Melee cleave teams - how are you doing?

[Fuzzyboy]

Hi - I'm thinking of trying out a 4 x Warrior (with a friend playing priest). Any recommendations for builds, macros and general setup with that type of group?

And have any of the melee cleave group tried out the spec in instances - how has that worked so far in terms of both mechanics and XP

[Ughmahedhurtz]

I'm gradually working my way there with a shaman + 4 warrior team. Only level 14 at the moment but I'm also keeping up mining, skinning, herbalism, a day job, tailoring, blacksmithing, leatherworking, and one other I can't remember as I go so I don't have to go back and kill a bunch of the same mobs again at 60. So far, the biggest thing I notice is that if I get jumped by 3-4 extra adds, the warriors just turn into buzzsaws while having enough defense/health/armor to stay alive. It's pretty rare that I have to heal doing world quests over the last couple of levels, though levels 1-11 were kinda rough until they got some more abilities and their first decent green 2-hander. Should be interesting doing RFC in a few more levels (hopefully tonight).

[Dawkinz]

My 3x war 1x paladin 1x priest is killing it at level 27. Deadmines and stockades are very easy, the only problem is mobs running away, but I am getting better at that as well.

I'm not leveling at some god level, but I'm on pace for roughly 6 days /played, which I'm very happy with.

As for spec, you should be spamming thunderclap, rend and sunder armor (with some cleave) until you get to 36 and get whirlwind.

[Mercbeast]

You think that rotation is better than heroic strike/cleave?

My group is basically running Overpower Heroic Strike and Cleave. I have one of my warriors doing thunderclap instead of Cleave. Cleave just does so much more concentrated damage, it kills mobs faster. The other side is, positioning is more of an issue.

I find rend is just lack luster because it's outperformed by heroic strike, and dots in general need to tick full duration to be worth it.

[Buck87]

This sounds fun, I may do a 4xWarrior and Priest Time soon. But damn level 20 before you get Cleave

[Mercbeast]

Thunderclap works well enough before.

[Lyonheart]

holy pal seems like a better fit for all melee no?

[Drmanhattan]

Holy pally probably isn’t bad, and it’s probably what I’ll run with my 4 warrior team, but that’d only because I already have a Preist in my 4 lock team. Priests have great aoe healing via prayer of healing, and even holy nova( not as efficient, but still). Holy pallies are more single Target nuke heals, without any instant cast hots. The lack of instant heals does mean you have to stop moving to heal

[nodoze]

Holy pally probably isn’t bad, and it’s probably what I’ll run with my 4 warrior team, but that’d only because I already have a Preist in my 4 lock team. Priests have great aoe healing via prayer of healing, and even holy nova( not as efficient, but still). Holy pallies are more single Target nuke heals, without any instant cast hots. The lack of instant heals does mean you have to stop moving to heal

Actually in my setup my 2 Paladins will be able to do up to 2 instant heals on demand on the go every 30 seconds via Holy Shocks (or you can think of as being available on average once every 15 seconds).

I think 2 Paladins are by far the best for WPVP but I am finding they are also great for 3 PVE Warriors giving both improved Might and Kings blessings and up to 2 good auras and the Warriors & Paladins will all get heals every-time they hit a primary target with Seal of Light (which should be crazy-good when the Warriors are dual-wielding) and the Paladins should also be getting mana on hit from Seal of Wisdom. If heal-delay is an issue for any healer Paladins are the only healers to easily self provide > 100% immunity to losing casting time due to incoming damage... For many scenarios the Paladins in mail/plate+shield have the best mitigation and by far the highest survivability with their multiple "oh shit" buttons and the only class able to cleanse 3 types of debuffs...

Paladins are also by far the most mana-efficient healers in the game (except for maybe situation-ally when a Priest can be fed killing blows) making them less likely to hold up the Warriors due to the healer(s) needing to drink. Until Seal of Light I would be a little wary of a single Paladin though as, due to no AoE heals you have to heal single target and I have had multiple times where I would have lost one or more Warriors had I not been able to double the healing throughput via 2 Paladins... That being said I have been a little aggressive in my pulls and have been doing yellow mobs probably too often and so maybe a single Paladin would be OK if I were to go a little less aggressive and/or focus on green mobs... Thus far I have liked the double healing throughput and have liked having 2 rezers in PVE for mistakes but likely when my team is all decked out in BiS gear and I know all the dungeons by heart I will get less value for the 2nd Paladin when grinding... If/when that happens I may swap a Paladin for a 4th Warrior for PVE dungeon grinds...

Overall I do like my 3Warrior+2Paladin group & drive from my 'lead warrior' with the entire team following in melee range attacking. My lead warrior gets all the best gear and I slant him with best 1handers and spec'ed him arms so he can stance dance with minimal, if any, penalty. He lead charges in getting body pull aggro with the other 2 Warriors charging in next and the Paladins have to run up since they don't have charge.

The lead warrior ThunderClaps and then shifts to Defensive stance while the other 2 Warriors stay in BattleStance and both shout (one speced for improved battle shout and the speced for improved demoralizing shout).

Up to 19th Level for large mob pulls I would Thunderclap & initial Rend (I would triple dot a target or two and then focus DPS on other targets till dead while typically the first mobs or two would die to dots).

