5 different classes: some questions

[lacitpo]

I hammered out this chart because I was trying to explain my setup to a friend and he couldn't understand it at all until this.

All of my toons abilities are cast via macros, and targeting is passed from my main, to my slaves. Heres the chart

http://callmetom.net/files/focus.pdf

[d0z3rr]

I only play 4 different classes, but have played 5 different ones but quit playing them due to huge level differences.

I can briefly go over my setup. I use keys 1-5, qewsad for movement, and rfcxzvgt. My setup is pally, 2 spriests, lock, mage - lvl34. The only macros I use are /assist and /follow. I target a mob on my pally and mash the assist key, then begin casting.

The pally has no bindings for any of his major actions, just buffing. I mash one buff key to fully buff my group. The pally is so easy to use I just click my spells, no urgency required at all!

For spells, they are bound to 1-5 rfcxztgv. So far I haven't really used anything more than 1-4 on my pve group. But on my 4x hunter group I used EVERY key and then some, it's insane. So I can only imagine as this pve group levels I'll easily fill every key.

1 casts fireball, 2 smites, and a shadowbolt.
2 casts holy fire, immolate, and pyroblast.
3 is for the short casts - mind blast, scorch, searing pain.
4 does 2xvampirif embrace, and corruption.
5 does 2xshadow word pain, curse of elements, and a fire blast.
R does 2xmindflay, fireball, and shadowbolt.
Shift+X is wand.
Shift+R is pet attack.

When I was playing my other group which had a druid in it, it annoyed the hell out of me that my druid couldn't wand. Just something I'd like to point out, because I do heavy wanding with my group. I usually finish off mobs from wanding to conserve mana for less downtime. Wanding is the reason I did not pick shamans or druids to be in my pve group.

So basically I run in with my paladin and consecrate/seal of justice. Then I hit 4,shift+r, 3, then 3 again and r right away, then 3 once more then wand. This is enough to kill a mob and finish them off wanding. Pretty sure you can see this stuff happening in my pve videos.

I don't dot the mobs cuz it's just a waste of mana. I will however fully dot bosses and use every spell in my arsenal (I'll use 1,2,3,4).

So yeah, no crazy macros or anything, just a little trial and error and some planning. It's actually very easy to do and fun.

*edit* I'd also like to mention how awesome it is to stun mobs with my fire mage and 2 spriests....

[Doostin]

my team is lvl 59 (read my profile for classes) i was going to do shadow priest resto shaman but the 3% crit/hit bonus from the totem is better than a little mana regen.

i'ms ure when i get into the heroics and higher instances i'll need more mana regen but for now mobs die so fast that getting a vampiric touch and embrace on a mob is useless

prot pally boomkin fire mage ele shaman holy priest

[Piecemaker]

my team is lvl 9 now, did 1-6 in the starting areas, from 6 on i brought them to durotar. Everyone except the druid has a trainer in orgri, and the druid only needs to fly to TB. I'm gonna do the class specific quests when i'm gonna do instances, don't really need them while questing.
But i'm having second thoughts about my setup: holy priest seems an easier healer than resto shaman. I don't like chain heal because it only heals 3 people, so i'll go with the holy priest.

So i was thinking of this setup:
prot paladin
holy priest
mage (fire i guess)
ele shaman
boomkin

this way i'll have 8% crit to spells from the boomkin aura and the shaman's tow. Only thing i'm not sure about yet is the mage. Other possibilities are a lock or a shadow priest, but i'm not sure wich one would bring the most to the group.

[Dominian]

wow what a spirit =)

Leveling my druid from 1-20 and dooing my shamans totems quests twize is clearly the worst experience ive had in wow so far. (well maybe not the totem quests but it does realy suck)

Moonfiring from lvl 1-10 and you finally get bearform just to realise that your dps is even lower then beeing a caster, from 20 you will fly thought!

[Oatboat]

keep your mage. way more group utility than another class outside of that build. Food/water, Ports, Intellect buff, and alot of dmg . And yes stay fire spec'd... if you go frost it gets annoying when they freeze.

