EQ2 Multi Boxer Tips and tricks and all things fuzzy and warm *Questions*

[Kodi1769]

Hi All

I have been a multi-boxer way back in eq1 *and an admitted macro-quester lol* Since then I have multi-Boxed a lot of games with WOW being the most friendly I have ever found.

Recently I have left WOW and reunited my love with SOE and EQ2 *Yea, it calls me in the morning and tells me I am beautiful.. unlike Blizzard which just leaves before I wake up.... uh.. NM*

I have been following this site for a long time and I am very impressed with the vault of information it hold as well as knowledgeable people that bolsters its ranks. So now that I have catered to your ego *lol Just kidding* I had a few questions.

With WOW, alot of people have posted macros for your boxed toon to accept shared quests etc and other helpful macros/set ups. I was wondering if there was a consolidated thread of such regaurding EQ2. I searched the board *addmittingly not with a fine tooth comb* and only see posts pertaining to getting Keyclone with innerspace etc. *Great post btw and Big Props to Keyclone, very nice app*

Also, do we have a consolidated thread for tips like class combos in eq2 also?

I will contribute anything I know and will help people test ideas.

Thanks in advance :)

[PyrostasisTDK]

Unfortunately EQ2 is no where near as boxing friendly as wow... but... I find its PvE to be 10x more fun. You can find my guide to Keyclone in my signature specifically for EQ2 with pictures. Unfortunately as it stands it requires you to use innerspace, Rob(the Keyclone dev) is working on the lock forward feature and that shouldnt be an issue for much longer **crosses fingers**

As for macros... as far as I know there is no quest accept macro. The EQ2 multiboxing wiki ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/wiki/index.php/Everquest_II') is still pretty sparse, but I cover how I heal there, and keyboard layouts. Ill go ahead and repost here.

I take the f1 - f6 keys off of all my toons buy my healers. I then make a tertiary bar with macros that have /target Tdktemplar and /target tdkfury etc etc. I then make sure those bars are in order with my main tanks group window, as every group window appears differently to the viewer. This way I simply hit the F1 key to target my main tank, and any other key as the MT sees it for easy heal targeting.

I use insert, home, pageup, pagedown, and end for my healing.
I use num pad 1 - 7 for dps and 8 and 9 for target MT and /follow

Im just about to try the pvp server, so, that will force me to come up with a way to change leaders, and Im not looking forward to that... Ill definitely update the wiki once I find something that functions.

**Edit
Forgot classes, my current setup is
Guardian
Fury
Defiler
Conjuror
Illusionist
Wizard(or warlock)

We are still working on a PVP setup, but Ill only be 4 boxing there and playing with friends.

[Kodi1769]

Thanks for the Info TDK, much appreciated. Now I was wondering, to date I have not found grinding to be a fast leveling method with 2 toons, I was wondering, does the rate increase with more toons?

I run 2 diff setups currently:

SK and Fury

or

Melee Mystic and Dirge

If I added a warlock to the sk/fury group will the increased exp be worth adding the 3rd?

[PyrostasisTDK]

I always do the 1 - 20 in ROK takes about 6 hours or less.

I always do dungeons after that. Im going to try using the quest database frm http://eq2.wikia.com/ for a bit see if its faster.

[asgradth]

I'm bringing up a 4man team : Guardian (shield/defense aa), Mystic (speed cast/heal aa), Dirge (songs aa) & Wizard (dmg/speed aa). The guardian & wizard are from qeynos, the mystic and dirge from freeport. At level 1, i took the whole crew to Sinking Sands and used the karpet to get them into Gorowyn/Butcherblock, then drug them to the beginning of the RoK newbie zone. At level 29, i'm still wearing 99% of the gear I got at level 18 when I finished the quests. Like TDK said, great newbie spot. The only ugly part is having to poison the eggs, then steal them, with each toon... but it's a small price to pay for the AA xp you get from all the easy quests.

The more people in the group, the less xp you get per kill. It's like .1% - .2% drop, depending on the toughness of the mob, but over 5000 mobs it really adds up. On the other hand, If I pull out the dirge, or wizard, i notice a huge drop in overall dps. So, the more toons you add, the less xp you get, but the more slaughter you can do. Personally, considering you'll eventually reach level 80, it's not a race, so take it slow and do it right and have fun.

I've done things a bit different from TDK (whos info I've used to base alot of my setup on, including the innerspace fix, THANKS!). For sake of ease, i'm going to call them the Tank, Healer, Singer & Nuker.

