Classic mixed team: Three questions.

Classic mixed team: Three questions.

My history: I have not multi boxed in a while (BC 5 shamans solo cleared all 5 man content and 50 points short of gladiator, 1 priest 4 locks farmers) but I am looking to get back into it with the release of classic and I am just starting with Isboxer. I find the challenge of getting your set up and macros just right and soloing 5 man content to be alot of fun. 99% of people who see multiboxers will never understand the work many of us put into getting it "just right". I have also been a high end raider from vanilla to wrath with many top 20 US kills and yes I cleared KT in vanilla pre nerf M'uru, 0 light Yog and such. I can't wait to do it all again lol.

I am looking to make a 5 man mixed team for pve farming grinding and dungeons. I have put a lot of thought into what I want to make and how I want it to play. After a month of planning and some practicing and learning isboxer I am still stuck on some things.

So the play style i am going for is dots for both 5 mans a grinding. No real aoe but everything gets 1 priest dot 2 druid dots 2 lock dots and whatever my 5th slot ends up doing. I will have imp thorns and imp fire shield from imp and engineering for aoe tanking. Two healers for 2 hots and to split the mana around as they dps.

Warrior Human (Prot) (I plan on maining this so this is a must and it will be carried a lot while grinding)

Druid Night Elf (resto / balance moonglow/insect swarm) (This will be my pvp toon and main also its a must)

Priest Dwarf (disc/holy nova build) (seems like a good alt offers healing a dot and a rez not 100 needed but seems good)

Warlock Gnome? (affliction with improved imp)

Question one: the 5th spot, my options seem to be:

Mage (frost was first thought but I think fire would be best for what I am doing?)(would seem to be first choice int buff, free water and ports) but my team is mainly a dot team it does not fit in all that well I would just be fire blasting on cooldown? That just makes things die farther away from me though and slower looting? Also worst mana hog in dungeons?

Shockadin (blessing of wisdom, ret aura already stacking imp thorns and imp imp for my tank. Down sides I really don't want to buff everyone every 5 mins and having 1 melee to deal with seems not worth the hassle but mp5 works really well with the dots grinding style)(I could also run as main healer and swap to shadow and moonkin but I like hots alot)

Warlock (I would rather run something I don't already have but it fits the style well)

Hunter (classic pet management sucks and ammo... one hunter is not worth the hassle but aspect of the pack is nice)

Boomkin (again rather run something else but its a crit aura and two dots)

Shadow (again rather not double up on classes but you gain the vamp embrace and shadow debuff but those only help longer fights and don't really do anything for grinding)

Question two: Races

So human warrior and night elf druid are a must but the dwarf priest and gnomes are just min maxing. Camera angles for looting items of the floor don't seem to line up well due to races. I could run 4 humans 1 elf or 3 human 1 elf 1 dwarf just to cut out gnomes?

Question three: Healers

I am kinda sold on the double hybrid healers two or 3 hots makes micro managing healing much easier while doing everything else at the same time. Going full shadow does not add much, going full boomkin for aura is it worth the utility lose for the aura and a little more damage? I do fear my mana down time with this group a lot.

I feel a little out of my element here but I will share my thoughts in case they help. In summary I believe you are saying your anticipated party is the following (with a few question areas marked in red):

-Warrior-Prot/?-Human;
-Druid-Resto/Balance-NE;
-Dwarf-Disc/HolyNova-Dwarf;
-Warlock-Afflic/?-Gnome;
- ??? TBD ???

1) For the 5th slot I like the idea of Mage DPS and water/food/ports. I would be very concerned running this team without consistent free water, especially if it is my first/main team.

2) I would stick to the recommended Races (Dwarf Priest, Gnome Warlock);

3) I don't know how easy it is for a shadow priest to cast heals but for a Boomkin it is pretty easy to switch thought it can eat alot of mana if you are going back and forth. If you can play with your warrior Tanking (and Warlock pet offtanking) then you should be able to get away with 1 main healer. If that is the case then your Druid could go Moonkin boosting 4 member's of the party and be a backup/emergency healer.

Overall my main concern would be whether you will have OOM issues on bosses and whether you will have enough DPS overall. I didn't do a lot of dungeons in vanilla and I hear a lot of warning about how mana is/will be an issue in Classic but I don't know if those predictions are only related to progression raiding or not (and thus maybe aren't big concerns in dungeons). Sorry but I unfortunately just don't feel like I have much expertise here so I just don't know. I guess as long as you have enough dps & mana to down the instance bosses you care about I guess it wont matter that much how much you drink after big fights if you have free water. I suspect your team will be drinking often but I hear that gnomes and especially dwarves like that :-) .

I will try to share my thoughts on this matter. I will say I like your comp. I believe mage is the best option. Macroing easy dps rotation shouldn't be hard. A mage with a Wand is very competitive depending on how much you want to manage them. A level 26 Mage spam casting Rank 5 Frostbolt is about 45 dps (better with stats but this is the baseline) A wand requiring level 26 does 26.4 dps. So depending on how much you want to manage a mage they can still do a baseline amount of damage. The Int buff for your party is way to good. Water and portals just a bonus. If all you use the mage for is CC one of the targets that will be much better then a shadowpriest or another druid. I believe you agree that buffs that help others in the party go a long way. If you plan to farm strath or Scholo A priest might be best but I am still unsure how hard certain comps will have in that dungeon.

I believe the gnome will cause you issues. I would look at how you want to start your team and go the easiest route to the first dungeons. Cutting the gnomes does cut the fear break but I would only change races if you have trouble running the shorter camera angle. Minmaxing races in my book isnt a big deal, especially if you do not plan to raid on the gnome.

Your team looks great hope it works well for you.