Class Makeup Suggestions for Two Multiboxers

[Kaelika]

Hey, everyone.

I'm very familiar with dual-boxing in WoW (been doing it for ages), and I've often jumped in with my duo to help out in instances, but... I now have a friend who wants to multibox with me, and I think that I'm going to triple-box while he dual-boxes. Since there are two of us, I don't think that we should both have to play Shamans, and I've always dual-boxed two different classes myself. So, what I'd like to know is what you guys think would make a good group PvE-wise in case we decide to multi-box heroics later on. I was thinking of boxing a paladin with two mages, warlocks, or priests in my case, and letting him compensate with whatever I lack. I know that my friend wants to play a druid for one of his characters.

Opinions?

[Xenostar]

Well if you're looking at PVE goals, and you want 3 toons. Set yourself up with a solid base of Tank, Healer, DPS.
Personally I would think P-Pally, R-shaman, and Mage. Getting them to work together might be a little harder than 3 of the same class, but for dungeons you'll only have to find some random DPS if your friend isn't around. This way you won't be hung out to dry trying to find a class/spec in LFG channels to run dungeons.
Non-elite world mobs will go down pretty easy with lightning bolts/arcane missles, Or you could round 10 mobs and aoe them, making questing pretty easy aswell.
Just something to think about.



-Xenostar

[heffner]

I went with Pally tank, Priest Healer (still SP atm), Ele Shammy, Fire Mage and Boomkin. I am focused on PVE.

So far it's work fine for me, but I am still a noob and haven't done much in terms of Heroics.

If I were to do it over, I would probably go with Pally tank, Shammy Healer, Warlock, Mage and Hunter. That would be 2/3 CC and good DPS. The shammy brings heals and totems to the group. Lock also brings that increased DPS buff that doesn't stack with the Druid Earth & Moon (I believe so anyway). Also, I think the hunter and warlock are at the tops for DPS atm. If you're set on a druid, I would likely change out the hunter or lock - unless you're going resto, but I would definitely keep a shaman in there.

However, I am sure many combinations would work. Tank, Healer, 3X DPS...whatever you like. I think it's nice to have a big mix so you don't have worry about loot decisions as much (Plate, Chain, Leather and Cloth classes).

I would most likely put the healer and tank under the control of the same person though. Although, if it was a warrior tank I might not :) since I believe they are more demanding (never played one past 31 though, so someone else can chime in on that).

[Ualaa]

If one of you is two-boxing and the other is three-boxing, I'd probably go tank-healer for the two-box and 3x dps for the three box.
Not necessarily saying it won't work another way, just tanking and healing is a bit more complex the plain dps, especially if the dps are the same classes.

[Vyndree]

I would say, try to split things up so that you're playing the least amount of roles possible. (roles being tank, healer, dps)

Why? You can be MUCH more effective at what you do if you minimize the amount of multi-tasking. I'd go with Ualaa's suggestion of 3x dps for one, and tank/healer for the other.


HOWEVER: If you're looking for a challenge, do exactly the opposite. Get as many different classes with as many different roles as you possibly can. Why? Because it's fun to challenge yourself.

[Kaelika]

I appreciate the suggestions! I'm definitely going to go with a prot pally for my tank since I've had a capped paladin I've played for the past few years, not to mention that I've never played a warrior past 40... I know it would be easier if I were to use three DPS characters, but my friend is dead set on playing a healer, and since he was a raid tank for so long, he doesn't want to tank PERIOD. =/ Plus, I'm always up for a good challenge.

My main set of characters that I dual-boxed were a holy paladin/demo warlock (I had a lot of fun with these and could take on most non-instance group content by myself -including Outlands content), and what I liked about that pair was that I was the jack-of-all trades, per say, in the respect that I could heal some, tank some, and DPS some, and my survivability was AMAZING compared to another combo I tried (shadow priest/frost mage).

I know that a paladin will be easier to tank with in contrast to a warrior, as so many people have said on these forums, so I guess I'm now trying to decide if it would be better to have a character with some healing abilities in case my friend needs backup healing, and then throw in a DPS character? Or would two DPS characters be better?

If it helps, my friend is going with a resto druid or a holy priest for one of his characters, although I'm trying to come up with a suggestion for his second character.

Thanks again.

[Vyndree]

I'm now trying to decide if it would be better to have a character with some healing abilities in case my friend needs backup healing, and then throw in a DPS character?

Hmm, if you're looking for utility, why not a shadowpriest or another character who provides the Replenishment buff? That way you'll be helping out your buddy's healer while not DIRECTLY healing yourself.

Personally, I'd go Shadowpriest. Good utility (replenishment), decent damage, and can always pop out of shadowform if sh*t hits the fan.

[succulent]

I've split up instancing with a friend numerous times; he 2-boxes a feral (tank) druid and hunter, while I 3-box shammies or run 1 mage/2 shammies. We're both fulfilling two roles; he tanks and mashes a dps macro, I dps and heal as needed. It seems to work out pretty well, particularly if I drive from the healer (and my friend drives from his tank). DPS is the easiest thing to relegate to a mashed macro on a follower; this won't break any dps records but for 5-man content it'll sure get the job done.

Note that shammies seem to be the only class that can spec for ranged DPS and drop a heal from time to time with no penalty. SPriests and boomkin have to drop out of form to do so, causing the use of a GCD and mana to switch back, or resulting in a sizeable dps drop if staying out of form. Ele shammy healing is still pretty potent, just not very mana efficient.

