5 different classes: some questions

[Piecemaker]

i just started my new multiboxing group, been thinking about the setup for a week, and this is what i've come up with:
prot paladin
shadow priest
mage
balance druid
resto shaman

purely PVE offcourse
main reason for this setup: lots of buffs!
any comments or suggestions on this setup?

the paladin, priest and mage are blood elves, the druid and shaman are taurens.
now how would i start leveling them?
all together in the same area? i was thinking of bringing the druid and shaman over to the blood elf area, but there aren't any trainers there, and they can't do the class specific quests
what about leveling them all in the orc starting area? Orgri has all the trainers right?
or should i split them up and level the races in their own area? and at what level should they merge?

[lacitpo]

SO glad I read your post because I hadn't thought about the lack of trainers in certain areas. I'm planning a 5 class group (Paladin, Druid, Priest, Warlock, Hunter) and would love to know someone's advice on those first levels. Recommendations on the best way to start them off?

I really don't wanna do 1-10 on all 5 toons separately but if it must be done it must be done.

[Wilbur]

Good luck guys. All the micro-management will be insane. You'll have quicker fingering than a concert pianist once you've mastered 5 chars.

[Meeo]

In terms of response and key combinations, i use and xkeys pro and 128 and i would still find it hard to do a setup like this. So many different combinations for available abilities, timing them together and getting them assocated to the right keys would be very impressive.

[Marathon]

I love the idea of having 5 different classes. But ....



All the micro-management will be insane

Keeps me playing my shammies :thumbsup:

[blast3r]

I find it a pain in the butt to keep up with one class and one race. I can only imagine how hard it would be to do with this setup. I don't know about the Priest or Mage but the others will have their own Class quests and I assure you they will be a pain in the butt. The Shaman totem quests suck. The druid quests below 20 are horrible as well.

I guess if you are more concerned about the endgame experience and realize the pain that will be involved you are a tougher person than me!

To your point, though. I always hit most of the starting areas myself anyways. With Horde it is easy to get to all the starting areas (unlike Alliance!). I would just pick one starting area and move your toons there. Do the quests needed then go to the next one and start over. It will take a while but I imagine it will actually help you get to level 10 faster than focusing on one area. I always move my toons to each starting location (except for Tauren area because I hate it) and do those quests. Then I bounce around in the same fashion as I level up.

[lacitpo]

Have not done this in practice yet but....

Using an Xkeys pro and an Ideazon Fang as my hardware setup.

I've got a killer focus/targeting setup that I think is going to be extremely effective and very automated with little need for micromanagement.

My main will be my tank, with 4 slaves (druid healer, priest/warlock/hunter as dps). Almost all abilities will be cast via macros.

Healer Target Priority: Focus-target-target, Focus-target, Focus
Tank Target Priority: Focus, target
DPS Target Priority: Party2-target (healer target which will be same as healer focus), Party1-target (which will be tank's target)

DPS focus will be reserved for crowd control situations with all crowd control abilities cast via a macro auto targeting their focus. All the DPS's Damage abilities will be targeted towards the targets listed above in that priority, and cast via a spam-able castsequence macro. With well made castsequence macros, it DPS should be good, though not perfect.

In normal, non-instance mode, all characters will have my main as their focus. When my main aquires a target, I spam my DPS macros and my tank tanks, my healer heals, and my DPS dps all on their correct targets without the need to pass any targets manually to my slaves or anything like that.

In instances, my paladin will AOE tank of course. I'll have a single key that passes a target from my main to my healer's focus. All my DPS will be set to DPS the healer-focus and so during combat, I AOE tank on paladin, and pass DPS targets to my healer as the previous one is DPS'd down. My healer autmatically heals the correct targets since at all times heals should be landing on whichever of my characters the DPStarget is targeting. Plan to have a backup key that drops heals on my tank as well assuming my targets get split.

Most abilities that require indepenent targeting such as silence will be bound to cast to my tank's target and have their own key on the xkeys pro. Although passing targets can be frustrating, I think it will be kind of like playing 1 character with 5 classes ablities and a fucked up sense of global cooldowns. I know it won't be prefect, but the challenge is fun to me. I still have some streamlining to do with my setup but I'm planning to blog my journey and document my macro's, layout, and process so that others can use the information to make their multiboxing lives easier.

