Start a new Mixed Group

[daanji]

Hello all!

I'm gotten bored of my x5 shamans group and wanted to try a new mixed group. This will be my second team to level so far.

Here is what I got, all at level 60.

Warrior (Tank)
Mage (fire)
Priest (heals)
Warlock (afflication)
Hunter (marksman)


My goal is to level them to 80 ASAP, but since I've never seriously played these classes before, I'm not sure where to start.

I was hoping someone could point me to pre-existing click macros ( or a basic rotation, which I could then create the click macros for myself) for level 60 ish. I checked the Wiki, and got some ideas from there. Though, for some classes is appears they are either incomplete or outdated. And of course, those are for level 80 toons, not level 60.

Any input would be greatly appreciated :)

[zenga]

While i can't help you with actual macro's, you might want to consider if it's *worth it * to want the ideal macro at lower levels, since you don't have all spells. Not to mention that it's for 5 different classes. Depends of course how you want to level up: questing - boosting or running instances with your team. For the latter it's pretty obvious that you need all your abilities. I'd even say it might be better to learn it the 'good' way at 80, rather than having to change and adapt a few times while leveling up (in case you have multiple spam buttons, obviously not for just 1).

Myself i'm in the process of leveling several teams to 80, with a mix between boosting them through instances and questing. I've found a lvl 80 shaman to be a great booster in the lvl 60-70 range. Definitely in the ramparts, where a pally is utterly boring, despite the mega pulls he can do (consecrate things down, annoying casters that won't move, disarms, knock backs, ... my shaman can really do it 3-4 minutes faster per run, and is way less boring. For the lvl 70 dungeons i use 2 shaman (since i have to do it twice anyway for a full 5 man group). My dual specced ele/resto shaman as ele with resto gear wins here, since he never runs out of mana.

Basically i just quest, and when i run out of fast quests i go do some boosting (well actually mostly the other way around: boost while having rested time, quest while out of RT). For my questing i use a very basic toolbox: my priest healer for example is using holy nova, a bigger heal for each toon and 1 group heal (forgot names), and thats it. My 3dk's in that team have each a keybound deahtgrip, and a very basic castsequence macro: startattack and then 3/4 spells. Which means an instant kill on most mobs.

[daanji]

So you recommend boosting as the fastest way to go? I was planning on doing questing / instances with this 5-mans groups. Hence, the need for better DPS macros.

Perhaps I should just boost since I already have 8 80s. (pally, dk, druid, x5 shamans)

I suppose the reason I didn't want to do that is I wanted to level 5 at once. However, what you said makes sense.


So you swap one of the toons out for a level 80 and run an instance. Then you run the instance a second time, but this time you swap the first guy back in and swap another guy out for a different level 80?

When you get bored of instances, you just doing questing inbetween with the 5 toons you are leveling.

So, if my goal is to get to level 80, how many hours in /played should I expected doing the fastest method possible?

[zenga]

Well recommend is a big word. It's the way that fits my playing style best. I can't do the same thing over and over for too long (except maybe if it's a first time). About the boosting: yeah i usually run with 1 shaman in ramparts & mana tombs, and with 2 in shat halls. Sometimes i just add other toons to the run to get them up as well, but those are more fillers and have no priority. I see that i get about 1k per mob killed all the time, sometimes its 900 and sometimes 1100 xp, 2 shammies (lvl 80s) give less xp. Once they hit lvl 72 i will be running with my geared 80 tank through the instances with the 3 dk's and a dps shaman. The other 2 toons will be accompanied by 3 lvl 80 shammies (since there should be no longer and xp penalty as far as i know when they are within 8 levels). And probably do some less annoying quests.

About /played ... i have no clue. I think i did 55-70 in about 15 hours on a dk. My /played time does not reflect the actual time played, since i'm afk about 80% of the time, if not more.

But regardless of how exactly i do it, boosting in rested time and questing while purple tend to work best for me.

Ualaa has described in other threads how to boost toons to 68 by killing mobs in howling fjord with shamans (with stoneclaw, stoneskin & magma totem), where your 80's are outside the lowbie group, and where you tag the mobs and the 80s totems kill it (considered pets). That should be the fastest way, but it's rather brainkilling.

[Nighthawk38]

Daanji,

If I may offer up my 2 cents worth.. Start by looking through the Macro Compendium. It's an awesome resource for macros for every class. And my personal suggestion would be, whether boosting or questing, begin learning your macros and abilities NOW. I run a mixed class team, and the learning curve for all the different abilities and spells, plus the timing and coordination of them, can be very steep. Even if you need to modify the macros due to a lack of lvl 80 talents or spells, it's better to start using them and practicing now, rather than wait until you are 80, and realizing you can't clear a single instance. It can become rather frustrating.

