ever do a stealth team I will want at least 2 Druids with my 3 ShadowMeld+Camo Hunters...

Right now I feel like I don't fully understand the whole Covenants and daily/weekly and party mix implications so will have to study/think about that later but those are my thoughts so far...

[Ellay]

Thanks for those references to the links Nodoze, will be checking their ranking systems. I have seen some of Yumytv's content as well and would recommend.

Also to note the monk passive for 5% physical has gotten nerfed to 3% as well as the Demon Hunter magical also being 3%. So it's still good just not as strong.

War Scrolls are also leaving, and the Priest/ Warrior / Mage buff has gone from 10% to 5%.

[nodoze]

Thanks for those references to the links Nodoze, will be checking their ranking systems. I have seen some of Yumytv's content as well and would recommend. ...

Heads up just in case you haven't been able to keep fully up that Blizzard did some balancing to try to tweaks Tanks and Healers some.

Here is Yumytv's overview of the most recent Tank & Healer balance changes.

Sounds like the nerfbat hit Disc Priests, Vengeance, & Brewmasters the most but if I understood correctly Brewmaster may still be in the top tier with stagger (especially with 3 spirit pets continuously helping him).

From the options that I was thinking about healer-wise it sounds like Shaman got a slight lift and Druids were maybe surprising not nerfed so still on top.

Sounds like the both the previously lowest tier Tanks (Warriors & Druids) got some lifts and Warrior is better than it was and maybe niche OP for some encounter mechanics but Druid Tanks maybe didn't get enough and still aren't where they would need to be.

DK wasn't mentioned (at least I don't remember hearing about it) so I guess it remains in the top tier mix but maybe more importantly it sounds like Paladin got some good tweaks and is much less of a "glass canon" which was music to my ears (since Vanilla my mains have been typically Paladins with Druids alts and always a Hunter for solo stuff)...

My head is still swimming with everyone's great input (my brain trying to think though all the permutations of pros/cons and playstyles) and I am kinda thinking of taking Feint90's advice to heart and consider playing "whatever you like playing" and not try to chase any "metas".

I don't know much about Brewmasters and never played DKs as true PVE tanks so I don't know if I will like them (or not)... I will try to make some time to do some class trials and maybe create a brewmaster and DK to test some... Otherwise if I don't get any testing time I am thinking at this point for me that these balancing changes (and this great discussion) are helping me to likely go:

• -3 NE Hunters: My original main back in Classic and beyond for soloing and BGs;
• -RDruid: will be my raid healer that then comes and heals my 5box Mythic team;
• -Prot Paladin Tank: Dedicated tank for 5box Mythic team (Paladin Healers were my traditional raid healing main but I don't like the idea of having to be heal from melee range so for now I am going druid healer in raids... Maybe will try Holy Paladin in melee in raids at some point but fine if he remains just Prod (My Holy Paladin healers were always dual-spec'ed for Protection paladin role from Vanilla->WotLK).

Since I am a fan of Hybrids and my main PVE team was Paladin+4Shaman I would be happy to try Shaman Healers also (fall back healer now after Druid).

Anyway I would love to hear what changes you all make in your plans (if any) and of course any feedback you have from your own testing/theory-crafting.

Thanks again for starting this thread for all the great info and recent BFA experience shared as my retail knowledge is so very dated...

[nodoze]

You all rock. Such great info for pre-planning and thinking about some ShadowLands fun. Be aware that I haven't really played much retail since WoTLK so things like stagger and monks are still foreign to me (pun intended). I did like Legion somewhat and did DemonHunters to cap but not much else. That being said BrewMaster sounds interesting and I am willing to learn the various options and work to catch up so maybe that will be an option for me...

Would Druid Tank have any advantages with 3Hunters and any healer (RDruid or other healer that favors Guardian Tank+Hunters) over other tank options?

I am aware that Druid Tanks are currently expected to be lower tier in ShadowLands but didn't know if Druid Tanks somehow put the hunters/pets on turbo (like Leader of the Pack used to) or the spirit pet healing helps overcome their expected deficiencies. I think one change is that instead of the current BFA self healing Druid Tanks move to have more healing received bonus so maybe that would actually play well with regular HoTs from 3 spirit pets and heals from a Healer.

[Ellay]

I'm unfamiliar with the movement healing - will have to research that.
There isn't a whole lot of benefit for the Druid tank besides that they are pretty sturdy but still take chunky damage.
They need their defensive ability rolling (Iron Fur) and it settles in, but prior to that they can get spiked for damage. Their rotation is also very simplistic.

The reason they are used in our comps is to just make it 5x Druids and much more simplistic for other side advantages such as the entire team can then go cat form and stealth/skip certain packs of mobs. Hypothetically it also provides a brez, but it's risky since your tank would need to shift out of bear to get it off.
If it wasn't for the sake of having 5x of the same class. I wouldn't be on Guardian Druid. Instead I'd go.. I'm not sure but not druid

[nodoze]

Great info. My head is swimming (in a good way) trying to think through all the options.

...5x Druids and ... the entire team can then go cat form and stealth/skip certain packs of mobs. ...

This part in particular triggered some Night Elf Hunter memories...

In BFA if your 3 Hunters are Night Elves can you still alternate ShadowMeld and Camouflage to essentially have perma stealth on your Hunters and thus bypass packs or what not?

Not saying that niche case would necessarily compel me to have a Druid be my primary 5box tank but if I was already running as my raiding Main a Druid Healer + 3 NE Hunters + Monk/DK/Paladin it could maybe be worth it to have an alternate Druid Tank in the stable for any content where stealth bypasses really helps.

[boxblizzard]

I have a hunter setup like this in classic that seriously delivers the all-moving damage and on demand burst with ae, it’s a powerful setup but my problem is PvP and had to abandon the team only because of IWT fading target problems.

if someone has a solution with camera angles snapping into facing assist etc that would be nice? I would go back to this team immediately as I know the team is solid and a strong pve+ I hope PvP if they IWT issue is resolved,