10-boxing questions

[Pocalypse]

I currently have a 5-box team at 80. Pally tank, 3 ele shammies and 1 resto shammy. I've cleared all heroics except for Oculus, which I expect to do once I sit down and write the macros for it.

I'm now thinking, what next?
I'm getting bored with heroics, and I've only been 80 for 2 weeks.
I know my group should be geared enough now for raiding, but I'm not in a guild, and don't want to find one and have to convince them to accept a multiboxer.

On my accounts, I have (single boxed) a 50 hunter, 58 DK, 68 druid, 71 priest, 72 mage. Sounds like a good team to level up, try my hand at a mixed group, and maybe 10 box eventually? (I would have liked a warlock instead of the druid, but I'm not about to start one from scratch).

I do have a few questions, as follows:

Has anyone successfully 10-boxed some of the raids in WotlK?
I've seen mention of some people maybe taking down a few naxx bosses, but wasn't sure if that was all one person, or if it was 2-3 people boxing.

Could I realistically expect to run 10 instances on one computer?

I have a pretty beefy system, runs 5 accounts perfectly, even in dalaran or WG (though for some reason I can't explain, not in howling fjord).

i7 940 2.93 ghz
12gb ddr3 ram
2x gtx280
OCZ 60gb SSD for data dir
2x 27" monitors

Does anyone out there run 10 instances of one computer?

[Memn]

I think there are a few couple people 10 boxing Naxx (Bobgnarly). I know many of us have 2-5 boxed in Nax.... (See the threads on Heigan, Grobbulus and Thaddius for the particular ppl)

As far as running them all on one machine.... Your machine looks pretty beefy, but I think you' could use more ram.... You could probably squeek by with what you have, but the perrformance wont be what your used to now.

[Enndo]

Your machine could probly handle it, I would try it, if it works but not to well try overclocking your cpu, there are 10 million forums on OC'n that chip.

[Coltimar]

I run a quad core 2.5
8gb of ram
ATI 3850 video card

I run 8 clients with ease. I have a second machine that I use for raid boxing. I have not done 80 10 mans because my 2nd team is only around 62-63.

[Enndo]

8 clients on 8 gigs? Not bad, whats your power supply rated and are you running fios or cable?

[Bigfish]

I don't know anyone who runs 10 clients on one computer.

As far as what CAN be cleared, I've personally cleared Spider and Plague wings of Naxx, as well as Razuvious (by myself, 10-boxing, hardware). Its not that anything in there is particularly difficult, its just very much like boxing the Occulus: Macro Intensive with little room for error. Not really worth the trouble in my opinion.

[Hairball]

Macro Intensive with little room for error. Not really worth the trouble in my opinion.
I have to agree here. I can currently 5-boxing Naxx (2.66 wings down) and I don't think for a second I could pull off it all by myself. There is so much coordination and movement to be done.

Still trying to figure out how to pull off Grobbulus....

[Catamer]

I hear you on the "done it all".
I've pretty much done all of the heroics except Oculas too.
There is an extreamly limited amount of gear you can get with heroic badges, unlike BC where you could really get decked out.

I took one of my toons and joined a raiding guild. and it didn't take long to have that toon completely decked out there too.
I wish I could take the rest of my team raiding, at least on a 10x raid or two.

[Hairball]

There an extreamly limited amount of gear you can get with heroic badges, unlike BC where you could really get decked out.

A lot of the BC badge gear was patched in. BC's release didn't have that much gear available...

[Mercurio]

See my sig for what I've downed solo in Naxx.

My experience is that it is a very long process of trial and error to down each boss the first time. Some macro writing, tweaking of strategies, etc. Pretty painful really. However, once I figure out the formula things get pretty easy.

For example, my experience on Patch:
Week 1: 3 wipes on trash, 7 wipes on boss before killing him with only 3 toons left standing
Week 2: 1 wipe on trash, 2 wipes on boss before killing him with only 5 toons left standing
Week 3: no wipes, 1 death
Week 4: no wipes, no deaths, plenty of mana at the end

So I kind of agree with Bigfish and kind of don't. He has more experience than I do in Naxx, but downing at least four bosses per week now is pretty fun and I'm off to go see if I can start the painful trial and error for the Spider quarter now before things reset.

The other thing to consider is: that's really the only way you can improve your gear past heroics, unless you do the really painful thing and PUG Naxx. Sure, the epic drops off the last bosses in heroics are the same item level, but there is a pretty small selection of those epics compared to what is in Naxx. I'm having fun with it and think it is worth it overall.

[Pocalypse]

Cool, I'm glad to know it's possible. Pretty much what I expected, macro and detail intensive, but I enjoy that.

I was expecting a much bigger challenge from heroics. Maybe it's just my fuzzy memory, but I could swear the BC heroics (which I single-boxed) were a lot harder. I'm looking for more of a challenge.

I'll start leveling my guys later this week, and do some heroics with them before I start on naxx.

Should be fun :).

[wendalf]

IMO, most things are harder heroic wise when you start taking into account the 4 other personalities/playstyles/egos.

[cmeche]

I would go all elemental and give pvp a try. PvP is crazy to get down packed....but even a 4-boxed noob can bring the pain, I would know. The ability to wipe someone out in 3 sec make me all warm and fuzzy inside.

[Bigfish]

So I kind of agree with Bigfish and kind of don't. He has more experience than I do in Naxx, but downing at least four bosses per week now is pretty fun and I'm off to go see if I can start the painful trial and error for the Spider quarter now before things reset.

