Switching to multiple classes/roles

[Ozbert]

So far my multiboxing adventures have consisted of playing five of the same class and spec at a time - 5 elemental shamans, 5 BM hunters, 5 frost mages etc. This is pretty simple, I just have all toons do the same thing at the same time. Using this method the shammies were able to brute-force their way through TBC instances with burst DPS.

Now, I'm hearing that it's no longer possible to brute-force instances In Northrend. Now a proper tank is needed and probably a healer too. With that in mind, I've been levelling a prot pally over the last couple of weeks which I intend to substitute for one of my five elemental shamans and I'm also going to respec another shaman to resto. I'm hoping this will make a pretty solid group for doing Northrend 5-mans and eventually heroics.

However I'm a bit daunted by the prospect of trying to micromanage three different roles simultanously, and I was wondering if anyone could give me some tips. I'm thinking I'll probably have to create rotation macros for each role, a tanking rotation for the pally, a DPS rotation for the elementals and a healing rotation for the resto. I'll put them all on the same key and just spam this all the way through instances. Is that viable?

The other thing I'm wondering about is the level difference between the pally and four shammies. The pally hit 77 last night and I intend to take it to 80 and tank instances for my non-boxing guildies. The shammies are all 70 and have full rested, having been shelved since Wrath released. If a level 80 tanks instances for four level 70's are their XP gains going to be seriously crippled?

Any words of wisdom greatly appreciated.

[Fuzzyboy]

There's a learning curve, but it's not that much harder than 5 of the same class. I made a post about my setup a while back but I can't seem to find it - you can find a copy here:

http://bitling.blogspot.com/2008/11/my-macrouikeyboard-setup.html

It's a bit dated but it should help a bit. I think they key is to get your macros right and get some experience. Start with the easy instances until you have all the key memorized. That way you'll be able to respond to unforeseen things more intuitively. Good luck - it's well worth it :-)

[Fuzzyboy]

Heh, looks like my original thread was bumped. Anyway, here it is:

My macro/UI/keyboard setup (request - LONG) ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=16775')

[genocyde]

The one thing I can suggest from a 5 separate class team is: Don't bind your DPS / Tank / Healing spammer all to the same key. The sooner you get away from this the sooner you start achieving great things. I'm not saying it can't be done this way, but I can gaurantee you will wipe at least once when you get that Oh $#!+ moment and cannot react because you need to act separately. At least do Tank/Heals on one key and DPS on another.

This way you won't wipe to the first boss aggro dump because your tank was attacking and couldn't taunt cause you can't stop spamming heals which are on the same button as tanking and all your DPS was still throwing massive nukes while the tank had no say in the matter. (Ya, it's happened enough times I switched) If you start practicing individual control, you will probably find yourself refining a lot about your multi-class game.

I struggled through instances in northrend while leveling cause of this and now that I've switched I get invited to naxx10 as tank/3xdps/heals (not for all fights yet) with my guild.

[Bigfish]

However I'm a bit daunted by the prospect of trying to micromanage three different roles simultanously, and I was wondering if anyone could give me some tips. I'm thinking I'll probably have to create rotation macros for each role, a tanking rotation for the pally, a DPS rotation for the elementals and a healing rotation for the resto. I'll put them all on the same key and just spam this all the way through instances. Is that viable?

This is pretty much what I do, although I also keep a lot of extra buttons on my tank's bars so I can micro-manage as necesary.

[Svpernova09]

I run an oddly diverse group: DK Tank, Elemental Shaman, Shadow Priest, Balance Druid, Resto Druid.


I tank / dps with 9,8,7,6,5.
I heal with F6-F12, using F1-F5 to target who needs heals.
My DPS has 2 main macros, 1 /follow party1, and 2 /assist party1.
My Healer has the same macros as my DPS but another that I can bind to target a specific party member by name.
I use alt+F1-3, 5-12 for specific stuff to fire off. Such as totems, shadowform, Doomkin Form, decursing, poison removal, battle rez

Using ClickBoxer can make things really, really simple because you can just send a key directly to a wow instance and not worry about unbinding it on each system you DON'T want an action to fire off.

[moog]

I use alt+F1-3

I hope your finger doesn't step one to the right in mid-combat :)

[Svpernova09]

I use alt+F1-3

I hope your finger doesn't step one to the right in mid-combat :)I haven't yet. :_D

I'm waiting to see if anyone asks why I skipped 4 :D

[shaeman]

Hmmm - alt f4 is the ultimate oh shoot button :)

[Bloodcloud]

jep learned the hard way.
I had Greater heal on that button (macro with mod=alt) on F4 :)

While in an instance my main suddenly logged out ... :(
that was confusing at first, then just a *DUH* and a long laugh :)

cheers

[Sam DeathWalker]

level 80 tanks instances for four level 70's are their XP gains going to be seriously crippled?


((2.75 * (basexp * levelmodification) * charlevel / (charlevel + 70))/2 + 1


http://www.wowwiki.com/Formulas:Mob_XP

[TheBigBB]

I strongly suggest having a different set of keys for tank, healer and DPS. Play the tank on your main screen like normal with its tanking keys not bound to anything on the DPS. Have the DPS all have a button with the best DPS castsquence macro you can think up with a couple alternate keys for special situations, like one key for spell interruptions, one key for spellsteal/purge, one key for only instant cast spells for when you need that last quick shot. Have the healer have its own couple of keys for tank healing and maybe a special set of keys for healing individual members, though I think with a priest or druid you can get away with just doing a couple AOE heals here and there when the DPS get hit.

