Added my paladin to the mix - my findings.

[shaeman]

After questing on my 3 shaman and getting them to 61 I realised I was in danger of leaving my paladin tank behind.

So i decided to add my paladin to bring me up to 4 boxing (with the option of adding my 70 shaman as a fifth for instances).

Firstly - Ken's shaman macros are great. To change my paladin to be the lead character I had to change about 4 macros in total. The change over was seemless. The one disadvantage is that I belive you can't set a focus on a friendly target not in group (I think) so I couldn't seemlessly run my 3 shaman round out of group and automatically burn down the paladins target. This would have given max XP to my paladin (it worked when I targetted them separately but was too much of a time waste trying to manage that , so the extra XP was nullified by the time spent).

My paladin, although the lead character does no damage whatsoever. I am literally letting him stand there and target and the shaman burn everything down. Two rounds of lightning bolts are killing most targets, so doing any consecration, avengers shield pulls is just a mana waste.

With my shaman being a level higher - and with the massive spike damage possible with vengeance of the illidari and blood fury I could take aggro off the pally quite easily on my first volley. Letting him pull with avengers shield, and maybe a little more time with consecration to gain aggro helped. Blessing of salvation on each of the shamans removed the issue entirely. They were unable to pull aggro from me (although the mobs died quickly)



I then decided to try a bit of 4 man ramparts. I'd earlier tested the paladin on his own in there. Pulling the first two elites and seeing how long he lasts without heals. HIs gear is pitiful, but his health went down slow enough that I could manage to heal him, but I would bet it wouldn't manage on the first boss or bigger pulls (for now).

So I went in with the foursome. I did the first two elites, the wandering solo elite, the next two elites after the bridge.

Shortly after this I wiped for the first time - and as I didn't have any water with me (It was a spur of the moment test) I decided to take the res sickness and quit the instance. I still consider that instance run a success.

Firstly I wasn't used to the setup. I had unbound the keys on the paladin and was having to click his abilities - and was a bit slow on triggering the shamans at times (my multitasking will improve shortly). Despite this I was able to clear trash. I was also lacking a 5th - either a dedicated healer or an extra dps, which would have healed me through more damage, or killed mobs quicker so I would have taken less damage.

I wasn't used to the taunt capability - sometimes it seems to be fire and forget other times it seems you need to target the player to pull the mob off, I'll have to work out how to use it properly. I suspect it is meant to target a specific guy to pull aggro off him. I wasn't running with blessing of salvation on the group so if i had that may not have been an issue.

I've downloaded a couple of paladin tanking addons and will see if they help. I was getting more used to the group after this instance so will go back in again soon.

As mentioned earlier my paladin gear is pretty poor. Mostly 57 - 59 gear. I did notice that my belt and gloves were woefully out of date, so bought alternatives. One of which I can't wear until 62. I also got a nice upgrade to my trousers through the maghar introduction quest chain (Starting with the assassin), so my paladin is already tougher.

I have to say - I am having an absolute blast with multiboxing. Some of the best fun I've had in wow for ages.

[Frosty]

I'm pretty sure you can set your focus to anything you want regardless of being in a group.

[shaeman]

I'm pretty sure you can set your focus to anything you want regardless of being in a group

And if that's true then I am officially the dumbest man on the planet :)

Not sure if anyone experiences - but sometimes you are absolutely sure of something - despite the fact that you can't actually remember where that information came from.

Well this is one of those times - and I am going to go out and test it. This will allow me to close the gap that bit quicker.

[Aradar]

Yeah, you can set it outside your party on a friendly target but in my experience it can be buggy. I've mostly experienced this when I decide to help a group out that is missing a tank for a group quest and I happen to be in the area. I drop my pally out and join there group but bring the boys along. Sometimes they behave as though we are still grouped and sometimes they don't. And then sometimes part of my crew will work and part won't.

[Memn]

Ive had better luck using target for a main when it is out of group. For instance:

Instead of:

/cast [target=focustarget,harm] Lightning Bolt

try


/cast [target=targettarget,harm] Lightning Bolt

or better yet:


/cast [target=focustarget,harm][target=targettarget,harm] Lightning Bolt

[Rigz]

Yeah, you can set it outside your party on a friendly target but in my experience it can be buggy. I've mostly experienced this when I decide to help a group out that is missing a tank for a group quest and I happen to be in the area. I drop my pally out and join there group but bring the boys along. Sometimes they behave as though we are still grouped and sometimes they don't. And then sometimes part of my crew will work and part won't.
This is true, it is buggy, I always used to use focus setups, but when I strarted power leveling with an ungrouped character it was hit or miss for working. Sometimes it was seamless other times it stopped working and I could no longer assign focus.

It was never a huge issue as i would just bind an invite macro and then set focus and then kick the high level to fix it.

It was always puzzeling to me because I use names to set focus so I could never figure out why being in or out of group mattered, but it did.


Th

[moji]

For a while I used focus based leader macros. I even let a guildie control my team once, set him as focus on every toon, so they all followed him, targeted what he targeted, etc. He thought it was the coolest thing ever.

whenever I do an escort quest, single box or multi, I always /focus the escort npc, that way I can keep an eye on and manage their health easier.

[wowphreak]

are yeh using Tranquil Air Totem?
Do you have Enchant Weapon - Major Spellpower on yer pali weapon?

[shaeman]

are yeh using Tranquil Air Totem?
Do you have Enchant Weapon - Major Spellpower on yer pali weapon?


Outside of instances I rarely drop any totems, mobs are dead so quick without them. (if i'm in an area where I can stay relatively static and pull mobs to me I will drop the totem farm).

In the instance I haven't set my macros up properly. I did have a castsequence macro that put out general totems, however I was editing that during the instance and left it with grounding totems.

Great call on the tranquil air totem.... reducing threat if i recall, so that with a BoSalvation on the shammys will allow better threat management. Quick question about the threat reduction - Does my tanking paladin need to be outside the range of the totem to ensure his threat isn't reduced as well (surely it can't work like this, as it would make it pretty useless in tight fights), or does it only reduce non-melee?

I haven't put a +40 spell damage on my sword as yet. I'm very aware that my sword is rubbish and is likely to be replaced soon so don't want to waste an enchant on it just yet.. I suppose as a temporary measure I could coat it with wizard oil for instance runs.

[shaeman]

Okay I researched the tranquil air totem.

It will reduce the threat on the tank if the tank is within range of it's effect.

It's range is 20yds, so I will need to learn the distance and leave my team further back.

It stacks with Blessing of Salvation to give a 44% reduction in threat (according to wowwiki).

I thought I would share this for others who may not know.

My level 70 shaman hasn't ever dropped a tranquil air totem or been asked to - but I feel I should have known at least how it worked.

[Stabface]

I have 100% luck with out-of-group focus by simply /targeting who I want to focus and use /focus without any target options. It will only break if I relog, which is normal anyhow.