Will I survive? - PVE 3-boxing

[Dumbfounded]

Am currently leveling up a pve group (~35 atm) that will eventually consist of 1 prot Paladin and 2 elem Shamans for the purpose of pve - namely heroic instances...

So, the question I wanted some opinions on before I get there and find out, is do you think 3 maning instances will be possible? or will there not be enough dps/heals to survive? essentially, Should I stick to 3 accounts, or go all the way and get 2 more if my aim is for some instance fun?

[Enct]

You have no healing and no crowd control so you have no chance at doing heroics :/

[algol]

You have no healing and no crowd control so you have no chance at doing heroics :/Shamans can do both of those things.

But heroics do tend towards needing a dedicated healer, and a full party. Maybe when elementals are finally adjusted for L80, totem runs will be more practical again. But I doubt you can take a tank and two DPS-spec characters into most heroic-mode fights and do much unless you overgear the tar out of it. There are exceptions like being able to down Loatheb with the right team (which is not likely to be a pair of elemental shamans) - if you take three hours to do it. But in general, not happening.

[Svpernova09]

You'll be short a dedicated healer, and short on DPS / CC. I was able to clear 5 mans at the level of my 3 shaman with my T5 Druid tanking for them. It was tough because I was short DPS, but I made up for that in gear / high survivability on my Druid.

[Dumbfounded]

No chance huh? Thanks for the replies tho!

Yea, was thinking having the shammys offheal and hex for cc.

How about 4 accounts then? like say... drop the shammys for two dedicated dps- say mages, and pick up an extra holy pally spamming FoL on the Prot Pally buffed with Beacon?

Maybe I should just suck it up and get 2 more accounts...

[TheBigBB]

There's really no way that you will be able to handle it because your healer will go out of mana before you can get enough damage out, not to mention fights where adds spawn where you'd just get overwhelmed. Consider that with 2 more DPS, you'd likely triple your damage output, and that's what the content is designed for. Now, maybe if you worked at it for the next year you'd down a few bosses on heroic with 3, but don't PLAN on it.

[Gadzooks]

Yeah, I'm running 3 - druid, lock and mage, and there's no way I'd be able to handle a Heroic.

Just get 2 more accounts if that's what you want - I'm not planning on 3-manning even normal mode Northrend instances.

However, for questing, 3 kick ass. :)

[Dumbfounded]

owells, there goes my dream, thanks for the info and opinions!

now...to decide if i want to pay $100 aus a month for this game... at least there are sales on battle chests atm.

[merujo]

So, the question I wanted some opinions on before I get there and find out, is do you think 3 maning instances will be possible?

I think u should learn more wow.

[Dumbfounded]

I think u should learn more wow.Yeah, I prolly should learn more wow, TBC specifically tho.

I just figured it would be possible, the way my old guildies and I would 3 man orb runs in live Strat back in Vanilla Wow.

[merujo]

I think u should learn more wow.Yeah, I prolly should learn more wow, TBC specifically tho.

I just figured it would be possible, the way my old guildies and I would 3 man orb runs in live Strat back in Vanilla Wow.

oh vanilla wow... ppl in naxx gear 3manning onyxia. 1 mage and 1 paladin doing strat live for orbs.

thats what happens when the content stays intact, and at the same time u get access to more and more powerfull gear. result is, head to a old school instance and blast it.

play a bit more tbc, where heroics were implemented, and check for urself. it's very difficult. altough now on WotlK, a fresh 80 can enter an heroic and do it, only tanks have to wear better gear, but anyways, u wont be able to do it with 3, not until u get like lvl500 gear :P

[TheBigBB]

I think u should learn more wow.Yeah, I prolly should learn more wow, TBC specifically tho.

I just figured it would be possible, the way my old guildies and I would 3 man orb runs in live Strat back in Vanilla Wow.

oh vanilla wow... ppl in naxx gear 3manning onyxia. 1 mage and 1 paladin doing strat live for orbs.

thats what happens when the content stays intact, and at the same time u get access to more and more powerfull gear. result is, head to a old school instance and blast it.

play a bit more tbc, where heroics were implemented, and check for urself. it's very difficult. altough now on WotlK, a fresh 80 can enter an heroic and do it, only tanks have to wear better gear, but anyways, u wont be able to do it with 3, not until u get like lvl500 gear :P Yeah, and back in those days, the game wasn't itemized properly until you hit raids, so the regular instances were designed for casters with zero spell damage. Actually, I'm not even sure if there was any spell damage gear in the game at all when it was first released - certainly not on anything before Molten Core.

[Talamarr]

I 3 box: Prot Pally, BM Hunter and Elemental Shaman. They're all 78 atm.

Yesterday, I cleared normal Drak'Tharon Keep with just the three of them. I have no idea if I will be able to do Heroics but I'm going to try. 95% of trash is no problem, but some bosses in normal have been a road block. I either don't have enough DPS or healing.

However, I think there is huge potential there. My shaman, even geared and spec'ed for elemental, can still heal really really well. In fact, he'll DPS most of a fight and throw an occasional heal onto the tank or a chain heal to the group. When I hit 80, I'll spec the shaman full resto.

Honestly though, I think the bigger issue isn't the group, but my over all ability to handle an encounter (ie. the mechanics) and that's going to be a problem 3 or 5 boxing. You just have less room for error with 3 boxing.

