Four shamans and a mage viable?

[shaeman]

Would a mage be a good compliment to a group of shamans.

I've got a 66 shaman that I am levelling now, so dont feel the need to have another in a 5 man group).

I've got a 70 lock and a 70 hunter so didn't fancy creating another one of them. So was just trying to think of something that would compliment the group.

What are peoples opinions on a mage. Sheep would be useful occasionally. Having a food and water vending machine would be nice to keep the shaman casting and it might be nice to have the ability to lock some mobs in place, back the shaman up and nuke again. Some alternative aoe might be nice too.

Are there any disadvantages to this? It's a clothy so wont take a beating, but if it pulls aggro i can ice block (at higher levels). It's mana usage is very high - but with 4 other players there perhaps it wouldn't need to output so much damage.

At 70 I can use my existing shaman to make a 5 shammy team, and I would then have a mage to play on for some fun.

Has anyone tried this particular combo? I know the other alternative is a paladin as tank. Any alternative suggestions for a class that will combine well.

[Maz]

Having a food and water vending machine would be nice

Portals, portals, portals

[shaeman]

ooooh portals, didn't even think about that. Reduced cross continent travel time.

Also having an intellect buff on my shamen would be nice too.

I was thinking they wouldn't get earth elementals, but then they get water elementals too.

I'm also thinking Blizzard to slow down mobs coming in so shaman have more time to nuke. The more I think about it the more I like it.

[Boylston]

I have run with 4 Shamans and a Mage in both some BGs and normal-mode instances. I don't have a TON of experience with this setup, but here's what I'll tell you:

You get the most out of the mage if you play it as your main and let the shamans be your alts. Some perks to the setup are sheeping a target, using Blizzard to slow an area while the shammies nuke targets within the Blizzard down, Frost Nova to keep people from closing or to pull back and reposition, and the combo of Frostbolt+4xLightning Bolt is pretty brutal on people without a charge/intercept/shadowstep ability. Spell cast time synergies are pretty good-- Fire Blast goes with Shocks well, for example. In short, the mage offers some good DPS and adds some synergy.

Unfortunately in PvP, your mage will get targetted a lot if you run with it as a lead character, so expect to have a dead mage a lot of the time. Ice Block isn't really too much of a help here, to be honest. Mages are a caster class with "active" defensive abilities-- blink, roots, sheep, etc. Shaman are nice because a lot of their defensive abilities are more passive-- mail, shields, totems, etc. The two are hard to mix well, in my opinion.

PvE-wise, I'm accustomed to doing a lot of normal mode instances with just 4xShamans, so adding the mage was helpful for extra DPS and the sheep/blizzard perks I outlined above. I had a water elemental on my mage, and using a ranged root and nuking away with 5 people is pretty dominating on large pulls. I have no experience trying heroics, but I'd imagine that it'd be slightly worse than a 5xShaman setup because the mage is so much squishier.

90% of the time, what I use my mage for is creating a table for my 4xShaman team, however. I wouldn't go through all the trouble of leveling one up, because the combination isn't nearly as effective as having a Pally Tank as a 5th. I'd even say that a Moonkin Druid would make a much better compliment than a mage with 4xShamans (my boomkin is L65, I'll test this out soon enough). You could tear up stuff with 4xToW+Moonkin Aura (+17% crit!!). I'm tempted to spend a week or two farming DE mats with that setup as I level the moonkin all the way up to L70.

[shaeman]

Hmmmm. might have to consider running with a pally tank.

My son has a retribution paladin at about 27 right now, and a mage at about 30 odd, so I guess I could level a 3 man shaman team for now then enlist the pally or the mage later and try them out.

[shaeman]

Just searched through the forum for threads on pally tank and shaman combos - so it looks like i'll go that route instead of the mage.



Thanks all.

[crebble]

mage is one of the best classes to bring for heroics.

from what ive seen