5 Shammys.... Sequenced Casting.... Possible?

[Xzin]

As much as I am trying to avoid it, I cannot deny the power of 5 Shamans. So simple - only a few spells to pick from. Flexible - healing + damage + rezzes + anhks + near spell immunity. Oh and they wear mail and can melee. They even have underwater breath and ghost wolf! 5x Bloodlusts... Elementals.... it's tough to argue against it for boxing.

So - uh - I am getting more and more excited about also rolling Shammys.

The Warlocks are just about to hit 40 and I still intend to get them to 70. But once that is done, I might also level up the shammys to 70..... and swap them out with the locks.

Anyway.....

Most spells lend themselves to casting all 5. Chain Lightning. Shocks.

But the biggest problem I see with Shammys is their lack of AoE and their inability to break out of fear.

A solution I have to the fear problem is this: you have 5 trinkets. 2 minutes cooldowns and they break fear now. If you drop a tremor totem, it will pull fear off all 5 guys within 30 yards of the totem. So all you need to do is drop 1 totem and presto - fear gone. You are never going to be feared 6 times in 120 seconds. If you do well.... diminishing returns.

Anyway, the point of all of this is - is is possible from a UI mod perspective to hit 1 button and have it know which Shammy has cast their trinket (or mana spring or whatever) such that you can mash 1 button and if character is alive and has mana it casts the totem or uses the trinket then casts the spell. If not then it cycles automatically and instantly to the next one, who then casts it.

If this fear problem can be solved.... I think I just may level up some Shamans too. I feel they are stronger in the arenas than the locks. Not sure about the mages yet.

[Stabface]

Alas, UI mods can't really make complex decisions.

Thankfully all you have to do with Shaman (in PVE anyways) to cut any fear down to <2 seconds is just keep a Tremor Totem down at all times. Since there's no cooldown or reuse, and it lasts 2 minutes, this is easy...

In PvP you'll just need to keep re-dropping the totem if people whack it.

[Xzin]

Not an acceptable solution. I could manually trinket and totem with 1 keypress (I think). Not as ideal though.....

[trainwr3ck]

As much as I am trying to avoid it, I cannot deny the power of 5 Shamans. So simple - only a few spells to pick from. Flexible - healing + damage + rezzes + anhks + near spell immunity. Oh and they wear mail and can melee. They even have underwater breath and ghost wolf! 5x Bloodlusts... Elementals.... it's tough to argue against it for boxing.

So - uh - I am getting more and more excited about also rolling Shammys.

The Warlocks are just about to hit 40 and I still intend to get them to 70. But once that is done, I might also level up the shammys to 70..... and swap them out with the locks.

Anyway.....

Most spells lend themselves to casting all 5. Chain Lightning. Shocks.

But the biggest problem I see with Shammys is their lack of AoE and their inability to break out of fear.

A solution I have to the fear problem is this: you have 5 trinkets. 2 minutes cooldowns and they break fear now. If you drop a tremor totem, it will pull fear off all 5 guys within 30 yards of the totem. So all you need to do is drop 1 totem and presto - fear gone. You are never going to be feared 6 times in 120 seconds. If you do well.... diminishing returns.

Anyway, the point of all of this is - is is possible from a UI mod perspective to hit 1 button and have it know which Shammy has cast their trinket (or mana spring or whatever) such that you can mash 1 button and if character is alive and has mana it casts the totem or uses the trinket then casts the spell. If not then it cycles automatically and instantly to the next one, who then casts it.

If this fear problem can be solved.... I think I just may level up some Shamans too. I feel they are stronger in the arenas than the locks. Not sure about the mages yet.

You could write a very clever but complex castsequence macro. You're limited by the number of characters of course but it might be possible to do something like this:

Char 1: use trinket, drop totem, use misc useless item, use misc useless item
Char 2: use misc useless item, use misc useless item, cast trinket, drop totem
Char 3: use misc useless item, use misc useless item, use misc useless item, use misc useless item, cast trinket, drop totem
etc etc

When you hit the button, your first char will use his trinket and then you hit it again to make him drop the totem. On your other characters, they'll try to use items they either can't use or won't do anything. But the third time you hit the button, your second character will trinket, and then you hit it again and he'll drop a totem. The others will try to use items they can't so it has no effect. Fifth time you hit it, third char will use his trinket. Sixth time, third char drops totem.

