Depends on what specialization you guys will go with, really.
Shaman have quite a lot of supportive abilities which are crazy together with warrior, that being Windfury, yes. Good offensive abilities too with all their Shock spells, as well as other good supportive totems.
Priests have a whole lot of good abilities. Good CC, healing, dispels. Priests are also always good assets for raiding because of their strong healing, and are always wanted.
I would say that Shamans are generally better suited for pvp while levelling and in end game. They have very offensive utility - big dmg, cc, mobility, hard offensive dispell and short cd counterspell at disposal. Priests do have shields, healing over time, mana burn and nice dmg but they are not mobile and can get crushed pretty fast if focused. Mind Control is just a trolling spell and not very useful. I would say that both are very good for this combination but Shamans are more flexible in general. Regarding raiding, both are in high demand as healers.
If I were to play Horde, I would definitely play shaman.
Your matey may want to diversify a bit later in the game - he could heal you well enough as enhance or ele for levelling and you’d both contribute a lot of damage that way! If I were you I’d suggest shammy :)
Priest. Go Shadow and you two will make quite a team on PvP. You'll still be able to heal in PvE up to 60.
Going to revise your list a little the way I see it:
Dispel versus Purge:
Sure, with dispel you get to dispel allies as well as enemies...but at a price. Dispel is 18% of base mana, whereas Purge is only 10%. Why is that? Well apparently when you look at Cleanse (8% - Paladin spell), priests get taxed by having both spells put together, except not really because Cleanse does a lot more. Ouch. Perhaps at 60 in good gear this doesn't matter so much, but it was super expensive for my leveling priest, even with it talented to reduce cost.
WotF:
The real benefit for a priest is that they're not facing WotF. WotF actually gets less use just because there are less warlocks on Alliance. On private servers there are PvE players who play warlock and PvP a little, but on an actual PvP server you're likely going to see even less than currently. Sure, there's priests and warriors, but both have a cd.
Mind Control:
Wouldn't call this a big deal. However, I loved Mind Vision (Rank 2) to find people. Really only good for LAN setups or WSG directions though due to the channeling nature.
Movement Speed:
Mostly just unfortunate that you can't take advantage of ghost wolf speed with the warrior, BUT, get a gathering prof and zoom ahead to get stuff without losing time.
Windfury Totem:
Very good synergy, and doesn't use up all your mana to buff him with it like casting Fortitude in a BG or rezzing onto people in wPvP.
Hardiness: (Assuming he plays orc, which he likely should if he enjoys the models at all.)
Very nice for getting hit by rogues, paladins, warrior charges, etc. which you likely will at some point.
Higher Armor Rating on Shaman:
Less of a tasty target for rogues, warriors, and hunters.
Just go for style - pick a Tauren shaman and let your buddy grab a Tauren warrior. Now imagine you two roaming the world like brothers, having each others back and sharing a laugh about wrecking some random dude with your four horns along the road. Native flute is singing harmonious tune. Sunset in the background. What an experience.
Really, just listen to the feels. Create a story together. Be an underdog, have a rough time. Min/maxing stuff is dry as a desert and is not the source of true "fun". :smile:
@Linguine Thank you. I really appreciate the effort that took. I think we're on the Shammy side of things now :lol:
You're welcome!
Here are a few more things I thought of:
Power Word: Shield:
While being horde makes this better because you won't be immediately purged/dispelled (Alliance has no shamans, less warlocks (felhunters), and in my experience, less priests), the warrior won't gain any rage while the bubble holds! However, if you're in an emergency situation, a bubble is instant and can be very clutch. If you added it to any of the healering classes besides priest it would be game breaking.
Slows:
Unless a priest is shadow, there is simply not any slowing going on. If you are shadow, that silence is killer and the slow is nice, but you're not healing so much. Frost Shock and Earthbind are both slows, and even have some range on them. What's more, every shaman gets them! Specced healing endgame? Not a problem. I am by no means an expert on endgame Shaman resto specs, but to my untrained eye it looks like there are plenty of points leftoever to give to Elemental, and plenty of synergy in the trees.
