5 Box Class Opinion?

[Morganti]

Got a question for those who may have tried this:

I'm preparing to roll 5 new toons and I'm questioning the class of the fifth. I'm pretty sure I want 4 elemental shammy's and X class, where X is either Druid, Warrior, or Shammy. I want to be able to level in instances and run instances at 70 myself, and also be very PVP focused at 70.

My thinking is this:

Druid: CC, can tank instances, and can also spec for balance to do ranged damage with the shammys. This is what I'm leaning towards, but I see very little mention of druids in 5 box setups, so this is my primary reason for asking about the viability.

Warrior: Great tank for the instances, but when I get to 70 PVP he'll be without range and cause a very big headache for me in handling the ranged and melee fight at the same time.

Shammy: The easiest of the three simply because I'll have 5 of the same class. PVP will be the easiest with this setup, but I'm more worried about the lack of a "true tank" for instances if I go this route. I'm really on the fence between the shammy and the druid

I know other 5 boxers like Xzin ran instances without a tank at all, I just don't want to "gimp" my group by making a bad choice early on. I've seen X-Box's 5man shammy group run instances and do fine, but I'm really worried about tank issue.

Also, did you guys who leveled shammy's in groups level up as enhancement or elemental?

Thoughts? Thanks for any feedback.

[Abox]

Why did you not mention pally?

Great buffs, plate, Rez, 3 mob tanking and most efficent heals in game I think :)

Them shaman have massive mana issues.. Having BoW would be nice and also dispells

I don't think leveling as enhancement would work. The alts don't follow close enough to get into melee range. 1 melee and 4 casters would serve you best I think. The melee needs to be your main so you can get in range easy :)

[Shogun]

I'm rolling a pali and 2 shamis this weekend, and once they hit 41 my other shami will join them (only have access to 4 accounts atm, and always have a random friend to join for instances :) )

[overkil2]

Can you run a Pally and 4 mages?

Would the Pally be able to hold aggro while the mages Nuked?

Also, would he be able to heal himself?

Ideally, I would like a Tank, Healer and 3 mages. Not sure if I can handle doing all those at once though.

[Morganti]

The pally isn't a bad idea, but I kind of had him back behind the ranking of the warrior. If he's tanking he cant heal (and I'd have 4 shamans anyway to heal with). They do have some nice things to add to the group (like BoW), but I just don't feel they are as flexible as a druid or as easy to run as the fifth shammy. And in PVP he wouldn't be able to contribute the same DPS...although he would make an excellent target up in the front while the 4 shammy's chain lightning everyone. :)

I had considered the Xzin type of group with the healer/mages, but I have a 70 mage and am kind of tired of the class at the moment. I do fondly recall pbae bomb groups from daoc though, so maybe in the future.....

I just finished setting up my fifth computer tonight, so I have to make this decision soon! ARG!

[Kurgan]

I'm a PvE monkey so I've been doing a lot of thinking as what would be able to smash all normal/heroic instances, while I want to keep it simple, I really want to maximize my options, currently I'm thinking of

Pally/Shammy/3xLocks
Pally/Priest/3xLocks
Pally/Shammy/S.Priest/2xLocks

I think the 4 class option would give me the most synergistic toolset, just not sure how difficult they will be the control.

[kyo]

peronsly i'd go

paladin, priest, 2x mage, lock
pala bufs, stamina from priest & group heals, inbuff 2 sheeps & dps, 1 SS pet & dps

just me $0.02

[aurelieshagwell]

this all sounds too complicated. too many buttons, too many targets etc.

I currently have a 70 paly and a 70 priest, different accounts. Im contemplating 1 play 4x shadow priests.

Shadow has been hugely nerfed since tbc has come out but the damage output is still extremely good when spamming dps. With the 1 paly 4 sp, the SPs could keep targets dotted and the mana/life leech should be able to let the paladin simply keep aggro. I feel this setup would be equally viable with a holy spec. make a macro to target the play and keep it constantly HOTed, use SWP and Smite. Mana might be an issue though.

Does anybody have any feelings on 4/5 pallies? Does melee work with 5 boxing or are the range issues on the followers? 4 or 5 auras would give the palies both ridiculous armour rating and resistances when needed. The mana per sec would also be insane. The damage is a concern for me though.

[Morganti]

Damage would definitely be an issue for multiple pally's. I played 5 shamans to level 6 and started to get the distinct feeling of lots and lots of pain to level those guys to 70. Rolled a priest and 4 mages and have them to 13 (did both groups just this weekend), but with aoe I think the mages have a big time leveling advantage over other groups.

[aurelieshagwell]

the probloem with the pally is the fact it wont be able to sustain cast, too many cooldowns. so melee is definitely out of the question? with 5 of them, +6k armour from devotion auras. With plate and shields thats a hell of a lot of armour. And of course maxed resistances.the survivability would be absolutely immense.

So 4 shadow priests+ paly sounds like a better option does it? Any comments on that? With improved righteous fury, would the play be able to keep aggro? Provided the priests dont spam swd.

[Kurgan]

Auras of the same type from multiple paladins do not stack, i.e. - 800x5 =/= 6000, it is 800, same with resist, so while you could have 1 devo, 1 retri, 1 frost, 1 fire, and 1 concentration going, having 5 devotion auras would be a waste

[aurelieshagwell]

meh. i havent actually grouped with that char, just finished levelling it. well thats that, ill go with 4 shadow priests. we will see about the aggro.