Team Zaj - 5box - PVE - Mixed class group

[lacitpo]

Wanted to introduce my new 5 man group. I plan on posting some updates here as well as some more detailed posts on the blog I set up for them.

The Team

• Paladin - Tank (to be rolled)
• Druid - Healer (to be rolled)
• Hunter - DPS (to be rolled)
• Priest - DPS (lvl 12)
• Warlock - DPS (lvl 12)

This is a clone of a previous team I got up to around level 64 before quitting the game and selling all my game accounts (sorry bout the TOS violation).

Reasons for my class choices are as follows

• These are the 5 classes I enjoy most in the game.
• Provides me with 2 cloth, 1 leather, 1 chain, and 1 plate making gear distribution much more efficient
• Priest and Warlock compliment each other well
• Hunter provides sustained DPS in fights where mana may become an issue.
• Lots of 'Oh Shit' and wipe protection options. (Divine Intervention, Soul Stone, Battle Rez)
• Duel Spec gives me some extreme variety since Druid can become tank, paladin can become healer, Priest can become healer.

Goals

1. This team is designed to be a fun PVE team. I've never been keen on PVP and don't think my position on that will change.
2. Explore solid group synergy through proper talenting and initial class selection
3. Run 5-man normal and heroic instances
4. Possibly find a way to participate in raid instances at lvl 80/85 but this is a long ways off for me.

Hardware Setup

Currently 2-boxing on a Macbook Pro upgraded to 4gb of ram. This will do fine for 3boxing and can handle 4boxing but things start breaking down at 5boxing. I'm purchasing a 27 inch quadcore iMac next week that will likely be my main boxing hardware.

Software Setup

I'm using Plexer which was well worth my $25. When I get my iMac I will likely experiment with using Synergy to broadcast keystrokes to both my macbook pro and my imac both running Plexer.

Leveling

I'm using RAF bonus and the community constructed multiboxer Tourguide profiel to level my toons. I've spent one night with them so far and have my Priest and Warlock sitting at lvl 12.

Whats to come?

In the coming weeks I plan on posting some followup with the following

• Detailed information on my 'sticky' targeting system I use. Allows my main assist to cycle targets however he wants while my DPS continues to DPS a single mob.
• Detailed macro breakdowns on each class by level. Well constructed macros with castsequences designed to maximize DPS vs elite and boss mobs, ideal for running instances.
• Some UI information. Addons I use and UI layout tips.
• Other crap.

Stay tuned.

[gitcho]

lol - i love it dude - you're just like me - you analyze things like crazy before you jumping in. I've been boxing for over a year now, and started with a pally, priest, 3xmage. I then levelled a 5x priest team to 80, then a 5x shaman team to 80, and i'm now at lvl 74 with my 5x druids. Given that your stated goals are mostly PVE, I think you are making a good choice. I am swapping my original team memebrs out to go with a fully mixed comp for PVE and raiding (pally, priest, mage, shaman, druid). The only thing I could recommend would be a shaman, as the DPS buffs you get from totems are huge (+280 sp for everyone, +haste, +crit etc).

I made this decision to drop 2 of my heroic mages for a shaman and druid, almost solely on the information I found on this site : http://raidcomp.mmo-champion.com/

[Coltimar]

Identical to my second team except that my druid is boomkin and my priest is disc. One limitation that I have found is that it's difficult to get the hunter to match the dps of your lock/drood :/ I went from Survival to BM for the ease of dps management but as my hunter's gear improves his dps isn't really scaling the way I would like.

I would still recommend it and I've decided to keep him because it fun to have him in there and I have something to do with all that dps gear that drops!

Have fun!

[lacitpo]

RE: Hunter DPS

I experienced the same thing. My hunter's DPS lagged well behind that of my Priest and Warlock. I think this was partially due to poorly constructed macros but equally just a limitation on multiboxing the hunter class. Despite this, having the pet as a free offtank, someone to give the chainmail gear to, and just plain enjoying having a hunter, I find I enjoy having him as my 5th team-member, even if he is a bit disfunctional.

[lacitpo]

Team is as follows.

Paladin - Protection (unrolled)
Druid - Resto (lvl 21)
Priest - Shadow (lvl 21)
Warlock - Destro (lvl 21)
Hunter - ?? (unrolled)

Been leveling with a friend and he is playing a paladin so for now I don't have a tank of my own. I'll probably bring the paladin and the hunter up together sometime in the coming weeks.

