one million reasons for multiboxing

[Prega]

the simple chronicle:

started around 20th december - 2009. at that time i owned about 65.000 gold.
today, 22nd April - 2010: 1.001.100 gold in bank.
124 days hard work, with one big goal: hit the million, doing it fast and furious, in full multiboxing style;)
now it s live!

will post asap some numbers and details about this adventure.
today on my server some gems typo prices gone really low, never seen purified dreadstone/reckless ametrine at 80g: someone (lol) wanted fast gold today :rolleyes:

here a pix and below a short, simple video of the moment.

http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/1083/million.jpg



mtPJlkuOtmM

[Drommon]

Gratz!

[Kicksome]

Man, that is awesome, nice work. If someone told me they could make a million gold in a few months, I wouldn't believe them.

[ghonosyph]

damn bro, i wish i was you! :D

[heyaz]

awesome man.. that's a ton of gold. wish I could stick to a system like that for over 4 months... I can't ever do it for more than a week, then I wait until I need more

(btw... is there an option in YouTube now, when you upload a video - "Automatically add that song you hear in every damn video"... haha)

[MiRai]

Fcking nice man! Think you could lend me 100k for my GDKP run this weekend? I want to make sure I win what I want. :)

[Kicksome]

I would have been impressed with 100K. I can't wait to hear how you did this!

[Ualaa]

Congrats!

I'm sitting at 125k, having recently spent 40k on my druid team.
But at my current pace, it will be in the neighborhood of 180 days to reach a million.
So whatever your method, its a fair bit faster then 24 alchemy transmutes and 28 epic JC cuts.

Very curious to see what you're doing...

[Zal]

wow grats.
Rofl, sounds like you killed your servers gem market about as bad as I killed mine.

[Fat Tire]

Congrats!



Looking at the SS I am thinking Alchemy and jewelcrafting were major players. Just a guess.

[Shodokan]

Grats, looking forward to your "tips" =P

[pinotnoir]

Yeah thats amazing. I just installed a new addon called mail get. It takes everything out of your mailbox with 1 click. I really need to make some gold so I am looking forward to your tips.

[mikekim]

Yeah thats amazing. I just installed a new addon called mail get. It takes everything out of your mailbox with 1 click. I really need to make some gold so I am looking forward to your tips.

postal does this as well - handy when you pickup 40+ successful auctions at once

[Ualaa]

I like the combination of Quick Auctions, Auctioneer and Postal.

Auctioneer gets me current and historic price averages, along with disenchant values etc.
Quick Auctions allow me to set a minimum, a maximum, and an undercut value; and I can Cancel (when undercut) and Post (undercutting others) at a click of the button.
And Postal is good to empty the mail box.

[Seraphaw]

Big gratz! As for me I'm rocking with 1000 gold pieces and I am not willing nor able to make more :o.

[Sam DeathWalker]

Playing the AH takes time, I log in over 2 hours a day just for that.

I only have 45K but thats with only 8 transmuters.

I do have 10 items level 80 with 200il plus for sale all the time for like 1700-3300 though and I got a new recipe today.

I have one guy just for bags and he's like plus 10K right now.


Like Ualaa I use Postal, Auctioneer and Auction Master and Quick Auctions. I also use Auction Snatch to buys stuffs.



I still have 6 million plats in da bank in EQ1 though .... but thats like 6 years of trading.

[wonz]

Well done!

Theres only one question i would like to ask:

How did you do it? :D

[Prega]

I m going to write a detailed chronicle.
Could be a bit boring to read. i know.
But my intention is to offer informations and details.

The story is divided in two parts: Phase 1 and Phase 2.
Phase 1 is my first 50/60 days.
Phase 2 is the final part.
why 2 phases?
because what was true/useful/good to do at start, in first 50/60 days, stopped to be good after Blizzard's changes and when market started showing as saturated.
Changes happened fast and i needed to adapt my strategy fast, moving away from what looked good in phase 1.
i found new opportunities of business in phase 2 keeping good, but lower, incomes.
Phase 1 is the epic items crafting/selling phase: large part of my incomes came from this activity.
Phase 2 is the the gems phase: incomes gone down a bit, great part of my incomes came from gems selling.


------------------------------
Phase 1

starting point: 20th december 2009.
it s been a great starting point.
the december/2009 patch introduced a lot of changes, as you know.
new random dungeon(s) finder, new emblems-system (emblems of triumph and new emblems of frost only), new content (icc 5 men and icc raids).


the starting plan:

- focus on crafting epic items to sell.

- plans/patterns etc could be bought in ah, avaible 2 big classes of plans/patterns: lvl 226 items, ulduar ones, and, better, lvl 245 items, ToC10/25 ones.

- what plan/patterns? best choice is been focusing on Tailoring and Blacksmithing. Leatherworking offered a lower number of potential customers.
And the items are easier to craft: these items don't require any cooldown mats to be crafted.
Why Cooldown was good?
because multiboxers generally have a lot characters, normal players haven't so many, and we can use all these characters to stack multiple professions related with cooldowns: mining, tailoring, alchemy.

Professions needed at that time:

- Mining (for CD): here, i did a great choice long time ago. after i have levelled with raf my groups in instances, i used a lot of time skilling mining in many chars.
At that time, if i do mining in group formation, with multiple chars, i could get, with a single mining node, points of skill for a whole group of 5.
it was possible if i didn't loot the node. and i used the node for each char.
basically, 1 mining node= 5 skill points, one for each char of a group of five characters.
Blizzard "fixed" this thing, now it s not possible do it anymore.
i levelled 15 miners to lvl 450, for their Titansteel Bar cooldowns.
Still have avaible for mining (lvl 300 or more) 6 chars (5 hunters and one Dk).
Mining skilling path required a lot of time. completing my 15 miners have required a couple of weeks. Meantime, i already was in business-activity.

- Tailoring (for CD): again , lucky choice. i collected a lot of tailoring raw cloth during raf times. and kept saved in my banks. Tailoring could be really expensive to level up if you need to buy all the stuffs.
levelling 0 to 410 or more is doable in few hours, if you have mats.
I ve trained 12 Tailor, 10 with Spellweave specialization, at lvl 410 or more: at that level, they can use their cooldown for Ebonweave/Mooncloth/Spellweave.

- Alchemy: it s expensive to level up, a lot complicated if AH can't help, expecially for levelling 0-300. I needed to learn the spots for herbs farming. i farmed a lot, when i had time.
today my roster includes 18 alchemists, 17 specced master trasmutation.

- Jewelcrafting: gems are a great income source. i ve levelled 3 at 450, mainly for learning JC designs faster.

- At least one 450 skilled Blacksmith. Optional-useful it s a 450 LW.

Blacksmithing plans bought and used:

- Saronite Swordbreakers (Wrist 245, Tank) - required Titansteel bars
- Titanium Razorplate (Chest 245, DPS) - same
- Belt of Titans (Waist 226, DPS) -same
- Breastplate of the White Knight (Chest, 245, Tank) -same

Tailoring patterns bought and used:

- Merlin's Robe (Chest, DPS/heal) - required many tailors CD
- Bejeweled Wizard's Bracers (Wrist, DPS/heal) - required many tailors CD and gems

LW Recipes (used rarely):

- Moonshadow Armguards ( Wrist, lvl 245, leather-casters)
- Ensorcelled Nerubian Breastplate (chest, lvl 245, mail-caster)
- Black Chitin Bracers (wrist, lvl 245, mail caster)

Note: again lucky. Crafted Wrists were great items at that time, for several weeks a great choice, waiting ICC raid become accessible to many players with its loot.

Daily Strategy for Phase 1:

- Gems crafting with my alchemists.
- did JC/cooking dailies.
- used the mining daily CD and when availble the tailoring 4 days CD. eternals required and saronite/titanium bars bought in AH.
- Collected Emblems with Random Heroics.
- Used these emblems to buy Crusader Orbs/Runed Orbs, required for crafting epic items to sell, by myself. It means i needed to do a lot of heroics in random mode.
- Crafted/auctioned epics items.
- I was forced to sell FAST my crafted epics. so great prices undercuts was my typical approach.
I always stayed focused on sell fast, possibly all items in same day i crafted.
I did not maximized the single item income, i needed just to sell them fast at good price(for me).
i was doing same activities for many days in a row, so single-item earning maximization wasn't a core factor.
the core point was the end-day total earning.
Great undercuts scared many persons, seen some competitors have changed their productions, jumped out from my market: my *crazy* (for normal players) pricing was the key for this success.
- doing so many heroics, disenchanting was/is a new source of income. Sold shards/dusts/crystals.
- do dailies quests. my paladins group contribution, with dailies, vendored stuffs, gold gained with heroics, is been about 1600/2600g each day (min-max values).