On my tank, the F key targets the next NPC. On the other 3 toons the F key targets the tank. Since you have implied targeting, you're guaranteed that everytime you hit f, everyone's on the same target. This also helps out in the 30s lasting buffs that have to be cast every 60s. Your tank is always targeted. I don't have any keys setup to target individual toons, because (as we see below) it's not really needed!

The cool thing about EQ2 is, if you drag a 'group target' spell to the hotbar (like heal or intercept), right click it and choose 'create
macro'. Within the macro, you can tie a team-mates name to the spell. This allows the healer to always have the Tank targeted (with the F key), but at the say time, lay down heals on any toon in the party.

So, on the healing side, i've got an Alt Bar setup. Alt-4 heals the tank, the singer/wizard Detaunt, and the tank taunts. Alt-5 heals the wizard, the wizard detaunts, the tank/dirge taunt (lvl 29 ability for dirge to taunt). Alt-5 heals the healer, the tank uber_taunts, the wizard unloads the uber_nukes, and the dirge taunts/uber_nukes. I then have a 'normal' heal setup on key 8, so I can take control of the healer, target anyone and heal.

Using this knowledge, i redid all the hotbars on all my toons. For blank spots... like I want key 6 to 'only' do aoe heals, then key 6 on the rest of my toons start a Heoric Opportunity. The HO is a great 'blank' key... and it keeps new spells from entering your hotbar each time you level when you want that spot 'open.

I set this up this-morning around 1am, and after re-adjusting myself, I was able to (as level 29) tear through the Ruins of Varsoon, got 6 exquisite chest drops and a total of 7 master spells (once chest had 2!!) Before i re-did my hotbars as mentioned above, I was getting slaughtered before getting to the Golem area.

My other keys look like: Key 1 is the tank taunting/pulling w/ a ranged attack, and starts an HO on the other toons. Key 2 causes everyone to Debuff/Stun/Dot. Key 3 is the straight up nukes. Key 4 is melee attacks. Key 5 & 6 are reserved (meaning they only do things on 1 or 2 toons).

People 'say' you can only have a maximum of 2 spells in a macro in eq2. They're wrong. You can have as many as you want, and as long as they all have different cooldowns and recast timers, pushing that key over and over will activate every single spell (not in order, there's no rhyme or reason to the order, but it works). It just won't cast all the spells automatically, you have to keep pushing that key to activate the next spell in the macro. Personally, I put a maximum of 4 'spells' in any macro and as of level 29, it's working very well.

G'luck!

[PyrostasisTDK]

I do like the idea of the heal macro button, only issue I have with that, is if your running six you end up with more keys.

There are 5 heals. Small single, big single, single hot/reactive/ward, group hot/reactive/ward, and group heal. (5 keys) Only 3 of them need targeting. To use those three on any group member with your system, wouldnt you have to make 3 keys for each toon for a total of 18 keys?

I do however like the idea of being able to keep the tank targeted with the healer and heal someone else though, I may have to toy around with that a bit.

[asgradth]

I've pondered the warden's heals on my hotkeys... right now my brain is overloaded on work so i'm not thinking too hard, but I imagine needing a ctrl-1/6 hotbar setup and possibly getting a 3rd arm grafted onto my chest ... Once i get my 4x4 up and running and i get configured for 6-boxing (like you, on 2 machines), i'll be forced to figure it out and post the results here.

For now, this setup works great w/ a Mystic... But for druid heals.... well, let us know if you figure it out!

[Kodi1769]

These are some great tips, Thanks alot.

One thing I noticed is I kinda like my heal to have the mob targeted instead of the mt. With passthough targeting, when I heal with the mob as main target it will heal the focus *Handy if the dps'r steals agro* without having to make seperate macros for each person. Although on multi targets it gets a lil flakey.

One thing I feel is like I am using only a small portion of all the spells thay have to offer, maybe that multi spell macro may get more benifit. I def gotta try that.

One big question, is there a way to set up a .assist macro and set the toons to autoattack on /assist like in old eq? I have tried a few ways and they do not seem to work for me

[HomersDonut]

Great to see some more people multiboxing EQ2. :) I moved up to 3-boxing about 4 months ago after getting the whole innerspace/keyclone package sorted out but have been 2-boxing for a couple of years. With so many questions here, I'll just post some of my own findings in the hope that people find them useful too.

