Multi-role mechanics issue with 4 boxin team

[AtroxCasus]

I have checked and while there are many threads describing team composition and suggestions, I can't find one that explains a "good way" to multibox the different roles, aka...healer, tank, dps.

My setup is 2 shammies 2 mages, and at level 35 they are all casting. Life is simple. Stop main, target, cast, cast, bang it's dead, new target, rinse repeat.

Assuming I want one shaman to go Enhancement and be tankish/agro magnet, the 2 mages to DPS, and the other shaman to focus more on healing than DPS casting, what is the "recommended" way to set this up? I may be nuking it, but as it is, I am trying to stick to only the most "useful" spells on all the toons, and keybind similar casts with each other in terms of effect or time, like fireblast + shock or LB +Fireball+frostbolt. To have one shammie heal, I need to bind the healing spells, AND ensure those keybinds don't have the other toons do anything, which loses me 5 binds. I'm trying to stay on the left side of the keyboard for combat actions.

As far as having a melee shammy in the mix, I obviously don't want the 3 casters to be literally right behind her, but this means turning follow on and off, casting etc...then turning follow back on, all while hoping nothing jumps the trio of casters from behind, or that for some reason they aren't facing the wrong way and not casting.

This setup will make my life easier as I have any number of buddies who would be willing to tank, or heal instance runs for me, but with me running 4 toons, I can't get both. So any suggestions you have, or recommendations based on how you have your teams set up would be very welcome and appreciated. Thanks for reading.

[AtroxCasus]

Is it something I said?

How do you keep the caster DPS from "following" right behind a tank without overly complicating your control setup?
How are those of you 5 boxing setting up your dmg/healing spells? Only the best one or 2?
Skipping over things like iceblock or blink?
Im fortunate enough to have 2 mages and 2 shaman so not a lot of variation in spell types, but what would be an efficient way to have one shaman be tankish or at least most high agro, one shaman mostly healing and the 2 mages hanging back casting?
Should I limit each toon to 5 or 6 spells regardless of role and then separate them by toolbar? It sounds simple, but what if I need the healy shammy to dps and the tank shammy to heal? I'm just wondering if there is a "simple" solution, because the only thing coming to mind is using modifiers for every spell I have, and it just sounds too complicated, like there has to be a simpler route to take.
I see all the posts about your various 5 man setups, but not how you make it easy on yourself to have 3 distinctly separate roles within that group. I'm just lookin for suggestions to get me headed in the right direction please.

[Tasty]

How do you keep the caster DPS from "following" right behind a tank without overly complicating your control setup?

Use a /follow macro after combat and bind a spread out key to your alts for when you enter combat.

How are those of you 5 boxing setting up your dmg/healing spells? Only the best one or 2?

I tend to use like five different healing spells but thats cause I'm a priest /flex. ProM for initial tank healing followed by group healing. Flash heal/greater heal for the tank and prayer of healing for the group. Now this doesn't leave much for single target healing on dps but I go with the theory of 'don't pull aggro and you'll be fine ' For the dps 1-= are all the different dps spells I use. I use all of em in pvp but for pve its mostly just a few select ones (read: scorch/fireball, blastwave/ae spam) Now I have all mages so that makes my life easier in that I don't have to worry about cast sequences.

Skipping over things like iceblock or blink?

I iceblock in PvE and PvP, blink I use in PvP mostly, very rarely do I use it in PvE

Im fortunate enough to have 2 mages and 2 shaman so not a lot of
variation in spell types, but what would be an efficient way to have
one shaman be tankish or at least most high agro, one shaman mostly
healing and the 2 mages hanging back casting?

Spec one as enh and just wait till he/she has enough aggro before dpsing?

Should I limit each toon to 5 or 6 spells regardless of role and then
separate them by toolbar? It sounds simple, but what if I need the
healy shammy to dps and the tank shammy to heal? I'm just wondering if
there is a "simple" solution, because the only thing coming to mind is
using modifiers for every spell I have, and it just sounds too
complicated, like there has to be a simpler route to take.

I sued 1-= for mage dps. Numpad keys for healing and a few keys all over the keyboard for my pally, seeing as pallies dont need many spells/macros to tank

I see all the posts about your various 5 man setups, but not how you
make it easy on yourself to have 3 distinctly separate roles within
that group. I'm just lookin for suggestions to get me headed in the
right direction please.

Hmm not entirely sure what you're after, if you elaborate a bit more I may be able to help.

