Hello and thank you

[horiziel]

Hi - recently found this forum and wanted to introduce myself and say thank you for all the great information contained here.

I started my 5xteam this week (they are now level 6). The group is Pal/priest/shm/mag/mag on the alliance side. I pretty sure its not ideal, but i wanted to set up a party more in the style of Baldurs gate/any random fantasy book where the 5 characters feel like a "story-party" somehow.

For the group setup i may be thinking like an eq player but reading these forums i figured 1) Pal - tank with AoE capabilitues, good buffs, 2) sham - buffs, some dps, wipe recovery, secondary healer, 3) priest - main healer, more buffs, should allow me to tank things effectively with the paladin, 4) 2 mages - dps and aoe dps for grinding - the one class i played before and should be possible to run somewhat effectively with not too many buttons. Im sure the amount of classes may make this overly complex, but im in no rush to level up, and I have no intention of reaching high levels for at least another year, so willing to take my time to figure it out.

This is my second time in WoW, i played a few years back on a different server and got a mage to level 40, so my wow experience is pretty limited. the last few years i was in EQ and VG where i tried a little bit of 2 boxing, but this is a very different experience.

So far its working pretty ok, but then again so far its mostly a question of nuking things down. I did get keyclone and maximizer set up and it runs pretty well with one large and 4 small windows on a 24" screen, upgrading from 2 to 4 gb ram would probably help though.

I do have two questions too:

Money at this level? This may sound extremely trivial but I had a total of 2silver when I got to level 6, so im still using the starting spells... Also is there an option to auto distribute cash and cash loot (like in VG if anyone tried it)?

Instances - which would be the easiest ones at low levels. Im really looking for a place with no other people so I can practice fighting with the group.

[Ualaa]

Money is automatically split evenly between group/raid members.
If the amount cannot be split evenly, the looter gets 1 copper extra which is a very marginal amount.

If you don't have a higher level on the server to assist you financially, it can be very hard.
I'd suggest having mining and herbalism on your most active main screen. Mainly because you cannot macro these.
Have skinning on one of your alts with the 2 line macro, "/targetlastenemy" and "/use skinning(apprentice)". Change the macro to your skinning skill as it appears in the spell/ability book. (P).
Enchanting on one member of your team. It will cost a little to level up at times, but being able to disenchant instance/quest rewards for sellable enchanting ingredients will pay off down the road.

The lowest alliance instance is deadmines, which is geared towards upper teens or lower 20's characters.
It's based out of the town Moonbrook, in the southern edge of Westfall which is the second human zone from Stormwind, after Elwynn Forest.

Cloth looted can be sold, you'll get a lot more on the auction house then you will from a vendor.
Set of an auction house toon, which lives between the mail box and the auction house.
Auction cloth, herbs, skins, disenchanted items and mined resources.

Your dps toons can be somewhat undergeared and only really need their most commonly used dps spells.
Your healer should have the maximum rank of their heals spells.
Your tank should have the best gear you can get for them along with their tanking abilities at current level; this toon will be the cornerstone of your team.
I'd not buy any/much gear on the auction house, as quest rewards and/or instance drops will be enough to level you.
Be frugal, its hard with a team on a server without higher toons.

[horiziel]

Thanks - thats very helpful! Bandits for cloth and some gathering-skills then.

[tym733]

WoW, it must take a lot of marco management with 4 class. I just started 5 Shammies and am just learning. You must be very good to do 4 class, Hope you can do well, hope to hear more when reach you higher levels.

[elsegundo]

the above poster gave very good advice.

if you think of your team as a unit, max out the skills that's useful for the team and not just for themselves.
For the pala you'll probably use the most abilities.
mages will probably shoot fireballs and do some arcane explosions? simple.
priest heals.
shaman toss some supporting totems and nuke.

that's an awesome setup. but also give each character a backup actionbar when they're not targetting the main so they can do some damage on their own (in case someone dies and you have to control one of the slaves)


Priest:
i'd give my priest healing commands based on who im targeting with macros.
basically, if the pally targets a harful mob, heal the pally.
of the pally targets a helpful mob, party member, or passerby, heal the pally's target.
i would change spells based on modifiers (alt, ctrl and shift).

Mage:
1 button for arcane blast.
1 button for frostbolt/fireball.
cant think of anything else mages will actually need.

Shaman:
1 button to throwdown totems in any order you wish.
1 button to nuke along with the mages.

so with the three classes above, we've used up 5 buttons at most. that leaves at least 7 for the pally with additional clickable buttons. also dont forget to make one for drinking/eating and mounting.

[wowphreak]

Buy the biggest bag yeh can afford. pickup everything and sell it.
herbalism and miner are 2 great ones to pick.

Dont worry to much about buying yer spells there where times when I didnt train my guys for about 10 levels.

good place to get info on instances is wowhead.com
try out
http://www.wowhead.com/?zones=2#0+2+1
It'll show yeh all the instance sorted from lowest to highest

[horiziel]

Thanks for all the responses, ill let you know how it progresses, in part I like researching it more than i like playing, but i will have to try an get those macros set up properly and take them out for another session.

It sounds like if I spend a couple of hours gathering and killing for cloth I should probably be able to buy a few bags and the first levels of spells.

That dungeon link is great - looks like i can use it for a roadmap once i get them close to level 20.

[elsegundo]

cloth is one way of making money. however, just remember some cloths are actually worth a lot more for than others for the level of cloth that it is.
wool, mageweave and runecloth do sell for decent prices whereas linen and silk sell for a lot less. netherweave is still selling well, and they drop quite often from outland humanoids, so i doubt there will be a shortage there.

if you do make it to northrend, i am not sure how the cloth market there will pan out. tailors do get a random drop on a book that will teach them how to get more cloth from mobs. the drop rate for those who do not know this skill is less. perhaps cloth in northrend will cost quite a lot in the future.

in any case, do pick some gathering professions for your main. skinning would be nice coupled with either mining or herbing. you can continually trade to your slaves if you run out of room in your bags. but do sell them in the AH. any of those professions will give you enough gold for mounts at 30. i cant say the same about the level 60 mounts. it should also pay for everyone's training and repairs.