I brought my group of 3 together for the first time at lvl 12 without much trouble. There isn't a lot of need for much more than a nuke macro when you are questing with a 4 man team. Mobs die fast and mostly it's just a struggle to keep your mana up.

Also, with the RAF bonus, the team is starved for gold. I'm getting enough to train essentials but it will be nice when I'm no longer so poor.

Some points of interest

1 - Addons are key. Going to be looking around for something to handle automated buffing. I've been out of the wow scene for a while and don't know what's best anymore. Suggestions are welcome.

2 - Healers are useless outside instances. I already knew this but my playtime tonight confirmed it. I also wasn't able to quickly get the new auto-interact macro stuff to work to get my druid to engage mobs automatically in beast form. Wasn't a big deal but it would be a nice thing to have.

3 - There are ways to minimize it but.. Avery couple of levels, especially at the landmark levels 20/30/40, expect to spend some time in the city. Training, Talenting, Itemizing, and revamping macros takes time. Since I've done this some in the past, I was able to do what might have been an hour worth of work in 20-30 minutes.

It's pretty late and I'm tired. Going to put up current macros tomorrow and update the blog with some more detailed info. Instance notes coming in a few more days maybe.

[vorticone]

I like mixed teams, leveling up one myself at the moment (and it is my first team).

Anyways, for your buff addon I would recommend SmartBuff. I use that on my team and with a single broadcasted key I have all toons cast all their buffs. Just spam that key till all say "Nothing to do."

[lacitpo]

Just got done configuring ZOMGBuffs from wowace. I think I remember using smartbuff on my previous team now that you mention it. Same type of setup. Spam a key and it buffs everyone.

[Sethra]

I'll make a suggestion here.

I know you like hunters and all, but I really think you ought to add a mage instead, especially since you haven't rolled it yet.

Hunters requre more babysitting than other classes. Gotta keep them full on ammo, gotta keep feeding your stupid hungry pet, and gotta make sure your pet doesn't aggro a whole room when your team jumps off a ledge and your pet walks down the long way past a few packs of elites.

Mages feed your group free food and water, and once you hit level 40 your group gains a ton of mobility with the portal spells, so you're never a slave to your hearthstones again.

[Khatovar]

I haven't had hunter problems like that since Maraudon was the place to be.

Ammo stacks to 1000. I went through 2 stacks of bars 2 weeks ago to make [item=41165]Saronite Razorheads[/item] and I don't expect to need more for several more weeks.

Pets all have talents one way or another to gain happiness from attacking, the only time I have to feed my pet is if I've left my toons standing in town for 2 hours while I do nothing in particular.

Ledges? Dismiss Pet , Eyes of the Beast and Stay have been in game forever.

As a matter of fact, my hunter is the toon that requires the least attention. She has nothing special she has to do, no procs to manage, and comes with the ability to CC, boost my aggro with Misdirection, "purge" mobs with Tranquilizing Shot, can offtank and continues to DPS on the move.

It's all well and good if you want to offer the benefits of a certain class, but don't overblow the "problems" with another class to do it. I might have agreed with you if our endgame was still Dire Maul, but it's not.

[lacitpo]

I'm toying with a couple of options. Here's my current team status.

Paladin - tank (unrolled)
Druid - resto (lvl 30)
Priest - shadow (lvl 30)
Warlock - destro (lvl 30)
???? - dps (unrolled)

I've been toying with a few things. I am really inclined towards a hunter or a shaman simply because of the gear distribution. Having a chain wearer means more drops are useful to me. In the end I'll end up going with what I like and that's what's important to me but I'm doing some pro's and cons type stuff. The shaman has begun to look more appealing to me but we'll see. About 1-2 weeks before I roll my last 2 toons so I have time to decide.

That said, I began a 3 mage team for funsies last night and was spoiled by the simplicity. Some of my thoughts.

• OMG, so much damage
• Free water is amazing
• 3 Mages is soooooo simple compared to every team i've ever rolled.

I'm afraid I spoiled myself.....

New on the Blog

Level 20 impressions, including priest and warlock macro breakdown
Hastily written article on what i've termed my 'sticky targeting' system for slave targeting.

Hope you enjoy.