Dual-boxing/macro concept

So first off Hello everyone!

Now...to business.

Being new to dual-boxing and macro'ing i'm sorta confused on how to setup/work it all out. I'm on one computer using keyclone and as far as macros with other toons do i just set macros on the action bar of my alt toons and none on my main and just push but spells with the mouse or what. I'm trying to run kind of a mixed up group. Warrior(main), priest, mage, 2 shammy. I just don't get the whole concept of getting everything to work together. I can get the macro...to an extent...it's just hard for me to translate the idea of using the action bar with my main and alts.....

I realize it's a total noobie question and you prolly get it all the time...but yeah...i've been playing for like 4 hours now and i'm tired....please bear with me? :S :sleeping: :pinch:

Here sort of the idea .... think of the abilities that each class uses while they fight. Forgive if I get spell names wrong ... or if I make them up :D

Create a macro for tank with:
/cast Grab aggro

Shaman
/cast frostshock

Priest
/cast lesser heal

Now put all the macros on the same action bar button lets say 3. Lets assume tank is your main - create an assist macro for your DPS and put on button 2:
/assist tankname

Assign your healer to target the tank, and put on button 2 as well
/target tankname

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Now for the fun, your tank targets a mob, press number 2 on your keyboard (don't click with mouse, it has to be a keyboard press so it gets to all wow instances).
Then start spamming number 3 - mob dies - something like that.

read more on this link:
Macro's for New Multiboxers - A Quick Start Reference

Key is, you have to use the keyboard, no pun intended. Also i hear that Paladins make better tanks for the multiboxer ;)

Mapping different actions up is one of the things I find hardest about MB (and I only play two toons at once), bottom line is any ability you want to use on your alts will need to be activated by a keypress (as transfer of mouse position tends to not be accurate).

So, you'll probably end up using less abilities than you would for a solo character of each class. How many depends on your keyboard skills and how many buttons you can reach at once (multiplied by modifier keys). I can reach 1-5 comfortably, which rather limits the amount of actions I can perform easily on my toons, I really need to learn a better set up for my keys...

In your situation I'd have either the shaman or priest as the healer (as their the only options :P) and the others as caster dps.

Macros could look something like this (very simplified version):
Anything starting with / is a macro

1. To get targets on alts (you can also use focus to target, I'm sure there's info in the wiki)
Main - blank
Healer - /assist main
DPS - /assist main

2. Attack sequence to conserver healers mana
Main - Aggro sequence (sunder armour, heroic strike, etc)
Healer - blank
DPS - Nuke sequence (fireball, lightening bolt, mind blast/mind flay)

3. Attack sequence with simple healing
Main - /click ActionButton2 (or something similar, this will activate the macro on button 2 when pressed, but I'm typing this from memory)
Healer - /cast [help][target=targettarget,help] Healing Spell/Sequence (this will cast the desired heal on your target if it's friendly or if you have a mob targeted will cast on that's target)
DPS - /click ActionButton2

4. Attack sequence with healer dps
Main - /click ActionButton2
Healer - Nuke Sequence (lightening bolt, mind blast/mindflay or smite)
DPS - /click ActionButton2

5. Crowd Control (you'll need a macro elsewhere to set up your focus and a way for each of yuor toons to seperately target or focus mobs)
Main - blank
Priest - /cast [focus,harm] Shackle Undead
Mages - /cast [focus,harm] Polymorph
You might want to add some additional options here if you only need one toon crowd controlling.

These would probably need to be much more complicated for instances or higher level stuff, but hopefully give an idea for how you could map up different actions between characters.

For your first boxing experiment, I really would encourage you to try a homogenous group.

Even if you decide it's not what you want at level 30 or so, you will have learned an *enormous* amount about boxing in general, and be very well equipped to move onto more complex class mixes, which can be very challenging.

I wholeheartedly agree with otlecs with the added caveat: that they be casters - Mage, lock or Shaman.

When I started Lock was FOTM but I think mages might be the easiest to get your head around at the start.

The advantages are that generally you want all the characters to be doing the same action at the same time. It lets you easy into the multi-tasking required to multibox ;)

I have 5xshaman (just added the 4th and 5th), Pala, Druid and 3x shaman team and 4 locks and a priest.... the shadow group is the easiest for me to play with.... instant dots, keep running, keep dotting ;)

Cool thanks guys.

Yeah I thought about it alot mulching the lot at work and kinda started a grip on it just thinking about it. What i realized is i didn't really ask the question the right way but it was like midnight and my mind was in mush mode. Uhh..thinking about it it seems as tho the alts are going to be purely macro...and correct me if i'm wrong. Really my question was more do i control my alts through something in wow or the keycloner...but yeah i figured out as much. So now i guess it's off to the macro forums ;p Thanks for those few ones tho...all i needed was something to get me to focus on the right guys and the other stuff i could kinda figure out :thumbsup: