5 Boxing One Computer 5 Separate classes

[dariuss]

So I just hit 54 last night. I have found that my first attempt at 5 boxing I swung for the fence by selecting the following classes:

Paladin - tank
Druid - Healer
Shaman- DPS
Warlock - DPS
Hunter - DPS

I have found that my PVE experience and ability is unmatched I have not however; spent much time in the PVP realm. I do not believe I would fair to well in arena or battlegrounds with this makeup. I have a friend who has a team of 5 shamans at 70 we are anxious to make attempts at karazhan. I obviously have a lot of work to do before I get there.

Anyways curious if any of you have chosen the road less traveled by selecting 5 separate classes and if so what macros or tips/tricks you use to accomodate your group make up.

[Kedash00]

i have:
pally - tank
priest - healer
mage - dps
shammy X2 - dps

and the only "trick" i have found to use more abilities than lightning bolt + fireball is to set up spells that are exactly the same as far as cast time, like i'll put instants (fireblast) with another instant (shadow word death) and forthe shammys (shocks). besides that it's hard for me to do anything, but i only pve so far, i did try pvping once, but a single rogue took down my whole group single handedly, he was good and knew just how to strike a multiboxer, he would sap my alts, and i wouldn't notice and he would kill that one when the rest of the group was gone, and over and over and when he got to my pally i just let him die to get back with the rest of the team.

[zarocks]

I chose Pally/Mage/Priest/Druid/Shaman. They're only 35 right now, but so far it has been pretty much a cakewalk throughout. I guess I have something against playing a pet class, but I also wanted the priest Stamina/Spirit buff, as well as some of the totem benefits a Shaman brings to the table.

As far as macros go, there's not much going on that is too complicated...my 'BIG BUTTON' primary attack is as follows:

Paladin - nothing (I'm still not used to this...as a Warrior I was constantly spamming Sunder/Devastate)
Mage - Frostbolt
Priest - Holy Fire/Smite
Druid - Faerie Fire/Insect Swarm/Starfire
Shaman - Lightning Bolt

As I progress, I'll probably use some more advanced macros/cast sequences...but for now I want to keep things as simple and efficient as possible.

Since hitting 32, Reckoning + Windfury Totem has been absolutely amazing, and I cannot wait until I get Boomkin!

[zarocks]

i have:
pally - tank
priest - healer
mage - dps
shammy X2 - dps

and the only "trick" i have found to use more abilities than lightning bolt + fireball is to set up spells that are exactly the same as far as cast time, like i'll put instants (fireblast) with another instant (shadow word death) and forthe shammys (shocks). besides that it's hard for me to do anything, but i only pve so far, i did try pvping once, but a single rogue took down my whole group single handedly, he was good and knew just how to strike a multiboxer, he would sap my alts, and i wouldn't notice and he would kill that one when the rest of the group was gone, and over and over and when he got to my pally i just let him die to get back with the rest of the team.Just like you, I set my normal damage spell and instant-cast spells on a different keys (2 and 3, respectively). I found that certain instants (SW:P) are too mana inefficient to even include/mobs don't last long enough to make it worthwhile.

[mackenziemi]

I have level 60's

Paladin (tank)
Priest(Healing)
Mage(DPS)
Warlock(DPS)

So far it hasnt been to bad. I havent really tried PVP, but in PVE I have found the only thing I really have problems with is CC. I can AoE like a champ Hellfire+Arcane Explosion+Concecrate+Circle of Healing==pwnage. I too have found you need to match similiar abilities. For example i have a DOT button, so on the Lock and Priest I have a macro that runs through my dots. Then I have "bolt blast" button that casts Fireball, Shadowbolt and Smite at the same time. For me its been very fun so far. I would also like to try a Pally and 4xMages and a Pally and 4xShammans

[wildcat56]

after level 5 chars 1 at a time all different classes to 70 and gearing them all out via pve... yes not pvp so i spent way too much time playing 1 character at a time, I have discovered multiboxing. I am 3 boxing right now ele shammy, priest, and mage. I have made cast sequence macros for all of their attacks that work amazingly and i sit and spam 1 button and watch the mob or person go down in seconds. my friend is 2 boxing a shammy and pally and we do all the 5 man instancing stuff.

at first it was crazy writing all the focus/assist macros for each spell and for whatever reason it took me way too long to start using the cast sequence macros.

not only does it help for dpsing down mobs quckly, but i have written one for my priest to heal the tank in stances as well which works outstanding. so as far as being efficient in terms of bar space or casting, i would highly recommend using cast sequence macros to simplify the leveling process when using multiple classes

[Knytestorme]

Paladin, priest, 2 mages, shaman.

