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

[Tin]

https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comment..._rankings_for/

[nodoze]

https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comment..._rankings_for/

Thanks that was an interesting read!

I think there have been multiple tweaks for balancing and what not and likely there will be more so anything considered "meta" Tank &/or Healer option-wise may well change multiple times between now and Launch (or even after) so chasing the meta may be an exercise in frustration...

I am planning to keep following the advice to "play what you enjoy playing" keeping in mind rough pros/cons of each option that I find palatable.

Paladin and Druids have always been my first choices for mains (usually like having both dual spec'ed for Healer and Tank roles) and glad both are considered top tier or at least good for at least one of those roles the expansion (Druid considered best healers & Paladin Tanks in the top tiers) though obviously that may change some. A little sad that both are also in the bottom tier or have moved to a play-style that I am wary of (Druid tanks are considered meh and Paladin Healers will need to be in melee range) but I will watch both of those and maybe experiment with both during the expansion.

The above being said I am still planning on Paladin Tank & mobile Druid healer with my 3 Night Elf Beast Master Hunters for my primary team for ShadowLands. After this team is in a groove I may well level up a DK, BrewMaster, and 2nd Druid to contrast/compare Tank options and least a Shaman healer to compare to Druid healer... My intuition is that DK may actually be the better tank for me when boxing but I really like Paladins so I am starting with Paladin...

One thing I heard is that Mythic+ teams will likely want to have at least 1 of each of the 4 Covenants on their team to max buffs during dungeon runs and I was curious what you all thought about that... With that in mind, after consulting the spreadsheet, my initial guess would be something like this:

Slot : Class : Covenant;
Tank : Paladin : Kyrian? (Divine Toll for Mythic+);
Healer : Druid : Night Fae? ;
DPS1 : Hunter : Necrolord? ;
DPS2 : Hunter : Necrolord? ;
DPS3 : Hunter : Venthyr? (just to have at least 1 of each of the 4) ;

Thoughts?

[z0k]

One thing I heard is that Mythic+ teams will likely want to have at least 1 of each of the 4 Covenants on their team to max buffs during dungeon runs and I was curious what you all thought about that...

If the time investment is as high as I believe it will be as it pertains to covenants, at least out of the gate, I will likely not take this approach for my own sanity and instead use a single covenant for an entire team, based around whatever I believe to have the most effect. For a Paladin/Hunter Trinity/rShaman team, I will likely prioritize the hunters' dps when it comes to covenant choice.

This is all due to change and I could be singing a different tune in 3 months. To be honest I'm probably going to be slow out of the Shadowlands gate, really let things settle in and understand the systems before I make any firm decisions.

[nodoze]

If the time investment is as high as I believe it will be as it pertains to covenants, at least out of the gate, I will likely not take this approach for my own sanity and instead use a single covenant for an entire team, based around whatever I believe to have the most effect. For a Paladin/Hunter Trinity/rShaman team, I will likely prioritize the hunters' dps when it comes to covenant choice.

This is all due to change and I could be singing a different tune in 3 months. To be honest I'm probably going to be slow out of the Shadowlands gate, really let things settle in and understand the systems before I make any firm decisions.

That may well be the smart way to go initially to get each together through one single Covenant Story line and what not.

My understanding is that once you have finished and gotten a Covenant it is trivial to be able to switch to a new Covenant provided that isn't a Covenant that character has had before. With that in mind it may be best to do the full 5box team though the NecroLord Covenant (which is considered best for the 3 BM Hunters) and then switch the Tank and Healer at least if the Tank/Healer you choose don't benefit from NecroLord... Can then decide to switch one of the DPS to cover the missing Covenant(s) if the missing buff(s) is(are) worth more than losing Necrolord on the DPS.

My understanding also is that on an account which has completed at least one Covenant on one (main/initial) character that subsequent (alt) characters can just pick the Covenant you want for that character.

[nodoze]

The dungeons bonuses for your covenant are nice but they aren’t worthwhile From what I have gathered for our style of gameplay. I’m personally going for teams are picking the same covenant for how much easier it should be hypothetically for everything else. ... All of these buffs are quite short duration, and I think will lead for the top mythic+ runners to squeeze out potentially another keystone level overall. ... For us they feel like more hassle than it’s worth and even if my covenant matches the dungeon on a character I’m most likely going to skip the bonus in the first place after my first pass of reviewing them.

The only one that was nice is the Night Fae which changed the release spot upon death to the last boss killed instead of the front of the dungeon potentially saving a lot of time. ...

OK thanks for the info. There is so much I don't fully understand yet so that was helpful to give more context. At this point, once through an initial story line, I plan to switch to the Covenants that help the class roles the most (unless I am missing or misunderstanding something key)...

If the time investment is as high as I believe it will be as it pertains to covenants, at least out of the gate, I will likely not take this approach for my own sanity and instead use a single covenant for an entire team, based around whatever I believe to have the most effect. ... let things settle in and understand the systems before I make any firm decisions.

In addition to the thoughts I put above in my previous reply one thing I gathered while watching other/different videos on Covenants is that they aren't only about skills and power levels and there are stories and beauty to experience...

Like others have mentioned I also like to drive from my Tank and for me the Class Story and Class Fantasy that has always been my favorite has been Holy Knight Paladins and it doesn't hurt to mix in Captain America's shield, Thor's Hammer, and Valkyries from Valhalla. With that in mind I definitely plan to focus on the Kyrian Covenant on my first play through and to Z0k's point I may just take my whole team though that same Covenant for expediency and then switch them to the Covenants that best fit their roles (maybe Night Fae on Druid & Necrolord on the Hunters). Later as time allows I will likely take more alts to cap and maybe do the different Covenant story lines as make sense thematically like Necro on a DK, Night Fae on a Druid (I want to have a Druid Tank even if they are sub par), Venthyr on my Shaman (maybe not perfect fit theme-wise but rather just because that is the remaining alt I really want to have for cap).

So Z0k's point about taking it slower to cap have reminded me to take the time to enjoy the story line and work the developers have done and to try to better understand the goals behind the expansion. I still plan to be reasonably efficient to cap but don't plan to race...

[z0k]

So Z0k's point about taking it slower to cap have reminded me to take the time to enjoy the story line and work the developers have done and to try to better understand the goals behind the expansion. I still plan to be reasonably efficient to cap but don't plan to race...

This is really being driven by my experience with Corruption. There's a pattern Blizzard likes to follow:
1.) Release system
2.) System is kind of broken or painful to get through - lots of grinding
3.) Ok, we're reducing the pain points, but there's still SOME grinding in order to optimize it
4.) If you didn't buy into the system and do your 20 minutes of quests twice a week, you will never be able to catch up.

In Shadowlands there are 4 systems: Legendaries, Animas, Soulbinds, Conduits
These will all have some effect on play power level, which is largely unknown today in terms of how that balance will play itself out.

It used to be: go do your dungeons, get good gear, and you were powerful. I miss those days, it was straight forward. There was less to research/understand, and even less RNG involved. I totally burned myself out on parts 1/2 of corruption, didn't really understand the system very well, didn't really understand the extent that part 3 could be exploited, and now I'm somewhere on step 4, totally disillusioned by it. Hindsight 20/20 I believe I could have enjoyed corruption a lot more than I did if I had understood the system better along the way.

In closing, I will admit, Corruption is a very extreme example of this, but I definitely want to be careful moving forward. Having 4 different covenants for one team and having to duplicate efforts sounds like a great way to burn out. The pay off might not be that good, or maybe I could have done better if I had done something differently. Pivoting away from that strategy will make my old extreme strategy feel awful and I won't want to do all the work in order to pivot.