boxing advice (mage/shammy)

[Goranothos]

What do you think is the best combo for a mage/shammy box trying to do some challenging content? Both will be level 90 with T5 mercs.

(1) Two cleric mercs, pet tanks. Would you set both mercs to Reactive?

(2) One cleric merc, one tank merc. Would a level 90 T5 tank merc be better than pet tanking? I have EM8 pet with almost maxxed out pet AAs.

(3) One cleric merc, one wizzy merc, pet tanks.

(4) One cleric merc, one rogue merc, pet tanks. I've never tried this, but I'm assuming it won't work as the rogue will automatically get agro from the pet due to the player agro rule?

[Jedis]

1) Depends on the fight. I would keep one on reactive and one on balanced. If fighting a named, switch both to reactive.

2) The level 90 T5 tank merc does not tank better than our pet. I still do use him though with my three box setup, as he (usually) picks up adds and gets agro on them so they don't pulverize my enchanter and druid. This is also nice that you don't have to worry about boxed toon's positions - they can be standing right next to the mob and they won't get hit - unless the tank merc dies.

3) This won't work at all - the wizard merc is notorious at grabbing agro, especially from a pet. Especially if using burn mode. In a group of mage, cleric, enchanter, druid, cleric merc, and tank merc, the wizard merc was pulling agro from everyone else and was dying just about every other fight.

4) This won't work either - the rogue will end up tanking instead of the pet.

[Failcon]

I love our pet . Period. That said, tank merc only good for multiples and agro control. I have used a caster merc often (my fiance' is a clr with a T5 caster merc), my pet will hold agro so long as you use caution. With a caster merc you MUST passy it on incoming, use balanced on normal stuff and use burn only after pet has had plenty of time to set agro. That being said, I am not fond of them, cause when they grab agro it is a pita to get it back, though the help in dps does balance our huge mana drain.

If I was doing a Mag/Shm combo my set-up would be simple 2 healer mercs. You use pet tanks and shammy is freet to slow/mala (theirs lands better) then Dot. I honestly would make a Dot macro so you can switch hit it and burn with Mag. This also leave Shm free for CC.

Also when using 2 healer mercs, Balanced/Reactive is better than Reactive/Reactive most the time, including most names. If you don't block PR heals then the balanced merc will keep those rolling and use hots and then cast Light between them. While the reactive merc spams her lil butt off with the Light line. This produces a much higher total healing numbers, also it is nice that PR fills in the gaps that start to occur on longer fights like names. IF you are a die hard and refuse to un-block PR then use Reactive/Reactive cause you will loose the overall healing on harder fights.

[Goranothos]

Wow, excellent advice. Thank you both.

Considering my pulling "skills", I may try the tank merc just to help with the inevitable adds. If that doesn't work out, I'll go with two cleric mercs.

I haven't used macros much. Could someone give me an example...

[Edit] Nevermind, I figured out the macro. Sure makes life easier when boxing.

[dorfillya]

I, many years ago, started a cleric box, which I thought was superior, after considereing all other combos. Now, with merc clerics, I do wish I had started a shammy instead. About the only cleric buff I like that merc clerics do not cast is shining rampart. If I had a mage/shammy combo, I would probably go with T5 tank and T5 cleric. The mage is still gonna have plenty of DPS to take down any group mob, including nameds, and shammy buffs and slow really do help the T5 tanks alot. I really like the T5 tank because it makes mob placement not such an issue (compared to using a pet tank only), your caster toons can be with in melee range of the mob and not be getting hit all the time.

At the moment, with my mage/cleric, I generally use 2 T5 cleric mercs, and most of the time that is over kill on the healing power, but I am killing all mobs unslowed. And, so far, I have been able to kill every named mob in Morell's and Sanctum that I have been able to pull single with pet tanking.