Multiboxing Highmaul

[Mercurio]

Last expansion I took a long break and didn't start multiboxing current raids (like SoO) until months after their release. This time I'm a bit more current ;)

I figured it was time to take my team into Highmaul and see what I could get done. Fishbeak was on, so I had him join me on his priest to try to get him some gear and to yell at me when I was screwing stuff up.

After just a handful of tries, Butcher fell down:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZOZhKyW2xs

If any of you alliance boxers have somewhat decent gear and want to join in the fun, cross-realm raiding makes it pretty easy, so just let me know.

[MiRai]

Merc, you make it look too easy. ;) I'm sure it definitely helps having someone else take some load of the healing, but none-the-less it's a multiboxing accomplishment. I didn't listen to the audio, but the sound from my headphones sitting next to me made me think it was a Xylophone or something. >_>

[Mercurio]

Sadly, the logs showed that Fishbeak's gear didn't allow him to do more than about 15% of the healing in that fight, but it was definitely nice to have him along - we'll get him geared up soon enough. My priests already cast PW: Shield on cooldown on everyone, so I was handicapping him severely as the 3rd disc priest. Discussing strategy and having him yell at me (which he did during the entire fight) was much more valuable. :o

As for my videos, I'm obviously a total noob when it comes to video editing or making them look/sound nice. The most I've bothered to do is stick a random YouTube song on most of them. That is my entire level of effort when it comes to "production value".

I think you could teach me a thing or three.

[Fishbeak]

Let's face, I am there for my good looks.

This fight is pretty straightforward for a single player but Merc makes playing 9 look easy; positioning is the key. Once I learned all his toons names it was my job to make sure toons were the right distance away and facing the boss.

With our next attempt (yes i am mooching!) I would like to try and have mercs toons follow my priest, this will cut some items from his "ToDO" list and hopefully lighten the load.

I hope more PvE boxers add us as friends and do some attempts, it really is enjoyable.

[Teslah]

This is great guys. You're making it look a lot easier than it is I'm sure. We'll have to try this later this week or over the weekend.

If you get any of the other bosses down in Highmaul let us know. Really nice!

[Mercurio]

Hey, Teslah, thanks for the kind words. Blizzard really has made it much easier to group up with friends no matter what server they are on with cross realm raiding, but one thing they still won't let us do is raid cross faction.

Would be fun to invite your blood elves into a raid, but at least for now, Blizzard has put the kibosh on that. :mad:

[HPAVC]

Awesome job

[Mercurio]

Fishbeak and his stunning looks weren't around yesterday, so I went in again and kicked Butcher in the face all alone. It was much quieter without all the yelling ;)

I had to do lots of little positioning movements throughout, but things went quite smoothly until I accidentally moved my tank (yeah, the one with agro :() backwards and totally screwed up the all-important boss to raid positioning....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtrwIJD2Zmc

It's pretty fun to see an enraged Butcher run up to your little hunter and draw back to one shot him after things have gone to crap, then see HIM fall over instead of you.

[CDNProdigy]

Nice work Mercurio! Doing this solo is a great achievement.

[Fishbeak]

Fishbeak and his stunning looks weren't around yesterday, so I went in again and kicked Butcher in the face all alone. It was much quieter without all the yelling ;)
.

Have priest, will travel!

[Mercurio]

Those Highmaul bosses just keep on dropping. ;)

20 Man Kargath was a fun one as Fishbeak and I brought in our entire teams to take him down. It is nice to get all the extra loot that comes from twenty player's share. Controlling that many players with only two sets of hands is a nice challenge but he didn't really take that many tries and we got some very nice upgrades.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-TIUugZmfE

After Kargath, we headed to Twins and figured we'd start out with an easier composition - I played nine, Fish played one. We downed them on the first attempt. Well, the first attempt on that run - we did mess about with them for a little while one night earlier this week to develop a strategy, so it wasn't like we waltzed up and just slapped them the first time we saw them. Was a very fun run!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAQjqD4hT2w

[Andreauk]

Very impressive!

Makes me want to box more than 5.

