Any old school boxers here?

First off I have to say I am very very happy someone finally made a place for the multi-boxing community to get together. My hat is off to you!

That being said I was wondering if there were any boxers here that don't use macro's or extra software when they box.

I know initial reaction to this is "OMG Why would you want to do something like that? You can do SO much more with the tech that is out now."

For me at the moment it simply comes down to more challenge and less financial strain. (I already have a mortgage and don't need much more strain that that)

I am playing WoW on the (drama) Darkspear server and am just looking for some other folks without the jaded "Oh its one of those people." mindsets.

Currently I have a 70 Hunter 70 Druid and a 66 shammy who is being worked on.

Anyway big props on the site and the set ups. You guys make me feel elated and very lost at the same time.

~Nim

first time i did multi boxing before i had even heard of the software or anything like connecting key boards was with 2 shaman, i used to just click screen to screen.

got to 44 then realised how hard it was to play like that and how long it would take me to get to 60 at the rate i was leveling so i dropped one.

then stumbled across this site, got keyclone, 3 more accounts, now happily playing 5 characters, ive swaped and changed loads i have about 10 different level 30-35s that i keep swapping around till i get the combo i feel is right for me. currently 2 warlocks 2 priests 1 shaman haveing lots of fun.

tom

I don't use macros or extra software to box :) Hardware only.
But not quite the spirit of what you were alluding to, I would imagine.

I suppose I should have explained a bit more.

Financially: I have three very different computers with three very different latency's. The slowest is pure suck but playable for farming purposes. Even with the software Xzin mentioned for averaging the latency it would still require hardware upgrades. (Sorry I keep thinking of decimating peeps with 5 shammies that has just got to rock.)

When I originally found this site I was just happy I had found people who understood things from a multi-boxer perspective. But by the time I have gotten around to posting its not quite the community I originally thought it to be. I find playing two or even three characters the way I do challenging and at the same time enjoyable. I don't think my "long term" enjoyment would be as much playing two or three of the same class. I was just looking for others of my same ilk and am happy to have found some even if they have a slightly different perspective.

I suppose you guys are just the next evolutionary step and that makes me the fossil.

ye as an above poster mensioned $10 for keyclone is a bargin, keyclone is an awsome program.

Its kind of crazy he only charges $10 for it, when people pay £50 a year for norton anti virus.

best $10 ive ever spent.

and i was only oldschooling dual boxing because i was a noob and had no idea how to do it anyother way without spending the money on multiple computers. I use a laptop over a desktop mainly becuase i travel alot so more than a laptop is out of the question for me, if i could get a big set up i would defenly love it, always reminds me of Tanks desk in the Matrix. I would go all the way to set it up so it looks just the same as that too :D

voice activateing the program launchs, 'Tank load the Warcraft program' might be takeing things abit far :p

http://wow.gameamp.com/guide/viewGuides/136.php!orderBy=

was the first bit of info i ever found on it

nothing by the standards people can get on this amazing forum which i consider the best thing to ever happen to warcraft. The Burning crusade expansion was about half as enjoying as learning how to multi-box.

tom

So...

Say you are running 5 accounts on three computers is that once copy per computer or one copy per account?

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Originally Posted by Nimyx

That being said I was wondering if there were any boxers here that don't use macro's or extra software when they box.

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I played EQ1/2 that way (6 keyboards, 6 computers, 6 LCDs). I played WoW that way for a year too.

I have since switched to using (multiple) XKeys pro via the vetra multicaster (plus extensive in-game WoW macros) and I will never go back. It is 10x more fun that way. Having to reach over to 5 different keyboards every 2-3 seconds was just a pain in the ass.

Ziran

My brothers and I have allways switched games together over the years from EQ/EQ2/Liniage2/WoW etc we allways had about 2 accounts each and shared our passwords and such.

I used to Multibox with 2 computers and then run 2 versions on each computer and use windowed mode, click the window start a cast, then move back to the first window sstart another cast, change to the other mouse and do the same. This was often more tediuos than it was fun, and i would only do it if i needed to get something done and i did'nt have the solo juice and my brothers were not around. I also used to do the daily quests with 3 players on follow for nice cash for the same amount of time.

But finding this site and keyclone made this exciteing and enjoyable. All the macro writing and such is beacuse of targeting. you can't push a button and cast a spell without a target so you write a macro that is just /assist /cast spell. Then you start running out of room so you have to make 1 key do more than just 1 thing so you add modifiers so that if you hold alt first it will cast fireball if you hold ctrl it will cast frostblot and if you just push it it cast fireblast. this frees up 2 keys that you can now use for the new spells that you get at later levels.

The main reason for rolling 5 of the same class is to amplify the strong points of the classes chosen. if you have 5 shaman you can jesus rez 5 times as fast and your burst damage is alot more bursty. There is also almost never a time that bloodlust will not be ready.

5 shadow priests, are great too beacuse once you hit 50 you will never run out of mana EVER. if you cast 5 VT's you will get back 250 mana on every priest every 3 seconds that's 6250 mana return for about 250 mana from each priest. not to mention 5 silences 5 aoe fears 5 SW:D's. Drop 1 priest nd pick up a Pally and you have your own instance group.

