Solo or Multibox in Expansion?

[pinotnoir]

How many of you guys plan to quit boxing and just play solo in the expansion? I know a few people who decided to just play solo. With the change of macros and the new stuff that makes boxing more difficult I am considering going solo. Leveling under water with 5 makes me cringe.

[Tight]

follow strobing on? :) then you should at least not lose the followers that easy..

[Kalros]

I'm probably going down to 1 for at least the first month or so. But I'm mostly waiting for 4.0.1 at this point, to get a better feel for things.

[heyaz]

what change of macros makes boxing more difficult? no more click?
I never used it anyway

[pinotnoir]

what change of macros makes boxing more difficult? no more click?
I never used it anyway


Well just because your team of paladins never used it doesn't mean it won't have a large effect on people who used multiple classes.

[Fat Tire]

I am for sure going solo for the first few months and will go from there. If I had to make a decision now, I would say I will be playing solo from now on.

[Alemi]

Going to keep boxing.

[mrmcgee21]

If i buy cata, I'll be solo. I don't see the benefit of boxing anymore past blowing up noobs in battlegrounds( or arenas but, past getting glad arena doesn't mean much to me and glad doesn't appear to be possible ), which granted is insanely fun but it does get old after awhile and I kind of miss playing with other people.

[F9thRet]

I'll Be soloing at first. Will take me some time to be able to buy 5-10 copies, So I figure a copy or two each month.

But , I'll want to make sure, my main account is going strong.

Stephen

[Shodokan]

I will be boxing from day 1.

4x ele shaman + DK and then raiding as the DK and pvping on shaman + friend as healer. That might change though, who knows.

[Bigfish]

I plan to box 20 character in 2 teams of 10, one of each class/combination. DKs are going to be mess things up a bit. Maybe. They'll probably keep the kill xp from pushing my characters in to leveling too fast to see all the new low level quests I want to see.

The only real question for me is if I'm going to have the time to do it and the inclination to dump 400$ on expansions. And probably upgrade some hardware in there too.

[Slats]

Boxing from day one. Using 4.0.1 to fine tune my CC stuff I've been building in ISboxer

& The abiilty to have each person with CC pick and mark a CC target
& The ability to choose which CC each slot will be using for that pull and toggle between their differnet types
& Slot in my setup for earthquake and healing rain
& Reconfigure optimal totems.
& Cut down my addons as much as possible to get a clean setup ready for questing and learning new dungeons.

Then I'm going to work out if I want a DK Tank/Paladin Tank or Druid Tank as I have an 70 of each and I'm happy to grind out badges to finish their tanking gear. I will 95% stick with the Paladin as he is my main but I dont really like the Holy Power changes, we will see how long it takes to get used to it.

Very excited. :D

[zenga]

Still undecided. I have a few conflicting interests.
Factors:
- what will be the sys req. to box 5x cata at reasonable settings? i do not intend to buy yet another bunch of new parts
- how well will cata run on linux, and what changes will be needed, if any?
- this will be my first expansion, so totally not sure what waiting times, server issues, bugs are going to be like, or how annoying the phasing is going to be
- how easy/hard are the instances going to be? will it be worth to box pve for me?

Personal:
- i have more and more interest to go all out on hardcore raiding with my shaman, not much time left to box properly, so scaling down is an option
- i really like the comfort boxing gives me, afking in a dungeon and not having to deal with idiots
- i'm really looking forward to boxing the rated bg's, with my 2 teams, 5x shaman + 1 disc priest / 4 dk
- my favorite toons are spread among different accounts, transferring toons over is not an option for me
- my professions are spread among the accounts, that is a huge benefit as a boxer, not sure if i want to lose the money making factor

I do intend to keep 5 boxing, though it will be more a side project like it has been in the past few months. And probably with the focus on pvp.

[Sam DeathWalker]

I never used /click ... IsBoxer macros ftw.

Ill be 36 boxing on day one although I doubt I will buy all the expansions early and wait a bit for the price to fall (maybe even a battlechest with wotlk and 0-70 raf, can hope).

[zenga]

You gonna be 80 before expansion hits btw?

