5 classes in a 5-box?

[Xanthos]

So, I've been reading these forums for a couple days, and I've been kicking the idea of 5-boxing around, not so much for the experience itself (though, I could easily be pleseantly surprised), but as a means to an end. Namely, to have 70s of each class, without having to do the same grind 9 times

So, currently I have an Alliance warrior and priest at 70, but I've switched to Horde to join my co-workers and I'm currently working on getting my lock to 70.

In my mind I was considering a prot paladin/healing priest/fire mage/ele shaman/(either MM hunter or boomkin druid), and I was wondering how viable it is to have so many disparate classes. I wouldn't be able to spam just one button like you can with the paladin/shamanx4 setup, but with an x-keys Pro setup, is this doable, or would I be in way over my head?

[Kyudo]

Seeing as you are just starting out, I'd be pretty cautious about attempting right from the start to multibox so many chars.

There are so many things to consider with so many classes:

-Cast times
-Aggro
-Mana efficiency
-Synergy (e.g. Curse of the elements from lock for mage, or curse of shadows for a shadow priest?)
- Some pretty complex keybinding/macro creation

From personal experience, I started out with a Druid, Shammy and 2x Lock. After boosting them to 25 or so I tried them out solo in various instances and it went ok. I had three basic functions to worry about, Tanking (manually controlled), Heals (basic F1-F8 macros), and DPS, simple dot cyles on Locks.

Since then I've been running a new 4 man shammy team and it's simply easier and more efficient. I'll most likely incorporate elements of my old team or pre-existing 70s at some point, but the learning curve is still fairly steep, but I'm getting there.

However, with 5 chars the whole setup is liable to be pretty complex, it'd be worth studying which spell casts time well with eachother given the right investment in talents.

My advice, give it a try, but you'll probably have less frustrations building it up as you go. E.g. try 2x1 class and 1x another to start with, play them to 20 and see how it feels. If it's going smooth, add another etc.


So far, I've yet to see much evidence of people effectively running 5 boxes with 5 chars in tough circumstances. The closest I've come across is Skarlot here on these forums, take a look at:

Skarlot in Shadowlabs: http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums2/viewtopic.php?t=2193

However I'm pretty sure that has taken some serious practice to get to that stage.

Good luck,

cheers

Ky

EDIT: It also depends on your aspirations, you could easily 5 box various char classes, at about 60% efficiency with not much effort at all. E.g. Questing, grinding: Priest Smites, Druid Wraths, Mage Fireballs, Warlock SB's, Shaman Lighting bolts, Warrior tanks. You still kick out a hell of a lot of DPS, but it'd be neither exciting nor challenging really, but you'd get to 70 in the end.

If you wanna pvp, forget it. and if you wanna do Pve instancing at high levels, be prepared to do a lot of planning and practicing.

[thinus]

So, I've been reading these forums for a couple days, and I've been kicking the idea of 5-boxing around, not so much for the experience itself (though, I could easily be pleseantly surprised), but as a means to an end. Namely, to have 70s of each class, without having to do the same grind 9 times

If you don't relish the challenge of macroing 5 characters to work together and soloing 5-man instances then I wouldn't 5-box if I were you.

You probably spend more time just getting things set up than you actually spend time playing when you start boxing. You also need to learn about each class, you don't just drag spells onto the hotbars and continuously press a button and BAM! you are level 70. You need to understand how and where to use spells/skills and you must be motivated to run instances. In a 5-man group your xp gain is much much slower than solo but you can't solo instances.

[Skuggomann]

get clases that compliment each oters

pally
Fire mage/Sp (for mana)
Fire mage
Destro lock
Shammy/Fire mage


This is for pve that is and its guaranteed maaasive dmg and easy CC

[kayb]

I'm boxing 5 different classes right now. It's a great challenge for sure, but you also get great rewards. Couple of bonuses in my group.

4 different damage types: Nature, Frost, Shadow, Holy. Good for mobs like the voidwalkers in Arcatraz, any kind of elemental, etc. No real option for empowering dps by ie. curses, but I must say I would probably not have used curses on anything but bosses. Bosses are the most important mobs, but I feel the synergies from having different classes far outweigh the 10% extra damage from a curse.

Soulstone, Anhk, Divine Intervention are pretty nice to have.