At 20th Level I switched to Cleave and am still trying to figure out the initiation and follow-up rotations I like best. I am thinking of dropping rend and going (on tougher pulls):

• -All 3 start in BattleStance & Charge (Lead first as he is a few steps ahead and gets in range first getting body pull aggro);
• -All 3 pop BloodRage;
• -Lead ThunderClaps & others shout (1 battle, 1 demoralizing);
• -Lead shifts to Defensive Stance & others ThunderClap (when enough rage) then focus on DPS rotation and controlling aggro via:
  
• -Lead Warrior (Defensive Stance): Revenge>Heroic Strike (boosts Aggro & speced for reduced cost) & taunting if/as needed, maybe ThunderClap if 4+ Targets (since he can change stance without dumping all Rage); Since he is Arms with improved Heroic Strike I am thinking maybe don't cleave from him and just try to control aggro...
  
• -Follow Warriors (Battle Stance): OverPower>Heroic Strike (single target), OverPower>Cleave (2+ targets), Overpower>ThunderClap (4+ targets);

Things I could use help on are:

Feed back on the above initation & rotation plan at 20+ (I am new to cleave) till sweeping strikes.

When should I be Sundering (just on bosses?) and would it make sense to only Sunder from my lead Warrior (since it caused high threat and he has the best armor and only one defaulting to 1H+shield) or should I sunder from all 3 at once (lead warrior is in defensive stance and should have aggro anyway)?

Round-robin setup to rotate Sheild-Bashes from the 3 Warriors (and a way to switch the "Follow" Warriors from 2H to 1H+shield and back);

Insight into other warrior macros people are using as I think I have significant optimization left to do.

[dalo199]

Actually in my setup my Paladins will be able to do up to 2 instant heals on demand on the go every 30 seconds via Holy Shock.

I think 2 Paladins are by far the best for WPVP but I am finding they are also great for 3 PVE Warriors giving both improved Might and Kings blessings and up to 2 good auras and the Warriors & Paladins will all get heals every-time they hit a primary target with Seal of Light (which should be crazy-good when the Warriors are dual-wielding) and the Paladins should be getting mana from Seal of Wisdom. If heal-delay is an issue the Paladins are the only healers to easily get > 100% immune to losing casting time due to incoming damage... For many scenarios the Paladins in mail/plate+shield have the best mitigation and by far the highest survivability with their multiple "oh shit" buttons and the only class able to cleanse 3 types of debuffs...

Paladins are also by far the most mana-efficient healers in the game (except for maybe situation-ally when a Priest can be fed kills) making them less likely to hold up the Warriors due to the healer(s) needing to drink. Until Seal of Light I would be a little wary of a single Paladin though as, due to no AoE heals you have to heal single target and I have had multiple times where I would have lost one or more Warriors had I not been able to double the healing throughput via 2 Paladins... That being said I have been a little aggressive in my pulls and have been doing yellow mobs probably too often and so maybe a single Paladin would be OK if I were to go a little less aggressive and/or focus on green mobs... If I find that true I likely will add a 4th Warrior in the future when focused on PVE dungeon grinding though I have liked having 2 rezers in PVE...

I like my 3Warrior+2Paladin group & drive from my 'lead warrior' with the entire team following in melee range attacking. My lead warrior gets all the best gear and I slant him with best 1handers and spec'ed him arms so he can stance dance with minimal, if any, penalty. He lead charges in getting body pull aggro with the other 2 Warriors charging in next and the Paladins have to run up since they don't have charge.

The lead warrior ThunderClaps and then shifts to Defensive stance while the other 2 Warriors stay in BattleStance and both shout (one speced for improved battle shout and the speced for improved demoralizing shout).

Up to 19 for large mob pulls I would Thunderclap & initial Rend (I would triple dot a target or two and then focus DPS on other targets till dead while typically the first mobs or two would die to dots).

At 20 I switched to Cleave and am still trying to figure out the rotation I like best. I am thinking of dropping rend and going (on tougher pulls):

• -All 3 start in BattleStance & Charge (Lead first as he is a few steps ahead and gets in range first getting body pull aggro);
• -All 3 pop BloodRage;
• -Lead ThunderClaps & others shout (1 battle, 1 demoralizing);
• -Lead shifts to Defensive Stance & others ThunderClap (when enough rage) then focus on DPS rotation and controlling aggro via:
  
• -Lead Warrior (Defensive Stance): Revenge>Heroic Strike (boost Aggro & speced for reduced cost) & taunting if/as needed, maybe ThunderClap if 4+ Targets; Since he is Arms with improved Heroic Strike I am thinking maybe don't cleave from him and just try to control aggro.
  
• -Follow Warriors (Battle Stance): OverPower>Heroic Strike (single target), OverPower>Cleave (2+ targets), Overpower>ThunderClap (4+ targets);

Things I could use help on are:

Feed back on the above imitation & rotation plan at 20+ (I am new to cleave) till sweeping strikes.

When should I be Sundering (just on bosses?) and would it make sense to only Sunder from my lead Warrior or should I sunder from all 3 at once?

Round-robin setup to rotate Sheild-Bashes from the 3 Warriors (and a way to switch the "Follow" Warriors from 2H to 1H+shield and back);

Insight into other warrior macros people are using as I think I have significant optimization left to do.

I would love to see a video of all of this in action! Sounds amazing