Breakfast topic: And yet, it worked
by Mike Schramm 
Apr 2nd 2007 at 8:28AM
There is nothing more lame than getting stuck in a group that just isn't going to work. If you're a warrior, and you get put in a group that has a feral druid, two rogues, and a warlock, odds are that you're in for a rough night. I'm not saying it won't work-- maybe the druid has crazy healing gear, and the rogues are a few levels high for the instance, and the warlock is really good at doing all the things they can do. But if the group's not there, it's not going to happen.But sometimes, you can get a really amazing group from what doesn't seem like the right makeup. I once ran a group with three shaman (me as a resto, and two elemental), a mage and a druid, and lo and behold, we actually finished Stratholme easily (we were all 60, before the expansion). And I've always wanted to run a group of all shaman-- two resto, two elemental, and an enhancement, through one of the 5 mans. I'm sure that if we had the gear and the know-how, we could make it work.
So what's the wackiest group you've ever been in, where you thought you were just plain doomed-- and yet, it worked? I'm no good at the math, but with
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics, Instances, Classes
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
chris Apr 2nd 2007 9:06AM
Well this wasn't a group I was in, it was a group I was facing in Warsong Gulch. On my 29 Troll Priest I faced an Alliance group that had 7 Shamans. We got pwned so hard that we just ended up standing in midfield letting them win as we couldn't do anything with all the totems being dropped. NERF SHAMANS(Only the Drenei type though ;) )
Chieyan Apr 2nd 2007 8:36AM
UBRS - When it was a 10 man. Warrior, pally, a resto druid, 7 hunters all marks spec'd. Was a fun night. A long night but a fun night.
Sylythn Apr 2nd 2007 8:51AM
I don't recall the makeup of some of my more unorthodoxed groups - but I witnessed a phenomenon the other day with a PUG that still has me amazed. I was running Ulda with my alt pally, a much higher level rogue, shaman, a second rogue and I think a mage. I was having a real hard time tanking (the mage wasn't watching his aggro and the high-level rogue was doing so much damage he was always pulling from me).
Anyway, the PUG fell apart, and we were down to the lower rogue, mage and myself. NOW we started tearing through the place, with little trouble. Clearly we couldn't take the bosses, but we were clearing trash far better than we had been. Then the mage had to bail, so the rogue and I duoed packs of elite mobs to get my quests finished (I think one bad pull with a runner ended up with the two of us finishing off about 7 elites).
I'm still wondering how we got BETTER as we lost more people.
I do recall a few times where we made all-DPS groups work, simply because we killed things so fast, we didn't need much healing.
Warhammer Apr 2nd 2007 8:45AM
Now that it's 9 classes in 5 spots the maths got a bit harder ;-)
hoss Apr 2nd 2007 8:55AM
6720 Permutations? is that right??
MadCow Apr 2nd 2007 9:00AM
Prior to TBC ... ubrs, 10 druids ... we spanked the place up and down before the TBC. 4 resto, 2 mooncows, 4 feral. Best group ... ever.
Ferals rotated tanking on bosses ... enough innervates to go around and then some ... warstompx10 .... moonkin for star/moonfire spam. We thought we'd have issues on drak, but we got lucky with 2 lvl 59 adds ... /sleep the adds, he never knew what happened.
0 deaths. 2 seckzy moonkin dances.
BaboonNL Apr 2nd 2007 9:03AM
8^5 = 83768 possible combinations.
Braz Apr 2nd 2007 9:05AM
About a week ago, I ran ZF with an interesting--and I thought doomed--group. The group consisted of a rogue, a warlock, a paladin, a shaman, and me (another warlock). I was 50, and everyone else was low 40s. I was even more worried when we arrived at the instance, because neither the pally nor the shaman seemed very interested in healing. The other warlock was also over-zealous, charging ahead of the group into the mobs, and nearly dying each time.
We cleared the instance without a single death, and without much real difficulty. Without the benefit of a dedicated healer or proper aggro control, I thought we didn't have a chance; but, it was probably the smoothest PuG that I have ever led.
BaboonNL Apr 2nd 2007 9:05AM
But there are 9 classes these days (Shaman/Paladin), so it's 9^5 = 59049.
(My last post should've been 32768, typo. :
Jeroboam Apr 2nd 2007 9:08AM
Last night I ran heroic Steamvaults in a group with no CC, we had my prot paladin, a shadow priest, holy priest, demon specced warlock and a feral druid. We did the whole thing in about two hours thanks to some really crazy CC and amazing heals. MC was our major form of CC for the run, MC one, let it die, me and the feral then would tank the two melee while the lock juggled one of the casters and the priest/lock took down the other. It took us a while, but damn was it fun.
