Starting my first 5 box team...

[Turisa]

so the most I had ever done before this was 3 boxing (which was 1 priest and 2 shammies)... and I didn't do it that much to begin with... I 2 boxed for about 90 levels in total... so I have a good feeling for how to do that... however... I wasn't using maximizer at that time or anything...

In any case... I'd been debating this change for a while... I'm attempting prot pally with 4 ele shammies... I feel this will be able to get me through pretty much every 5 man in the game and permit me to possibly sell some 2k arena ratings :evil: (though albeit will take a lot of practice).

At this moment in time they're all sitting at level 6. I rolled alliance for this mainly because I wanted to try a change... but the disadvantage to this is it's gonna be a while til I can go into an instance and start grinding that way. So I'm stuck questing... my first question here would be what is the best way to get that 1-17 hump done (without powerleveling). On top of that, with dual boxing I can get away with only a couple macros; however, I already have a crap load more macros in just my questing that I have done so far. As all of you are far more experienced in this regard... what do I need to know about running instances alone (Outside of 'it's harder'). and what should I have at my disposal for macros?

[mikekim]

the early levels are not that bad in the alliance starting areas. the Dranei starting area will see you to the mid teens. (and the storyline is not too bad either)

as for team composition, in the early stages you shouldn't need more than a couple of macros:
(tag with the pally and burn down with the shammies)

FOLLOW / FOCUS MACRO

/target leadcharcharactername
/focus
/follow

SHAMMY DAMAGE MACROS (casts on pallies target)

/cast [target=focustarget] lightning bolt

/cast [target=focustarget] earth shock

/cast [target=focustarget] flame shock

SHAMMY HEAL MACROS (heals pallies target - or pally if none selected)

/cast [target=focustarget,help,nomod][target=focus,nomod] lesser Healing Wave

/cast [target=focustarget,help,nomod][target=focus,nomod] Healing Wave

[Turisa]

I suppose I didn't include my macros I'm currently using...

I haven't done much with focus as of yet... my current macros are as follows:
Invite macro (for inviting all chars to party)
Target pally
Assist Pally
Follow Pally
Lightning Bolt: #showtooltip Lightning Bolt /assist pally /cast lightning bolt
Healing Wave: /target pally /cast Healing Wave
Heal Self: /cast [target=player] Healing Wave

the current pitfalls that I see myself getting into are - trouble with pulling things as they all just kinda follow the tank rather closely, randomly not correctly facing the target (which has happened a few times), taking random target specific damage (thinking of making a heal macro for each of the players individually that I could hit... binding to shift+number), and just positioning issues in general - standing in stuff or being too close to the tank while doing ranged attacks.

Also - is it even worth it to bind Earth Shock? I mean of course I could use it to interrupt casts... but blowing it on all 4 shamans seems like a waste. Not really sure there is much to interrupt until northrend either to be honest... Also not totally sure what I'm going to do with totems... but that will come with time I'm sure.

In any case... 5 box questing really sucks imo... can't wait to start doing instances.

[lordmythic]

I use Interact with Target bound to a key to get my other melee characters facing the right way...but if you think they are following closely you can set follow strobe to a different number. I don't use this instead I have a key mapped for the characters to go back that doesn't pass to my main, so when my main is about to pull or stealth or what have you, I then press back for the other toons to break follow, far enough away but still close to do ranged attacks. I'm sure others have easier solutions like Region mapping or such but this works for me. Interact with target really helps with questing too.. if you have to get 5 of something for instance (I only do the collection quests that open other chains) I usually target the dead mob and have all of my toons interact with target, eventually they will all get the 5 they need.

[Helmer]

having recently started 5 boxing. i cant give u any tips specifically on that set up... yet :) but on my main server i tank/heal my own instances multiboxing... focus and assist targeting is very useful. but most important thing is planning, make sure to plant ur ranged dps/healers somewhere out of the way thats still in range of ur tank. also make sure not to leave ur slaves in the way of a pat :)

[Tonuss]

You've got the basic macros that you need (assist main, follow main, cast spell, etc). As you go along you'll run into issues that are made much easier by creating new macros or modifying existing ones.

For outdoors questing, don't worry about the paladin, just target mobs and nuke. Yes, I would bind Earth Shock as a "finish it off" button or just for an extra insta-cast burst of damage. You will want to modify your approach in instances, but that also changes over time. It's a process, but it gets easier as you learn (in other words, you may die a LOT in your first instance runs, but once you get the hang of it you will be surprised at how smooth it goes).

[Ualaa]

I use the Click Castsequence macro's.

My pallies is something like this:

#show Holy Shield
/stopmacro [mod:alt]
/click BottomLeftActionBarButton10

Then I have my 96969 macro on that button.

For my shammies I have a three stage macro, using the Click Castsequences.
Something like:

#show Lava Burst
/click BottomLeftActionBarButton10
/click BottomLeftActionBarButton11
/click BottomLeftACtionBarButton12

With Flame Shock on 10, Lava Burst on 11 and Lightning Bolt on 12.

At your level, Flame Shock on 10 and Lightning Bolt on 12 would work nice.
The Click castsequence thread shows you how to have multiple sequences and basically auto refresh spells (Flame Shock every 18 seconds - or however long it lasts), by just spamming one button.

The biggest thing I like actually is the ability to have the Pally do nothing.
There isn't space in a 96969 macro for a stopmacro line.
With Divine Plea, the pally has infinite mana basically, as long as she hits things.
Her mana goes very quickly without Divine Plea.

[Darelik]

I use the Click Castsequence macro's.

The biggest thing I like actually is the ability to have the Pally do nothing.
There isn't space in a 96969 macro for a stopmacro line.
With Divine Plea, the pally has infinite mana basically, as long as she hits things.
Her mana goes very quickly without Divine Plea.

sorry, could u pls explain "The biggest thing I like actually is the ability to have the Pally do nothing."


as a reply for the OP, i highly suggest utilizing the FTL setup and also /click to cast for macros.