What games are best suited for 2 or 3 boxing?

[flux1]

Well, I was going to go back to 3 boxing WOW for Scenarios and PVP, but I'm not going to beat that dead horse here.

For people that have tried several MMOs, which ones work well for someone 2 or 3 boxing? My machines aren't the best, and a budget for a big upgrade would be a while off. What I have is.

Desktop
Phenom 2 X3 2.5ghz
5GB Ram
Radeon 5770 1GB

Laptop
AMD Llano A6 X4 1.6ghz
8GB Ram
Radeon 6550 1GB


I played The Old Republic before two boxing with my laptop and desktop running one each with HotKeyNet. It wasn't optimal, but I got by with companions filling the group. I was considering Rift, but wasn't sure how viable any end game content was without a full group of 5. I haven't looked much into MMOs other than Guild Wars 2 which isn't boxable anyways. So I'm looking for recommendations of games to try, or possibly ones that aren't as demanding that I could do a full group if needed between my machines.

Any suggestions for games to try are welcome. Thanks

[Khatovar]

I know LotRO has different fellowship sizes, full fellowship {6} and small fellowship {3}.I haven't spent too much time with LotRO, though, so I don't know how much small fellowship content there is.

EQ2 has a group size of 6, but they also have Mercenaries that you can fill out a group with. They aren't nearly as strong as real characters, but I believe they can be used successfully in non-heroics. EQ2 also has a couple different subscription options. The standard $15/mo unrestricted, the restricted Free to Play and a "Silver-level" less restricted plan for $5 a month. So if your systems can manage an extra account or two, you can use real toons instead of Mercs in a few spots.

[Lyonheart]

EQ1 has mercs.. you can upgrade them via quests. There is a lot of debate as to how good they are compared to real players, but there is NO debate that they are better than MOST players. If you have a healer merc..and you are not doing somthing stupid, your merc will reliably heal you.. more so than players..due to lag..not paying atention etc. The tanks hold agro better than "most" player tanks.. player tanks have to do A LOT of work to be able to absorb/mitigate/keep agro ( spending thousands of AAs, alternate advancement points, in the end game tanking ) And the DPS mercs are just awesome. There is no CC mercs. So having a Bard.. enchanter..shaman is a must in your comp. But playing 3 toons+3 mercs will alow you to do most PvE group level content.

Not sure how good the mercs in EQ2 are.. i read about them and i know they have elite mercs you can find in the world.. they are very rare though, but they are powerful from what I understand. After dabbling with Rift the next few days ( i have 3 free days ) I will try some other games before i commit money to rift. And the biggest apeal for me to EQ and EQ2 are that mercs alow you to play 3 and still have a full group. And in EQ1 its easier to do that than box 6 classes, mostly due to how long it takes to gear toons and get enough AAs that they do not suck. Mercs always have best gear for their level. ( they cost money to use..but that was never an issue when i was playing )

EDIT: I wanted to add that if you want access to more mercs and the best mercs.. you have to pay for it.. either micro transactions or having a gold/premium account.. basically if you are a subscribed account.

[flux1]

Thank you both for the info. I had no idea Everquest 1 and 2 had a feature like this. I liked having the companions in Star Wars even with having to gear them, so this is a nice feature. The requirements for Everquest 2 don't seem really high, so I could probably do more than 3 without much trouble, but as mentioned, managing more toons and gearing them takes time. I'll be downloading the game this weekend to see how it is.

[Ualaa]

From the research I've done, three boxing (with three mercs, for a total of six... which is a full group) is very common in Everquest I.

SoE has recently announced, the imminent removal of many of the free to play restrictions: https://www.everquest.com/news/article?month=032013&id=524463

I had been considering a return to EQ I, purely for the nostalgia.
I spent as many years there, as in Warcraft, but did eventually leave because of the poor customer service.
If you're not 'Gold', there is no support aside from billing related issues...

