Is Melee Too Hard For 1st Time Multiboxer?

[Nate101pvp]

I am in the process of installing/updating/subscribing to all the WoW stuff tonight, and gung-ho ready with my guides on how to set up the IS Boxer!

I am a lunatic about reading everything I can find about opinions on what the best will be in cat based on beta, and what is successful now, and of course I ask friends what they think.

I keep hearing from my friends that I don't dare try melee, it is way too hard for a 1st time multiboxer to do. I was going to go 5 ele sham, but after reading about cat I sort of lost my excitement, and was semi-interested in ret paladin. Would I have hell trying to pull off 5 ret paladins as a 1st time multiboxer? I don't want to spend all my time and effort just to reach my goal of 5 85's, and wish at that point that I had chosen paladin or feral druid, instead of ele sham because I was unnecessarily scared to do it.

What do you think? Should I start with 5 ele sham instead of melee? Or is it not a big deal? My end goal is 100% pvp with only necessary farming/questing/instancing for gear.

[MiRai]

Casters are always easier to learn with than melee, there is less positioning and what-not. As for whether or not it's
impossible for a new guy at multiboxing? I would not think so, you just have to get used to making sure your team is
always in range and hitting their target. You said you were ready to read guides, well find some on Interact with Target
and Click to Move, those are necessary to easily create a successful melee team; and by having already chosen ISBoxer,
that functionality is practically built in.

[Nate101pvp]

If my end goal is entirely PVP based, do you think having a melee team is a large disadvantage as melee as opposed to a hunter/boomkin/elem/caster of some kind team (not all different, but 5 of the same type of ranged class)? I don't want to get to 85 and be like, "crap, this is a lot harder in arena than I had hoped, I wish I had ranged instead."

[MiRai]

If my end goal is entirely PVP based, do you think having a melee team is a large disadvantage as melee as opposed to a hunter/boomkin/elem/caster of some kind team (not all different, but 5 of the same type of ranged class)? I don't want to get to 85 and be like, "crap, this is a lot harder in arena than I had hoped, I wish I had ranged instead."
I cannot truly answer this with experience, I'm not sure anyone can at this point seeing as no one 5 boxed any level 85
PvP; but, plenty of people have fun with both casters and melee teams. DK + 4x Rets is a melee team you'll see, and
now the talk about 4 DKs + 1 Healer is another melee team. On this site people are always trying to formulate the best
combination of characters they can to dominate at PvP or PvE. However, a team that is great for 6 months may get hit
with the nerf bat making them a lot less useful than they previously were.

The moral of the story is, level up as many teams as you can to level 60 in your 90 days of RaF, because only you can
decide whether melee is or isn't your play style at level 85. If they happen to suck, then turn to a caster team. Even while
leveling a caster team you may find out that they feel a lot better to control overall and you might just change your mind
at, say, level 75. It's good to have choices after your RaF is over and done with.

[Nate101pvp]

I am sort of thinking about 5 druids because of what you're saying. If I go boomkin, what if I hate it later? Well, I could always go feral... a completely different play style. I suppose I could say the same for shaman... Oh hell, I can't decide. I wish someone would be like "XXXXX Is the best, do this and only this." Haha.

[Ualaa]

I've got seven sets of five toons.
Of these three are 80th, three are 75th or higher and one is in the 20's.
One of the teams at 75th (DK's) will be 80th before Cataclysm; Mosg2 got me interested in another composition.

I've been very tempted to level 5x Paladins, 5x Rogues or 5x Mages, at various times.
You never know what will prove to be a killer combination, or more importantly fun for you to play.

Experimentation is good too.
Until Kromtor ran 1x DK + 4x Ret, no one had a clue that a melee team could be so dominant.
Click to Move + Interact With Target... opened the door.
Sure there were melee compositions before, but none that excelled in both PvE and PvP play.



I started off, heavily inspired by Ellay, with 5x Elemental Shaman.
That became 4x Shaman and 1x Paladin, when I wanted to do heroics.
And eventually 3x Shaman (Elemental), 1x Paladin and 1x Warlock.



The druids leveled as mostly Boomkin, although I had a single toon who was Feral from day 1 (my first toon).
I've since subbed that druid onto the team, and put the druid leveled with the team onto my mixed caster team.

Boomkins are fun, but didn't have the burst I wanted.
They do have insane AoE now, especially with Starfall added to the mix; Starfall, Hurricane, Force of Nature... and are getting Solar Beam, etc.

As a team, they're untested as a melee pvp unit; I've one-boxed a Feral, a Rogue, a Hunter and a Shammy (Elem) in PvP; of those the Feral was the most fun.
I think with the increased health pools, the decreased healing capabilities in general, and the flexibility that Ferals have, the team will rock.
But it's an untested commodity; and I detest pvp on severely undergeared toons.
Still, I think Feral will rock, and Boomkin is an option if they don't.



I'm going to try the 4x Frost DK + 1x Healer, as per Mosg2's DK Manifesto thread.
Not sold on which healer is top yet.
Have all four healing classes that could be added.

This is untested basically.
On paper it looks to be stacked quite nicely.
Howling Blast (AoE power) and Necrotic Strike (Focus Fire, with Anti-Healing).
But until we give it a go, who can say how it will end up.



Most likely will take the Prot Pally, from my BC/WotLK PvE team.... Pally, Warlock, 3x Elemental, and move her to the 4x DK / 1x Heals team. And then move the remaining DK back to this team.

Either that, or go with a Disc Priest as the healer for the 4x DK / 1x Healer composition. In which case the DK that doesn't go to that team could end up with 4x Disc, as another PvE team.

