New to multi-boxing - best healer to pair with Mage?

[Vejovi]

Hi guys,

Just started to get interested in multi-boxing and came across this site - thanks for all the amazing info!

I have a raid geared Mage in classic and have been thinking I'd like a healer alt at 60 ready for release of Classic TBC. I would then plan to level the Mage and healer together duo-boxing in Outland.

My main focus is on getting 2 max level toons in TBC without doing all the Outland quests twice, so I am not too worried about PvP etc.

Which healer pairs best with Mage?

I quite fancy a Priest, but thought that Pally or Druid might work better, as they could tank whilst Mage does damage? I am Alliance, so whilst I am excited to try Shaman, it wouldn't work with this plan, as I want to get the alt to 60 before TBC drops.

All advice welcome, as I am totally new to this :D

[Fuii]

Paladin can act as aoe-tank in classic and with classic tbc even better and got an "oh shit" button with his personal bubble and the bubble for a secondary character like your mage to do some nasty stuff every 3min.
Aside you got excellent single target heal and fancy buffs.

Priest can assist the mage best regarding single target damage with a shadow off or mainspec; unskilled shields/heals are still enough for a duo.

Druid... I dont know. He can tank, yes but struggles with large scale pulls. He has the weakest buffs for your purpose of the 3.
In healing he lacks the flexibility regarding a flash heal with his instant has a kind of long cooldown plus can't really help on big pulls except for spamming his 3sec heal.

IMO:
AOE farm: Paladin > Priest > Shaman > Druid
elite farm (1-3 mobs): Priest > Druid > Shaman > Paladin

[Vejovi]

Thanks for the fast and super helpful reply @Fuii!

Sounds like Priest is a totally viable option, which is great news.

Is there much I can do duo-boxing whilst leveling the Priest to 60, or will the level disparity mean that leveling with the Mage won't be of any assistance until the Priest is close to 60?

[Tazeon]

if you think one step further I would suggest a Paladin
if you plan to level at the start of tbc, it's not recommend to do quests, just run instances, because too many people will be outside

I think it will be easier to find a healer then a tank, therefore I sugget a paladin. for leveling 60-70 in instances play him as a tank or if you have a pocket tank then as a healer. both role combinations (tank + dd or heal+dd) are easy to play as dualboxing.

it also depends what you want to do later at lev70 with your 2nd charakter.
running heroics then a tank is prefered
farming outdoor druid herb + mining (this will do many others)
aoe farming (I think most tbc spots will be overfarmed) priest or paladin

with a Paladin you are more flexible, if your plan changes

priest is also fine, for instance leveling or later instance farming, but you will search a tank as many others I think.

---

you can dungeon boost your 2nd charakter
SFK, SM, ZF, Maraudon are very popular places

but fill your group so there are 5 players in it. if you are good enough you can also charge some gold for boosting others

[nodoze]

if you think one step further I would suggest a Paladin [+Mage] ...I agree. In addition I think one of the duos often recommended for new players is Warlock+Paladin as it allows the Warlock's void to tank better (due to salvation+sanctuary+retribution) and survive past it's normal limits (with buff/mitigation/healing from Paladin) and both get free mounts.

Mage can also be somewhat synergistic but often the things a single mage can pull off (more than any other class) require the mage to be very mobile and that movement isn't very conducive to multiboxing and can be especially problematic to a healer like a Paladin that is mainly stationary when healing.

Thankfully a Paladin can be a strong healer and tank from a single spec and can open up some AoE scenarios that don't rely on movement. With aggro management a Paladin can AoE Tank without all the movement and the Mage (or Warlock) help AoE kill things much faster than the single Paladin can AoE alone. That can be fine if you want to tank & spank AoE grind in a more relaxed fashion but I don't think you will be beating the crazy AoE scenarios a single very mobile mage with strong twitch reflexes can pull off (like basically pulling/soloing most of Maraudon).