At classic launch I'm going to be maining feral druid and probably no-lifing for a few days after release; my 2 irl friends who are also playing won't be going quite as hardcore so I'm going to play an alt to level with them in a 3 man group. They have already decided to play Warrior and Priest, so I need a suitable class to go with them and be useful. I'm thinking Shaman or Hunter, likely troll in both cases, and wondered if there are any particular synergies which would make either more useful? It'll mainly be for levelling and lower level dungeons; we'll be on a pvp server but no seeking out pvp particularly.

I've played Hunter before but never really played Shaman, is there any particular build/talents that would help in a group levelling scenario for either class?

Also, if there are any other classes which would be really good as a 3rd in that team that I might not have though of, I'm all ears.

Cheers :)

I'm not super familiar with Hunter, but I can say Shaman is a popular choice for pairing with a Warrior thanks to Windfury Totem at 32. You get Strength of Earth earlier on in leveling, which is also helpful of course, and having double healers will make you a pretty safe trio. For a particular build, it'd mainly be grabbing Enhancing Totems and Improved Weapon Totems on the left side of the Enhancement tree. You'd probably be fine without them too if you want to sink points elsewhere in the Enhance tree, but if you're going to strictly play this character with your friends you'll be getting enough utility out of the stronger totems to make it worth it, I'd say.

Otherwise, since you've got a tank and healer already squared away, you'll probably be pretty successful with whatever you pick for your third class. Only things you're really missing are CC and adding more DPS, which you could fulfill pretty well with a mage/rogue/hunter. For all of them, that extra hard CC from Poly/Sap/Freezing could help smooth out an otherwise tricky pull.

Just pick what sounds fun to go with them. You already got a tank and a healer, so getting into any dungeon group will be super easy. And even doing group questing will be easy. So pick whatever sounds fun. Playing a hunter adds some crowd control to the group with traps. Another idea would be to play rogue so you can pick locks and control saps during dungeon pulls. Then you'd have your tank, healer, and CC roles locked down.

Pippina wrote: ↑

5 years ago

Just pick what sounds fun to go with them. You already got a tank and a healer, so getting into any dungeon group will be super easy. And even doing group questing will be easy. So pick whatever sounds fun. Playing a hunter adds some crowd control to the group with traps. Another idea would be to play rogue so you can pick locks and control saps during dungeon pulls. Then you'd have your tank, healer, and CC roles locked down.

If I was picking with a combo of Warrior and Priest, I would chose Mage.
Same as a rogue, you get the CC and good dps but instead of lock picking you get food/water and portals!

But out of those two, I like Hunter for the CC and support as well as dps.
And plus as you have stated you have played it before and there is probably a good reason why you did!

Yeah a mage would be a good addition. Especially with a warrior up front, let the warrior tank and you can blast away from a distance. That would make group questing fast too.

Pippina wrote: ↑

5 years ago

Yeah a mage would be a good addition. Especially with a warrior up front, let the warrior tank and you can blast away from a distance. That would make group questing fast too.

And I forgot to add that a mage would most likely be at a distance compared to Rogues.
So you don't need to be constantly be healing the warrior and rogue because of aoe damage or the rogue pulling.
With a Mage he will most likely not be taking damage so you can concentrate on the warrior and help dps.

Without hesitation: mage.

Free food, Arcane intelligence, CC and portals that shave off hours of time waiting for a boat.
You can probably even do dungeons without 2DD but it would be a bit slow.

I instinctively think mage would be a great fit (portals for the group a nice bonus as well) but I like the hunter and rogue suggestions as well. Note though that with a mage you probably have a little competition for gear with the priest. On the other hand, it might be preferable to compete among yourselves and fill your dungeon group with leather/mail wearers.

BTW, can we assume that your warrior friend wants to tank and your priest heal? As a shaman you would have some versatility in the role you play (although I'm not sure if enhancement tanking really is viable beyond the lower level dungeons).