Have a mixed caster team too. Disc Priest, Frost Mage, Boomkin/Feral Druid, and 2x Elem. Shaman. Not a whole lot of interest in these at the moment. Could take a Shaman from this team for the 4x DK's, but am really thinking of an all Blood Elf team, which means Paladin or Priest.

The 5x Hunters... are fun against PvE questing mobs. But they're not an instance team, so won't be serious in PvE play, nor do I like them in PvP. Although others really like the glass cannon style.



The last team is my 4x Warlocks, 1x Priest team. My only horde team. This was going to be team dot.
Very mobile, never stopping.
But got tired of non-RAF leveling.

Will probably level these ones up.
But I'm also tempted to transfer factions, for my 4x DK's and whichever healer they eventually decide upon.



This go around (Cataclysm), I'm planning on PvP being the focus.
Ideally with a strong team on both factions.
And then go with PvE (heroics) as second priority; in the past PvE has always been the priority.

During RAF, get a lot of teams leveled.
You never know what will work, or will be exciting down the road.
Or who will "discover" a composition that rocks, and you'll want to have as many of the pieces as possible, ready to go.

Also, Shodokan got me rather interested in seeing how much gold could be made in Warcraft.
Gold opens doors... buy professions or gearing, attend GDKP runs, purchase arena rating in 2's, etc.
Having thirty something toons with tradeskills is good; 29 alchemists has been close to 5k a day passive gold generation.

[Nate101pvp]

Ualaa, thanks man. I of course see all the videos of 4 sham+healer or 5 ele sham, and love it... but I am tempted to go with druid just because of the unknown lvl 85 benefits. I think I'll take your advice and try to get maybe all classes to 60 during RAF on all 5 accounts, then at least down the road I start at 60 and not 1.

What do you think would be a good 1st time 5box 1-60? Something easier to set up and control, a combination that would ease me into other combo's that may be more challenging?

Thanks Ualaa

[Boylston]

Paladin+4xShamans... Proven combo, and the Pally can be useful for other teams later (say, the FOTM Pally+4xDK that's buzzing about right now).

The other option is to do 5x Druids and have the ultimate in melee/ranged/pve/pvp flexibility. You probably aren't the best PvP team, but it will still be a very fun and future-proof setup.

[Littleburst]

Only you can decide wether something is doable for you or it isn't. I leveled 4 paladins + a DK to lvl 75 to realise i do not enjoy boxing melee. Give it a shot and you'll find it out soon enough. Ranged is always easier. The more simple the class, the simpler boxing them is. Mages/shaman who spam 1 spell mainly are as easy as it gets.

You can always start 5 druids and do with them whatever you like. That's the big advantage of druids. You'll never be able to really box ferals efficiently though, due to how the combopoints work. With the change on eclipse boxing boomkins is pretty solid.

Melee isn't that much harder to box them casters imo, PVE wise. PVP is a whole different story. You just have pay attention that if a toon runs away due to IWTbug(?) that you bring him/her back in line with /follow leader.

[Dunquan]

My first 5 box team was a mixed team, then these boards hyped the 5 x Pallies after IWT was made possible, and i just had to try that. So pallies became my first to 80, and I have a much easier time with those guys than any caster or mixed team. Even leveling them was much easier for me than all the squishy stuff. (you can read poor tanking, and add control into that)
The problem with boxing is it's not the best way to learn your class, you really need to get out there with the real people to get some feedback on whats good and bad to do. Boxing is its own little world with different rules because you control the entire encounter, so most things tend to become fixed routines for similar situations.
Mixed teams have lots of options, and for the first team, I would recommend something that at least can use the Dungeon tool. That means Tank, healer, dps x 3. 5 locks or 5 shammies are super cool, but not being able to use dungeon tool is annoying.

[Nate101pvp]

Dunquan, I hear what you're saying. But I have this feeling that if I did that, then I would be stuck always leveling mixed combo's if I decided later to run 5 of one class. For example, if I got a mix group including 2 shamans to 85, then later decide I wanted 5 shamans, I would need to run 3 shamans with 2 other races...and the mixed combo continues. Though, maybe that isn't bad and actually ends up making it faster? Hmm...

[Ualaa]

Best advice would be...

During RAF, get a ton of combos to 60th.

Then pick a combo you think will be most fun, and that is your primary.
Possibly bounce between teams, to maximize reseted, but probably just focus on the one team.

Once they hit 80th (or 85th), grind some heroics.
Gear up the toons, so heroics are easier.
Then get the heirlooms for +experience.
And if you want other teams, level those.

[Nate101pvp]

I think my 1st group is only going to be 4 box and my GF healing on my 5th account. My 2nd group will be when she isn't playing, and it will be a 5 same class PEWPEWPEW group, boomkin it sounds like is the general opinion. Then I'll have a 3rd party to level up in instances with intent to grind heroics and do professions, etc. I don't know if I can pull off a mulit-class group, but maybe I'll get more comfortable with it in time.

[Ualaa]

Multiclass isn't that bad, nor is melee.

With multi-class, you have your DPS as a castsequence most likely.
It isn't any harder to push one key, or two if you have a proc key... for several classes on the same keybind, then it is for one class.

In addition to this, you get multiple abilities on their own keybind.
This is a few extra keybinds to learn.
And some cooldowns to track.
So a little more complicated, but not really a whole lot.



Melee is a different mechanic.
The click to move and interact with target.

But whether the same class or mixed, aside from the different mechanic, it's basically the same.

Everyone in melee can be a bit different, as PBAoE effects or Cleave can hit everyone.
But this is the same for any boss really, adjust your tactics and positioning based on what it does.