Multi-boxing Part 2: How To Actually Kill Stuff

[Syro]

It has been a while but here is part two. This guide will assume you've already read my previous guide ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/wiki/index.php/Syro's_Multi-Boxing_Part_1:_Getting_Started'), so I will go from there.

My group consists of a paladin tank, two mages, warlock, and a priest for heals. The slaves don't have much of a customized UI as I like to keep things simple and don't want to maintain anything complicated. My main is my paladin and on him I have a customized layout so that I can keep my attention to a single window. I'd rather not have to look at any other instance because taking my concentration away from my main could cause a wipe.

Below is a quick screen shot of my main explaining some simple things.

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_PN9e-Rgk0t8/STA3-niLaQI/AAAAAAAAFk0/FrOuK4F9dhw/s800/mb2ss01.jpg

The next image is my warlock and her simple layout.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_PN9e-Rgk0t8/STA3-9rh28I/AAAAAAAAFk8/gMjhuNN3088/s800/mb2ss02.jpg

Both mage layouts are the same pretty much.

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_PN9e-Rgk0t8/STA3_MMuYxI/AAAAAAAAFlE/7-QUwbgaD10/s800/mb2ss03.jpg

The priest's layout.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_PN9e-Rgk0t8/STA3_bXfi1I/AAAAAAAAFlM/qKHoy1nbscE/s800/mb2ss04.jpg

I don't have an Xkeys yet so I have to use my keyboard. If you remember my previous guide I was using a midi controller for my healer, that was working well initially but the MIDI translator was very buggy and completely unpredictable. So the numpad is used pretty much for CC and healing.

Starting off I hit the F12 key a few times and that casts all my necessary buffs for my toons. From PallyPower and SmartBuff.

My keybinds are pretty simple. I realized that in instances, you're only casting a few spells so I tried to group them together in the three basic categories of tanking, DPS, and healing. You notice on my paladin's screen shot he has the center panel of 8 buttons, those are just his and bound to keys that aren't passed to my slaves. The four slaves using keys 1 through 4 for their main DPS, and the healer uses the numpad. Before the initial pull I'll put my guys in formation and assist the tank for the first kill target.

My basic rotation without sheeping, I hit these keys:

Tab, V, T, 4, R, 3, 2, 1

Tab = Slaves assist the paladin
V = Avenger Shield for the pull
T = Consecration to get the initial aggro
4 = Seal of Righteousness, Fireblast x2, Curse of Elements, Devouring Plauge (in instances I usually don't have the priest assist at all, in fact I take the keybind off and just have her heal only).
R = Judgement of Wisdom to get a big spike of aggro on the mob for my paladin so he never loses it.
3 = Seal of Wisdom, Ice Lance x2, Corruption, Shadow Word: Pain
2 = Hammer of Wrath (usually only used a second time when a mob is about to die), Arcane Blast x2, Immolate + Conflagrate macro, Mind Blast
1 = Paladin spam macro, Icy Weins + Frostbolt macro x2, Shadow Bolt, Smite.

The last button, keybind 1, I spam over and over until the mob is dead or I'll hit the 2 keybind for Hammer of Wrath.

For sheeping I do the same rotation but I'll set up my sheep targets prior to the pull. I have the numpad keys -, *, / used for this.

- = Assists my paladin and sets the focus for Mage 1
* = Assists my paladin and sets the focus for Mage 2
/ = This will do /stopcasting and cast a sheep on the focus target without detargeting the DPS target.

I also have my warlock and priest use this CC setup when I need it, but it's rare that I need more than two CC or need an undead CC.

The Priest has some special keybinds just for healing.

I use all the numpad keys 1 through 9 and then the + and . keys. My targets macros target the direct person instead of party1, party2, etc. I did this because I plan on running 10 mans with another 5boxer in my guild and it's usually the best way to run.

