Warlock + Shaman

[Beasthorn]

First, I wanted to say thanks for the excellent website and resources. I knew nothing about dual boxing three days ago and using the information here I have been able to get setup and leveling my shaman and warlock quickly. I am having such a great time I am already considering getting a new computer to try 4 boxing.

I picked my classes, just because they are classes I have always wanted to play. :) I know they lack the synergy of a lot of pairs of classes and they are harder to setup than two of the same class. Right now I have my warlock speccing affliction in the lead spot with the shaman specced elemental on follow. Bascially, I send in the pet, dot up mob, switch to next target while shaman spams LB on first target until it is dead, then he switches to next target. He is supposed to heal either his target, his focuses target target or himself, but still working the kinks out on that one.

Anyway, I wanted to ask if anyone has any experience running a warlock with a shaman and wanted to share any tips on specs, combat, etc? This seems like a good setup to me, but don't have experience with either class.

Thanks in advance.

[Beasthorn]

Just in case anyone is looking for pointers in the future on this setup.

I got them both to 30 last night and have been having a couple of challenges as they level up a bit. The shaman is pulling agg with the LB spam easily off of any pets and the warlock. With multiple mobs it gets crazy with the warlock/pet pulling agg on the adds and the shaman pulling agg on the first target. Between spell pushback on the Shaman and targetting/positioning issues with mobs all over the place, pulling multiples get tough. I have managed to wipe several times, which really shouldn't be happening. Pulling single mobs isn't efficient with an affliction specced Warlock so I don't think that is the answer.

I am going to try resto on my shaman and focus on support vs. DPS. I will keep warlock as the main, focused on pulling multiple mobs with instant DOTs. Shaman will drop support totems and heal warlock. In theory, this will keep agg on warlock and I should be able to easily keep his health and mana up. I will update again in another 10 levels or so.

In my limited experience, this isn't the setup for power levelers or someone that wants the most efficient two-box.

[Upas]

I was actually going to try this setup.

I have a level 26 shaman already, and was going to dualbox a warlock and druid to 26 before switching out the druid for my shaman.
I thought that having the warlock as a slave would be better. You can make a cast sequence macro to do a full DoT rotation, but DoTs are more effective the longer a mob stays alive. I don't think it would be too hard to drop totems as enh shaman, send vw in, set shaman on the mob, and then dot rotation. Once the dot rotation is done (a good, say... 4.5 seconds. UA = 1.5 seconds, Corruption, 1.5 sec GCD, Siphon Life 1.5 sec GCD, CoA), both the lock and shammy can switch to target 2 and let the pet finish up the 1st mob.

I dunno how well it'll work, but I'll tweak it once I get to that point.

[softflow]

Just looking at this setup, is there a reason why you don't want to try the imp and have the Warlock go destruction? Just blast away all the mobs? I'd have a hard time believing any normal mob would stand up to both of you guys blasting away. If you know you'll get adds, you have stoneclaw, and you can even bring out the succubus if needed.

I've only recently started duoing as well and I've found it much easier thus far to go with classes that have similar styles, hence the nuking lock and shammy. I'm sure once we all get it down pat, we'll be meleeing, dpsing, CCing and healing ;-)

[Beasthorn]

These are new classes and I am new to multi-boxing, so any input on your experience or ideas is appreciated.


I didn't try having the shaman go enhance and lead, but will be very interested in seeing how this works for you. I did try the nuking option which I talked about in my first post.

My hope by going resto on shaman is that warlock could DOT multiple mobs and keep aggro and shaman can put down totems, heal and toss in some damage. But, setting up the macros is a lot tougher than my old LB macro. I think I will just start simple and try to add things as I go.

I will post back in a week with my results.

[Beasthorn]

I got things worked out last night, I was able to kill mobs basically non-stop finally. It does require more action then just mashing one button constantly, but I think for dual boxing that is expected. I have never tried boxing with more than two, but I think it might be simplier in a way because mobs die much faster. Dual boxing things are a lot more fluid since you can't simply one or two shot mobs when they are at your level. Both characters are mid-30's in level and lock is affliction and shaman is still resto.

