Wow Classic TBC

[Peregrine]

Locks with shadwbolt spam specc, but even then it's hard


So many mechancis, it's crazy .)

[Kruschpakx4]

Is it possible to do the 10-25 man raids due to the movement mechanics?
I was curious if you stacked BM Hunters / Destro locks if you'd get enough physical vs magic damage.

I understand that TBC has a lot more "utility" gained from having a variety of specs.
I'm trying to make a quick and dirty spreadsheet to calculate dps to see if it's viable.

karazahn with the exception of netherspite is fairly easy movement wise, everything that comes after will have atleast some bosses that may be "impossible" until you can outgear them with endgame badge of justice gear (speaking of gruul, jan'alai,akil'zon for example)

the good thing is somewhere around the sunwell patch karazahn and ZA will drop badges aswell so gearing will be alot faster for >5 boxers

the bad thing is attunements will prevent you from farming trash/easy bosses in higher tier content until sunwell release

in other words, i wouldnt bother with 25 man pve boxing until sunwell is out unless you want to tryhard high king+ gruul with no gear advantage

[Bushiggle]

Only started Multiboxing in classic on Horde as MMMMP plus mixing in some other characters to farm certain gear and bosses. Its fun but i definitely want to try either PSSSS or PPSSS as i kind of want a paladin tank for multiboxing and a paladin healer for raiding as i cba respeccing constantly.

I also will need to level the full comp from scratch as paladins will only be available from tbc launch for horde ofc. If anyone has any advice on how to power lvl faster than from scratch let me know

[nodoze]

Only started Multiboxing in classic on Horde as MMMMP plus mixing in some other characters to farm certain gear and bosses. Its fun but i definitely want to try either PSSSS or PPSSS as i kind of want a paladin tank for multiboxing and a paladin healer for raiding as i cba respeccing constantly.

I also will need to level the full comp from scratch as paladins will only be available from tbc launch for horde ofc. If anyone has any advice on how to power lvl faster than from scratch let me know

Fastest way to cap for Horde Paladin4Shaman or 2Paladin3Shaman would likely be to level 5 Shaman now (or Tank+4Shaman) and then boost/power-level 1 or 2 Horde Paladin at TBC launch.

We don't know for sure which of the current boosting/power-leveling approaches will still work when TBC hits (nor which new ones we may find) so doing some testing in the beta will likely result in finding the fastest route...

My recollection is that in BC+ AoE spells hit diminishing returns at something around 10+ targets so some of the current metas will no longer work as is (like the dungeon 1-pull strats) but medium-size AoEs of clumps likely will still be efficient XP (like mainly Mages Arcane Explosioning small to medium clumps)...

If Approach 2B (pet tagging boosting) still works then for a 5 Boxer likely the fastest would be to use 3 Hunter's Pets to boost 1 or 2 Paladins (if you just want 1 Paladin keep 1 in the GY for no XP for the 2nd Paladin). When the Paladin(s) can efficiently tag level 48+ mobs switch to Approach 2A with both the Hunters and pets helping kill (or bring in the level 60 Shaman or whatever characters are most efficient).

Approach 1 may also be pretty fast to do 1-2 Paladins (you would want 4 alts in the party) though with the mob count diminishing returns on AoE this may not be fastest...

The minimum preparation approach, that doesn't rely on unknowns regarding boosting metas nor having to pre-level shaman, would be to just be ready to level up your new team via a semi-spell-cleave of instances to cap... If you go this route, from the 2 options you mentioned, Paladin+4Shaman should be faster than 2Paladin+3Shaman to cap due to higher party DPS and greater XP/hour. Pre-stocking gear and consumables (and pre-staging Warlocks for summoning at strategic points) would help speed things up...

The only other faster scenario I can think of would be to level your Paladin(s) with 3-4 other characters which have higher DPS from 1-60 while leveling than Shaman (assuming you already had 3-5 Shaman at current cap waiting). Off hand I don't know which class(es) may be better for DPS in TBC with new Horde Paladin(s) than Shaman as they were good in TBC+. I do remember that Warlocks seemed OP but not sure how they are at getting from 1-60 in BC compared to Shaman... The current meta of 4 Mages(+1Paladin) may be one combo to look at as well if you already have 4 Shaman waiting and if Mages are sill strong 1-60 in BC...

Sorry I am in a hurry but those are my off the cuff thoughts... Maybe some other folk can chime in with their thoughts.

[Bushiggle]

Thank you for your thoughts. I have a feeling that your thought around just spell-cleaving instances with tactical warlocks set up around the place to speed myself up might work quite well for me as i have no hunters leveling for pet tagging etc. Luckily i already have 4 lvl 20 warlocks.

I was most worried about leveling up 4/5 shamans to 60 and the being stuck leveling 2 paladins with no real efficient boosting mechanism. I heard lvl 70 druid thorns boosting is very effective but I do not fancy leveling a druid all the way to 70. Seems i would just be better missing the hysteria of the outlands launch and grinding my team up, learning to use them properly and setting up my abilities and toolbars the way that works best for me through trial and error

[strokes]

I think that PaPaMMM will be stronger for spell cleaving up to 60 than PaPaSSS. Elemental doesn't really turn online until mid 40s. Arcane is good from level 20 on and only gets stronger with TBC talents.

I understand that private server discussion isn't allowed, but I think its pertinent here. PaSSSS feels VERY BAD in heroics if you're not practically oneshotting the packs off the pull. Doing this will require a tooooon of investment in the beggining (netherstrike / spellstrike / eternium runed dagger on each character is probably gonna be mandatory).