+ = /stopcasting and targets Syrodarko the paladin
9 = /stopcasting and targets Emilybates the warlock
6 = /stopcasting and targets Suzybaily the first mage
3 = /stopcasting and targets Bethfarmer the second mage
. = /stopcasting and targets herself
8 = Power Word: Shield
5 = Renew
2 = Circle of Healing
7 = Greater Heal
4 = Guardian Spirit
1 = Flash Heal

During fights I'll have both hands on the keyboard and do my Tanking/DPS with my left hand, and my right is on the numpad casting heals. It can be a bit hectic at times having to do a lot of things at once, but when you set things up from lvl 1, you get used to it after a while.

Here's a video of me doing the first pull in Ramparts. Keep in mind I am level 71 and definitely outlevel the place

Multi Boxing Part 2: Attacking ('http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUC-A6imaqU')

Here's the same pull but sheeping the two guards at first while killing the patrol

Multi-Boxing Part 2: Sheep Pull ('http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4DRa1MSSYA')

Ask you can see I have complete control over this pull and it's pretty simple to pull off. Just requires a few seconds of setup. The next thing I'll show you are my my movement keybinds for my slaves.

Multi-Boxing Part 2: Slave Movement ('http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEmjS1vjrV0')

The keybinds I'm using are the following:

Home = Move Forward
End = Move Backward
Delete = Strafe Left
Page Down = Strafe Right
Insert = Turn Left
Page Up = Turn Right

Another of my favorite keybinds are 6 and 7

6 = Hammer of the Righteous, Seed of Corruption, and Frost Nova
7 = Consecration, Hellfire, Arcane Explosion, and Holy Nova

This is very handy when I have to kill a bunch of non-elite quest mobs. Cast Power Word: Shield and Prayer of Mending on the tank, have him round up a bunch of mobs, then burn 'em down.

Macros
All Macros
Assist (only include the other character names)


/assist [target=Syrodarko, nodead, help, exists]; [target=Suzybailey, nodead, help, exists]; [target=Bethfarmer, nodead, help, exists]; [target=Joaniejames, nodead, help, exists]; [target=Syrodarko, exists]
/petattack
/script SetView(2);

Follow (and accept trade)


/script AcceptTrade();
/target [target=Syrodarko, nodead, help, exists]; [target=Suzybailey, nodead, help, exists]; [target=Bethfarmer, nodead, help, exists]; [target=Joaniejames, nodead, help, exists]; [target=Syrodarko, exists]
/follow

Paladin Macro
Spam


/startattack
/castrandom Hammer of Wrath, Hammer of the Righteous, Holy shield, Exorcism, Holy Wrath, Consecration
/run UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

Warlock Macro
Immolate/Conflagrate


/cast Immolate
/cast Conflagrate

Mage Macros
Sheep Targeting and cast macro


/assist Syrodarko
/focus



/stopcasting
/cast [target=focus, exists, harm] Polymorph

Spam Macro


/cast Icy Veins
/cast Frostbolt

Priest Macro
Heal Targeting


/stopcasting
/tar CharacterName


Various Keybinds
Z = Trinket 1
X = Trinket 2
F11 = One mage starts casting a snack table
F9 = All toons drink conjured mana biscuits
F7 = Mounts
NumPad 0 = follow macro
Tab = Assist macro

That's pretty much it, that's how I 5box with my PvE team in game and in instances.

If you have any questions or notice anything wrong please let me know!

[Syro]

And it's in the wiki! http://www.dual-boxing.com/wiki/index.php/Syro's_Multi-Boxing_Part_2:_How_To_Actually_Kill_Stuff

[Fuzzy]

Awesome! Great info :)

[elsegundo]

this rocks! =]

[Coltimar]

Very slick and simple setup. And a well written guide. Nice UI too, btw.

[Dgc2002]

thanks man, i've been leveling my pally/mage combo(plan to add another 1 or 2 chars to the setup) and i've been wondering how i was going to sheep stuff, great solution to that =) thank you

[Gadzooks]

And it's in the wiki! http://www.dual-boxing.com/wiki/index.php/Syro's_Multi-Boxing_Part_2:_How_To_Actually_Kill_StuffAwesome job - you have some great ideas in there, I may have to do some tinkering today! :)

[Chabs]

Are you running more than one monitor? From what I can tell you dont really need to, you seem to have complete control from your main screen.