Tricks and macros:
1. Set paladin as focus for everyone
2. Create macros for fireball, icebolt, fireblast, I WIN (on mages), lightning bolt, chain lightning bolt, smite and blizzard (using the ping minimap functions found in the wiki/addon's forum) which are all basically /cast [target=focustarget] spellname
3. Create healing macro on priest and shaman of /cast [target=focustargettarget] non-max heal (basically allows me to heal for the same amount in the same time as one big heal from the priest but splits the agro and mana useage between 2 characters to mimimize impact)
4. Create macro on shaman /cast [target=focustargettarget] chain heal and map it to the same keybinding as prayer of mending on priest
5. Create a macro per mages to assist focus (bound to diff keys) and have polymorph mapped to a key not shared by anyone else (though after 2.4.2 I'm thinking of mapping it to avenging shield key)...allows me to keep up to 2 seperate targets sheeped without having to swap around once fight starts
6. Create macro for paladin of /cast [target=targettarget] righteous defense
7. Have macro posted elsewhere (am at work or would paste it) to change focus to the next character in the list that's not dead/sheeped/mc'd and map that macro to every key used to swap the PiP's around
8. Have fol and loh mapped to mousepresses using click2cast on paladin (saves me some time if I need to cast them, usually have shift+lclick for fol and shift+rclick for loh)
9. Have follow and spread macros mapped to dpad on n52
10. Have a totem castsequence macro for shaman to allow quick deployment of standard load during fight
11. Have grounding and temor totems mapped to easy to reach keys for when they need to replace standard totems

That's about the basics for how I roll now, and once I got it set up I really haven't had to tweak it too much.

[Havelcek]

This is an interesting topic. I'm close to L20 with my 5 shammies and since I'm thinking about rerolling on Mag I might do a blended group as well. I think its ultimately going to make life easier at level 70 with instances, though obviously its a much tougher path for multiboxing itself, due to the sheer number of abilities and synergies that have to be considered. So here are my "guiding principles":

Start with a Paladin as a tank. This is simple. 2 Elemental Shaman for DPS and multiple totems. At least 1 mage for water and porting. Either a druid or priest for a different flavor of buffs. +Stam versus GOTW basically.So ultimately the question is the 5th slot. Mage for a 2nd sheep? Druid for dots and GOTW? Priest for healing and +stam?

Fortunately I'm still building my new machine so I have time to think about this.

[zarocks]

This is an interesting topic. I'm close to L20 with my 5 shammies and since I'm thinking about rerolling on Mag I might do a blended group as well. I think its ultimately going to make life easier at level 70 with instances, though obviously its a much tougher path for multiboxing itself, due to the sheer number of abilities and synergies that have to be considered. So here are my "guiding principles":

Start with a Paladin as a tank. This is simple. 2 Elemental Shaman for DPS and multiple totems. At least 1 mage for water and porting. Either a druid or priest for a different flavor of buffs. +Stam versus GOTW basically.So ultimately the question is the 5th slot. Mage for a 2nd sheep? Druid for dots and GOTW? Priest for healing and +stam?

Fortunately I'm still building my new machine so I have time to think about this.I'd go with Priest, but Druid is a close second. The stamina buff is excellent and Holy-specced DPS is pretty good. You also benefit from Holy Nova to add some extra AoE firepower.

[Havelcek]

The other thing that makes my brain spin is trying to figure out races for them all in terms of how starting areas and trainers work. Like if you have a belf pally and orc shaman then you can't train them together. Kind of annoying.

