5-boxing, dungeon runs.

[dloopler]

First of all let me say how great it was to discover the world of multiboxing. It's given new life to my WoW experience. Sure it costs a bit more, but skip a few pizzas a month and you are golden.

Now to the question:
I am looking for a solid PvE/dungeon team. I have tried 5 shammies and 5 mages. Never mind the fact that I can't queue up in LFG but dungeon runs didint go so well. Deadmines was not my friend.
I have since tried a pally and 4 shammy combo which I see is very popular. I have ran all these guys to lvl 20 on the free accounts. Now that I'm ready to buy the other 4 accounts I am looking for something that will work lvl 1-85 (and possibly 90+).

My thought were around the buffs. If I get a tankadin, 1 healer shammy, 2 dps shammies and an arcane mage, i will pretty much cover all buffs except for the stamina and one +10% Attack power buff. The 3 armor classes will also mitigate gear wastage a bit. This combo is also pretty easy to macro/keybind to no more then 3-4 keys.

Also if I only have 3 shammies, is it 2 healing and one mana totem or 3 healing totems and part dps with healer?

My main issue is with the mage, do I keep him, put another shammy in or something totally different?

Any ideas will be appreciated.

[Ualaa]

If your goal is dungeons...

Give yourself a tank capable character.
And, with a different character a healer capable character.

Tanks: Paladin, Druid, Death Knight, Warrior...
Probably in that order, for boxing ease... although anything will work, if you drive the toon and prefer one over another.

Healers: Priest, Shaman, Druid, Paladin...
The Priest is probably the easiest healer to use with the Paladin as the hardest, the other two are close and somewhere in between.

The three DPS...
Can be three of the same, or a mixture.
Ranged characters are generally easier than melee toons.
Because they don't eat as many point-blank-boss-effects such as cleave.




For a pure PvE team, possibly one of:

Tank: Prot Paladin
Heals: Disc or Holy Priest
Damage: 3x Elemental Shaman

Tank: Prot Paladin
Heals & Damage: 4x Elemental Shaman

Tank: Prot Paladin
Heals: 1x Resto Shaman
Damage: 3x Elemental Shaman

Tank: Prot Paladin
Damage: 1x Boomkin Druid or 1x Destruction Warlock plus 3x Elemental Shaman (possibly dual-spec one to Resto).

All of these teams are similar.
The Paladin can one-button spam away, and tank very effectively.
The Shaman or Boomkin/Warlock can one-button mash, and put up effective DPS.
Heals is either a dedicated healer or 3x Elemental Shaman.

You'd drive this composition from the Paladin.
For the ease of positioning a boss and facing it away from the team.
Also to move the boss if you needed to.
Probably have one button which is just the Tanking sequence on the Paladin... and another that is the same thing, but also the DPS sequence on the other toons.

The challenge is the healer.
Probably go with Grid + Grid Custom Layouts + Clique for heals.
But you can assist the boss and cast at that target.
Or have binds to cast directly at your team members.

Run up to a group...
If its trash, Avenger's Shield and DPS spam them down.
If its tougher, Paladin goes in (possibly with Earth Shield (shaman) or Power Word: Shield (priest)) and engages.
And the DPS joins in a bit later.

A dedicated healer like a Priest or Resto Shaman can make things easier.
They have the option to defensively decurse nasty effects off of the tank and other characters.
But you can heal quite effectively with 3x Elemental Shaman.
Having a fourth toon with 3x Shaman, (the Boomkin/Warlock) gets you +8% spell power which means things die faster.

My favorite team for PvE, of all time was:
Tank: Prot Paladin
Damage/Heals: 3x Elemental Shaman
Damage: Destruction Warlock

My current PvE team is:
Tank: Feral Druid (will be Guardian Druid, in Mists of Pandaria)
Heals: 1x Resto Shaman (or 0x dedicated heals; via dual-spec)
Damage: 3x Elemental Shaman or 4x Elemental Shaman.
(This team will also run 1x Boomkin + 4x Elemental for questing/dailies/etc).



A mixed team is very doable for PvE.

Tank: Blood Death Knight.
Heals: Discipline Priest.
Damage: Arcane Mage, Elemental Shaman, Destruction Warlock.

This is one of my teams too.
They're 80th, and need to be leveled to 85th.
The Tank is not optimal, as in... it will take more of my concentration than a simple one-button-mashing Druid/Paladin; but driving from this toon, the team is effective nontheless.

I have Mage Polymorph (humanoids/beasts), Shaman Hex, Warlock Banish (elementals/demons), Priest Shackle (undead)...
Quite a few crowd control options, should I encounter a group that is too tough to just pull...

[JohnGabriel]

Buffs are good, just not something I would center my team around.