Warlock has lead, sends in pet and waits about 2 seconds for it to establish aggro. Then warlock starts to fully DOT up mob, I start with immolate and run through all the DOTs then drain life. After first two DOTs, shaman starts spamming LB, this delay keeps aggro on pet/warlock. Mob dies, I life tap a few times while running to mob. If I need health shaman heals up while I loot and we are off again. If I am able to pull multiples, drop totems and follow same sequence except warlock fully DOTs first mob, then moves to next while shaman stays on first target until it dies then retargets.

I setup one DOT cast sequence for Warlock and bind it to two keys. The first key has no actions for Shaman, the second spams LB. I start with empty shaman key then move to key with LB after a couple of dots. This keeps warlock spells in the same sequence. This also gives me the flexibility to have shaman sit out a mob and regen mana if he needs to so that he doesn't need to drink.

For drain life, I have one key bound with no shaman action, the other casts a long heal when I need health. I also have a key bound to heal warlock, shaman or pet in combat.

This may not be the most efficient setup, but I was looking for something that I could quest with non-stop and keep things relatively simple. Shaman might be more effective as elem and I may test that out one night soon.

[Upas]

Given your success, I'm tempted to try the same thing. For leveling purposes, I think I'll keep my Shaman as elemental. To maximize DPS, I might just go with clothie drops.

I'm much more comfortable leading as a lock, since I've leveled one to 70, so this might actually work out better for me.

Alternatively... I COULD level 2x locks to 60, gift shaman to 60, then shaman and lock to 70. That way, my shaman won't get gimped in the gear aspect. I wouldn't have to worry about class quests then... but... what am I supposed to do with 2 locks?

[Beasthorn]

My shaman + warlock team dinged 50 last night and the team is working out well. I have stuck with afflication + resto because it seems to work well with my style. They have zero downtime which I really like. Typically I am taking on single or double mobs at a time. Warlock does the normal drain tank, shaman delays for a couple of dots, tosses in usually 2 LB and mob is dead. Warlock hits dark pact back to full mana and we are off to the next mob. Prior to dark pact he would drain life several times and shaman would toss a heal on him.

I use totems when I can pull from a single spot, but usually won't drop them. Now that I can use earth shield I keep that up on the warlock, though with draining his health really isn't an issue.

The combo definitely works, though this is my first team so I can't really compare it directly to others. As I stated above, they have never really had much down time which I like a lot. It feels like what they lack in DPS they make up for in being able to move from mob to mob. They usually survive those times I end up with too many mobs, though probably like any dual team, they do die usually due to either positioning issues or me having trouble running both of them. They both have the ability to rez, which comes in handy and astral recall with the summon option is good for moving around quickly.

The one area they feel a little weak is on single mob DPS. Mobs aren't just blowing up, they take a little bit to kill with DOTs and if I go crazy and LB every mob at every chance eventually the shaman would run low on mana.

For anyone just starting out, I am using AHK with the 'complete AHK' script someone was kind enough to write and post.

Key addons for me are for questing Quest Help, Back Seat Questor and Lightheaded. It is a lot, but I found I was spending a lot of time trying to find the right quests, locations and keeping them in synched between my characters. With these addons I can see where my quests are, read about them from my IG window and see what step I am on with both characters. I turn down Quest Help with the command /qh perf 10% so that it does not recalc routes as often.

I use Cartographer for my maps, I like being able to pull it up and see through it so I can be moving and looking at it for quests etc.

For binding keys I have something called Bind Pad, it is great for binding keys. Just pull up your macros type /bp and a window comes up where you can drag your macro to it and press the key to bind it to.

My computer isn't great, I had never written a macro and never played these classes before. However, this site has been a great resource and you can find everything you need with a little patience and the search function.