[lacitpo]

Oh, and I'd love to hear from someone who's actually done this.

[DarkslayrX]

My current group is Pally (67/Prot), Priest (67/Holy), Druid (67/Balance), Shammy(70) and Mage (70/Fire).

I had been running my mage (70) as my main before I stumbled on boxing.

I started with dual-boxing (shammy + druid) and had a blast. Like many before, dual-boxing lead to quin-boxing.

Once I started quin-boxing, I began leveling the 4 drones (pally+druid+priest+shammy) switching between boosting from the mage (which gets boring) and questing (without the mage in the group). As the team was different levels, I did this until each char reached 58 (when a char hit 58, it was left out of the group - building rest xp).

Once they were all 58, I started into outlands again questing (without mage) and running ramps, etc. (with mage). The shammy hit 70 ahead of the rest given rest xp (I also wanted a melee dps to run with my mage for dailies, so shammy as enhancement got some extra tlc). I hope to finish getting the rest of the group to 70 in next few weeks.

Setup - some people have said it takes crazy micro-management to run such i diverse team. I do not feel that is the case.

When in a full 5man group - pally is the main using the standard action bar (1 to = and the occasional mouse click). I use "A" to assist pally on the 3 ranged dps (mage, druid and shammy) and "s" to cast. I use F1 to F5 to heal, with F6 as an AoE heal. So basically, i have three main things to think about. Other keys are setup to shiled priest or drop totems (but nothing overly complicated). I look at it more like i am tri-boxing then quin-boxing - tank/heals/dps. Things like follow, mount, etc. are typical of any team.

[Oatboat]

I've got a PVE group in my sig of Prot pally, Holy priest, Fire mage, Destro Warlock, Elemental Shammy. They are just as easy as 5 of the same class once you get the initial setup and configuring done.. I'm having a blast on them... and a bonus... when i did Princess in Maraudon.... i just changed macros on the holy priest to dps and the elemental shaman to heal for last fight.... since shes nature immune... worked like a charm and took like 1 minute to write the new macros....

So i would say go for it... and at the end.. you have a 70 of almost every class ;) Ports/free food/summons/buffs. Its all good from there on out :)

[lacitpo]

I hammered out this chart because I was trying to explain my setup to a friend and he couldn't understand it at all until this.

All of my toons abilities are cast via macros, and targeting is passed from my main, to my slaves. Heres the chart

http://callmetom.net/files/focus.pdf

[d0z3rr]

I only play 4 different classes, but have played 5 different ones but quit playing them due to huge level differences.

I can briefly go over my setup. I use keys 1-5, qewsad for movement, and rfcxzvgt. My setup is pally, 2 spriests, lock, mage - lvl34. The only macros I use are /assist and /follow. I target a mob on my pally and mash the assist key, then begin casting.

The pally has no bindings for any of his major actions, just buffing. I mash one buff key to fully buff my group. The pally is so easy to use I just click my spells, no urgency required at all!

For spells, they are bound to 1-5 rfcxztgv. So far I haven't really used anything more than 1-4 on my pve group. But on my 4x hunter group I used EVERY key and then some, it's insane. So I can only imagine as this pve group levels I'll easily fill every key.

1 casts fireball, 2 smites, and a shadowbolt.
2 casts holy fire, immolate, and pyroblast.
3 is for the short casts - mind blast, scorch, searing pain.
4 does 2xvampirif embrace, and corruption.
5 does 2xshadow word pain, curse of elements, and a fire blast.
R does 2xmindflay, fireball, and shadowbolt.
Shift+X is wand.
Shift+R is pet attack.

When I was playing my other group which had a druid in it, it annoyed the hell out of me that my druid couldn't wand. Just something I'd like to point out, because I do heavy wanding with my group. I usually finish off mobs from wanding to conserve mana for less downtime. Wanding is the reason I did not pick shamans or druids to be in my pve group.