Also, as far as your group makeup goes... I would STRONGLY recommend changing your hunter from marksman to survival. I ran my hunter a marksman until very recently, and until you hit very high gear levels, you are going to be disappointed in his DPS output. Survival will give you better DPS until he gets geared up.

[zenga]

Well that's another point of view what nighthawk38 offers. Shows again that there is no 'ideal' way to go for all. What works for one might not work for someone else. I found myself overwhelmed by all the new spells, talent trees, glyphs, etc ... and the more when i got a new important spell and got to change my setup again (while still learning). But his point makes sense as well :)

[Coltimar]

I agree with NIghthawke. I had a mixed team (two in fact) that were RAF teams and I started with them at 80. I started by doing macros in layers.

For example my shadow priest's macro was basically shadow word:pain, mind blast, mind flay until the next mind blast, repeat until SW:P wore off and repeat. I used that until 71. Then I added in Vampiric Touch, Vampiric Embrace, Mind Sear, etc. as I learned how to use them.

Go to yon wiki (http://www.dual-boxing.com/wiki) and find some marcos there. You can just replace abilities you don't have with commas. It really helps to play each class solo at least a little, but that sort of defeats the purpose of boxing :/

I have some macro examples on my blog http://coltimar.com/blog but those are basically stolen, compiled and customized from here. They just show what I use on my toons.

Good luck!

[lightstriker]

What 38 said! Also use the wiki it has them all in one place. No matter how you level them, expect to do alot of testing macr0s them eventually. I do some swapping and switching /macros for situations too. Like Keristrasza in the Nexus, I pull out all my long cast spells.

[Mercurio]

I've gotten 6 mixed groups up to 80 and I've found the fastest thing up until 68 is boosting. After 68 or so questing is the fastest (especially as Alliance, they have FAR fewer collection quests for some reason).

Also, you really need to change your mage to arcane (upped my mage's DPS by 35% or so - wow!) and your lock to Destro (affliction requires way too much micro-management to be competitive with destro).

The mage macro is stupid simple too - look up a thread started by "pinotnoir" here about arcane mage macros - I use the ones he came up with.

Mixed classes take a while to get set up, but that's part of the fun of it! I enjoy them MUCH more than single- or duo-class teams.

[Spook]

I don't know what you're using for software, but I just use the standard blizzard interface, and I have one issue with multi-boxing a hunter as a NON main. After ever combat, before moving I have to hit the follow button, as his ranged attacks seem to break follow, probably due to auto shot. My other casters never have that issue. I think Jamba or something would likely make that a non issue, but I don't use it. (I use HKN, Tom Tom, & Recount Lite, and nothing else!)

And with the Hunter, macro EVERYTHING!! Otherwise, he'll find some way to shoot something that you didn't intend, or send his pet to pull everything in sight! :eek: That's not really a problem questing, as your goup will be so powerful they can deal with anything that agro's, but in instances, it can be deadly.

[Catamer]

here is what I've found... melee groups rule at the lower levels ( 0-60 )
5x pally, 4x warrior + healer and 3 hunter, tank, healer
spell casters can't hit the side of barn when something is +5 over their level while melee & hunters don't have this problem. I can kill stuff that is high enough to display a skull over it's head ( +9 or +10 ) in stranglethorn with my level 32 warriors while the same level 32 priest would just go OOM trying to get a single spell not to miss. The priests wand never hits either while my warrior guns rarely miss. It's so off balance it's unbelievable.

I leveled a 5x warlock team to 70 before and didn't really need a healer until 60 but I did it by only killing stuff I could hit. melee teams have much less down time, they don't eat/drink as much and I find them to lots of fun.

[daanji]

Thanks for all the feedback guys.

I changed my setup based on your suggestions.

Tank - Level 80 Prot Pally
DPS1 - Level 63 Arcane Mage
DPS2 - Level 63 Survival Hunter
DPS3 - Level 63 Destro Warlock
DPS/Heals - Level 63 Holy Priest / Shadow Priest


I'm using the boosting method now. I booted from level 59 to 63 and I'm currently running through Setthek Halls.

Currently, a full clear of Setthek Halls takes about 20 minutes. Is this normal? Or is it a bit slow?

My paladin has a gear score of 4519 and its mostly tank gear.

I'm wondering if I should wear Ret gear in tank spec to speed things up? I don't have ret gear though, but could acquire a few pieces.