Quote Originally Posted by nodoze View Post

The 2nd group is likely more mana efficient due to the Tank not really needing Mana and Paladins being the most efficient healer. The first option is better at handling more mobs and significantly better for dungeons with undead/demons.

Your Warlock+Paladin to me seems potentially similar to Hunter+Druid as your Warlock Pet can semi-tank like a Hunter pet though likely with slower leveling and no stealth option. Unlike Druid who would have to shift to self-heal, the Paladin can serve as a decent self-healing Tank if the content isn't too difficult.

The Priest opens up tougher content by giving yourself a real Tank and a real Healer with utility from the Warlock. Since you have a Tank & Healer you can likely recruit 2 DPS that won't compete on drops and use your Warlock to summon them to your Trio. As you mentioned the Priest is also flexible and able to do some DPS as well so in content where the Paladin can be a self-healing Tank you can contribute that way. The downside is you don't have portals and all 3 of your classes use mana (though the warlock can lifetap). Unfortunately with only 3 accounts you likely can't use a group of Warlocks to give yourself full portals to key locations as I think you need at least 4 accounts to pull that off...

The Mage bridges some of those gaps but closes options for you as you no longer have a real tank and real healer (full Trinity) option.

While not having self-ports nor food/water is a pain that last point for me would be the kicker (losing a real tank+healer+DPS "Trinity" option) but then again that is me, not you. To mitigate that you could have a Mage port you and sell in bulk water/food when you start any extended sessions. In the end you will have to decide what are your goals & priorities.

This is exactly the type of reply I was looking for.

My main issue with the healing trinity is that I've only rolled mages for boxing. I don't have a full grasp of how I would heal myself and tank at the same time. Pulling with a warlock into a pallies consecrate, then using a macro to Blizzard/RoF on top of the pally would be easy as hell. Pally with Spiritual focus and Concentration aura can literally heal through any hit without push back, so all he has to worry about is consecration and staying alive. Arcane Intellect from the mage and Blood pact + fire shielf from imp would help here greatly. This would eliminate the need for my own personal healer since I can general fall asleep as I aoe tank as a pally with self heals.

I honestly think the free food/water, no need to buy from vendor, ports to different cities whenever I want, free summons and the idea that at end game, I don't need two healers wins me over for the mage. I'll use the pally or the trio for instance aoe farming and raid heals. The lock with herb/alch for Maura mushroom farming and flasks or raid dps. The mage for raid dps and tailoring and enchanting since all three can use cloth SP gear. Having three toons feed my mage cloth will level his tailoring and enchanting super fast.

a Holy/Shadow priest combo would be easy to pull off dps wise with both a lock and a priest having a dot and beam attack. It would be a cool trinity too.
Holy pally
Holy/Shadow Priest
Shadow Lock

In the coming month I'm going to practice boxing this combo, atleast to level 30/40, and see how well
I can handle it.