$1 = 100 Station Cash.
I had priced, six classes, six races, six sets of 'Scale with your Level... wow BoA equivalent' gear...
As close to $100 to get into the game.
And figured it would be entertainment, for maybe a few months... so much cheaper than an equal amount of time in Wow.
And free thereafter.

Aside from downloading the game itself... and logging a few toons in, I've not done anything in EQ.
But with the /Follow change in Warcraft... when I get the urge to play something, it most likely will be EQ.
Although Rift is an option, as they have PvP battlegrounds, in addition to the PvE stuff.

[Lyonheart]

From the research I've done, three boxing (with three mercs, for a total of six... which is a full group) is very common in Everquest I.

SoE has recently announced, the imminent removal of many of the free to play restrictions: https://www.everquest.com/news/article?month=032013&id=524463

I had been considering a return to EQ I, purely for the nostalgia.
I spent as many years there, as in Warcraft, but did eventually leave because of the poor customer service.
If you're not 'Gold', there is no support aside from billing related issues...

$1 = 100 Station Cash.
I had priced, six classes, six races, six sets of 'Scale with your Level... wow BoA equivalent' gear...
As close to $100 to get into the game.
And figured it would be entertainment, for maybe a few months... so much cheaper than an equal amount of time in Wow.
And free thereafter.

Aside from downloading the game itself... and logging a few toons in, I've not done anything in EQ.
But with the /Follow change in Warcraft... when I get the urge to play something, it most likely will be EQ.
Although Rift is an option, as they have PvP battlegrounds, in addition to the PvE stuff.

It took me a few days to get back into EQ when i was playing last year. The dated graphics and the way the ui and macros work felt so out dated ( well they are right? ) I stared a few groups and had them go through the entire tutorial zone to get the hang of it. You can get journeyman mercs if you are gold, so I had 3 toons+ 3mercs all the time. Mercs are so good in the lower levels that you can find a spot where the spawns are steady, but semi safe and go afk, watch a movie or whatever and your mercs will power level you.. its funny as hell. In the mid 50s i think, there is a spot where i would park my mercs and toons, the mobs in that spot spawned every 3 minutes or so... i would go to bed and wake up a few levels higher OR a handful of AAs. ( once they get a few spells/abilities, they level with you and gain new abilities as they level )

I learned that you can do almost any combo of 2 DPS and a CC class. I think Shaman are the best CC/Buff class for boxers..They slow.. buff and have great back up heals. So you take two DPS and a shaman for example, you have tank, heal and dps mercs..later..when content gets harder.. i would often use two healer mercs and a tank. I used a ranger, wizard ( for ports ) and shaman. + the 3 mercs. There is TONs of discussion on the EQ forums about 3 boxing and what comps work the best.. in the end.. you realize . a lot of comps work.

Oh and the best part about EQ Macros is, you can have them chain spells! I think the limit is 4 spells in a row! you can macro it so they stand up.. cast a few spells and sit down when they are done ( have to sit to regin mana ) unless you are on a mount.

[Ualaa]

I like that the Bard can do a Melody.
The equivalent to /cast 1 3 2 1 3 4 12... which will then cycle through those infinitely, until interrupted or cancelled.

Other classes can do... /cast one, pause xx, cast two... up to six (or was it five) spells.

And that is with their base macro system.
You're not using any delays, within your software.

The Warrior/Tank mercenary is supposed to be strong enough, for any solo character to get to the mid 60s without issue.
The Healer mercenary will occasionally let you die, but the 'Gold/Paid' version is supposed to do that less frequently; people have suggested running two healers, one being the Mercenary and another your own toon, who might also slow or buff or whatever.

I was interested in a full six box, without mercs.
A pet can effectively tank single-group content (at least according to numerous people on EQ related forums), but any player in melee will take threat automatically.
A pet is a pretty useless tank, in multi-group content... or their equivalent of instanced raids.
Also, content from 3-4 expansions previous is still challenging... with possibly a few items that are worth equipping... so, doing older raids isn't always an option like it is in Warcraft; although with 14 or 15 expansions, you could do content from 5-6 expansions previous... and have many more encounters to experience than all of Warcraft (even counting up to current raids).

