A hello, thank you, and advice request

[maxel]

Hello all,

I've been a lurker now for quite some time and have found the information available on this website of tremendous help. I wanted to drop in, say hello, express thanks, and ask the gurus for a bit of directional advice.

Currently, I am 3 boxing, but have a goal of expanding into the realm of 5 with a primary objective of grinding heroics. Pvp is not really of concern to me, nor are arenas, at this point. That being said, my current 3 are made up of a 70 Paladin, 70 Priest, and 70 Warlock. At this stage it has worked well and I've enjoyed the synergy of these 3 classes. I guess, I'm having a bit of a dilema figuring out which remaining filler class(es) would benefit my makeup and goals the best.

Some ideas I've tossed around are:

My 3 + 2 mages

My 3 + 2 shaman

My 3 + 1 shaman, 1 mage

Paladin, Priest, 2 mages, 1 shaman.

For the most part, the general concensus seems to be 1 paladin and filling out the rest with shaman. I think this is a sound strategy, great idea, and like the power it provides. However, I find this alternative a bit lacking when it comes to where I'm at currently and some of the limitations I've heard others discuss. I guess in a way I'm aiming like to push the limits as much as possible for single group encounters, and am wondering which of the above options will provide me with the best bet of hitting the heroics hard.

Thank you all for taking the time to help me make up my mind. Any input is greatly appreciated. Again, your continued dedication to this site has been of tremendous help, even to lurkers.

Maxel

[Vyndree]

...which of the above options will provide me with the best bet of hitting the heroics hard.

I never rolled pally + 4 shammies with the goal of Heroics. However, it has an excellent BALANCE between PvP and PvE, which is why people seem to be picking up that particular group makeup.

If you're looking at heroics, CC is DEFINITELY something you will want. In PvP, multiboxers don't need to CC that often -- setting up focuses prior to the battle is not always possible. PvE groups work well with a balance of abilities -- maybe a warlock for Banish and a mage for Sheep. Multiple sheeps are nice, from what I see of Suvega's group makeup.

It should be similar thinking to what you would /invite to a normal heroic. You want a good set of CC, a decently geared healer, and a decently geared tank. You really never see full hybrid (i.e. shammy, druid, paladin) groups being played by normal player heroics (non-multibox), and there's a reason for this -- CC really helps prevent minor goof-ups from causing a wipe. You have a bit more flexibility.

Maybe someone like Skarlot can step in here. I know he does heroics regularly, or at least has a lot of videos

[Kel]

I've never multi-boxed a normal instance, let alone a heroic, so my thoughts are based purely on speculation.

I'd add to your existing group with either:

a. Shadow Priest and Lock/Mage
b. 2x Lock or 2x Mage
c. Shaman and Lock/Mage

The logic with a is the SP acts like a mana battery and debuffer for your Locks, the additional Lock/Mage is there to provide additional cc (mage because it's relatively easy to reapply sheep mid-fight).

Or go for 2 extra dps with CC capabilities, so Lock or Mage.

Or c the Shaman is there to heal and drop totems, your current priest goes shadow and you fill in with more ranged cc.

But I have no idea how easy any of these set-ups would be to manage in the heat of battle.

[maxel]

Thank you all for your input. As you can tell it's not a really easy decision. Currently, I'm leaning more towards the 2 mage method as 2 sheeps look to be tremendously powerful for these kind of runs. I'm just debating because of how much power the addition of shaman could theoretically bring to the table at the expense of CC. Decisions, Decisions...



Thanks again!

[Dorffo]

for instancing I would go with the mages first. Once you have a solid crew going, you will have lots of options at that point to fold another toon or two in if you want to change things up.