Which software solution is right for my goal (listed with specifics)

Hello all,

I found this website seeking information on dual boxing, which is actually my secondary goal, as a result of primary goal being how fast I could level 2 toons using Recruit a Friend and full BoA setup, if I can dual box.

I would like to run only a 2 toon team, using a software solution, to maximize leveling speed 1 to 85, since I just RAF myself.

I would like to use Zygor at the same time. I have explored and leveled several toons, and I like speed, notices that tell me "you can go to next zone now", along with auto accept/turn in of quests, when I IWT on single toon with wow.
(using some terms I learned here so yo can tell I read the 2 nub guides, and watched a few of mirai's videos).
I can turn off the auto accept/turn in feature in Zygor, if that would conflict with Jamba...

My goal is to level by questing, having 1 toon following a leader. The leader will do 99% of the work. All I want for now, is the follower to : 1. Follow, 2. loot as directed, 3. interact with quest giver as directed.
(once I am comfortable with how this works, I may practice being more active with a follower)

ISBoxer seems like alot of horsepower to get started with, could I possibly get my feet wet with Jamba alone ?
I do not mind paying for software or donating to websites, I believe in supporting the work and time people put out there. I am.... well over 30, and have recently gone back to school for a BS in Applied Math, and its hard work (for me) so I understand time is valuable! Which leads me to want to dual box perhaps.

My system specs I wish to do this on may be part of the equation so here goes :

i7 860 running at 3.4Ghz
2 x 4GB Ram 1600 mhz default timing
2 monitors, default resolution 1900x1200
1 graphics card, ASUS CU II TOP 7970
WoW is installed on SSD, I have other, seperate Hard drives.

Should be able to run more that just 2 clients, but I want to practice with just 2, and a simpler goal of questing from 1 to 85 and determine how much fun it is for me, before I get into paying for better software, instancing tank and healer,3rd+ accounts, etc. I am a little overwhelmed by all the information here, and linked to. I just got done with finals, tough semester, and thought I would treat myself by RAF and filling a few more character slots with 85's. THEN I found this place and realized I had no idea where to start.

So I am asking if you think ISBoxer is overkill for my specific goal at this time, and if so what might be a better software solution to get me started.

Regards,
Mathrod

Jamba is not a multiplexer, it does not have the ability to pass any keystrokes between the master and slave clients. You would be able to follow, but you still need to be able to pass keypresses to be able to make use of the ingame Interact with Target option for picking up and turning in quests. The same with looting, you will again need assist and interact passed.

If you aren't ready to make a commitment to ISBoxer, there are many options out there. Check the Newbie's Guide Vol 1 - it gives a list of various boxing programs ranging from free to 1time fee to subscription. You also have the option of requesting a trial on the ISBoxer site. The Newbies Guides also include all the basics and move into more advanced information on how to multibox and contains a whole load of links to various setup guides no matter what you choose.

Just to add to Khats comment, and "second" about "Jamba is not a multiplexer",

to be blunt, if all the OP is looking to do is /follow and lead with one during RAF 99% of the work on the leader, it may be a circumstance where ALT+TAB is used for /follow then play, and forget the boxing software or hardware. If the OP has a macro-able keyboard...

When gamers get into software for boxing, typically they want to box. So, that being the case, there are quick setups for just about all the different software multiplexers now. Like "Basic" setups. or Quick Wizard setups.

Im curious however, if one toon (assuming) is max level or high level 30+ difference, doesnt the RaF not allow you to grant levels? And if a high level is powerleveling a lower level toon, doesnt it lower the amount of exp gain for the low level toon? Even at 300% exp gain... 300% at 10XP is only 30XP. vs two toons near same level, the exp could be 1000XP with 300% making it 3000XP.

If youre questing, only do the pick up quests on the new account toon, and dont do them for your original account toon, because you can grant levels to catch up and skip a lot.
Have your high level toon, acquire the BoAs. Make two new toons (original account and new account). Give the BoA's to the new account toon. When the new toon out levels due to the exp gain of he RaF plus the BoA's... Grant levels to the other toon on the original account.

... that being said, If by the OP, you are thinking about a boxing setup AT ALL, then go with one with a quick wizard setup, get you the basics going in 5-10 mins, and be boxing two new toons. double the power, much higher exp within 7 levels of one another. I dont know exactly what the formula is for power leveling vs EXP loss by % damage done by level, but I know its significant past a 7 level difference.

Having been in a similar situation (I knew nothing about multiboxing before I found this website), I can't say enough great things about ISboxer. (Personal Bias!)

