(draft) Class Selection FAQ

[kalih]

Hey guys. I slapped this together because this seems to be among the most common questions we get on this forum and hopefully this can and will help people out who are coming by for the first time.

If someone could give me a more substantial section on PVP, that would be great.

If I missed any common setups and/or missed a major aspect of some class, let me know.

Hopefully after a round of feedback, we can sticky this either here or in the beginner's haven.

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Class Selection FAQ

The purpose of this FAQ is to explain some of the concepts above and beyond normal class selection that factor into selection of classes for multiboxing. This FAQ represents the current conventional wisdom of multiboxers (conventional wisdom can and will change.. if you really think a combination can work, try it). I will cover both using a class as a main versus an alt, as well as specs.

Some rules of thumb:

1) Melee characters are best used as your main
2) Melee characters as alts are at best painful (and at worst, a horrible idea)
3) More classes usually means less optimal usage but more coverage of needed abilities
4) PVE setups tend toward more varied groups because encounters can be planned to maximize your different classes
5) PVP setups tend towards more homogenized groups because it's easiest to use 1 or 2 classes to their full potential.

One Boxing

Play a Night Elf Hunter. Roll on Magtheridon. Find and attack members of the zerg!

Dual/Tri-Boxing

ANY GROUP WILL WORK! As a duo or a trio, you won't really be running instances, just using the group to minimize downtime and plow through quests. Every class can solo to 70 so every pair or threesome of classes can get to 70 in the same way. PLAY WHAT YOU WANT.

Just choose classes for your alts that are easily macroable (see class overview) and you'll have little problem making a highly effective group. Normal class synergy applies. There are so many combinations that would be effective that it'd be silly to name them all. Just stay away from difficult-to-macro alts and you'll be fine. Here are some of the general tips:

1) Have at most one melee class, make it your main
2) Choose classes that will help minimize downtime (ie if you want a warrior main, choose a shaman over a warlock as a partner)
3) Choose classes that have good synnergy (rogue/druid has great synnergy. Mage/Warlock.. not so much)
4) In my opinion, when in doubt, shaman are awesome. You get ankh and rez!

Quad Boxing

Why aren't you 5-boxing? If the answer was "because I want to fill up the last slot with another player to make my group as good as possible" then you probably already know what you are doing and don't need this guide. In any case, almost all of the below advice applies to you.

5-Boxing

THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION: PVE OR PVP?

What this question really boils down to is more like this: do you want to be a good team for general PVP/arenas/BGs or do you want to run heroics and be able to beat every boss in every instance along the way?

There really are two different subgroups of boxers... many (like me) seem to enjoy beating all the 5-man content in the game at the right level, and others (like xzin) who want to melt peoples faces. Which group are you in? If you want a single group that can do both as best as can reasonably be expected, I suggest going with a PVE group and choosing a Druid as your tank because that way you can spec him into balance or resto for PVP.

PVP setups are almost universally setup as a group consisting of 5 of the same class, or 4 dps-alts of the same class and a differing main char as support. The reason is quite simple.. in PVP there is little time for planning and you need to extract the maximum out of each character to do well. More classes = more difficult to use to maximum effect. Playing 5x a single class is sorta like playing 1 character with 5x damage. It's much more effecient.

PVE setups are almost universally setup as a trinity group of a tank (as main), a healer, and 3x dps. PVE groups tend to have at least 3 classes, and often 4 (and potentially 5). This is because the added breadth of extra classes can be taken advantage of by pre-planning complicated or difficult encounters. The ability to plan your strategy ahead of time allows you take advantage of the extra classes. PVE group should -always- have the tank as the central character.


An Overview of the Classes from a PVE Multiboxer perspective

Tanks (CHOOSE ONE. MAKE IT YOUR MAIN)

1. Paladin - Almost universally considered the best 5-man tank in the game, and the best multiboxer tank. Really covers up for the general weaknesses of multiboxers. It's low maintence, requires little micro, and holds agro on tons of mobs easily so you don't have to concentrate too hard on adds.
2. Druid - Often considered a close second for tanking a PVE multibox group. You have semi-AOE tanking abilities but you bring -alot- of flexibility to the table. You can spec-switch to resto and become a pretty decent pvp group!
3. Warrior - Generally seen as too micro intensive and their weaknesses (many-mobs at once) coincide with fatal conditions for multiboxers. If you like and/or are an experienced warrior, don't be too afraid, there are many successful multiboxer PVE groups that use warriors as tanks.

4. EVERYONE ELSE - If you want to tank heroics, go with one of the above three. Yes, some people can do some things with other group makeups, but the above three are the only reliable way to -tank- heroics.

Healer (CHOOSE ONE. MAKE IT AN ALT. HARD TO GO WRONG)

Priest - Probably the most popular choice because of their excellent AOE healing. This is incredibly useful for AOEing alts and generally cleaning up huge messes you've made on bad pulls. Also a spirit buff and fort!

Shaman - Mana totems and healing totems are yummy. Decent AOE heal makes them a good choice, as well.Tremor totems can make certain encounters infinitely more workable. And they are good healers. And ankh! Probably the second most popular main healer for PvE groups.

Druid -They are great healers and provide a ton of utility. The only problem: 30-min battle-rez. You -need- another member of the party that can rez if you want a druid as main healer. Either paladin maintank or dps-shaman.

Paladin - They are awesome single target healers so they'll work great healing your main when everything is going right. Total lack of AOE heal can be painful, though. I strongly suggest a prot paladin main, though because AOE tanking will help offset the need for AOE healing. Least popular.

DPS (CHOOSE THREE.)
Top Tier
Mage - CC. AOE. Nuking. Teleports. Water. Easily macroable. Pretty much perfect, huh?
Warlock - Decent CC. AOE. Decent Nuking. Pets. Summoning. Soulstone. Stam buff. Easily macroable. DOTS! Still pretty perfect, huh?
Hunter - Decent CC. Decent AOE. Good dps. Pets. SPEED BUFF (heh). They aren't as popular likely because they've only recently become usable (2.3 removing deadzone). They are probably as viable as the above.

Level 2
Priest - En masse priests are better dps than alone. Holy nuke priests and/or VE shadow priests if you have a bunch can be effective.
Moonkin Druid - Totally underrated in my book. Decent CC. Great DPS. Need to drink so you'll need a mage. Uses leather so less wasted drops.
Ele Shaman - Similar to moonkin

Advanced usage only!
Rogue - Would make some encounters insanely easy. Others would be impossible. Difficult to use.
Warrior/Paladin/Feral-Druid - Difficult to use, no reason to not use a rogue instead.


Most common setups:
Tank/Priest/Some-Mix-of-Locks-and/or-Mages
Tank/Priestx4 (holy-nuke or shadow)

Paladin is the most common tank. Shaman subbing in for priest is also fairly common.

An Overview of the Classes from a PVP Multiboxer perspective

There's really only two types of successful PVP setups:

CLASS x 5 (shaman is, by far, the most common, probably followed by druid)
-and-
HEALER, DPS x 4 (priest as healer is, by far, the most common, with either mage or warlock as the dps)

A 3-class PVP team would be difficult but not entirely impossible. If you are thinking of going this route, it's probably wise to post your thoughts on the forums and get some feedback.

Most common setups:
Priest/Lockx4
Priest/Magex4
Shamanx5

10-boxing

Well. Welcome to the big leagues, huh? I don't have advice at this level. I don't think you are gonna run Kara solo so you probably aren't interested in PVE. If you are, more power to you. You get a boss down, I'll buy you a twelve pack.

As for PVP, mass anything and let me watch the videos. Please


FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What would make a good N-box combo?

See above!

Which should be my main....?

See above!

If I want to have a N as my main, what would be good alt(s) to go with him?

See above!

Can warlock-pets/shaman/hunter-pets/chuck-norris tank heroics?

See above!

What do most multiboxers think of class X?

See above!

[Kyudo]

Really great summary, I'll give it another read and edit for extra comments later.