[Syro]

I run three instances on my main ox and two on my laptop . I built a new system a few months ago and it was able to handle 5instances in old world and Outland well enough, but in Northrend it stutters way too much. So I moved two instances over to my laptop. I'm getting another computer and monitor so I can move the other two from there. That way my main box runs just one instance of the game super fast.

[eagleeyee]

Syro, Awesome work. Could you go over the addons used for your pally ? I am sure some have changed since your last introduction.

[Basilikos]

Quite possibly the best stuff out of this is the movement and sheeping information. I'm incorporating all that into my mixed group setup.

[oiilbfl]

how come that i get two window with all the actions bar how do i change that
please i need help how to set the setting

[Syro]

how come that i get two window with all the actions bar how do i change that
please i need help how to set the setting

I'm going to address this because I get this a LOT. I've made quite a few posts and I have two in-depth and detailed guides for all to use. I consider myself very knowledgeable about multi-boxing, yet I am always learning.

However, as with any thing in life, you must learn on your own. It's ok to ask questions, but only fair to ask the right ones asking for help not someone to do the work.

Most of us here have read tons of articles/pages/etc, gotten very angry but very happy, and put a lot of time into this. Why you might ask? Because we realize that to make this work, we have to know how to do it, and to know how to do it? READ.

READ
READ
READ

There are so many stickies and wiki articles here that I'm amazed the same questions get asked. It's not hard, I did it. Heck, I didn't really post at all before I wrote my first guide, and I wrote taht after spending hours of reading and practicing on my own.

You can't expect people to do this for you, after all, you're playing 5 characters on your own because you don't want to rely on other people, so why not rely on yourself.

<3

[warrion]

Syro, this is great, I love it!
I do have 1 question tho, okay, maybe 2 or 3.. Lol
First, for your old video of you doing your ORC Multiboxing setup, you have your chat window grow upwards when something new came up, what addon is that?
Second, For you paladin, I do see the setup is great, very nice layout, if you dont mind, what are the addons you use? Especially, that nifty little addon for slaves targeting(the little 4 boxes in the center). For that if you do have a lot a ss of the folder could do well, if not then just put whatever you can.
Lastly, umm... hmm.. I guess just 2 questions. Lol

Again, awesome guide, keep up the good work and happy hunting!
:thumbup:

Edit:
I lied, I knew there was something, when your leveling, do you do all quest or only kill quests? and when looting, do you actually mouse to each instance to grab the quest items?
I hate collection quests! Lol

[Syro]

1) Minichat addon
2) That's just pitbull's frame for party target

Yes, I do kill quests only, or quests with objectives that can be shared. I try to avoid collection quests when I can.

[warrion]

Alright, cool, thx for the response.
Btw, just wondering, since that party frame is just basic, how do you know when 1 of your slaves perhaps has a debuff or even if buffs are up for them?
Especially debuffs that are dispellable?

[Ulishu]

Thanks for the post Syro. It's helping me get my first multi-group off to a good start. Only at lvl 13 so far with 3 mages.

Can I ask what mod is showing your quests with each player lined up? I use questhelper for tracking but I like your display.

[JasonB87]

Looks like back seat quester http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info8588-BackSeatQuester.html not sure though.

[Khestral]

Syro,

Could I ask you what the exact addons your using is? I LOVE that setup and would like to use it if possible...

[Spirithawke]

It has been a while but here is part two. This guide will assume you've already read my previous guideSyro, your previous guide link only opens a blank wiki page for me, so I am guessing the wiki has changed since you originally posted this. Perhaps someone with the power could fix this?

[wyofiddler]

Syro - awesome guide, I love it!

Question: Was there a strong reason you chose a warlock over a shaman for the 3rd dps spot? I can see it working out fine either way, I'm just curious to hear your thinking on class choices.

[JackBurton]

what addon makes the vertical hp/mana
bars and small target boxs? Grid?