I have a 1 x Pali + 4 x Shaman team, and a 1 x Pali + 1 x mage + 3 x shaman team. Both work just great in PvE and you wont be unhappy if you choose either.

If I could start over, I would level 5 x palis, 5 x shamans, 5 x mages, 5 x druids, etc. Then just swap out individuals for your pve team, and still be able to have 5 of each for PvP.

[dloopler]

Thanks for the info guys.

Few questions:
If I run 4 shamen. Will 4 healing totems be enough for trash in dungs/HCs or will a healer still be needed ful time?
For that matter will 1 or 2 be effective at all.

If the totems arent that great I might go for something like a:
1) Tankadin
2) Disc Priest (shields up)
3) Shammy, Mage and boomkin for DPS.
All 3 DPSs can be macroed so DPS rotations shouldnt be an issue. (SHould the boomkin be in there or should I make it a hunter)?

In this setup:
- tank tanks
- priest heals with shammy offhealing for big incoming damage.
- for low healing needs the 4 of them can all DPS.

My only worry is that 5 different classes might be too much for my virgin full leveling run, in which case back to the 1 pally and 4 shammies or 1pally, priest and shammies.

[JohnGabriel]

You will need a dedicated healer, 4 healing totems wont do much at all. The trash in cata dungeons are tougher then the bosses half the time.

Disc Priest is a horrible choice for boxing in my opinion. If you use your priest as the master it should work, but if your tank is the master you ought to stick with restro shaman.

[Lasivian]

I ended up with only 4 accounts myself. but decided to go with 1 pally, 2 hunters and a mage, I then dungeon with a random healer. (The team originally started out as a 4-hunter PVP team and changed to a pve team) Often that healer is thrilled to have a group where the tank is slow, the dps is controlled, the pets never growl and there is no drama. In return I get a dedicated healer so I do not have to watch over that aspect of my group, and should I end up with a poor or stupid healer I can easily vote them out of the group.

I sometimes debate going to 5 accounts, but having the healing slot open has turned out to be a good thing generally. Tho I am having trouble staying alive in Cata dungeons even with a good healer. :(

[Ualaa]

3x Elemental, can heal together as well as 1x dedicated healer.
You lose a bit of DPS, when you're healing instead of killing things.

But you gain a lot of DPS by having a fourth damage dealer.
Especially if its one of:
a) Boomkin; or
b) Warlock (any spec)
Because that adds +8% spell power, to your other casters... in addition to providing damage.

Boomkin gets you Mark of the Wild, meaning your Pally can go Blessing of Might (since Kings won't stack with this).
You also get Thorns, Innervate for a healer, Battle Rez, the ability to CC animals, root and faerie fire, Solar Beam vs casters, etc...

Warlock gets you a Pet Buff, Healthstones, Summoning (so you can hearth and be summoned back), CC vs Demons/Elementals, better DPS than a boxed boomkin...

Another caster or hunter is an option.
But that means losing the 8% spell damage buff.

Initially...
Have one of the three Elemental Shaman dual-spec.
So you actually have:

Healer Mode:
- Prot Paladin
- Resto Shaman
- 2x Elemental Shaman
- 1x Warlock/Boomkin

Kill Faster Mode:
- Prot Paladin
- 3x Elemental Shaman
- 1x Warlock/Boomkin



The totems are a supplement...

Mana Spring will be up on one of them.
Healing Stream on the others.
One of the Healing Streams will be glyphed for the Resistances.
The Pally will have one extra resist that the Shaman cannot provide, but will generally use Devotion (Armor) or Concentration (All the Casters) Aura.

Your Earth Totem can be whatever.
But you'll have Tremor on round-robin, for use against Fear.

Air Totems can be spell/melee haste.
And Grounding on round-robin, for use vs casters.

Fire Totems can be Searing Totem, when you're not using CC stuff.
And they can be Fire Elementals, anytime you want AoE.

[traedoril]

I am very odd in this but I love my favorite pve team to date is: Prot pally, Arcane Mage, Ele Sham, Survival Hunter, Disc Priest

I know alot of people hate disc priests but attonement spec heals

/castsequence reset=10 Holy Fire, Smite, Smite, Smite, Smite, Smite, Smite, Smite
/cast Power Infusion

+ my cover tank macro

/castsequence [@focus] Power Word: Shield, Prayer of Mending, Renew, Flash Heal, Flash Heal

In HoT's (hour of twilight heroics) I can clear all the bosses and trash and laugh as I watch things die super fast.

I also run this composition in LFR's. Ultraxion can suck if you don't have his button in the same place on every window.

[JohnGabriel]

[..snip..]
I also run this composition in LFR's. [..snip..]

