I personally would go with enchanter(1st) or possibly bard(2nd) and shammy as 3rd choice and run a cleric/wizzy merc but that's just me
Slows in today's game aren't as critical as they used to be, especially if stuns are involved. It mostly depends on your play style, but I would probably go with another pet class either mage or necro. With mage you have two pet tanks for hard named and can swap in/out cleric mercs when needed. It might not be the fastest killing combo but with 2 mages and 2 cleric mercs, it won't be hard to kill just about anything in the group game. You do lack cc but you may not need it. With necro you get a better puller but at least as good dps if not more. Again no true cc but you may not need it. Both classes are pretty easy to bot and pets do damage even when you can't focus on one of the toons. If you want a totally different class, then I would go with bard first (easier to box to me), chanter second and shm a distant third.
Responding to Dabrixmgp, I have both a bard and a shaman that I box with my mage in RoF zones. I would say the bard is more convenient for trash clearing because the pulling is so much easier, and pulling singles is nice with a pet tank (not because they cant tank multiples, but because they cant always quickly collect the adds and pull them out of melee range of the other boxed characters). The bard can also mez one add easily while boxing, or more with some attention. The shaman is better for the named fights though, because the shaman can backup heal the pet tank and still dot up the named. I tend to use cleric and wiz merc with either two box, even the shaman, just because it is more relaxing not to have to focus on the shaman for heals while boxing. But if you want a more aggressive high dps team, the shaman will have zero problems main healing a beefy mage pet tank, when you use two wiz mercs. I don't have a cleric for comparison, but I will say it is easy for the shaman to add "one button macro" dps in a boxing setup when extra healing is not required. The shaman has two fast dots, a rain and a fast nuke for the short fight macro, or many longer dots for another macro if the fight will last long enough.
If your super worried about slow you can do what I do IF a slow is really needed I can turn the mob undead on my necro and then slow it.... /shrug that works for me.
Spell damage causes most tank deaths? Ummm... What level are you and where are your tanks tanking at? Are you talking about raids or groups? Cause this guy was asking about group healing for shammys so guessing he wanted to know about healing in groups... and last time I was in a exp group spell damage was not something that we was worrying about... Even sustainability is not a real issue anymore with clerics self mana pump/QM(targetable mana pump)/ModRods/Yallup and such if a cleric is trying they usualy can keep up their heals as long as a shammy can. BUT in the group game it seems like shammys should be able to do as well as a healer as a cleric... Being a cleric I am bias towards my class but if I was a melee dps and looking for a healer I would rather have a shammy over a cleric for most ocations since they can help increase my dps (as a melee along with slow the mob) which would help me kill the mob faster and require less healing from a slowed mob... so I guess it really depends on the group and where/what you are killing and who is playing the toon as no matter how well a class can heal if the wrong person is playing them you wont see the benefits that class may have over other classes..
That is absolutely false. The advantage of clerics over secondary priests has actually increased in the past couple years. Speaking as a warrior who had no problems pulling 5+ mobs (even before NTTB) w/o a slower or CC and 7+ w/ a slower and 10+ w/ CC, I can tell you there are things clerics can do that secondary priests can't. Shining bastion alone is a big part of that, and the fact clerics have "oh crap" heals that may not look that much better on paper, but work much better in game. The fact they can do more to boost their own heals. Their dramatically boosted group healing power is also important on some nameds. I can also tell you there is absolutely no situation where shaman isn't > druid for combat purposes. Druids have overhyped non-combat utilities like track, invis, and ports that somehow aren't a consideration of balance for other classes but somehow justify keeping druids in the dark ages of priest power.
The point is not that the 3 priests are identical, it's that they all have good enough healing abilities to keep an exp or raid group alive and be better than a merc healer. Each one has strengths, with clerics being the best at healing, thanks in part to gem downtime heals and SB. It's like how all 3 tank classes are able to tank for exp groups, with each one able to bring something extra in addition to that baseline.
