Filling out a 10 box team

[Gomotron]

So, having read Mercurio's posts about Naxx10, I am more and more thinking about taking the plunge to 10-boxing content.

I have a team that is DK, 4x Shaman.

I have the hardware to 10-box currently, so that much is taken care of. Am leveling teams to 60 and doing mutliple single-class groups (Druids, Warlocks done, working on Paladins, Mages, Priests). Not going to do Rogues or Warriors.

So what should the other team look like? I am thinking of Tank + 3 DPS + 1 healer. If I am planning to 10-box Naxx, are there classes that I can't really do without? Decursing comes to mind, meaning a respec of a Shaman to Resto or doing something else like a Mage.

Any suggestions?

[Mercurio]

I'm happy to have inspired someone :P

Here is what I'd add to your DK + 4 Shammies (I'm assuming your DK will be tank spec, 3 shammies will be ele and 1 will be resto for most of the raids). This is in order of importance:

#1 Holy Priest. I really only use two healing macros on mine - greater heal the tank and a /castsequence of Prayer of Healing, Circle of Healing, and Holy Nova. Either my tank gets damaged or someone else does. For someone else I spam the AOE heal till everyone is full health. I can't be bothered to single target heal most of the time and this simplifies things greatly. In fact, now that Prayer of Healing can be targeted to other parties, my priests (one per 10-man team) solo heal Loatheb. We always end up at 100% health across the board and my priest at 50%+ mana. Just amazing healers. Oh, and two fabulous buffs that are perfect for caster-heavy teams.

#2 Prot Paladin. Much easier to run as a main tank than a DK (as I've been told by a couple of people who know both classes inside and out). There are some on these boards that can manage them as heroic MTs, but for 10-boxing? You want each class as much on autopilot as possible - way too much going on to micromanage one. Also gives kings - a great buff for every class. Give the option of daul-speccing and respeccing to healing for single tank bosses (of which there are many).

#3 Warlock. I have never run a DK, so don't know if they can use the +13% damage buff in any spec, but if not, you'll always have it with a lock around. They are my highest DPS toons in similar or even worse gear. They can soulstone, and even with all those shammies the lock can rez the team more times per hour than any of them. Summoning portals are awesome - need to repair? No problem, drop a stone, hearth out to repair, get summoned back. No biggie. Want to change out a toon or two? No problem. Want to get a friend to help out? He's there in 30 seconds.

#4 Balance Druid. Though many of the great caster buffs provided by the moonkin form are just repeats of (and don't stack with) elemental shammy totem buffs, balance druids are fabulous for one thing: +3% hit from Improved Fairie Fire. It's a talent all Boomkins should have. The amount of +hit you DON'T need on every single one of your toons if you don't have a boomkin around is crazy. I'd have to swap out 2-3 items on every toon for inferior damage gear that had more hit if my druid wasn't around.

#5 Hunter. There is a TON of non-caster DPS gear that drops in Naxx (and every major dungeon). It would be very inefficient to have all of it sharded and have yet another caster on your team languishing in blues b/c there just isn't enough caster stuff to go around. If you bring a hunter he'll have lots of epic gear in no time and will be doing much more DPS than another caster in blues. The major plus to them in my book is the replinishment you get from survival (which all 3 of my hunters are). Also brings misdirect and aspect of the pack for those few times that you need to run a ways inside a dungeon.

IMHO there are major reasons to bring all five of these classes. Leaving any of them out would be a major loss. That's good news b/c the three you are leaving out don't bring much:

Mage? Int is a nice buff, but that's about it. I have one and never put down a table. Buying 80 teas for every character when I go back to town to repair is a simple thing and costs nothing compared to the cash we boxers get doing a few dailies. Putting down a table and getting all my toons to get food is just another thing to do to "buff up" when you enter a dungeon - buying stuff in town seems less of a hassle to me and I'm never in that situation some of my buddies get in where there is no mage around and they have to beg tea off others. The + crit from scorch or frostbolt is covered by your boomkin. Portals? I never remember to use mine. With 30 min hearth now it isn't a big deal.

I agree with you and Fur on the other two:

Warrior? They can't hold threat nearly as easily as pallies and are more complex to run.

Rogues? I have a 70 rogue on my alliance server. LOLZ - why would a boxer even consider this?

Have fun!

[Mercurio]

Oh, and BTW, I have never used decurse in any of my Naxx runs. I blow it off on Noth and never seem to take damage from it <shrug>. I can decurse, and it is actually bound to a key on my boomkin, but haven't ever needed it.

What I DO need, seemingly all the time, is poison or disease removal. Fortunately for you, you have that covered in spades with all those shammies.

[Enndo]

Thanks for the info. I was also trying to decide what my second team should consist of. Ill give your suggestions a shot.

[Gomotron]

Thanks for the input Fur and Mercurio.

It's funny, I came to WoW from EQ and did old-school hardware boxing with 6 comps and 6 keyboards/mice for EQ. I made a 5 class group when I started WoW because that's what I did when playing EQ, and it wasn't until I hit this site that I found out about Tank/Shaman boxing.

Now I find myself about to start leveling up a 5 class group again!

[LokNarash]

The + crit from scorch or frostbolt is covered by your boomkin.
I guess these both stack, since druid has group aura buff and mage/lock mob spell crit debuff. 10% more spell crit it is.