Mage without a doubt. Food, portals, dps, CC. That's a perfect trio.

mwaf wrote: ↑

5 years ago

BTW, can we assume that your warrior friend wants to tank and your priest heal?

Yep, I just need to dps and provide utility

Looks like mage ticks a lot of boxes... I haven't played mage much (last time was In classic the first time round) so is there any particular mage spec that might work best?

Dudz wrote: ↑

5 years ago

Yep, I just need to dps and provide utility

Looks like mage ticks a lot of boxes... I haven't played mage much (last time was In classic the first time round) so is there any particular mage spec that might work best?

Yup the fun one!

With two other people leveling with you, unless your trying to get to lvl 60 first, it wont matter!
I would try them all as well as experiment to see what frostbite does and other talents.
Maybe you like one over the other!

Raids and some dungeons you will be forced into frost so I would learn that but leveling you can go fire or frost.
Play the class and learn it, try all the talents and specs you find or create one.
Like I said what is an extra 10% more efficient killing while leveling when you have two others helping dps?
Plus gets you experience when you hit 60!

In general your utility doesn't change much as a mage if you spec either way, but Frost does have some improves slows and roots which might be useful.

You'll always have Frost Nova and sheep anyway so it shouldn't be a problem for utility

@mwaf has a good point - if you have a mage and a priest in the same group then you guys are gonna compete over gear. If you rolled a leather or mail wearing class instead, then the warriors gets all the plate gear (once plate starts to drop..), the priest gets all the cloth and caster stuff, and the leather or mail wearer gets that gear. I'd probably do this just to make the best use of all the gear that drops.

In any combination where you want to play with two other players, you really need to consider if you might like to play a Warlock.

Being able to add the utility of summons for a dungeon group, especially in your case as you already have a pocket tank/healer, it can be almost too good to pass.

Also with a Warrior possible being your meat shield in group levelling you can retire your giant blueberry and give your group a much appreciated Stamina buff and considerable extra free DPS.

Pippina wrote: ↑

5 years ago

@mwaf has a good point - if you have a mage and a priest in the same group then you guys are gonna compete over gear. If you rolled a leather or mail wearing class instead, then the warriors gets all the plate gear (once plate starts to drop..), the priest gets all the cloth and caster stuff, and the leather or mail wearer gets that gear. I'd probably do this just to make the best use of all the gear that drops.

This is main reason why I didn't consider Mage originally - and as I'm maining feral druid I don't wanna play rogue, which is why I'd narrowed it down to Shaman or Hunter... our group agreed that the gear consideration is important so I think it will definitely be a mail wearer; I think I'd prefer Shaman, but I have literally never played the class... probably time to smash out some time on a private server :D

I would probably choose a warlock. he has good synergies with the priest and his lifetap doesn't make him a lame duck, like a mage with no mana.

Shaman has similar probs like the mage with the mana.
-if you do burst dmg you are getting oom fast
-if you do aoe dmg you going oom as soon you drop the totems or chainlightning.
-if you play more conservative your dmg output is kinda low
-as a 3-man you want to pull everything you see and steamroll over it. imo the shaman is not optimal. because you have a priest with optional heal spells, you have a warrior with optional tank spells and this makes your strength of being a hybrid not really shine in this group.
IMO they need a very strong dps with heavy aoe skills.

hunter is normally the ideal char to play solo to 60. but he is also helpful for your team:

- a hunter can easily pull with his high range. the fast pull thing is very important as a group.
-you can play a hunter in a team very mana efficient while doing a good amount of good dmg
-aspect of the pack is really nice (lvl 40) for the team's mobility
- track beast/humanoids etc. is useful, especially on a fresh server
- you have decent aoe dmg and you fit in the gearing niche with a warr and priest.
-pet is useful (tank, dps, pulling) and generally strong during the leveling process
-you have a great farm char on lvl 60

I would not base that decision on gear competition. It does not matter that much while levelling imo. Go with the class you will enjoy playing all the way to 60 and beyond, that is what matters.

