Planning to come back to boxing! A few questions~

[Kylol90]

Hey DB.

I haven't multiboxed since wotlk or played wow in awhile. I have a few questions.

How much (multi-boxing specific) has changed?

I want to create a mixed group (5-boxing) to solo all 5 man content. Can I do anything past 5 man heroics realistically ("flex" or whatever new stuff is above dungeon heroics)?

What 5 class spread should I choose? With the release of the expansion so soon, should I not pick around any (current) pve balance disparity between classes since that will likely change? I'm planning to go tank-3 ranged dps-healer, which ranged dps classes work/don't work well with mixed group multiboxing in terms of how their rotation works etc? Should I choose around buffs (i.e bring shaman for bloodlust etc)? Is there a tank spec/healer spec that works especially well in terms of control with mixed group multiboxing/one that doesn't?

Thanks!

[Khatovar]

Between Wrath and MoP we've seen a lot of changes. You might want to start with this thread since I just summed up a lot of changes and the like for Nobodyz. I don't think I'd call MoP the most boxer-friendly expansion, but it was a minor miracle after Cata IMO.

We do have people who do the flex raiding thing as boxers. There's posts up every so often about people looking for more for flex and loads of very recent videos of people boxing raid content, challenge modes and of course regular and heroic 5mans.

I can't speak too much to the class choices. I haven't been following the beta news very much but it doesn't sound like there's going to be much in the way of sweeping changes. Keep in mind, though, I'm talking between MoP and WoD. There was a lot of class changes for everyone between Wrath and Cata and again between Cata and MoP. Offhand I can note that druids now have 4 trees to chose from {bear and cat were separated}, of course there's a whole new class in monks, I don't think there's any real class-specific buffs anymore {mages and shamans can bloodlust, hunters can swap pets to cover just about any buff or debuff need, etc.} You can always use MMOChampion's RaidComp to see who provides what now. It's very useful if you want to cover all your bases for de/buffs, but keep in mind it's for live, not beta, so you'll want to cross check against the known beta information and take it all with a grain of salt because nothing is set at Blizzard until at least the first major patch when they nerf the crap out of everything, lol.

That said, I wouldn't expect too much change. Well, not in comparison to the changes made over the previous 2 expansions. I run the same group now that I've been running since Wrath. I think they got a lot of flac in Cata for making dungeon content really biased against melee, so they seem to be a little more concerned with making sure there isn't an "ideal" setup for a lot of content. That whole "Bring the player, not the class" adage they like to tout. So as long as it's a class you enjoy playing and can manage in a multiboxing situation, then it should be perfectly fine for a 5man group. Plus we now have the ability to dual-spec without having to jump through all sorts of hoops, so if you current setup isn't working for a certain dungeon or even a single boss, you can swap your specs around and try a different tank, an additional healer, a different type of DPS, different glyphs/talents, etc., based on your group's classes.

[luxlunae]

There is a choice between heroics and flex called "LFR" (looking for raid) and it is definitely a way to box raids. Like LFD (which was introduced at the end of wrath) these groups are created automatically, you just queue up when you have the right gear level.

I'd say bring the ranged class you like the most. Dps output is closer this expansion than it has been in the past, and the #1 indicator of how much work you'll do in tweaking the dps rotations is how much you like the class.

At the moment (until 6.0) disc priests are the best boxing 5 man healer because they can do passive smart healing while DPSing. Shaman drop something on the ground, which is a mechanic that isn't fun for boxers so I wouldn't heal with them, and I don't know anyone that boxes with a paladin healer although I think I'm going to try it soon just because that is the only healing class I've never played.

Tank with what you want, with the possible exception of brewmaster (a lot of people tank with brewmasters terribly and don't realize it, so you could be making your healing situation a lot harder than necessary and be unaware).

Shaman/Mage/Hunter can all do blood lust now, it is still handy to have.

[HPAVC]

You will be very successful with a lot of class combinations ... when you are geared.

If you are never going to play WoW with another player with your toons and just use your own boxed toons, the choices becomes somewhat narrow until you are geared. This is especially true if you are limited in your desire to learn to control all the characters movement during fights and such.

