New 5xBoxer (Mixed!)

[jsmith00075]

Heya,

So I got a brand new PC a few days ago and I finally started up with my Multiboxing! (Playing around 1 day now and 4 people reported me for botting? lol..)

So anyway I am at around 20ish (was using Zygor's guide but gathering 8-15 drop items from a X mob is a PAIN when you have to do it for 5 chars so I am going to try the guide that is around here :P) and here is what I got:

Paladin - Main
Mage x 2
Warlock
Priest

I am using Keyclone (I also got ******** but I am not using it ATM) and Zamba is on!
Now everything (almost) looks fine but I got a few Qs..

I know I mixed a lot of chars there (lol) but I had a master plan! 4 will do dmg from distance (1 will also heal) and my pala will do the rest.. Now that sounds good but I am not so sure of how I should set them up properly, like which is the best way. I also got an issue regarding the "healing" part :/ How am I supposed to set it up so it can actually work decent-good?

I hope my Qs where clear enough..

Thanks!

[Ualaa]

If you are just starting, strongly consider RAF.
Billing can help you convert the accounts, if you're polite and have just started.

A chain is generally the best A -- B -- C -- D -- E.

If you have no toons on any account, level your first group 1-60, mostly with quests.
It's good to have a tank type on the team.
With RAF, you'll quickly run out of quests in a zone (which have not greyed out).
You won't need to do pesky collections much, until Northrend.
Some here or there in Outlands too, but you can skip the painful ones.

I would seriously look at a shaman team, the synergy boxing is amazing.
Pally tank is the easiest to box with.
A melee team is a blast.
4-5x one type of toon can be fun too.

If you have RAF, get a bunch to 60th, then worry about 60-80.






For healing you have three general options.

You can make (macro) for toon specific heals.
Maybe put them on F8 through F12.
/castsequence [target=ToonA] reset=5 Renew, Flash Heal, Flash Heal, Flash Heal
Or something similar.

You can macro so you assist the mob.
/assist [target=PaladinName]
/cast [help] Renew; [help, target=targettarget] Renew; [help, target=targettargettarget] Renew
Make one like this for each major heal.
You can heal whatever by targeting with the paladin.
Or you get the mobs target by default when the pally is tanking.
You can substitute focus or party leader or target based assist methods etc.

Healing by Repeater Region is a lot stronger then either.
If you are boxing, I'd take a hard look at IS Boxer.
It does a lot more then anything else, other then maybe HotKeyNet, but is far easier to configure.
HKN uses scripts, if you're good with them, it is free, while IS Boxer has a subscription fee.

[jsmith00075]

It's been a little chaotic lately (20ish+) since when I get around 3-4 mods the whole team dies lol..

Well the priest goes down first and then I loose control hmm.. I think my mistake is that I use the priest to attack too instead of just leaving him behind just to heal? :/

PS: They are all RAF connected.

[Ualaa]

I'd divide your pulls into 3 categories.

a) Mobs will be dead before they get to the pally. In this case burn them down.

b) Hard hitter. You'll want the pally to pull, eventually your other toons won't be able to take aggro if they try. In the meantime, give the pally a moment for threat and then unload. You might pre-HoT the pally before the pull.

c) AoE fight. 2x Mage and a Warlock is a lot of AoE. Pally has Consecrate, once you get Holy Shield too, he'll hold threat fairly easy. Priest can Holy Nova for no threat AoE or just AoE heal.


At 20th your toons don't have all of their toys.
For the pally, Holy Shield is a major tool, but there are a lot that really help the threat.

For B and C type fights, I'd probably just have the priest watch. Type A, where the mob is dead early, can have priest dps too. It doesn't hurt to use click sequences for your dps. You can do two dps keys, one which has the priest dps key on it, and one which doesn't. And then have everyone else with their dps key on both binds.

[jsmith00075]

Thank you for the info! I am also wondering how do you make the macros and stuff.. I only use the main keyboard (nothing more yet - should I get one keypad or something?) and I have the keys like 2-3-4-5 etc all have some short of hit button for all my chars. So for example with 2 the mages would do frost and fire balls, warlock etc etc

Should I split these up somehow? :/

Thanks!

