Contemplating quad box...

[evilbob]

...but reading these boards leave me with a rather mixed opinion about this particular endeavor.

I've been playing wow on and off since beta. Naturally, during this time, it can gradually start to wear on you and become a touch boring, and that's without wincing at all the nerfs over that time. While hunting for a way to make it interesting again i came across the idea of multiboxing and now i must say that it's caught my attention however, there are a few issues that have been nagging at me, most of them dealing with gear.

You see, i left right before wrath came out and have since learned about the badge change. This worries me because if i can't get a character nice gear over x amount of time unless i play each one solo (since some raids can't be boxed), why box? Then i thought to myself, well that's fine... raids were becoming a bit of a joke when they dropped em from 40 mans to 25 anyway, perhaps i'll focus arena instead. And yet, right on the heels of that thought, were post after post about how much trouble people on the board are having with them. That even Aelli was getting farmed and he was a big name in tbc

So, now i'm left wondering that if i do quad box, and if i am the mouse and wow is the maze...then where is the cheese? Perhaps with a little input i'll catch a scent.

[tinit5190]

From reading your post I get the feeling that you do not like investing hard time into getting gear. Yes, Aelli is or was getting farmed, but that could be because the whole game has changed since WotLK. If you feel that you cannot invest the time to get good at quad boxing, stick to playing a single character or quit. Multiboxing is not something that everyone can do as soon as they set out to do it. You have to do things 5 times over sometimes, or 4 in your case. Getting gear to do stuff is going to take "5(4)" times as long 'cause you have to get all your toons to do it.
Everything about Multiboxing screams, "Time invested into the game will increase".

So I ask you this, are you looking to spruce up the game for about a month, or get serious and try to get good. If your answer is the second, be ready to invest time into a game and get the skills required (from which you said you don't want to do). Instances can be multiboxed, I feel almost all of them, you just have to be that good, and be able to control multiple characters extremely well. If your answer is the first, then don't bother.

FYI. The cheese is when after dieing many times trying to kill a boss, you finally do it. It may be sloppy, but now that you have done it once, you know with more practise/gear, you can get he/she on farm.

[evilbob]

1)From reading your post I get the feeling that you do not like investing hard time into getting gear.
2)Yes, Aelli is or was getting farmed, but that could be because the whole game has changed since WotLK.
3)If your answer is the second, be ready to invest time into a game and get the skills required (from which you said you don't want to do).
4)Instances can be multiboxed, I feel almost all of them, you just have to be that good, and be able to control multiple characters extremely well. If your answer is the first, then don't bother.

I seem to have given the wrong impression. In an effort to avoid giving a long and dull history of my past experience with wow i simply summed it up that i have been playing since beta. Since you asked so nicely, i will go ahead and state that my past characters (not each one) have obtained Warlord in the original wow PVP ranking, farmed ZG, farmed MC, farmed BWL, farmed AQ 20 and 40 and nearly cleared naxx however, sadly, the guild disbanded at saph. During TBC i mostly did BGS and Arena as i was bitter over the change to raiding for quite some time yet still enjoyed killing people. Still, heroics were interesting for awhile, farmed kara, gruul, ssc, mag, the eye. Didn't do BT. Like i mentined, i wasnt too into raiding. Did get S1, S2 and S3 sets though i was at the time a druid and my RL mate from original wow was still rollin his rogue. Not exactly difficult...

I'm not sure exactly how i gave the impression to you i did. Perhaps you're simply in a bad mood and taking it out on the new guy. Then again, perhaps its reading comprehension. I was inquiring about the viability of the said 4 characters being played simultanously in and out of instances/pvp/arena and not having to gear them up one at a time. Example, if my schedule for said 4 character broke down into deciding which 1 character i wanted to throw into said raid each week, then i don't see a point. The whole point of quad boxing is playing them all at once, no? That is the experience you are going for? Same is true is my post regarding arena. What i was asking is, if its not as viable anymore, will i be facing the reality of having to find a team for each and playing them one at a time? Again, that seems pointless and in both cases, from what i read in the forums, have arrived at somewhat a mixed message regarding this issue. One that am attempting to clear up because if it is viable then i will of course go ahead and order. If its not and if i'll be forced into the 1 at a time secenario, then it doesn't hold that extra appeal i thought it was going to for myself as a vet.