[Hideo]

Well, I'm truly amazed, but even with my imagination and a lot of Macros, I don't see how one person can handle efficiently 5 characters like this...
do you guys clear 5 men dongeons ?

Mostly I don't see how the paladin can keep the monsters on himself, if he fails, all the other cloth classes must die very quick ?

[zarocks]

Well, I'm truly amazed, but even with my imagination and a lot of Macros, I don't see how one person can handle efficiently 5 characters like this...
do you guys clear 5 men dongeons ?

Mostly I don't see how the paladin can keep the monsters on himself, if he fails, all the other cloth classes must die very quick ?Paladins are very good at holding agro on an entire group of mobs with Consecration, Thorns (if you have a Druid), Retribution Aura, Righteous Fury, Seals/Judgment + White damage. If my priest draws aggro from healing, I can use Fade, etc. So far, with all the buffs and gear, my clothies can take some punishment, at least up to this point until I can react.

[Dorffo]

Paladin's also have that very handy ranged taunt, so in case something breaks away from your melee range you can just pop a taunt off in their general direction and they tend to just wander right back (there are a few cases of immunity which can lead to squishy death if you're not paying attention).

[Tonuss]

I run a paladin, priest, shaman, mage, and warlock. But the shaman is level 70 and has been PLing the rest of the group as enhancement spec. The rest of the group is currently 55. When they hit 60 I will set the paladin as the main and tank with him, using the others for support.

Since I'm mostly PLing, my macros aren't all that fleshed out yet. I did make one that has the priest and paladin cast their 'big' heal at the same time (with the paladin using Divine Favor first). And I set a pair of keys to use their AE abilities. One key for the paladin (consecration) and warlock (hellfire) since they don't have to spam it, and another key for the mage (arcane explosion) and the priest (holy nova) which I spam after pressing the first key. When I want to AE a group, I pull with the shaman. He places a stoneclaw totem and then a magma totem, and then the lightshow begins! The best part is that holy nova heals the warlock through hellfire. :)

I'm actually pretty excited about getting to 60 for Outland instances. I expect a lot of early wipes and pain, but it will be a fun learning experience.

[Hideo]

Oh, I see ^^
well then maybe I'll give it a try
Because I was not so hot on making 5 shamans (the easiest way of clearing 5 men dongeons IMHO)
I would be bored very quick

[Dorffo]

Oh, I see ^^
well then maybe I'll give it a try
Because I was not so hot on making 5 shamans (the easiest way of clearing 5 men dongeons IMHO)
I would be bored very quick

For PvE I think you will find a mixed group quite a bit more enjoyable. 5x shaman is sort of the "brute force" approach and I have a lot of fun with my pal/sham group. That being said; adding in other classes allows for a lot more micromanagement options, and in general you have more flexibility in your play style - in my experience.

I play my shams when I want to just go in guns blazing and not worry about the details. On the other hand, setting up pet targets, sheep targets, a kill target and then initiating your pull is much more akin to setting up a stack of dominos and then having fun pushing the first one over and watching the chain reaction... half the fun or more is in the setup.

[bodefeld]

My new PvE team has

one pally tank
two warlocks
one shadow priest
one restoration shammy

all to-be, they are still little and not really specced yet.

here's why I chose those. Pally tank is relatively easy to play, excellent for aggroeing multiple mobs and gives very good buffs to the party. Warlocks have soulstones (wipe recovery), bloodpact and when specced affliction, they don't burst too much for the pally to tank up against. 2 x Seed of Corruption at level 70 should be awesome. The shadow priest pretty much ensures that the other guys don't run out of mana. Stamina buff, emergency healing, and fear warding are nice too. Now the reasons for a shammy as a healer are: Wrath of air totem (101 spell damage, excellent for the tank and pretty good for the rest), tremor totem, healing/mana stream totems, earth shield and, of course, chain heal and the good old ankh.
I think this setup synergizes pretty well, as they are all casters (pally too). The drawback is the limited crowd control (succubus, fear).
They are only level 8 atm, so I could still change the team if you give me reason to^^.

Cheers.