PvE 5-boxing wonderings

[Roysvork]

I'm thinking of starting up 5-boxing in the autumn (when I have saved up enough cash!). I've worked out that I can do it for between £1,800 and £2,000 all considered if I buy everything at once.

Anyways my focus is going to be PvE, and I'm thinking about the following group:

1x Prot Warrior,
1x Holy Priest,
3x Affli or Demo Locks

I'd like to have a group that can at least have a good crack at some heroics eventually, which is why I'm thinking about a tank\healer setup.
I figured that the holy priest would be usefull for shackling, and that maybe the lock pets can provide any other cc I might need, as well as soulstones and nice dps.

I have two main queries I suppose... for one I'm worried that this group setup is too impractical and I won't be able to concentrate on everything at once. I'm also wondering that if it does turn out to be workable, maybe frost mages would be better instead of locks, the nova and aoe
being easier to deal with maybe.

I've got a lot of time to deliberate before I have the cash... so thoughts anyone? ; )

Roy-svork

[Shogun]

3 locks isn't the ideal CC due to no reliable control over a mob, but you'd have 4 aoe fears if you pull back far enough, and 3 VWs can occupy a mob for long enough imo. As for focusing on the different classes, if you let the warrior go in, grab all the mobs (apart from the VW tanked ones) and just heal him, then load up on dots and nuke once he has aggro, you won't have much trouble.

Your main problem will be fights that require alot of moving around, but I think that'll be the same regardless of your class choice...

When you say £1800 - £2000, are you going with 5 new PCs? Would be interested to see which hardware you're planning to use, I'm having trouble finding a decent PC for under £600, but then again that's a rig capable of playing much newer games, and future games. Are you getting XKeys and KVM's etc with the setup? Currently I'm using 3 PCs hooked via KeyClone which works great, but 2 of the PCs are utter crap and I find it hard on the eyes and difficult to play for too long

[Roysvork]

I already have a laptop that I play on at the moment, but I was going to go for 5 matching machines that would meet the basic spec to be playing wow on. I already have one 19 inch flatscreen monitor which I can use. Here's a shot of my shopping basket courtesy of scan.co.uk:

http://www.roy-svork.com/multibox.jpg

Note that I have probably missed something out from here (cooling fans for one) and that this doesn't include KVM's and Multicasters as you can't buy the correct ones from this place. I am also going to have to buy one of these in advance to make sure that the onboard graphics will be capable of running wow, as thats a bit of a gamble, but I can't see it having too many problems if I tone the settings down.

[Shogun]

Nice one, you can also get a PCI-E graphics card that will run WoW from like £20-30 if the on-board isn't great (which it won't be ^^)

[Xzin]

Highly suggest a separate graphics card. Most all integrated ones are great at 2d but are miserable at 3d. Even WoW.

[caldvn]

Fear Ward = Your best PVE Friend.

[Xzin]

That you have to cast over and over and over and over and over.....

[caldvn]

Only if you plan on fear warding the entire group, but MT will suffice for tanking Champions in Heroic Slave Pens, or other places.

[Roysvork]

That was another of my queries in fact... Just how much of a problem does the fear mechanic actually cause? Is it possible to react to it en-masse or even with each toon individually? Or does that just require too much attention? I usually play alliance, so that would be my first choice for 5-boxing. What are peoples experiences with this (the first boss of shadowlab is a good example)?

[Dor]

normally you only have to worry about the mt for fears...keep rest oor etc

for that first boss with the grp fears, I have a secondary autofollow target (normally my priest) (tank 3 mages and a priest) so after the fear I hit the secondary autofollow and all zero in on priest keeping them targeted and in range of the boss (if that makes any sense)


-- and I still havent been able to take that stupid second boss in SL

[caldvn]

There are some bosses that will be next to impossible to kill multi-boxing. The game mechanics of it makes it difficult to control individual toons and park them where need be.

SL second boss is an example, the first boss you can at least park your toons in hallway so they don't get feared too far.

[Roysvork]

Aye that 2nd boss of shadowlab does seem like the boss to beat. I read somewhere that bunny was able to get him down... I'd be interested to see how that was achieved. I guess if worst comes to worst you can get in a dedicated healer and 4-box the rest and it might be slightly easier.

I'm definately leaning towards warr, priest and 3 locks now though after having a bit of a read around... DoTs FTW.

[Badmaster]

how about prot warrior, paladin (main healer), shadow priest and 2 locks?

you'd get buffs, dots, mana reg, group heal and increased dmg on the locks too.... ofc you'd be short one SS and fearward could only be used once...

[Lance]

I was also considering warrior/priest/3x lock for my pve setup although I think I might swap a lock for a mage to give me more options. I figure It won't be too much more difficult since the main thing I want the mage for is sheeping which I will set before fights with focusing. The rest of the time I'll prob have his castsequence on the same key as the locks.

[Los]

Pondered myself a lot on what to take, 3 mages or 3 locks (next to a pally and a priest). Finally went with 2 mages and a lock because cc is just too important later on in the game (sadly for a mboxer ;)).

[Roysvork]

Lance and Loc, can I ask how far you have taken this setup? As a complete multiboxing noob I really want to make sure I'm making the right choices before I start out? My main worry is having too many different classes to manage, as the most succesful teams I've seen (like the 5x shamans and zins original lock + priest team) have kept it pretty simple... I've yet to see a video of a 'balanced' team working in the TBC end game.

[Lance]

I've not started yet. My take on it tho is if you can play warrior/priest/3locks you can play warrior/priest/2 locks/mage. (or locks/mage other way round) If you can't play warrior/priest/3 locks then your screwed either way so no need to worry about it :)

[Mannyman]

I agree with Los.

[caldvn]

Lance and Loc, can I ask how far you have taken this setup? As a complete multiboxing noob I really want to make sure I'm making the right choices before I start out? My main worry is having too many different classes to manage, as the most succesful teams I've seen (like the 5x shamans and zins original lock + priest team) have kept it pretty simple... I've yet to see a video of a 'balanced' team working in the TBC end game.

Question still boils down to how good at you multi-tasking. It's simple to control one toon with the mindset of controlling the same type of class. It's different story with a balanced group, where you have to focus on holding aggro, healing, sheeping 2-3 mobs, fearing one, dotting and nuking one target.

How do you know you're able to do it? Make a group and tank multiple orange mobs at low level and see what happens, that's only hint of what's to expect when you do regular instances, let alone Heroic instances.

[Dor]

I agree with cald for the most part, buy also know that you'll get better the more you do it (react better to the unexpected etc) old adage practice makes perfect and all that