Have you been boxing the LFR with tank, healer, 3 dps, or have you been bringing them all in as dps?

[Xraptorx]

I have pally tank and 4x shammy (1x resto and 3x dps). I need some good healing actions to be used with isboxer. How are you using assist FTL and healing with IS boxer. ?

[Ualaa]

I personally go with Grid + Grid Custom Layouts + Clique.

Grid and Custom Layouts gets me the entire raid in a 5-row deep, 8-column wide grid.
My five toons are always in the left-most vertical column.
The rest of the raid is in columns two through eight.
It is an alphabetical sort, so its the same on every screen.
http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/45580-DK-Team-FINALLY-at-85-and-cruising-through-AV-weekend-%29?p=347870#post347870

With Clique, I've set various clicks to be specific heals.
With my 5x Resto Druid team, I use:
- Left = Rejuvenation
- Right = Cleanse
- Ctrl Left = Lifebloom
- Ctrl Right = Regrowth
- Alt Left = Nourish
- Alt Right = Healing Touch
- Scroll Up = Swiftmend
- Scroll Down = Wild Growth

The logic is: Left/Right clicks are used frequently, the scroll wheel for AoE (as Swiftmend triggers Efflorescence), ctrl clicks for emergency (less efficient) heals, and alt clicks for efficient (but slower) heals.



On my Paladin / 4x DK team, I use:
- Left = Flash of Light
- Right = Divine Light
- Alt + Left = Holy Shock
- Alt + Right = Word of Glory
- Mouse Thumb = Cleanse




I place an IS Boxer Repeater Region over the entire grid.
And have it send the clicks (KVM Mode, to block local clicks) to the Healer or Healer Group.

That way, from any toon, I can mouse over the Grid and make a simple click.
It won't make my tank/dps toons change targets, but my healer then does the appropriate heal.

[traedoril]

Have you been boxing the LFR with tank, healer, 3 dps, or have you been bringing them all in as dps?
Tank healer 3 DPS

[traedoril]

I am very odd in this but I love my favorite pve team to date is: Prot pally, Arcane Mage, Ele Sham, Survival Hunter, Disc Priest

I know alot of people hate disc priests but attonement spec heals

/castsequence reset=10 Holy Fire, Smite, Smite, Smite, Smite, Smite, Smite, Smite
/cast Power Infusion

+ my cover tank macro

/castsequence [@focus] Power Word: Shield, Prayer of Mending, Renew, Flash Heal, Flash Heal

In HoT's (hour of twilight heroics) I can clear all the bosses and trash and laugh as I watch things die super fast.

I also run this composition in LFR's. Ultraxion can suck if you don't have his button in the same place on every window.

I know I am quoting my self here but someone PM'd me and I thought it was pertinent to my statement.



Hi. Was looking for atonement disc priest macros for a Mercurio 2-step type setup. Saw a post of yours:

"I know alot of people hate disc priests but attonement spec heals

/castsequence reset=10 Holy Fire, Smite, Smite, Smite, Smite, Smite, Smite, Smite
/cast Power Infusion

+ my cover tank macro

/castsequence [@focus] Power Word: Shield, Prayer of Mending, Renew, Flash Heal, Flash Heal"


I assume you spam the smite macro with your other dps toon's macro(s), then hit the back key or something to interrupt casting, then only go to your heal macro when needed? Wondering if you've considered using his system, perhaps putting Archangel in there somewhere.

Thanks.

I actually only use archangel on "oh shit" moments. I have also changed the second macro slightly.

/castsequence reset=15 [@focus] Power Word: Shield, Renew, Prayer of Mending

Is on my second step of the macro now

I have since added

/cast reset = 12 [@focus] Pennance, Flash Heal, Flash Heal, Flash Heal, Flash Heal is now on my 1 key.
I missed the question about archangel. Archangel is very bad for all the time healing. When you get five stacks of the buff that allows archangel to be cast ( I am at work and can't think of the name of the spell off hand) It reduces the mana cost of Holy Fire and Smite by 30%.

For sustained healing and mana regen it is VERY mana inefficiant to use Archangel unless you have to or the next trash pull is farther than the duration of the buff.

The 5 stacks as a healer is far more benificial than the actual buff from archangel on a regular basis.

I would like to mention that I run with a fair amount of "DPS" gear for heroics. I just find it easier to do higher dps/healing that way. I also use the Divine accuracy glyph (must for attonement spec) Glyph of Prayer of healing (disc lacks a good aoe heal) and Smite (increases HF and smite dmg therefore increasing healing done)

Alot of priests go with PoM or a different glyph but if you take the smite glyph you will find yourself using the pennance macro far less often.