dual-boxer, trying tri-boxing for the first time

[hendrata]

Hello,

I've dual boxed a number of different combinations of classes and am quite familiar with it. As for keybindings, usually I set:
2-4: standard dps caster rotations
5-7: healing macros
8-0: AOE and oh-sh1t buttons (Ice Block, Fade, etc)
And for melee tank rotations, I usually put it in the action bar above the normal action bar, and just click them. I was able to two-shot most mobs this way, and when fighting elites:
I use mouse clicks for tank abilities with my right hand, and with my left hand:
I type 2 3 4 3 4 etc when I need to dps
I type 5 7 6 7 5 when I need to heal

Recently, I started tri-boxing with my main account that has a level 70 already. That being said, my first composition is DK-Mage-Healadin, all at level 70.
How do you set up your key bindings? I originally left it the same as above just because I'm already "used" to the setup, but I feel that I need to press dps rotations AND healing rotations at the same time with my left hand, and it's quite confusing. Is there a better way to do this? Btw I only do this when I'm trio-ing 5-man elites like Durnokk the Hungerer. When I'm fighting 3 man elites, I'm not as anal in dps and heals because it's not as crucial.

[Ogloo]

What ur going to have to do is have a shift, alt, or some other button with 1, 2, 3, 4, for ur heals.. (which are more frequent) and make ur iceblock o crap ones like F5 and stuff.. Or if u get/have a keyboard with extra keybinds i would utilize that..

For when u have to heal AND dps---
have a heal+dps button.. (to be reaaally simple).. the mage gets fireball, DK gets hit something, and the holy paladin gets a heal.. all on the same button..
OR
create a macro that has target=help /cast healspell ... target= nohelp /cast dps...(someone else will have to help u with this macro im sorrry i dont know it.

[elsegundo]

i would have the following:

DPS:
one CC button. if you fancy that.
you really only need two dps buttons for a mage, with alt modifiers for emergency things like frostnova runners, adds, etc. i would keep all of my dps buttons separate from the tanks.

Healer:
1 button to heal tank, another to heal dps, alt to heal self. shift/ctrl to change healing strengths/type. or you can have two healing buttons, flash of light and holy light, and... alt to heal self, ctrl to heal tank, shift to heal dps. same effect different layout. oh and lay on hands, just in case. yea healadin isnt too complex.

Tank:
bulk of the buttons.
i always use modifiers so it might be complicated at first. sorry if you're into castsequence and stuff.
i have buttons for IT/DnD, PS/HS or PS/HB, depends on spec really. DS/BB. Pest/Othertalenskill.
its all up to you how you put the buttons togeter. but i like to do non-mod buttons to start (all diseases) and then do the specials on them with alts, like BB or DS.
so thats four buttons. but theres more!
Death Grip/Brain Freeze
Chains/Strangulate
the last four can be done easily by clicking too, if you run out of buttons.


my pulling method would be to sheep a caster/ranged.
drop DnD half way between you and them.
run up to the DnD and attack with your preferred tanking rotation. you can even put the first three mobs on castsequence. IT/PS/Pest. and have mage cast sometime within that castsequence. if you blizzard, its safe to do it right after they hit the DnD. if you do fireball or frostbolt or frostfire or whatevers, its best to wait til after the IT to cast. so mages could look like /castseq <null>, Fireball, <null>. fireball can match your tanks other abilities as well. in fact, you'll want to cast your dps spell as often as possible as long as your tank has enough aggro.
i prefer using two buttons to heal, and modifiers to target. so alt+= to Flash of Light on your pally. "=" with no mods to flash of light on tank, and shift+= to flash of light on your mage. nomod on the tank works because he will be the one getting healed most of the time, with occassional alt for self healing and shift/ctrl to heal the dps.


yea its all bunched up in there im sorry for the bad formatting. boss is walking back and forth and i dont wanna get in trouble!



edit: some more thoughts.
for tanking, some people do not like to open with DnD as it costs too many runes all at once. i've tried it both ways and really, its just a matter of preference. some folks like to DnD, and dont mind only being able to IT/PS/Pest/Autoattack for a bit until they get their runes back to BB or restart rotation. others like to do the IT/PS/Pest/BB to grab the group. then worry about DnD later, if ever.


finally, if you have pets out. make sure your pet's leap is off when you start a pull. do a forum search for "/petautocastoff" and you should find my post on when to turn that on/off. also add runestrike before every major attack, like so:
/cast runestrike
/cast [nomod] IT; [mod:alt]DnD
this will always attemp to activate runestrike. i would go as far as making another bar (with bartender4 or macaroon) and put runestrike on there just so i will know that a runestrike is incoming (it highlights when its queued up), make the button bigger, and place it next to my stance bar. =]

[hendrata]

Hello,

Thank you for the suggestion.
I have a question about Shift mods. Right now, using "default" binding, my Shift+1 somehow changes my action bar into something else. As such, I can't shift as a modifier. I can use Alt fine and I've been doing fine with Alt = healing myself. I never bother healing the mage because he shouldnt take any damage to begin with, and if he does, usually not much. But it's nice to have Shift to bind to another spell for like cooldowns etc.

