My WoW setup - looking for advice.

Hi,

I'm new to multi-boxing and I've read through some of the forums looking for helpful macros and tips. So far I've found some, but I'd like to get a take on how I run my tri-box setup from other users.

I have a Horde Shaman, Mage, and Priest. My goal is to gain agro with the shaman first and then have the casters dps/support the shaman. These are all new characters only around level 16 so I don't have access Shadow Priest Vampiric Touch which I see using a lot when I can get it.

I use Keyclone and the maximizing feature of it with a three window setup using horizontal spanning on Windows XP. I have a Logitech G15 keyboard and 5 button mouse. I've been spending a lot of time tinkering with configurations and macros, but this is basically what I have now.

Any comments on macros, key controls or even basic strategy using this combo would be greatly appreciated.

Mouse button assignments
a. Back Button = Autorun
b. Forward Button = Assigned to a keystroke used to make priest and mage /target shaman /follow
Wheel button = Assigned to the Shift function on keyboard


Keyboard basic assignments
a. a,s,d,f,g - movement buttons, forward, turn right/left, strafe left/right (not in that order) - All these keys are set not to be passed through Keyclone
b. v - move backwards (this one does pass to all instances)


Primary Attack Sequence
(assuming that I was just in the movement mode, mage and priest are targetting shaman and on follow)

a. Target mob with mouse

b. Press c key mapped to Shaman lightning bolt to draw agro

c. Near the end of the lightning cast, Press X key mapped to have mage and priest /assist shaman.

d. Press c key again to have Shaman recast lightning bolt and c key is mapped to smite on priest and frostbolt on mage.

e. Press R key which recasts lightning shield on the Shaman and is mapped to Shadow Word Pain on Priest and Arcane Missiles on Mage (doing so takes mage out of follow mode)

f. Press Q key which maps to Shaman Earth Shock and a macro on Priest to cast renew on Target of Target which is usually the Shaman.

g. Press f key which is blanked on Shaman, but is again mapped to smite on priest and firebolt on mage.

h. If needed, Pressing the T key, cast fireblast(?) on the mage and Mind Blast on the priest. Later I'll add Thunderstrike from the Shaman as some additional agro.


This is all pretty simple on single mobs, but throw in the unexpected and things get a little hairy when you get a few unexpected adds.

I do have a macro written and assigned to Shift Q which I use to manually target a second add and then use a focus based macro to have the mage sheep. For the most part I just drop the shaman totem designed to draw agro to handle a second add.

For what little healing I do during a fight I use the Grid mod along with a mouse button macro to right click in the Priest window to put renew on whichever of my toons needs it. I also have Shift right click to throw a bigger heal.

I have fade assigned to the three button which I currently use for the priest.

Having the v (backup) key passing to all toons nearly always allows me to have the three back away from each other as I usually spin the shaman around before doing so. This allows me to pull the main mob back and get a little casting distance between all of my toons.


Does this sound extremely difficult to anyone or is it kind of the norm for multi-box players?

These questions are always hard because every one's different in how they think/react, class combo, and number of toons. For example, your setup is more complex than my 5 box because I only run 2 classes (Pally + 4shaman), so I'm basically 2 boxing.

Pretty much I'd say if it feels intuitive for you then it's probably fine. As you progress and encounter more complex scenarios then you'll naturally morph what you do a bit. I wouldn't worry too much until you hit a wall on something, then start reconsidering. Once the abilities start stacking up then it starts getting a little overwhelming and I think everybody has to reconsider how they do things but trying to plan for that at this level without a LOT of prior experience is tough.

I found personally that I was a lot happier once I replaced my nuke action bar buttons with cast macro's like this
/cast [target=party1target] Lightning Bolt
(note this doesn't work if you're main isn't leader so you may need to replace party1target with the name of your main)
World mobs die so fast I was just wearing myself out with [assist][nuke][nuke][follow][assist][nuke][nuke][follow]
At this point it doesn't seem like a lot extra but it wears over time and the more abilities you get the more you're going to want to simplify what you can.

Also, it sounds like you're pseudo tanking with your shaman and I don't really think that's the way to go. I tried it, quite literally up through 34 and was not happy with the results. Shield and Leather (at that level) just still can't take much of a beating and you've got nothing other than your dmg threat to keep their attention. It seems like the high end 5x shaman crew go straight for the crazy DPS strat and I think it'd serve you well too. In my case I had a 34 pally I could replace my 5th shaman with so I went ahead and "wuss'd" out. So, depending on what you want to do in the instances you may reconsider. Either have all 3 go crazy DPS or swap in a tank for your shammy.

If you want to be the healer of a 5man with 2 DPS, then I'd move the priest healing stuff off to a 2nd keyboard (nostromo, etc.). I dual boxed with tank/priest this way for over a year and was very successful with it.

I will say though that 3 DPS LFG could take you a while to find a tank and healer, and if they're not friends they'll hearth out if anything goes wrong and blame you for it (regardless of weither it's your fault).

That's my $0.02 - gee, really didn't think I had anything to say on this... .too much coffee...