Multibox Group Composition Question

[winters91]

I am fairly new to 5-man multiboxing. So far I am enjoying how much thought and preparation it takes to make an efficient team, and the continual tweaking to takes to make the team more effective. I started off with a 4-man team (my comp could not handle a 5th client at that time) consisting of: 1x prot pally, 1x ele shaman, 1x arcane mage, and 1x disc priest. Since then, I have upgraded my computer. As I now have the ability to throw a 5th character into this group, I've come up with more concerns than I thought I would. The addition of this slot, and becoming more comfortable with multiboxing as a whole, is making me re-think parts of my team, and I request help from those more experienced in these matters to decide how to proceed. I intend to keep the prot pally, mage, and disc priest (dedicated healer). However, I am considering switching out the shaman for another class as well as adding the 5th member. I will focus primarily on PvE, with as much efficiency and synergy between them as possible. My prot pally master character is only really there to hold the aggro, while being as effectively buffed from the other characters as possible. Therefore the vast majority of the damage dealt will be spell-based from the other 4. I have considered throwing in a warlock for Curse of the Elements, felhunter buff, and warlock buffs; or a boomkin for the moonkin buff, druid buffs, and Earth and Moon; or a shadow priest for Vampiric Touch and whatever else they may get that would be helpful to the party. I am also considering switching my mage to a Fire spec for Improved Scorch, while keeping just enough points in Arcane for the self buffs. I appreciate any advice in this, and thank you for any help.

Characters to keep:
1x prot pally
1x disc priest (dedicated healer)
1x arcane mage (possible spec change)

Possible characters to add:
1x elemental shaman
1x balance druid
1x warlock
1x shadow priest

Again, which two of the "possible characters to add" should be added to the "characters to keep" for the most effective group? Please give the rationalizations behind any opinions. Thanks again.

Also, I may be willing to add 2 of the same class if the reasons behind doing so are good enough. I do enjoy the class diversity though.

[katsurahama]

You didnt mention what level these current toons are. You also didnt mention whether the fifth account is linked via raf.

You currently have only one melee and the rest are ranged. Also, all your toons and even the options are caster based damage. I like mixed groups like you have but i also like a mix of melee and ranged. I hate when a mob has a spell reflect and most of your team just has to stand there.

1. Keep your shaman. You could keep your shaman and switch it to enh instead of dropping it. If you prefer elememtal, i would keep it if the dps is satisfactory to you but add another melee dps.

2. Add melee dps. Cat druid. Cat druids do crazy damage without complicated macros or positioning.
OR
2b. Hunter. Hunters do direct damage that isnt spell based but you dont have to mess with click to move and interact with target.

Adding a druid lets you use leather drops, covering all armor types.

If you drop the shaman, and dont want in your face melee, i would add a boomkin for leather and a hunter for mail.

Basically, this is my opinion:
Keeping shaman?
Yes - staying elemental? - yes - add cat
.......................................no - add boomkin
Dropping shaman!!!
Want melee?
No - add hunter, add boomkin
Yes - add lock, add cat

My recommendations are based on being able to use every type of armor drop (since you dont mention RAF and it sounds like you will have one team) and having a mix of damage. If you dont care about not using leather drops and youre keeping the shaman and youre willing to box melee i would roll a frost or unholy DK and xfer an existing toon to the new acct.

Finally, i dont know what level you are but if you want to solo instances, holy is far better than disc. I tried disc and in the upper 70s i kept getting caught needing heals in the middle of smite spamming.

[shadewalker]

I would add the shaman for sure.

Then I would add the druid or the warlock. The Druid has a lot more utility (alternate heals or tank) and will use any leather drops but the lock will probably do a bit more dps.

[luxlunae]

Finally, i dont know what level you are but if you want to solo instances, holy is far better than disc. I tried disc and in the upper 70s i kept getting caught needing heals in the middle of smite spamming.

My team is 79 and I've solved this problem by having her smite button as:

castsequence reset=combat smite, smite, null
So basically disabling smite healing after about 10-12 seconds of combat.


I'm still preferring disc for my team (strange when you consider that my main was a holy priest for three years) because the ability to POH/Divine Aegis every 15 seconds covers 99% of my group heal needs so I can just leave her on her heal rotation most of the time.

[Littleburst]

I wouldn't take the shadow priest, difficult to do good dps on hc trash.

Ele sham has as advantage that they do good single target damage without anything difficult.

Boomkin does good single target dmg, but is also very strong for AoE.

Warlock has a lot of spells and has nice abilities to add like summon and Soulstone.