Raid Composition

[Issond]

Raid Composition.

This is a guide about raid composition. I’ve searched but I don’t see one already here. I’m basing this guide on my own observations, not on anyone else’s work.
I’ll break out each portion, who does what and why if I don’t think it’s obvious enough. I might explain a few things that are obvious, just in case.

Tanking: (4 tanks)
1. Prot Warrior (Commanding Shout)
2. Prot Paladin (Devo Aura & BoSanctuary)
(1 & 2 can swap back and forth MT as needed)
3. Blood DK The blood DK will be using a dps weapon but wearing tanking gear. If either of the MT’s die, then the DK is responsible for swapping to a tanking weapon, switching to their tanking stance and stepping in. Otherwise, she should be doing dps.
4. Feral Druid The druid will be in cat form doing dps, if the second MT or the DK falls, the druid will swap to bear form and step in. The druid should battle res the first person to die immediately.
Four tanks? Well really two and two prepared backups.

Healing: (6 healers)
5. Resto Shaman This healer should be grouped with the tanks, as healing stream is still party only, and the tanks will be taking most of the damage, so put it where it will do the most good. Should be dropping Stoneskin, Healing Stream, Wrath of Air and Searing totem (Searing Totem? Yes. The elemental shaman will be dropping Totem of Wrath, so it’s better to get dps from anywhere rather than have it be wasted by dropping a totem that’s just getting overwritten anyway.). On a fight that involves Nature damage, this shaman can drop Nature resistance totem and just make sure that he’s in the elemental shaman’s Wrath of Air totem.
6. Resto Druid
7. Resto Druid
8. Disc Priest
9. Holy Priest
10. Holy Paladin (Concentration Aura, Improved BoWisdom)
While the tanks & the resto shaman should be grouped, the rest of the healers should be spread out among the remainder of the raid. No more than one shaman per group.

Ranged DPS:
11. Hunter
12. Hunter

Caster DPS:
13. Balance Druid
14. Elemental Shaman Should be dropping Tremor Totem, Totem of Wrath, Wrath of Air (this is the totem worth doubling up on, just to make sure the whole raid is in one or the other) and Healing Stream Totem. Tremor totem doesn't have to be dropped on fights that don't involve fear. The shaman should be able to keep track of when it needs to be down. There is no point in dropping Strength of Earth, since the DK buff is as good and not range dependant.
15. Shadow Priest
16. Mage (one or both mages should have Improved Blizzard in one of their specs. Most of the time it doesn’t matter, but there will always be fights where a large aoe snare will make more difference then a specific persons dps. Like the XT-002 fight in Ulduar. Put a couple of frost mages on the healbots and the fight is pretty much cake.
17. Mage
18. Warlock
19. Warlock

Melee DPS
20. Enhance Shaman Should be dropping Tremor totem, Improved Windfury, Healing Stream and Magma/Searing (as appropriate).
21. Unholy DK Specifically Unholy. No other class can put the Ebon Plague debuff on as many mobs as fast and this is a debuff you want.
22. Ret Paladin Ret Aura and BoKings. In a fight involving fire or frost damage, the Ret pally should swap to those auras, as survival of the raid is more important than the extra damage from Ret Aura. Shadow resist should always be covered by Priest buff, not by Ret pally aura.
23. DPS Warrior Either flavor is fine, although Fury is higher dps and rogues can handle the blood frenzy debuff. The warrior will have to maintain Battle Shout so the Ret Pally can buff Kings. The warrior should also cover Demo shout and be talented in it.
24. Rogue Rogues should be aware of what poisons are needed for what fights and equip them as needed.
25. Rogue


What you get:
Access to every buff (in one form or another) & every debuff currently in the game.
Four battle resses (Druid).
Two soulstones (Warlock).
Three self resses (Shaman).
Two DK Raise Ally (DK, this often overlooked spell gives you 5 minutes with which to dps).
10 or so pets that you can start a fight with (although some are cooldown based). On a long fight CD pets may be able to make multiple appearances.
Enough replenishment that all of the casters should all have it all the time.
Tons of aoe without sacrificing single target dps.
Heroism.
Loot efficiency. Given the diversity of the classes, you shouldn't be DEing loot much, if ever.