Faendor wrote: ↑

5 years ago

I would not base that decision on gear competition. It does not matter that much while levelling imo. Go with the class you will enjoy playing all the way to 60 and beyond, that is what matters.

I agree with Fae, gear competition is not a big deal because at 60 assuming that priest is healing will not be looking for the same gear as the mage!
I was a priest and I never went after Mage gear.
Yes I started building/getting my off spec shadow gear but its not my priority so i would pass gear to a dmg dealer especially if it were a friend

I agree with the warlock suggestions. I tried the trio with a couple of friends and it was really nuts how much killing power it was able to put out nonstop, even without us properly designating targets for Spirit Tap.

The major downside is that all of your CC abilities share diminishing returns.

If you do however insist on going Hunter than I'd advise you play with a tanky pet so your group can fight 2-3 monsters at a time much easier.

I'd consider Troll and take skinning.

the Warrior is most likely going Orc and the priest is pretty much always going to go undead.

You can do a run up to Orgrimmar with the Warrior, as soon as you arrive at Razor Hill, then take the Zeplin and meet up with your Priest friend near Undercity.

I still think you might want to consider a Warlock.

Mage

• Free food, good for your priests mana (warrior will not really need food with a priest)
• Free portals, amazing to cut down downtime
• Great CC in forms of polymorph, or just freeze/chill effects
• Solid DPS

Warlock

• Soulstone, meaning that it will save you a good deal of time running back to your corpses in case of a wipe
• Adequte CC in form of banish.
• Good utility with pets,
• Actually quite nice DPS (still a tad lower than mage)
• The selling point for me would be the ability to summon anyone to anywhere since you will be 3-manning all the time. You should be able to find 2 DPS to ANY 5man in record time since you also provide summons. Also helps if someone quits mid-dungeon since you can summon a new member quite fast (you still need to get out of the dungeon to summon if I recall correctly tho).
• Free mount at 40, so you can save your money a bit or even help the warr/priest buy theirs.

Shaman

• WF totem is just nuts.
• Great priest support with mana totems, good for elite open areas, or just in general.
• Great if you are on a PvP server; can purge allience buffs
• Go enhance and you can still do meaningful damage when leveling, plus throw in some heals if things go south.
• Arguably the easiest class to level to 10.
• Also has anti-wipe in form of self-res.
• Point to consider: Ghost wolf will mean leaving your warrior/priest behind when running from A to B, pre level 40.

Rogue

• Good dps
• Good CC (sap)
• Can open locks, so you don't need to do quests for dungeon doors (you still need to level lockpicking solo on your own time though)
• Good for baiting out a 2v2 fight on PvP servers since you can stealth and open up on a duo leveling party.

KURTIZZLE wrote: ↑

5 years ago

If you do however insist on going Hunter than I'd advise you play with a tanky pet so your group can fight 2-3 monsters at a time much easier.

I'd consider Troll and take skinning.

If it's hunter it will definitely be troll with skinning - I've only ever levelled hunter solo; in a group situation would it be better to go marksman and just use pet as a meatshield?

A well used Raid spec is Trueshot Aura in Marksman, Sure Footed (3% Hit) and Deterrence in Survival and left over points in Aspect of the Hawk.

I think the only issue you would find is that you might not feel any noticeable power gains from talents until you get Aimed Shot at lvl 20.

If you feel you're going to end up playing solo on days when your friends are not online then you might find Marksman less optimal.

You might get some millage of improved Aspect of the Pack with your three man comp, so that could make BM slightly more viable.

If you go Troll, with skinning and plan to go Marksman then I would pick up your 3% extra dmg to monsters on your way down the Survival Tree towards 'Surefooted'

Disclaimer. I don't play hunter. I just have friends who do.