Questions about multi-boxing with a healer

I just got a new pc today, and last night I found myself able to run 5 wows at once, and I had been planning to multi-box for a couple of months now. I did alot of reading this week about it, how to set it up, and did as much info scrounging as I could, and i have just a couple of questions:

Im putting together a group consisting of 1Warrior, 1 Mage, 1 Priest, 1 Lock, and 1 Paladin. The mage/priest/lock would be the DPS class, warrior tank, pally heal. Im not looking for immediate results and tend to learn fairly quickly, as I've been playing multiple classes since release. Would this be too difficult?

Also, which character should I be leading with? And would I be able to heal the warrior with my paladin while, say, dpsing with one of the casters?

Thanks alot for any help :)

I would say lead with the warrior since he's gonna be your tank and they require alot of micro managment...and yes you can heal while dpsing you just need to set up your macros on a different key(s) other than what your dps use, for example i have my - and = keys as my healing macros and 1-5 for tanking and 6-0 for dps

The hardest part of all that will be synchronizing your DPS rotations. For most trash, it's moot because they'll die in one round of DPS. For bosses or hard stuff, keeping VE/VT going and making sure your lock's DoTs are still up and ticking will be the tricky part, IMO.

Healing wise, it will be fairly easy to setup. On my healdin, i'm mostly spamming flash heals, so that will be easy. My only concern is lack of any aoe healing (assuming priest is shadow).

DPS management will be a challenge but not impossible. Your biggest challenge will be overcoming 3 different casting timers. Mages 2-3 seconds, Warlocks instant, and Priest channeling (Fireball, dots, mindflay). Luckly there are script commands that will check for "ischannelling" so it is feasible to bind all your attacks to one button. I'm not sure of the timing but you may be able to do a cast sequence like so:

mage - just straight fireball - 2.5 - 3 seconds

Warlock - cast squence CoA, Corruption, shadowbolt, shadowbolt, shadowbolt

Priest - cast sequence priest dot, VA, mind blast, mind flay, mindflay

Again not sure on the timing but with this I would try and get it so that you your warlocks dot timers are finished by the time the cast sequence starts again. Your priest could do just straight mindflay and rock the dps.



As for the Main, definetly the Warrior. No question.

If I went with say 5 locks, or 3 locks and 2 mages, I imagine it would be easier to sync, but would I be able to clear later instances? I just want something that involves a mage/lock and can level fairly quickly.

Yes, they can run instances, though bosses in there will be rough on normal and nearly impossible on heroic.

Im just talking about leveling instances, WC-LBRS trash. Should they run it well with just the sheer DPS, or even just healing VW-FG while they dps?

Oh, hell yeah for WC-UBRS. The Outlands instances become very difficult with the movement and other things but even then isn't THAT bad. Old-world stuff is very doable with pet classes along. ;)

How about trying to setup your numpad for healing your group, for ex, NUMPAD1 - heal mage NUMPAD 2 - heal spriest etc. And have your MT healing into your dps rotation keys.

I have been playing 5 cloth classes (2mage 2lock 1 heal priest) last year and it is no problem till you get to the outlands. lockpets are simply not good enough at lvl 70 (let alone heroics). I dropped a lock and included a warrior for tanking. Today I whould go with a palading but back then I had a war available.
As for leading: warrior leads and is actively played, healer has his own set of keys (numpad of a nostromo) and dps is done by spamming one or two buttons.
Worked okay for me.