[Fishbeak]

Very impressive!

Makes me want to box more than 5.


Join us with 5 ... that would be awesome. Add 5 after you are hooked ;)

[Fishbeak]

Those Highmaul bosses just keep on dropping. ;)

20 Man Kargath was a fun one as Fishbeak and I brought in our entire teams to take him down. It is nice to get all the extra loot that comes from twenty player's share. Controlling that many players with only two sets of hands is a nice challenge but he didn't really take that many tries and we got some very nice upgrades.



What's with letting all my toons die? Sheesh; no respect!

It was a ton of fun; I can't wait to try 20 man Butcher (oh the yelling) and then Twins. We have until the 2nd ... time to bust a move.

[Chumbucket]

{Hat Off} Very cool Merc and Fishbeak.

[Andreauk]

Join us with 5 ... that would be awesome. Add 5 after you are hooked ;)

I play Horde on Chamber of Aspects - EU :( Resto Druid, x3 BM Hunters and an ele Shaman.

[omegared]

very cool...doubt i will ever be able to do this lol...how do you deal with being split in 2 groups when you get thrown in the stands and still being able to tank/dps/heal fighting Kargath. And how are you able to kite the boss (when he's focussing someone) through the flames while doing the same.

[Mercurio]

What's with letting all my toons die? Sheesh; no respect!

Hey, what do you want? The important toons lived!

BTW, I clicked on your guild link at the bottom of your post and all I see is a huge spam of phat lewtz from Highmaul going to your dudes. Pretty funny.

[Mercurio]

very cool...doubt i will ever be able to do this lol...how do you deal with being split in 2 groups when you get thrown in the stands and still being able to tank/dps/heal fighting Kargath. And how are you able to kite the boss (when he's focussing someone) through the flames while doing the same.

Hey, if we can do this, most people can. As to your question, five of my guys come with me into the stands while the other five cower behind pillars and continue to DPS the boss. Fish manages the boss as well as he can before I can jump down and take another impale.

We have found over time that the simplest setups often work the best. For example, I never do any automatic ISBoxer switching of who follows or assists who (FTL is the term I think) because managing that would take a lot of work in ISBoxer for the mechanics of each new fight. I like the flexibility of completely changing around which characters are following and assisting others in less than a minute from inside the game.

As an example, last night I had set up some Action Target groups in ISBoxer to handle 2 manning 15 man Butcher and the four separate groups that you absolutely must manage in that fight. However, Fish and I pretty quickly figured out that scrapping that system and going to a very simple focus based group setup with no in game macros or ISBoxer management of groups was much better, leading to Butcher getting smashed, 15 toon style. :)

[Fishbeak]

I play Horde on Chamber of Aspects - EU :( Resto Druid, x3 BM Hunters and an ele Shaman.

Correction you USED to play Horde on Chamber of Aspects ... there are some really nice guilds US side willing to recruit ;)

[luxlunae]

Andreauk moved from the uk?

[Andreauk]

Nope and the US latency would be a killer no doubt :(

[Toned]

I did 7/7 running multiple hunters in a raid grp if that counts ><

[Mercurio]

I did 7/7 running multiple hunters in a raid grp if that counts ><

Glad to know someone else is having fun boxing in Highmaul. I have been doing similar things with 2-3 toons in Highmaul PuGs. No one has ever said anything about me boxing, but some of the fights like Tectus make things a bit difficult.

I am certain it would make a huge difference in ease of play if the group knew you were boxing so they weren't randomly assigning your guys some of the more difficult tasks. I have had one toon assigned to the stands while two stay down on Kargath, being designated as BOTH stack markers on Butcher, had to man a flamethrower while another toon follows the group on Brackenspore, etc. Compared to having to execute multiple roles flawlessly in PuGs, soloing the bosses is easy. :p

[Toned]

Ya the grp knows I am boxing and plays around it.

[Jooseppi]

We are back in the game!
http://i.imgur.com/gRyn5hi.jpg
average ilvl 635!