[Rin]

All of the raids are boxable at this point. Several members of this community have boxed Malygos, Naxxramas-10 (boxers only), OS, and of course the Vault. Many members here have also participated in the 25-man raids with all of their characters playing at once. From what I can tell, raid boxing varies from server to server, but the odds are high that you'll be able to play your characters together on a raid. As for Heroics, all of these have been done too, by boxers. There's really *nothing* that you can't do when multiboxing - and that's the glory of it.

I hope this finds you well.

Cheers!

[evilbob]

All of the raids are boxable at this point. Several members of this community have boxed Malygos, Naxxramas-10 (boxers only), OS, and of course the Vault. Many members here have also participated in the 25-man raids with all of their characters playing at once. From what I can tell, raid boxing varies from server to server, but the odds are high that you'll be able to play your characters together on a raid. As for Heroics, all of these have been done too, by boxers. There's really *nothing* that you can't do when multiboxing - and that's the glory of it.

I hope this finds you well.

Cheers!

Thank you for your reply. One thing, would you happen to know which make up of characters would yeild the highest chance of being able to successfully be invited to box said instances?

[Zal]

All of the raids are boxable at this point. Several members of this community have boxed Malygos, Naxxramas-10 (boxers only), OS, and of course the Vault. Many members here have also participated in the 25-man raids with all of their characters playing at once. From what I can tell, raid boxing varies from server to server, but the odds are high that you'll be able to play your characters together on a raid. As for Heroics, all of these have been done too, by boxers. There's really *nothing* that you can't do when multiboxing - and that's the glory of it.

I hope this finds you well.

Cheers!

Thank you for your reply. One thing, would you happen to know which make up of characters would yeild the highest chance of being able to successfully be invited to box said instances?

I don't raid much or at all really do to real life ruining my wow life, but whatever class can do the most dps will most likely be invited to raids. i've done parts of 10 man naxx on my shamans and clear 10/25 man VoA weekly.

[heffner]

I have not raided as a boxer but I can imagine one big hurdle is convincing others to let you do it. Once you do that, then there will possibly be issues with loot drops (i.e., IME folks often don't like to let one person get items for more than one toon)- although, I am not sure if that matters much these days.

There will likely be some limitation to what can be accomplished. Although, I am sure some boxers will likely progress as far as any solo toon can, but I doubt most will.

Regardless, if you get far enough with your team I am sure you won't mind taking a break from boxing and doing some raids solo. Especially if you have different classes to play.

[tinit5190]

If you are just quad boxing, try grabbing four of the same class to start. Take Shaman for instance. You don't necessarily have to level them to 80, but it makes it much more of a good base starter group to see what you can handle. If you can handle them with ease. Switch it up.
What you choose to level is entirely based on what you want to do in the end.
If you are going to do PvE, non-raid, I suggest 1 Tank(Paly or DK), 1 Healer, and 2 DPS. This is because it is easier to pug a shitty DPS than otherwise, and this way you know you have tank/heals covered.
If you are going to do PvE, raid, I suggest all casters, Sham, Mage, Boomkin. They are mostly all macro/priority based, and can be managed quite easily.
If you are going to do PvP, Shaman seem to be the thing. They can CH, do massive burst, and are quite easily controllable, and have good anti-melee.

[Kaynin]

If you are going to do PvP, Shaman seem to be the thing. They can CH, do massive burst, and are quite easily controllable, and have good anti-melee.

The main thing why shamans are liked is our anti-fear capabilities.

Staggered Tremor Totems.

Every class has good things, shaman burst isn't that massive anymore by the way, compared to other classes. But our ability to counter fear is still unrivalled. And fear is a boxers worst nightmare in PvP.

Every ranged class is easily controllable, in terms of achieving the best burst or highest DPS, a shaman is the hardest one of them. If you want an easily controlled ranged class. Mage is the way to go! But they don't have much anti-fear. Altho, ice block, wotf (if undead) and trinkets. Mages should be able to counter most fears you will come across. Then again, mages don't have heals. But they do have superior CC, which could cover that if you play right.

Doesn't take away that tremor totems rock. Hence why shaman is liked in PvP. But that's the only reason.

Chain heal, burst, anti-melee (not really imo but I'll go with you. :P ), easily controllable (depends on the situation, every class can be easily controlled depending on how much you want to achieve. ).
These feats might all be nice but all classes have nice feats, if not more then shamans. But none have tremor totems. ^^


As far as raiding goes. Once me and my guild started to gear up, the raid instances all became a joke. Raiding is pretty easy, no offense. The main concern is the initial start, when you are still in bad gear.

