Returning to multiboxing

[Blubber]

Hi,

I boxed for quite a while back in the BC days, after a while it got boring and I stopped. Right now, I've started it up again, currently I'm levelling a 5x Dwarf shaman team, without RAF (using my existing accounts). At some point I might want to create either a mixed team or a 5x DK team (or perhaps 4x DK + paladin), but for now I started out with a simpler setup to get used to the whole thing again.

Problem is, levelling is going really slow. I've been playing for a couple of hours now, and I just hit level 6, most of the quests I encounter in the starting area are collection quests, which suck. The quests where you have to collect some drop are doable thanks to IWT and CTM. Anyway, question is, is this going to be as slow all the way to 60? Or is it just the first part? Or should I just get over it and buy 5x WOTLK and start with the DK team? Any advice or insight is appreciated :].

[dancook]

You might consider levelling a paladin with four shaman so you can mix up normal quests with some dungeon quests.

Then you'll have a paladin ready to support a 4 DK team.

The first few collection quests are usually unavoidable - but you'll get more choice of questing areas as you level up.

Having heirlooms as I levelled my most recent priest team, meant I could skip even more collection quests than normal - but I still did pretty much all starting quests up to about level 10.

[Khatovar]

Leveling has been sped up significantly since BC, unfortunately the starter quests are generally still slow. Once you get past them, though, I tend to find that the boosted XP even without heirlooms, rest or RAF means I often green or grey out zones long before I run out of quests, so it's usually pretty easy to simply skip collection quests.

I agree 100% with Dan about dropping a shaman for a paladin. Being able to drop into dungeons when things get slow is always a good boost, and you can dual-spec the paladin Prot/Holy so you have a tank for instances and a healer for your DK team for dungeons or for either team for BGs when questing gets old. Dungeons and BGs can net you some nice XP when the alternative is collection quests.

[Blubber]

I have a 85 paladin ready, in fact, it was the tank in my old team. Also, I was hoping I could do some dungeons with the 5 shammies. On the other hand, I might level a second pally, I'm thinking of doing the WOTLK content before progressing to Cata.

[Tehtsuo]

I was in the same boat as you, and I agree with what's been said - I did 5 shamans this time around. However, when I boxed years ago, I did paladin and 4 shaman, so this time I wanted to experience the full 5 shaman team. That being said, I wish I had done it the other way around, because back then you could instance with 5 shaman since role check wasn't a consideration. Now you can't get those tasty random blue pieces from the bags from doing randoms unless you have a tank with you.

That being said, take heart - after you hit 20 there's a noticeable relief in leveling difficulty. You will fly through 20-80, and you can start skipping anything non-collection and still not run out of quests. However, keep an eye out for EASY collection quests. Some will surprise you, because they look difficult, but it turns out you can loot on all 5 instead of just one, or you loot multiple pieces. I remember a 30 piece collection quest that sounded like it'd be a bear, till I found out you loot 5+ items each time, and you could loot with all 5 on the same mob. Was glad I didn't dismiss it - for that reason I usually try collection quests before I discard them and move on to the next.

[Blubber]

What about 5x pally's. Never boxed melee before, might as well get it started from level 1. 5 pallys can tank and heal, so no problem with the df :).

[Khatovar]

There's actually a discussion on that in the Group Comp forum, complete with low-level macros

http://www.dual-boxing.com/showthread.php?t=46107

[Blubber]

Yeah just found that thread. Going to give 5 pallies a try I guess :).

[MiRai]

I'm thinking of doing the WOTLK content before progressing to Cata.
It's perfectly fine that you would want to do WotLK content prior to Cata but, I wouldn't gauge Cata instances off of WotLK
instances. What I'm saying is don't get your hopes up that because you smash through WotLK content that you'll do awesome the
first time around at Cata content because it's much different. Cata content has been nerfed since the day it was released but, it still
poses a challenge.

[Blubber]

It's perfectly fine that you would want to do WotLK content prior to Cata but, I wouldn't gauge Cata instances off of WotLK
instances. What I'm saying is don't get your hopes up that because you smash through WotLK content that you'll do awesome the
first time around at Cata content because it's much different. Cata content has been nerfed since the day it was released but, it still
poses a challenge.

I'm well aware of that. I started boxing for the PvE challenge back in BC. I've done all or most of the BC instances, so now I'll progress to wotlk. After that I might try cata, not sure yet. However, I'm well aware that cata content is much more difficult.

[MiRai]

I'm well aware of that. I started boxing for the PvE challenge back in BC. I've done all or most of the BC instances, so now I'll progress to wotlk. After that I might try cata, not sure yet. However, I'm well aware that cata content is much more difficult.
I only mention it because you said you've been out of the game for so long. I can't count how many people are ecstatic that
their level 15/35/62/77 characters are so amazingly awesome and OP until they hit 85 and get completely raped in PvP or
realize they need a tank to actually complete PvE content.

[Blubber]

I only mention it because you said you've been out of the game for so long. I can't count how many people are ecstatic that
their level 15/35/62/77 characters are so amazingly awesome and OP until they hit 85 and get completely raped in PvP or
realize they need a tank to actually complete PvE content.

I haven't been out of the game, have just not been boxing :).

[Blubber]

So I've been playing around with my new 5x Pally team, and it's great fun. However, I ran into some trouble. When I started out I was running all five of them at around high graphics settings. At first, this was no problem at all, I average around 30% CPU load, and my RAM is doing fine. Even the GPU wasn't running 100% load. However, after playing for a while I started getting graphics glitches, so I downloaded GPUZ to try and diagnose the problem, turns out my VRAM is filling up (the graphics card only has 768MB.) So I turned down the graphics settings, and it's now hovering around ~400MB, which is still a bit high in my opinion, I expect some more glitches when I enter area's with a lot of highres textures.

Anyway, now I'm thinking of upgrading, the obvious choice would be a card with more VRAM, at least 1.5GB I'd say. But there are also some cards with 3GB VRAM. The real question is, can I run at high graphics settings with 1.5GB VRAM or should I just buy the 3GB version?

Current setup:
CPU: Intel Core i7 2600 @ 3GHz
RAM: 6GB DDR3 (which is barely enough, but really not the point ...)
Graphics: Some nobrand GTX460 with 768MB VRAM (Running at 1080p.)

Again, I'd like wow to look a little better, low graphics settings really do suck.

[traedoril]

Your card is fine, I believe the problem is that it is over heating, you may want to look into getting another fan.