What's your favorite 5-person group?
by Paul Sherrard 
Mar 16th 2007 at 7:12PM
With so much 5-person content in Outland, I've been having a lot of discussion with my guildies as to the "perfect" group makeup. With 9 classes, there are tons of options available to anyone starting a group.
Tanks: Warrior, Bear Druid, or Paladin. Maybe a Warlock if you have an insane warlock in your guild (I'm looking at you, Turinok!)
Healers: Priests, Resto Shammies, Healadins, Druids. I'm personally a big fan of having as much healing as possible in a group. Fewer wipes = shorter runs = happier Paulie.
DPS: Pretty much everybody else.
I'm going to share with you what I think is my favorite 5-person group for the normal Outland instances. This group likely wouldn't work in Heroic instances, and it's been long enough that I've been out of Azeroth that I couldn't attest to the effectivesness of the group in the "old world." I look forward to your comments on it, and your comments about your own groups.
- Tank: Paladin
- Healer: Paladin
- DPS: Mage
- DPS: Enhancement Shaman
- DPS: Elemental Shaman
Strengths: Only 1 true squishy in the group, and 4 potential healers surrounding her. 2 blessings, 8 totems, arcane brilliance for more mana for everyone. As I play an alliance shaman, I still come off as shiny, new, and exotic to my guildies. With spell damage and crit buffs from me (the elementalist), and windfury and Strength of Earth from the enhancement shaman, there are benefits for everyone. With Blessing of Wisdom and Mana totems, mana regen is doing just fine.
Weaknesses: No rogue to pick locks on chests, no Priest for stamina buffs. I'll count on you lot to tell me further weaknesses.
What's your favorite 5-person group? Is your group best for Azeroth, Outland, or even Outland Heroic instances?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Chris M Mar 16th 2007 7:36PM
I know this has nothing to do with the Outland, but I ran a great PUG a few nights ago- two Warlocks on Tanking and DPS (VWs), Mage, Shammy, Priest. It was the awesome.
But yeah- I like it best when I don't have to deal with whiny warriors, or pissy pallys. The Horde should've never gotten pallys- because now all 3 billion of them think they're 'the awesome'.
Sorry- rant there. I realize that's not true for all of you guys, but the vast majority make you look bad.
:)
Chris
priest Mar 16th 2007 7:39PM
personally i like my old favourite, which never seems to fail:
prot tank
holy priest (me)
mage
mage
rogue
Covers everything you need. if an instance really needs extra healing, swap out the rogue for a hybrid.
Kraki Mar 16th 2007 7:59PM
I'm a lock and to me, the best group has a warrior tanking, druid healing, Shadow Priest for VE and the DPS and a rogue or a mage depending on the instance for CC.
MattRossi Mar 16th 2007 8:01PM
@1 - I'm not sure what class you play, Chris, but any class that can have a pet tank an instance is OP. If we're going to have warlock pets tanking instances, then druids should never have been nerfed and warriors and pallies should have had their DPS raised to near-mage levels. After all, if you're going to have a pocket tank good enough to tank instances, why shouldn't the actual tanks be able to DPS same instances while tanking them?
Ameria Mar 16th 2007 8:03PM
Yesterday We run Black Morass with Myself (Holy Priest) Two Shadow Priests, A Rogue and A Bear tank. And I have to say, It was the best run I've ever done.
Dave Mar 16th 2007 8:06PM
Very odd choice, and one I'm sure you'll come to realize isn't as awesome as you think it is once you've gotten used to having Shaman for a while.
I like the hybrids, but I think you're putting too much into them. I personally think they're great to full two roles, but not for being the main of anything. Paladins are 3rd rate tanks, so I'd take a Warrior or Druid over a Paladin in a heartbeat. I'd prefer the warrior, since they're still better at boss tanking (and have better magic damage mitigation than a bear), but it's a wash really with a druid for a 5-man.
I think Mages are fairly essential in any group, but I'm perfectly okay with a Shadow Priest in the same spot. If you're pigeonholing with single character specs rather than purpose and usefulness, I think you're doing yourself no favors. Stacking with a hybrid however... that's handy! Shadow Damage is on par with mage damage IMO, plus they can spot heal and mind control. Mages can sheep and pull agrro. Whee.
