I'm still not there (5box dreams and wow multibox status)...

[Ramesses]

I havent posted in a long time as I have been "a long ways off" from my goal of building a 5boxing team. Just thought I would give an update in the hopes that some might respond with a few 1 liners concerning the current status of 5boxing WoW.

So my plans all along were to level up my Paladin for the purpose of boosting, and eventually using him as a tank for PVE and a "target" for PvP. Also at the time I decided I wanted to go 5box I did not have the hardware. So in the mean time I figured I could work on my paly. What better than to have a fully epiced paly booster with all the right toys (Figurine of the Colossus, etc.). This was awhile back (pre-wotlk).

Well I fell in love, with a German girl and my priorities changed (of course, IRL first). I have sinced relocated to Germany and am now living and working in Berlin. Berlin is awesome by the way, really kickass city.

Where I am at now is, I have recently started playing again and my paly is now 80 with some decent prot gear (pre-naxx still, hoping to get naxx gear but raiding on a west coast US server from Germany is...not ideal to say the least).

I have two new dilemas:

1. Hardware in Germany is 1.5x as expensive. I am thinking I might as well wait until I am in the US again to build my super-PC.
2. My Paly who ive spent many hours on, and love very much, is on a US account. I could transfer him from the west coast server he is on now to an east coast one and this should improve ping somewhat, but it is still not ideal. Anyone else multi-boxing on US servers from EU?
3. My internet connection is worthless. At its current performance multi-boxing would be retarded as I am getting random disconnects quite often. It makes MTing heroics difficult and, I imagine the down time and setup for logging in 5 toons over and over each time I get dropped from the game would be too frustrating. I could probably improve this by switching ISPs to a better provider.

Here is what I can see that has changed in the last 8 months or so since I was last looking into multi-boxing:

1. I was scared when I read a post of someone saying boosting/RAF is no longer working, but as I read further it seems some were doing it wrong. THANK GOD. My whole plan of building up my Paly was to boost. My joints are already fucked enough, Id wrather avoid the extra clicking, and effort of questing and instead boost with a decked out prot paly. Plus it at least (seems) like more fun :) I love smashing instances in 1-2 pulls.

2. I believe it was Sunken Temple, with the boss who spawned unlimited skeletons has been nerfed. You no longer recieve exp for the skeleton kills, correct? (bummer).

3. They gave AOE Pallys NO NEW TOYS in WOTLK? NO equivalent of Figurine of the Colossus(as annoying as it was camping this, must have run 30 times, it was fun when i finally got it. Pre-wotlk it was a 2 minute cooldown LOH/invuln for AOE pallys. Ive tested it at 80 and it still works to some extent, just need alot more mobs on you to be really effective.)? No new reflective shields (lichen guard)? /sadpanda

There has been ALOT of changes with WOTLK. I have not been reading much here or about multi-boxing so I am way in the dark. Forgive me if I am repeating or being noobsauce.

I still have this goal, and will get there some day! :) 4 shammy 1 paly. SOOO much fun!? Plus I am somewhat of an RPer and I have a very fun plan for my team, I'm so excited to unveil it to you all! hah.

[Sam DeathWalker]

Follow yur Dream!

Use problems as an opportunity to become stonger!

[Ramesses]

Follow yur Dream!

Use problems as an opportunity to become stonger!

Hey, I know its not becoming president or stopping the spread of aids. Its much more selfish then that. But its a dream nonetheless. And when I promised the litlte ones at the orphanage that I would one day become a 5boxer, i tell you, the look in their eyes. /begins tearing up. I'm going to do it godamnit!

[Ramesses]

I guess to look at it from an optomistic perspective. The longer I wait to build my new PC, the cheaper and better the hardware gets.

[Enndo]

I am very impatient. I would order all the parts and have them sent to a relative in the US. Then have that relative send them to me ;p

[Ramesses]

I am very impatient. I would order all the parts and have them sent to a relative in the US. Then have that relative send them to me ;p

Thankfully I am patient (otherwise I would be over this by now. Lets put it this way, I'm starting to camp Time-lost proto drake on my Paly now).

I had thought of that too. The problem is, any new hardware shipped from the US is subject to a 19% VAT (sales tax) fee from germany. And although this is total bullshit and makes no sense, they take the total value in dollars, apply 19% and charge you that 19% in Euros. So you are also paying even more than 19% due to conversion rates. Rediculous i know, but thats how it works.

