Mixed team with existing chars or start new?

[killkat]

Been away from WoW for a while, and thinking about returning and give 5box a try. I've tried 3box shamans in tbc, but only got up lvl 20ish. I have 2 accts with several lvl 80 chars with ilvl200-226 gears.
<Account 1>
pally (dps/heal gear), warrior (tank/dps gear), shaman (ele), warlock
<Account 2>
dk (dps gear), druid (moonkin gear)

I'm looking for a "easy and relax" approach, so from what I've read, pally tank + druid heal + ele shaman + warlock + warrior dps ? How hard would it be to operate this setup and how well would it fare in heroics ?

Or should I just start with a new team?

Thanks for any comment/suggestions.

Oh and it's mainly for pve

[zenga]

The setup you suggest doesn't look like an easy / relaxed setup to me. Melee mixed up with ranged spell dps is probably one of the harder combo's. The most straight forward combo is for me pally tank + 4 ele shaman (one dual resto spec). You basically only need 1 spam button to do everything at once (heal, tank, dps).

If you are going 5 box, why not make use of RAF and go for 1 or more new teams? Ualaa has posted very useful info in many of his posts on this board. When you have a prot warrior/pally you can boost a team from 0 to 60 in a day/weekend. If you boost another team from 0 to 30, you can use your first team to grant levels to your 2nd, so you end up with 2 teams at 60.

Just check the sticky threads, there should be a RAF topic which covers this in detail.

[Khatovar]

I use a mix of ranged and melee DPS, it's really not that bad seeing as healers are "ranged" anyway. It's just a matter of either putting a /follow tank macro in your pull slot on the melee DPS, or not having them break follow when you "drop off" the healer and ranged.

I don't know about the warrior, though, I'd probably use the DK instead since they can just bring so much more to the table.

[killkat]

Thanks for the info. I suspected my existing chars won't make an easy setup. Also I wont be able to use RAF, I have the accounts already, but only 2 accounts have lvl 80 chars.

[killkat]

I don't know about the warrior, though, I'd probably use the DK instead since they can just bring so much more to the table.

Would DK be harder to manage with rune CD to watch for?

[Ualaa]

<Account 1>
pally (dps/heal gear), warrior (tank/dps gear), shaman (ele), warlock
<Account 2>
dk (dps gear), druid (moonkin gear)


You have two accounts, and plan on five boxing, which means three additional accounts.

Might as well RAF, since you'll be doing new accounts anyway.
I would RAF Link, from Account 2 (purely because of fewer toons then Account 1).

If you will RAF several sets, link them like this:
2 -- 3 -- 4 -- 5

If you will only RAF the minimal number of toons, to make a team:
2 -- 3
2 -- 4
And RAF 5, from one of 2, 3, or 4.

This lets you boost with a geared tank (Pally or Warrior).

I'd probably do 3 to 4 sets of new toons, but that is up to you.
In addition to the toons you need for your PvE team, consider...
- An all caster team.
- An all melee team (DK + 4x Rets is popular).
- Another team, of anything that sounds interesting... boosting an even number of (sets of) toons, is good for cascading granted levels.

1-60 will be very fast with a booster.
01-10 Questing with booster in party to slaughter everything quickly.
11-20 (Horde) Shadowfang Keep
11-16 (Alliance) Deadmines
16-20 (Alliance) Stockades
20-45 Scarlet Monastery
45-55 Stratholme (Locked Gate) or Scholomance
55-60 Ramparts.

For easy mode, PvE, you'll want to end up with:
-- Paladin (Tank)
-- Warlock (DPS)
-- Shaman 1 (DPS + Heals)
-- Shaman 2 (DPS + Heals)
-- Shaman 3 (DPS + Heals)
You only need the one spec (Elemental) on the shammies; three can handle heals easily.

If you're willing to do character transfers, after RAF I'd:
a) move the Shammy from Account 1 to Account 3, 4, or 5.
b) move the Warlock from Account 1 to a different account from the Shammy.

Which would mean leveling at least two shammies, across accounts 2-5.

If you're not willing to do character transfers, then you'll want three shammies and a warlock as your first boosted team.
Or consider the Boomkin (Account 2) instead of the warlock on the team; they require you to manage Eclipse procs, which is an extra thing to track, but either Boomkin or Warlock gets you the 13% spell power boost.

[killkat]

Ualaa (http://www.dual-boxing.com/member.php?u=16339), thank you for the very detailed info. Unfortunately, I forgot to mention in the original post that I can not use RAF as I have all 5 accounts already, but only 2 accounts with lvl80 chars, and the other 3 contains lvl70 or less chars with redundant classes (or classes I dont plan to use, eg. rogue).

My options are either to transfer existing chars to the other accounts, or leveling a new team. I want to find out is it possible to make an "easy and relaxed" setup with my existing chars, I don't want to transfer the chars and then find out they dont really work very well together. If it's going to take alot more work and cause alot more headache, I'd rather just go leveling a new team.

cheers

[Khatovar]

Would DK be harder to manage with rune CD to watch for?

