thanks for the input, i appreciate your time :}

i think i will go with the pally/ priest combo. your points about the AoE are very important.

also, if i separate the group having 2 kinds of healers end-game would be nice.

hell i could also re-spec the priest shadow at times for lock support (swap out one lock for an S-priest) for PvP experiments.

so i'm thinking, get 2 new accounts. level pally/priest/mage to meet up with the locks, and then experiment a bit to see how i like the 3 locks vs. 2 locks and a Mage combo. then from there, straight to 70!