The only way I could do it and be safe, is next time Im visiting my family in the US I could order everything, build it, make sure its working and all is well. Then take it back with me on the plane (carry-on if possible, no way im checking my badass superpc I just built). That way its not "new" so I dont have to pay tax. Problem with this is, I have only taken a PC carry-on before on DOMESTIC flight. An international flight could provide some security or other issues depending on what mood the authorities are in that day.

[Otlecs]

Congratulations on all the good things happening in your life at the moment :)


2. I believe it was Sunken Temple, with the boss who spawned unlimited skeletons has been nerfed. You no longer recieve exp for the skeleton kills, correct? (bummer).
Correct. in the broader sense, Multiboxing is as good as it ever was and just as much fun. Actually having a tank makes all the difference in Northrend instances, although as you can see from other posts here, many are possible without.

If you don't manage to keep up with what's going on through regularly reading this site, I'd actually hold off on trying to get all up-to-speed with the changes until you've got the rig and connection sorted and you're right on the edge of launching into it.

You will have no problem getting a decent internet connection in Berlin. In Frankfurt, I have a 20Mb (yes, twenty) connection using Unity Media and haven't had a single problem with them in over 3 years of subscribing (*touches wood*). I've no idea if they serve Berlin, but your girlfriend will be able to find out for you.

She should also be able to find you a good source of cheaper hardware components.

Be really careful if you're planning to build your PC in the USA and then ship it over.

Unless you can get a Transfer of Residence exception (which you won't unless you have a permanent residency visa for Germany) you could well be hit with import duties that will outweigh the benefits of having gotten the components cheaper in the first place!!

I've bought quite a few components from amazon.de. They seem to use *alot* of "marketplace" type vendors on there, so you end up making direct contact with some sources worth keeping hold of, most of whom speak English.

By the time you've been round that loop a couple of times, you might well find that you're not that much worse off than buying in the US (depending on your negotiating skills).

edit:
You'll also have no problem finding English language editions of Windows and US layout keyboards over here.

[Ramesses]

Congratulations on all the good things happening in your life at the moment :)


2. I believe it was Sunken Temple, with the boss who spawned unlimited skeletons has been nerfed. You no longer recieve exp for the skeleton kills, correct? (bummer).
Correct. in the broader sense, Multiboxing is as good as it ever was and just as much fun. Actually having a tank makes all the difference in Northrend instances, although as you can see from other posts here, many are possible without.

If you don't manage to keep up with what's going on through regularly reading this site, I'd actually hold off on trying to get all up-to-speed with the changes until you've got the rig and connection sorted and you're right on the edge of launching into it.

You will have no problem getting a decent internet connection in Berlin. In Frankfurt, I have a 20Mb (yes, twenty) connection using Unity Media and haven't had a single problem with them in over 3 years of subscribing (*touches wood*). I've no idea if they serve Berlin, but your girlfriend will be able to find out for you.

She should also be able to find you a good source of cheaper hardware components.

Be really careful if you're planning to build your PC in the USA and then ship it over.

Unless you can get a Transfer of Residence exception (which you won't unless you have a permanent residency visa for Germany) you could well be hit with import duties that will outweigh the benefits of having gotten the components cheaper in the first place!!

I've bought quite a few components from amazon.de. They seem to use *alot* of "marketplace" type vendors on there, so you end up making direct contact with some sources worth keeping hold of, most of whom speak English.

By the time you've been round that loop a couple of times, you might well find that you're not that much worse off than buying in the US (depending on your negotiating skills).

edit:
You'll also have no problem finding English language editions of Windows and US layout keyboards over here.

This is why I love this community. So many helpful and friendly members!

Thanks for your response. I wrote a nice long reply, but lost it (TWICE!!!!!!!!!) due to being logged out for timeout from the boards. You should NOT lose your post when clicking the back button. BLAST!

That being said, let me try for a third time.

I am currently using Alice DSL. The speed is not bad, its the uptime and consistency thats a problem. During what I think are peak times, and sometimes random times, I get anywhere from a few to ALOT of disconnects. Usually lasting only 30 seconds or so, but I get logged out of the game. This totally wreaks havoc on my gaming experience and has been VERY frustrating.