[zenga]

I'm fairly new to boxing as well (at 71 now with my 4 ele + prot paladin). Might share my experience:

- most macro's on this forum require a lvl 80 with all toys. I've tried adapting those macro's to my respective toon level, but I noticed it was too much trouble (was spending more time macroing things than i was playing). Why? Cause in world pve it's like 1 hit kill. Even now in northrend, I pull 10-20 mobs with my tank, drop 4 magna totems + consecration and they don't even scratch my toons.
- I've used (use) your setup: bind the spells that match to the same position in the actionbar. In world pve I only use 4-5 keys anyway in combat. I also gave stuff like drink, eat, mana potion etc the same hotkey, as well as accept / follow macro's.
- I started fairly late with instances (when I was 60), and there macro'd spells come in handy. For sure on my tank to build aggro. And this gave my playing experience a big boost. I to a look to other macro's (even classes I don't know), just to learn how it works, what might be useful for me and to learn the macro language in general. I have a pretty good idea now how my macro's will look once i hit 80.
- I can only second what Ualaa said about the shaman/prot pally team. It's a great & easy start.

On a sidenote: I've spent quite a lot of time reading/Researching stuff on this forum. For instance guys like ualaa have posted lots of useful stuff in the past. What I do is click the nick, and in the user profile click on statistics and then 'Find all posts by Ualaa'. I mention him but there are a dozen of others as well. The info/tips I gathered from their posts is impressive. Even more, when I do a search on the forum, I'd rather add a nickname to my search than just get all posts. I find it more effective this way.

Well just some general info from a fellow noob/newbie :P

[jsmith00075]

Hehe thank you for the info! xD

I got 0 experience with macros and stuff so I think I am spending way more time macroing than playing.. But I don't really got many macros.. I have made only one and I think it is wrong lol

For all the alts:
/target party1
/target focus
/follow
/assist
/stopcasting

Really I think I messed this thing up :P
Trying to find some basic ones to put now hmm

[Ualaa]

I used to use Party1, be we cannot control who the party leader is, in Battlegrounds.
If you will take the team into BG's, even just for a change of pace, I'd avoid the party1 if possible.
It won't work in the BG's, and I'd rather have a system that works everywhere.

Focus is decent, in arena you'd want it free for directing burst to one target without targeting them.
For general leveling, heroics and battlegrounds, you don't really need focus.
And that's the easiest system to base your macros off of.

Whatever software you are boxing with, you have PiP swap hotkeys.
Create one warcraft macro for each toon on your team.
So a five member team, will have five macros on each team member.
Assign the same keybind in warcraft for a toon as the keybind to PiP swap to that toon.
So when you PiP to toon 2, everyone runs the macro for Toon 2.

Your macros are to the effect of: /Focus [Target=Toon2]

Then you create a follow macro for all toons, on the same keybind.
It will be something like /follow [target=Focus]

For hunters and melee toons, your attacks will be:
/assist [target=Focus]
/cast Sinister Strike..... or whatever.

For everyone else (casters), your attacks are:
/cast [target=FocusTarget] Fireball..... or whatever.

And then heals use double conditions:
/assist [target=Focus]
/cast [help] Renew; [help, target=TargetTarget] Renew

If your leader is targeting a friendly, the heal goes to the target.
But if the target is hostile, it goes to the target's target (which is almost always your tank).

[jsmith00075]

Hmm thank you for the info. Do you have any specific recommendations for my macro? Split it or alter it? (In most cases I don't even know what the commands do..)

I am also thinking of creating a new group (less classes less complicated for newbies :/) and I was thinking of a 5 shaman group. Would you recommend me something else? Like the 4 shammy 1 pala you said above?

Thanks

[Drommon]

Well, IMO, easy mode is 5 shamans. Second best pally+4xshamans, third best... is 5xSomething. After that things get interesting and require more work and class understanding to pull off well. Also, classes like warrior and rogue require ability micromanagement based on battle conditions.

Drommon

[Ualaa]

If you have any interest in running heroics, you will want a tank on the team.
If you are sure you won't want heroics, then 5x Shaman is better for BG's and Quests.

One thing I like about the Paladin + 4x Shaman is that you can run in BG's.
The Pally can spec Prot/Holy, and be hard to kill, with some healing ability too.
And if they go for your lead toon, its also the hardest toon to kill on your team.
Also, if you want to try arena, drop the pally and get a dedicated healer with your existing shammies x4.