Anyway, you can't have the healer healing at all times because you need to manage mana if you're doing tough content, and you can't have the DPS casting every time the tank does something, because sometimes you need to gain aggro, and maybe the tank missed or got resisted or something.

Having mixed classes isn't that tough though because you will solve all the problems BEFORE you even use them at all. The toughest thing is always setting up the macros. As you play them, you can tweak macros to suit your needs at any time. Really, it's not more work than normal once you're used to it. I have no stress from playing mixed teams at all.

[d0z3rr]

I'd suggest watching videos of people with mixed classes. It will give you an idea of how to play, and you may learn some tricks from them. Helped me. Otherwise it'll be alot of trial and error. I've changed my ui/bindings so many times while leveling the multi class group.

[Perrigrin]

Did the exact same thing :P
jep learned the hard way.
I had Greater heal on that button (macro with mod=alt) on F4 :)

While in an instance my main suddenly logged out ... :(
that was confusing at first, then just a *DUH* and a long laugh :)

cheers

[Techtroll]

I've got a multiclass team (Warrior, Priest, Shaman and Rogue). I do not run instances with them, nor do I use any kind of CC, as I've currently no plans of running any instances with this team. I generally use a no focus setup so I can save focus for where I may need it in the future.

I've got a detailed setup of my team on the Wiki, although the page is not complete yet. It may be of some use, and it may give you some ideas about options you have for setting up a multiclass team.

http://www.dual-boxing.com/wiki/index.php/TT_Girls_Macros

I very recently added my 4th account, and the rogue was added to the team, but she has never been played in the team. Since the rogue is currently 69, I want to level her separately to 70 before she's a full member of the team, only then can I test the macros for the rogue. Some of the tanking macros may not work as they should, and I need to fully test them.

The Shaman used to be Enhancement before Wrath (hence the PVP healing gear :D... it was 'cheap', and readily available ), so I'm used to having a melee character in the team.

[Vuur]

Personally I enjoy multiple classes. You gain a lot of flexibility +buffs that you may not have had with all one class. As you level the team you will find out what works best and start creating your 1 offs for those situations where things do not go as planned. I personally changed up speccs and macros a few times while leveling as I gained more spells and wanted to try different things.


Current teams:
Unholy Death Knight/Moonkin Druid -will be 80 tonight
Enhancement Shaman/ Frost Mage - 62

[Owltoid]

Congrats on getting 80 tonight!

[puppychow]

virtually ANY group can run regular 80 WOTLK instances, you just need to slightly outgear it -- 5 hunters, 5 boomkins, 5 shammies, 5 DKs, 5 Paladins, etc could do most of the regular instances (prob not 5 mages or 5 priests or 5 rogues another very squishy class).

However, for heroics, you will basically want tank+heal+3DPS. You can get by with tank+4DPS if all your DPS can heal, but you will wipe a lot more.

imo the "perfect" setup group is:

DK tank or pally tank
holy priest
ffb/frost mage (ranged) or retadin (melee) or 2h arms warrior (melee)
hunter (melee) or boomkin (ranged)
ele shaman (ranged) or enh shaman (melee)

I run currently prot pally + mage + resto shaman + 2 ele shamans, and will probably swap around toons over the next few months after I hit exalted on the WOTLK factions on my current group. A DK tank is really an awesome tank once geared up, much better imo than a pally or warrior or druid tank for a number of reasons (see PVE forum). A holy priest is by far and away the best healer in game, even after the COH nerf. You want a replenishment person in the group to bump up mana, a frost mage, retadin, spriest, or hunter can fill that roll.

I prefer ranged magic classes over melee classes for multiboxing, but imo either works ok, you just have to work a little harder with a mostly melee group. Some fights will be easier with mostly melee (heroic violet hold, Loken, Nexus, etc) and some will be easier with mostly ranged.

With multi-classing stuff is harder initially imo, but once your guys get geared up the synergy is crazy insane. I look at it from the perspective of "what is going to happen when Blizzard releases THE NEXT HEROIC?" The current heroics are doable by most groups, just need enough gear. But when the next heroic is out, you assume your group is mostly geared out, so what will be the easiest comp? If there are lots of trash/bosses that fear or require CC or major AOE healing then the tank+4 shaman team may reign supreme again.

The one huge advantage in heroic farming that a 4 shaman group has is 4x healing stream totem, it is pretty awesome once your shamans are geared up.

[Basilikos]

I've have had some great success lately with my newly created Mixed group (see sig). Granted, they're still in the Outlands, but they're getting out of it pretty quickly. Instance leveling is great, and I'm likely to just do the kill quests in every zone after I hit 70 so that I can hit Northrend with a little boost. But anyhow...

I'm going to have to echo what people are telling you so far in this thread. The separate controls and keybindings are much easier for me since I'm a full hardware multiboxer, but you can just keep the keybindings on each character type different enough so that the healer isn't doing something odd when you're doing something with the DPS or the tank. Also, any of the characters that can heal have macros that just target each party member, based on the order they appear on my screen (so that I don't have to worry about which button to hit - I just hit the third button if I want to target the character which is third down on my party list on my tank's screen).

Other than that, the basic things you're going to need simply boil down to the ability to move characters in combat (this includes strafing and turning). Also note that you may want to turn off any addon features that cause party members to follow you after they go out of combat. Generally, that can be troublesome in instances when a character, for various reasons, goes out of combat in the middle of a fight. Maybe this is less of a problem for others, but it's certainly something I dealt with.

Aside from that, plan professions well and all that stuff.