Some numbers of this phase.
In 2 weeks of activities, earnt over 200.000 gold.
My record is been about 21.000g in a single day.

------------------------------------
Phase 2

starting point is around 10/15 February-2010.
New patch was incoming.
it did the epic crafting a lot easier, removing the CD for Mining and Tailoring skills. it was not a great news.
It was time to change.
I m totally moved in Gems crafting/selling business.
Completed in those days 6 new alchemists, 18 total.

the plan:
- crafted and sold epic gems.
- in worst situation, no procs, with 17 master trasmutation alchemists and 18 in total, i could produce 18 gems each day.
- i needed to farm heroics in random for increase my daily gems production., buying gems with emblems.
- i needed to do heroics in random while Alliance faction owns WG, for collect Stone Keeper's Shards, useful to buy honour. and with honor, gems.

Daily strategy:
- Gems crafting with my alchemists.
- did JC/cooking dailies.
- collected emblems with random heroics.
- used emblems to buy gems. orange and purple and, occasionally, green typo.
- used honor to buy red/blue/yellow gems, if i had honor saved ofc.
- sell gems.
- disenchanting in this phase offered lower income. reasons? various. prices felt. and, sometimes, i did heroics without looting trash, for did it faster.
- did undercuts of gems prices 4/5 times in each day (afternoon/evening/night time, i cant play in morning).
- continued sell disenchanting stuffs.
- started selling Dragon's eyes.
- continued dailies, almost all days.

in general this phase suffered lower income, 6k-10k day (min-max).

----------------------------------------


The final numbers


At the end, what is the thing makes all this possible?
the heroics farming. random mode.

Heroics farming numbers:

i ve farmed random heroics with my paladins team.
- i have done about 550 Random Heroics with this team, 100% multiboxing. Never done a single random with other players.
- by 20-december-2009, about 500 randoms heroics done and used for this task.realistic value.
- 500x5x2= 5.000 emblems gained by random 2 emblems bonus.
- let say 4 emblems average for each instance run:4x500x5, this means i collected about 10.000 emblems with random heroics.
- total is somenthing like 15.000 emblems farmed

- i did some calculations about how many epic items i ve crafted/sold (phase 1 and some occasionally in phase 2): i think it s realistic a number between 150 and 200.
- how many gems? no idea hehe. i think i crafted/sold an average 35/40 each day in phase 2, 12/15 in phase 1.
- in phase 2 for have better income, bought eternals for alchemists trasmutation activities with frozen orbs, hundreds of frozen orbs.


Dropping no-wanted instances would have made it almost impossible.
waste 15 min everytime i decided to change random could ruin the activity.
i learnt to manage any instance typo, no exceptions.
and gained a great experience.

Server and fortune not helped much.
i collected an incredible number of random drops/world drops etc, but seen just 1 battered hilt, unsold and still in my gbank.
a bad result if you consider how many new icc 5 men i did in these months.

[Shodokan]

Good writeup. I'm doing something very similar i will be explaining in a post on how to get the most out of heroics. This will include a breakdown of most items, profit margins etc based on the materials gathered in instances.

My personal roster includes.
450 alchemy x 32 (31 x-mute, 1x potion)
400+ engineering x 5
450 bs
450 lw
410 tailor x 3
450 inscription
450 jc x 1 (cutting gems is a waste of time when dealing in such high bulk IMO, and if i want them cut i have my buddy do it for me)


Would you mind pming me your strats/macros for occ? Thats the only instance i cannot do.