If the team is not concerned with arena progression, drop one of the shammies for a destruction warlock.
Curse of Elements gets you the 13% spell power boost, which is huge.
You can use someones click castsequence on the warlock for pretty good damage.
The warlock will do as much as any of the shaman.

[jsmith00075]

No interest in Heroics at this moment so I will just go for shamans (I like BGs :P)

I have one fast Q though. Any build I should follow for my shammans? Looked around the forums but didn't find anything related within 09 :P

[Ualaa]

Boxing multiple toons, I'd level them Elemental.

Something like: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#hEz0qcdIthfzqo0gRco:pbZMc

You'll want the Improved Ghost Wolf, in Enhancement early.
And you'll want Call of Flames 3/3 + Lava Flows 3/3, by 75th when you get Lava Burst.

As your gear improves, you might not need 3% hit from Elemental Precision or the mana efficiency/regeneration from Convection + Unrelenting Storm.

But that's a decent leveling path for talents.





Once you have Totem of Wrath, glyph them all with it.
Drop 1x ToW each, every 5 minutes for a substantial spell power boost.

You'll also want to glyph Lava Burst, as soon as you get it.

I'd have one shammy with the (minor) glyph for reagent free Water Breathing, and another with reagent free Water Walking.

[jsmith00075]

Thank you for the info! Any profs suggestion? By the way can you point me a guide of the most common set up for the chars? Because it seems like I get owned in PvP :P (lvl 19ish)

[Ualaa]

If you don't have gold, you'll want Herbalism, Mining and Skinning.
And to kill humanoids for Cloth.

It takes about as much time to level to 60, and buy an epic ground mount.
And to then go back to the lower zones and skill up your profession.
Or to skill it up as you are leveling.

It wouldn't hurt to build production skills across your team.
Things like Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Inscription, Jewelcrafting, Leatherworking and Tailoring.
These will be relatively expensive to level up, but once you have a bit of gold, they'll make you a lot more.

Of these, I'd only really do Enchanting extensively while leveling.
Because you can instance, DE greens or anything your team will not use, and level the skill almost free.
And if you can DE later, then nothing that drops is wasted.




There are three general sets of talent builds/gearing/gemming/enchants for toons.

A leveling spec, which is designed to be mana efficient etc.
A pve spec, which is designed for maximum damage or mana efficiency.
And a pvp spec, which is designed to survive and kill other players.

While leveling, I'd go with the leveling spec, gear, enchants etc.
And accept that you won't be optimal for PvP.
If you're on a PvP server, then you might need to mix the two a bit.

At 19th, you don't really have all of the tools for your class.
Some of the tools won't come until 70th or 75th, but you'll gradually get more as you level up.

[jsmith00075]

Thank you for all the info and help! I have one last Q.. I am at 45lvl atm with the 5 shamans but I got own3d twice today and I was so mad (from a stupid BE 43lvl paladin and 44lvl priest troll) and the main reason was because when the main char was down I had no idea how to change leader and after the leader going down everyone followed.. I almost smashed the keyboard.. -.-"

[Ualaa]

The Paladin has a bubble, during which there isn't a whole lot you can do to him.
The Priest has an AoE fear, which sucks when they land, and will eventually have a nasty AoE.

Priority one will be to stagger your Tremor Totems.
Tremor pulses every 3 seconds.
Ideally, you'd want to drop them every 0.60 seconds (half second approximately)
If you drop one every half second or so, you have:
Time = 0.00, Next Pulse at = 3.00
Time = 0.50, Next Pulse at = 2.50
Time = 1.00, Next Pulse at = 2.00
Time = 1.50, Next Pulse at = 1.50
Time = 2.00, Next Pulse at = 1.00
Every 0.60 would be 0.60 seconds until a pulse.
Every 0.50 is close enough, up to 1 second for a pulse, but probably a pulse in half a second.

When the Tremor pulses it breaks Charm, Fear and Sleep effects.

Some people use a staggered cast sequence for Tremors.
Others use the staggered Call of Elements to stagger all four totems.

