Three-boxing comp for 10/25 raid augmentation? (With consideration of WOTLK)
So to augment a raid style setup I'm going to want to be able to play each character at a minimum of 90% potential, if not higher.
Shaman x3
Due to totem changes I'm thinking shamans will be far less desirable. As it is now it is pretty desirable to have a shaman for every dps group. With changes many mechanics for raiding purposes (totems affect entire raids, pally AOE heal affects entire raid, etc.) I wouldn't at all be surprised if TOW would no longer stack. Infact, I fully expect it. 15% crit to the entire raid is just plain OP. With consolidation of totems the need for multiple shamans further decreases. Best setup I can think of would be Enh/Ele/Ele with the elementals on follow/assist on another raid member who knows whats going on and will face them in the proper direction etc. Still, I think their usefulness will be limited and three shamans in a 25man may be the maximum you'd ever want, and you'd want at least one or two of them to be healers. So meh at shamans.
Mage x3
Well, I'm not really sure what to think here. Sheep x3, self sufficient leveling, and it looks like fire will still be an extremely strong endgame nuker with the new bottom tier talents. (And after two years of subpar damage I'm expecting them to get a nice boost in wotlk.) I'd imagine a fairily simple spell rotation, and with WOTLK being primarily "frosty" it seems, I doubt I'd run into much fire resistance problems. I see them as DPS with utility of food/water/ports which is of minimal use at best. While thier DPS is yet to be seen, I imagine it would be hard to justify three mages with limited utility over three of another class.
Warlock x3
I'm guessing this would be a strong candidate for raid DPS as well as PvP shenanigans which is a major plus. Dot spec, pet spec, or nuke spec, they all seem pretty multibox friendly and if the trend continues they will keep putting out extremely respectable DPS. Another class with limited utility, but the ability to use all three trees at near maximum potential is extremely enticing. As a pure damage class I feel they'd be a respectable force but again the lack of utility may be detrimental and make them undesirable in 3s. PvP ability (3s arena just for lulz) is icing on the cake.
Hunter x3
I'm really thinking this may be my best bet. BM x3 would put out good to great damage, be easy to play to potential (simple shot rotation for all characters,) and stacking FI gives great percentage based/well scaling DPS boost. I'm not exactly sure how the shot rotations will work with Survival or MM, but possibly BM x2 Surv x1, with the survival at a little less optimization but providing substantial benefit to the raid and party in terms of additional AP as well as mana return for the other hunters. Overall I think the scalability of FI makes this one of the strongest choices.
Druid x3
LOL LAZER TURKEYS. This could potentially make for interesting healing, also, a completely different aspect. target/lasttarget/focus could keep blooms up on three targets per druid easily I believe, or just dropping triple hotsas needed (staggered LBs anyone?) would be a tremendous amount of HPM as well as HPS. Triple innervate. Triple brez. Triple ooc rez. This seems like a very unorthodox multiboxing setup as the common theme is 5man setups or a bunch of straight DPS. (5 locks, 4+1spriest, 5 shamans, etc. etc.) Excluding all other healers from a ten man is probably a bad idea (though most of them would probably enjoy offspec dps roles etc.,) but for 25s it seems like it could be a legitimate use of raid slots. 51pt Flourish gives them a cooldown-free AOE healing whicih they sorely lack at the moment.
Mixed Classes x3
When taking up raid slots, I think boxing two different classes would cut effectiveness below the point at which it would be reasonable to bring them to serious content. Possibly classes with very straightforward cast sequences. Caster x2/spriest, hunter x2/spriest. Still, managing utility skills will be extremely difficult, not to mention the range limitation of spriests (which I think would be the most likely candidate for a second class.)
Final Thoughts
I'm leaning towards hunter as their shot rotation will probably be easily castsequenced, even across the multiple specs. Warlocks and the triple healing druids would come in a close second from what I'm thinking. The spec flexibility of warlocks (and LOLPVP viability) is an added plus. Druids could spec lazerturkey and do ranged damage to max potential pretty easily, but will "max potential" on balance be worth three raid slots? As of now, definitely not. While combos of mixed classes have potential to add more damage and utility than any single three classes themselves, I think it would be extremely difficult to play to "raid standards." If I could pull it off it would be amazing and would even have 5man potential with two other players. I'd be very interested in what others think about multiclass comps for a triplebox setup where you could maintain maximum efficiency.
Discuss 8)
