Brief intro. Im not new to the MB scene. First realy MBing I did was back in the mid 90's with Ultima Online, and since then ive MB quite a few games. Asherons Call, Dark Age, EQ etc. I started MBing in WoW about 3 years ago, pre BC. I didnt know anyone who MB other than a few people 2 boxing a healer and classX No one 5 boxed. So with my company discount and $2k I got 5 identical boxes with monitors and started "The Cluster" About 2 months or so after starting someone at work found the Xinns and I was weak sauce compared to that setup.

I did it all with software at first, I used synergy to use one kb and mouse. and some great UI mods when they did wonderfull things. Now its a lot easier with a keystroke broadcasting version of synergy and keyclone and ive reduced the hardware to just 2 boxes from five. the other boxes made great birthday/christmass gifts.

By coincidence the 5x that I went with was just like Xinn. 1priest and 4 mages. This group cut a bloody path through the original content a mile wide. I got them all to 60 and got bored, then BC came out and I waited a bit before getting it so it wasnt a land rush. Like before they left a path of distruction behind them, till ramparts. I could kill everything but that damned dragon mount.... anyway it got worse and more and more clear that massive DPS wasnt cutting it, so a year or more ago I retired the cluster. Now I fired it back up. with the tweeks to BC and stuff they are back to killing again, but as they get to 70, the old problems are back. Playing in Nagrand theres group quests I cant finish. Looking at the pattern I know the same will be in WotLK and I dont feel like dropping $200 on expansions to conferm.

Today the 5x communtiy is much greater and instead of experimenting im here to ask a few questions, because the 1 priest 4 mages I dont feel can be successful in end game pve areas.

Reading forums and watching vids for the last month I have come to the conclusion that A. I need a tank, Paladins seem to be the frount runners here being able to AOE agro easily. Second is a dedicated healer. and the rest is DPS.

When it comes to the dedicated healer you have a priest, druid and shaman. Im wondering if picking a hybrid healer (druid/shaman) over the priest later on will become an issue?

The next question is the 3dps. For me the simplest option is to level a paladin and remove a mage and ill have a pally, priest, and 3 mages. Would one be better off replacing a second mage with a Shaman or a warlock or some other 3dps class combo or a druid for more buffs?