I think other comps will have an easier time transitioning into heroics at the very beginning of the expansion. I'm personally going to to go prot paladin / 3x arcane mage / disc priest to start. I think CC is going to be too important for getting the initial badges of justice flowing. I'll probably start replacing the mages with shamans as my gear increases. Gonna be a fun, sweaty expansion for me.

As a side note, I'd just level 5x of whatever blood elf classes you would potentially use with the paladins. Arcane Torrent is a game changer, and I would honestly say worth rerolling for because of how flexible pulls get when you have 3-5 you can burn.

Edit: Gotta remember that focus target "should" be added in TBC. This makes multi-target polymorph/seduce/etc CC chaining soooo much easier.

[nodoze]

Thank you for your thoughts. I have a feeling that your thought around just spell-cleaving instances with tactical warlocks set up around the place to speed myself up might work quite well for me as i have no hunters leveling for pet tagging etc. Luckily i already have 4 lvl 20 warlocks.

I was most worried about leveling up 4/5 shamans to 60 and the being stuck leveling 2 paladins with no real efficient boosting mechanism. I heard lvl 70 druid thorns boosting is very effective but I do not fancy leveling a druid all the way to 70. Seems i would just be better missing the hysteria of the outlands launch and grinding my team up, learning to use them properly and setting up my abilities and toolbars the way that works best for me through trial and error

I am still thinking about which faction I will go in Classic BC for my primary 5box team which will definitely be Paladin+4Shaman like I did from BC->WoTLK...

Every one seems to be thinking that Horde Paladins are best but, If I Recall Correctly (IIRC), in BC Horde Paladins make the best Retribution Paladins but Alliance Paladins make better Tanks and possibly better healers (and I could give a shit less about Retribution as I mainly care about Paladin Tanks and Paladin healers and my 5box teams are just there to serve/feed my Paladins and my Druids)...

That being said, while Alliance Paladins make a better 5box/raid tank, I think the Horde radials for the 4 Shaman will lead to faster dungeon clears so there are trade-offs...

Since I already have multiple Paladins at cap in Classic for me staying Alliance is just a matter of, at Classic BC launch, 5box spell cleave leveling up a team including 4+ shaman to 60 and then going Paladin+4Shaman from 60-70... I will slightly miss the Classic BC launch portal hysteria and be behind other groups at least initially but maybe that is a good thing...

For me to go Horde I would have to level up Paladin+4Shaman from scratch on a new server and lose access to my current 60 Paladins, 60 Mage, & all my Warlocks and other alts... In the end if my goal remains to be the best Paladin Raid Tank and Paladin Raid Healer I can be I likely will go Alliance again...

Note all of this assumes there is no shortcuts like Faction Change in Classic BC... There shouldn't be at all in BC because, IIRC, Faction Changes only came after the WoTLK launch but if they do add it in they likely wait some time after Classic BC launch...

[strokes]

For me to go Horde I would have to level up Paladin+4Shaman from scratch on a new server and lose access to my current 60 Paladins, 60 Mage, & all my Warlocks and other alts... In the end if my goal remains to be the best Paladin Raid Tank and Paladin Raid Healer I can be I likely will go Alliance again...

I would stay alliance. In TBC, elemental is relatively unchanged levels <40 and low level dungeons should be pretty close to what they are now.

I've tried leveling feral 4x shaman in dungeons. Its not bad but it is a slog. I would argue that you could level a mage to 60 and boost 4x shamans to 60 faster than you could level purely through dungeons with ele shamans. No idea after 60.

[nodoze]

I would stay alliance. In TBC, elemental is relatively unchanged levels <40 and low level dungeons should be pretty close to what they are now.

I've tried leveling feral 4x shaman in dungeons. Its not bad but it is a slog. I would argue that you could level a mage to 60 and boost 4x shamans to 60 faster than you could level purely through dungeons with ele shamans. No idea after 60.

Thanks! I already have a 60 Mage on Alliance to feed my Paladins and other characters level 55 water/food and to give my 5box teams Mage ports and dungeon resets (it is on my 6th account).

I have tried the big-pull-blizzard strats and while I got down the SM one I frankly didn't like it and went back to 5boxing... I do see the power/value but just don't enjoy it like I do 5boxing... That being said, even if I liked the big-pull-blizzard strats, I am pretty sure that gets nerfed in BC+ as AoEs have damage caps &/or diminishing returns. I don't remember exactly what was implemented when but I remember that when AoE farming on my Paladin it was best to limit pulls to around 8 mobs before issues started to kick in (and the limits may have changed some between BC and WoTLK but not sure as my memory is vague)...

If that is the case, between AoE nerfs and instance reset caps, it may be that Mage boosting 4 alts will not be optimal from Classic BC onward (which for me is irrelevant as i don't like the play-style)...

With the above in mind I will likely be 5boxing a team to cap (either Alliance or Horde) upon Classic BC launch. If I stay Alliance I will likely do one of the following:

• 5 Shaman;
• Druid+4 Shaman (if I don't get a druid to cap before then);
• Paladin+4Shaman (if I want to have 1 Draenei Paladin at cap to add to my stable of other race Paladins);
• Warrior+Shaman (not likely as I already have 3 Warriors at ~40+);

[Kruschpakx4]

If you're speculating on a character copy I'd still not bother leveling that spec past 50 in classic. Just copy the 50 shamans over and enjoy wrath totems in all its glory while cutting through dungeons with no manaproblems.