Bind it all to the same button and set the reset timer for the cast sequence macro to 2 mins so that if you don't hit the button for 2 mins, the whole macro will reset and it will start with your first char using trinket and totem again.

[Zaylek]

I've been trying to come up with a solution to the same problem for quite some time. I wanted to have a way of cycling through the death coils of each of the warlocks. The only thing I have come up with so far is a software solution by modifying multi-box. But that kinda violates the idea of it just being broadcasting software and it then becomes more 3rd party game modification that blizz frowns upon.

[HPAVC]

Ummm, the 'presto' of totems isn't exactly how you describe. You need to wait for the pulse. That pulse can seem to be the duration of 'why did I bother'.

[MrLonghair]

I have ideas that would probably be filed under "illegal hardware modification", but meanwhile regarding cast-sequencing:

[code:1]
Macro Press 1 press 2 press 3 press 4 press 5
Sh1: trinket totem /p 4 next /p 5 next /p me next
Sh2: /p me next trinket totem /p 5 next /p 1 next
Sh3: /p 2 next /p me next trinket totem /p 1 next
Sh4: /p 2 next /p 3 next /p me next trinket totem
Sh5: totem /p 3 next /p 4 next /p me next trinket[/code:1]

Then you just need to do some LUA magic and make a mod that listens to and displays which shaman is next. Something which I'm researching for future multiboxing - I want to code addons and UIs for WAR once it's out.

(yes I messed up the X and Y variables! I blame the heat)

[Morganti]

I cycle action bars on my mages. Each mage only has 1 action bar with his sheep, counterspell, and frost nova on it. Mage1 has it on bar1, mage2 on bar2, etc. So, I hit counterspell button and whichever mage has it on his action bar casts it and all mages cycle to their next action bar. This leaves the next mage ready to cast. 4 sheeps, 4 counterspells, 4 frost novas.

[Gigatron]

I cycle action bars on my mages. Each mage only has 1 action bar with his sheep, counterspell, and frost nova on it. Mage1 has it on bar1, mage2 on bar2, etc. So, I hit counterspell button and whichever mage has it on his action bar casts it and all mages cycle to their next action bar. This leaves the next mage ready to cast. 4 sheeps, 4 counterspells, 4 frost novas.

This sounds interesting, how do you switch action bars?

I just rolled a 5 shaman group, up to level 12. lol

[Mannyman]

5 staggered tremor totems? Without using ahk or something else to introduce delays into your commands, I don't think it's possible. You could play around with the order of your macro commands, but I don't think it would give you the effect you want. Keyclone has round robin, maybe someone could write something for Vetra users:)

Shamans have magma totem and fire nova totem for aoe. EM + trinket + fire nova is nasty. Grounding totem doesn't prevent enemy aoe.

Just keep in mind that 5 shamans face problems in instances where mobs can't be kited, i.e. earthbind and frost shock don't work. Sure, you can whip out the elementals, but they are somewhat squishy and there is a cooldown on re-summons.

I can see a bunch of shamans fitting nicely into your 10 man group. How you will control frost shock, earth shock, 4 trees of totems, healing, and your other classes at the same time will be interesting:)

[Xzin]

I have absolutely no desire to 15 box at this time :)

I would love to do arenas with the shammys though and / or swap out th shammys for BGs.... ok well WSG. By myself.

Turtle it long enough and people will afk out :)

[Xzin]

I can't cycle action bars... I barely have enough as it is without resorting to in macro modifiers.. which would make swapping spells around a NIGHTMARE.

Real clever trick though!

[Morganti]

Gigatron: You can set a key to "next action bar" so you can hit your spell and hit that or use a nostromo macro to do both at once. Never tried doing it using an ingame LUA macro, but might be possible?

Xzin: Yeah, not having the 2 right hand bars means I get 4 action bars to cycle through, but depending on the class (like shamans who have 50000 totems) it could be a pain.

[Bradster]

Shaman was my favorite class PRE 41 talent patch. I think I’d go with 5 Boom chickens. More survivability. Plus if your alliance you can save a lot of time and just map a single key to the hot bar. That of course is moon fire. You can set loose a 7 year old to spam it all day long, he might win with 5 of them. =)

[Xzin]

VERY basic testing of the Shamans on the PTRs (10 man WSGes) was a mixed bag.

On the one hand... 10 shamans means 10 damage spells. 10 chain healers... etc.

I found it difficult to heal AND damage but that could be remedied by going resto on one of the 5 (or two of the 10). Needing to stop and heal and then damage was killing me.

