A poster on Blizzard's official forum broke down group buffs in Forever and concluded that a melee lineup without two shamans does 16–25% less damage — mostly because of totems. Blizzard has not responded yet.

On Blizzard's European official forum, a player broke down the balance of group buffs in Forever. The author claims that in a melee lineup without two shamans, DPS drops by 16–25% — mostly because of the Windfury Totem and Grace of Air totem, which no profession can replace. Blizzard has not responded yet.

The author himself adds a caveat: the question mostly matters for players who optimize their characters for raids. He lists the key group buffs for melee: Battle Shout (140 attack power), Windfury Totem (20% attack speed and 246 attack power), Grace of Air (89 agility), Strength of Earth Totem (53 strength), and Leader of the Pack (3% critical strike).

The math is done on a rogue in phase-one BiS: roughly 765 attack power and 22% crit. Group buffs add another +37% attack power and +27% crit chance. In total that is about 25% extra damage, of which roughly 9.5% comes from Windfury Totem and about 6% from Grace of Air. For comparison, the author offers this benchmark: a phase-one-BiS rogue inside a melee group out-DPSes a Naxxramas-BiS rogue with rank-14 weapons who ended up outside the group.

The strongest buffs — Windfury Totem and Grace of Air — only a shaman can provide. Professions have nothing to replace them with: Skinning gives only 2% crit, Fishing gives 8% to stats, both are far too weak for a raid. In the past, shamans could compensate by switching between two totem sets (so-called "twisting"), but in Forever that mechanic has been removed — the author specifically notes this is the right call, because twisting was miserable for the shaman playing it.

So the ideal melee lineup looks like this: one warrior, two shamans, one feral druid or Boomkin, and one free slot for a hunter, rogue, or ret paladin. If the raid can split soulstones, feral or Boomkin becomes optional too — but two shamans in the melee group stay a hard requirement.

In practice

• You play a melee class — without two shamans in your group you lose a significant chunk of damage; it pays to agree on the lineup in advance.
• You play a shaman — you are in very high demand in melee groups, especially during the recruitment stage.
• You are a hunter or rogue without BiS — getting into the melee group is harder: there is only one free slot, and all else being equal, it will go to whoever brings more value.
• Waiting on a Blizzard response — there isn't one yet, so this is one forum poster's position, not a change in the game.