Is it something I said?

No

[AtroxCasus]

Thanks Tasty.
Some of the issues I have:
-Originally using /follow macro and spread out keys, toons often end up facing in the wrong direction, and only fix is either get them on follow again or turn them using arrow keys, which inevitably faces one of the 3 the wrong way again....
-I use Jamba now for follow, and I can disable it, so I could conceivably stop the casters and keep moving the tank to the target. It just means more macroing and keybinding than I already have.
-In order to start DPSing with an ENH Shammy, I would need to use keys that none of the others have anything on, which will limit the number of spells I can use. Short of writing a whole new batch of macros with [MOD] I can't see a way around that. Ditto for healing spells.
-With everyone casting right now, I can run down my keyboard 1, 2 then 3 if anything is actually still breathing. I like the simplicity. Totems, mounts and a couple other general things are on NUMPAD. Heals for the potential resto shaman are SHIFT 1-5, with a designator for each toon. ALT is used mainly for mage stuff, ALT1-5 make food, water, mana shield, mana emerald...

I guess that's what I mean about needing help. To individualize the toons into 3 categories, don't I end up losing some of the utility of each toon just due to space constraints? Mind you, at this point I am still just using a Keyboard, mouse, keyclone and thats it. I'm trying not to have to buy a 125 key super pad thing....

[Tasty]

I'm trying not to have to buy a 125 key super pad thing....

If thats the case I'd either suggest the following:

a) Use modifiers
b) Use every single key on your keyboard lol
c) Maybe invest in a click casting mod. When I pvp I drop the pally for a fourth mage and I use my priest as my main. To free up keys for the mages I use a clickhealing addon works wonders

[Apophysis]

To individualize the toons into 3 categories, don't I end up losing some of the utility of each toon just due to space constraints?

I organize my team spell rotations by cast time, cooldown, and mana cost synergies. So, for example, "1" is keybound on 3 caster characters as Mage -> Fireball, Warlock -> Shadowbolt, Druid -> Starfire.

I personally don't use every spell available to each character. Its a waste of space (in macros & action bars), money (in training), and adds unnecessary complexity. For example, if you can kill a mob with one salvo of fireball x2, lightning bolt x2, why would you bind Cone of Cold for the Mages? How often would you actually use Cone of Cold in this context?

You need to accept that there are two approaches to 5 man multiboxing (true to lesser extents for smaller teams): brute force & elegance.

With the brute force approach one simply overwhelms the target with dps. As an example, watch how most people play 5 same-class teams. This is the "juggernaut". The pros here are low complexity, high dps. The con is low flexibility.

With the elegant approach, one uses the least costly but most effective "talents" (term used loosely...I'm not referring to class talent trees) across multiple classes to kill. This is the "well oiled machine". The pros here are high flexibility, decent dps. The cons are high complexity, high maintenance.

Your team is somewhere in the middle. And as everyone who has undertaken this hobby learns, the higher the complexity of mixed teams can be very challenging & frustrating in the beginning but very rewarding. The chief way to combat that complexity is to reduce the number of spells utilized and take more of a min/max approach. Refer to my example above of spell groupings. Do I use every spell available to my Mage, Warlock, Druid...no. Do I feel the "means" is elegant...yes. I'm achieving the objective with maximum output derived from minimal input and I have high flexibility in my approach.

There is absolutely nothing better/worse about either approach. The above are complete generalisations about playstyle and team makeup; you'll need to find what works for you since there are no rules that govern how you need to manage your team.

[Jheusse]

Is it something I said?

How do you keep the caster DPS from "following" right behind a tank without overly complicating your control setup?

The simplest way I can see accomplishing this is your arrow keys. I assume you have your WASD movement keys on do not pass in keyclone. Lots of people allow the arrow keys to be passed to allow them to move the slaves out of the fire as it were.

In your case, just before you charge with your tanky type, you tap the down arrow once, every toon takes a half step back and breaks follow. Cast away.

[gorram]

Still on the movement subject...I use WASD to move my tank, on the do-not-pass list. For everyone else, I rebound the movement keys to

Insert Home PgUp
Del End PgDwn

So it looks like the
QWE
ASD
setup.

That way, when the occasion arises that I need to move them out of the fire, etc., I can use that set of keys for the clones, and WASD for the tank. I just tap one of those keys when I want to take them off follow. I've never found that I wanted a spread-out command in PvE, and I like them within chain heal distance of each other.