I prefer to have both slave instances use /assist for their targeting. This way heals will still land on the tank (or overzealous DPS) while nukes and the like will still land on the target. However, I also setup my healers 'special heal' (ward/reactive/HoT) to always go to the tank. Doing it this way allows me to have the tank switch to a different target (to spread the taunt love around) while the DPS & Healer continue to focus their fire on the first mob. This isn't normally needed though if you are by yourself. However, if you bring along friends/guildmates it helps to be able to maintain agro without having to rely on them assisting correctly.

Regarding an assist macro, that is quite simple. Just add an "/autoattack 1" after your "/assist <name>". The macro I use is a combination of "/assist <name>; /follow <name>; /acceptinvite; /accept_trade". As you can imagine, this macro gets a fair workout. Of note though is that my macro won't start combat until I start using combat arts or hit my auto attack button (I like having that extra control). I can't remember if there was an option to turn on autoattack automatically when assisting nor can I find an /accept_quest command :(

As mentioned, it is possible to add more than 2 spells to a macro but only 2 of them will fire off. More specifically, the first will start casting followed by the last one being queued. On the next press of the macro, the second spell will start casting while the second last spell will queue up. It will keep going like this until a spell's recast timer has finished. If you prefer to have a 'Blam!' button that casts each spell in sequence for each press, then just add a non-combat item (like mining) to the end of the macro. While it does add to the chat window spam, it does make the single key 'Blam!' button more useful. The same could be done with the 2 instant heals. Personally I use a couple of Blam! buttons. The first is just standard combat arts while the second one includes only those CAs that can interrupt or stun - great for using against casters.

Finally, something I haven't seen mentioned before for EQ2 is that sideways movement will not break /follow (as I believe it does for WoW). As such if you have the scout following the tank you can use your strafe keys to 'rubber band' your way around the tank and positioning yourself behind the target.

These thoughts and opinions are from a PVE perspective only.

Oh, and for those interested my active trios are:
Warlock/Berserker/Defiler
Swashbuckler/Shadowknight/Mystic
Mystic/Monk/Dirge

[asgradth]

There are 5 heals. Small single, big single, single hot/reactive/ward, group hot/reactive/ward, and group heal. (5 keys) Only 3 of them need targeting. To use those three on any group member with your system, wouldnt you have to make 3 keys for each toon for a total of 18 keys?Late update, but i promised it so here it is... I've been quad boxing combinations of the following for over 3 mos: Guardian, Bezerker, Paladin, Monk, Mystic, Defiler, Warden, Fury, Templar, Inquisitor, Dirge, Troubadour, Illusionist, Conjuror, Wizard, Necro & Warlock. Everyone is lvl 35+ and the two teams below are in their high 50's to mid 60s.

AOE Group = Bezerker, Fury, Dirge, Warlock... These guys can take down large groups of enemies (10-30) with relative ease. However, if the fight goes on too long, or if a triple-up joins in, the zerker will be in trouble as the fury can't keep up with the spike damage (talking lvl 60+ triple ups).

Solid Group = Guardian, Warden, Troubador, Wizard... This group... I have to try hard if I want to kill any member. I've tanked 5 'blue' triple-ups at the same time and ended the fight with full health and half-power across all toons. Not to mention the added bonus of 3 evacs (warden, troub, wiz).

Both groups are AA spec'd to help each other. I can do things w/ the Guardian group that I've watched 6-man pickup groups die against. It's a bit boring, since the fights last longer than the Zerker group, but with the Guardian group I know I can tackle any content within my range, sometimes beyond my range. I've even taken down a couple of Green con Triple-up x2 mobs with the 4 man guardian team (when they were in their mid-50's).

After months of jacking with hotbar combinations, i've got things fairly tied down. I'm using a ZBoard Merc edition keyboard, which allows me to hit 1-0, alt 1-0, ctrl 1-0 and alt 1-0 with one hand, easily. I'm also using a Logitech MX 518 mouse, since it has 5 programmable buttons. I have my spells and combat arts split into groups... so that...
1 = taunt/root/short_duration_group_buffs
2 = Stuns/debuffs
3 = Dots
4 = Nukes
5 = Ice comet type spells
6 = random/open
7 = everyone stop fighting and follow the tank
8 = group aoe and heal the main tank
9 = aoe
0 = carpets/toys

Then i've spread out important AA abilites or other 'off the cuff non standard' abilites to the ALT line. The Shift line contains all of my heals. Shift1 - shift4 heal each of my toons, shift5 is for a pickup member, and if I have a full group, plain old 0 becomes their heal. Each Shift-[1:4] contains the 2 heals and one HOT. Each heal is mapped to a mouse key, so I can heal without loosing focus of the fight. This may not work well once I reach level 80, but for the first 65+ levels, it's been great. Middle mouse button is my group heal. Ctrl group is the evacs and ports and other random stuff.