[Sam DeathWalker]

Saronite Swordbreakers (Wrist 245, Tank) - required Titansteel bars
- Titanium Razorplate (Chest 245, DPS) - same
- Belt of Titans (Waist 226, DPS) -same
- Breastplate of the White Knight (Chest, 245, Tank) -same

Tailoring patterns bought and used:

- Merlin's Robe (Chest, DPS/heal) - required many tailors CD
- Bejeweled Wizard's Bracers (Wrist, DPS/heal) - required many tailors CD and gems

LW Recipes (used rarely):

- Moonshadow Armguards ( Wrist, lvl 245, leather-casters)
- Ensorcelled Nerubian Breastplate (chest, lvl 245, mail-caster)
- Black Chitin Bracers (wrist, lvl 245, mail caster)


Ya thats exatly what I am selling right now; I dont have the belt of titans recipe yet (best get on it I guess) and I dont deal in Leather (moonshadow armguards) cuase I thinks demand is to low, but the others is what I sell also.


I only have 8 gems a day coming in though ... Ill have to get on that also lol ...

I not doing inscription either and although I have a 450 engineer I really dont see any item worth to make for sale; but I am doing bags (neatherweave and frostweave) heavy. I dont have a high enough miner for the titansteel but prices are like 85g each on average so I can buy enough but ya I have to get a miner up for sure.


Ya the sound stratagy is just make the expensive stuffs. He undercuts more then I do I set it at 20percent under market price at the lowest so Im not driving out any competitors

If I didnt have so many rl problems I could level up the rest of my transmutes and get over 30 gems a day coming in ....

[Prega]

i m posting in few min in macro/addons section a reply to an old personal message i recived time ago.
in that, i explained how i play.
i know. it s really not a great help for many. i use a lot of keyboards buttons and no using /click or IWT.
but some idea maybe could be useful. dont know.


Would you mind pming me your strats/macros for occ? Thats the only instance i cannot do.

Oculus:
trash is annoying, coz almost all groups are casters and any melee grp suffer them. but it's not anymore a great issue, considering we are all over - geared.
-boss 1 doesn't need suggestions. i do it without healing. easy. one of easier bosses.
-after boss1, drakes choice: 5 red drakes for me. always done with red typo. red drakes offer multi-target powerful attack(button 1 in the vehicle interface) and can become immune to incoming attacks(button 2 in vehicle interface).
i totally ignore the last ability: button 3 is dangerous:) (it redirects incoming dmg on other targets to yourself).
-boss 2 unique thing to remember is move outside electrical charge areas, i generally move the tank and group outisde the cone-area, and then reposition the group for hit again the boss. it s easy, the fight duration is 15/20 sec, generally dont need healing.
- boss 3 is a rush. i generally kill him before he cast his aoe, ignoring his attacks. no healing required.
generally, Divine storm and judgements keep group healed. move out of frozen area when you killed, it do dmg.
-last boss, the big issue.
i do it with red drakes. i usually lose 1 or 2 grp members during this fight.
think happened just 1 time i completed with all 5 still alive.
ok. it sounds scaring. but at the end it s a "under-control" sacrifice.
red drakes kill the adds almost in one second. and they stay immune to Boss attacks for long part of the fight thx ability in button nr2 of interface.
red drakes helped me to avoid changes in ui or macros.
the assist is done with isboxer assist, exactly like when i m not in vehicle.
button 1 attack, button 2 make drakes immune to attacks for some seconds.
defensive ability works strange, looks it requires charges to be used. charges come from attacks. solution: spam attack (1) and sometimes button(2).
button 2 ability is a self cast only ability. so it doesn't need any macro.
at 60% and 20% Boss stops attack and become immune and starts casting a powerful spell.
the attack follow your group , so you need to move and continue to move to avoid be hitted.
DBM offers advices about it and when it ends.
i generally move in circle waiting it ends.
then i restart attack.
generally i lose 1 pala around 70/60% of boss hp, just before his first aoe attack.
generally lose the 2nd, when it happens, around 20% boss hp.
but i can kill him with just 2/3 chars.

[laaglander]

GJ mate :O something we could all look up 2 xD

Tell me, any plans on spending it yet? haha travelers mammoths on all your chars? maybe some choppers aswell.

[Myc]

i m posting in few min in macro/addons section a reply to an old personal message i recived time ago.
in that, i explained how i play.
i know. it s really not a great help for many. i use a lot of keyboards buttons and no using /click or IWT.
but some idea maybe could be useful. dont know.



