Class specific questions

[hodnee]

Hey all,
First off, I finally bought my other three accounts to finalize my 5man team . Secondly I also finalized what classes I am wanting to use. My Main toon, whom is already lvl 80(prot paladin) is going to be running them through the 1-60 raf. My other toons consist of:

priest(healing)
shaman(dps)
mage(dps)
hunter(dps)

I have alrdy gotten some incite through pm from a few ppl, but was wondering what builds i should stick with on these characters? I have never played them before, and therefore are dumb on there specs/rotations. As far as each class i do know the basics for them through reading, but not as far as gearing them towards pve multiboxing. Any ideas, thoughts would be mucho appreciated.

Thanks again,
Rod

[Tim]

I personally like having a hunter who can offtank in an emergency with a bear pet, so maybe go that route?

[Ualaa]

For the boosting stage, it won't make a difference on how you spec them, as they'll sit near zone in, have the Paladin pull half (or all) the instance to them, and then either move up for the other half or leave and reset/repeat the process.

Down the road you'll have a few choices. I'd spec the Shammy as Elemental, as that will buff the Paladin, Priest and Mage much more then an Enhancement would.

For boxing, the Mage will likely be easiest as Frost (persistent Water Pet, spam Frost Bolt) which gets you Replenishment for the team. The rotation for Arcane is pretty simple: Arcane Blast x3-4, Arcane Missiles, but that's much more mana intensive (and higher DPS).

The Priest can heal effectively as both Discipline and Holy, with a secondary into the other.

Disc is my preference, and the play style is basically PW: Shield and Pain Suppression as damage mitigation, with Penance and Flash Heal as your main heals, and the odd Renew to top things up. Disc is extremely efficient on instant cast heals, and gets massive haste after a PW: Shield, which lets you alternate between PW: Shield -> Prayer of Healing and Holy Nova for AoE fun. It is also the preferred spec for PvP.

Holy does a lot more raw healing, approximately as much raw heals as a Disc combines for mitigation + heals. If you like the big numbers on heals, Holy is better then Disc. It gets you an extra AoE heal, which is a slight edge in some PvE encounters.

Between the two, either spec will work and there isn't really a wrong choice.

For the Hunter, a BM spec gets you a pet that doesn't suck. It will also get you a party/raid buff in Cataclysm which might be a consideration. A Survival build (lower gear levels) and eventually a Marksman build is quite a bit higher DPS, at least in the current game as a boxer.

If you're driving with the Paladin, I'd not go BM as I don't like a pets graphic in my face constantly. But you can go IWT, to have the Pally play as the toughest boxing pet in the game, which will work for most encounters. Possibly switch to the toon, for fine positioning/facing of some bosses, but then drive with your healer which gets you a decent perspective of encounters too.

[Tim]

Hey Ualaa, I just read your post and was wondering, have you ever heard of a Disc or Holy Priest boosting, simply by running around and Holy Nova spamming? You seem to know a boatload about everything, I wonder if you ever tried with an 80 Priest?

To date I have never leveled a Priest past 72. I have like 6 of them, lvl 72

[Paws]

Don't try it. I had an alt boosted by a friend's priest once and it was awful. See holynova does 0 threat means if anything doesnt die in one cast, if you're in range, they'll come to you

Shadowpriest spamming mindsear on the other hand is fantabulous.

[EaTCarbS]

Ele shaman doesn't do too bad boosting either, just have to pull a little less. Prot pally or feral druid is definately the way to go.