fling
11-03-2007, 01:40 PM
I am currently boxing a 61 Warrior and 61 Shaman. I enjoy the duo, I have a VERY simple setup right now, but it is evolving based on my needs and experience. The concept applies to any mele/caster or mele/mele duo. It can be done a LOT better, I just wanted to share how I roll in case it helps anyone. (Feel free to give advice.)
---Character Specs---
I have tried MS (Arms using Mortal Strike a lot) and Fury spec on the warrior, Enhancement and Restoration on the shaman.
So far I like MS with a 2 hander on the war, Enhance with dual wield on the shaman. Having heals and Earth Shield with resto is great for elites, but I can grind down a ridiculous amount of regular quest mobs with my duo with MS and Enhance.
---Setup---
I use two machines and Keyclone right now, 1 machine worked fine as well, but I like being able to use a mouse and keyboard on the shaman (the 2nd box) for quest accepting and non-standard abilities once in a while.
My PC's are: Main; Intel Core2Duo, 2gig DDR2, 8800gts, Vista Home Premium. Secondary; Sempron 64 1.8ghz, 2gig DDR, X800pro, Windows 2000 (lost my XP disk /cry). Everything is pretty generic input device and network wise, and I use a copy of Keyclone on each PC to pass commands.
---Controls---
My control scheme is very simple, I have all in game abilities on the warriors action bar, and all macros on the shamans. The shaman has several blank spots so as not to conflict with attacks the warrior spams.
Press "1": Warrior charges or auto attacks, shaman /assist warrior, /follow warrior
Press "2", "3": Warrior only, MS and Rend
Press "4": Warrior hamstrings, shaman casts Stormstrike, if the key is pressed again within five seconds, casts Earth Shock (castsequence macro, see below)
Press "6": Shaman /follows warrior
Press "7" Shaman /targets warrior, casts lesser healing wave on first press, casts healing wave if the key is pressed again within 10 seconds
Press "8" Shaman casts WF Totem, Strength totem, Heal totem, Fire totem, one per keypress, resets back to WF totem after 10 seconds. (Cast sequence macro again)
Press "=" Shaman /targets self, casts healing wave.
I know the setup is pretty limited, and I have a lot of modifications planned, but it works for the basic things I do.
---How it works---
A basic fight for me would be (warrior main screen):
I press TAB or mouse click my target, press "1" which causes the warrior to charge, the shaman to follow and assist. Once I get to the mob with charge (or walk up to it) I walk the war through the mob, turn around. The shaman runs up behind due to auto follow, and starts attacking the mob due to assist. I use warrior abilities, shaman drops a WF totem if needed, hits Stormstrike once, mob drops in seconds if we crit or WF proc much.
Multiple mobs is similar, but the warrior uses AE abilities, (that I click) such as cleave, sweeping strikes, shouts, etc. Shaman drops a full set of totems, assists, warrior strafes around to keep both toons positioned with the current victim in between. Shaman heals, after which I press "1" again to keep him assisting and following the warrior.
When I used resto it was about the same, only kills took longer and elites where a little easier.
---Misc Info---
Both characters are using AH and Hellfire quest gear, mostly green "...of the Bandit" gear. Really average gear, almost no enchants, just the +8 stamina armor kits.
I have taken pulls that ended up with me killing 6-7 mobs in a row with the duo, as well killed elite quest mobs.
I have killed a few solo players who attacked my duo, as well as having some very close fights with high 60's to level 70 gankers. It is an area I will be working on alot come 70 and BG's.
Other than occasional positioning or /follow issues, the duo works great, my only real complain is that is that I have to take my hands off the main machine or alt+tab when running both accounts on the main to loot and accept/turn in quests.
With Keyclone, I really only pass the number keys, and use /follow for almost all movement, but there are alot of ways to set it up.
---Macros I use---
The /castsequence macro seems so-so at first glance, but it rocks once you realize the potential. Say you put the following macro icon in slot 1 of your action bar; The first time you press 1, it will cast Windfury Totem, the 2nd time you press it Strength, 3rd Healing, then back to on the 4th Windfury.
/castsequence Windfury Totem, Strength of Earth Totem, Healing Stream Totem
You can also make it reset, which it how I use it in most cases. The following will work the same as the above, but it will reset after 10 seconds, so if you press 1, wait 10 seconds, and press 1 again, it will cast Windfury twice because it has reset.
/castsequence reset=10 Windfury Totem, Strength of Earth Totem, Healing Stream Totem
This macro will work with all your spells and abilities, totems are just one example.