Truth be told, I'm a bit burned out at the moment, so my opinion reflects that.

[Sam DeathWalker]

I Run 6 clients (full screen though) on a machine way worse then your with 30fps front and 20fps back, in old world, with low resolution (1280 X 960) and few effects.

I dont really see why your machine will not run 10 as the I7 can really move data all over.

[puppychow]

imo its not worth it to 10 box raids. Patch 3.1 gives more gear for various things (PVP, wintergrasp, easier arena gear, argent coliseum) and a lot of BOEs will let you fully get epic'd out in every slot without raiding much/at all.

Even if you raid, the items will be minor to sidegrades for the most part from naxx10, except from kelthuzad, who would be a bitch to 10 box. Patch 3.1 is out today, basically you will spend the next 3-4 months learning & raiding naxx while everyone else is raiding ulduar.

It'll take a while to level 5 more to 80, of course if you really want to try to solo raids then you should go for it, it definitely will be challenging and interesting for a few weeks. But imo its like running heroic oculus daily, yes, you could get good at it eventually, but would you really enjoy it?

Like it or not the star of patch 3.1 is ulduar, which is a huge and very challenging raid instance (not multibox friendly at all). imo its better just to have one of your chars join a decent raiding guild, raid it for a while (until you are bored), then cancel subs until patch 3.2. I think they will do some more 5-man stuff in patch 3.2, which will make it interesting for a while again. Patch 3.3 I would imagine to be another raid patch, probably Arthas & Icecrown.

[Hairball]

Like it or not the star of patch 3.1 is ulduar, which is a huge and very challenging raid instance (not multibox friendly at all). imo its better just to have one of your chars join a decent raiding guild, raid it for a while (until you are bored), then cancel subs until patch 3.2. I think they will do some more 5-man stuff in patch 3.2, which will make it interesting for a while again. Patch 3.3 I would imagine to be another raid patch, probably Arthas & Icecrown. I'm not sure I agree completely with this.

Yes, this thread is about 10-boxing. But it very possible to 5-Box all/part of the current raids. Get a good group of people together (hardest part IMO), then back fill raids as attendance suffers.

And on a side-note, I would love to 10-box some PvP every once and awhile.

[Pocalypse]

I'm mainly looking for more content to do right now. I used to raid in TBC a lot, did all up to and including Illidan before the nerfs, but I really don't want to go back to that. I now have a full time job that often requires me staying late, and I always hated the whole "raid is at 7, must be home and well fed by then and ready to sit still for 4 hours".

I'm now on a different server, and the only people in my guild are my alts and a few RL friends that don't play much.

I'm not really looking for gear upgrades, I want to try the challenge. I've never stepped foot in naxx (60 or 80), and want to try it out.

That and I never liked questing on more than 1 guy at once, I haven't done any dailies since reaching 80, I get money from selling frozen orbs, dream shards and BoE blues.

Having said that, I'll probably take a week or so now to see what 3.1 has to offer, and rethink all this.

Thanks for the input.

[Mercurio]

Just a short update on my Naxx experiences:

Yesterday I gathered up the will to wipe a bunch trying out new bosses in the spider wing in Naxx. After I cleared the trash PinotNoir (a regular poster on these boards) messaged me and asked if he could bring in a healer since he'd never seen Naxx. After cautioning him about the high probability of wiping repeatedly as I learned a new boss for the next few hours trying Anub'Rekhan down, he joined anyway.

Turns out we downed Anub down on the first try! Didn't lose a single toon and I don't think anyone's health even dropped below 50%. Of course, I had planned much longer for Anub, knowing he'd be tough, and Pinot playing a healer in blues and crafted epics helped, but given my poor early experiences trying new bosses I was ecstatic. I'm certain I could have 10-boxed it instead of 9-boxed it.

We then went on to Faerlina and one-shotted her as well.

Maexxna wiped us a couple times, then a couple more guildies joined us and we took her down, then we took down Instructor Razuvious for good measure.

Overall, a very encouraging night with some great gear upgrades for us and a lot of fun.

I would definitely encourage you to continue working towards 10-boxing ^^

[Pocalypse]

That sounds awesome, I definitely want to get there now.

Thanks for all the opinions and stories.

[hUi33]

im also considering going 10 boxs... i seems like the only 1 boxing on my server on the hordes fraction and i can't even find a buddy to team with in Naxx...

but to setup another 5 accs is as nitemare'ish as looking for a raid guild to accept a boxer, and the must be at home in front of the PC at xx time...

[Basilikos]

...but to setup another 5 accs is as nitemare'ish as looking for a raid guild to accept a boxer, and the must be at home in front of the PC at xx time...

You might think that, but it's not quite like that. I'm still considering whether or not I'm actually going to try and 10 box. In the mean time, I'm leveling another PvE team on the accounts I have now. With the leveling nerfs and the ability to handle any instances, it's not too tough at all. I'm outside of RAF, but whatever. I don't know if I want to spend the money to setup the new accounts right now, anyway. Sure I'll pay for the transfers later, but this way if I decide not to 10 box, I'm not wasting the money on it.

Anyhow...

If you're thinking about trying it and don't want to bother with the other accounts right now, then don't create them. My current PvE team is just getting used to Northrend, so I'm going to have time to think about it. My guess is that they'll do so well that I'll be itching for new content after a few heroics.