My idea party:
Tank
DPS/Offtank
CC/DPS
CC/DPS/Healing Hybrid
Healer
and tune around the instance, rather than some sort of personal preference. Warlocks are handy in a place where demons are all over that need to be dealt with. Mages are handy if you're in a spot where mind control just won't do, or you need a lot of AOE. (doing Tempest Keep stuff without a mage? No thanks!). If the paladin can fill the Healing/Tank hybrid slot, awesome. More CC or pure DPS. (but personally I prefer the CC.)
variety is the key to a lot of this stuff. Rigid thinking and some desire for a single "perfect" party is the key to absolute doom.
MacAllah Mar 16th 2007 8:08PM
Pre-Outland I had been rocking the:
MT: Prot Warrior
MH: Holy Priest (me)
DPS: Hunter (w/ cat)
DPS: Fire Mage
DPS: Balance Druid
This allowed for crazy CC (sheep, shackle, mind control, ice trap, sleep...) and if it ever hit the fan the Druid could heal, too.
I've found that Outland (and the patch) made other tanks a lot more viable (same with healers). Priests are too squishy now to main heal, but Pallies do just great. The current line-up I've been rocking is:
MT: Feral Druid
MH: Holy Pally
DPS: Shadow Priest (me)
DPS: Arcane Mage
DPS: Anything else, really.
The Shadow Priest acts like a "battery" of health and mana for everyone. In most cases I out-DPS everyone else, too. Getting rid of the Warrior tank allows for one extra buff (from the Pally), which is nice. Also, the switch from Fire to Arcane for the Mage is because of the crazy +int gear is much better suiting for Arcane talents.
col Mar 16th 2007 8:14PM
An all troll group consisting of a warrior, rogue, mage, priest, and shaman/hunter.
Elra Mar 29th 2007 3:06AM
pre tbc had me rocking an unusaul group,
we were all lvl 57's, and we were running BRD at max, skipping baelgor.
Me, arms warr with 2hand
2x Enhancement shams
2x holy priests
we only had a problem at last boss, everything else was a breeze.
sealsay Mar 16th 2007 8:26PM
Tank: Feral Druid (can heal)
Healer: Paladin (can tank)
DPS: Shadow Priest (Off Heal + Buff)
DPS: Hunter (CC + I know this comes under hunters CC but the pet is a very handy off tank!)
DPS: Mage (CC + Buff + Drinks!!!)
most groups seem to comprise the basic - tank/healer/offheal+dps/offtank+dps/dps or variations on it.
I have to say, is it just me or does everybody find druids to be better tanks than warriors? If a druid joins a group to tank, he really does tank! but a warrior? they're all havago heroes with no interest in sword and shield or maintaining agro of multiple targets :(
Ollej Mar 16th 2007 9:39PM
My personal fav, in theory (never tried it) is this:
Tank: Feral Druid
Off-Tank/Melee DPS: Feral Druid
Casting DPS: Balance Druid
Casting DPS: Balance Druid
Healer: Resto Druid
I had also thought about an entire 5 man of Balance Druids, only for the fact that I'd love to see how fast they can take down a boss (any boss) with 15 Treants and all of those moonfires....something to ponder anyways.
And, no, my main isn't a druid, my only character over 39 is a Pally; although, I do have an alt for every class (druid is currently level 2).
Chris M Mar 16th 2007 9:38PM
MattRossi- Your point is well taken.
I play a brand-spankin-new Warlock, formerly a Healbot spec'd Priest before Blizzard took the nerf-bat to us, and I decided my time was best spent on something with a future.
I think the difference between what you're saying, and what I'm trying to get at is- when you've got 5 people that know how to play their classes, nearly anything is possible in my book.
Granted, a 5 mage firing squad isn't going to get you far in life; but I'm saying anything within reason.
The priest, I'm good 'real life' friends with; and I know him to be competent, and intelligent. The rest of the PUG was surprisingly filled with people that simply know what to do. We couldn't (and as sealsay mentioned, didn't want to try to) get ahold of a warrior, so we decided to see what a couple Voidwalkers could do. When aggro is managed properly between the nukers and the tanks, naturally- everything is smooth. When two of the nukers essentially ARE the tanks; There's no real question as to how smooth things will run.
