Origins of the Shammy+Pally Fad/Phase/Craze/Insanity(?)

[Vyndree]

Just adding, imo, if someone had come along with a 4x mage pvp team, or a 4x warlock pvp team, or a 4x shadowpriest pvp team, I think we'd be seeing a similar phenomenon as we're seeing right now with Shaman.

I don't think warlocks are any less OP than they were when I first started 5boxing. The majority of the new shammy boxers I see are all asking about pvp and arenas. With 2.3 released and quest XP dominating instance XP, we're seeing a lot more "how can I 'boost' my 4 characters (typically shammies) to 70" threads due to the shaman craze, when logically we SHOULD be seeing more people questing and less instancing.

Ellay showed ONE example of a 4-box scenario that was viable in PvP.
I showed ONE example of how a 4 shammy + tank group was viable in PvE.

Both of us did this at about the same time, and we just happened to choose the same class.

That doesn't mean that's the end of the cookies in the jar, it just means that everyone's too busy following the leader to discover any other new ways of doing things. Everyone talks about how OP a hunter/druid/shammy/whatever team would be in theory, and it somewhat saddens me to see that nobody is attempting to implement it.

[cepheus]

I started out multiboxing when tbc. My one of my reasons was maybe a bit different from others. I was horde, and I knew my guild would need paladins in near future. However I had previously played a shadowpriest as main, and could not really let go of this amazing role.

Therefore I decided, why not run everything and more:P Hence I made my paladin and 4 shadowpriests (who later became holynukers).

However I was growing bored of grinding the same instances again and again when I hit 70. I therefor decided to do some pvp. But for pvp I found that I had one big problem; the protection paladin. This was totally useless for pvp-purposes. I could go with 4 priests, but not really a an option for me.

The real strenght of multiboxing(and also weakness) is AoE damage. Therefor I decided to make my new team of 1 shaman and 4 locks. Later one I discovered that shaman and warlocks did not really run very well together, because warlocks were mobile, but shamans were not.

At 60 I switched out the shaman for a priest I allready had at that level. I now really love my priest/4xlock team for BG and world pvp. However I got really run over in arena.

Shamans however has better survivablity and semi-aoe with high damage. This is perfect for arenas. However then again, I think shamans would be less effective in a mobile enviroment as AV. Not useless however, but I still think mobile locks would be better in BG's

My point is that there is very different group compositions you should have to do different things when you hit 70. Therefor I've decided to try some more things.

I allready have my lvl 70 pally +4xpriests and 1xpriest+4warlocks. Now its time for trying out 5 shamans and we'll see if I get them also to 70 before wotlk releases :P I'm getting a bit bored of levling, but its fun to try out different group compositions.

[Vyndree]

I agree, cepheus, there are benefits to each type of group composition and I'm glad you've tried so many out, but for beginners, seeing is believing.... And I don't see a single high-end pvp video for anything other than shaman right now.

By high end I mean 70.

[Ellay]

Awesome post Vyndree, I love the timeline! Looking back on it now it's amazing to see the possible influence videos have on the class selection of others.
I think Shamans were not in the lime light until the expansion because Elemental Shamans could not exist pre 70. There was barely any itemization for them. There is definitely a ton of other amazing combo's out there that can perform close to what currently is the flavor but it just needs to be discovered!

Good Job though! I gotta say it again, that timeline is awesome.

[cepheus]

There is one other group I'm considering trying out. I dont think I have seen anyone on this forum writing about trying it though.

5x holy paladins

Ok this would be horrible to level, it would probably be bad at pve, and you wouldnt kill anything in pvp.

But damn, it just must be real annoying for anyone that tries to kill you in any BG :P This could be reason enough to try this group out

[Slats]

Cephus why didn't you make your Priests Shadow and your Pally Ret for PvP? Too much respeccing?

[cepheus]

I agree, cepheus, there are benefits to each type of group composition and I'm glad you've tried so many out, but for beginners, seeing is believing.... And I don't see a single high-end pvp video for anything other than shaman right now.

By high end I mean 70.

I might make some pvp video in-not-too-disant-future. My group is beginning to get fairly good gear (full gladiator,se1 weapon, badge offhand) and I may try to make some video when I feel ready to show somthing that is worth showing

I'm also doing quite a bit of kara-raiding with this setup, but then with my priest as shadow (for boosting my locks' damage mainly)

As a sidenote to this. I really love doing karazhan over 5man heroics. Sure, it also gives more badges and better loot, but thats not the main reason.
What makes this really fun is that you have room for more people in your group. After all, wow is a mmorpg, and I really start to get bored after soloing too much. Its just not fun to grind stuff alone.

Currently we have managed to do all bosses exept aran, ilhoof and netherspite(yet to try him). With a bit more tweaking, I see no reason that you cant clear karazahn together with some friends just as effective as a normal group.

[cepheus]

Cephus why didn't you make your Priests Shadow and your Pally Ret for PvP? Too much respeccing?

It might have worked somehow, but you would still lack aoe thats earlyer mentioned one of your real strenghts of multiboxing.

My main reason for running locks was actually seed of corruption. This is an awsome aoe spell thats kinda made for boxing. No mousetargeting, and you can stand ranged and still use it.
This is awsome for pve aswell togheter with a pally tank. I have a friend that is starting to gear up a paladin tank now. Cant wait until he's karazhan ready and we're going to aoe down everything in there

[cepheus]

There is one other group I'm considering trying out. I dont think I have seen anyone on this forum writing about trying it though.

5x holy paladins

Ok this would be horrible to level, it would probably be bad at pve, and you wouldnt kill anything in pvp.

But damn, it just must be real annoying for anyone that tries to kill you in any BG :P This could be reason enough to try this group out

You could dominate arenas by forcing your opponets to /afk out after 24 hour matches!

when you put it that way this might actually maybe work in arenas. Your mana would be more or less unlimited due to spiritual attunement, and with fairly decent gear it would be pretty hard to burst anyone of them down. However I guess it would be hard to counter fears and manaburn/drain.

[Stealthy]

Some more thoughts...

1. PvP rewards are pretty much the best gear a multiboxer can get without the backing of a guild. Even Ellay has said their's nothing he wants in terms of PvE gear from raiding. So multibox specs are most likely to be based around what's effective in PvP.

2. 4 boxing+1 is very different from 5 boxing. 4-boxing+1 opens up more viable classes, since you are primarily focussed on DPS'sing your oponents down while someone else is throwing you heals. However in 5-boxing you're trying to do both DPS & healing, which is quite a bit harder. One of the main weaknesses in a priest+lock, or priest+mage combo in PvP, is that if your priest get's focus fired down, it suddenly becomes a lot harder for you. With 5 shams, losing one isn't as bad - you can still deal damage and heal effectively.

3. PvE is still important - for levelling, earning cash, doing something OTHER than PvP, etc. Shamans are the only multibox team (so far) that have had sucess doing heroics, other than creating a dedicated PvE team.

Cheers,
Stealthy