[Frosty]

Personally, I'd go Shadowpriest. Good utility (replenishment), decent damage, and can always pop out of shadowform if sh*t hits the fan. This! I love my Shadowpriest! :thumbup:

[Snowychihiro]

I'm in the exact same boat as you!
My boyfriend (Chaosomega) has 3 shammys as DPS and so i took the role of tanking and healing. (paladin and druid)

It's actually easy to macro and not that difficult to do. Although it's not a syncronized as DPSing, but it works. Just have druid on follow, and before every pull keybind a key (for me it's "t") which makes my druid strafe to the left, therefore breaking follow. I had my druid's moves on 12345 and my paladin's on 67890-=.

I use a modifier macro which allows me to put 3 moves on one macro for my druid:
/target party1 (or whatever)
/cast [modifier:cntrl] Regrowth, [modifier:shift] Rejuvenation, [modifier:alt] Healing Touch,
/castrandom Swiftmend

but putting this macro on 1-5, i can heal the whole party. Just remember that whoever is leader is party1, and the healer (in my case my druid) is always party5.

So as my druid sits back and heals constantly, I am usually focused on my paladin's screen, tanking.
I haven't really found a good way to keep track of all the seals and judgements but the main moves i use are consecrate, avenger's shield, hammer of wrath (I think its called) and righteous defense. So, like every good tank, just spam those buttons and you'll be good to go.

Also, have a macro that makes your healer /focus the tank. And at the end of every battle make a macro /follow Focus and keybind it somewhere useful (i use the ` button) so you wont leave your healer behind.

BTW the /castrandom swiftmend is a druid move that consumes a HOT and heals the target the full amount instead. This is useful because say i cast a rejuvenation on my paladin but she's dying too fast. I then just press the button 1 again (if the macro on one is /target paladin) and it automatically casts swiftmend without having to press ctrl, alt or shift.

Just some useful tips for tanking and healing :D good luck

Chi

[Crayonbox]

I'd go with a paladin tank and priest healer for the duo and 3 shamans for the triple boxer. or 3 mages. both are good options.

But I like simplicity. Shamans cannot go oom with the combination of judgement of wisdom and thunderstorm. I havent been able to test it for long durations since these were all mostly in instances where the fights are maybe 3-4 minutes at most, but i almost always end fights with 100% mana >_>

[Kaelika]

I'm glad I'm not the only one in this situation! Well, as I said before, I can't box three DPS classes because my friend intends to box a healer and a DPS/hybrid character, so I'm stuck tanking one way or another, which is why I thought a backup healer/hybrid character would be beneficial.

I really like the shadow priest idea, and I'm also considering an elemental shaman. For my third character, I'm either using a warlock or a mage (I enjoy a warlock more, but I've played several at this point).

I'm actually rolling these characters on Monday, so I'll let everyone know what I end up choosing at that point. In the mean time, if anyone has any more suggestions, they're always welcomed. =)

[Fuzzyboy]

I think replenishment is way overrated for 5-man instances. It's another matter if you're in a raid (or if you tank isn't a paladin). I've definitely had my trouble doing instances so far, but none of them have been related to mana issues. In fact I've developed a tendency to overheal, but that's another matter entirely :P

I think tank/heal and 3dps is the more efficient combination and as for challenge, you'll find plenty doing the harder heroics - trust me. And if thats not enough, you can always strap on mittens while trying to box, that'll be plenty challenging ;-) I'm currently using a resto-shaman as my healer but I'm really missing more efficient group heals. If I were to start all over from level one, I'd probably go either:

1) Tank paladin + healer priest + balance druid + frost mage + elemental shaman
2) Tank paladin + healer priest + 3 hunters
3) 5 x moonkin with future dual-spec fun

The thing about two multiboxer cooperating is that the one controlling two chars will, with some training almost have the mobility of two seperate chars. I discovered that dual-boxing hunters for fun and giggles. This would make things such as vehicle mobility less problematic (hello oculus), but the three-boxer still has the issue, although mobility is a LOT easier to manage if you are all in the same area (as opposed to having your focus on the tank). By doing the tank/healer + 3 dps you will basically open up some options that are usually unavailable to 5-boxers, so I think I'd suggest that :-)

[Boylston]

Sounds like your buddy is going to be DPS+Healer, so you need to be Tank+2DPS, right?

I'd be strongly tempted by 3xDruids, since they can be Bear+2xBoomkin for you when you're with your pal, or you can go 3xBoomkin by yourself in BGs... OR Bear+Resto+Boomkin if you want to do a holy trinity by yourself and just LFG for two more DPSers later on. If I read you right, you already have a higher level paladin, so you could at least try the 3xDruids out until they reached the pally's level. By that time you may have decided that you love/hate bear tank mechanics and can go do something else.

If your buddy picks a healer that can DPS, you may find it very efficient to just HoT up your bear and then have 4 characters DPSing stuff down through the early instances as you level...

Good luck!

[Kaelika]

Well, we finished our first team about eight days ago, and I ended up playing a frost mage, prot paladin, and a shadow priest, while my friend played a resto druid and a holy priest. Our DPS was lacking a bit, but our survivability was AMAZING. We never wiped in any of the instances, even at specific points where groups I've played with have wiped when at the same level or higher.

We played around with some DKs for a while, and now we're working on our second team, which is currently level 20. With my new team, I'm playing a warlock (starting with demo, although I might switch this spec later), a feral druid, and a resto shaman, and my friend is using a mage and a warlock, so while we lack healing, we have a lot of DPS this time. We'll see how this turns out later on.