So yes, yell 'Nerf Warlocks' to the heart's content; but it works for me- no annoying Warrior (I grouped with the worst of the worst a few nights ago. A pally that thought he was Thrall's gift to instances- decided to ignore all the mobs hacking on him, and press forward- not waiting for his DPS/ Crowd Control or even the healer to catch up. Needless to say- he died; and blamed our healer- quit the party, and died trying to get out of the instance. Pretty funny)
DIGRESSION ALERT.
Sorry.
My point is, (I had a point?) overpowered? Sure. But it works.
Chris
freehugz Mar 17th 2007 6:19PM
So for may favorite group that i've been in has been
druid-healing
pally-tanking
mage/shadow priest/fury warrior taking care of the rest
SnowDog Mar 16th 2007 10:30PM
The best five-man group is a group that plays together and knows that each member is capable of. My guild has an all-paladin group that started around release day, and while we've swapped a few people in and out the core roles are still the same.
It's my favorite 5-man team not because it's uber-effective, but because we all have been playing together forever and know what we're in for each night we group up.
Shat Mar 17th 2007 12:31AM
I ran this group through the stockades back in the day, and it's the quickest run I've ever done. Not sure it would work in the higher level instances and I'm pretty sure it won't work in Outland instances, which are pretty much geared toward prot wars or pallies.
Priest
BM Hunter
BM Hunter
MM Hunter
DPSadin
No true tanks in this group, but with the two BM hunter pets and the DPSadin, this doesn't really matter, especially with how fast everything goes down.
tripp Mar 17th 2007 1:04AM
Feral Druid
Holy Paladin
Shadow Priest
Fire Mage
Warlock
Seraya Mar 17th 2007 6:35AM
Prot Warrior
Holy Priest
Rogue
Feral Druid
Hunter (me)
Advantages: Rogues for lockpicking, hunters for tracking and MisD pulls, feral druid who carries healing and tanking gear for when the need arises.
Disadvantages: Very little targetted crowd control outside of Sap (humanoids) and a druid's sleep (beasts). Also, very little AoE so large groups of small enemies are rough.
Despite those disadvantages this group went from a dead stop and got Karazhan keys (including Arcatraz keys) in a week.
Archaic Mar 17th 2007 1:30AM
My favourite group would be
Affliction 'lock (Tank, with Imp for buff and mana battery) - My character
Demo 'lock (Off-tank, DPS, CC)
Shadow Priest (Healing via VE, DPS)
Balance Druid (DPS, occasional healing)
Resto Shaman (Healing, occasional DPS)
Tanking in cloth, and still managing to finish each non-boss fight with over 90% health, is just scary.
Crimsonhavoc Mar 17th 2007 1:36AM
I don't know why people don't put more stock in hunters... :)
the 5 man i have been running with on Monday nights on Spirestone is:
Tank:Proc Warrior
Off Tank/DPS:Hunter (me) w/ owl
Off Tank/DPS:Lock
Healing:Priest
DPS:Mage
The team is very effecient and we haven't had to rerun anything in Azeroth because we wiped so bad we couldnt get back to finish. I think people forget that very rarely do we find something that is resistant to physical damage, so I am always in the back causing damage to the boss :)we have finished everything in Azeroth and we are going to go to the 5mans in outland this week...
Tom Mar 17th 2007 1:37AM
@7 + 10 I agree with both of your ideas. This seems like a great lineup!
MT: Feral Druid (Tank, Buff, Heal, CC, DPS Cat)
MH: Holy Pally (Tank, Buff, Heal, AoE)
DPS: Shadow Priest (Dps, Heal, Buff,CC)
DPS: Mage (Dps, CC, Buff, Drinks)
DPS/CC: Hunter or Lock (Dps, CC, Pet off-tank)
At least 4 members of this lineup can cast major buffs, Crowd control and cast some form of AoE. At least 3 can heal and 2 can tank.@ 10- As a feral druid it has been nice to feel some love for the feral druids. Its very fun being the big bear. One challenge when main tanking though popping out to toss the occaisional heal. Tossing out an innervate is workable.