WoW Group setup

[Bunny]

Hi everybody,
I have been planning on 5-boxing WoW for quite sometime now. I have been reading these forums and got some great information on hard- and software setup, thx for that. While I am pretty sure about my system I am not quite sure about the characters to use.
I am going to use 5PCs with 5 monitors. One of these will be my main char: a priest. The other four PCs will share 1 keyboard and 1 mouse.
At first I was thinking about playing four mages for some massive aoe action, then I thought about 4 warlocks but came to the conclusion, that mages will be a little easier to handle.

The question I seek some input on is how you feel about three mages and one warlock for the extra utility (soulstones, pets, debuffs...). The goal is to AoE through instances and see how far I can get with that team. Later on I will throw some PvP in but that is not my main focus.

Any input is appreciated,
Bunny

[Ellay]

As few classes as possible, 4 mages 1 priest is the winner or 4 warlocks 1 priest.

I would pick the mages, but that's because I'm biased.

[Steph]

I went for three warlocks and one mage to keep my priest company.

Sure, Warlock AoE is a bit weaker than mage AoE, but not that much. All chars do single target and AoE damage. The warlocks have soul and health stones to offer alongside their pets and the mage comes in handy with water, arcane billiance and portals.

I find that my three felguards are fine for tanking duty. Tested up to boss 2 in the Slave pens so far. Having three means that you can afford to let one or even two drop. Redundancy is a nice thing =]

Have fun picking your setup of choice!

[trigemina]

I'm currently 3-boxing a Priest/Mage/Warlock team doing PvE. They are all at level 38 now and having the Voidwalker to tank is great! Since you're focusing on PvE, you should probably think about having some kind of tank.

[Qcybershop]

go with 4 locks and priest it so pwnz on pvp. drink and buff from mage is nice but i dont think it that big of a deal(but i focus mainly on pvp tho). life tap and holy nova keep me going nonstop so far anyway. :twisted:

[Xzin]

If you don't intend to do ultra high end PvP - then consider adding a warlock. The soulstone alone would be amazing - plus a VW tank = money.

And summons..... and imp stam buff..... decent aoes but not as many PbAoEs (ones that emanate out from your character).

It would be pretty complex to control but I imagine with practice it would be doable.

Not sure if it has as much appeal for PvP though.

[Bunny]

Thank you all for your replies.

I found out: My main problem is my lack of knowledge of the warlock class - I will have to do some research there. But at least one warlock seems mandatory to have a tank the priest can focus on healing - that keeps single target fights a little less cunfused i suppose.

The idea i had was to find as many matching functions between mage and warlock and use those during regular fights, e.g.

Key 1 = frostbolt, shadowbolt
Key 2 = arcane expl, the warlock pbae (hellfire??)

So the idea is to keep spamming the 1-key on one keyboard that controls my dds during a single target fight while being able to concentrate on my priest to heal or react to what ever needs being taken care of. The same goes with spamming the 2-key for pbae fights.

I realise that i will not use my toons to their best because I will have focus on a few abilities per class (during fights). From my experience on dualboxing wow, daoc and lotro I have found out, that my playstyle on multi-boxing is to concentrate 80% on one monitor, and 20% on the second (the 4 DDs) - I just can't handle more .

Anyways, any further input is welcome,
I am still debating (maybe 2 mages, 2 locks?)

The soon-to-be Bunnyz on EU-Durotan

[Steph]

Regarding action bar use, I use primarily the buttons 1-4 for attacks by warlocks and my mage while leaving these blank for my priest.

These four buttons are needed for direct single target damage, dots, drains and AoE. I use [modifier:alt] and [nomodifier:alt] to get a second function on the buttons, such as shadow burn and fire blast instead of shadow bolt and fire bolt or drain mana instead of drain life.

I have previously used smite on the priest as well, but stopped doing that to be free to heal whenever needed and to have mana reserves when needed.

[trigemina]

Don't forget that you can use a macro for your spam key:

Mine is something like this:

/castsequence [target=party1target,harm] reset=combat Immolate, Curse of Weakness, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt; Immolate, Curse of Weakness, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt

This way you get in a DOT and a curse before you start spaming direct damage.

[Bunny]

Thanks for the makro with the curse and dot - that is really helpful.
As for the group setup i have decided on three locks and one mage starting tonight (after picking up the last two pcs). This way I have the ability to use two tanking pets (in case one dies), one imp for buff and still have a sheep and all the nice mage stuff when needed.
Thanks for all your input, keep it coming
Bunny