Boxing Party Makeup

[gankzer]

Hi. I'd appreciate some feedback/advice. My goal for multi-boxing is to obviously be self suffecient for 5 mans and Heroics, dailies, rep grind, etc. I also plan to use one of them as my main (not sure which yet) for guild/pug groups and arena. I'm starting over on alliance side so I have no 70s for coinage, enchants, or instance runs...this will all be starting at lvl 1. What would be your thoughts on this:

start boxing with:
1 x Dorf Paladin (tankadin)
1 x Gnome Mage (Frost) <--most likely will be my prime for arenas
1 x Gnome Warlock (shadow)

get some experience leveling (45ish or so) and working with the multibox set-up then bring on another mage and healer to complete my heroics group. So my question is what class healer? I'd really like a druid but since its a 5 man healer it doesnt really matter.

Thanks for any advice.

[Perrigrin]

Not from personal experience, but most posts here seem to indicate that playing many different classes is difficult in a 5-box.

[Otlecs]

If I was going to offer you one piece of advice (and I am, apparently), it would be to start - and play - all your characters together from day one.

Outside of instances, your tank and healer will just be leeches most of the time, but the value of doing that lies in learning how to play them all together right from the beginning, when things are a bit more forgiving.

The healing question is entirely down to personal preference.

I prefer a holy priest as my primary healer when I'm boxing, because he has the "oh God, it's all going wrong what button shall I press?!" spell that is Circle of Healing.

As a secondary benefit, his holy nova synergises really well with Hellfire / Arcane Explosion / Consecrate for PBAoE nuking.

Any healer will work though.

[gankzer]

Thanks for the advice/sugestions. That's my approach - i'm new and might as well start learning from the beginning where the PVE learning curve is easiest.

[accretion]

I'm a long-time boxer in EQ and WoW and when I took the plunge to a 5-man team with 4 different classes, it was very, very hard. Even with some quality macros, it was extremely difficult to manage so many different sets of abilities. I'm sure you can adapt over time and become efficient, but be ready for a steep learning curve. If I were in your shoes, I'd be tempted to either swap out the lock for a 3rd mage or go 3 warlocks, to limit it to 3 total classes. Just a thought.

As to healers, you could try a Druid, since their main weakness is their 30-min rez timer (Palading mitigates that) and they are great for single target healing. Thorns would add nicely to a Prot Pally and innervate isn't bad either.

[daviddoran]

I think the multiple class group works better when you have all 5. You get more synergy, and can "afford" to have the leech that the tank is ouside of instances. If you are only gonna tribox, I'd go with 1 class, maybe 2. 2 decidated DPS and one hybrid DPS/Healer. 1 Druid 2 Shammies could be nice, druid can tank/heal/dps fairly easily, shammies are, ya know shammies If you want Mage/Warlock, just pick 2 of whatever you wish. I pondered doing 2-3 toons, but in the end, there's so much more benefit to having 5, I had to go that route.

[gankzer]

Thanks for the feedback/comments everyone.

I ended up starting with:
1 x Dwarf Paladin
1 x Dwarf Priest
1 x Gnome Mage
1 x Gnome Warlock

I'll bring the Druid on a little later after these 4 are lvl 15 or so as i'll solo up the druid to meet up with them outside the starter zones.

It was a helluva learning curve just starting and getting the macros complete at low levels...and there aren't many spells to manage at this point. I'm sure as I get up in lvls and have more options it'll become a near nightmare. I assume everyone goes through that part though just figuring out setting focus for all toons, key bypasses, round robin, formations, etc. Also I still go to each window using multiplicity for quest acceptance or to loot so it is definitely a little slower.

REGARDLESS - I actually like the challenge this provides. I was drifting away from WoW but this has gotten me interested again (curse of goodness).

[Bradster]

If you’re only doing 3 classes, and it sounds like it’s more or less for PVE.
Pally tank (good idea)
Healer, I personally like shaman for this, chain heal, mana totem, Earth Shield etc.
Now for DPS choice
Lock – Easy to setup DPS macro (from experience at least) Water breathing buff is handy, CC, HP buff from pet, Summon, Off tank (if needed?)
Or
Mage – Free food/water forever. Int Buff, CC. Portals.
I’d go lock but that’s me. It’s easy to fill DPS slots rather then find a healer.

[Bradster]

Thanks for the feedback/comments everyone.

I ended up starting with:
1 x Dwarf Paladin
1 x Dwarf Priest
1 x Gnome Mage
1 x Gnome Warlock

Man time I finally got to finish my post you allready made your guys. I like your combo.
Many complain that cloth doesn’t work well for end game instances. My goal is to overcome those challenges, so if you want to run 4 different classes that’s awesome and I look forward to your progress.