Serious question, do people actually waste time trying to slow outside of hitting an aa between GCD on your spells? Like as a knight you don't even need a healer in a lot of content, if your tank is a paladin depending on what you're doing your group might not even need a healer.
Don't even need a slower as most slows are seriously gimped against resist checks as is anyway. And belts have their slow procs attached to them nowadays as well. Now serious groups, so say perhaps your group missions before you out gear them completely may ask for a slower for their group. But normal exp groups will forego a slower seeing as a Tank is so heavily geared now they just roll a 2 hander and act as an extra dps without fear of dying against 3+ mobs at a go
To the OP: I 3 box as well. I find that I absolutely NEED coth and ports. So if it were me and Druid and Shammy were even remotely close in terms of production, I would take druid hands down. Ports are logistical tools that make moving your crew around practical. Coth is equally important to me, since that is pretty much the only way to move the boxed toons. For you I would probably do Sk Mage and Druid, or Sk Mage and Wiz. I repeat, do not underestimate need value of port / coth. Your time and sanity is valuable, these spells respect that fact.
I group regularly with an SK who liked to have a fairly large number of mobs they asked me to keep the AE slow up whenever I wasn't AE mezzing. It was sort of complex but it was their preference and they like it so I oblige them. I had a guildmate who was a paladin who pretty much asked for the same thing. I suppose a straight 5% slow across all the mobs might make them more comfortable.
Two debuff hotkeys that take no time to cast on every mob + Ennui on whoever is likely to get hit takes care of any slowing that is required.
Hm, weird. I believe Bard AE slow is 35%, reduced to 8.75% slow. Ennui and tank belt are 25%, reduced to 6.25%. I'd prefer my bard throw on an additional insult or DoT over a 2.5% improvement, but whatever.
I too like to do more DPS if I'm not pulling/CC but if a friend wants something like that I'm flexible. It's not like being in a PUG in the early days with some goober shouting for me to "play mana song" only.
I've been juggling this exact group combination issue, shaman and SK are mad powerful, bard makes everything moreso, but shammy / sk / druid is fierce and Exodus > Wipes. Better DPS than adding a bard. Shammy has slows / Haste. Teleport bind, DoTs Wrath of the Wild etc are a win for me. I've been alternating these and I find the dru / shm / shd trio is my favorite. Druid is more dps and DS on demand. also Flight of Eagles doesn't fail if the druid get hit by a mob and stunned running across a zone. Exodus is a free- in zone reset on a bad pull. It's hard to effectively tank and CC on a bard box without Macaroni's bar and grill.