[flux1]

If I like Everquest 2 I may go for 6 boxing later on. The minimum specs for EQ2 are a joke for modern times. A Pentium 4 1.3ghz, 512 megs of ram and a 64 meg video card. I should be able to run 3 on my desktop and 3 on my laptop with ease. Once I download the game and try a single character I'll go for a team of 3 to start, then mix and match mercenaries as I go along.

While searching for information today, I read that the Station Cash cards you get in stores come with 500 bonus cash on top of the 1500. Apparently if you redeem a card during a triple weekend you get $60 worth, and can then buy a year's worth of gold game time with that during a 50% off special. It would require waiting for the sales, but getting a year's sub to an MMO for that seems like a crazy good deal. Also with the restrictions change, the $5 option for slave chars doesn't seem bad either.

Even if the game is dated, I may try Everquest 1 also.

[Ualaa]

I'd assume EQ II is going to be the same.
EQ I introduced something called Krono.

Krono is bought with real cash, on the station store.
It is an in-game item, which a character can use to purchase a month of 'Gold' subscription.

So it is a legitimate method to convert cash into game currency.
But it is also an item which, once you have platinum generation going in the game, you can pay for your subscription entirely through in-game resources instead of your wallet.

The Silver level lets you accrue 1,000 AAs, which depending on class is somewhere around 65th to 75th... before you need more than that to be average power for your level.
You can spend station cash to raise your cap by 250.
But you can also go 'Gold' for a month, to remove your cap... and then revert to Silver status and keep anything you earnt...

[Lyonheart]

I like that the Bard can do a Melody.
The equivalent to /cast 1 3 2 1 3 4 12... which will then cycle through those infinitely, until interrupted or cancelled.

Other classes can do... /cast one, pause xx, cast two... up to six (or was it five) spells.

And that is with their base macro system.
You're not using any delays, within your software.

The Warrior/Tank mercenary is supposed to be strong enough, for any solo character to get to the mid 60s without issue.
The Healer mercenary will occasionally let you die, but the 'Gold/Paid' version is supposed to do that less frequently; people have suggested running two healers, one being the Mercenary and another your own toon, who might also slow or buff or whatever.

I was interested in a full six box, without mercs.
A pet can effectively tank single-group content (at least according to numerous people on EQ related forums), but any player in melee will take threat automatically.
A pet is a pretty useless tank, in multi-group content... or their equivalent of instanced raids.
Also, content from 3-4 expansions previous is still challenging... with possibly a few items that are worth equipping... so, doing older raids isn't always an option like it is in Warcraft; although with 14 or 15 expansions, you could do content from 5-6 expansions previous... and have many more encounters to experience than all of Warcraft (even counting up to current raids).

If you have a slower/CCr in your trio.. mercs can tank and heal perfectly.. I have died more the player healers not healing me in time than my mercs.. and the tank is good all the way to the end ( non raid content) if you get the best one ( have to do a long quest chain to open it up ) Call J5 ( journeyman level 5 mercs ) With my shaman ranger and wizard + tank, heals dps or 2nd healer mercs.. i was doing group content safely.. You just have to pull smart. ( having a good pulling class helps as well. ) Bards..Monks..SKs..Rogues and rangers are exelent pullers.. Skilled shaman..necros and enchanters can pull as well. You have to have some method of agro dump ( FD ) or CC.. like roots and mezes.

[roddo]

Slight necro here, but for anyone wanting to try eq1, just play for free on the test server, especially if ya not interested in endgame raids. You get all the perks of being gold, a ton of veteran aa abilities for free and exp is doubled. They haven't wiped the test servers in over 10 years. and if your new and starting out, you can make your characters, do the first quest, then type /testbuff and instantly level to 25, with level appropriate gear, all skills maxxed for level and all spells. If you used to play you can recover your old accts, log in and type /testcopy on all of your characters and they will be available to play on test.