Mage build advice for Prot pally + 4 mages group

[Machoclown]

Hi all,

Rushing trough RAF time I have leveled 4 hunters to 59.

Ultimate goal is to bring all classes (except Warrior) to lvl 59 (Rogue will be the last)

Next group is Prot Pally + 4 mages (at level 16 now) but the problem is I never played a mage so I don't have a clue what build to use.

Will it be Arca, Fire or Ice or some type of hybrid build, I guess a multiboxing group will not be your average solo build. One thing is for sure the mages gets a lot of attention from other players when walking around in SW or IF much more then when I played the hunters.....

Very fun is to Sheep 4 monsters ;) when Pally is building aggro.

Ok now my question any advice what build to use for the Mages? specially for multiboxing purposes of course.

Thanks in advance...

[Angrypuffin]

Why stop at 59? It doesn't cancel RAF if you hit 60 (you just stop getting bonuses for those characters, but you can switch to a new team and the new team will still get RAF bonuses). Going to 60 may be *slightly* less efficient for the purpose of accumulating grantable levels, because I think those are only on odd levels- but that's a silly reason to hold at 59.

Spec-wise, I'll repeat the eternal refrain- what's your goal for the team? If your goal is to do normal 5-mans, you could probably get away with the paladin tanking and doing a lot of the healing (and maybe some of the mages bandaging him periodically). It will not be hard to beat trash when you can polymorph 4 mobs; it will be hard to beat bosses that are balanced around 1 tank keeping aggro full time and 1 healer healing the tank full time.

I used a Paladin build that had Holy Shock and Blessing of Sanctuary when my paladin was level 61 (that's the minimum to get both of those); it worked alright for boosting my team through SM, but I think it would have been challenging to stay alive in an appropriately-leveled instance. Of course, challenge is what we box for. Anyway, focus on figuring out the hard stuff first: how will you keep aggro on your tank and keep him alive? Dealing out lots of damage with the mages will be the easy part.

Note also: Paladin's consecrate will break polymorph.

[Machoclown]

First of all this is my second multibox group so I am still a freshman I guess ;)

"Why stop at 59? It doesn't cancel RAF if you hit 60 (you just stop getting bonuses for those characters, but you can switch to a new team and the new team will still get RAF bonuses). Going to 60 may be *slightly* less efficient for the purpose of accumulating grantable levels, because I think those are only on odd levels- but that's a silly reason to hold at 59."

Ok, I thought when you hit level 60 with a RAF char you could not give the grantable levels away anymore. I will go till level 80 when RAF time is over but want level as many chars possible in RAF time.

"Spec-wise, I'll repeat the eternal refrain- what's your goal for the team?"

Ahhhh my goal, sorry I didn mention that, my goal will be quests and instances if possible. (level as fast as possible) In the end the Mages will be member of a better balanced multibox group. My gameplan is for now.... I see a mob or mobgroup.... the Pally attacks and build agro, a few mobs will be Sheeped, then a full force mage attack per mob till they are all gone. Hopefully the full force attack is deadly enough so that when agro is switched to 1 of the mages the mob will be dead or near dead. That's where I struggle with the build, arcane, frost or fire.....or hybrid...

Thanks for the Consecrate tip


Regards

[puppychow]

frost is the easiest and most dependable multibox-only spec, arcane and fire both have procs to manage that make them too difficult to multibox well (arcane is still better than fire here though). i wouldn't bother with sheeping anything. If you plan to do any multibox PVE stuff at 80 (heroics) you will want a healer.

[Angrypuffin]

I agree that Frost is the dependable way to go, but I think it sacrifices speed. Except that the better control might save you time from corpse-runs.

Arcane might not be a bad choice for fast leveling, though I've never used it myself. You couldn't really use Missile Barrage (+5% dps?), but I don't know what else you'd miss.

1. Mages have lots of insta-casts. Drive-by straggler killings should be no problem- that's fast. (Note the fire talents Incineration and Improved Fire Blast).
2. Arcane Explosion, with Arcane Subtlety, can be used for genuine AoE as long as your paladin is covering it with Consecrate- that's fast too. Just don't pull too many or the paladin might die. (Note the fire talent World in Flames.)
3. Arcane Missiles can be used to kill elites- otherwise it's too slow. A 5 second cast and lots of drinking on account of the mana. But it's got decent DPS, so for elites- that's fast.