[Sam DeathWalker]

Doubt it .... I got one 80 and my mages are 76 (7 of them) been working on getting blast wave into the rotation and redoing all the click bars ... and filling up rested. Still one more level and its to the tables at IC and get the phatest aoe exp in the game.

http://cata.wowhead.com/spell=2948#comments seems going to be very powerfull and talented and glyphed it costs ZERO mana, and you can cast while running, but still 1.5 seconds cast. Hopefully 22 of those will take out any oppenent. Plus if I can polymorph like 10 oppenents (/targetenemy on some and /targetenemy 1 on others) I can kill them one by one.

Ill also be dropping 15 of my shaman (level 48/49) and make mages instead. Not sure if RAF or not, depends on the new battlechest.

Mage: 22 (fire)
Shaman: 7 (resto)
Pal: 2 (prot)
Warlock: 2 (not sure) for RoS
Priest: 1 (not sure) for Fear Ward and PoMending
Rogue: 1 (assan) for stealth targeting and see other rogues
DK: 1 (combo) for death grip and chains of ice and amz and ams

[Khatovar]

Unless something abysmal and unforgivable happens, I'll still be multiboxing. My husband wants to play so that's 2 accounts anyway, so I may as well throw 3 more into the mix. I still don't foresee it being any worse than any other expansion.

[glo]

I'm sure I will stop boxing long enough to level one character to the cap, then start leveling a 5 man group. I did that in the past in order to be able to participate in all the new end game content and also have a high level character with some gear to protect my lower levels.

I wouldn't quest while boxing right after an expansion, you will get stuck dealing with all the casuals who have nothing better to do then mess with a boxer all night.

[Iceorbz]

Eh, I'm not to worried about the macro stuff. I played for the longest time without using click so i can function again. It just won't be as easy mindless spam as Im used to =p.

[Iceorbz]

Plus if I can polymorph like 10 oppenents (/targetenemy on some and /targetenemy 1 on others) I can kill them one by one.


Don't even waste your time with this lol.

[Sam DeathWalker]

Ya just a thought no idea if its practical or not.

[Iceorbz]

Just blow them up with that many people. It should be fun lol.

[Harrypott]

Plan is to level a single toon (my main raiding toon) and level the others up with the 85 toon later as time permits. Haven't decided if I'm going to drop the cash on 4x copies day one or not. Can't see it being on special for awhile? Maybe Xmas. Hmm who am I kidding? I'll be dropping the cash for 5 copies day one :)

[wonz]

I will level a single toon for raiding, and my shamans-warrior team for mb.

[Hivetyrant]

Like many others I will likely level a single character to 85, get a feel for things and then work on the others.

Worst case I will keep the other accounts active, might even upgrade them and just level the professions and try and make some money while the initial rush is going on. That should make the group leveling process much smoother.

[Redbeard]

I will be boxing, already set the money aside for the expansions.

Reasons I box haven't really changed.

[balderrdash]

I'm going to keep going, it's just too much fun plus I've taken the time to level nine alchies just for the launch so I might as well exploit what I can of that. Is /click dead for sure or are they just till testing? I might have to spend some more time on my ISboxer setup if it is, but I should redo all of that anyways since my new team knows so many more tricks my main team didn't exploit.

[Fishbeak]

I am very excited about the changes and I can't wait to start boxing on Day 1. I will be leveling both my teams to 85.

Lots of combos and instances I can't wait to try.

[Siaea]

I've got 3 teams at 80, with 9 alchies, a JC, 6 engineers, 2 miners, an a tailor to level. Not to mention the 4 lvl 46 mages I'm currently catching up to my 80 mage. Those 4 will be alchies (and probably eng) as well. So, yea, I'll be multiboxing out of the gate. /click being gone doesn't bug me since I never took any time to figure it out (heck, my priest/warlocks team still doesn't have their FTL set up yet, lol).

[confusedtx5]

I'll be boxing from day 1.
Quest for a bit until I get used to a replacement for /click castsequences, build up mastery on all the toons, then hit the dungeons.

[Ualaa]

I'm leaning towards boxing in the expansion.

For me, the choice is to either five box or quit the game. One-boxing has not been fun in a very long time. Sure with Dungeon Finder, you can do heroics. I've not had a serious desire to raid content in a while. I'd rather have several teams to mess with, one team to do most of my battlegrounds/heroics with, and the freedom to play or quit in the middle of an instance.