The downsides:
The two backup tanks won't do quite as much damage as everyone else (but they can save your butts if something goes bad).

[Andeby]

Why would you want 4 tanks where 2 are backups? That's a lot of dps wasted. On any high-end fight, they will likely only slow you down. If the tanks are dying so much you need them, rather figure out why the tanks are dying and fix it.

One mage having Improved Blizzard is something you can change on a fight-to-fight basis, where if one of them would need it then he can respecc. If one is constantly using it over better dps talents, it's a loss.

By having the warrior do battle shout, you are getting less attackpower than a ret pally's bom. In 10 mans, it will work but in 25 mans you rather want to get as much out of 10 min buffs as possible, and try to let the ret buff bom.

[fredalbob]

mmo champion has a raid composition.

It's amazing what you can do.

[Issond]

Why would you want 4 tanks where 2 are backups? That's a lot of dps wasted. On any high-end fight, they will likely only slow you down. If the tanks are dying so much you need them, rather figure out why the tanks are dying and fix it.

One mage having Improved Blizzard is something you can change on a fight-to-fight basis, where if one of them would need it then he can respecc. If one is constantly using it over better dps talents, it's a loss.

By having the warrior do battle shout, you are getting less attackpower than a ret pally's bom. In 10 mans, it will work but in 25 mans you rather want to get as much out of 10 min buffs as possible, and try to let the ret buff bom.

Even a tank specc'd DK will put out decent dps (and you can swap weapons while in combat, so you can even use a dps weapon while DPS'ing & a tank weapon while tanking), you're not really losing that much dps.
Cat & Bear gear is not so different that its going to make a significant difference there either. Tier gear only comes in one feral flavor - not two.

One or both mages should have imp blizzard in one of their specs - not both. Depending on the fight mechanics, it can even be detrimental to the fight. Any mage should be dual specc'd, if they aren't then they shouldn't be guilded.

If the ret pally is buffing bom and not kings then you have to add another paladin to cover all the buffs. This is detrimental, especially considering that they are talking about rolling Wis & Might into a single buff in cataclysm. Another Ret Pally will not benefit the raid more than a warrior will. Kings & Battle shout beat Blessing of Might. The third pally is there to help out with resistance auras as much as anything else. Not having Ret aura is going to lower the tanks dps - oh noes! But having some resistances can make certain fights much easier.

All of this is depending on the singular focus of beating the bosses. If you are only concerned about your own dps and the size of your epeen, then this won't really help you anyway. You don't wipe to an encounter cause your dps is off by one or two thousand dps - you wipe because you lose a healer or a tank. With two backups (one of whom can Battle Res) you can keep the boss from wiping out your raid much longer. This isn't the ideal setup for the "high-end" game raiders, this is the best setup for going into new encounters and dealing with new stuff. It offers the most survivability.


If you don't like what's here you can always do it your own way. I've been a leacher and I'm just trying to contribute. Cataclysm is coming and this will give you the best chance to beat new encounters.

PS: I know that there is a raid composition calculator on MMO-champs, that's where I double checked my raid composition to make sure that everything was completely covered. I'll be revising it based on new talents and spells that come out in Cataclysm to make sure that everything stays covered as well.

[celostee]

Wow... like dreams come true... I was just wondering how to start a new raid 'cause there are like none for Ony now. And here I got this guide. Thanks man!

[Amirite]

All this work, and only 1 rep? Going to give you +Rep x4 ASAP (gave out too much today), good job on starting a new kind of thread

[companioncube]

I agree that using a dk in tanking gear as a backup is a waste. In a case of "ZOMG TANK GIB," the DK can just switch to frost presence, pop all cooldowns, and hope the druids are quick at battle ressing.

Elsewise, good post. Sadly, it is not viable to use a comp like this all the time.