[Guide] The Melee Discussion

**Amedis** · 06-26-2008

Original Post by Seminarca of <Unholy> on Thaurissan

k, so the optimal melee group debate has been going on for some time. It's widely believed that Enh/Warrior/3xRogue is the most optimal use of an Enhancement Shaman, so as to not waste the Windfury totem, and without a doubt it's a very strong group. Recently, some discussion started in the Feral Druid megathread about whether substituting one of the Rogues for a Feral is worth it, and so I decided to look into it a bit more deeply.

Throughout all this, I hope to remain as impartial as possible, and will test a number of alternate scenarios. The goal is to figure out the group setup that achieves the highest possible cumulative DPS. This will be at the highend T6 progression level.

Our melee group will be as follows:
Enhancement Shaman
Fury Warrior
Sword Rogue
Sword Rogue
(empty)
This group will have imp Battle Shout + Saphire, improved SoE & WF totems, Unleashed Rage (no twisting).

Aside from our test melee group, a tank group with the following makeup will be used to slot the 6th person:
Prot Tank
Prot Tank
Feral Tank
Resto Shaman (WF Totem)
(empty)
This group will have base Battle Shout, LotP and base SoE & WF totems.

Additionally, an alternate scenario without a Resto Shaman will be tested, e.g. for Alliance guilds that may not have access to many:
Prot Tank
Prot Tank
Feral Tank
[Bum slot, e.g. Warlock for Imp, Holy Paladin or Resto Druid]
(empty)
This group will have base Battle Shout and LotP.

Other buffs assumed:
Blessing of Might (base)
Blessing of Kings
Imp Mark of the Wild
Appropriate food/flask/elixir buffs
No drums, Bloodlust or potions (e.g. Haste Potions) considered to keep it relatively simpler.
Debuffs assumed:
5 x Sunder
Faerie Fire (not improved)
Curse of Recklessness
Caster debuffs (for Shaman spells and Rogue poisons)

Tests are conducted as follows:

1) DPS is calculated for the Melee subgroup consisting of the 4 "permanent" players + an additional Rogue. The Feral is added to our two alternate groups. Total DPS is calculated for each scenario.

2) DPS is calculated for the Melee subgroup consisting of the 4 "permanent" players + the Feral. The remaining Rogue is added to our two alternate groups. Total DPS is calculated for each scenario.

Enh / Fury / Rogue / Rogue / Rogue

Enh: 1450
Fury: 1621
Rogue: 1733
Rogue: 1733
Rogue: 1733

*Feral: 1303 (Tank group, Resto Shaman)
*Feral: 1265 (Tank group, No Shaman)

DPS when tank group gets a Resto Shaman: 9573
DPS when tank group gets NO Shaman: 9535

Enh / Fury / Rogue / Rogue / Feral
Enh: 1511
Fury: 1721
Rogue: 1803
Rogue: 1803
Feral: 1412

*Rogue: 1637 (Tank group, Resto Shaman)
*Rogue: 1548 (Tank group, No Shaman)

DPS when tank group gets a Resto Shaman: 9887
DPS when tank group gets NO Shaman: 9798

RESULTS ARE ONLY ACCURATE AS THE LINKED SIMULATIONS

So it seems:
* Replacing a Rogue with a Feral results in higher DPS, regardless of whether the replaced Rogue gets WF totem or not (Rogue used MH IP in this case).
* Warriors seem to benefit a hell lot more from LotP than Enh or Rogues. This could have something to do with the gearing style of each particular representantive (e.g. Sebudai has a fairly high crit chance already, whilst Loderunner has a lot of passive APen).
* Enhancement Shamans are huge for Ferals, 147 dps over having no Shaman, 109 dps for UR + Imp SoE alone. This is without twisting btw, no GoA was used at all.

My personal thought:

Though at first glance it seems like a feral druid is better, the overall raid DPS is only increased if you're prot warrior group is set up in that way. Otherwise it is better go with Shaman, Warrior, Rogue x3. This point was brought up later in the thread aswell.