[lacitpo]

So Paladin, Priest, Druid, Mage, Shaman..

Idea 1
Druid (tank)
Paladin (healer)
Priest (shadow)
Shaman (elemental)
Mage (fire)

Comments: Druids make good tanks for the time being and switching back and forth between bear and kitty could make world questing easier. Also paladins are one button wonders when it comes to healing meaning that you simply have to target manage and spam a single spell. Also paladin mana seems infinite this way. Priest will have passive mana and health regen for party as shadow and the spells are relatively easy to castsequence. I'm not personally familiar with Shamans or Mages but I imagine they can be castsequenced also.

Idea 2
Paladin (tank)
Druid (resto)
Priest (shadow)
Shaman (elemental)
Mage (fire)

Comments: Only change here is tank and healer. I like druid heals more, but mostly late game. Rolling hots are more my style than paladin healing. Especially since they keep working even after you change targets which can be nice in certain situations.

Your current setup is probably just fine. I've never boxed a priest healer before, though I have played a holy priest a ton and I'd say that they are not the simplest class to heal with. They have a lot of healing utility spread across a number of abilities, many of which take some intelligent downranking for good efficiency and you might find yourself having trouble micro managing this while boxing 5 toons.

How are you doing target management? Are you using a focus setup or sticking with a largely focus free setup?

[Kulzor]

lacitpo - I've got a group similar to yours - all toons are now 70.

This is my dps group:
BM Hunter, Balance Druid, Elemental Shaman, Frost Mage

For my solo instance rep farming:
BM Hunter, Resto Druid (different one than above), Elemental Shaman, Prot Paladin

The dps group works well enough with simple macros that are spammed constantly. However, the BM hunter rules all with dps (best geared though), then the other three have similar (almost identical) gear - the elemental shaman handily wins on dps output for them.

Were I to do it again, I'd have 3 elemental shaman plus the hunter. More Totem of Wrath would mean more overall crit bonus than the balance druid gives, and the frost mage's buff isn't worth much (though the manna biscuits and portalling are nice at times), add to that the higher damage output, and the ability for all of them to chain lightning and they'd be even more fun. Ah well.

Since getting the elemental shaman to 70 I haven't had a chance to hit instances with my own group much, but he dishes out great damage for a brand new 70, handily smoking the dps output of other guildies bm hunter and warlock, and putting up a close battle for dps with a well-geared battleground pvp-geared MM Hunter. (The dps was actually better, but wind-up time hurts the shaman I think - also we had a warrior tank, and couldn't do much chain lightning.)

For a tank I love the paladin. They allow multi-shot/chain lightning type spells do really dish out the damage, and a druid tank or warrior tank just can't do that - especially not if you are multiboxing. (Unless your keyboard skills are far better than mine...)

[Piecemaker]

my targetting is completely focus free, so i can use focus for crowd control. I have 5 elemental shamans (lvl 70), so at 70 i can switch any toon with a shaman. so i guess i'll drop the shaman now

i'm still not sure about the last spot

pala tank
priest healer (got enough shamans, druid doesn't have good aoe heal besides tranquility)
fire mage
balance druid
shadow priest (mana/health regen) OR destro lock(imp health buff, cc)

[lacitpo]

Depending on your goals, you might find you don't need an AOE heal.

Or, you can have an emergency button that drops shadow form and drops some AOE heals for the few situations it's warranted, allowing you to have a bit more flexibility with your group... Just a thought. I fretted a bit over the lack of aoe healing in my setup, but in the end I knew I had a shadow priest. On easy AOE that isn't really life threatening, vampirit embrace is enough to top people off after some light AOE. In hard AOE where people will die, nail my macro to drop shadow form and spam aoe heals till my mana is gone . And since you've got a balance druid in the party, toss that innervate on over to your shadow priest and the AOE healing can go on for a bit longer. Might be a good way to keep your group more diverse, allow you more options later on if you decide you want to change the group dynamic a bit, and to take fullest advantage of playing multiple classes.

EDIT: This is all assuming you're targeting mostly PVE encounters.