For normal mobs, I never bother with CC. I just aoe everything down and it's fast =) gotta love those kill quests. That's why Polymorph is not even bound to anything. I do use frost nova for the Shatter - Ice Lance combo.

[elsegundo]

Hello,

Thank you for the suggestion.
I have a question about Shift mods. Right now, using "default" binding, my Shift+1 somehow changes my action bar into something else. As such, I can't shift as a modifier. I can use Alt fine and I've been doing fine with Alt = healing myself. I never bother healing the mage because he shouldnt take any damage to begin with, and if he does, usually not much. But it's nice to have Shift to bind to another spell for like cooldowns etc.

For normal mobs, I never bother with CC. I just aoe everything down and it's fast =) gotta love those kill quests. That's why Polymorph is not even bound to anything. I do use frost nova for the Shatter - Ice Lance combo.



going to your system menu (or esc) click on keybindings. scroll down to the option to change actionbars and remove that keybinding. i leave SHIFT+SCROLL to change actionbars though, as i like that.

also, i was thinking more for the 3-man instance thing. hehe. but for outdoor mobs, yea... kill them asap. no cc needed really!

also, double check your pet commands bindings as well. if you ever end up using those keys, you might want to reasign them.

[Kelevra]

I tribox too, a Holypriest/Firemage/Protpala setup...
my keybindings are:

Shift-F1/F2/F3 = PiP :D

1-5 Pala tanking Skills (Consecreation, Judgement, etc.)
1-5 also Mage DPS Skills (scorch, fireball, fireblast, living bomb)
F1-F5 healspells on the tank (greater heal, renew, flashheal, shield and decurse)
STRG+F1-F5 healspells on the mage (greater heal, renew, flashheal, shield and decurse
ALT+F1-F5 healspells on the priest (greater heal, renew, flashheal, shield and decurse)

thats it :)

[hendrata]

Sorry, what's PiP?

Yeah that sounds good, but how do you actually fight an elite? that means you have to manage tanking, dps, and healing spells all at the same time.
When I dualbox, I can click the tanking spells with my right hand and press the dps spell keys with my left hand, but with healing, then I'm running out of appendages.

[elsegundo]

Sorry, what's PiP?

Yeah that sounds good, but how do you actually fight an elite? that means you have to manage tanking, dps, and healing spells all at the same time.
When I dualbox, I can click the tanking spells with my right hand and press the dps spell keys with my left hand, but with healing, then I'm running out of appendages.
PiP = Picture-in-Picture.
There are some examples of this in the screenshots section of the forum.

just make a spell for the healer and place it where you would have your dps keys, or right next to it. then when you dps, you can easily heal by pressing another button. i'd say... if you're using your 1234567890-= keys for dps, you might have to move some keys around, or use F-keys just above them.

[Kang]

Bind your heals to the number pad keys. You won't be healing all the time and your dps casts will take a few seconds. You can cross over from the standard number keys to the key pad quickly. Therefore, you can still tank with the mouse using your right hand and dps/heal with your left. I find using shift or alt gets cumbersome, but that's just me.

[hendrata]

Ok thanks all for the suggestions.

This is what I do:
simplify my dps rotation to only use 3 buttons using macros, and healadin only needs 3 buttons really: cooldowns/Lay of Hands, Flash Heal, Holy Light.

So I tank with my mouse, dps and heal using left hand, and I practiced myself against target dummies to get that "dps and heal" dichotomy working, as in, thinking of 2 processes at the same time. Omg who says multiboxing is easy lol.... but yeah I think I got it after a while

But still, I can't take out Grulloc with 3 level 70s in quest greens and blues.... do I just suck, or is he that hard to 3 man at that level? The problem seems to be that when he enrages, I simply can't heal through his damage. I also can kite him because he seems to be immune to all forms of root and snares and can keep up with me. :(

[elsegundo]

Ok thanks all for the suggestions.

This is what I do:
simplify my dps rotation to only use 3 buttons using macros, and healadin only needs 3 buttons really: cooldowns/Lay of Hands, Flash Heal, Holy Light.

So I tank with my mouse, dps and heal using left hand, and I practiced myself against target dummies to get that "dps and heal" dichotomy working, as in, thinking of 2 processes at the same time. Omg who says multiboxing is easy lol.... but yeah I think I got it after a while

But still, I can't take out Grulloc with 3 level 70s in quest greens and blues.... do I just suck, or is he that hard to 3 man at that level? The problem seems to be that when he enrages, I simply can't heal through his damage. I also can kite him because he seems to be immune to all forms of root and snares and can keep up with me. :(elites can never be snared, rooted, silenced, stunned, cc'd, etc.
you probably need more dps. pug it. i doubt anyone wants to get atunement for Ogrila anymore, but you'll be surprised.
he's a normal 5 man encounter for ppl with quest greens/blues. so doing it 3 man would require better gear. at 70 your pally should have the colbalt set (not spiked set) and the adamantite set gemmed up with stam at the very least (thats if you dont have nice instance gear). if you have some northrend gear that would be great too. how much healing power does your priest have? for this boss you might need about 600-800 spell/healing power. when he enrages, focus on healing and not on tanking. you can tank from your healer's POV if grulloc doesnt move much. i've learned to do that after a while. takes a bit of getting used to. hehe.