Trying to decide on a 2, 3 or 5-box group.

[Harry Palms]

It's time to step out of the shadows and post some on this awesome forum.

I've multiboxed EQ1 and tried it out some in WoW, but nothing too seriously. I'm
kind of bored right now as the guild I'm in is terribly casual and have a hard
time reliably fielding even a 10-man raid, so I've been considering boxing as a
side project.

I'm considering three options:

1) 80 prot paladin + 80 resto druid

Mainly to fool around with farming for Thunderfury, ZG mounts, etc. Possibly
2-box and add dps for heroics if my coordination is up for the challenge.

2) 80 prot paladin + 80 resto druid + 70 warlock/70 shaman/60 mage

Basically the same as 1, but with an added character for dps. I could switch
the druid to balance if I specced the shaman resto. The totems would add
utility to the group, but I'd rather play the warlock when not boxing. Mage
is an old RAF leftover from boosting my paladin and would probably never be
played non-boxed since I hate the playstyle.

3) 80 prot paladin + 80 resto druid + 3 elemental shaman

Full team to run everything including heroics. I'd sacrifice buff diversity
for simplicity of three of the same dps class. Totems have some overlap too.
My only concern is how to heal effectively with the druid.

4) 80 prot paladin + 4 elemental shaman (1 resto offspec)

Team EZ-mode. Same as 3, but possibly simpler to heal with.

I would love to be able to run 4-5 different heroic instances for badges on my
own and if that was possible I'd like option 3 over option 4. If I cannot
reliably farm heroics on my own I'd take option 2 over option 1 and offspec the
druid balance to run tank + 2 dps then add healer and dps for heroics.

Any thoughts on this?

[Schwarz]

I would advise playing a group of 5 toons. This way you can do everything by yourself and not have to worry about another person loggin on. Also with these options you can always leave 1 or 2 behind and run stuff with people you know.

I am in the process of leveling a paladin and I will have a team of 1 paladin tank and 4 elemental shaman (maybe one restro until tank is geared). Either option 3 or 4 you should be able to achieve your goals of running heroics by yourself.

[shaeman]

Go for a team of 5. You don't have any reliance on anyone else then, and you know the capabilities of everyone in the instance

Either a tree or shammy healer would be good.
Solo play I prefer a tree healer. Wild growth is really good to keep everyone topped off, or to give them enough health to hold for another heal to hit.

Then again i did do some BC instances with one shammy resto and it worked rather well as well.
Earth shield helps to smooth out damage on the tank - and the shammies can all hit a heal on themselves or chain heal if things are looking bad.

Looking forward

[EaTCarbS]

Try out a mixed team imo. Its a blast.

[Harry Palms]

Yeah I'm leaning towards a 5-box to be completely independent if I choose to.

The question remains wether to heal with the tree or level a fourth shaman to
dual spec elemental/resto. An extra buff in the form of GotW and the convenience
of already having one at 80 that's gearing up weighs in favor of the druid,
however I'm concerned about the complexity involved in healing with it.

Compare the available healing spells and consider the amount of buttons and/or
click combinations that would be required to handle it (x5):

Druid:

• Single target
  
  • Rejuvenation
  • Regrowth
  • Lifebloom
  • Swiftmend
  • Nourish
  • NS+HT macro

• Group
  
  • Wild Growth

Shaman:

• Single target
  
  • Lesser Healing Wave
  • Riptide
  • Earth Shield (tank only?)
  • NS+HW macro

• Group
  
  • Chain Heal

It seems to me that the shaman would be so much easier to handle. How do you
manage healing with your tree?

[Fef]

Go for five group members. Not beat independence.

For a first group, I would advise to have to deal with only three different characters (i.e. all DPS are the same).

If you prefer to go with Paladin+ Druid + 3 x Shamans, go for it !
Druids are wonderful healer (I run one on my PVP team, together with 4 Hunters). Most of the time, only the tank has to be healed (you will still get Healing Totems from the Shamans anyway). Moreover, that will spread the loot (farming 3 of something is ... well, less boring than farming 4 of something), and give you more options for other groups (possibility of having a tank on two different account by dual-speccing the Druid).

Welcome, and have fun !

[EaTCarbS]

Resto shaman healing is awesome! My healer is a resto shaman. Doing a resto druid would seem harder, but I know it has been done.

[shaeman]

How do you
manage healing with your tree?

I think there does seem to be a lot of healing available to a druid, but you'll find you don't need to use it all.

In heroics when I'm playing solo 90% of the time I am keeping lifebloom rolling and rejuv up on the tank.
Dead boring. If the tank takes a damage spike I add in a nourish - perhaps putting wildgrowth on the tank if he's in real danger of dying (letting lifebloom bloom helps too). For splash damage on the rest of the group wildgrowth is wonderful.

Tranquility is nice to have too.

With a group of multiboxed shaman you are even better off. Healing stream totems help to keep them topped off,
and they can pull off emergency heals.

I'd say the shaman is probably easier, as you don't have to keep refreshing that lifebloom.

I have 5 shamans and a druid and having said all of the above I think I will probably go for the shaman as the healer.
However if i had the druid and needed to level or gear up the shaman I'd go with the druid.

[Harry Palms]

Ah what the hell, how much difference will there be to level 4 instead of 3
shaman? FTL FTW. I'll level the four of them together and decide at 80 which
healer to go with once I get a feel for how they play.

Thank you all for helping me make my mind up!

[Niley]

prot paladin, 3 ele(1 offspec resto), destro warlock, every caster buff other than fort/gift(make one of the toons scribe, one lw and you have that covered too) is covered
This includes all totems, 13% inc magic damage, 5% inc crit debuff, 3% inc crit, 28-0 spl damage, mana spring/healing stream, 5% spell haste, 16% melee haste, SoE, all resists other than arcane/holy, crusader aura\o/, kings, health/soul stones, imp hp debuff.
Probably missing some more.