Totems, PW:F, AI, Spirit, imp buff, blessings, PW:S, Earth Elemental, Heroism, Pom, spellsteal, 2x aoe fear, nova and the list goes on and on.

The great thing about 5 different classes is that I have so huge amount of options. Tons of different strategies I can use on bosses. The bad thing is naturally that it's pretty difficult and micro intensive, and will probably take anyone a couple of months to become good at. But leveling 1-70 could take a month or two, so one has plenty of time to practice.

[kalih]

It can be done but you need to do it because you want the challenge and you want to have the maximum effective PvE group.

I run with 4 different classes and it's not that hard to treat a destruct warlock as a third mage.

There are definitely times I -wish- my second mage was a shaman.

If your goal was to get 9 diff classes to level 70 in the least amount of time possible, this is probably a bad way to do it. A better way would be take your level 70 and powerlevel 4, and repeat as necessary.

[perenor]

If you're not going to do it for the point of boxing in of itself then I can see it tiring really quickly.

There's also the aspect of the money side of things. If you just 1 of each class, do you really want 5 accounts to do this? Granted, once they get to a level you want to solo them on, it's available to move them all to 1 account to save whatever per month.

However, depending on how you plan to box all 5. Different computers (one for each) or what?

Granted many people that get into boxing have the resources to pay for it, and I'm not doubting if you do or not.

I'd like to have 1 of each class myself, but I wouldn't go buy 5 - 9 accounts to do it, just to eventaully move them all onto 1 account. Even if I had the money to do it.

I just run 2 toons at a time on 1 PC. In a few months I'll be *able* to run a 3rd after some upgrades, but I don't think I'll really do it. $45 a month for me to play WoW is a bit much for my taste at the moment, seeing as boxing is something I'm doing on the side.

[MortimerDuke]

I run 5 different classes on my 1 comp:
Paladin Priest Mage Warlock Shaman

I was going to not have the Shaman and have a second mage, but I don't regret that all.

I couldn't wait to get to RFC, because all I really wanted to do was instance whore. Every instance brings a new challenge, a new keybind for a new macro. But at the end of the day, that's what this challenge is all about. Overcoming problems. The first 4 pull in RFC was just huge amounts of fail: Revealing fail. Macros I didnt think of, bad macros, lack of keybinds and all the other stuff that mean certain doom for someone playing multiple characters.

The best piece of advice I can give to try to iron out all the little wrinkles: Reduce little problems. Those little problems add up very quick, and when you are annoyed by or futzing around with little crap you may not then have time and energy to micro when the proverbial shit hits the proverbial fan. Sometimes I'm just to lazy to make a dispel macro and will just manually move the mouse of to the priest's screen to handle that, or will do AI buffing by hitting F1-Ai, F2-Ai, etc. That kinda of stuff wears one down quickly.
The big problems are obvious: Forgetting to make a macro for nukes. Or follow. However it is the small things that make the experience that much more enjoyable. Every new instance, every new boss all end up forcing me to expand my set of macros and ability to manage and juggle shit. Though like running an instance normally as a real group, after the first time you learn a lot so that it quickly becomes farm mode.

I've been done this for a couple hours a day for about a week and half now, and only find myself and my group getting stronger. The learning curve may be a bit higher, but its just something to be accustomed to.


At least in my group, the nukes tend to line up quite nice. On the easy mobs I have a pure nuke button so everyone spams their 2s spell. On harder stuff, I have castsequences setup so fire blasts, shocks, curses, corruption, etc are all being used. And similar macros of the formers, but sans the priest attacking. I'd say 90% of the stuff I fight is just one button spamming though.

[d0z3rr]

I 4 boxed 4 different classes - druid, priest, lock, mage. There are 3 casters and one tank, so it's actually pretty easy. But for the first couple hours it was very frustrating, and we still wiped in scarlet monastery on easy pulls.

After a couple days though I got used to it, and SM was a breeze. The buffs are insane, all of them get a crapload of stamina when fully buffed.

But I recently ditched them for a much easier 4x hunter setup. I'm actually having more fun with 4 hunters. :\

[marvein]

But I recently ditched them for a much easier 4x hunter setup. I'm actually having more fun with 4 hunters. :\

Something about a multi-mutlishot just makes me smile from ear to ear.

pre tbc and such I did a 15man LBRS hunter run.. it was a blast