what melee has the most raid utility?

[Novx]

Ret probably has the most useful utility as certain other raid utilities can't be fully used on bosses (such as Smokebomb on Thok where it doesn't hit both groups or Warrior banner not working on all boss mechanics). All melee are pretty equal in terms of raid utility though with the exception of punchmonk.

[Mirri]

Don't forget that we can battle rez, one of only 3 classes and the only melee that can.

I'm sure feral Druids can brez as well unless Blizz changed something over Christmas when I didn't login.

[Krekko]

The first 3 responses, man... THAT'S how it's supposed to be!


OT: It really will all matter on what the raid comp consists of and what fight needs what.

Honestly all the melee classes have pretty strong utility nowadays, it just depends on what you need most.

Yeah, it's nice to see the answers vary and bounce around some. Really depends on what you want/need though.

Don't forget that we can battle rez, one of only 3 classes and the only melee that can.

Still don't get why Paladins can't Battle Res.

[mmokri]

Please don't call bubble/ams/cloak 'raid utility'.

[Gliff]

Don't forget that we can battle rez, one of only 3 classes and the only melee that can.

Feral Druids?

- - - Updated - - -

Please don't call bubble/ams/cloak 'raid utility'.

How is it not when it can be used to handle mechanics? 4th malice on H Garrosh anyone?

[Tojara]

Warrior. Skull banner, demo banner and rallying cry.

If DPS wasn't valued so highly I would put retribution as #1 for raid utility for melee, but they don't offer anything for DPS really.

Windwalker is the worst and then DKs.

[Refridge]

If we're speaking specifically to utility, then it's Enhance > Ret > Feral.
If we're addressing which melee's have the most USEFUL utility, then it's probably Ret > Enhance > Feral.

Enhance has crazy raid heals (I was sustaining 120k hps on Heroic Thok Progression), AoE stun, AoE slow, root, self heals, self dispell, Stormlash and Bloodlust. Enhance is also highly mobile.
Ret has Bubbles, Freedom, Devo (or whatever it's called now) stuns, off-heals.
Feral has stun, AoE heals, AoE root, AoE Slows, off-tanking ability.

[mmokri]

How is it not when it can be used to handle mechanics? 4th malice on H Garrosh anyone?

Haha I would call it 'garrosh utility'

[Deleted]

Haha I would call it 'garrosh utility'

Well that is your fault isn't it? Utility are abilities which are useful for the raid group. On fights with high burst damage (all of them?) and fights where something needs to be soaked bubble/ams/cloak are incredibly useful.

OT: It depends on the fight and the needs of your raid. Here is how I would rank the melee for overall usefulness.

1. Rogue has smokebomb and cloak. That is usefull for all fights and doesn't come at a cost like ferals immunities do. Also feint.
2. Paladins purely for their utility for Thok. Raid cooldown, tank cooldown, immunity and Hand of ___ abilities.
3. Feral has the most personal reduction cooldowns and can symbiosis and get another one. HotW tanking is a niche ability, and they have a raid cooldown plus spothealing. They are very fast too, which reduces the downsides of being a melee.
4. Warriors have raid cooldown(s) and some unique utility which can be very useful.
5. Death Knights have Gorefiend's Grasp which can be useful as well as death grip (which is useful on like two fights? Garrosh and Sha?). AMS is pretty strong for soaking, but on many of those fights it can be a dps loss to save it.
5. Enhancement healing cooldowns aren't always too useful, as this tier has some relatively lax healing requirements.
6. Windwalker is missing something. They have stuns like every melee, but no raid cooldown/immunity/unique stuff like HotW or gorefiend's.

[Beace]

It's tough to pick a single one, because a lot of melee classes are strong on raid utility depending on the encounter. A DK's Mass Grip for instance can be invalueable on a few fights, while pretty useless elsewhere.

Overall I'd have pick warriors though, because of their very strong raid CD's, that are of high use on every encounter.

[Dreyen]

Warriors have an absurd amount of raid cooldowns.

Vigilance, rallying cry, demoralizing banner, skull banner... potentially mocking banner but theres no situations where you could use that right now.

[Razecog]

potentially mocking banner but theres no situations where you could use that right now.

Galakras. Tank dies? Mocking banner + Die by the sword tank np.

[jasdasm]

ret & enh

Pala + Shaman were always the big Support Classes so they still have the most

[Deleted]

Galakras. Tank dies? Mocking banner + Die by the sword tank np.

Heroic Malk, It doesn't taunt raid bosses and you can suck up the adds from a quarter of the room for its duration, mouseover taunt another qaudrant and hl to snag some off another side, bstorm for the snare immunity when they are all hoovered up. yummy.

[Deleted]

Don't forget that we can battle rez, one of only 3 classes and the only melee that can.

more than 1 melee can..

[Vulgrym]

Raid utility is kind of a moot discussion since Blizzard went nuts handing out abilities, point being there is tons of redundancy now and you can plan raid CDs with some flexibility.

In terms of beneficial and unique utility? I'd say Rogues. I can think of multiple encounters this tier where they stood above the rest because of their overall toolset. AoE deathgrip is probably the biggest outlier that affects entire strategies but is still unique.

[Moozhe]

Warriors have the most consistent utility. Skull Banner, Demoralizing Banner, Rallying Cry, and Vigilance. These are basically all useful on every single fight in the game.

A lot of people forget about Vigilance, but a lot of bosses require tank CD rotations and they can be just as important as raid CDs.

Some other melee have unique utility that is great on some fights like Blessing of Protection and Gorefiend's Grasp. But on most fights they are useless.

[Paarthurnax]

Poor poor monks. Then again they will probably be tanking or healing anyways so not all is lost! =P

[Deleted]

The only support Rogue has is, that he needs nearly no healing and when played by a good player should basically never die.
Still rogue is the most wanted melee.

If you only take utility into account i would say Warrior:
-4% Physical DMG Debuff (still quite rare in 10man raids)
-Sunder Armor (also one of the rarer Debuffs if you don't have a Warrior or Feral Tank in 10man Raids)
-Skullbanner (having it or not having it makes a huge difference in 10man raids... 25man raids are happy about additional banners too)
-2 Raid-CDs (Demo-Banner -10% DMG and Rallying Cry +20% HP)
-Vigilance (-30% DMG... one of the stronger Singletarget CDs)
-Bladestorm (i count it as utility because it makes AoE-Situations so much easier) or Knockback (Dragons Roar)
-Ability to Offtank Adds by using Def-Stance and to even tank a raidboss for a short time with Def-Stance+Shield+Shieldwall
-2 Interrupts (Pummel+Shout)

[Deleted]

Our enhancement shaman is our assurance that we progress, since we two-healed everything but Shamans from the start. We only have 2-3 ranged, rest melees (10-man), so we have to take him instead of some warrior. Ancestral guidance is 10 seconds of full HP every two minutes and HTT is a nice little cooldown too. Warrior shouts have their place, but normally AG just does everything better.

Not to mention the passive buffs, heroism, survivabilty and insane damage output. But AG is probably the biggest reason to have an enhancement shaman.