5 Locks? 15 dots in 3 seconds followed by a fear who can live through
that?

I guess your right with the fact that multi boxing has evolved. It has mainly gotten more coordinated and easier to expand out each toon. where before you would only heal your tank with your healer and hopefully your dpser would not pull agro beacuse mages are real squishy if your not playing a hands on healer. but now when i hit the renew button i get 4 renews on my tank which will keep my tank gaining hp while i cast my 4 flash heals that will fill my HP bar then it's back to dps with my 4 mindflays.

keyclone is worth the 10$ even if it's to test it out. Try with just 1 computer at first and see if you like the changes. I'm running 5 WoWs from the same computer and i only lag a little in org/uc. Good luck and have fun.

I guess I fit the profile you're talking about. I have 5 computers, 5 accts, dont use any software or hardware addons. Just use autofollow, assist, and focus macroes. If that's what youre looking for.

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Originally Posted by Jusa

5 shadow priests, are great too beacuse once you hit 50 you will never run out of mana EVER. if you cast 5 VT's you will get back 250 mana on every priest every 3 seconds that's 6250 mana return for about 250 mana from each priest. not to mention 5 silences 5 aoe fears 5 SW:D's. Drop 1 priest nd pick up a Pally and you have your own instance group.

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Whilst this is true, you have to find a mob that has that sort of HP to make using VT worthwhile. Normal mobs and other players just makes using VT wasteful and inefficient on mana.

As far as using 5x SW:D Only one of your priests will NOT take the hit for using it if you use it in a "spammage" fashion, which sort of makes it a bit less useful in my oppinon.

I'm never quite sure what "old school" means, but back in the UO days I used to have 5 or 6 accounts and although it's a game that didn't lend itself well to "proper" multiboxing, I did often used to have all the accounts logged in to train things like Resist and Parry.

That involved deftly swapping between keyboards and some frenzied alt-tabbing. Effective, but definitely not fun.

As is often the case with such things, "old school" multiboxing in that way was simply not fun for me, and I much prefer today's incarnation :)

i alt-tabbed with my 70 mage and druid for a while (worked really good, just tank and bomb all down) but then came keyclone... 8)

@ Dor

Yup thats exactly what I am talking about. One instance of the game per one "complete" (keyboards and Mice) machine.

Its what I am currently doing. I do really really want to try the 5 shammy thing but funding another two accounts is a bit rough atm.


So what class combo are you going with Dor?

and are there things you would have chosen to do differently if you had known then what you do now?

I used to 3 box in Dark Ages of Camelot using 3 real keyboards...

...then I wrote my own program to control them from one keyboard.

I'd never go back to the dark ages of multi-boxing (pun intended).

I also dual-boxed Diablo 2. There was no follow command, so I actually used two mice/keyboards.

I dual boxed in UO years ago.... triple boxed in SWG.... and Five box in WOW....

I started dual boxing UO about 2001.... so I guess Im old school :)

@ Dor

Yup thats exactly what I am talking about. One instance of the game per one "complete" (keyboards and Mice) machine.

Its what I am currently doing. I do really really want to try the 5 shammy thing but funding another two accounts is a bit rough atm.


So what class combo are you going with Dor?

and are there things you would have chosen to do differently if you had known then what you do now?

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nah I was a multiboxer in eq (ran 6) and just moved over to wow doing the same thing. Started out forming my base grp (mage warr priest) maxxed them out then started lvling all the others 1 at a time. I made 1 of ea class from ea faction maxxed them all and added a few extra mages (since that's what I mainly use for dps)

main grp I use for instancing is: prot warr/pally priest 3 mages
I try diff setups grp wise when I gte bored, but that grp is my old standby.

I normally just run a hunter or pally solo in bgs, but I do run 3 mages every once in a bit for giggles. Arenas I dont mess with much. Have 3v3 team that I run naked (tho I did win one last week since the 3 melee were too stupid to get out of my ae) and lose most of them. Nets me 250ish points a week and allows me free epic gear for my alts.

I do think to be affective in pvp you'd need software or hardware addons to be able to respond to the environment (too much stuff going on to micromanage all 5)

-- With my set up, Ive cleared all non heroic instances and 2 of the easier heroics (sp,mech). Id def recommend prot pally over prot warr for mting your 5 mans (so much less micromanaging with a pally tank).

Sweet! :)

A couple weeks ago I cleared my first BC instance (ramps) with my Hunter Druid Shammy combo. I am waiting to get the shammy up to 70 before I try anything harder though.


As far as the 5 shammy team (which I don't have the cash for yet) I saw a post...

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Originally Posted by Jusa

Some people look at 5 accounts and say OMG that's $75 a month then light up a cigerette. I quit smoking about a year ago and let me tell you that was alot more than $75 a month. This is part of your entertainment spending and please.... You spend more in 1 night at the bar than you do all month on wow.

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Yeah 5 boxing is going to be my reward for quitting smoking! :lol:


Now all I have to do is quit... :cry:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dor

@ Dor

Yup thats exactly what I am talking about. One instance of the game per one "complete" (keyboards and Mice) machine.

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When I played Everquest, I two-boxed like that. But EQ was pretty easy to multi-box. Two-boxing was cake. I can't remember what the button and macro setups were like in EQ anymore, but it was pretty easy to pay most of my attention on my shadow knight as he tanked and DPSed the mobs than it was to pay attention to either the shaman or cleric who was healing him (and debuffing/spellcasting on mobs).

Then again in EQ the basic group dynamic was for a group to wait in some corner while one player brought a mob/mobs back to be killed. Over and over and over and...