I’m trying to put together a melee centric 6 box team with a paladin main. Would a shaman be enough with paladin heals for the long haul? In my mind, I wanted to go with 3 melees, shaman, bard, and my paladin. I know I see some folks with druids or clerics as companions with their shaman. But I just wanted to get a grasp of how hard content gets beyond lvl 70 and the need for additional heals.
No, a shaman is not enough, if you want to do raid targets, particularly if boxing all 6. Like, you're not going to fare well right now doing anguish minis with just a shaman healer. Now, for group content, sure, you're fine, but no need to 6 box to do that. I also can't imagine (unless you're a cheater) being able to effectively box 5 melee characters with just a shaman healer. I mean, I'm almost at 1300 mitigation ac with maxed defensives and mod2s and I still get wrecked once in awhile on aug minis when its just me and my wife boxing them with 5 characters (she's boxing a shaman and druid), and its touch and go other times (that ae stun they all do at the wrong time is usually the culprit).
Excluding raid targets, shaman can definitely handle that. At this point in Mischief's lifetime, they should be excellent healers, and only grow stronger over time. With the bard to help keep the mana topped off, you should do just fine!
It will be fine for group stuff now, and get a fair bit stronger as time goes on. It's not particularly bad, I run 4 melee with a shm+cleric, the recent patch for autoskill without level restrictions will make things even nicer leveling up. Even up through HoT one social on engage and another every 12-15 seconds is sufficient for reasonable dps.
Cleric, Shm, Brd, Pal, 2 dps - This will be the safest option for most things. If keeping a 7th acct leveled isnt an issue, you can have a 3rd dps and/or an enc leveled on it for specific events as a flex. It just depends on how tryhard you wanna be. Also, leveling a spare SK to secure contested mobs lol..
You really hinder yourself with a paladin tank. The ideal 6 box with melee focus is going to be War, Clr, Shm, Brd and then a mix of Rog, Mnk, Ber. I suppose you can swap the War for Pal, but at that point youre essentially negating alot of what makes a paladin great. Also, when youre the one boxing, aggro typically is never an issue, so the huge benefit of Paladin aggro in groups is also negated
As a community, we should strive to stay on topic, and keep our responses focused. OP already noted that paladin was going to be his tank. He just wanted advice on whether a shaman could handle that healing.
If you're doing XP mobs, you can run the Pally as his own healer then bard + melee murder ball. If doing CoA mini's, you need a cleric and a reliably enough landed slow (a beast can work here, though lots of resists). As an aside, melee are the easiest to box to a certain degree - put on autofollow, turn on attack and autoskill something. For a burn, zerker have the most clicks and monks the least. Beastlords are a lot of work to max potential due to casting but they can give you slow, fero, and a taste of easy mode dps.
I've been 6 boxing with a Paladin tank on mischief and find as other have said as long as your grinding on exp mobs the paladins own heals are plenty. I also have a Druid but very rarely cast a heal with her, Just use her as a buffer / Porter. Beyond level 70's the Paladin is one class that keeps on getting better and better. It will be able to easily tank group content right up to level 120 as long as you keep their gear and AA's up to date.
If you want to hit challenging targets that are seen as a raid or took a raid in a previous expansion, you absolutely need a cleric. Just too many useful tools and raw healing power. Only a shaman as healer limits you to group only activities. Also, a paladin as a tank is not a hinderance, lol. A warrior offers slightly better mitigation but not much else. Warrior discs are nice for setup but if you can't sustain without defensive, you aren't going to be killing any hard targets. Raid targets aren't dying to a single group in three or four minutes. Paladins offer a lot of group healing which is is great for dealing with AEs and pairs wonderfully with cleric's divine arb and epic 2.0 click -- a combo that is great for aggro and efficient healing. You might think you won't need aggro generation but there's plenty of encounters you can do that will involve adds while the cleric is active healing. Plus, their individual heals get really strong come TSS. Definitely agree with Frank's setup as that's what I used on Mangler and Mischief, including sometimes bringing that 7th box for extra DPS.