The key is to leave keys 2 & 3 blank on your healer, so you can stun and dot mobs all day long, while still letting your healer Heal (instead of nuking). So when you're slamming 2 & 3, your guardian, troub and wizard are going nuts, while you push mouse buttons to heal. This works nearly flawlessly (hey, nothings perfect!) Since wardens only have a couple dmg spells (non-aa), they can all sit on key #4.

So far, i've cleared nearly every Heroic instance and dungeon with relative impunity. The only boss I could not take down (con-green) was the Arena 'knockback' guy in Deathfist citadel... I tried soo many things and... there's just no doing it.... The wall spikes eat cloth casters alive, and once your nuker goes down, there's not alot you can do. And if a toon is in 'combat mode' and has to 'run' to the Tank (/follow), the toon will start doing a huge cirlce/arc type run and... nothing good comes of it.

One technique i've found (fighting triple-ups) is to start the fight with the old root/nuke technique. If I can control the pulls, I can root nuke a triple up to below half health and still keep aggro on the guardian by the time it arrives. Love the Troubadour! This worked well on the final quest guy for the Nyborgh (sp?) title in Lesser Faydark. He was at maybe 10% health when he reached my team.

I've tried lots of combinations of toons. For boxing with Keyclone and IS, in my opinion: Guardians are the best tanks, Wardens are hands down best healers, [Troubadors for nuking groups/Dirges for hand-to-hand combat groups] but a bard either way, and while I love my first toon (warlock), Wizards take the cake (Convert all spells to fire + manaburn = dead things fast).

I'm tearing through the Looping Planes right now and look forward to my first foray into Castle Mistmore (next weekend hopefully).

If you're ever on Oasis and can use some advice, just shoot Pang a tell.

g'luck!

[Lokked]

Wow....I almost want to try boxing EQ2 now....

I played from release for about 5 months, getting 2 crafters to the 50 cap, and an insanely decked out troubadour to 35 or so.

My question for boxing, as boxing EQ2 has always sounded like it would work better then any regular multi-person group, is this:

Do you use Heroic Opertunities a lot? It seems to me that with a boxed group, you could coordinate these occurances far better then a normally played group. My gripe about combat in EQ2 was that the devs were all about the Combat Wheel, but when release came, everyone just mashed skills and broke my HOs non-stop.

[asgradth]

HO's... That is where my hotbar jacking came into play... again, this is all personal knowledge, your mileage may varry...

I determined you can go one of two ways. You can configure your hotbars and hotkeys, using Alt & Shift and Normal, to map every single ability, no macros. Then, paying very close attention to the HOs, you can execute them near perfectly as long as you have the classes to finish off the HO. The drawback, is you end up with 4 toons with random abilities strewn all throughout the keyboard.

When you're in a fight, especially in a dungeon, you are focused on keeping all your 'alts' in one spot, keeping the mobs in another spot, and keeping the tank on the other side of the first two. Then, you're focused on healing the tank, not overnuking with the wizard, and switching targets to keep aggro on the tank. If you push one wrong key at the wrong time, you will die (I need a t-shirt with that slogan). HO's are the last thing on your mind.

I tried to play the HO route as outlined above... Then I went to the original way (which i lay out above) where each key does the same thing across all toons. With this combination, if I want to stun a mob, I can keep him stunned by simply pushing #2 once every second. If I wanna drop a mob ASAP, I slam #4 once a second. I don't have to think, and not having to think helps alot when boxing.

In the 'lesser' fights, i'll sometimes pay attention to an HO and try to pull it off, but... In non-epic encounters, there's really no need to. The only fights that last long enough for an HO or two are the triple-ups... and usually you're too focused on the above stuff to worry about an HO.

Remember, you're monitoring multiple toons on multiple windows, each doin their own 'thing', if you will... For the first month or two, you'll have your hands full just keeping everyone alive. After that, whatever you discover, come back and let us know!

g'luck