First (real time) multi-boxing, questions about playing three Hunters.

[AirStarcraft]

Hello and thanks for taking the time to read my first post on this forum. Way back during The Burning Crusade era of WoW I dual-boxed a Rogue/Priest. However, it wasn't traditional dual boxing, it was literally two computers next to each other, two keyboards, two mice and a lot of macros. Currently I am fortunate enough to have a computer that can easily run three clients of WoW. I've never played a Hunter before, and I think it would be fun (I've also spent some time farming most of the Heirloom gear.) I have a few questions for issues that concern me the most:

- If I am playing my 'main' Hunter and do a 180 degree turn (the character doesn't actually move, just spins) will the slaves follow suit?

- It seems like it would be difficult (this is just my thought process, in reality, I am sure it's not at all) how would you achieve using Wyvern Sting on multiple mobs? I really only have an 'idea' of how the key mapping works, as I am yet to install the ISBoxer software/use it. Would you need to have it bound three times (one for each character) like.. CTRL + 1, CTRL + 2 and CTRL + 3. So you use it on each character individually, opposed to having it bound to all 3 as CTRL + 1 and blowing it all on one target?

- This kind of piggy backs off my last question.. When playing multiple of the same class, is it 'smart' to have everything bound/bar lay out, etc EXACTLY the same?

- Is multi-boxing 'more difficult' with a melee class than ranged? I get the idea that it would be for things like, 'target out of range' or 'you must be facing your target', or just general things like that.

Any other tips/pointers that you experienced folks can give me? Thanks for taking the time to read this.

*EDIT*

I also have zero interest in running a full team of 5. That doesn't sound fun to me. I'd rather just purely DPS. Also, this will only be for PvE content, not PvP.

[Jafula]

Welcome to the forums!


Hello and thanks for taking the time to read my first post on this forum. Way back during The Burning Crusade era of WoW I dual-boxed a Rogue/Priest. However, it wasn't traditional dual boxing, it was literally two computers next to each other, two keyboards, two mice and a lot of macros. Currently I am fortunate enough to have a computer that can easily run three clients of WoW. I've never played a Hunter before, and I think it would be fun (I've also spent some time farming most of the Heirloom gear.) I have a few questions for issues that concern me the most:

- If I am playing my 'main' Hunter and do a 180 degree turn (the character doesn't actually move, just spins) will the slaves follow suit?

Nope, your slaves will still be facing the way they were before your master did the 180 degree turn.

- It seems like it would be difficult (this is just my thought process, in reality, I am sure it's not at all) how would you achieve using Wyvern Sting on multiple mobs? I really only have an 'idea' of how the key mapping works, as I am yet to install the ISBoxer software/use it. Would you need to have it bound three times (one for each character) like.. CTRL + 1, CTRL + 2 and CTRL + 3. So you use it on each character individually, opposed to having it bound to all 3 as CTRL + 1 and blowing it all on one target?

The later, bound to all 3 as CTRL + 1.

- This kind of piggy backs off my last question.. When playing multiple of the same class, is it 'smart' to have everything bound/bar lay out, etc EXACTLY the same?

Yes.

- Is multi-boxing 'more difficult' with a melee class than ranged? I get the idea that it would be for things like, 'target out of range' or 'you must be facing your target', or just general things like that.

Melee with interact with target is fun, maybe slightly harder than ranged, but ranged has facing issues, each has its own pros and cons.

Any other tips/pointers that you experienced folks can give me? Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Yep, read these;

http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/36955-Newb-s-Guide-to-Multiboxing-Start-here-if-you-are-brand-new-to-Multiboxing
http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/46393-Khat-s-Newbie-Guide-for-Multiboxing-Vol-2

And get Jamba, it's awesome cos I wrote it :-).

http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/49544-Addon-Jamba-An-assistant-for-multiboxers-Version-5-3-1-release-thread


*EDIT*

I also have zero interest in running a full team of 5. That doesn't sound fun to me. I'd rather just purely DPS. Also, this will only be for PvE content, not PvP.

Have fun!

[djensen2010]

You get your slaves to aim/face they way you want to aim/face you will have to move so that they look that way. or you could use repeater broadcast and turn like that.

For wyvern sting you could set it where you have a button that in wow /focus your current target. then in isboxer you could make it a round robin when each time your hit that button only one toon does /focus on your current target. Then you could switch to next target and hit it again to /focus with another hunter and so on. Finally you would have a button for wyvern sting and a macro that would be like /castseqequence [target=focus] wyvern sting. Or more simply you could have wyvern sting set up on a round robin and just go from target to target casting wyvern one at a time.

In the case of hunters i would stretch to say their play style may be similar to my ele shamans. So how i have it set up is all the buttons are exactly the same on all my bars on each toon. So like 1 is earth shock, 2 is lighting bolt, 3 is flame shock, and so on. SO it gives me the ability to cast specific spells whenever i want and they will all go through all the same to my slaves. However, I also have macros set up in wow that automatically cast spells in order and stuff.

