Concerns of a new multi boxer

So I tried out multi boxing for the first time yesterday with a Hunter on my main account and my Priest on a trial account.

After getting my BE hunter to the undead start zone I was ready to roll.. and after an initial period of confusion, I finally got the hang of things. Did a few quests and logged off at level 5.

However I've some concerns which you people may be able to give advice on.

Firstly, it feels a bit odd.. running around with this other character on constant auto follow. If I see another player I'm sort of avoiding them for fear I'll get torrent of questions and/or abuse. It's not happened yet, it may never happen, but it just feels.. weird. Does this go away or am I just being rediculous?

Secondly, I worry that by using this method to quickly level up my Hunter and Priest with the x3 bonus.. I will get to 60 and have a Priest that I've never really played. Right now the Priest is purely there to heal me and reap the XP benefits. Is this going to present me with a major problem at 60, or would I quickly learn the class 60-70 if I solo it? I'm intending on only multi boxing to 60.

Perhaps MB'ing just isn't for me, but for some reason I keep wanting to give this a try. I think it's the idea of quickly levelling up a hunter and priest at the same time that is appealing to me. I admit I may not be a traditional multi boxer in that I don't intend to multi box forever. It's more a tool right now to getting more enjoyment from the game.

Any tips or suggestions? I appreciate this is a rather odd set of questions but perhaps other MB'ers have had such thoughts.

Just because you can dual box, doesn't mean you have to do it all the time ;)

Just stop leveling the priest for each a couple of normal instance runs. I'd suggest you do a couple of instance runs at 20,30,40 and mid 50 to get the hang of the priest. If you#re going to the inis as a healer, keep in mind that you don't have to be at the normal level for the instance, since your targets won't resist your spells. Only problem are the 5x instances, since you'll get some very important talents mid 50, so it's worth waiting form them.

I'm in the same boat. Although I've done it on EQ, so its not as new to me, its my first time in WoW. I've always felt there was no need to multi WoW -- the game is fast pace enough to keep my attention. BUT i wanted to take advantage of the trip exp so I have a dual shaman going now. I did think about hunter/shaman, with the hunter doing most of the work..But so far this is working.

Who cares what people think, you're anonymous in WoW.. or the internet for that matter. You can always rename your priest at 70 if you think you have a bad rep or something.

Welcome to the forums! You're not alone for feeling strange bout this. I've been playing this game as long or longer than most, and I'm a total altaholic. I have 3 70's and 4 60+ toons that I still play solo. I raid weekly on my mains. Multiboxing has just become a hobby, a very fun one, to level up my last 2 classes, shaman and priests. Super boring to solo, especially after seeing all of Azeroth 7 times, and setting up the tools and macros just to box has been entertaining in itself. I will probably always play my teams, but at 70, I'll be splitting them up too, to play duos or solo, depending on group needs.

1. yeah it's weird having groupies, you'll get used to it. Since you're playing 2 classes, 2 races and probably have normal names, I doubt anyone will even think your dual-boxing till you tell them. Chill, you'll be fine. You're not gonna draw near the attention I or some of the other bigger teams here get. People don't think anything bout a priest and hunter grouped together, they don't know what to think about 3-5 shaman all geared, moving and casting exactly the same. People seriously flip out.

2. Not a concern. You'll have the basics down, but the rest only comes with time and experience. Having a ton of alts makes things confusing, and you never know a class 100% till you have 20+ days on it, but even without playing much at all, you'll be better than 80% of priests in every damn PUG I tank.

The leveling grind in WOW is the worst part about this game, but ironically, it IS most of the game. Have fun, ask questions. It's a totally different playstyle, one that a lot of us enjoy.

I felt really weird when I started as well but that feeling vanishes later on. I came from PVE servers and had more of a problem with that weird feeling alone than with boxing. Kind of a uncomfortable nervous type of feeling but now that has gone as well. However, I can tell I will once again get that weird feeling when I start doing BGs but again I imagine it will finally pass.

Don't worry about not learning the priest well. You will need to actually have level 70 (or even 80 by that time) and play with the full set of skills to learn the best ways to play it. This is because you get new important skills from 60-70 (and 70-80 soon) that affect how the class is played. At early levels, mostly all you need to know is you have a bunch of skill to heal your guy up and a bunch of skills to damage the enemy. Read the tooltips and you're set to go. Advanced strats won't come into play yet.

I only have two real suggestions for you:

1) Don't let your enjoyment of whatever you do be dependent upon someone else's approval.

2) Don't worry about getting to 60 and not having played your class. Just means it's a more challenging learning curve from 60-70, and arguably you'll have more fun as you start with a lot of talent options right off the bat. :)

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Originally Posted by 'Ughmahedhurtz',index.php?page=Thread&postID=10433 3#post104333

I only have two real suggestions for you:

1) Don't let your enjoyment of whatever you do be dependent upon someone else's approval.

