I took the plunge!

[ragawaga]

I've been about here for a wee while. I've 5 boxed toons while boosting through instances to use up RAF bonus, but other than that, I've only "properly" multi boxed with 2 warlocks. I've used them (unsuccessfully) in arenas, bgs and instances......but mainly questing/dailys.

I've been admiring the 5 boxers for a long time....and have also been a bit bored...so decided to give proper 5 boxing a shot. So I'll use my existing prot pally as the tank with 4 shaman. I currently have 3 at around level 60 (although one on the pally account). I'm levelling 2 up using RAF.

So the plan will be that when the 2 new ones are 60, I'll either
- level a group of 4 (excluding the one on the pally's account)
- level the 4 and have the pally in the group to help things along
- level the 5 shaman together so I'll have a group I can use in PvP

Having 5 of them for PvP is pretty appealing...however will levelling 5 instead of 4 sap my will to live with the extra time on collection quests?



Another question...at 80 when doing instances....can 1 prot pally and 4 ele shaman do heroics...or would I need a designated healer?

[boxblizzard]

Another question...at 80 when doing instances....can 1 prot pally and 4 ele shaman do heroics...or would I need a designated healer?

you can do heroics just with shaman not alone a with a prot, can be done no problems especially with a prot pally which is easily macro'd

[ragawaga]

Cool, I already have the pally using a 969 macro for solo play tanking. When I get the new shaman to 60 I'll just need to get their macros sorted....that shouldn't be too much of a problem with all the information here :)

I also already use ISBoxer and have an xkeys....so most of the work is done :) I have to admit, I'm quite exited about doing it.....if only work didn't get in the way ;)

[Ualaa]

When you are first starting heroics, its a lot easier with a dedicated healer.
It is never required.
As you gear up some, most of us move towards 4x Elemental all the time.
I've got one shaman who is dual spec Elemental/Resto.

As far as leveling goes, mix it up.
Quest some, instance some and pvp some.
Take breaks whenever it starts to feel slow.
If you have another team you can play for an evening or three, that can help.
For a lot of the collections, everyone can loot, so be sure to assist the leader and interact with the corpse on everyone.

I would go Shaman x5, until the catch up to the Paladins level.
Then level Shaman x4 + Paladin.
And put the pally in the group at any level, if you feel like instancing.

[ragawaga]

I might get away with not having the resto to start with. The pally is pretty well geared. I'll see how I get on when they hit 80. The pally is capped in BS, so will be able to at least make them the crafted shield and mace to get them started. My GF is capped in LW too...so can probably get some goodies from her to help gear up.

[shaeman]

What's the crafted shield for the shaman? All my shaman are running with dodgy shields as I haven't downgraded emblems to get the 35 heroism shield.

[ragawaga]

...you know...it might be the one that's bought with emblems. I don't know the name of it....but it has the symbol of the kirin tor on it.

[Ualaa]

I think you'd be fine in a mix of quest green/blues with the odd drop.
On all of your toons and just starting heroics.

Let's say your group is Prot Pally x1 and Elem Shamans x4.
You have full dps on trash, and everyone has Lesser Healing Wave and Chain Heal on hotkeys.
When you need heals, your dps stops, but its fast and big healing done.

Conversely, if you go Prot Pally x1, Elem Shaman x3 and Resto Shaman x1.
You have less dps on trash, you still have Lesser Healing Wave and Chain Heal (everyone casts) emergency keys.
But you also have Earth Shield on the tank, for a lot of passive heals.
And you can 1x cast Lesser Healing Wave, Healing Wave and Riptide, for effective heals without stopping your dps.
When the content is challenging for your gear level, a resto makes things a lot easier.

But you can certainly get by without ever having a resto in the party.
4x Elemental is enough healing.

If you have the gold (and you should with one day of dailies)...
You can dual-spec one of the shammies.
So you have Elemental x4 and Elemental x3 + Resto x1.
On anything that is hard, change specs to Resto and make it a lot easier.
But on the trash or anything on farm, go full Elemental and win a lot sooner.

Prioritize gearing the tank.
A geared tank makes things a lot easier, much more so then anything else geared.

Heroics are basically Naxx10 challenge.
A few pieces of Naxx25, Ulduar10, Ulduar25, Toc10 or Toc25 level gear...
Can really help the tank trivialize content a lot sooner.

[ragawaga]

Here's a link to my tank on wow-heroes. I would link armory, but I was in holy spec/gear when I last logged out.

http://wow-heroes.com/index.php?zone=eu&server=Ravenholdt&name=Melchi%C3%A1h

[ragawaga]

The shamans are 42 now :)

[ragawaga]

They're now 56 and boosting through ramparts for the final RAF levels.

I decided to level them as a 5 shaman team. At 80 I'll use the 5 shaman for PvP and dailies.....and for instances will swap in the pally.

I haven't used any of their talent points yet....does anyone have a link for a good ele levelling spec to use at 60 and some suggestions for the points thereafter?

[Ualaa]

At 60th, I would be something like this: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hyc0qcdIthfzVo:pZM0
That includes leveling talents which you won't want at 80th, such as Convection, and Unrelenting Storms (once you have a lot of gear).

At 80th, a PvP spec will be similar to: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hVIVqcd0tGfuAo0gRco:MbcMc
The hit talent in Elemental is worthwhile, until you get 4% hit from gear + racial. I'd have component free Water Walking and Water Breathing on the team via glyphs.

[ragawaga]

I ended up creating a spec before logging for the night (and before your post Ualaa).

http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Ravenholdt&n=Yachaak&group=1

Given that they've not got the best gear (in fact one is completely naked....it was on a RAF account and was only levelled to get RAF XP on the other account.....the character was even named Throwaway as it was never my plan to use) I thought that the 10% extra mana would be useful to help keep casting...and instant cast ghost wolf in case I needed to run would be good....at least for a few levels until I've gotten some of the starting gear in outlands and have gotten used to playing them.

Am I right in thinking that Totem of Wrath doesn't stack....and therefore I should only really use one of the shaman to spec points into it?

[Ualaa]

It's up to you on that one.

I've had them all spec into it, and take the Glyph.
I have them all drop a ToW, which gives them +84 spell power for 5 minutes.

Then I drop my totem farm macro, which only includes one ToW.

If you're not going to glyph ToW, I'd have only one take it.

[ragawaga]

Well, I finally got ISBoxer/Innerspace setup for the 5 toons last night and made my way out into the world. Only 1 of the team has all of the totems..the rest didn't have fire and water...with 2 of them not even having earth!!

I bumped into a few people along the way who thought it was cool....made some stars for a guy to take some screenshots of. Just before logging for the night, I decided to go quickly to HFP to try out my pew pew on some mobs and get slow flying....was great. Can't wait to get my totem quests done so I can start playing properly. Have to say that ISboxer is just awesome for this. The PiP and jamba strobe changing is seamless. I think I'm gonna love this!

When I've got the totems done and starting quests for gear, I'll be having a shot in the battlegrounds. I quite like the thought of the team riding on the red undead pvp mounts rather than the wolfs.

[Maxion]

When I was leveling my 5 shamans, I set up a spreadsheet to decide who should drop which totems and when (since back then they were in castsequences, which i still do, one shaman drops their set at a time, so i can still stagger my tremors and cleansings). :)

And yes the kirin tor symbol shield you were thinking of is the 35 heroism one.

[Ualaa]

That's a neat idea, staggering the 4x drops.

I've been doing 4x drops, which include only 1x Tremor.
And then another key for Tremor staggers.