As a quad shaman boxer, I focused on being a third healer as well as bringing on sufficient DPS where needed. Before the ele shammy love patch, I was barely doing 1800 dps in high dps situations, some fights around 1400 with a lot of healing. My guild said to me I was their "Life Support" during raiding. I focused on keeping everyone up more then killing the boss quickly. It worked for us.

Now ofcourse with the love patch + way better gear, all I have to do is spam a few dps buttons and that's about it. So boring, which is why I took a break from WoW. :P

So, if you want to keep raiding interesting. Try to have a box that does two out of three raid positions. Ie. healing+DPS or maybe Tanking+DPS or Tanking+Healing. If you do only one, I'm positive any box you do will eventually become boring. Nothing special about raiding if everything is working like it should.

Do all three however, doable no less, but could limit you greatly in some fights. I found two positions are handleable in a raid situations. But three can easily become hectic.

[Gadzooks]

...but reading these boards leave me with a rather mixed opinion about this particular endeavor.

I've been playing wow on and off since beta. Naturally, during this time, it can gradually start to wear on you and become a touch boring, and that's without wincing at all the nerfs over that time. While hunting for a way to make it interesting again i came across the idea of multiboxing and now i must say that it's caught my attention however, there are a few issues that have been nagging at me, most of them dealing with gear.

You see, i left right before wrath came out and have since learned about the badge change. This worries me because if i can't get a character nice gear over x amount of time unless i play each one solo (since some raids can't be boxed), why box? Then i thought to myself, well that's fine... raids were becoming a bit of a joke when they dropped em from 40 mans to 25 anyway, perhaps i'll focus arena instead. And yet, right on the heels of that thought, were post after post about how much trouble people on the board are having with them. That even Aelli was getting farmed and he was a big name in tbc

So, now i'm left wondering that if i do quad box, and if i am the mouse and wow is the maze...then where is the cheese? Perhaps with a little input i'll catch a scent.

We all get something different from boxing - some love the mechanics, and tinkering, some love the challenge, some do it to avoid the horrible world of pugs, some do it to get the pew pew factor in PvP, and some use it as a path to the end-game epics.

We can't tell you if you'll find what you're looking for with MBing, it's really something you have to try for yourself, and then decide if you like the things it gives you, and also deal with the downside of it.

For myself, I started as a way to escape pugs and work on the end-game content myself, and very quickly forgot that, and grew to love the building/leveling process more. I could care about Heroic/raid gear, honestly. I'm having a BLAST leveling a new team, I have 3 in Hillsbrad in their mid 30's, and they're starting to feel their power, and getting really fun - and when I need a break, I jump on my 3 80's, and I'm working through the old dungeons for the dungeon achievements - they blew BRD and LBRS apart the other night, and (possibly) tonight, they're getting keyed to UBRS and blowing a hole through Drak. They bitchslapped Strat both sides a while ago, I run the Baron when I'm bored, for the mount. Soon, Sunken Temple, Scholo, and the Isle. Then it's on to Mechanar and Botanica and see how far they get there.

Most players would look at that content and say "What's the point? The gear sucks! Who cares!?!?" I would have said the same thing before I started MBing. Now? I do it because I can, and it's fun to me. Maybe it would'nt be fun to you. I don't care about the end game anymore, I have fun exploring and re-exploring the old content. I can't wait to get my new team to Outlands, this time around I'm going for the quest achievements there. Epics? Sure, they'd be cool, but I don't need them, really.

Anyway, the best thing is that you found this place. Keep reading, maybe start up a couple of trial accounts and see if you can get the hang of it, see if you're set up hardware-wise, and level a team. MBing is a complex enough thing, that there's plenty of things to hook you and make you dive in 100% - or it won't do much for you, and you'll move on. It's really not something that can be predicted, ya know? There's also a lot of challenges to getting a team up and running, to keep you busy for a while.

I think you'll find that you'll be so busy leveling that you'll forget the end-game for a while, and I've noticed, for a lot of people, that's what makes the game fresh for them again. If you focus on the last 5-10% of the game, yes, it grows stale pretty fast - look at all of the endless complaints of boredom and how "easy" the game is on other forums - players at the level cap are so focused on the end of the game, they get no enjoyment from the rest of it.