New guy's boxing and ?'s

[Gile]

Hi. I'm playing wow, and I have just learned about multiboxing a couple weeks ago and since then I've tried 2 boxing warrior tank / shamy healer, 5 boxing shamies, and 3 boxing mages. All of which I am doing in dungeons. Currently I am using an Autohotkey script to broadcast keys - I believe this is called a multiplexer? I am also using Jamba which has been very useful. :) As far as hardware goes I am using one comp that is pretty powerful - i7, Radeon 5970, ect, and a single 42 inch TV for a monitor.

Just to share my experiences since I'm new - I found the tank / shamy combo worked well enough until about level 18 or so where the shammy heal power was often too weak with his one heal spell to do more than 2 or 3 mobs at a time. I know it would go better with more levels though. I was enthusiastic about the 5 shammies, but I found it too difficult for me to do yet. I just get confused about which guy to heal. The three mage project I started lastly since it seemed like a very easy combination, and so far that is going real good. I've just gotten the trio to level 30. There isn't a whole lot the three of them can do to mess things up, and I guess the party gets the advantage of focus fire.

There are a couple problems that I have not yet been able to resolve. First of all, the Autohotkey script I use repeats keys when I press them. This is an undesired effect. I would rather button mash, however another problem I have that many other boxers must run across is that my keys do not often broadcast to all my characters. Is this a problem that is most often caused by hardware or software? It seems that the two problems would have to be solved at the same time since I am guessing the script I am using is only covering up the broadcasting problem by repeating keys.

I am also curious as to why when I go to wow wiki type sites AutoHotKey seems so highly recommended yet as i brows these forums most people seem to not use it. Any reason for that or no reason in particular? I guess having the creators of the programs as forum members must help.

[MiRai]

I am also curious as to why when I go to wow wiki type sites AutoHotKey seems so highly recommended yet as i brows these forums most people seem to not use it. Any reason for that or no reason in particular? I guess having the creators of the programs as forum members must help.
Welcome.

I do not know the answers to your other questions since, as you stated, people here really don't see to use
much of AHK these days. If I'm not mistaken, AHK requires you to script all the stuff you do and most
multiboxers don't want to be screwing around with scripts and what not. Most multiboxers have chosen to go
with ISBoxer because it's an all-in-one tool which offers more than any other program does, however, it costs
money. For those that wish to utilize much of the power that ISBoxer has they usually go with HotKeyNet which
is the free alternative. HKN uses scripting as well but people here still use it so new folks looking to use HKN
can find support either here or on HKN's page.

Unfortunately, the level of knowledge and support for AHK will be quite low at this point. However, feel free to
discuss whatever you'd like about AHK assuming it falls within the rules of this site. Talk about all multiboxing
software is allowed here in this community.

This next statement is a guess from what I've heard and is not fact.

I believe AHK was looked at as botting software back in the day. I'm assuming that had hurt its reputation
here and it never fully recovered from that. People found other alternatives such as Keyclone, HKN, or ISBoxer
and just continued on playing.

EDIT: I am not trying to deter anyone from using AHK with the above statement nor am I here to judge anyone
on their play style. Just because a certain feature is available in whatever software anyone uses doesn't mean
that they are necessarily breaking any rules. Certain features are available because not all games have the
exact same rule set for what is legal and what is not. It is up to the user of the software on whether they want
to entirely play by the rules or not.

[Khatovar]

Someone might be able to look at the script and see if there's any obvious problems with it, but there's not many people who use it here. Most people use ISBoxer, with some using things like KeyClone or HotKeyNet. There's probably more people here using things like Synergy, Plexer or CloneKeys than AHK.

As to why, I couldn't really say for other people. I know from my own experience ISBoxer is very powerful all around and KeyClone is easier to use for newbies than a script-based program. I chose HotKeyNet because it seemed cleaner and more powerful than AHK.

[Akoko]

I would also recommend going with HotKeyNet over AutoHotkey. But after you've multiboxed for as long as some of us have, you'll probably realize you don't want to write so many boilerplate scripts for every team and every little change you make to them and just go with ISBoxer :D A lot of us multibox because we have less uninterrupted time to just sit down and play WoW, and ISBoxer actually lets me spend more time playing rather than fiddling and setting up stuff.

ISBoxer also has a number of features that are almost impossible, or impractical to do with HotKeyNet or any other sort of scripting program, for example mouse repeater regions for click healing and instant PiP swapping. The automatic FTL (focusless, targetless, leaderless) setup stops you from having to make billions of /assist focus macros for every single DPS spell. If you run multiple classes or specs, you'd find great use of Action Target Groups. There's also a few nifty things that are a nightmare to do otherwise, like sending the next click to all windows for targeted AoE spells.

I used to have problems all the time with "runners" (one or more characters with auto-run stuck on, uncontrollably running away into the distance), window switching delays, cameras spinning around wildly, hotkeys getting stuck, etc. when I was a AHK/HKN scripter but I don't have to deal with that anymore for ISBoxer. I recommend you at least try the free trial and see how you like it.

Edit: And you'll get tons of support. The creator of the program, Lax, posts here regularly and other posters like Ualaa have been very, very helpful. I doubt there are many boxers who post here that still fiddle around with scripting or hardware multiplexing manually.

[Khatovar]

ISBoxer also has a number of features that are almost impossible, or impractical to do with HotKeyNet or any other sort of scripting program, for example mouse repeater regions for click healing and instant PiP swapping. The automatic FTL (focusless, targetless, leaderless) setup stops you from having to make billions of /assist focus macros for every single DPS spell. If you run multiple classes or specs, you'd find great use of Action Target Groups. There's also a few nifty things that are a nightmare to do otherwise, like sending the next click to all windows for targeted AoE spells.


Actually, I switched to hkn from keyclone specifically to do some of those things. While I use mouseover healing instead of click, I know click can be done. I also know that there's swapping scripts and I also frequently use mouse actions for doing aoe, which is a one button config that I have posted before.

Hkn can be incredibly powerful if you want to take the time to learn it.

[Rampancy]

I know how you feel. I'm brand new and this is all so confusing. I managed to get basic functionality by using the 1-10 standard keys and binding Repeater to a mouse key so I can click to repeat to slaves easily and using auto follow. I use ISBoxer.

I have a feeling I am going to do horrible in 3s though as I can't kite this way.

Much learning to do still.

[luxlunae]

I used AHK the first two times I dabbled in multiboxing (4 druids back in BC, then a pally/resto druid combination in Wrath). I stubbornly insisted on using AHK long after everyone else switched because I knew it and I didn't want to pay for isboxer.

For cata I switched to isboxer and have never never never looked back.

Try the free trial! So many simple quality of life things that are hard with ahk are easy with isboxer (being able to hot swap active windows and things).