I would keep in mind the ability to play the characters in different specs in LFG, since gear has an offspec stats now.

Transferring items from one character to another is just growing and growing in availability in the game. I really pays to have a character or two that can be played socially.

A lot more healer control will be needed from here on out, there are some healing spell changes that you need to familiarize yourself with.

There are changes to the on demand buffs for classes as well, so some of the burst on demand has changed. This is routing toward a proc system which isn't so friendly to most single button dps boxers.

This all said, content has never been more accessible to all players that now, if rewards continue to be frequently tooled up alternative or additional gearing paths are all over the place.

[Khatovar]

Shaman drop something on the ground, which is a mechanic that isn't fun for boxers so I wouldn't heal with them

They also {currently} have extra passive healing from Earthliving Weapon, which has a 20% chance to drop a HoT on top of any heal {100% chance when the target is under 35%} AND an instant heal + boost to next heal on Unleashing, which a shaman should be doing anyway. Then there's the talents that duplicate healing such as Echo of the Elements, Rushing Streams/Ancestral Guidance. You can also glyph a little extra "passive" healing with Cleansing Waters and Healing Wave.

As far as I'm concerned, passive healing isn't the be all and end all of healing. Useful, yes, but nothing replaces a real heal when a boss faceplants half your team. Placing so much value on passive heals, which tend to be a lot of overheal anyway, so you don't have to micromanage healing also dismisses any other utility another class might provide to the team.

As far as the mechanic of dropping totems, we've been doing it since the dawn of WoW multiboxing. It's not difficult and it's as passive as anything else in my macros, including keeping Riptides up across my whole team while I still DPS.

We all have different playstyles and there's very few classes/specs that are just not worth using for a multiboxer, period. You may swear by disc healers, I may swear by resto shamans, yet others think the monk is the best thing since AOE looting, or that anyone who's not running a druid is an idiot, etc. It's true for solo players as it is for boxers; the best class is the one you enjoy playing.

[JackBurton]

Tank with what you want, with the possible exception of brewmaster (a lot of people tank with brewmasters terribly and don't realize it, so you could be making your healing situation a lot harder than necessary and be unaware).

I used to tank with a DK. From what I researched compared to DK's monks take less spikey damage. I was considering trying my hand with monk tanking. What makes alot of players control them so bad? AE aggro? taunts?

[Kylol90]

Thanks for the responses guys!
I keep getting "failed to send recruit a friend request. Please try again later." so I'm having some trouble getting started v.v

[Khatovar]

Thanks for the responses guys!
I keep getting "failed to send recruit a friend request. Please try again later." so I'm having some trouble getting started v.v

This is probably related. We're seeing the same massive lag in EQ2 right now and there's been issues doing anything all morning.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

My 5 monk team just hit 77 and I've done every instance up to level. Aside from my occasional derp moments (hey, it's been 18 months since I played...I didn't remember he stomped everyone in that phase!) they're pretty much AFK instancing. I drive with my mistweaver in case anything goes bad (and I've finished a boss fight where the boss was at >75% health with just the brewmaster and mistweaver still alive).

I'll ask the same question as JackBurton: what makes people bad brewmaster tanks? And are you talking about in the raid context or all-around?

[luxlunae]

Khat I meant healing rain, not a totem. By drop I did mean you have to mouse drop it on the ground, never my favorite mechanic with multiboxing.

But yes I agree that whatever you enjoy playing is probably the class that will work best for a given team. I've logged many many non boxing hours on my priest for 8 years, and only ever raid healed on my priest and my monk.

About monks: I did mostly mean in a raid context, a lot of people seem to play them as VERY VERY squishy (lfr, flex, etc) and the worst raid of this tier for me was when someone came and tanked SOO on their alt monk. I think this is because not everyone is good at using their active mitigation correctly, but I couldn't be certain, I just know that other healers I've talked to agree that monk alt tanks are brutal and awful. For non-heroic five mans they seem ok, I forget what characters I used to do heroics last spring but one was a monk tank, and I missed my paladin tank and wished I had her instead. Like with healers though, if you main a monk and you really love how it works and you get how it works go for it, if you are just picking the "best" tank for multiboxing I'd go another direction.