Just need a quick answer from those that know how well a group can parse. I have monk - sk - cleric - bard - rogue - ?? Question: Shaman or dps? In a raid, I know shaman's adps can add up. But in my group, I already have a cleric, (and I have a tank), so I've lost 2 slots that would have been dps in a raid. Normal raid melee group setup: shaman + bard + dps + dps + dps + dps Shaman helps 4 dps here. Me with shaman: sk + cleric + bard + shaman + dps + dps Shaman helps 2 dps here Me without shaman: sk + cleric + bard + dps + dps + dps My guess is that I'd do better without the shaman from a dps perspective (though maybe I should keep for other reasons like backup healing, slows, etc, but I do have a bard to help with some stuff).
Yes, you'd do better overall w/ a dps class in that slot. Play what you want though, you'll do alright either way.
I would go melee dps for that sixth slot, or maybe pet class dps, so the bard can stay focused on melee enhancing songs. Of course a lot would depend on whether boxing is involved and what classes you can effectively run together. I love my shaman, but you don't really need any more healing or support for that team when you already have a cleric and bard. If you are asking about parsing, you seem to want a fast killing group rather than max safety.
I just want a really tough team, and I figure dead faster also plays a part in safety. I don't want to have an invulnerable team that takes days to kill either. Downside to dropping shaman is I lose out on shaman buffs and normal haste, or can bard play normal haste + overhaste songs? I'm a bit of a bard noob, it's my friend's acct. I guess I could carry stacks of haste pots but that would get old fast.
Also worried about events that need extra healing, though I suppose other groups manage to take them down with only 6 and 1 healer. Limestone oddity mission comes to mind.
With your SK, monk and Rogue, you will want to be running the war march and aria song lines full time on the bard, so you will have regular and overhaste covered at all times. I would not worry about losing the shaman's haste. If toughness is a big goal, consider adding a mage so you get the uber off tank option of the mage earth pet and gargoyles. With that option, plus the bard mez, you have CC pretty well covered, and a nice backup plan when the SK dies. When the earth pet is overkill, run the water pet for melee dps.
I'd add a caster DPS to the mix. Can put pet attack and all your nukes/dots on 1 hotkey hit it and move to next screen
Could always replace the Cleric with a Shaman if your really hellbent on shaman. You'd lose alot of healing power... But really with the way they tune group content, Its not like your going to need it. If this is a box team, Id worrya bout the last slot being filled by something easily boxable: Wizard or Mage. Wizard would be the better option, since you have a 2nd tank with the monk, and they burn alot harder then mages. SK cleric Bard Mnk Wiz Rogue is almost a carbon copy of my fellowship lol Pretty much any available group content will be easily doable with that team.
Run a wizard. Can cast like 4 things over and over and will beat your other chars easily. Burning, you will double them since you're boxing and won't be able to effectively make use of everything to make those classes shine. There's not even really a group named outside of the exceptions that you wouldn't be able to burn down with just the wiz before all your Turtle-shell SK stuff drops.
Can try a bst. Good sustained DPS ‚ some buffs like fero to enhance other melees classes un grp and Fury when you need to unleash burn.
Definitely bard over shaman. I'd keep the shaman around for buffs if you can but bard is totally capable of filling that slot during play. Bard slow works just fine and they have mitigation and healing songs for the tough encounters. Cleric power healing should be enough for any encounter, especially with bard help. If you're boxing it all, go with wizard. If your group has the time to button mash melees, I'd go with berzerker. A friend of mine boxes monk, zerker, bard for insane amounts of dps.
This! I would actually consider dumping the cleric and run monk, rogue, shm, beast, bard, SK. You will get the most out of your melee dps with this setup.
The shaman only route would be pretty cool, just scared of not having enough healing for some group events.
Best group layout with a PC tank would be: Tank Cleric Bard Wiz Wiz Wiz Casters are insanely easier to box and a wizard brings the most dps to the table by far. With 3 wizards burning, no group named will last more than 30 seconds. So yeah add a wizard to your crew. They will out parse any other addition you can think of - even with the hard only playing melee oriented songs.
What group event requires more healing then a shaman? None. The days of shaman being 3rd rate healer are long gone. Sure they might not have all the whizzbangs Clerics have, but anything that is doable by a group is healable by a single shaman without a back up healer. Add in the SK Taps/Leech and hell you don't even need the shaman for more then the occasional patch heal anyway. However Cleric is easier to box efficiently. 3x wizards... That would be kind of a boring/uninspired team, but its hard to argue with the logic that it would completely curbstomp anything outside of spell immune mobs. < theres certain AE heavy encounters Melee deepz + SK epic = safer then wizards though, Melee + Epic2.0 pretty much removes the need for group healing on hard named with AE's Which would help him cover the group better with the shaman.
Monk is my main, and always will be, so he's a requirement in this configuration. I do acknowledge the power of the caster group, but it's not an option unfortunately.
Monks are pretty powerful, they make decent tanks/offtanks/dps so I don't see the monk being a part of the group as a bad thing. Caster groups are overrated anyway.