My 1st thought is to concur totally that pvping with multiple classes is tricky to say the least. Haven't mentioned it b4 (as it was pretty embarassing) but even fully twinked, my team of feral druid, resto shaman and 2x affliction locks got thorougly pwned. PvP is too fast moving and with so little time to plan, and non synchronised spell casts, you will not last long.

I'd also perhaps rank shamans (if grouped 2+) as slightly higher ranged DPS potential. Given that so many of the abilities/totems can stack.

EDIT: I also thought it might be nice to link some example videos of popular combos in action, so people can get a flavour.

EDIT2: Although its only semi-related, I'd advise all players to make their main not only their tank, but their main gatherer (but explain about the skinning macro).

[Zoroaster]

I don't understand why so many people are set on the tank/healer/lock/2xmage team. CoE is nice and all, but I don't really see a huge advantage to the warlock besides making your 5-man team even more complex to control, I prefer a shaman healer for totems and then you don't miss out on the benefits of SS.

If I didn't have a very well geared warrior to begin with I would have gone with a pally tank for sure. Already had a shaman whom I raid with, so just made 3x mages, almost 44!

Good starters guide though, especially about the melee sucking as non-mains. Positioning for melee is a huge pain, and I don't really see a multiple melee team doing so hot.

[dniem]

Great guide, should answer alot of questions for new people.

[Xzin]

Looking good so far!

At some point we should combine all of these guides (my guide, macros, classes, software boxing, etc) into an ebook.

[Wilbur]

I disagree.

Resto Druids are probably at least #2 on the healers list.

Their ressurection spell is probably the most useful.

If you have a Paladin MT in your group, why *wouldnt* you take a Resto druid healer?

Combat res paladin, lolbloom, bubble, wipe, paladin can then rez everyone.

Druids are vastly under-rated by PvE Multiboxers in my opinion, I'll let you know how my 5 Druid teams gets on ;-)

[kalih]

I don't understand why so many people are set on the tank/healer/lock/2xmage team. CoE is nice and all, but I don't really see a huge advantage to the warlock besides making your 5-man team even more complex to control, I prefer a shaman healer for totems and then
you don't miss out on the benefits of SS.

But you've lost some aoe healing.

Also, I disagree that it makes it more complicated to control. It just makes developing good macros more complicated, but in the end, it controls exactly the same way. Even with casting CoE on every mob, my warlock, with his pet, is often right with my mages in terms of damage output. So what have you lost? Macro development time?

What did you get in return for that lost macro development time? Soulstone (which I admit isn't as valuable if you have a shaman healer), a stam buff (which is huge), banish, CoE and summon.

Now, all that being said, this isn't really about what is the -best- combo as much as it is about what people are playing. There's certainly no reason 3x mages won't work. I'm sure that it will. It will definitely be simpler to setup .

[kalih]

I disagree.

Resto Druids are probably at least #2 on the healers list.

Their ressurection spell is probably the most useful.

If you have a Paladin MT in your group, why *wouldnt* you take a Resto druid healer?

Because prot paladins can only res one or two people before needing to drink? Heh.

I did sort of mention that druids are low only because they aren't primary rezers but they'd be higher if you had a rezer in the group :P

I think ranking the healers was a bad idea. I might undo the rankings. I think you can make a reasonably strong argument for any of them, honestly, even paladin.

Druids are vastly under-rated by PvE Multiboxers in my opinion, I'll let you know how my 5 Druid teams gets on ;-)

I couldn't agree more. I think my pro-druid bias shows in my guide, even. When you look at the zerg's class breakdown, the lack of druids is really surprising to me.

[simpletom]

great guide even after playing around with different combos this still makes me thing that there is so so much more

great job mate

[Jaws5]

Great effort.

I would maybe add the not so common setups

For PVP 1 shadow priest and 4 aff locks are sooo fun. this same grp can also do well at some pve content, 3 buffed voids (talents) do well enough to hold boss for 30-50s until you burn him down. does not work well for Heroics though, but you can't have it all. the undead raical is just tooo good for pvp.

for PVE undead grp war Holy priest and 3 mages or lock is also very good.

anyways good work