Also like the transmute/gold thing, more to see what can be done then to make a certain amount. Almost all the toons on my teams have epic flyers, so not really a ton to spend gold on that I don't already have. Three teams have slow flyers still, but they exist (at the moment) purely for the transmutes...

[valkry]

Well just because your team of paladins never used it doesn't mean it won't have a large effect on people who used multiple classes.
Find spells that synch with each other and use multiple hotkeys in your dps rotation instead of just mashing one. A lot of us started multiboxing for a challenge.

For me the xpac won't be making it harder, will be making it even easier in fact.

And yes, I have multiple classes in my team. Ele sham, prot pal, spriest, resto druid, moonkin. And I don't use mouse broadcasting/repeater regions or click/clique healing.

I don't agree with the change to get rid of /click cast sequence macros, but I do agree that it makes it very easy to just faceroll encounters.

[daviddoran]

Is the removal of /click on the PTR? I was hoping it was just an error/glitch from all the changes they have been making. We'll get by without it, but it sure was nice. I even used it when solo boxing, it allowed me to have much greater situational awareness, while maintining my usual DPS.

I'm going to be boxing right from the start, Already pre ordered 5 copies (4 regular 1 collector's) and 5 60 day time cards. I'll be doing PVP leveling first, with some questing mixed in, to get gear upgrades. After my shamans are 85 ill move to my mixed team and do mostly dungeons (unless they are too hard, in which I'll quest for gear upgrades first) Should be fun, with all the new class changes coming. I should start stockpiling some gold... I'm gonna want that 310 flying on all 24 of my 80s.... gonna cost a small fortune!

[mikekim]

I will be doing a mixture of both.
(I have pre ordered my 6x cataclysm - 5 normal, 1 LE).
On Grim Batol will box my lock's, Priest & mage & shammies. & solo the pally
On Aggramar will solo the following: Druid, Rogue and Hunter

[outdrsyguy1]

I'll be 5 boxing from the start with my 5 shaman team for pvp. I'm totally going to ruin some alliance players lives during leveling since i'm on a pvp server and i'm sure it will be a gankfest race. A lot of quest hubs are shared with both factions AND DO NOT have guards at the questgivers currently.

After that i'll level an instance team (not sure combo yet). Then start thinking about my 2nd pvp team. Possibly 4 dk's/1 disc priest. Dk's seem pretty damn good in beta right now. I"m really gonna miss the pallies and the bubble's but with dk's actually doing good damage now, 4 death grips will be a riot.

The cost of the expansions certainly sucks though, 6 accounts to buy, ouch. I wonder if the stores will even let me buy 6 boxes on release day... hmmm....

[Slats]

You can pre-download the client and purchase a digital copy online form Blizzard like SC2. I wish I knew this before pre-ordering 4 normal copies and a CE copy from EB games who are going to make a sheer $100 profit off me on top of what Blizzare selling the shit for.

Makes me sad. But ah well.

[remanz]

You can pre-download the client and purchase a digital copy online form Blizzard like SC2. I wish I knew this before pre-ordering 4 normal copies and a CE copy from EB games who are going to make a sheer $100 profit off me on top of what Blizzare selling the shit for.

Makes me sad. But ah well.

Hm, how did EB games made 100 bucks extra from you with those retail boxed compared to those digital copy online ? They should be the same price, no ?
and I thought the digital copies were later than the retail ones, not sure though.

Plus a lot of folks were collecting those retail boxes (lay them on top of each other to make matchstick house, idk)

[Slats]

We are talking Australia here.

EB dont lowertheir prices to account for exchange rate.

WoW Cata Normal is $58 AU

Digital Download is $39 US.

We are 97c in the dollar to the US.

The colelcters edition is estimated to be $150 AU

vs $79 US

:(

[jinkobi]

I might be ending my multiboxing career. Kinda sucks but watching lots of the videos almost every boss has a gimmick that will probably stop boxers in their tracks. Some of the stuff just won't be able to be done. Don't even think we're at a we'll see state anymore- it's going to be rough to box dungeons.

This has been some shitty downtime these past few months. Nothing to do in WOW and I only renewed to do Brewfest. Haven't played or done a dungeon for months now.

Hell I even started playing City of Heroes for the first time and been having a blast. Doubt it'll be something I play years on end like WOW but it's a nice alternative.

