I boosted my team through strat recently. Loved it.

My advice.

1. Avoid the live side (or should I say avoid going in to the scarlet compound. the skeletons rushing in are a pain. I went there once and decided against it for subsequent runs.

2. Get the key for the side entrance asap. Just kill round, one of the entrances to the guantlet will have the fella that drops the key. Kill him and loot it. From that point on, just go in to Strat from the side entrance.

3. Watch out for the shades of Naxrammas. They appear at the most inconvenient times and summon gargoyles (if not killed quickly) that hammer on your lowbies. Just watch out for a big red yell when they appear and the deaths to these will drop significantly.

4. Avoid the gate with the rats. I took to avoiding this gate due to losing my lowbies a lot. I would kill down to that gate then run back up and go through the top gate in to the live side.

Generally speaking 1 run was worth between 1 level to 3/4's of a level, and could be cleared pretty quickly.

I zoomed through strat -went from 45 - 58/59 with ease. Before I left there on my recent toons I summoned a low level and parked them at light hopes chapel. In future any other lowbies I boost will get a summon out there at 45. As my main druid has the key I'll just start off with the side entrance boosting.

you are spot on with having a shaman along for easy ressing. (Plus disease cleansing totem is your friend).