4 shaman, how to handle melee

[Darm]

I'm still learning how to quad box shaman, right now the most difficult aspect in PvP is when a melee (rogue or warrior) gets right on top of me, and is running through everyone while attacking. Casted spells obviously are going to be difficult to land in this situation. How do others deal with it?

Right now, I've been dropping fire nova totems, and an earthbind to slow him down, hoping to get a little distance, and use a shock spell when I can. This doesnt' work that great. If I'm desperate, I'll burn nature's swiftness, but that doesn't seem like the optimum choice.

Alternatively, sometimes I'll just heal myself through it, and between fire nova totems and a little help from someone else in the BG we'll manage to kill them.

Any thoughts?

[Skuggomann]

ok hwers what you can do:

if you have them all on follow and move your main toon and runn threw them (not to far) wile the oters are casting you wont break the casting (ye you loos 1 casting) just remember not to runn to far away from them.

or


If your close to a wall just back into it and start casting XD

[Ellay]

either turn with them as they weave in and out of you, or split your main from your followers so the other 3 are blasting them.

[mikeb]

As a boxer of melee characters I will give my two cents. You need to get used to adjusting directions for your alts without moving them, have your main run through your opponents so your alts will face them, but don't do it so your alts end up moving too much. Also, instant cast spells like shocks, especially Frost Shock, are probably your best bet. The correct sequence of actions will be of importance, try start the battle with CC. Sometimes it's all about who gets the jump. For fast moving targets I would use any form of CC at your disposal to make it easier for yourself to reposition your toons. Last resort, do what Fursphere suggested and try to out last them.

[butta]

What I started doing is a real bitch for the inevitable jackass rogue that wants to screw with you. If they open on your main, its ez mode, just press your universal "move back" key while you're stunlocked. LB and shock until he blows cloak. When he does, use the opportunity to heal the guy he's attacking up to full. Cloak runs out, resume casting. If he opens on an alt, turn your main to face your alts, then use your universal move backwards key. This leaves one alt in the middle, with the rogue faced by three active players again. When rogues become a real pain in the arse is when they move in pairs and threes and you don't have anyone w/ you to help out.

[Kfunk]

Change your 'move back' key from having them all go backwards to splitting into a diamond (one left, one right, one back, one forward). This won't be a 100% effective method, but will give you a chance that some of your chars will still have line of sight.

I use 3 hunters, and when they split they'll get a few lucky shots off in the middle of the diamond (one hunter left, one right, one back).

[Stealthy]

My take on this:

Rogues:
Totems - Stoneskin, Earthbind, Searing (later change to Nova), Healing Stream, Poison Cleanse, Wrath of Air
Spells - Frostshock, Flame shock, Chain Lightning, Lightning Bolt, Lesser Healing Wave, Elemental Mastery & Nature's Swiftness
Tactics - Drop Earth & Fire Totems 1st. Frost shock & Flame shock as an opener. The idea is to slow the rogue down as much as possible and allow you to get off CL's in between shocks while the searing totems eat away their health. The dot from Flame Shock and the slow from Frost Shock & Earthbind should hamper them from using vansih / sprint to get away. When they pop Cloak Of Skillz, drop your fire nova totems. Fire Nova has a 5 sec cooldown (untalented) which is also exaclty how long CoS lasts - it gives them a nasty surprise when the come out of it! Also have a healing macro set up that has target=focustargettarget in it - that means you are automatically healing whichever toon the rogue is targetting. Elemental Mastery +CL is good to use early to force them to pop CoS. Save NS for trying to shoot down fleeing rogues with either CL or LB.

Warriors:
Totems - Tremor, Stoneskin, Earthbind, Nova, Searing, Healing Stream, Wrath of Air
Spells - Frostshock, Chain Lightning, Lightning Bolt, Lesser Healing Wave, Chain Heal, Elemental Mastery & Nature's Swiftness
Tactics - Tremors always go down 1st because any smart warrior will try to use Intimidating Shout to fear bomb your group (use trinket if necessary). Warriors don't tend to jump around as much as rogues, but you still want to keep them slowed to give your LB/CL time to cast while they are still in front of you. If they are focused on one target, use the same healing macro outlined above. If they are tyring to hit multiple targets with Whirlwind, Cleave or Sweeping Strikes, Chain Heal instead. A timed Elemental Mastery +CL and exploding fire nova, followed by a shock should wipe out most of their health or kill them outright. Use NS+EM+CL if they keep running behind you.

Hope this helps...

Cheers,
Stealthy

[Vyndree]

Earthbind, shock, NS+LB, CL if you can, earthshield the guy he's DPSing, and FIRE NOVA ;)

Worse comes to worse, drop fire elemntals on his butt. He won't be able to re-stealth with 4x mini-ragnaros on watch. ;)

[Warsong-boxer]

I've been trying to work through this myself. What I normally do on my 2 followers is strafe and turn towards the main at the same time. When they stop they are on the side of him fasting towards him, but far enough away that its impossible to keep spinning around the main. You can still get pummeled/kicked on the main, but the two are facing your main casting.

Example would be: Slave 1 strafes left and turns right. Slave 2 strafes right and turns left. The result is them facing inward and you owning. If it doesn't totally help then at least you'll confuse them.

[Contingenci]

What is the universal move back key? I am still very new to this.

[Ashley]

What is the universal move back key? I am still very new to this.err...s? or the down arrow?

[Otlecs]

What is the universal move back key? I am still very new to this.Whatever you set it up to be :) It's the key that makes all your characters move backwards together.

For me, all of my clones move together on an unmodified arrow key, so it'd be the down arrow key. I control individual drones with SHIFT-, CTRL- or ALT- modified arrow keys, and my main with QWEASD.

One of the biggest disadvantages for a multi-boxer is manoueverability (close second is situational awareness - I've often lost a clone to an unnoticed sap on the field of strife, but that's a whole different story ;) ) and each of us has to find our own solution to it really.

[TheXevs]

I've found from my (very) limited experience with shaman that warstomp is by far the most effective way to deal with melee. =^)

-Xeva

[Lokked]

EDIT** My response was a little OT, i'll post is somewhere else.

[opt]

it all depends on weather there moves and strafers or stand still dpsers.
The movers can be a little tricky and im still trying to get used to them. Often all i can do is shock, heal fire nova and shock and they are usuaily dead by then, moving your main making your toons face the same way while chain lightning is tricky but thats the only other good way and replace the healing with that. If there just standing there with straight dps shock, chain lightning lightning bolt and there dead, those guys are ezmode.