New team of three Shaman, got some related questions

going to have to actually pay for BC on the third after next week but I figured I would try three Shaman out.

With this second group of three I have again run into the issue that the quest system has bugs, basically during the first twenty levels one of the characters will not be offered a quest the other ones are.

Team one is all shorties, one dwarf priest and two gnome locks. Team two is all Shaman, one resto and the other two elemental.

Team one is pretty simple but fragile - being all clothies. Team two is more interesting as there is some melee involved.

Both teams have the same issue, how to burn through an area fast enough to actually have mana problems - meaning I am not killing fast enough. Most targets can't take 6 Lightning bolts, let alone get to the shaman before then anyway.

Which leads me too... the questions

1. When doing melee, which I have on one key for all three characters, is there a way in a macro to prevent them from exiting melee and just standing there if the target is not dead? The problem is that sometimes one character won't go melee and I need to press the button to get them started which of course stops the others.

2. I have Earthshock on /castsequence reset=6 Earth Shock,, type macros for all three. I figure Frost Shock would be good for one as well (castsequence) but fire shock seems best for any who have their timer up to fire off (three at once might be fun)

3. castsequence the stone claw totems, tremor, and groundings? I am using ALT-x for all my totems... figured these three are useful this way.

4. Which totems to drop in groups? Example of what I mean, alt-1 will drop stoneskin from one shaman, strength of earth from another. The third shaman drops earthbind - usually a waste unless fighting humans.

Now I can't see three fire totems - though it might be fun in some cases. I figure on grouping the cure totems (though one shaman won't have a totem to fire off then). Never been a fan of the elemental protect totems so I don't think I will need them.

The real problem is, when I played my first shaman to 70 I rarely used more than two totems and then only dropped them if I figured I would have a few combats in the area. the difference is that +2 and sometimes +3 level mobs rarely reach the group. So are they a waste? I figure by twenty that three mana totems might be fun :)

5. Is there a single macro command to break follow? My followers move by follow or arrow keys, the main uses the keyboard or arrow keys. What I want is that when I touch the S key (go backwards) that I can macro stop following or such on the other two. Mainly to put the healer BEHIND the casters!

I don’t feel confident in answering the others, but what I have done for question 5 is as follows:

WASD is standard movement for the main.
` is the follow key for all followers.
Up arrow has been rebound depending on the character. E.g. it does nothing for the main. Tells alt 1 to go left, alt 2 to go right, and alt 3 to go forward. Down arrow does the opposite.

So generally they follow, then in preparation for a fight, I press and hold up arrow for a second to get into formation. Kill whatever, then press ` again to recommence following.

hmm... now using the arrow keys for that trick would probably work for my clothie team moreso than the shaman... though I like that idea of moving one one way and the other another (what a horrid grouping of words!)