Example.
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,0,0,0,Lava Burst
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,0,0,Lava Burst
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,0,Lava Burst
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,Elemental Blast
/castsequence reset=5 Lightning Bolt,Lightning Bolt,Lightning Bolt,Lightning Bolt,Lightning Bolt,Lightning Bolt,Lightning Bolt
/targetenemy [noharm][dead]

SO basically this is my lazy spam macro. Casts lava burst, elemental blast, and lightning bolt. I could see a hunter setting one up with Arcane shot, cobra shot and so on. But basically wht im trying to show is you can play it either where you hit one button and it does one thing like arcane shot, or you can set it up where one button hits multiple things.

Melee vs ranged. Well alot of that comes down to personally preference and which class you enjoy. I have a team of 10 dks and a team of 10 ele shamans. I like them both alot. I tend to find melee easier for me because unlike the shamans, when someone runs up in my face and is running around me i can just keep attacking because my dks are chasing after them. But with the shamans you run into the problem of facing and what not. The big downfall ive found in melee is often times with all the movement and interacting my dks do they tend to run off and get stuck in corners and on objects where as with the shamans i can be confident most of the time that theyre right behind me. Ultimately i would say theyre both pretty similar in difficulty of setting up. Id assume after running a certain team long enough one would be able to identify weaknesses and find ways around them. I could see melee being a little more difficult in pve because some boss mechanics prequire you not to stand in stuff and be behind the target which is kinda hard when your toons are interacting and running circles around the boss.

Get isboxer and start trying things out. Cant really see what you having trouble with till you finally experience it :)

[AirStarcraft]

Example.
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,0,0,0,Lava Burst
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,0,0,Lava Burst
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,0,Lava Burst
/castsequence reset=0.3 0,Elemental Blast
/castsequence reset=5 Lightning Bolt,Lightning Bolt,Lightning Bolt,Lightning Bolt,Lightning Bolt,Lightning Bolt,Lightning Bolt
/targetenemy [noharm][dead]


So, you literally press one button and it does all that? What? lol

What are with the numbers after reset? What is that specific to?

[djensen2010]

yeap i just press num2 and it does all that. And i dont know lol, i got it off of wow lazy macros. I think it kind of prioritizes lava burst then elemental blast then lightning bolt.

[Ualaa]

To clarify, you would spam your hotkey... not press it just once.

Each 0 in the macro, is the equivalent of "do nothing on this press".
By staggering the 0's, in a variety of castsequences, you're staggering when key abilities might fire off.

With a macro of this type, you'll basically need to tweak it for your spam speed, of your DPS hotkey.
Either that, or adjust your personal spam speed.

In the past, Blizzard has removed the ability for a one button spammed macro to work.
So don't be surprised if in a major content patch, or next expansion (whenever that is), is this type of macro breaks.
It used to be ,,,,, with nothing happening on each of the commas; the 0 is essentially an item slot, which doesn't have a click/use effect; Blizzard removes something, others find a work-about, back and forth the game goes.

[AirStarcraft]

Thanks for all the replies!

What are your thoughts on multi-boxing Hunters? Is that a good 'first class' to start?

[luxlunae]

I'll also add that ISboxer has a default option where it would toggle ctrl 1 to send wyvern sting to each of your toons in turn. So keypress 1, toon 1; keypress 2, toon 2; keypress 3, toon 3; keypress 4, toon 1 (it cycles through). This option is called "round robin" and will continue to work forever, unlike in game macros which blizzard delights in breaking each expansion.

Round robin is usually used for CCs like wyvern, as well as interrupts and stuns/snares, (and, depending, different kinds of totems).

Hunters are a good class to start with, but any ranged class is good. Shaman are probably the easiest for beginners and you don't have to manage pets (many people love managing pets, me, not so much).

As for movement, keep in mind that you are usually going to be moving your slaves around by having them follow the master. If you want to keyboard "spin" on the master, and have the slaves do it at the same time, that will probably/mostly work, but it will break follow.

good luck!

[Andreauk]

I'm running 3 Destruction warlocks, they are level 90 and I have a 1 button dps macro... but then have health stones and other healing on my action bar along with Terrorguard and so on.. I have had no trouble at all with the new scenarios with them as fresh 90's. I'm using keyclone.
I have the /petattack command in the 1 button macro.. then have a keybind for /petfollow should the pets go nuts trying to pull more stuff! I use a /follow macro.. all warlocks have the same layout apart from fear and mortal coil.

I only use interact with target for picking quest items up off mobs for dailies.

I had a lot of fun with hunters.. they are fab if you have a healer with them played upfront.. pets can tank scenarios almost as good as my Voidlord :) In the end the locks won as they could all stay dps with some decent healing of their own... not to mention they can soulstone one at a time then use mass rezz in an emergency.

I'd say try ranged to get a feel for it.

This site has some really good macros http://wowlazymacros.com/forums

Have fun :)

[AirStarcraft]

Awesome! Am I able to use the same macros as you are since you're using keyclone? I am most likely going to be using ISBoxer.

[MiRai]

Awesome! Am I able to use the same macros as you are since you're using keyclone? I am most likely going to be using ISBoxer.
Seeing as you can store macros in the game itself, the software doesn't matter one bit; but since you said you were going to be using ISBoxer means you can store them in it instead if you want.

[AirStarcraft]

Thanks everyone!!