So far my multiboxing adventures have consisted of playing five of the same class and spec at a time - 5 elemental shamans, 5 BM hunters, 5 frost mages etc. This is pretty simple, I just have all toons do the same thing at the same time. Using this method the shammies were able to brute-force their way through TBC instances with burst DPS.

Now, I'm hearing that it's no longer possible to brute-force instances In Northrend. Now a proper tank is needed and probably a healer too. With that in mind, I've been levelling a prot pally over the last couple of weeks which I intend to substitute for one of my five elemental shamans and I'm also going to respec another shaman to resto. I'm hoping this will make a pretty solid group for doing Northrend 5-mans and eventually heroics.

However I'm a bit daunted by the prospect of trying to micromanage three different roles simultanously, and I was wondering if anyone could give me some tips. I'm thinking I'll probably have to create rotation macros for each role, a tanking rotation for the pally, a DPS rotation for the elementals and a healing rotation for the resto. I'll put them all on the same key and just spam this all the way through instances. Is that viable?

The other thing I'm wondering about is the level difference between the pally and four shammies. The pally hit 77 last night and I intend to take it to 80 and tank instances for my non-boxing guildies. The shammies are all 70 and have full rested, having been shelved since Wrath released. If a level 80 tanks instances for four level 70's are their XP gains going to be seriously crippled?

Any words of wisdom greatly appreciated.