5x PvE group best healer

[JasonB87]

I've been dual-boxing for the last couple months and have been thinking about trying out some 5 boxing. So I'm looking to get a 5 man PvE group going. Right now the setup I'm looking at is Prot pally, Fire mage, Destro lock, shadow priest and I'm undecided on my healer. I'm leaning towards a resto druid but I wanted to get some feedback from people running 70+ instances. Once 80 i'm planning on running heroics so I'm looking for what would be perferable in that case.

[genocyde]

Priest is the easy mode 5 box healer. Shaman would be a great choice to add to your group of pally, mage, lock, priest just for the fact you would then have 2 viable healer/dps that you could choose/switch between. + the back up heals if needed.

I vote them in this order

Priest - Easiest
Shaman - almost as easy with more group synergy since you already plan on having a shadow priest
Druid - Druid
Pally - Possibly the least reliable healer for boxing IMO

[Frosty]

I'm running a very similar group. Using a Resto Shaman has worked so far. :)

[Littleburst]

Druid requires a lot of buttonspamming with the hots, Requires to much attention imo. Priest with his/her AoE/Group heals is best choice by far.

Or just the plain simple 1 prot pally + 4x shaman.

[TheBigBB]

I say priest, especially because COH is an instant cast AOE heal. Druids can work if you play them more traditionally and use wild growth like you'd use COH, but it's not quite as good in a tight spot because it's still partially a HOT.

[JasonB87]

Yea now I'm thinking about moving the priest to holy and bring in a elemental shaman for wrath totem, elemental oath and woa. That seems like it would really boost the synergy consider the group is primarily casters and based on spellpower.

[ImaHealer]

I say priest, especially because COH is an instant cast AOE heal. Druids can work if you play them more traditionally and use wild growth like you'd use COH, but it's not quite as good in a tight spot because it's still partially a HOT.

Read the Next Patch notes they are giving CoH a 6 second cool down, not a huge deal but a change for the Priest class

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

[JasonB87]

Haha yea my friend plays a holy priest and is throwing a fit over that saying 6 is a little to excessive which i agree with, I'd like to see it at 3-4 seconds. On that hand it shouldn't be a problem still have prayer of mending and shield which are nice additions.

I'm kinda wishy-washy on the shaman just because of the totem quests lol.

On a side note I'd like to run instances to level this group up, they'll be using raf. What order would you suggest running instances in or what ones do you think would be best?

[Dominian]

I would like to add that a shaman means that you get tremor totem but with a priest you get fear ward but tremor totem > fear ward. Fear ward is always nice to have on the tank or healer to make sure you wont get feared in a critical situation.

My sugestion is to take a ele shaman over the mage or warlock.. I would sugest the mage btw!

Bloodlust/heroism can be a critical boost!
Tremor is making things easier in a few encounters. (the 3rd boss in Drak'thalon must be hell with a unlucky fear)
Fire,Nature,Frost resistance totems (im aware that the paladin brings Frost and Fire aura and they dont stack, but with a totem up you can go with devotion aure)
Totem of wrath

[JasonB87]

Yea maybe I'll just need to do the totem quests for the third time lol. The mage I'm keeping for simplicity sake.

[TheBigBB]

I say priest, especially because COH is an instant cast AOE heal. Druids can work if you play them more traditionally and use wild growth like you'd use COH, but it's not quite as good in a tight spot because it's still partially a HOT.

Read the Next Patch notes they are giving CoH a 6 second cool down, not a huge deal but a change for the Priest class

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.htmlThis is true, however the spell is a bit overpowered right now in some situations so I understand a cooldown. I'll have to see how I can work it out with COH+Prayer of Healing for healing the group.

EDIT: I stand by my claim of a priest being the best, because WILD GROWTH is also getting a 6 second cooldown, so it won't be any more powerful.

[JasonB87]

The only thing that's preventing me from starting this today is my pc specs. I'm running a 3ghz core 2 duo 2gb of ram and a geforce 8800gts. Do these specs sound like they would support 5 boxing.

[TheBigBB]

The only thing that's preventing me from starting this today is my pc specs. I'm running a 3ghz core 2 duo 2gb of ram and a geforce 8800gts. Do these specs sound like they would support 5 boxing.In order to ensure no hardware lag with that computer, I would guess that you would need to avoid cities and use lowest possible settings, even on the main screen.

[JasonB87]

Yea I'm going to test it out tonight with some trial accounts. I'm assuming avoiding PiP would be good too. Any other suggestions that would affect performance? I'll be upgrading this system during the first week of January.

[TheBigBB]

Yea I'm going to test it out tonight with some trial accounts. I'm assuming avoiding PiP would be good too. Any other suggestions that would affect performance? I'll be upgrading this system during the first week of January.You will be in a WORLD of pain if you try to 5 box in Dalaran with your computer, even at very low settings. I would recommend double the RAM at least, when you upgrade, though I've heard that XP won't use more than 3GB or so.

[JasonB87]

Yea I'm hoping current hardware will fair well leveling. As for my upgrade I'll be going to 8gb of ram, a 2.5 Ghz quad, a geforce x260, 64-bit vista and possibly 120gb ssd depending on prices in January.

[TheBigBB]

By the way, I'd like to point out that a glyph of Holy Nova will make this spell heal for 40% more, making it heal for only slightly less and cost slightly more mana than COH. So on your regular COH button you could stick a castsequence with COH and then Holy Novas on 6 second cooldown. You'd just have to maintain proximity, but with a boxer this usually goes without saying! You can also make COH heal an extra target with glyphs, and give Prayer of Healing a HOT component with your third glyph. I don't believe anyone can match the onslaught of mindless AOE healing this would all bring.

(I think the COH glyph is only really useful for raidboxers, so that wouldn't apply to 5 man teams)