There's threads around about various DK sequences. And you can take a look at a sample Unholy Macro Sequence (http://www.dual-boxing.com/wiki/index.php/Macro:Using_Click#Death_Knight). I think there's a lot more information in the threads here about DK {both DPS and tanking} than Warriors. Check this subforum and the PvP forum {a number of people doing DKs in Arena} .

[Ualaa]

Well, I'd say the easiest team for 5-man progression through heroics is:

Prot Paladin tank.
- Uses the mashable 96969 macro, which is good for both single and aoe threat.
- Has Kings, which is good for all casters, or optionally Wisdom if you don't use a Mana Totem.

One of: Warlock or Boomkin.
- Adds either MotW + Thorns + B.Rez or Imp Sta + Soul Stone + Healthstone + Summon.
- Adds 13% spell power to the casters on the team.
- I think a Boomkin brings more, but a Warlock is much easier in play (nothing to manage but dps).

And then go with 3x Shaman.
- Gets you strong ranged DPS.
- Covers every totem you'll want.
- 3x Elemental, can heal anything you'll do as a 5-man group.

3x Shaman's means boosting 2x Shammies to join the others.
You could go with 1x shammy boosted, and add the boomkin to the team.
It is still an all caster team, and a lot of caster buffs.

A trick to consider too...
You can purchase World of Warcraft (classic game, not a battlechest).
And then RAF link from an existing (keeper) account to a (disposable) basic account.
Do this with one or two accounts, depending on the number of toons you want to boost, to join your existing group.
The disposable accounts can be humans or orcs, it doesn't matter.
All that counts, is they're close to the level of the toon you are boosting, and are grouped and RAF linked etc.
It will cut 1-60 into 1/3rd the normal time, but cost a few bucks.

[killkat]

Thanks for everyone's help, I think I've got a good grasp on the situation now, I'll go with the tank+3x shamans+1 approach.

One more question, how does tank+ 4x dps deal with healing? Do you assign one of the shamans to heal as needed or is there some system for this? I remember Heroics not being THAT easy to heal through when I last played, specially for newly dinged lvl80s.

[J6mpsikas]

So if i like BG pvp should i go with the same setup: pala+3shaman+lock or with pala+4shaman ?

[zenga]

Thanks for everyone's help, I think I've got a good grasp on the situation now, I'll go with the tank+3x shamans+1 approach.

One more question, how does tank+ 4x dps deal with healing? Do you assign one of the shamans to heal as needed or is there some system for this? I remember Heroics not being THAT easy to heal through when I last played, specially for newly dinged lvl80s.

you can dual spec 1 shaman dps/resto. If the heals in dps mode of your 4 shammies are not enough, you can always change him to resto and make a dedicated healer from him (loosing dps but gaining riptide/earth shield).

[Ualaa]

3x Elemental, is sufficient healing for all 5-man content.
3x Elem. put out a lot more dps then 2x Elem + 1x Resto, which results in the boss dead sooner, not to mention trash.
The disadvantage of 3x/4x Elemental healing, is loss of dps while healing, but the advantages far outweigh this.

If you are undergeared for what you're doing, or are unsure of the tactics for the encounter, or are prone to mistakes, or leaving toons in puddles of acid etc..
Then having one dual-spec'd to Resto as well, makes it much easier to survive.
But any time you switch to Resto spec, you are making the encounter take longer.




For pvp, shammies have very strong controlled burst.
Not sure that the warlock has that, although 13% spell power boost is still quite nice.

Chances are the Paladin will be the weak link of the team.
Given that everyone else can attack at ranged, but they need melee range to fight.
If possible, sub the Paladin out, for someone who can cast/shoot from range.
At least, while running a caster based team.

Not really sure on the "ideal" composition of casters for battlegrounds.
It might be 5x Shaman, for the controlled burst and totem support.
Or perhaps 4x Shaman + 1x something else.
A frost mage, for the snare/freeze effects, with 4x shammies might be quite nice.
The warlock still gets you the 13% spell power.

[J6mpsikas]

what you think from 4 shammys and druid dualspeced feral/boomkin? PvE will suffer from spellpower loss but in BG its full caster team with boomkin buffs. :rolleyes:

[Ualaa]

Pretty decent.
13% spell power, just from having the boomkin cast their spells.

If you manage eclipse procs, the boomkin should be close the shammies in dps.
If you don't, then a bit lower, but you can approximate the wrath/starfire.
Something like Wrath x3/x4 then Starfire x3/x4.

Both classes do well on click castsequences.

The boomkin adds MotW, which has resistances which are good.
Battlerez is something you hope to not need, but can help at times.
Shammies are already immobile, so boomkin doesn't slow the team down at all.

Shammies will cover the heals, so the boomkin won't need to drop their form for heals.

On the other spec, a Feral should be able to tank all 5-man content.
And 4x Shaman is decent dps for PvE too.