If Cataclysm came out today I wouldn't even be excited. I was really stoked months ago it's just been such a long wait with the same old same old.

So I dunno might be done with WOW for good. SWTOR around the corner and other things seeming more worthy of my time.

[remanz]

We are talking Australia here.

EB dont lowertheir prices to account for exchange rate.

WoW Cata Normal is $58 AU

Digital Download is $39 US.

We are 97c in the dollar to the US.

The colelcters edition is estimated to be $150 AU

vs $79 US

:(

I see. That sucked.

I guess we do get some benefits here in ths States.

[remanz]

I might be ending my multiboxing career. Kinda sucks but watching lots of the videos almost every boss has a gimmick that will probably stop boxers in their tracks. Some of the stuff just won't be able to be done. Don't even think we're at a we'll see state anymore- it's going to be rough to box dungeons.

This has been some shitty downtime these past few months. Nothing to do in WOW and I only renewed to do Brewfest. Haven't played or done a dungeon for months now.

Hell I even started playing City of Heroes for the first time and been having a blast. Doubt it'll be something I play years on end like WOW but it's a nice alternative.

If Cataclysm came out today I wouldn't even be excited. I was really stoked months ago it's just been such a long wait with the same old same old.

So I dunno might be done with WOW for good. SWTOR around the corner and other things seeming more worthy of my time.


Well take 4+ months break from WOW, you come back it will be fresh as new. You forget about all the bad things that make you leave. Lost in Azeroth once again.

Key here is to take long breaks from WOW. It makes you appreciate the game once again.

I think if you remain a gamer after quitting wow, chances are high that you will come back. If you quit gaming for good, then well, good luck with some new adventure in your life.

[Catamer]

I find it impossible to justify upgrading 10 accounts let alone 5.
if they wanted to eliminate multi boxers they have had success with me, they will be lucky if I buy one upgrade as it is. I don't even know if I'll waste the money or effort in moving characters around so I have the most to play with if I went solo.

I hate the WoLK questing and from all I have heard it's just more of the same in Cata. I may try Lord of the Rings... it's free.

[Knytestorme]

After watching some of the vids and messing about on beta I think I'll hold off on boxing for a while, or at least until better boxers than myself show that all the gimick bosses can actually be beaten by a boxer. Even just doing heroic BRC looks like it could be an exercise in futility when it comes to boxing but I'll be quite happy to be proven wrong.

Since I have no real interest in PvP and am looking forward to progression raiding the new content I think the current heroic boss mechanics have taken away my desire to box for now.....add to that having all classes at 80 on my main account atm and I think with LFD I have enough content to last me for quite a while. I'll likely get back to boxing once they are 85'd and raid content is on farm status but think that would be the soonest.

[Zub]

We are talking Australia here.

EB dont lowertheir prices to account for exchange rate.

WoW Cata Normal is $58 AU

Digital Download is $39 US.

We are 97c in the dollar to the US.

The colelcters edition is estimated to be $150 AU

vs $79 US

:(
i'm in Sydney and went to EB games (and a couple other shops, JB hifi / Dicksmiths ) and only EB had a 'tentative' price for preorder.
At the moment you can preorder the collectors edition for $108 (australian) and there is no price yet for the normal edition.
their 'guestimate' was 26/28 November, whereas JB told me Xmas.

I guess the normal edition will be around AU$70
which is still very steep considering we still pay every month

[Mickthathick]

In Oz we get slugged over what the exchange rate is worth for the digital download, I'm guessing to keep retailers happy?.

For example when I bought the SC2 download, it was advertised on Battlenet for say $60 (I can't remember the exact price) but when it came to payment I was charged $90, way more then what the AU/US dollar exchange rate was at the time.

I can't see it being any different for this expansion either.

And staying on topic, I will be dual boxing away with my prot pally/hunter team, sticking to questing mainly as I love that side of the game. Not sure what will happen once I hit 85 of them, I'll be raiding on the prot pally while I might take them both into heroics. Time will tell I guess.

[abysskeq]

I am just hoping when Cata comes out, if will be buy cata and it will include all previous expansion. That way I don't need to buy 3 expansions if I want to make another new account.

[BrothelMeister]

If I play Cata, theres no chance I want to level my 4 shaman individually; I will definitely be leveling teamsof characters together, just like I did for 1-80.