2) Don't worry about getting to 60 and not having played your class. Just means it's a more challenging learning curve from 60-70, and arguably you'll have more fun as you start with a lot of talent options right off the bat. :)

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What he said. /ignore is there for a reason. If you don't want to respond to a whisper, you don't have to. You'll learn plenty about how to play your classes running the instance rep grind in Outlands.

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Originally Posted by 'Inspiration',index.php?page=Thread&postID=104217# post104217

Firstly, it feels a bit odd.. running around with this other character on constant auto follow. If I see another player I'm sort of avoiding them for fear I'll get torrent of questions and/or abuse. It's not happened yet, it may never happen, but it just feels.. weird. Does this go away or am I just being rediculous?

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After a while you feel "wrong" when someone isn't on /follow. ;)

Keep in mind -- verbal harassment is against the terms of use -- multiboxing is not. You don't need to hide -- you're doing nothing wrong.
That being said if you're only dual-boxing most people just assume that a friend put you on /follow and don't think much of it. :) I wouldn't worry too much. Even as a 5-boxer, multiboxing has become known well enough now that I rarely get many psts compared to when I first started.

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Secondly, I worry that by using this method to quickly level up my Hunter and Priest with the x3 bonus.. I will get to 60 and have a Priest that I've never really played. Right now the Priest is purely there to heal me and reap the XP benefits. Is this going to present me with a major problem at 60, or would I quickly learn the class 60-70 if I solo it? I'm intending on only multi boxing to 60.

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Most priests level as shadow, and barely heal at all when they hit 70. They have to completely re-learn if they choose to respec to holy.

I wouldn't worry about it too much -- if you want to play as shadow you might want to take some time reading some class guides and grinding some mobs to get the hang of things, but everyone re-learns their class the moment they change their role from spec to PvP to PvE to raiding... You do different things when you're in different roles/situations. :)

Take leveling easy. :) You'll do fine.

That being said, if you're just questing up you might want to consider making the priest shadow. It can still heal you (through Vamp Embrace) and pop out of shadowform to drop bigger heals if something goes bad, but will also speed up your leveling by having a second DPS class. Just a thought.

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Perhaps MB'ing just isn't for me, but for some reason I keep wanting to give this a try. I think it's the idea of quickly levelling up a hunter and priest at the same time that is appealing to me. I admit I may not be a traditional multi boxer in that I don't intend to multi box forever. It's more a tool right now to getting more enjoyment from the game.

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People multibox for different goals -- I happen to be an altaholic and theorycrafter. I love making macros and rerolling different team combinations. To each their own -- as long as you're having fun, go for it! :)

Thanks for such awesome replies people. I've never felt so welcome at a forum and I've used the internet since 94.

I'm now toying with the idea of using a Paladin and a Priest, as I already have a Hunter at level 30 who I could gift 30 levels to. :) Your replies have made me feel much better about the concept and I'm going to give it a go this weekend. Thanks again everyone. This community rocks.

Your learning how to play 2 classes at the same time in synchronous. So with that I wouldn't worry about being an effective solo Priest, because your mindset and playstyle are that of 2 characters. I'm sure you'll do fine, and as for the attention from others - it's a common trait you inherit :) I tend to avoid main player hubs with all my Shamans in tow due to all the attention it receives, so when you log on a solo character and run around town it feels great!

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Originally Posted by 'Ellay',index.php?page=Thread&postID=104461#post10 4461

Your learning how to play 2 classes at the same time in synchronous. So with that I wouldn't worry about being an effective solo Priest, because your mindset and playstyle are that of 2 characters. I'm sure you'll do fine, and as for the attention from others - it's a common trait you inherit :) I tend to avoid main player hubs with all my Shamans in tow due to all the attention it receives, so when you log on a solo character and run around town it feels great!

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Yeah, but you're all glowy and spiky and epiczy and stuff, which does tend to draw the eye. ;)

I just started MB'n last sat night. First with two shamans, then a third and this past wed I started a fourth. I get a decent amount of tells, "Hey man, how are you doing that?!" I take the time to explain to them what it is and where to learn more about it - www.dual-boxing.com . I love it so far. I didn't think about the RAF though so I'm going to have to start four new ones. :thumbdown:

If there's someone trying to complete a quest I'll invite them to my group to help them, I heal ppl who are getting whomped on and help when ppl get alot of mobs on them.

Have fun with it, you can't get in trouble with it like the botters do.

So I've played some more.. a few comments and questions...

My Priest will often lose contact with my main while on follow. I'm putting this down to latency (300ms+) .. I'm in the UK playing on US servers (long story). Is there any way to avoid this? In the barrens its becoming annoying as I keep having to stop to let her catch up with me and then continue. I've lost count of how many times shes stopped. I don't really want to map forward/back/left/right keys as I often auto run which I guess won't work with keyclone. Perhaps just something I'll have to put up with.

It's also difficult not to get carried away with thinking I have super powers. I died taking on an elite 3 levels above me and I realised I'm adding more stress to the situation than I need to do. It's difficult tho.. I just wanna let rip, pull multiple mobs and know my priest will add extra kick but perhaps I just need to take it easy. I'm so impatient sometimes. I've been using my priest to apply dots while my pet and I are hacking away. Perhaps I just need to try and play as if I'm alone with my hunter and just use my priest every so often? I find it's stressful.. at times I wonder "Do I really need the extra stress" but it's so nice at times. I left the undead area at level 12 having not even started the scarlett crusade quest chain. That rocked.

