Friday, February 13, 2009

My Ideal Raid Composition - Patch 3.X

Disclaimer: The following is not a knock on any class or spec. It is merely the crazy musing of a bored office worker.

So yesterday's post in rebuttal to BRK got me back on raid composition. The sharing of buffs amongst classes in 3.0.2 has made the job of the raid organizer/planner simpler, yet more complex. No longer does the raid leader require 4-5 shamans for Heroism/Bloodlust, or a minimum of 3 of X class for Y buff. With buff sharing, multiple classes bring the same buff.

But now you face the grim fact that some classes can cover a buff and bring other utility/damage to the table.

Because I was bored, I worked up my ideal raid composition, covering as many buffs as I could in as few raid slots as possible. My shared buffage was taken from MMO Champ's report from Patch 3.0.2 found here. As I said, this is what I would create if I had carte blanche with skilled/geared players and invites. I think you'll find that all buffs/debuffs are covered with 1 spot to spare. The buffs each player is providing are next to them, and any additional buffs that they could cover are in italics. It's not exhaustive, since there's a ton of overlap, but I tried -

Tanks - 3
Death Knight (Frost) - Melee Haste, AGI/STR, Attack Slow Debuff
Paladin (Protection) - Damage Reduction, Healing Received, Stats (%), Attack Slow Debuff
Warrior (Protection) - Armor Debuff (Major), Attack Slow Debuff

Healers - 6
Druid (Restoration) - Stats (Flat), Healing Received
Druid (Restoration)
Paladin (Holy)
Priest (Discipline) - Spell Power, Stamina, Spirit, Armor Increase (%)
Priest (Holy)
Shaman (Restoration) - Spell Haste, Heroism/Bloodlust
Shaman (Restoration)

Ranged DPS - 9
Druid (Balance) - Armor Debuff (Minor), Spell Crit, Spell Vulnerability, Spell Hit Taken Debuff, Haste (%), Melee Hit Chance Debuff, Stats (Flat)
Hunter (Beast Mastery) - Damage (%), Melee Hit Debuff
Hunter (Marksmanship) - AP (%), Melee Hit Debuff, Healing Debuff
Mage (Arcane) - Cast Slow, Intellect
Mage (Frostfire) - Spell Crit Debuff, Intellect
Priest (Shadow) - Spell Hit Debuff, Replenishment
Warlock (Affliction) - Spell Vulnerability, AP Debuff, HP
Warlock (Destruction) - AP Debuff
______ (Open spot for Mage, Hunter, or Warlock)

Melee DPS - 7
Death Knight (Blood)
Death Knight (Unholy) - Spell Vulnerability, AGI/STR
Paladin (Retribution) - Haste (%), Damage (%), Crit Taken Debuff, Stats (%), Replenishment
Rogue (Combat) - Physical Vulnerability Debuff
Rogue (Mutilate) - Armor Debuff (Major) Crit Debuff, Healing Debuff, Cast Slow
Shaman (Enhancement) - AP (%), AGI/STR, Melee Haste
Warrior (Fury) - Bleed Debuff, Melee Crit, AP (Flat), Healing Debuff, HP, AP Debuff

2 sources of Replenishment, all major buffs covered, all major debuffs covered, 3 paladins so that everyone gets what they need/want, no less than 2 and no more than 3 of every class. Arms warrior removed, see note below. There's even a cat druid and 2 warriors a warrior that can tote tank gear with them him in case a fourth tank is needed for any encounter. 2 dedicated tank healers (disc priest and holy paladin), 2 brain healers... this raid has it all.

Okay, I've got that out of my system now. The raid leader in me has been appeased.

EDIT: Removed the arms warrior since an anonymous tipster told me Blood Frenzy is doubled by combat rogues! Also shuffled some things - brought in a moonkin, subbed out the feral, and shifted a shaman from elemental to enhancement.

8 comments:

Mister K said...

I think your last spot should actually go to a moonkin, while you have the shaman giving spell crit it is not always up, while moonkin aura is constant increase to spell crit, plus another innervate and battle rez never hurt anybody

Anonymous said...

Combat rogues give the same thing as blood frenzy.

Shwitz44 said...

@Anonymous

They do? SWEET! Screw the Arms Warrior!

Dessyreqt said...

I am highly offended that you would not bring a feral tank to raid. They have the highest threat, mitigation, and health of the tanks (for the most part,) and they make for stronger DPS when not tanking (3k DPS from a tank build in T7.10 is not uncommon,) plus Leader of the Pack is like a Rampage that is always up combined with a crit-based
Seal of Light. Plus, on the fights where he's not tanking you have an extra Innervate and Rebirth. The frost DK? All his buffs are redundant, his magic resists aren't important in as many fights (and can be worked through with any other class,) the Pally tank is already a better AoE tank (and Druids and Warriors can both do a good job,) and he's just much squishier.

My two cents.

Shwitz44 said...

@Myze
Like I said in the disclaimer, my mumblings on this topic are not meant as a knock on any class. The reason I removed the feral (it was in originally) was to avoid having 4 druids. Because of the nature of the game (4 healing classes, 6 standard healer slots in 25-man), I had to double up on 2 healer classes. To keep under my self-imposed 3-per-class limit, that means 1 of the specs of 2 healer classes doesn't get in. In this set-up, it's feral druid and elemental shaman.

I love feral druids, and would absolutely bring one to any raid. I'm just theorycrafting here - this is not a raid I'd ever have the chance to form.

Dessyreqt said...

When I said I was "highly offended" it was a tongue-in-cheek comment. I would like to point out, though that it is Arms Warriors that provide Trauma, not Fury warriors. This comp lacks a Bleed debuff.

Shwitz44 said...

This comp lacks a bleed debuff
God damnit.

I'm waving the white flag. I don't make 25-man raids anyway.

I'm going to concentrate on mucking around with 10-man comps.

Thanks for pointing it out though, Myze. I didn't realize that Trauma was arms-only.

Anonymous said...

A BM Hunter can bring a Bleed Debuff in the form of a Rhino Pet, but his personal DPS will be reduced drastically.