The syntax for either is:

/castsequence reset=10 Call of Elements,,,,
/castsequence reset=10 ,Call of Elements,,,
/castsequence reset=10 ,,Call of Elements,,
/castsequence reset=10 ,,,Call of Elements,
/castsequence reset=10 ,,,,Call of Elements

The commas serve as "no action on this keypress".
So you "spam" the macro over 3 seconds or so.
And stagger when the totems are dropped.

The staggering of the 4x drop is probably better then 1x drop immediately and then also staggering Tremors.



A spread out macro will help you enormously.

They charge in at you, and you drop Magma Totems or Searing Totems.
Then you hold your spread out macro.

You want a key other then your normal (WASD or Arrow Keys) movement keys.
For example the tilde ( ~ ) key.
Assign this as your secondary bind for move forward (on one shaman).
And move backwards (on a 2nd shaman), and strafe left (on a 3rd shaman), and strafe right (on the 4th shaman).

Now AoE attacks will only hit one at a time.
And if they go for the totems, you can nuke them.
If they go for one toon, you can have every other toon heal the one toon.

You'll eventually get Thunderstorm, which can knock nearby enemies away.
Earthbind Totem will snare enemies, slowing their time to reclose the distance.
If talented, Fire Nova is a stun now, but this is being removed in 3.3.

You can put staggered Wind Sheer casts into your DPS moves.
So one shaman will Wind Sheer on each cast, automatically.

For example:

#show Lightning Bolt
<insert assist system>
/castsequence reset=20 Wind Shear,,,,
/cast Lightning Bolt

Adjust the commas on Wind Shear, just as above.

If you were using the Focus system for assists, it could be:

#show Lightning Bolt
/castsequence [target=FocusTarget] ,,Wind Shear,,
/cast [target=FocusTarget] Lightning Bolt

Wind Shear will interrupt casting, so you will periodically prevent your target from getting a spell off, which can be quite handy.





You will want a method to change who the leader is on the team.

This can be FTL, Focus based, Target based or Leader based.
I would not recommend Leader based any longer.

Focus is the easiest, and you won't need this unless you arena or raid.

That was explained earlier in the thread.

When one toon is incapacitated or killed, swith to another toon.
I'm not sure which software you're using, but they all support PiP swaps.
Change the screen to a living character.
Your toon leader system should on the same keybind change who the leader is.

[Dual_Noob]

Great stuff even better info...I'm only doing two toons just till i get the hang of things, But I do i have a 2 question's One long and short, I'm running Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6700 2.66, Is this enough CPU? for 5 toons? and with having to put a toon on a core in ISS set up will it be enough?

Spec
2 300gb V Raps
NV 9800 GX2
3 GB RAM

Second I've read where you need a WoW instance for each toon you run ie WoW 1 WoW 2 etc in folders...using IS BOXER with a Second Hard Drive (E) instead of normal C: how do I set up the folders to run from ISS only allows for one profile..I used Octopus in the past and was pretty easy to set up least that part..

[Ualaa]

Processor, video and hard drives are fine.
I'd recommend a 64-bit OS, to allow for more then 3.25GB of ram.
And to boost the ram to at least 6GB for 5 boxing.

You only need a single folder to run wow from.
If your software does virtual config files (IS Boxer), there's no reason for more then this.
If your software does not, then multiple installs or symbolic links can get you different configuration options on each.
Several folders or symbolic links don't seem to affect performance much, although some people claim small gains.

[suicidesspyder]

Ok not mentioned if you are running a pally and 4 shamans or a pally or tank and any class combo do this it helps alot. On my healer he is a lw/skinner. Why you ask the drums but of course. If you dont have a druid you can put gow on group and with your pally in group you use drums of kings and pally can buff wisdom and might on whoever. This adds alot. Also you can do inscription and add the rune of fortitude as well. This way pally tank and 4 shamans can still have all the buffs plus totems.

[Dual_Noob]

Processor, video and hard drives are fine.
I'd recommend a 64-bit OS, to allow for more then 3.25GB of ram.
And to boost the ram to at least 6GB for 5 boxing.

You only need a single folder to run wow from.
If your software does virtual config files (IS Boxer), there's no reason for more then this.
If your software does not, then multiple installs or symbolic links can get you different configuration options on each.
Several folders or symbolic links don't seem to affect performance much, although some people claim small gains.


Thanks for the info..guess I need to get to tinkering