PVE 5 Boxing....Blood Elfs and a Pally or Undead and a Warrior????

[Boxcarwilli]

Im getting close to determining my class/race matrix. It's going to be one of the following.

Undead - Priest, Mage, Mage, Lock, Warr
Undead - Priest, Mage, Mage, Mage, Warr
Blood Elf - Priest, Mage, Mage, Mage, Pally
Blood Elf - Priest, Mage, Mage, Lock, Pally

The questions are....
[list=1][*]I love the simplicity of 3 mage dps, but since i want to kill every single (yes every one) PVE 5 man boss (pre bc, bc, wotlk) would I ever be STUCK in a situation where having 3 mages would be detrimental?

1. I love the challenge of tanking with a Warr as a 5 boxer, sure Pally is eaiser, but apparently from these forums Warrs can be just as good especially with some macros. Anyone have experience 5 boxing to 70 with a warr PVE?

Side notes.....I like WOTF for undead, will come in handy I'm sure. I dont care for how armor looks at Undead, sometimes looks a bit raggady if you know what I mean.

[Boxcarwilli]

In order to down all the 5 man boss's it looks like Pally is the way to go. There are probably a couple of instances or boss's where a warr just wont cut it, even with the CC from the mages. This here is a great thread about it all...
Warriors suck - I'm rolling a Paladin!

So, the only question I have now is to have 3 mages or 2 mages and 1 lock? Lots of pros for having the lock (soul stone, off tank) and of course having to box 4 different class's vs. 3 might be a pain. What's your thoughts?

[spannah]

I am alliance and currently doing Scarlet Monastery ... really happy I decided to do the lock instead of a 3rd mage (the team is pally tank, 2 x mages, 1 lock, priest healer).

SM is quite the ride for alliance, so the fact that I can summon everyone, including the lock, is really helpful since I can hearth out for repairs, selling junk, buy the next level spells and so on. lol I just realized as I am typing this that I could run to the summon stone, but whatever, faster with lock summon :-)

That in addition to off-tanking, although I prefer blood pact, soulstone and healthstone.

[Boxcarwilli]

Im thinking to take the lock as well, dots will help, and he will get the buffs from mage,priest and pally. Cant really buff more than one Arcane Int.

[lacitpo]

Lacks simplicity BUT

1-4
Paladin - Tank
Druid - Heals - (I like rolling instant cast hots more than 2.5 sec heals, plus hybrid ability to change to boomkin or tank if needed.)
Priest - Castsequence macros work fine for this, adds utility, PW:F, +shadow damage, mana regen, passive healing, etc)
Warlock - Castsequence macros work fine for dps, compliments shadow priest, dot, dot dor, bloodpact, healthstone, soulstone, offtank if needed with voidwalker

5th
Shaman if you wanna be really divers. Totems ftw, chainheal is nice, not another clothy so can take a hit or two.
Mage provides good dps, AOE, and free drinks
Warlock - shadow damage ftw, simplicity of not having yet a 5th class.

[Nixi]

I use 2 fire locks and a fire mage. The DPS synergy is nice but since I only have one mage it takes awhile to get the scorchs buffed. I see my mage out damaging my warlocks on trash but then my locks pull ahead on bosses. I had a hard time keeping mana usage sync'd but by adjusting spell selection and /castsequence macros they are working out nicely together.

Tbh i'm an advocate of 'less classes, keep things simple" but fire mages and destro locks have a very similar play style. However I noticed a talent or something in Wotlk that gives locks a big fire dmg bonus after dealing shadow dmg. That turned me off pretty bad. I was already thinking about replacing my locks and mage and that might be the nail in the coffin. Blizzard balances things keeping all potential buffs in mind, so what you'll see is gimp lock DPS unless you are twisting your spells to take advantage of that talent.

On a related note, my destro lock really doesn't out-do anyone on the meters unless I have 5 scorches up, COE, immolate and Demonic sacrifice. Even then my lead shaman gives her a run for her money and the lock is better geared. It's just another reason stacking shamans is so good. The game is balanced with all buffs/debuffs in mind so you don't NEED anything using shamans. A bunch of locks using improved shadow bolt would be sexy too. Keep stuff like that in mind when making class selection for your dps.

[Boxcarwilli]

That turned me off pretty bad. I was already thinking about replacing my locks and mage and that might be the nail in the coffin. Blizzard balances things keeping all potential buffs in mind, so what you'll see is gimp lock DPS unless you are twisting your spells to take advantage of that talent.

On a related note, my destro lock really doesn't out-do anyone on the meters unless I have 5 scorches up, COE, immolate and Demonic sacrifice. Even then my lead shaman gives her a run for her money and the lock is better geared. It's just another reason stacking shamans is so good. The game is balanced with all buffs/debuffs in mind so you don't NEED anything using shamans. A bunch of locks using improved shadow bolt would be sexy too. Keep stuff like that in mind when making class selection for your dps.

So you have me confused, are you wishing you were running 3 locks now with the wotlk talents? Or 3 mages? Shammys would be nice but I know there are some 5 mans they cant fully clear if its a 4 or 5 shammy group. For the DPS I would prefer casters since I have to position with the pally, so that only leaves me with locks, mages, or shadow priests keeping in mind my comments about shammys. Also, the mages providing food/water/portals is a huge plus for PVE as well, not to mention the AI and CC.

Heres what Im considering now, with dependancy on the faction choice....

ALLY
Dranei - mage, mage, priest, pally
Gnome - lock

Horde
Blood Elf - mage, mage, priest, pally, lock

[Vyndree]

[quote='Boxcarwilli',index.php?page=Thread&postID=9 4449#post94449]would I ever be STUCK in a situation where having 3 mages would be detrimental?[/quote]

[url='http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=18371']The boss in Auchenai Crypts[/url] brings back evil memories. Very anti-caster.

[Ðeceased]

The boss in Auchenai Crypts[/url] brings back evil memories. Very anti-caster.

gawd that boss was annoying!! I never remembered him like that when I was healing on my drood.. probably cos hots pwn his debuff, but omg.. my poor shammies were LBing their heart out only to have to heal after every LB :P Flame and earth shock for the win tho

Side notes.....I like WOTF for undead, will come in handy I'm sure. I dont care for how armor looks at Undead, sometimes looks a bit raggady if you know what I mean.

believe me.. with some of the higher end gear undead look badass!

[Boxcarwilli]

The boss in Auchenai Crypts[/url] brings back evil memories. Very anti-caster.

Damm, he sounds very difficult for an xboxer, how did you do it in the end? Did you do it on Herioc as well? WOOT, my 4 copies of wow battlechest and a quad proc arrived today. All set.