Oculus:
trash is annoying, coz almost all groups are casters and any melee grp suffer them. but it's not anymore a great issue, considering we are all over - geared.
-boss 1 doesn't need suggestions. i do it without healing. easy. one of easier bosses.
-after boss1, drakes choice: 5 red drakes for me. always done with red typo. red drakes offer multi-target powerful attack(button 1 in the vehicle interface) and can become immune to incoming attacks(button 2 in vehicle interface).
i totally ignore the last ability: button 3 is dangerous:) (it redirects incoming dmg on other targets to yourself).
-boss 2 unique thing to remember is move outside electrical charge areas, i generally move the tank and group outisde the cone-area, and then reposition the group for hit again the boss. it s easy, the fight duration is 15/20 sec, generally dont need healing.
- boss 3 is a rush. i generally kill him before he cast his aoe, ignoring his attacks. no healing required.
generally, Divine storm and judgements keep group healed. move out of frozen area when you killed, it do dmg.
-last boss, the big issue.
i do it with red drakes. i usually lose 1 or 2 grp members during this fight.
think happened just 1 time i completed with all 5 still alive.
ok. it sounds scaring. but at the end it s a "under-control" sacrifice.
red drakes kill the adds almost in one second. and they stay immune to Boss attacks for long part of the fight thx ability in button nr2 of interface.
red drakes helped me to avoid changes in ui or macros.
the assist is done with isboxer assist, exactly like when i m not in vehicle.
button 1 attack, button 2 make drakes immune to attacks for some seconds.
defensive ability works strange, looks it requires charges to be used. charges come from attacks. solution: spam attack (1) and sometimes button(2).
button 2 ability is a self cast only ability. so it doesn't need any macro.
at 60% and 20% Boss stops attack and become immune and starts casting a powerful spell.
the attack follow your group , so you need to move and continue to move to avoid be hitted.
DBM offers advices about it and when it ends.
i generally move in circle waiting it ends.
then i restart attack.
generally i lose 1 pala around 70/60% of boss hp, just before his first aoe attack.
generally lose the 2nd, when it happens, around 20% boss hp.
but i can kill him with just 2/3 chars.

oman I did Oculus first time last night with my team, was crazy.
only boss I had problems with was 3rd.. the frost / movement on a ret team wasn't to bad..until someone got the static aoe and then I ended up soloing on my tank =p.
the last boss was easy just went 5 red drakes. if you have a pal they can go amber and charge up the... '10%more dmg done' or time stop. only lost 1 drake as the boss died.

[Toned]

I either do 5 ruby drakes or a ruby and 4 emeralds :P

[emps]

Grats on your accomplishment. Wish I had the same dedication as you have.

@MYC


...if you have a pal they can go amber and charge up the... '10%more dmg done' or time stop


Have been trying to do this with my team but mostly unsuccessful. This is due to the time-stop timing. I kinda get a feel already that when whelps spawn prior to first shift then I'm 50/50. If more whelps spawn prior to end of the first shift then I'm toast. Have only been able to timed and do it this way successfully, I think once or twice. I gave up on the ambers. have not tried red yet.

[Myc]

EMP,
not sure we are thinking the same. I am not saying go 5x amber, that sucked horribly.. tho if you macro'd out to do one time stop at time could be good.. but blehhhhh. I went 4x red drakes and DPS race while my friend would go 1 amber (tho I was actually 5boxin all so I didn't get to utilize it properly.) Note: my 5th toon is norm played by roomate.

with the friend controlling the amber they could build up the '10%'dmg (spell #3.) while the other 4 toons spammed spell#1 on red drake.
doing this boxing style would obviously be gimp though because when your not pressing 3 on the amber it is useless. [just my opinion] so best is probably 5red.
I try'd to do all green but the dam little whelps range was increased so can not kite so well =l

[emps]

Don't want to hi-jack this thread, so grats again Prega! :P and thanks for the tips. Unfortunately I don't have as much toons to craft with, most I can do is probably 8 alchs but even that will probably drain all my very limited resources. I would probably end up squatting for a place to stay if this was RL. Anywho, thanks for all the great tips!

@MYC - Gotcha. Yeah did the alternating shock & rift between the 5 guys.. 2 shocks and 3 rifts then 2 rifts and 3 shocks, w/ TS in between.. the pain was mostly mutual. :D Will be trying the reds.

[zenga]

.... and I dont deal in Leather ....


was under the impression you were a leather dude ...

[Ualaa]

Thank you for posting and sharing your methods, Prega.



