Druid in a mixed team?

[stoudtlr]

I'm starting a 5 man mixed team and here are my current thoughts:

Paladin tank, Priest healer, Mage, Hunter, Druid

One of the reasons I decided on this setup is to have 1 of every armor class with minimal overlap so I'm not fighting myself for gear drops. I chose a druid for my leather armor character so I have the option of extra healing or tanking depending on if I feel I need more of either one. All except my priest will have a basic DPS rotation in a gse macro so I can just spam a single key for trash. Their other skills will have vfx so I can click them as needed from any window.

Having never played a druid before, mb or otherwise, I'm curious what you all think the easiest form would be to control with that setup. Balance and keep her in my ranged action group or go feral and melee?

Secondary question for those with mixed race teams. At what level did you leave the starting areas to group up your team? My current plan is 12 I think. Dual boxed human paladin and dwarf Hunter in elwynn forest to 12 tonight. Tomorrow I'll dual box gnome mage and dwarf priest to 12. Then I'll level the druid to 12 at which point I think I'll get them all together in Westfall.

[Mercbeast]

If you're planning on running feral for the druid, I'd suggest instead go rogue. If you're gonna slum it up as a caster, then no rogue.

Problem is, the druid is best suited to either tank, or heal. As a DPS druids are just shit mages, or shit rogues.

[Baltyre]

Druids might not be in the top tier team, but i have a lot of fun playing a team of 5 druids (currently at lvl 36).

For wpvp, stealth give you the oportunity to choose if and when you attack, give you the surprise effect and that's hudge. And when shit happens or when you see a lvl60 when you're only 30, it's a life saver. As a bonus, you get the humanoid tracker as cat form.

The versatility is really nice, but i guess it will be less effective to change role on the fly during fight in later levels.

On the con-side :
- inge bombs can not be used while in shapeshift form. You can macro a out-bomb-in in a single global, but that use mana.
- No counter to fear

[Grundel]

If I was running that group I'd have the druid tank the paladin heal and the priest dps.

[nodoze]

Next time (or for anyone else starting an Alliance mixed race team) I would just run the elves at level 1 straight to the dwarf/gnome area (leveraging the short cut) and then to the human starting area (assuming you have at least 1 of each race). If you do the bare minimum on the way (just explorer XP) the elf will be at most 2 and if you follow the FedEx path the others will catch up that level as you go because they will get the explorer XP that the elf already got (and the elf will not).

That way you can just take everyone to 12 once.

[Apatheist]

Paladin tank, Priest healer, Mage, Hunter, Druid

My advice would be: druid, paladin, hunter, mage, warlock.

Druids and paladins both have hybrid heal/tank talent builds that are also great in PvP and will save you a lot of gold on respecs. When you're out in the world you can switch to your healing sets. When you're in dungeons you can choose which one you want to tank/heal based on the dungeon.

Hunter, mage and warlock is a much stronger DPS composition than mage, hunter and druid. However, adding a hunter to a primarily caster team will add some annoying issues (deadzone, pet management, ammunition) that are more of a hassle than farming another set of cloth.

If I were going to create a mixed team I'd just go with warrior, paladin, mage, mage, warlock. This is the strongest PvE combo IMO. If you're leveling via dungeon grinding you'll run each dungeon more than enough times to equip all of your characters. I wouldn't even worry about mixing armor types.

[nodoze]

All 5 of my team want the same mail/plate & same weapons and I have not had gear competition issues... I agree that if you are leveling via dungeons that you will run dungeons enough times that you really don't need to worry too much about competing for drops. This is even more the case if you specially are making a group so that you can run dungeons at cap for gold as you will eventually have all the drops you may want and be disenchanting or vendoring bound gear anyway... I really don't think that should be much, if any, of a driving factor when picking a long term team...

Unless you have a compelling reason (like you want to main a different class), and especially if you are new to multiboxing, I would run a more homogeneous ranged group like:

Paladin+Dwarf-Priest+2Warlocks+Mage

That team is a fully capable "Trinity team" (Tank+Healer+DPS) that is also capable of strong no-push-back AoE with up to 2 Pet Tanks (and the best Threat management)... It also has 2 Healers for PVP and the best all around tools out of the box so to speak...

I do agree that warrior+paladin+2mages+warlock is strong and could actually be a stronger PVE tank combo once fully funded & geared but the previous combo starts with everything you need from the get-go yet finishes strong enough and will give you a more forgivable ride along the way. I love Paladin Healers and main a Paladin Healer but a Priest is just easier to heal a group with (especially if you also have pets) so you will have a better Quality of Life (QoL) as a boxer with a Priest as your main healer (and remember the Paladin Tank can sometimes off-heal in emergencies).

edit: If you mentioned Druid up front because you want to main a Druid then I would go with:

DruidTank+Dwarf-Priest+2Warlocks+Mage

Not as optimal but certainly viable...