[Jooseppi]

butcher down.
http://i.imgur.com/k7hxfPy.jpg

[Mercurio]

Hey Jooseppi, that is fabulous! Are you still duoing the raids with another 5-boxer?

Downing those bosses with that low of an ilvl is definitely impressive! Any videos to share?

[Mercurio]

The progress continues... Heroic Butcher down. ;)

I soloed him with a new strategy. It is very different than the universally accepted strategy used in all the raids I've ever been in and seems much simpler to me, removing much of the movement. In fact, I tried a dry run of it on normal difficulty and during that first attempt none of my guys even dropped below 70% health. Note: This result is not typical of most new strategies I cook up. :p It makes me wonder if more PuGs should be using it (I see a LOT of PuGs wipe on Heroic Butcher).

I also got some really nice loot, especially when combined with ten bonus rolls on him with Seals of Tempered Fate.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxvPlecj-bg

[Andreauk]

Well done Mercurio.. that's impressive!

On another note my aim is to do older raids.. now what raids from Pandaria would be 5 boxable if any?
I'm just after mounts/achieves and can ask someone to come for bosses where mechanics make it impossible.. my teams are x4 Hunters with Druid healer on aly, and x5 Blood dk's on Horde.

[Andreauk]

Very nice Jooseppi - is there a Dwarf under all that beard? :P

[Mercurio]

On another note my aim is to do older raids.. now what raids from Pandaria would be 5 boxable if any?

I haven't tried any myself, but the vast majority should be boxable. Typically, the content in a previous expansion is pretty trivial. You may have to have do minor things like have your pets tank for Immerseus, divide your group into two for Spoils, etc. but you should be fine. There may be some odd mechanics like the last boss in Terrace of the Endless Spring when he teleports your guys around, but even with that you will probably down most bosses before they can start to do their interesting abilities.

As an example, during MoP, I took my guys into Dragon Soul (hardest raid of the previous expansion) and had no trouble at all cranking out all the heroic achievements. And that was before the stat squish which made things significantly easier. There is definitely no challenge for a boxer in the old raids, but they are really good for an afternoon of relaxing fun to see all that cool content.

[Jooseppi]

Yes we are still duoing. Too much work irl atm don't have much time to play.

[Muovitutti]

Very nice Jooseppi - is there a Dwarf under all that beard? :P
Dwarf under the beard reporting in! I'm the other half of our group.

[Andreauk]

I haven't tried any myself, but the vast majority should be boxable. Typically, the content in a previous expansion is pretty trivial. You may have to have do minor things like have your pets tank for Immerseus, divide your group into two for Spoils, etc. but you should be fine. There may be some odd mechanics like the last boss in Terrace of the Endless Spring when he teleports your guys around, but even with that you will probably down most bosses before they can start to do their interesting abilities.

As an example, during MoP, I took my guys into Dragon Soul (hardest raid of the previous expansion) and had no trouble at all cranking out all the heroic achievements. And that was before the stat squish which made things significantly easier. There is definitely no challenge for a boxer in the old raids, but they are really good for an afternoon of relaxing fun to see all that cool content.

Thanks... give me lots to look forward to :)

I have 1 week of ref a friend left and my Boomkin and Shammy team left to level.. the more shots at mounts I can get the better..

[Andreauk]

Dwarf under the beard reporting in! I'm the other half of our group.

Hiya *Waves*

[Jooseppi]

Hi again, this week we killed the two first bosses again. Last week we ran with 3druids healers and this week we made little change and took 3priest to our team. Our avarage ilvl dropped a little because of the healers, but overall the first two bosses feels easyer to kill. Hopefully we have time this weekend to start working the next bosses.

[Andreauk]

nice one :)

[Toned]

I'm now running 6 hunters 2 heals (priest/monk) 2 tanks (dk/dk or dk/pal depending on mood)
Can probably squeeze in an 11th to do a 3rd healer.

Right now I am just trying to get the 2nd grp of 5 geared just got them all to about 630ilvl (other guys are all 670-689). Controlling 10 is definitely interesting, to practice figuring out mechanics etc... I am farming BRF BOEs