And I must agree. Mage brings very few unique tools to the team after patch 3.1. Arcane intellect is weak buff. Warlock is the way to go.

[Mercurio]

Ah, OK, thanks for the correction on the mage +crit stacking with the boomkin's.

And a correction right back at ya: the +10% crit was nerfed to +5% in the last patch. I'm looking at my mage right now.

Thanks, glad these boards are around so people can check other people's assertions. Great community :D

[Simulacra]

I know how you feel, my current team is the 1xpally, 4xshammy but I also have 1xlock, 3xmage and 1xholy priest all level 70 in retirement and am thinking oooooohhh naxx......I haven't played them since wrath came out lol but now my macros are a LOT better and my hw is better so I'm thinking mmmm shall I take the plunge..I don't know if I can go through the grind to 80 though >.< Is five boxing the new gimp?

[daviddoran]

I like my mages :) I guess warlocks might do more DPS nowadays, but I can't imagine not using at least one. I mean, portals are awesome!

I am seeing the benefit to having multiple classes though, having all of my toons other than the pally using cloth, means they all get geared very slowly. I had planned on leveling a shaman team and my lock team, but maybe Ill throw in a druid... was thinking resto, but boomkins are nice... choices, choices...

[Bigfish]

Rogues? I have a 70 rogue on my alliance server. LOLZ - why would a boxer even consider this?

A properly specced and geared Combat Rogue is actually pretty nice.

[Greythan]

Not a 10 box comment, but I love my mage as well.

I can't imagine living without the portals. With my team, I can be anywhere and send any of my team almost anywhere and then summon them back. I love it.

Arcane Brilliance is still a nice group buff. There's no denying that.

Good synergy overall.

Now, having said all that, I can intuitively see where the dynamics of a 10 boxer is significantly different from the dynamics for a five boxer.

[Effex]

since getting back into WoW and reading some of Merc posts 10 boxing has been looking appealing to me. Ive got a couple of mates hooked on the idea and the GF Im sure will love the "shiny's!!" heres the setup, its not optimal and the chars are still being lvled so would appreaciate any advice on major issues i may face.

Group1 - my new 5 box group just duel speccing pali prot/holy
Me-Holy Pali
Me-Boomkin
Me-Mage
Me-Holy Priest
Me-ele shammy

Group2
mate with 3xboomkin
other mate with DK (OT)
GF with DK (MT)

the idea being to free me up from tanking so i can macro spam DPs while concentrating on healing

[XeR0X]

I would def go with 2 prot pally tanks! I got 1 prot pally which i love and a dk tank.... the dk tank i jus lvled up with my 2nd team cuz he starts at 55.... i mean he's okay, but in comparison to a pally instead I would perfer the pally LOL

I couldnt do with out my mage =D i always make tables for food and get that AI buff, + portals to everywhere! But then again I don't ever do dailys unless im broke (20g per character LOL) so i dont like paying for food/water LOL

Holy priest ftw! love these things! LOL shammy resto healer doesnt even compare to one =D

I totally wish i had a hunter in my 10 pack, its so true bout all the hunter drops. Feels crappy having to d/e em in to shards LOL

[Mercurio]

From what I've seen, DK tanks are just fine when you have someone solo tanking on them. If you are going to try to tank and DPS and/or heal, you definitely want the prot pally. One nice thing about DK tanks is that you don't need a lock for the +13% damage bonus.

You should be able to do most things with that group setup, Effex, though without a 2nd shaman Heigan will take longer b/c one group will either be dead from the diseases or your DPS will suffer since someone will have to be dedicated to just curing diseases on one group. If it were me, I'd probably put your healers and best DPS in one group, the tank and four throw-aways in another, spam Cure Disease on the tank as part of your heals and let the rest of his group die. It's not like you can't 2-toon Heigan given long enough.

In general, you'll prob want your holy pally single healing your tank(s) and your holy priest doing all the AOE healing, but should work out. Let me know how it goes when you get leveled up.

[Effex]

From what I've seen, DK tanks are just fine when you have someone solo tanking on them. If you are going to try to tank and DPS and/or heal, you definitely want the prot pally. One nice thing about DK tanks is that you don't need a lock for the +13% damage bonus.

You should be able to do most things with that group setup, Effex, though without a 2nd shaman Heigan will take longer b/c one group will either be dead from the diseases or your DPS will suffer since someone will have to be dedicated to just curing diseases on one group. If it were me, I'd probably put your healers and best DPS in one group, the tank and four throw-aways in another, spam Cure Disease on the tank as part of your heals and let the rest of his group die. It's not like you can't 2-toon Heigan given long enough.

In general, you'll prob want your holy pally single healing your tank(s) and your holy priest doing all the AOE healing, but should work out. Let me know how it goes when you get leveled up.

cheers merc, I can probably throw in one of my lvl73 shammies ones there 80 for another clensing totem, the pali healing Mt and priest AOeing was my plan yeah Im reallly loving priest aoe healing ability right now.

with regards to the 13% dmg bonus from DK's its only in unholy spec, we're using frost spec atm to increase mage dmg as the 13% magic dmg bonus comes from the boomkins earth & moon talent and doesnt stack.

as for Heigan Im thinking throw all druids in 1 group, put shammy in the other, and have cure poison / cure disease on self in the dps macro havnt tried it but think that would work