I guess the key is to just take it easy, chill and trust the x3 bonus IS making things quicker and not over stretching myself thinking a Hunter & Priest can solo everything that moves. :) Any tips on the /follow problem would be great.

Keep both windows open. I used to boost one of my buddies accounts before I found keyclone. I noticed he'd lag behind if I minimized his window but if I kept it open he'd be right there with me. Might not be your problem at all however, if not- disregard.

I've been 2 accounting for awhile, back when I was strictly using LInux/Wine (unfortunately i need a program that only runs on windows now for some work stuff). So I was disappointed that I couldn't resize the wow windows the way I wanted to on XP, Like on linux you resize them and WoW doesn't keep the aspect ratio I guess (that's why I love that I found this site like a couple days ago and Found Maximizer, AWESOME), but I kept up two accounts.

I still don't use keyclone or anything, I have started to try AHK, but I need to figure out macros and such, right now I'm playing a warr/mage on a trial account (now I have 3 accounts with the trial), cause I always wanted a mage and wanted to take advantage of the trip xp, and hope to make 2 toons to 60 to bump my pally,druid,rogue to 59, in 30 days. I already have hunter/warr/shaman/lock as 70's, so then i'll just have to level my other 4, and I'll prolly pay the $25 to tran one of the 60's to my other account. Right now I bring in my hunter and I was clearing SM, in like 1 day on both the little guys I went from 27 to 37 (and day is not 24 hrs, more lik 10). I really like dual boxing, it's fun.

And even in RL i never care what other people think. People in my raid guild (my shaman is my main) know i dual box and can make a bit of fun, like I need an intervention, but I know it's all in fun, and not once have I had someone whisper me about dual boxing or triple boxing. Some people can even tell, like I can tell when someone is using Keyclone, like today I just did the missing diplomat last part, and another pair was there, and I could tell they were like me and just asked if they were taking advantage of the trip xp, and they were.

So I wouldn't worry about it. /ignore if it gets a bit bad, or report them for verbal abuse, but like I said I've never had any issues with any body even if they find out I'm dual boxing.

BTW first post here, I really appreciate all the help in the forums, been very informative.

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Originally Posted by 'Inspiration',index.php?page=Thread&postID=104217# post104217

Secondly, I worry that by using this method to quickly level up my Hunter and Priest with the x3 bonus.. I will get to 60 and have a Priest that I've never really played. Right now the Priest is purely there to heal me and reap the XP benefits. Is this going to present me with a major problem at 60, or would I quickly learn the class 60-70 if I solo it? I'm intending on only multi boxing to 60.

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What is your goal with your priest?
Most priests spend the majority of the time soloing to 60 so lacking group healing experience is common. You can do some research before you group but I found that practice was the main thing. The skills for group healing are: reaction to dmg, threat management, mana management, line of sight, healing priority. The last one was the hardest for me, all the research kinda went out the window when I was confronted with my first Mage-Who-Ends-Up-Tanking.

For soloing skills, I'd recommend experimenting with a few core spells while your dual boxing. You probably won't work them into your grinding routine but they're useful for "Oh No" moments.

Power Word Shield:
High mana cost, instant cast, can be used as a sort of no threat heal (applied out of combat before Mob is aware of the target). Will prevent spell pushback while its up.

Mind Blast:
High/Medium mana cost, short cast time, high threat. Can be used as a taunt (though its rare that you want to taunt with a priest)

Racial Skills:
Very situational, but its good to know what yours do.
http://www.wowwiki.com/Priest_Spells#Racial_Spells

Autowand:
Ignore the scoffs of mages/warlocks. This is useful, and a common part of priest grinding. Its worth noting that shadow dmg wands are boosted by Shadow Form and Shadow Weaving.

Levitate:
Survive large drops and jog across water. requires light feathers. Not really usable while duoing but I find its worth the loss of a bag slot while soloing (depending on the area).

Also you have the oppertunity to get used to the short heal, long heal, heal-over-time differences while duoing. Worth playing around with.

As others have said, going shadow spec is a good way to up the dmg of your duo. VE combined with SWPain and or mindflay provides a nice HOT that will heal the priest, hunter and pet at the same time. You're also likely to be leveling as shadow from 60-70. If you are just speccing into it to play around for a few levels please be aware that 40-50 are not a good indicator of the usual experience. They are however very very fun (a mob 5 levels above me? I can take him!)

Also I'd start soloing in EPL, Winterspring and/or Silithus rather than jump stright to outlands. The learning curve will be much kinder that way. (and EPL gives shackle practice).

I'm leveling two chars up right now, a priest and a mage, one of which i've played extensively and the other i've played enough, so sometimes i just switch which one im playing. But just fool around and do what you find you enjoy the most.