Ishnu-alah! It's Ankalima, your friendly neighborhood Druid here to continue on from what I was talking about in my little series of Perfectly Poignant Pointers. First and foremost I want to hit up the Shamans out there real quick.
Regardless of spec Shamans have totems. This means that no matter what your area of expertise is it is never a bad thing to break out the totems when grouped in an instance. Even if you're dps, your mana spring and healing stream totems still regen mana and health, even if they aren't as spiffy as a resto Shaman's would be. Don't hesitate to drop them, especially mana spring during down time or long boss fights. Every little bit is a bit more than what you had before. During fights, especially if you're right up there with the Tank, Grace of Air and Strength of Earth are spiffy. The point is, no matter your spec, if you're a Shaman don't be afraid of your totems, but save those big cool downs for the bosses.
Next on the list is group make up tips. First and foremost you need a Tank. Unless you're a group of 30s getting dragged through by a 70-whatever, you need a Tank. No Healer in their right mind is going to accept the aggravation of trying to keep a Fury Warrior or Ret Paladin alive just because they have a shield. It's not impossible no, but it's not easy and the repair afterward can seriously bite. Now, the Tank can be any of the following - Warrior, Druid, Paladin - and be effective. Each one lends itself to a different style of tanking, but none are above the others. The only variant is the person in control of the Tank, and sometimes that's something no amount of gear can help.
Of course, a healer is needed. Regardless of the Tank or the rest of the group, the elites found within any given instance hit entirely too hard for a group to manage without some heals. More variation can be found in Healers than in Tanks. Priests, Druids, Shamans, and Paladins all make excellent healers. Like Tanks they have different ways of being effective at their jobs, unlike Tanks sometimes certain kinds make certain situations easier. Paladins, as a for instance, have some of the best single-target healing capabilities. Making them fantastic in higher end raids, because they can focus on the Tank while another healer works on the rest of the group. Druids are notorious for instance cast heal-over-time spells as well as they're single-target heavy heals; Shamans have a spiffy chain heal on top of their totems and single target spells, and Priests have heavy single target heals as well as a couple of nice group heals.
Next is the Damage Per Second group, which is by far the most broad since every single class has at the very least a dps spec. My biggest bits of advice here are to try and keep it mixed up. A Tank, a Healer and three Mages is restrictive. Sure, you've got a lot of flashy bangs and booms going on, but no diversity. A Mage, Warlock, and a Melee dps (Rouge, Warrior, Paladin, dual-wielding Shaman) is well-rounded. If all your dps is spell-based and you come across something with serious resistance, you'll get owned. The reverse is true, so having all melee dps isn't going to work any better. The dps available is varied as well, with different kinds of CC available, as well as pets, buffs, debuffs, traps, and whatnot.
So just keep in mind that variety is the spice of life! And, as a closing tip for the day, there is no end-all be-all class for any given role or capacity. I'm not saying that the game is perfectly balanced, but do keep in mind that a toon's effectiveness is 95% due to the person at the keyboard - give or take 5%.
That's all from me for now - Ande'thoras-ethil, and happy hunting all!
~ Ankalima |