Chain lightning was great when people clump together. People don't clump that often at range.
Mana regen was an issue. I ran out REAL fast but had pauses where I could have drunk if I had water. I didn't.
Lack of WOTF was a killer. Fear meant I was running around. This could be "fixed" with a creative set of macros (possibly). I also did not have trinkets macroed.
Armor was nice, Ellay pointed out that wearing a shield would have helped a good amount as well. I agree.
Grounding totems were pretty amazing. There are just so many - but AoE is still a problem.

Lack of AoE was a big thing though. When you ARE the WSG team.... you are commonly taking 5, 6, 8 on 1's. Needing to single target is a problem. Needing to face is tricky. Workable but tricky.

If I were 5 boxing, this would have been lessened as it seemed that some spells did far too much damage (chain lightning).

Truth be told... I like the mages better. The are all about fast damage - get in and get out. AoE if it gets messy and go down fighting. Priests actually add A LOT of longevity - shields and flash heals... AoE heals. Perhaps 1 priest 4 shammys would be viable?

Anyway, I am now working on 8 mages 2 priests on the PTRs. It takes forever to get everything setup (10 gems, armor sets, spells, assist macros, layouts, ui mods, etc).

Should be fun :)

[Xzin]

Wow.

Just wow.

I rolled 8 mages 2 priests.

Same WSG - limited spells / macros.

Compared to the shamans.... I DESTROYED people. Fire Blast = instant death.

2x Fear removals on 2 minute timers.

Shields, AOE HEALS, PoM/Combustion.....

AOES!!!!

Longevity was much improved over before.... of course I have 2 priests healing but also 8000 hit points on the mages.

Granted, 10 man solo WSGs are not the best place to test this..... but yeah.... I think I am going to stick with the mages. I may even level up 4 more mages......

Decisions decisions....

[Bena]

aww come one stop saying that.. :) /me ponders on adding 5 more heh

yeah mage utility really shines in mutliboxing.. so far my locks feel more like I'm playing one unit.. with mages it's more of a team feeling.. staggering the aoe/frost novas is fun.

post some clips!

[Mannyman]

Tired of the warlocks already? :)

[Xzin]

No - but warlocks lack the instant damage factor. With 10 characters, you don't have time to wait around for dots to tick or even for hellfire to go off. Seeds will be fun though - Seed then fire blast.... that and the pets / fears / shadowbolts.

Will be interesting to see how well the 'locks do or if I should go 8x mage 2x priest.

[Morganti]

5 mages! Go out with a bang! ;)

[Xzin]

Go out where?

[Mannyman]

For pvp I suppose 8 mages would be fun. I assume Kara etc is out of the question now?

[Morganti]

Go out...as in Die! My old guild (all RL friends) want the 5 mages for dps in 10man raids. I'd prefer to have a priest and 4 mages for pvp, but he has lagged behind my mages by about 11 levels now. I may just try the 5 mages in PvP and try to not get stuck in the front lines too much. My main mage is a deep frost mage anyway, so he'll be out front and able to take more of a beating.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

What I wanna see?

Wanding a warrior to death. 3k every 1.3-1.7 secs = owned.

[Bunny]

I know your priority lies on pvp but I still recommend having one or two warlocks as tanks for pve instances. Maybe put them on separate accounts so you can have 8 mages 2 priests and 1 or 2 locks to add. That way the mages can take turns when it comes to instances.

Or, and this is what I do although it is going to take me a couple of months before I can complete that, is have a warrior on a separate account for pve tanking. I assume that will be pretty good when trying heroic instances. For pure farming of non elite mobs he is left out of course. You can also try 10 mans with a warrior. The setup I am going for at the moment is

Group 1: priest, 2 mage, 2 locks (currently lvl 63)
Group 2: war, healadin, mage, 2 shams (currently lvl 23)

When they are lvl 70 they will be transfered to 10 accounts so I can put together my groups depending on what I want to do. Even a decent pvp group (e.g. healadin, 3 mages, 1 lock) is possible.

Have fun, Bunny

[Djarid]

Zxin,

not sure if you are still interested but you should be able to set a variable on each client by using the addon communication channel... much the same way as KTM and Raid mods do.

I haven't looked into the LUA for this yet myself... but as I intend to dualbox shammies (funds / GF won't stretch to 5 accounts just yet) I hope to do so in the near future.

Djarid