Static Group composition question
 

We have a static group going.
Cleric, pally, druid, enchanter, bard, rogue

We were thinking of switching out bard for a shaman. What do you think is better, more handy to have or will be able to do more stuff? I'm sure both compositions can do any group content, but will one be faster or easier for leveling and doing harder camps? Group is not super twinked or wealthy. Wearing banded sets and such mostly.

If they would preer shaman for sure, if they are indiferent then id say yes, if they want to play bard then who cares.

Bard and enchanter are sometimes annoying to play together but enchanter can make up for the shamans slow if they want to play bard and you'll always have that extra mana and regen and a puller.

If you guys travel together the the bard will be handy too.. shaman doesnt bring much more to the group but concrete stability. Id throw out there that you might want to up your DPS but maintain the puller slot with a monk.

Player enjoyment will keep the static group together longer than perfect group composition.

I know it won't matter too much in the long run. I'm the bard. I have a shaman almost the same level and we are all still low enough it doesn't matter if I swap. I'm going to play both classes regardless. One will be in the static group and the other I'll play other times. Mostly to help get plat for whatever class is in the static group. That way I can farm some spell money and whatever without leveling my static group class.

I originally picked bard over shaman because I'd rather group level the bard than swarm. I was know our dps is a bit lacking, but our survivability is high. What would help the dps more, the bard with over haste and mana song or shaman with buffs?

I played a monk on live as my main for many years. Monk is a no go for me.

I think bard is the one to go with in this group, it'd be nice to have a puller and the druid can regen while the enchanter slows. And with the alt shaman there you go when you need one.

As always, play the one you like the best because in the "perfect" choice doesn't do you any good if you aren't logging in because you don't like it.

Bard is probably better for that group as-is. It has the most unique tools the other classes don't already cover. The bard's usual drawback of button-spam is in this case reduced in relevance because the shaman eventually ends up spamming buttons roughly as fast as the bard does. It takes the shaman a while to get to that point, but it gets there in the end. The shaman is in the long run a very expensive character to fully fit out so that might be another plus for the bard. Finally, you already have two healer types plus a paladin, so you can lose either of the healers and the group will keep on going, while the bard can act in the tank role if it has to in the event the paladin quits. Having key players quit is always the major issue with static pre-made groups so having redundancy across critical roles is always a plus.

Danth

These are the kinds of things I was looking to hear other opinions on. I know play what you want to play for hours and hours. If you don't like it you won't play it. I'm going to play and enjoy both bard and shaman. I just wanted to hear some theory craft on what other people thought would be a better fit for the 5 other group members.

With pally and rogue as the melee besides bard, one of the reasons why I went bard over shaman originally is thinking the bard can off tank if needed. Probably not a huge thing with enchanter in group, but in an oooohhhh crap moment the off tank is an added bonus to have. Or literally tank if pally has RL and can't make it a day.

In your case I think it mostly depends on how good your Enchanter is, and how much work they are willing to do. The Shaman/Enchanter combo is great when the Enchanter wants to fully focus on Charm and crowd control. The Shaman handles the Slows and Malos. With Tash and Malo, you can land spells better on high MR targets. If targets don't need a lot of resistance reduction, you can also have the Shaman Malo, so the Enchanter doesn't have to Tash. This will help share the mana bar burden between two players, and also reduce the Enchanter's overall stress and workload. Malo + Tash is also always great for longer lasting Charmed pets.

If your Enchanter is a god, then Bard would probably be better for mana battery and other misc Bard stuff.

Shamans can off-tank pretty well too since they have slow + root + blind + doggo pet + heals, so I wouldn't be too worried about not being able to off-tank in either case.

Not really sure what the shaman would bring to that group at that point besides allowing the ench to not have to slow/haste. You already have regen and off healer in Druid so it’s really just what does the ench want to be doing

Reroll as six wizards.