So basically I run in with my paladin and consecrate/seal of justice. Then I hit 4,shift+r, 3, then 3 again and r right away, then 3 once more then wand. This is enough to kill a mob and finish them off wanding. Pretty sure you can see this stuff happening in my pve videos.

I don't dot the mobs cuz it's just a waste of mana. I will however fully dot bosses and use every spell in my arsenal (I'll use 1,2,3,4).

So yeah, no crazy macros or anything, just a little trial and error and some planning. It's actually very easy to do and fun.

*edit* I'd also like to mention how awesome it is to stun mobs with my fire mage and 2 spriests....

[Doostin]

my team is lvl 59 (read my profile for classes) i was going to do shadow priest resto shaman but the 3% crit/hit bonus from the totem is better than a little mana regen. ;)

i'ms ure when i get into the heroics and higher instances i'll need more mana regen but for now mobs die so fast that getting a vampiric touch and embrace on a mob is useless

prot pally boomkin fire mage ele shaman holy priest

[Piecemaker]

my team is lvl 9 now, did 1-6 in the starting areas, from 6 on i brought them to durotar. Everyone except the druid has a trainer in orgri, and the druid only needs to fly to TB. I'm gonna do the class specific quests when i'm gonna do instances, don't really need them while questing.
But i'm having second thoughts about my setup: holy priest seems an easier healer than resto shaman. I don't like chain heal because it only heals 3 people, so i'll go with the holy priest.

So i was thinking of this setup:
prot paladin
holy priest
mage (fire i guess)
ele shaman
boomkin

this way i'll have 8% crit to spells from the boomkin aura and the shaman's tow. Only thing i'm not sure about yet is the mage. Other possibilities are a lock or a shadow priest, but i'm not sure wich one would bring the most to the group.

[Dominian]

wow what a spirit =)

Leveling my druid from 1-20 and dooing my shamans totems quests twize is clearly the worst experience ive had in wow so far. (well maybe not the totem quests but it does realy suck)

Moonfiring from lvl 1-10 and you finally get bearform just to realise that your dps is even lower then beeing a caster, from 20 you will fly thought!

[Oatboat]

keep your mage. way more group utility than another class outside of that build. Food/water, Ports, Intellect buff, and alot of dmg . And yes stay fire spec'd... if you go frost it gets annoying when they freeze.

[lacitpo]

So Paladin, Priest, Druid, Mage, Shaman..

Idea 1
Druid (tank)
Paladin (healer)
Priest (shadow)
Shaman (elemental)
Mage (fire)

Comments: Druids make good tanks for the time being and switching back and forth between bear and kitty could make world questing easier. Also paladins are one button wonders when it comes to healing meaning that you simply have to target manage and spam a single spell. Also paladin mana seems infinite this way. Priest will have passive mana and health regen for party as shadow and the spells are relatively easy to castsequence. I'm not personally familiar with Shamans or Mages but I imagine they can be castsequenced also.

Idea 2
Paladin (tank)
Druid (resto)
Priest (shadow)
Shaman (elemental)
Mage (fire)

Comments: Only change here is tank and healer. I like druid heals more, but mostly late game. Rolling hots are more my style than paladin healing. Especially since they keep working even after you change targets which can be nice in certain situations.

Your current setup is probably just fine. I've never boxed a priest healer before, though I have played a holy priest a ton and I'd say that they are not the simplest class to heal with. They have a lot of healing utility spread across a number of abilities, many of which take some intelligent downranking for good efficiency and you might find yourself having trouble micro managing this while boxing 5 toons.

How are you doing target management? Are you using a focus setup or sticking with a largely focus free ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&postID=72170') setup?

[Kulzor]

lacitpo ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=User&userID=10309') - I've got a group similar to yours - all toons are now 70.

This is my dps group:
BM Hunter, Balance Druid, Elemental Shaman, Frost Mage

For my solo instance rep farming:
BM Hunter, Resto Druid (different one than above), Elemental Shaman, Prot Paladin

The dps group works well enough with simple macros that are spammed constantly. However, the BM hunter rules all with dps (best geared though), then the other three have similar (almost identical) gear - the elemental shaman handily wins on dps output for them.