[Sam DeathWalker]

You do realize with the new macro changes (which will probably be nerfed) its almost like we got /castrandom back in the form it used to be.

http://www.dual-boxing.com/showthread.php?t=32456&page=5

Boxers are OP right now for awhile anyways.

[Ualaa]

I am just hoping when Cata comes out, if will be buy cata and it will include all previous expansion. That way I don't need to buy 3 expansions if I want to make another new account.

Most likely Warcraft/Blizzard will follow the Everquest/Sony model.

IE, The battlechest will include all previous content, except the current expansion.
So a new player purchases a Battlechest + the Current Expansion.

[Iceorbz]

Cancel your preorder lol

[Kel]

I'm planning to dual-box for the expansion for the first time. Previously I've always levelled my first toon solo and then dual-boxed for some later alts, but I think I'd rather have more variety available for raiding sooner rather than just have one toon at 85 and then work on levelling between raids.

It's a bit odd as with Wrath it took me ages to get into a levelling mood (I changed main fairly on in the expansion, but had only two characters at 80 for a significant period) whereas for Cata I'm thinking I'd like more alts at cap so I can get them further in raiding.

I think I will be solo for dungeons, so hopefully won't have too much trouble getting set up for boxing (will go for functional rather than optimal), I'm a bit worried that my usual addons won't be working at the start of Cata and I don't want to waste too much levelling time trying to get everything working for boxing.

[smooth]

I plan to dual-boxing on a new server (when one comes out!)

Fingers crossed Blizz dont let me down!

[Starbuck_Jones]

I plan to solo it. If I look back to the list of reasons why I started to multi-box. A lot of those reasons are gone with the LFD tool and using points/emblems to buy gear. I haven't 5 boxed in quite a while now and only have a pair of accounts active for the extra tradeskills.

[Tonuss]

Not really sure, but I assume I'll do a mix of both. I'll definitely do the content solo on at least one shaman and hunter, because I like playing those classes solo. After that I'm sure I'll level a few teams to 85. My priest + 4 mages are still 60 (broken wrist, canceled my subs for a while) and I would like to level through the new 1-60 content with at least one group.

I have friends that will buy Cata and I expect to play with them. As fewer and fewer friends play WOW, there's less reason for me to want to play. I multibox because it's fun, but it's not as much fun as playing with my friends and it is not enough by itself to keep me playing.

[ciscokid454]

Because of friends/guildies leveling plans, on the first day i'll be solo with them; however after that/hitting 85, i'll restart the boxing/leveling and keep on trucking

[Prega]

some ideas, in order of importance:
- considering atm my hardware still works good, 5x played with 2 pc (setup 1pc x main + 1pc x 4slaves), atm can delay hardware updgrades.
- considering the big chance to play by day 1 in cata with 50 level 80 toons: in wotlk i reached my 1st lvl 80 really late(about 7 months after wotlk launch, ulduar times), no chance to keep my toons at same average gear level then other ppl around.
- considering the my new (for me) great interest for pvp

i will continue for sure mboxing
and yes, i will play ++solo then what i did in wotlk.

PS: bought 5 digital cata upgrades yesterday

[Bollwerk]

5-boxing Cata, no matter how painful the collection quests are. =)

[riffraff]

5 boxing quests. Not sure why anyone would do it differently.. this is a multiboxing community right? :)

[Zub]

5 boxing quests. Not sure why anyone would do it differently.. this is a multiboxing community right? :)
Some multiboxers (like me) also like solo play. You tend to get "in" the game more.

[HomoDoctus]

in 6 pages i didn't see two things pop up that will be a major issue for boxing the first few months as they were definitely an issue for both BC and WOTLK solo: server queues and LAG. I am hoping these aren't so bad that I can level my main 3 man team together but i'm guessing it will be very difficult. not to mention it will be hard to find mobs and collect x # of y because your competing with all those people instead of just yourself.

Bottom line I guess, going to try for my tank/heal/dps combo, but expecting to level only 1 until things calm down.

my 2 cents.

[Khatovar]

My husband is a graveyard shift, so my day starts when 90% of the US is going to sleep. Lag and population are never an issue for me.

[Korruptor]

Looking to solo play the expansion but we'll see.

Work and family are dictating my life currently.