---Ok, I'll shut up now---
Hope this helps, feel free to ask questions or give advice, my basic layout works fine with any mele+caster, or mele+mele duo, and will be MUCH improved as I progress. I can do a comprehensive guide with pics, but I don't know enough yet to give great advice.
---Character Specs---
I have tried MS (Arms using Mortal Strike a lot) and Fury spec on the warrior, Enhancement and Restoration on the shaman.
So far I like MS with a 2 hander on the war, Enhance with dual wield on the shaman. Having heals and Earth Shield with resto is great for elites, but I can grind down a ridiculous amount of regular quest mobs with my duo with MS and Enhance.
---Setup---
I use two machines and Keyclone right now, 1 machine worked fine as well, but I like being able to use a mouse and keyboard on the shaman (the 2nd box) for quest accepting and non-standard abilities once in a while.
My PC's are: Main; Intel Core2Duo, 2gig DDR2, 8800gts, Vista Home Premium. Secondary; Sempron 64 1.8ghz, 2gig DDR, X800pro, Windows 2000 (lost my XP disk /cry). Everything is pretty generic input device and network wise, and I use a copy of Keyclone on each PC to pass commands.
---Controls---
My control scheme is very simple, I have all in game abilities on the warriors action bar, and all macros on the shamans. The shaman has several blank spots so as not to conflict with attacks the warrior spams.
Press "1": Warrior charges or auto attacks, shaman /assist warrior, /follow warrior
Press "2", "3": Warrior only, MS and Rend
Press "4": Warrior hamstrings, shaman casts Stormstrike, if the key is pressed again within five seconds, casts Earth Shock (castsequence macro, see below)
Press "6": Shaman /follows warrior
Press "7" Shaman /targets warrior, casts lesser healing wave on first press, casts healing wave if the key is pressed again within 10 seconds
Press "8" Shaman casts WF Totem, Strength totem, Heal totem, Fire totem, one per keypress, resets back to WF totem after 10 seconds. (Cast sequence macro again)
Press "=" Shaman /targets self, casts healing wave.
I know the setup is pretty limited, and I have a lot of modifications planned, but it works for the basic things I do.
---How it works---
A basic fight for me would be (warrior main screen):
I press TAB or mouse click my target, press "1" which causes the warrior to charge, the shaman to follow and assist. Once I get to the mob with charge (or walk up to it) I walk the war through the mob, turn around. The shaman runs up behind due to auto follow, and starts attacking the mob due to assist. I use warrior abilities, shaman drops a WF totem if needed, hits Stormstrike once, mob drops in seconds if we crit or WF proc much.
Multiple mobs is similar, but the warrior uses AE abilities, (that I click) such as cleave, sweeping strikes, shouts, etc. Shaman drops a full set of totems, assists, warrior strafes around to keep both toons positioned with the current victim in between. Shaman heals, after which I press "1" again to keep him assisting and following the warrior.
When I used resto it was about the same, only kills took longer and elites where a little easier.
---Misc Info---
Both characters are using AH and Hellfire quest gear, mostly green "...of the Bandit" gear. Really average gear, almost no enchants, just the +8 stamina armor kits.
I have taken pulls that ended up with me killing 6-7 mobs in a row with the duo, as well killed elite quest mobs.
I have killed a few solo players who attacked my duo, as well as having some very close fights with high 60's to level 70 gankers. It is an area I will be working on alot come 70 and BG's.
Other than occasional positioning or /follow issues, the duo works great, my only real complain is that is that I have to take my hands off the main machine or alt+tab when running both accounts on the main to loot and accept/turn in quests.
With Keyclone, I really only pass the number keys, and use /follow for almost all movement, but there are alot of ways to set it up.
---Macros I use---
The /castsequence macro seems so-so at first glance, but it rocks once you realize the potential. Say you put the following macro icon in slot 1 of your action bar; The first time you press 1, it will cast Windfury Totem, the 2nd time you press it Strength, 3rd Healing, then back to on the 4th Windfury.
/castsequence Windfury Totem, Strength of Earth Totem, Healing Stream Totem
You can also make it reset, which it how I use it in most cases. The following will work the same as the above, but it will reset after 10 seconds, so if you press 1, wait 10 seconds, and press 1 again, it will cast Windfury twice because it has reset.
/castsequence reset=10 Windfury Totem, Strength of Earth Totem, Healing Stream Totem
This macro will work with all your spells and abilities, totems are just one example.
---Ok, I'll shut up now---
Hope this helps, feel free to ask questions or give advice, my basic layout works fine with any mele+caster, or mele+mele duo, and will be MUCH improved as I progress. I can do a comprehensive guide with pics, but I don't know enough yet to give great advice.