Also, from time to time some of my guildies will run without a healer. We'll take my prot pally, a fury/arm warrior, mage, shadow priest, and balance druid. We try to spread out the damage among me and the warrior and let the VE keep us up, for bosses the druid heals, we've done several of the lvl 70 5 man's with this group, Steamvaults, SH, and most recently, Arcatraz. DPS is a little on the low end, but it's doable.
Solstone Apr 2nd 2007 1:32PM
Me (a 70 priest), a feral druid, and 3 rogues in Shadow Labs. Best run I ever had.
David Apr 2nd 2007 9:22AM
I once did a RFK (Razor Fen Kraul for you guys who don't know) with a feral druid, an elemental shaman, me as an enhancement shaman, a frost mage, and a demonology warlock. Surprisingly we didn't wipe once and we did all the quests. It was a lot of fun.
unlaiden Apr 2nd 2007 9:22AM
Idiots. 9^5 or 8^5 assumes that putting x class in spot 1 or 4 changes the makeup of the group.
atr Apr 2nd 2007 9:23AM
Don't think it's 9^5. It shouldn't matter what order you list the classes.
Should be 126 different group makeups. Higher if you class specs differently of course.
Daniel Apr 2nd 2007 9:25AM
Pre-BC, 5 mages tearing through Stratholme (undead side) and scholomance.
Funniest (and toughest) part of scholo was when we had to kill those skellies that are immune to magic using our... swords^^
Thijz Apr 2nd 2007 9:26AM
I've had one group that wasn't very special, but it was the best I've ever been in (and we all agreed on that :).
It was to Uldaman (too bad a great group like this went to such a sucky instance). I was a lvl 42 arms warrior, there was a lvl 46 fury warrior, a lvl 40 holy priest, a 42 rogue (dunno what spec) and a lvl 43 shammy (don't know his spec either). Me and the other warrior held all the aggro, the priest was able to heal us without any problem and the rogue and shaman were DPS'ing their asses off.
All of us spoke english (great plus :P), all of us knew our roles and neither of us were over-enthousiastic by drawing too much aggro on purpose like some people tend to do.
1.5 hour, 0 deaths, all bosses down without any problems.
Flit Apr 2nd 2007 9:32AM
It is 9^5 (9*9*9*9*9). 9 possible classes in the first slot, 9 in the second... etc etc. If there were only 9 classes to choose from, and you couldn't repete a class, then it would be 9*8*7*6*5.
I ran Mech this weekend with a warrior, ele shammy, 2 holy priests, and me, the hunter. IT worked out amazingly well (considering the warrior never sundered armor....)
JJ Apr 2nd 2007 9:41AM
Sorry if this is a re-post, I hit add your comments, but it never showed up the 1st time.
Funny that you posts this today, Last night I had my 1st Wacky group for SM (yes, I’m just a little mage and don’t have great stories about raids). The group was: Mage (me), Druid, Rouge, and 2 Shamans… and they spent the 1st hall fighting over who was going to heal, leaving the Rouge and me doing most of the fighting. I always thought it was like pulling teeth to get someone to heal, but my group proved me wrong. Now the Druid was healing me in the 1st hall, and trying to do DPS too, but the shamans were not healing really, but every now and then a Chain Bolt would come out of no where and undo my sheepage. It was a long and tough fight, but no one died. 2nd area of it they had decided on a main healer while the other one tanked…and the 1st one down??? The healer… that chain bolt again, they would undo my sheep, and we’d not see them over there wooping her. Druid would tank bear and then heal me if he had chance, and when they healer was done unsheeping my stuff, and not dying I’d get a little help from her…I went through potions like crazy, it was a farce of a group. BUT we did make it to the end and got everything we needed for quest. And my squishy self only died 1, less then some others in group… Love that druid!!!
unlaiden Apr 2nd 2007 9:42AM
No.
9*9*9*9*9 mandates that preist in spot 1 and 4 warriors(in 2-5) is different than 4 warriors in spots 1-4 and the priest in 5.
P=Priest, W=warrior
PWWWW is the same as WWWWP
Dan B. Apr 2nd 2007 9:41AM
Pre-TBC, I (resto druid) ran Strat Live with a feral druid and 3 warlocks. Surprisingly it went well, but we ended up having to call it before the end for some reason.