[Mooni]

Hi, I'd like to reply to the myriad topics that have sprung up in this one thread, but I'll be good and stick to answering your survey.
I will be multiboxing from day one mega SEXY MULTIBOXING MULTICLASS SEXY SEX

Working on mage right now just to make it happen. Check this shizz out:

Pally tank: Crusader Aura.
Hunter: Aspect of the Dazed
Elemental Shaman: Heroism
Mage: Portals (currently level 76; getting to 80 to bump Feral Droopid out of group since they don't share travel power)
Priest: .... doesn't really bring anything to the group, huh? I should respec the shaman and make a lock here instead for summinz. Holy priest is so easy to macro-heal with though, between shields and renews and PoMend and AoE heals. Totally hands off 90+ % of the time.
REALLY looking forward to this. Team Bravo is the DK/4Ret team and I might just macro them into a Word of Glory/Flash of Light castsequence.

[heyaz]

Actually considering going back to single boxing. I appear to be pretty damn good at a frost mage, I guess all the micromanagement of doing multiboxing made me very fast. That and I'm just concerned that quad shaman in rated BGs will be a big joke, already have to play like a superstar to pull the weight of four slots, and that's against pug groups. Against premades? Forget it

[offive]

Boxing all the way... after going old school solo in beta (at some point doing impossible quests with sub par gear, pre zone itemization, felt like classic)

I like the challenge and boxing will be harder in Cata, no more face roll heroics! Hell in some cases I might either go for a pocket healer or tank to ease the crazys until I get enough ilvl 359 gear.

Besides the sound of 5 guns blasting away from my hunter team is just too much fun, and things die kinda fast.

[Catamer]

I don't know. I don't like the changes they are making. the are obviously anti-boxing.
it's not like you can't multibox it's just more difficult and more difficult with each patch.
they could have fixed the zoning problems at ICC... their idea of a fix was to put a ghost like symbol next to players that are zoned out... as if that fixed anything.

The healing changes are so you have to proc-heal and are intended to prevent good healing from someone not paying full attention to healing procs.
the tanking changes are so that you have to proc-tank and are intended to prevent good tanking unless you are paying full attention to the procs.
macro changes were awful.

the best way I can see these changes are when I raid. The raid tanks go POOF now. I used to ALWAY be the last man standing in a raid wipe, the second to last man standing was the off tank. Now we are the first to go every time and who's to say who's fault is it... the tank for not watching his procs or the healers no being ready with a swift heal. I'm starting to get sick of this game... need a 6 month break so I can get over the loss of what I used to have.

[Zub]

I don't know. I don't like the changes they are making. the are obviously anti-boxing.
it's not like you can't multibox it's just more difficult and more difficult with each patch.
they could have fixed the zoning problems at ICC... their idea of a fix was to put a ghost like symbol next to players that are zoned out... as if that fixed anything.

The healing changes are so you have to proc-heal and are intended to prevent good healing from someone not paying full attention to healing procs.
the tanking changes are so that you have to proc-tank and are intended to prevent good tanking unless you are paying full attention to the procs.
macro changes were awful.

the best way I can see these changes are when I raid. The raid tanks go POOF now. I used to ALWAY be the last man standing in a raid wipe, the second to last man standing was the off tank. Now we are the first to go every time and who's to say who's fault is it... the tank for not watching his procs or the healers no being ready with a swift heal. I'm starting to get sick of this game... need a 6 month break so I can get over the loss of what I used to have.
you're joking right? Boxing has been made easier and easier over the expansions. just think CTM and IWT.

Zoning/phasing issues only affect a tiny amount of the wow population, i'm pretty sure it was quite low on their priority list.

Proc-heal and proc-tank are there to make it more interesting, and challenging, instead of a stupid 1-key mashfest. What makes things challenging to single players obviously makes things 5 times more challenging for boxers, but that's the essence of boxing isn't it?

as for tanks going poof.. i remember our main tank going poof in Heroics during TBC, Slave pens for example, tanks one-shotted used to happen. Same before that, in classic or even some BC raid instances. boss would have a lucky streak, and tanks would be dead, and the rest of the raid running/vanishing or feigning death.


