Disheartened

Well, decided to go try heroics for the first time on the weekend. I figured 12k ac and 11k hp's could be enough so jumped into heroic SP for the first time and had the following timeline.

1. Zone into instance with group
1:30. Buff up, spread out, move pal to position
1:45. Avenging shield first pull of Greater Bogstrok + 2 Bogstrok
1:50. Look up at screen and see health at 2k
1:55. Wipe

At this stage I decide I likely don't have enough health for it (looked at logs and saw I was hit for 1704, 1704, 2234 x 2, 1704) so let's go do regular SV.

45 minutes after zoning in I am at Steamrigger (decided to go here rather than the Naga as it should be easier)....3 wipes later I have to leave for date, best attempt getting him to ~70%.

I don't know if it's my group makeup or not but I'm just finding myself questioning why I'm multiboxing atm if I can't do instances (highest I have done is getting to Shaeffer in MT but wiping over and over to him). Running dailies for gold can only go so far, and yes it will be a lot easier to level come WotLK, but really I got into this for running instances and gearing up well and I just can't but have no idea if it's me or my group.

I'm now leveling up 3 more shaman to replace the mages and priest to see if that works any better but I'd really rather be running a traditional group...guess I could always use them to gear pal + usual shaman up to the point they overgear the instances and then run them with the mages + priest again after that but that seems as much a cop-out as anything else.

Just not sure what I could do differently with current group, what I need to work on or get better at or if I should just transfer characters on to one/two accounts and go back to single play.

Sorry for the rant/stream-of-conscious, no idea what point I'm actually asking for advice on....just figured I'd post here in case others have gone through the same stage.

I used to have the EXACT same setup as you do. 1 pally, 1 priest, 2xmages and 1 shaman - all level 70 with about the same spell damage. I thought that it would be the ideal pve group. I was wrong.

I found it just to hard to play - you have to think to yourself, all the time, what should the tank do, what should my healer do, what should be mage do, what should my shaman do - it was just too complex for me and not very fun to play at level 70.

I rerolled 4 more shaman and made my pally tank my raiding character. So now I have 5 shamans (for 5-mans) and 1 prot pally for raids. I'm a LOT happier now. I can do more instances with the shamans than I could do with my other group by a long shot. I killed the 2nd boss in SV so quick that it bugged out the instance and didn't let me open the little thing to get the boss doors open the other day. It's so much easier to play it's nuts.

On the other hand, you might not want to give up too quick - once you get more spell damage on your pally you'll be able to hold tons of aggro on everything and it might get a lot easier.

Just do what Fur said. Spam your Greater heal on your tank, stun one and open fire. First time i stepped foot in slave pens I got my ass handed to me also. The difference between normal dungeons and heroics is so large that you can't just jump into it with the same kind of reaction times that you used on normal modes. You've gotta spam everything. I have an all in one paladin tanking macro that i mash that's tied to my DPS macros.

/castrandom Holy Shield,Consecration (Rank 1),Cleanse

If you are losing agro adjust the Consecration rank up, but you'll burn too much mana if you go max rank probably. Just tinker with it. Installing a threat meter can help you see how much agro your tank is pulling compared to your DPS and then you can fine tune the spell ranks.

I decided to stick with pvp and do a KZ run when enough guild people were able to. 22 Badges for a couple of hours work instead of breaking my back attempting heroics. Fair enough if you enjoy it but its not my cuppa tea :)

Also - technique is key to doing heroics - you just need to find the right one for your group. Shamans are easy to figure out since there are so many videos out there on how to do different heroics. I went into SP with my 5 shaman that are 1000+ spell damage each and totally wiped on the first pull. I watched some videos and figured out the proper technique to kite the mobs and now it's a cake-walk.

For SP, assuming these are the first set of bogstrok's.. don't kill, just avoid them all. Last boss room you won't be able to but thats something you can work from the tips above (kill the red ones first). Key point of heroics - avoid any groups you can. With the right timing, you only have to fight 4 groups to get to the first boss. single pull, double , double, and another double ->boss.

How much defense does yer pali have? Does guys hit really hard.

Good thing to do is shield the pali before he starts if yeh only got one healer he's gonna be spamming heals none stop pretty much until yeh out gear the place.

Here's some really good info on gearing http://www.failsafedesign.com/mainta...opic.php?t=163

Paladin is at 502 defense, and yeah pretty much work my gear list from maintankadin.

Think you hit the nail on the head there though, I forgot to HS after I pulled so prolly took more damage there than I needed to. I also have my shaman set up to heal at the same time my priest does so they can split threat but likely used the lower level heals on them as I didn't expect that much damage in one round.

Looking at it now, it's pretty much a learning experience and first time in a heroic with them so of course I will fuck up and get destroyed as I learn things (one of the reasons I didn't start with Ramps and the MS mobs). Probably still a good idea to go back to trying to farm the 70 instances for gear first and build shat and kot rep for enchants and other gear......just spend time learning the fights when they are a little more forgiving.

Could also help to learn where I can skip pulls I guess, but I try to avoid that where I can cause I like the faction rep :)

just a suggestion, but u could try heroic bot. my setup is very different from yours as im only 3boxing shamans, 2 ele 1 resto, and my friend is pally tanking with his lock dpsing, so i have 2 people instead. however i have crappy gear, seer's shoulders, robes of oblivion, just w/ev i could get with damage and mana etc. and we can literraly rape heroic bot in 1 hour 20 mins, 1 hour 40 mins if laj is a wanker and decides to be nature resistant.

srsly, super easy 5 badges, and even easier 7 badges when its the daily, just a thought

5x dps is the only way to roll.

I am thinking that most of the people who are able to multibox heroic instances failed a heck of a lot before they started having regular success. I'm leveling a hunter at the moment and have left the multibox team aside, but he is nearing 60 (52 now, 12 levels in three days o.O) and he will replace the priest when I hit Outland instances. I'm sure I'll have plenty of painful moments as I learn my way through instances, but if it was easy it wouldn't be nearly as much fun. :)

Your post scares me but I hear ya completely. I have the exact same setup and when I hit level 60 I was all ready to "solo" my way through ramps. I went in and got destroyed. I was a little sad but figured I'd level up a bit and see what happens. Now I'm thinking of trying again at 62 but am thinking I may practice a bit in Scholo (took the mages and my pally there and they did good at poly'ing) or BRD. I haven't done any instances on my way up so I'm severely rusty. However, I don't think you should give up. At least for me, the challenge of doing something with an unconventional MBing group is exciting.

But I still want my 5x Elemental Shamans =P