Priest is going to have a tug of war with its talent points whether you want those things or better heals/raidability.
Totems:
These things need to be experienced by someone first hand to know if you like them or hate them. If someone hates these things, they shouldn't play Shaman. This can be a huge dealbreaker for some people. I know they are to me.
Linguine Most of Warriors’ rage generation (some talents in prot give rage from blocks) comes from doing damage not taking damage so you can still generate rage with PW:S. Having a defensive dispel is probably the biggest factor for a PvP Warrior, slows/roots will be the bane of your existence; staying within melee range of your target is crucial.
On the note of only being able to pick one to accompany you:
Paladin > Priest > Shaman
Not to say that I think Shaman is bad or anything, WF is nice for sure and mail armor with their tool kit is great but Priest compliments Warrior better from the pocket heal perspective.
For leveling, Priest spec’d correctly has little to no downtime so Priest/Warrior can level quite efficiently.
@Linguine Most of Warriors’ rage generation (some talents in prot give rage from blocks) comes from doing damage not taking damage so you can still generate rage with PW:S. Having a defensive dispel is probably the biggest factor for a PvP Warrior, slows/roots will be the bane of your existence; staying within melee range of your target is crucial.
On the note of only being able to pick one to accompany you:
Paladin > Priest > Shaman
Not to say that I think Shaman is bad or anything, WF is nice for sure and mail armor with their tool kit is great but Priest compliments Warrior better from the pocket heal perspective.
For leveling, Priest spec’d correctly has little to no downtime so Priest/Warrior can level quite efficiently.
Oh right, I have not played a warrior past 49, but rage generation has the same amount of rage gained per damage no matter what level, so at 60 they’re a lot less rage starved, correct?
Edensong Jpy brings up some good points here but it made me think what is your friend looking for? Complete synergy with you or a char he’ll be playing alone sometimes? You touched on playing together a lot, but how extreme on the spectrum of togetherness is it?
Linguine upon further research it seems you still gain rage from damage taken if it’s absorbed/parried/blocked/dodged so PW:S being active won’t mitigate rage generation from damage taken either.
TLDR; Priest won’t hinder your rage generation unless it’s an opposing Priest.
The formulae for rage generation for both damage taken and damage done is pretty ridiculous so I won’t comment on that, many variables involved.
@Linguine upon further research it seems you still gain rage from damage taken if it’s absorbed/parried/blocked/dodged so PW:S being active won’t mitigate rage generation from damage taken either.
TLDR; Priest won’t hinder your rage generation unless it’s an opposing Priest.
The formulae for rage generation for both damage taken and damage done is pretty ridiculous so I won’t comment on that, many variables involved.
That's very strange. I kept getting told in dungeons not to bubble the warrior because he wasn't gaining any rage. Newbs, I guess? Thanks for clearing that up for me.
From what I know, you don't generate any rage for taking dmg to the shield on you.
This is from vanilla-wow.fandom’s wiki:
Attacks that are blocked, parried, or absorbed (as with Power Word: Shield) also generate rage.
But all comments I’ve seen from googling seem to be in line with rage not being generated through damage absorbed from PW:S. I haven’t personally leveled Warrior above 20 on classic so I can’t confirm. With that said, I still think sticking to your target is priority #1 for PvP as a Warrior and as such I’d value Priest above Shaman if I had to choose one, for PvP in particular.
I am not sure how it was on retail vanilla or how it will be on Classic but regarding private servers, it always was the way I said. You generate rage only based on the dmg dealt to your health pool. This is in my opinion the neccessary downside to the PW:S otherwise you would have it on cd all the time.
There are many interesting mechanics regarding threat in vanilla. Such as the resource generation connected to the threat. For example bloodrage which sacrafices portion of your health to give you rage. Each point of rage gained will also increase threat generated, so using this ability right after you pull (with ranged) will result in additional opening threat gain. This also includes any bonus rage generation such as the talent Unbridled Wrath, Anger Management, t1 set bonus etc.
Damn I wanna play a Warrior now...