Were I to do it again, I'd have 3 elemental shaman plus the hunter. More Totem of Wrath would mean more overall crit bonus than the balance druid gives, and the frost mage's buff isn't worth much (though the manna biscuits and portalling are nice at times), add to that the higher damage output, and the ability for all of them to chain lightning and they'd be even more fun. Ah well. :(

Since getting the elemental shaman to 70 I haven't had a chance to hit instances with my own group much, but he dishes out great damage for a brand new 70, handily smoking the dps output of other guildies bm hunter and warlock, and putting up a close battle for dps with a well-geared battleground pvp-geared MM Hunter. (The dps was actually better, but wind-up time hurts the shaman I think - also we had a warrior tank, and couldn't do much chain lightning.)

For a tank I love the paladin. They allow multi-shot/chain lightning type spells do really dish out the damage, and a druid tank or warrior tank just can't do that - especially not if you are multiboxing. (Unless your keyboard skills are far better than mine...)

[Piecemaker]

my targetting is completely focus free, so i can use focus for crowd control. I have 5 elemental shamans (lvl 70), so at 70 i can switch any toon with a shaman. so i guess i'll drop the shaman now

i'm still not sure about the last spot

pala tank
priest healer (got enough shamans, druid doesn't have good aoe heal besides tranquility)
fire mage
balance druid
shadow priest (mana/health regen) OR destro lock(imp health buff, cc)

[lacitpo]

Depending on your goals, you might find you don't need an AOE heal.

Or, you can have an emergency button that drops shadow form and drops some AOE heals for the few situations it's warranted, allowing you to have a bit more flexibility with your group... Just a thought. I fretted a bit over the lack of aoe healing in my setup, but in the end I knew I had a shadow priest. On easy AOE that isn't really life threatening, vampirit embrace is enough to top people off after some light AOE. In hard AOE where people will die, nail my macro to drop shadow form and spam aoe heals till my mana is gone :(. And since you've got a balance druid in the party, toss that innervate on over to your shadow priest and the AOE healing can go on for a bit longer. Might be a good way to keep your group more diverse, allow you more options later on if you decide you want to change the group dynamic a bit, and to take fullest advantage of playing multiple classes.

EDIT: This is all assuming you're targeting mostly PVE encounters.

[daviddoran]

I have a group with a paladin tank priest healer, and druid shaman mage for dps, but I am going to drop the paladin for a DK. They are currently lvl 52, so I am going to get them a bit higher to lvl 55 and park em at lights hope chapel.

My current "main" team is a 70 paladin tank a 60 paladin healer and 3 locks. I do miss the lack of AOE healing sometimes, especially when im doing hellfire. Right now i just consecrate on both paladins, and then each paladin heals a warlock, and hopefully i can get to the third before he dies. I picked the group because i wanted a second paladin for boosting toons on my main account, and warlocks so i could have free mounts, because i am primarily interested in getting them leveled to 70 ASAP, for farming gold, gear, etc.

I will most likely swap out the paladin once I get another toon on that acct to 70, so i can respec the paladin to prot for boosting. I will be experimenting with resto druid for mobility (HoTs, and DoTs from locks sounds nice) shaman for utility (totems mmmmmm) and priest for AoE spamming. Consecrate + hellfirex3 + priest aoe heals = win IMO.

[pyrem]

my team is lvl 9 now, did 1-6 in the starting areas, from 6 on i brought them to durotar. Everyone except the druid has a trainer in orgri, and the druid only needs to fly to TB. I'm gonna do the class specific quests when i'm gonna do instances, don't really need them while questing.
But i'm having second thoughts about my setup: holy priest seems an easier healer than resto shaman. I don't like chain heal because it only heals 3 people, so i'll go with the holy priest.