I know if I call support I will have alot of trouble finding someone who can speak english and help me, they will then tell me everything is fine on their end and that it is something wrong with my computer (even though im 99.999% sure it is an issue with the connection/lines/routers on their end, AND they will charge me for the call which will probably end up taking an hour or two and in the end I will have no solution.

Therefor I am thinking it might just make sense to switch ISPs. After all Alice is like the cheapest there is.

Also I have learned about the import tax :) Hence the reason I am hoping to plan building the PC while on vacation in the US. But we will see if it all works out. I will in the mean time keep an eye on Amazon.de prices as you suggest.

PS - Now all I need is to convince Blizzard to allow US -> EU and EU -> US character transfers :( This is the only major obstacle to my master plan of woworld domination.

[Darelik]

PS - Now all I need is to convince Blizzard to allow US -> EU and EU -> US character transfers :( This is the only major obstacle to my master plan of woworld domination.this might be a hard pill to swallow - forget the pally and RAF 5x new EU accounts! woots! World (of Warcraft) Domination from a different continent is awesome too.

[Ramesses]

PS - Now all I need is to convince Blizzard to allow US -> EU and EU -> US character transfers :( This is the only major obstacle to my master plan of woworld domination.this might be a hard pill to swallow - forget the pally and RAF 5x new EU accounts! woots! World (of Warcraft) Domination from a different continent is awesome too.

Cant do it! For several reasons. 1) Im too attached to him now, and I love AOE tanking, this will be part of the fun. AOE boosting 4 shammies! 2) I may end up back in the US in a few years and will still want to play my 5box team, so would not want to get stuck with EU characters then. 3) It ruins my whole RP plan, which is half of the fun of multi-boxing! (for me).

[Darelik]

aw ic.

i boosted my raf team via a mage :). the 70 mage had some t6 gear. i tried boosting with my old tankadin that was on t5 and im convinced mage > tankadin for boosting. just an opinion.

[Ramesses]

aw ic.

i boosted my raf team via a mage :). the 70 mage had some t6 gear. i tried boosting with my old tankadin that was on t5 and im convinced mage > tankadin for boosting. just an opinion.

Possible. But I dont like the idea of being squishy. I know mages can kill faster, but AOE prot paly is more fun to me. And if you make a mistake you dont die and have to start over.

[Ramesses]

aw ic.

i boosted my raf team via a mage :). the 70 mage had some t6 gear. i tried boosting with my old tankadin that was on t5 and im convinced mage > tankadin for boosting. just an opinion.

Possible. But I dont like the idea of being squishy. I know mages can kill faster, but AOE prot paly is more fun to me. And if you make a mistake you dont die and have to start over.

The idea in BC that I could heal myself from taking damage every 2 minutes (with FoC) is just too irresistible for easy boosting.

[Darelik]

aye, foc + bos + ret aura = brbsandwichtime :D
was just saying that i had the chance to pick a booster and i chose mage over the pally.

in any case, i suggest going through the dungeons you're planning to boost in. figuring it how many pulls you are able to handle, up to where can u pull them before they start returning, will jumping over a crate make the mobs evade bug and aggro to the lowbies, etc. sussing things out first or doing practice/timed runs would make your live runs smoother.

[Ramesses]

aye, foc + bos + ret aura = brbsandwichtime :D
was just saying that i had the chance to pick a booster and i chose mage over the pally.

in any case, i suggest going through the dungeons you're planning to boost in. figuring it how many pulls you are able to handle, up to where can u pull them before they start returning, will jumping over a crate make the mobs evade bug and aggro to the lowbies, etc. sussing things out first or doing practice/timed runs would make your live runs smoother.

Hahah, exactly. BRBsandwitchtime to the max. I'm all about that. As I said, I have enough arthritis, tendonitis and whatever ITIS as it is, i dont need to be clicking more buttons than necessary while boosting. Will save the button clicking for when I actually have the team leveled and crush some heroics and who knows what else!

I still imagine looting with 5box is a serious pain in the ass. I do remember seeing an addon/app for that but remember reading it didnt work perfectly. Has this improved?