[puppychow]

heroics are sadly a lot, lot, lot more difficult than regular. I breezed through instances 70-80 with pally+mage+3 shamans, I've completed every single one now except Pinnacle and Occulus - rarely had to heal the tank, and virtually all of them were 1 or 2 shots. Once I started heroics it was like running into a brick wall -- wipe after wipe after wipe, in fact I've really only completed 2 heroics (Gundark and Nexus).

Anyways definitely worth trying some and seeing how it goes (I found Gundrak the easiest to be honest, but even there wipes are pretty common for me after 4-5 times running it heroic now). There isn't just the issue of having the heal/DPS to survive, its more the fact that every boss fight has some "gimmick" that makes it hard to multibox. For example I just tried Occulus (regular) and it was pathetically funny how fast my team wiped on the 2nd boss, after dying a bunch of times getting to him while doing the vehicle-fly-around stuff. of course I know theres a trick of moving around so you avoid the massive AoEs, but I thought i'd try it once in regular and try to outheal any damage, lol, that did not work at all! In UK the first boss still wipes the floor with me, my gear is getting better so in a few days it should be easier, but I don't see any way a 3 person team is going to do it until gear improves way beyond what we can get.

[genocyde]

Yeah, and back in those days, the game wasn't itemized properly until you hit raids, so the regular instances were designed for casters with zero spell damage. Actually, I'm not even sure if there was any spell damage gear in the game at all when it was first released - certainly not on anything before Molten Core.
Come on let us not forget the gold-flecked gloves from Sneed in deadmines!

[TheBigBB]

Yeah, and back in those days, the game wasn't itemized properly until you hit raids, so the regular instances were designed for casters with zero spell damage. Actually, I'm not even sure if there was any spell damage gear in the game at all when it was first released - certainly not on anything before Molten Core.
Come on let us not forget the gold-flecked gloves from Sneed in deadmines!

I don't think those originally had spell damage on them, though I could be wrong. Blizzard definitely redid a lot of old world items, that's for sure.

[Hachoo]

I 3 box: Prot Pally, BM Hunter and Elemental Shaman. They're all 78 atm.

Yesterday, I cleared normal Drak'Tharon Keep with just the three of them. I have no idea if I will be able to do Heroics but I'm going to try. 95% of trash is no problem, but some bosses in normal have been a road block. I either don't have enough DPS or healing.

However, I think there is huge potential there. My shaman, even geared and spec'ed for elemental, can still heal really really well. In fact, he'll DPS most of a fight and throw an occasional heal onto the tank or a chain heal to the group. When I hit 80, I'll spec the shaman full resto.

Honestly though, I think the bigger issue isn't the group, but my over all ability to handle an encounter (ie. the mechanics) and that's going to be a problem 3 or 5 boxing. You just have less room for error with 3 boxing.This pounds the point home IMO. You cleared the instance with 3 people that were 4 levels above the instance level. Doing this with 3 at level 74 would have been nigh impossible and so doing it on heroic at 80 WILL be impossible as even the easiest heroic is generally harder than the hardest non-heroic (not specifically for multiboxers just in general).

Seriously, if it was ever possible to 3 man ANY heroic instance, it would be a total fluke that it happened (MASSIVE luck, you'd never be able to farm them).

What you're best off doing is running 3 and getting a healer and 1 DPS to run instances with you. Finding a DPS will be easy and if you gear your tank out to the teeth then finding a healer to "join your heroic with a tank overgeared" will be easy.

Edit: And yes all the non epic gear pre BC that has spell damage on it did not have spell damage on it before BC came out. They retooled a TON of instances and instance items post BC that gave lower level gear +spell damage. Pre BC You only got spell damage gear in MC and beyond. The gear in MC hardly had any of it (my warlock's felheart set had like 140 or something lol). You really had to hit Naxx before you got GOOD spell damage gear.

Point being, 3 manning a pre BC instance is massive cake right now, and even pre BC it wasn't nearly as hard. Pre BC level 60 instances are the equivalent of level 70 non heroics in difficulty, not level 70 heroics. You could see fresh level 70s with mostly blues solo'ing almost all pre-BC instances but I bet you you won't see anyone except maybe a (massively overgeared) prot paladin or feral druid solo a 70 heroic at 80.

[Dumbfounded]

Yea, there wasnt much +spell gear prior to epics from raids, can only think of the Royal Seal of Eldre'Thalas (warlock) trinket from Dire Maul atm, but then i think that was added in the MC patch anyways.

owells, will have to buy two more accounts, thanks for bringing me back to earth everyone =D

might have to rename my main to "Dreamer"....

[TheBigBB]

Yea, there wasnt much +spell gear prior to epics from raids, can only think of the Royal Seal of Eldre'Thalas (warlock) trinket from Dire Maul atm, but then i think that was added in the MC patch anyways.

owells, will have to buy two more accounts, thanks for bringing me back to earth everyone =D

might have to rename my main to "Dreamer"....

Don't feel bad. Even if doing a heroic with 3 is possible or even something you could have accomplished, the headache from it might not have made it any fun at all.

[heffner]

...or just pick up two other people when you want to run an instance? Especially if you spec one shaman resto you shouldn't have too much trouble. Just have to go back to dealing with the tools until you find a few regulars to run with.