Reading you, it seems you're content with the aoe 1-button fest that the end of wrath has been. Well i guess if you want that you'll have to wait ~1 year for gear upgrades to completely outgear content.
In the meantime, you can always unsub. I know i'm impatiently waiting for the exp.

[Ualaa]

The changes to the game, are in Blizzard's opinion the best way for the game to move both to keep existing players (a balance between challenge and content everyone can do/see) and to attract new players to the game.

Basically nothing has been designed from the point of view of helping or hindering multiboxers. Sure, as long as we stick within the ToS/EULA, we generate more revenue than if we were single boxers. But even if you were to count every person who had two accounts (even those who never log them in at once, or perhaps use the Alt-Tab method for trading between accounts) as a boxer, boxers are a very small percentage of the player base.

Click to Move has been an option in the game for a very long time. Interact With Target was brought in to help people with disabilities have an easier time with the game. Sure, those two have combined, to really open melee teams to boxers, but neither option was put in specifically for boxing.

Click Castsequences required initial configuration, and their removal follows a trend. With Burning Crusade, Blizzard broke the ability for me to macro a finishing move if I had 5 combo points, but to cast a combo point building move with 4 or fewer combo points. They have removed the ability for Decursive to automatically target someone in your raid, choose the correct decurse, and decurse that character while you play your Paladin via auto-follow and button mashing with your monitor off. A click castsequence is mindless play, where once the macro has been configured, you make no choices at all, just mindlessly mash a button; as a ranged DPS you could auto follow a friend and one button mash most of a raid. Removal of mindless actions or addons/macros making choices for us, is not aimed at making boxing hard but rather towards making the game more challenging.

Proc based abilities were put in, to keep combat as a dynamic activity. Looking from the perspective of a one-boxer... you are a tank, DPS, or healer, you receive a proc which occurs at random intervals. If you notice the proc and click the relevant ability you gain a benefit from doing so. From Blizzard's point of view, these should be impossible to macro precisely, forcing you to react to relatively random events; that gives an edge to perceptive players or those with quicker reflexes, and helps to keep every encounter more exciting then a one button mash technique. Sure as boxers, we can approximate the clicking of procs, but it won't be as effective as one-boxing.

The healing changes are to make mana an important resource, rather than an infinitely supplied resource and thus not important at all. In the current end game, they could just remove the mana cost entirely and give players an infinite mana supply. It would not impact the game in a large way. I remember raiding in Molten Core, getting low on mana, and having to decide (for the good of the raid) who got to live and who had to die. This model will encourage DPS to not be idiots and have to be bailed out by healers who waste a large amount of mana to keep up a relatively squishy target, when the tank would have lasted 8x as long for the same amount of mana.

Phasing is an incredible tool. We start in an area, do things to change the world, and the world around us changes because of our actions. Sure, they break follow which is a major annoyance for a boxer. However, 99.397% (just picking a large number) of the player base will be running across a phase line manually controlling their toon. Occasionally a one-boxer will auto follow a friend and go to the washroom; and maybe lose follow because of the phase line. It sucks that those break follow, but that is a very minor consideration against having the world change for players based on their actions.

The game changes over time. I don't like every change that has come, nor do I dislike them all. I'm still playing the game, so that says overall I am happy with it. You have a choice whether it is enjoyable or not; who gives a shit if I like the game when you're the one who is spending your money for entertainment? If you find it fun, then it might be worth a few bucks each month, but if you don't enjoy it, what is the point? Breaks can be healthy and they can renew the fun of the game too, that's another option.

[Tyval]

I've just come back after a 6month break from WoW. Right now I'm having fun relearning what I use to know as well as adjusting to all the new changes.

I plan on 5 boxing Cata, though I'm a bit nervous about how hard the new dungeons will be to MB.

I'm hopeful that they will require new techniques and skills but with practice most will be doable.

I figure with the rush of folks, I plan to level as much as I can in the normal instances. I figure I can learn the fights, get gear, avoid the crowds and be more ready once I hit 85 to start trying the easy heroics.

Between now and then I want to improve my MB skill, adding CC as an option etc.

I guess if it proves to difficult, I'll move to solo until gear makes things easier.

On the bright side I have so many ways I can get better. I remember reading on these forums about a fellow who brought a new team to 80 and then completed all the heroics (as well as I think heroic dungeon achievement) without relying on all the uber gear. I figure that shows how much more room I have for improvement :).