[Otlecs]

I still imagine looting with 5box is a serious pain in the ass.
I'm missing something here, because I've never found looting any more of a pain with five characters than with one character - it's just a whole shed-load of bodies to click on if you bother looting when you boost.

When your main's full up, either offload the crap onto one of your drones or rotate the looter around until they're all full.

You can also loot with the new "interact with target" keybind, but you still need to click all those corpses.

Personally, I only loot while my booster is on down-time (I used a mage, and she needs a drink between pulls) and leave everything else alone. The low level instances especially - certainly up to and including ST - are a waste of time loot-wise, even for enchanting mats.

Somebody here once did the math surrounding time spent looting vs. time spent doing more boosts and therefore reaching high levels quicker and making even more money, but I can't find the thread at the moment. It was a fairly compelling argument against looting in the lower-level instances though :)

[Darelik]

yeah, never looted when i was boosting from DM/VC thru to ramps. the only exception being the blues from ZF and up. they paid for the repair bills, flight, porting and training expenses.

and yes, when mage was drinking, i had another toon doing some looting until mage was full. and when the instance was finished, i would have to go back and if i see a mob sparkling, i know that it's got an epic on it. :thumbsup:

with regards to changes in looting, if you have one screen, u can use interact-with-target while ur main is recovering (target mob with main, enable click-to-move, hit interact-with-target keybind on the other toon, and presto). other than that, as was said earlier, it still takes the same amount of time when looting corpses. but as for gathering herbs, ores, skinning, looting untargettable quest items, and such - these things have their time-to-loot sped up.

[Gadzooks]

aw ic.

i boosted my raf team via a mage :). the 70 mage had some t6 gear. i tried boosting with my old tankadin that was on t5 and im convinced mage > tankadin for boosting. just an opinion.

Most 80's can boost anything through 60.

After that, it changes, fast, especially if you're going to instance boost. Then, the mage is useless, as tanking is pretty dicey. They're very fun to have, and who doesnt like free water and food and portals? But as a tank...nah, gotta disagree there.

I've level boosted with a rogue, a lock, and a druid. The best, IMVHO, is the Lock - if you speck demon, and use your felguard, he can tank a LOT in Outlands - you will find it really hard to grab aggro from him. Add in the Lock dots, you can dot groups up, send in the Felguard, and watch the exp flow. Your boosted characters can sit there and play Peggle.

I don't think my Felguard ever died in Outlands, and I ran my current team through Ramps, Blood Furnace, Underbog, Slave Pens, Mana Tombs, Crypts, and Sekketh. The mage, who is also 80 (fire spec, massive dps support), died a LOT. The Lock died once, when I pulled a whole room in Sekketh by mistake. :)

[Darelik]

Most 80's can boost anything through 60.

After that, it changes, fast, especially if you're going to instance boost. Then, the mage is useless, as tanking is pretty dicey. They're very fun to have, and who doesnt like free water and food and portals? But as a tank...nah, gotta disagree there.
yes. most 80's can boost anything through 60, but i was talking about 70's :)
i did ok as a 70 mage booster until after ramps.

after that, if i was continuing boosting, then i'd use a pally for sure :)

[Mokoi]

I am very impatient. I would order all the parts and have them sent to a relative in the US. Then have that relative send them to me ;p

Thankfully I am patient (otherwise I would be over this by now. Lets put it this way, I'm starting to camp Time-lost proto drake on my Paly now).

I had thought of that too. The problem is, any new hardware shipped from the US is subject to a 19% VAT (sales tax) fee from germany. And although this is total bullshit and makes no sense, they take the total value in dollars, apply 19% and charge you that 19% in Euros. So you are also paying even more than 19% due to conversion rates. Rediculous i know, but thats how it works.

The only way I could do it and be safe, is next time Im visiting my family in the US I could order everything, build it, make sure its working and all is well. Then take it back with me on the plane (carry-on if possible, no way im checking my badass superpc I just built). That way its not "new" so I dont have to pay tax. Problem with this is, I have only taken a PC carry-on before on DOMESTIC flight. An international flight could provide some security or other issues depending on what mood the authorities are in that day.

just dont buy it with a case, and pack all your equipment into your luggage, that's what I do. Security knows the difference between a computer part and a bomb. I have travelled internationally like this 3 times. once to australia, once from and once to Seoul Korea. not a problem.