Setting up a Melee boxing team HOW TO** (ie how to use click to interact to make melee boxing work! )

[shaeman]

I'm playing the same game as you are.

I have been meleeing with my 5 shaman

This looks to be the big difference between us. The issues you are facing are due to aggro bouncing between your 5 shaman due to random crits across your characters, it doesn't have anything to do with latency. You mentioned issues with stoneclaw. You could place your stoneclaws prior to a pull in front of your group, back up and then hit the mob you are going to burn down with a lightning bolt to pull. You should lose the adds in your stoneclaw farm and pick the next one to burn down. It won't help for the entire pull, but might make things slightly less chaotic. I believe frostshock has more aggro than flameshock and you could take the aggro reducing talents on 4 of the shaman, and skip it on the main character (who is the one that frostshocks the mob when it gets near). This might help a bit with aggro bounce.

I've been dual boxing melee (nearly ready to start my 5 box in Northrend) and I've been using a bear druid and and enhancement shaman.
The advantage of the tank is that I have consistent threat, am very unlikely to draw aggro on the shaman and if i do the mob is automatically in melee range of that toon, and I just run the tank towards the shaman (or taunt).

Thanks for your response though - I definitely think I will be doing click to move for my team as it does have more benefits than I initially thought.

[thinus]

I'm playing the same game as you are.

I have been meleeing with my 5 shaman

This looks to be the big difference between us. The issues you are facing are due to aggro bouncing between your 5 shaman due to random crits across your characters, it doesn't have anything to do with latency. You mentioned issues with stoneclaw. You could place your stoneclaws prior to a pull in front of your group, back up and then hit the mob you are going to burn down with a lightning bolt to pull. You should lose the adds in your stoneclaw farm and pick the next one to burn down. It won't help for the entire pull, but might make things slightly less chaotic. I believe frostshock has more aggro than flameshock and you could take the aggro reducing talents on 4 of the shaman, and skip it on the main character (who is the one that frostshocks the mob when it gets near). This might help a bit with aggro bounce.

I don't have a *problem*. I kill things fine. I just don't agree that it is simple to position mobs for a melee only group.

[shaeman]

but for some of us having problems with mobs pathing weirdly

I never mentioned you having a problem - the above words are yours not mine.
I also never said you had an issue killing things.

All I did was suggest a few possible things that might have made life easier to make mob movement more predictable.
Just trying to help.

As i mentioned - the big difference between your melee group and mine - is that I'm running with a tank.
The tank has the aggro on the mob and doesn't lose it, so there are less positioning issues for me than for you.

[thinus]

but for some of us having problems with mobs pathing weirdly

I never mentioned you having a problem - the above words are yours not mine.
I also never said you had an issue killing things.

All I did was suggest a few possible things that might have made life easier to make mob movement more predictable.
Just trying to help.

As i mentioned - the big difference between your melee group and mine - is that I'm running with a tank.
The tank has the aggro on the mob and doesn't lose it, so there are less positioning issues for me than for you.

I have played everything in this game, solo and multi-box. Lots of mobs don't stand still, lots of mobs have aggro resets, lots of mobs have knockbacks on the tanks, lots of mobs have roots. I sometimes stand right on top of a mob and taking a step forward or backward can cause the mob to path to a different position. I find it a bit arrogant that you dismiss my latency theory out of hand and assume it is aggro switching. I can accept mobs pathing with aggro switching but usually if all my characters are in melee range then mobs don't path when they switch aggro.

They path when the character that has aggro moves.

I repeat, it is not a multi-box issue or an issue with aggro switching, it is a problem with mobs pathing to a different position when the character that has aggro moves.

I frequently encountered the issue with a hunter pet. The hunter pet tries to get behind the mob and keeps moving, the mob keeps pathing to attack the pet and both of them do a little dance off into the distance aggroing everything in the way.

And on the subject of my shaman team, I found it much easier for all of them to stand on top of each other and then I engage. Everyone is in melee range and I don't need to re-position anything, normally. I lose any attack from behind bonuses but I am not relying on melee damage. Stepping through a mob has never been a reliable technique for me and it has nothing to do with aggro switching.

[wolpak]

Using "click to move" and "interact with target" is extremely advantageous over follwoing and turning, especially since they are not mutually exclusive. You can use both if you feel you need to.

Follow and attack is after the fact attacking. You move to the mob, then spin yourself around and then attack. Interact with target is proactive. You issue your commands to your melee units before you enter battle. It is much more like you are a commander sending them in on a mission.

The main advantage is you know that they will all be in melee range and attacking the target. You also can easily switch to second target without having to issue another follow command. Click target number two, they attack. No need to worry about them facing the wrong direction and having to map buttons to turn them around. This turns them automatically.

There are very few instances where Blizzard allows you to move your units without having to hit the arrow keys or using the mouse directly. This is now one of them and is extremely useful.

[shaeman]

Look - I'm not trying to pick a fight. I was a bit overzealous in my dismissal of it being latency.
I should have said probably and I don't think it is, or I think it's unlikely. I still think that there might be
a remote possiblity, the teensiest, weensiest chance that it might not be latency.

Yes some mobs move. Mainly the ones that snare and run to range. With my tank I tend to have the aggro,
so I can either shift form if on the druid, or wait the root effect to drop and then go get the mob.
(dragging any other melee guys along too).

Some mobs knock back - but most of the time my tank has aggro and the mobs go after my tank,
so if i know a knockback happens I will tank that mob with my bear facing my alts.
If it does an aggro wipe as well (mainly elites in instances) then I'll run back in and taunt it.
Get it under control and reposition it then bring my alts in again.

Occasionally (a mob is positioned in amongst my group). If they cant hit it I can generally just back them up
and then tap follow and attack to get them back on the mob I want, or again if i don't want to back them up
i can have the tank move the mob and bring my team in again (and they are facing the mob).

I honestly believe that having one character who holds the aggro makes position juggling simpler.

I actually agree with you - and as I said before will be going for click to interact.
Being able to send my alts over to deal with a ranged caster while I'm dealing with the melee,
would be fantastic. And the click to interact will stop me having to do any of the positioning tricks
I used to solve the issues previously.

[shaeman]

[EDIT: I'm a moron - Basically just repeated something i said in a previous thread]

[Baleno]

:thumbup: is there a slash command for interact??

What i`m trying to do is
/assit focus
"/interact"

So fas i have to /assist or /target focustarget and then press the key bound to "interact".

[Gurblash]

can't macro interact its protected API

[Tdog]

Alright I read about half the thread before I decided to post so if this has already been said, sue me :P

The reason the mobs keep running is due to lag, when you're spamming the crap out of the interact button as your running up to the mob and at the same time the mob is running at you the lag makes your followers go hay wire. All you got to do is to keep your followers on follow till your main reaches the target, the mob stops moving, and hit your interact button and they won't go running all over.

For questing and grinding purposes, I actually don't even bother with the interact button as 5x any melee is enough to 1-2 shot anything non-elite and you pretty much don't even actually have to stop to kill them you can just run thru them spamming your attack button and keep on going to the next mob.

For Instances I do as I mentioned above, pull the mob to your main, once the mob stops moving hit your interact button and bam, no one goes crazy. Position it right and your followers will always be at the mob's back.

Edit: I just read the rest of the posts. If durning combat your guys get knocked back or w/e just simply grab the mob with your main again, once the mob stops moving hit your interact button again and all should be fine. If for w/e reason your followers do go hay wire, just hit your /follow button instead of spamming your interact button, once they get to your main and settle down, just hit the interact button.