[Zub]

The healing changes are to make mana an important resource, rather than an infinitely supplied resource and thus not important at all. In the current end game, they could just remove the mana cost entirely and give players an infinite mana supply. It would not impact the game in a large way. I remember raiding in Molten Core, getting low on mana, and having to decide (for the good of the raid) who got to live and who had to die. This model will encourage DPS to not be idiots and have to be bailed out by healers who waste a large amount of mana to keep up a relatively squishy target, when the tank would have lasted 8x as long for the same amount of mana.
I remember in MC we used to have 'teams' of healers, with one team healing, and the other doing nothing, just regenerating mana, and rotating teams whenever the healing team was getting OOM.
Had to have several weapons to swap in fight, one with +healing stats for healing, one with massive spirit stats for regen

[Kruschpakx4]

That and I'm just concerned that quad shaman in rated BGs will be a big joke, already have to play like a superstar to pull the weight of four slots, and that's against pug groups. Against premades? Forget it

most premade groups for rated bgs will be consisting of 1,5-2k people, perhaps 1 of 10 groups is 2,2-2,7 rated and knows how to pvp so dont worry about that, with a couple of 2,2k players in you group and a lot of time it shouldnt be a big deal to reach high warlord

[Ualaa]

I'd imagine the a large portion of the players who would normally be queuing for battlegrounds will instead queue for rated battlegrounds.
In the long run, I don't see rated battlegrounds as that much more difficult then normal battlegrounds.
There will be a lot of PUG quality players in battlegrounds, without ventrilo coordination, who just want to kill shit.

There will be premades that only run together, and run at specific times the same as raids.
And these will be rather challenging teams to play against.

Still, there should be a larger overall pool of players in battlegrounds.
And the system will attempt to match us against the team closest to an even match.

[Tonuss]

I don't know. I don't like the changes they are making. the are obviously anti-boxing.
I don't think that they are against multi-boxing. I think that they were more concerned with how simple the game had become. Did anyone really have fun while AOE'ing their way through 15-minute heroics? At one point I figured that the fact that multiboxers were running heroics and even raids might have made Blizzard feel that the game was too easy, but I still don't think that it happens enough to bother them. I just think that they were worried at how simple things had gotten because they allowed players to gain so much power.

I'm way too lazy and unfocused to get very far in dungeons as a boxer, but I will level my fair share of teams via outdoors quests five at a time, and will definitely run characters through dungeons for loot and experience (based on what I'm seeing in terms of health pools and DPS, level 85s will be able to solo clear pretty much every normal WotLK dungeon). And I expect that the folks here who regularly clear 5-man heroics and 10-man raids will find ways to do that in Cataclysm. I don't think Blizzard will stop multiboxing, but it might become more of a challenge as they seek to make single-character play less boring.

[Ualaa]

To a degree, every expansion is a gear reset.

Burning Crusade level gear was such a huge upgrade over classic gear.
Aside from set bonuses, the level 61 greens blew away the level 60 purples.

Wrath of the Lich King, was a slight gear upgrade.
A lot of my toons were still in Tier 5/6 raid gear, at 75th for most of their slots.
Sure the end game gear was higher, but the initial quests did not blow away the 70 raid gear.

It looks like Cataclysm is a major gear reset, similar to the Classic > Burning Crusade jump.
The game is being balanced around massive health pools.
I'd imagine the mobs in level 85 dungeons will hit like a truck, at least compared to the level 80 dungeon mobs.
And with such a huge health pool, WotLK dungeons will be a joke.

[Toonarmy]

And with such a huge health pool, WotLK dungeons will be a joke.

Which, in turn, should make instance boosting new teams though northrend just that much easier.

[Iru]

I remember in MC we used to have 'teams' of healers, with one team healing, and the other doing nothing, just regenerating mana, and rotating teams whenever the healing team was getting OOM.
Had to have several weapons to swap in fight, one with +healing stats for healing, one with massive spirit stats for regen

Ah yes, back when living by the 5 sec rule was the difference between boss death & raid wipe...

In fact, that reminds me that the disc priest changes (healing vie DPS) have been seen before too. Nefarian's class specific effect for priests anyone? :)

[Shodokan]

I've decided to keep trucking for multi-boxing. I decided not to raid hardcore and just play casually.