So i was thinking of this setup:
prot paladin
holy priest
mage (fire i guess)
ele shaman
boomkin

this way i'll have 8% crit to spells from the boomkin aura and the shaman's tow. Only thing i'm not sure about yet is the mage. Other possibilities are a lock or a shadow priest, but i'm not sure wich one would bring the most to the group.I currently run the same group composition (alliance side) that you've mentioned--I'm actually quite surprised since 5-boxing 5 different classes is already rare to begin with. Regardless, my team is now lvl 50, and all of it done with just questing and dungeon instancing w/o the luxury of a boost (refer to my sig below). So it's definitely been a long journey, but it's a blast. I grow more giddy with every level closer to 70 as the prospect of having 5 different classes to raid with has been something I've wanted for quite some time :thumbsup: .

To answer your question, I suggest keeping the mage. I find that with this group, I one shot regular mobs (two at the most), and my mage is consistently at the top of my damage meters. I think that you'll find that most of your fights will be very quick (even through instancing) and so, you'll probably get the most potential from burst damage. Other bonuses are sheeping for CC, arcane intellect, water/food and ports.

Anyways, keep us updated on your progress...I'm growing tired of reading about x4/x5 shammies.... j/k :P ! Good luck!

[Piecemaker]

i leveled another 2 toons: a lock and a priest, so now i can experiment a bit:
account 1: prot pala
account 2: holy priest
account 3: fire mage
account 4: ele shaman, warlock (probably destruction, never had one)
account 5: balance druid, shadow priest

yeah i know, i can't make up my mind :p

advantages of the group with lock and shadow priest:
4 x wanding!
imp health buff + imp dps
VW for offtanking
succy for cc
healthstones
curse of the elements (helps all 3 dps)
more AOE spells
a lot more cc
more that i'm forgetting?

disadvantages:
no 8% crit
no motw
no totems

it's not 5 different chars anymore, but still 5 completely different specs!

[Frosty]

My group is in my sig. I'm not having any extra problems that I didn't have running 5 of a kind.

Well, other than it being a pain in the arse to train them all. :P

Edit - Oops forgot I'm not showing their spec's.

Prot pally, fire mage, shadow priest, resto shammy, affliction warlock.

[lacitpo]

I'm really happy to see there are a number of people out there who are boxing 4-5 classes in a 5 box setup. Not at all to rip on those doing it, but I get a bit tired of the 5 of the same class setups. I envy them in some way because of their simplicity and focused ability, but I've always been big on group synergy and functionality. Also it appears Pyrem ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=User&userID=5672') as the same goals as I do which is raiding on his toons at lvl 70(80 for me).

I think I've settled on my group. Paladin, Druid, Priest, Warlock, Hunter

Paladin
AOE tanking, and utility of multiple "Oh Shit" abilities.
Ability to be a very efficient single target healer
Druid
Primary healer for leveling. Consistent rolling hots.(unless I find druid healing for 5boxing isn't to my liking). Hybrid ability is nice. Bears make decent multi target tanks and are nice damage sinks with good armor. Also adds a leather wearer to my group making gearing up a bit easier.Priest
My favorite endgame class. Shadow provides a lot of passive group utility Emergency backup party healing. Mind control for CC (nothing beats sheep)
Warlock
Tough decision but I love warlocks way more than mages. Will likely miss the ports and water. Summons should be pretty nice, though portal stones are found most places. Voidwalker offtank, healthstones.Hunter
Again, one of my favorite classes to play. Great Damage and very self sufficient. Mail wearer to make gearing up a bit easier. (makes 1xplate, 1xmail, 1xleather, 2xcloth) Pet makes a prime offtank, and traps make decent if not perfect cc.I'll post more detailed info when I get things rolling. I think this may start as a 3 boxing setup with a friend and expand into a 5 boxing setup on my own as some time passes and I get into the rhythm of things. One thing that may be worth noting.

[HPAVC]

Your class selections aside.

Install recap and any other Addon facility that tracks time spent "idle". Let that be the gauge of your teams success now how much brain power it takes to manage the twitch of the toons.

If your running warlocks you would also look for DOT uptime and other classes perhaps TPS.

[lacitpo]

I hadn't thought of using that to gauge how efficient my group is being. Cool idea man.

I've spent a lot of time planning macros but I know I can plan till the end of time but I won't know how well things will go till they are implemented.