Maximum buff vs minimum diversity

[Nolife]

I've been wanting to try out 10-man boxing for a long time, but since i love raiding with my current guild (including alt raids), having a job and some sort of "life", i really don't see point paying for 10 accounts at this time.

But, if i was to multibox 10-man raid, i would probably go with:

TANKS:
Paladin (block/evasion)
Druid (stamina)

HEALERS:
- TANK HEALING:
Paladin (holy, beacon healing for both tanks)
- RAID HEALING (depending on fight):
Druid (resto/boom, roll rejuvs on raid)
Priest (disc/shadow, throw bubbles on raid)
Shaman (resto/ele, effective spot healing)

DPS:
Shaman (ele)
Wlock (destro)
Mage (arcane)
Hunter (survival)

Hunter is mainly there for Misdirection and diversity on loots, occasional off-tank. I'm sure i could get little bit more dps out of other classes.

What do you guys thing about this setup? I think it has almost all you need for raiding (except for melee dps ).
i already have experience macroing druid(feral tank/resto/boom), pala (holy/retri), priest (disc/shadow), shaman (resto/ele), wlock (destro), mage (arcane), hunter (survi) with my 5-man setups.

[zenga]

The advantage for having a couple of shammies & druids in your raid comp is that you can off spec them melee. You never know if there is gonna be any type of fight with some gimmick that only melee can do.

On top of that i really like to have at least 2 pallies in the group for the buffs and aura's, prot and holy MThealer is for me the way to go.

[Owltoid]

I'd like to only have a pally MT and not worry about having an extra melee I don't need during the single tanking bosses or a healer that can't AoE as well as a mage/druid, but it would be really nice to have that extra buff!

Who knows, this is all theorycrafting for me anyway. I may move into 10 man if I can prove to myself I can be very successful with 5boxing, and that won't hapeen until expansion anyway.

[mikekim]

If I was looking to 10 box my selection would probably be the following

Pally (Prot / Ret)
Druid (Feral / Balance)
Lock (Destro)
Lock (Destro)
Priest (Disc or Holy?)
Mage (Arcane)
Hunter (MM or Survival?)
Shaman (Ele)
Shaman (Resto / Ele)
Druid (Resto / Balance)

[Iru]

Given the lack of physical DPS in that list, which minimises the value of the 10% AP buff, what's your thinking behind including a Hunter? Is it solely for replenishment (i.e. SV)?

If it's solely for the provision of physical damage then I think a third shaman or a rogue might bring better utility.

In addition, I'd go Disc over Holy for the priest. Penance & PW:S are ungodly.

[Owltoid]

Misdirection for easier starts.

[EaTCarbS]

Keep in mind the hunter pet changes in cataclysm. Wind Serpents will increase spell damage (but it probably won't stack with other spell damage increasing abilities).

[Mokoi]

Maybe misdirection will be more useful in Cata, but it completely not needed in WotlK as far as i can tell. My paladins can pull more threat, and if my MT disconnects, he still stays #1 on aggro for a good 30 seconds until I get him back lol.

[Mercurio]

I like misdirection - I have pulled off my pally tanks early in fights.

But that's not the main reason for adding a hunter. BY FAR the best thing about a hunter is not having to shard all those +attack power drops. There are tons of them out there and my hunters get geared up much more quickly than any of my spell-based toons.

Great DPS that opens up ~30% of all loot tables as useful drops? Yes please.

[Owltoid]

Great point, Mercurio. Assuming you had all your toons geared, would you drop the hunter? I can see that the hunter gets geared so quickly that he holds his own, but in the end the synergy would be wasted.