Well... anyone should be able to use Dailies, to fund whatever crafting professions they want to go with.

Eventually, you'll have enough production, that your crafting exceeds the daily income; for a while, I was doing dailies consistently on three teams, but have not done a daily in a couple of months.



The method 1, broke... because of the cooldowns being removed from some transmutes.
However, in Cataclysm... there will be new recipes and there will likely be cooldowns on these for the first 75% of the expansion.
So your phase 1 is a solid blueprint for all but late Cataclysm.

And phase 2, is a decent gold earner too, which will be valid for all of Cataclysm, as well as the remainder of Wrath.

[Zugdud]

Prega congrats, that is epic

[Shodokan]

Thank you for posting and sharing your methods, Prega.



Well... anyone should be able to use Dailies, to fund whatever crafting professions they want to go with.

Eventually, you'll have enough production, that your crafting exceeds the daily income; for a while, I was doing dailies consistently on three teams, but have not done a daily in a couple of months.



The method 1, broke... because of the cooldowns being removed from some transmutes.
However, in Cataclysm... there will be new recipes and there will likely be cooldowns on these for the first 75% of the expansion.
So your phase 1 is a solid blueprint for all but late Cataclysm.

And phase 2, is a decent gold earner too, which will be valid for all of Cataclysm, as well as the remainder of Wrath.

Method 1 is NOT broken whatsoever.

Example:
Titansteel bars cost 60g per (for me)
Frozen orbs are 10-15g per which means each crusader orb is 60

Making ulduar tank boots/belt and dps boots/belt you pay

5x 60 + 6x60 = 300 + 360 = 660
I sold 5 pair of boots and 3 belts @ 1800 per.

Total investment: ~ 3500
Total revenue: approximately 14k

People are too lazy to do this on a consistant basis for the most part. If you are doing heroics you can EASILY get the materials to cover more than half the cost. Same for things like tailoring wrists. Cost you ~ 80g worth of eternals rest of the materials i get from day to day activities other than the crusader orbs, which cost me between 60 and 90 each. So that breakdown ends up being (for me)

Blue gem: 90
Red gem: 95
Crusader Orbs: 360
green gem: 50
Spellweave: 80ish (if you buy mats and make them yourself)

Total cost: 80 + 50 + 95 + 90 + 360 = 675
Sells for: 1200-1800
You double your investment.

[Moorea]

I thought there was a 128k limit on the gold any toon can have - Blizz fixed that ?
(not that I think I'll ever reach 100k...)

[Zugdud]

I thought there was a 128k limit on the gold any toon can have - Blizz fixed that ?
(not that I think I'll ever reach 100k...)

The max per character is a signed 32 bit integer, ((2^31)-1) 2,147,483,647 or 214,748 gold, 36 silver, 47 copper. I can confirm this from personal experience, though I guess the guildbanks use a bigger datatype (or a non signed 32bit int) ;)

[Ualaa]

Basically around 214k per toon, but guild banks have a higher limit.
Not sure what that is though.

[Prega]

The max per character is a signed 32 bit integer, ((2^31)-1) 2,147,483,647 or 214,748 gold, 36 silver, 47 copper. I can confirm this from personal experience, though I guess the guildbanks use a bigger datatype (or a non signed 32bit int) http://www.dual-boxing.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

yes, gbank required.
a single char can bring with himself max 214k.
gbank limit is higher.

GM's ingame ticket confirmed gbank is the way to store in same place 1000k or more.
no sure infos about gbank limitation.
time ago found a post in wow europe forum about a player hitted same amount (he did playing with ah in over 400 days): in that post someone said gbank limit is 64 bit value, other 32 bit -unsigned.

qana, my rogue, managed 70/80% of ah activities: previously i used another character.
Player stats, gold acquired values, are regular 32 bit - signed.
i can confirm, at 214k, qana stats jump in negative, losing values format.
after a bit of time, probably after other 214k acquired, qana stats values back in positive and format was back and ok. and then again negative values, again format lost.

[Moorea]

if it was 32bits unsigned it would only be 2x214k so if someone got more than 500k in a gbank it must be 64bits

[alcattle]

if it was 32bits unsigned it would only be 2x214k so if someone got more than 500k in a gbank it must be 64bits
Right the first time. Gold limit per toon is 214K. The 1Milg has to be like 5 toons