That's not what the guy I quoted said, but ok. What 'strength' does a druid have over a cleric or shaman? Do they have any strengths over clerics that are relevant to combat? (That rules out invis, track, ports, etc.) Even the DPS advantage of druid > cleric is highly dependent on the group makeup. Sure, druid nukes and dots do a lot more damage per cast than clerics', but clerics can cast a lot more while main healing due to the fact they don't need to cast heals or med as often as druids. With my experience in guild groups at least, clerics will often do more damage as sole healers in fast pulling groups than druids. Often times it seems like in fast pulling groups the druid healer will be forced to med prematurely, and then after that will basically stop nuke/dotting all together. So, unless you have 2-3 targets that benefit from druid's modest caster aDPS, they don't really bring much to the table.
Honestly? You're a warrior, we have very little synergy with warriors. Our caster synergy/adps works for knights, and they require about half the outside healing that a warrior does, so we have more time to dps. Wolf increases an SK's crit rate and crit damage for lifetaps, functioning as additional healing. SKs can even spew out extra mana to help keep us going on dps. Warriors bring none of that self healing to the table and can't make use or our aura, wolf forms, or mana regen. I personally do not like grouping with warriors as a main healer because the higher maintenance relegates me to a role as a crappy cleric.
Thats not true, we have plenty of synergy with Warriors. Lets see.....hmmmmmm Druids can throw Damage Shields on them Legacy of Spikethistles Rk. III Druids can throw our Hit Point Regen Buff on them Talisman of the Steadfast Rk. III Druids can Lower a MOB's DPS out put by reducing there Attack raiting with these Lustrous Frost Rk. III and Clutch of Ro Rk. III and IF it actually ever fires off this Wrath of the Wild and doesn't get resisted, this will stick as a debuff on a mob Diminshing Blows rate mod 400 Druids can buff a Warrior with this FANTASTIC spell that wears off before all the counters even get used up Husk of the Reptile Rk. III<----I don't even remember what the heal amount on that is anymore anyways. Like 5000 HP's?!?! And can reduce a MOB's attack rating for a hole 2 ticks even more with this Husk of the Reptile Curse III if it fires. Druids get this they can buff on a Warrior to increase there HP's Rampant Growth Rk. III which a Shaman also gets. We can throw this buff on them too Mammoth's Force Rk. III which hasn't been upgraded since level 86 and Shaman also can cast. Druids can increase a Warriors AC and that Awesome Damage Shield buff for a very short time with Spirit of the Wood and Convergence of Spirits. For the record I am being Ironic, or a smart a$$, how ever you want to look at it. hehe! Because all these things I have put on here are SO miniscule in there effectiveness they literally go unoticed if they happened to be used. AND, if you are doing all these things, the Warrior dies because you are not spam healing him/her. One more thing to add, this all apllies to Monks, Rogue's and Berserkers too.
Synergy: Warrior spell aDPS (yes, we have it) benefits druids, and the type of caster heavy groups that druids want to be in. http://lucy.allakhazam.com/spell.html?id=38249&source=Live (Note, that does not work vs raid tagged mobs.) Ease of healing: Group with a warrior using No Time to Bleed, a disc we only got in CotF. It went a long way to cancelling out the advantage of knights knights had over wars in group content. http://lucy.allakhazam.com/spell.html?id=40005&source=Live SKs spewing out extra mana: They actually gave warriors a group mana regen AA in ROF, but they made it useless due to botched stacking. It's going to be fixed next patch. http://lucy.allakhazam.com/spell.html?id=38247&source=Live (Note, this is on same reuse timer as the damage increasing AA.) ===================== Imperator's Precision, the first ability I linked, is something I find silly. They literally gave us the upgrade to druid epic, and despite being a lower % than the original druid 2.0, the duration, lack of hit counter, and low reuse time make it more powerful in most situations -- and it's not limited by level. Druids should have got this AA, not us.
Unfortunately, this doe's not stack with Skin to Seedlings Rk. III and Frosthowl Breath Rk. III Makes it just as easy for Shaman's and Cleric's too doesn't it? If i'm understanding how it works that is. The Druid 2.5 Epic's Effects are Null and void at level 100 Season's Fury, Serpent's Silence, Empowerment of Shadows I think they are Null and Void at Level 85 for that matter.