If you can't get all that you want done (your list) by the end of the free trial, then boxing might not be for you since ISBoxer is that easy to set up and work with. The Wizard alone saves so much time. You literally should be able to get 90% of what you want done in 20 minutes assuming you have your accounts set-up and characters created.

I went from 1 toon to 5 toons in about 2 hours, and within a day was able to multibox my first dungeon. I've had more challenges learning new classes and setting up in-game macros than 90% of how ISBoxer works. Everything you've listed, in terms of difficulty and set-up, is at the lower end of the spectrum of difficulty.

And like @Apps said - if money is an issue and you really have no desire to do anything more complicated than you have listed... you can do most of what you are saying by just opening two clients and alt-tabbing and just putting one toon on /follow and only switching back to turn in quests etc. Or use one of the free software solutions.

Just be forewarned: You will quickly want to try more than 2 characters once the concept of multiboxing clicks. The curve from going from 2 to 5 is minimal.

If it helps - I am 30. Referencing that since you listed your age.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wakasm

Just be forewarned: You will quickly want to try more than 2 characters once the concept of multiboxing clicks. The curve from going from 2 to 5 is minimal.

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Aint that the damned truth. I went from solo play, to dual boxing, 4 days later into 5 boxing, because 2 was not enough. Im considering stepping into the 10 boxer bucket soon. /facepalm

Damn you Lax for making too good of an awesome product!

Keyclone is more than ample for your needs - isboxer is very advanced. If your needs wont stretch past what you've posted (i.e. All youre looking to do is multiply 6x5) consider keyclone to be the calculator to isboxer's microsoft excel.

I used Keyclone back when it first came out as beta. The author would come on the forums, ask what we'd all like to see, and he actually implemented just about all the requests. It was neat to see all the concepts the author put in, with the help of this community. Round robin keys, white lists, etc. I remember the guy was charging something like $10 per computer or something like that, not sure what it is now. It was the best software solution at the time, ISBoxer wasn't out then.

A lot of people were into hardware methods for multiboxing...multiplexers, special keypads, 5 computers, 5 monitors, etc. Hardly see that these days.

I would say ISBoxer is by far the better software solution. I think it's $15 for 3 months? It can be a bit overwhelming at first, but just watch the videos and read the guides a few times. I think the author, Lax, now runs this website also. And Uulaa is really helpful.

I know this has been done before, but for the benefit of OP a list of features may be more helpful than people's say so ( i use isboxer ;) )

Keyclone: basic key broadcaster with window swap and very limited mouse broadcaster $20 one off
Hotkeynet: scripted broadcaster with plenty of flexibility, free i believe but harder to setup
Alt-tab: win
Innerspace/ isboxer: rolls royce and online support. Wizard included for quick set up. Dont underestimate how long that could take with other software.
Pwnboxer: no idea, does anyone have facts on this( no opinions please)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Apps

Just to add to Khats comment, and "second" about "Jamba is not a multiplexer",

to be blunt, if all the OP is looking to do is /follow and lead with one during RAF 99% of the work on the leader, it may be a circumstance where ALT+TAB is used for /follow then play, and forget the boxing software or hardware. If the OP has a macro-able keyboard...

When gamers get into software for boxing, typically they want to box. So, that being the case, there are quick setups for just about all the different software multiplexers now. Like "Basic" setups. or Quick Wizard setups.

Im curious however, if one toon (assuming) is max level or high level 30+ difference, doesnt the RaF not allow you to grant levels? And if a high level is powerleveling a lower level toon, doesnt it lower the amount of exp gain for the low level toon? Even at 300% exp gain... 300% at 10XP is only 30XP. vs two toons near same level, the exp could be 1000XP with 300% making it 3000XP.

If youre questing, only do the pick up quests on the new account toon, and dont do them for your original account toon, because you can grant levels to catch up and skip a lot.
Have your high level toon, acquire the BoAs. Make two new toons (original account and new account). Give the BoA's to the new account toon. When the new toon out levels due to the exp gain of he RaF plus the BoA's... Grant levels to the other toon on the original account.

... that being said, If by the OP, you are thinking about a boxing setup AT ALL, then go with one with a quick wizard setup, get you the basics going in 5-10 mins, and be boxing two new toons. double the power, much higher exp within 7 levels of one another. I dont know exactly what the formula is for power leveling vs EXP loss by % damage done by level, but I know its significant past a 7 level difference.

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I have a Razer Naga mouse, I do not have a macro keyboard. Yes, all I want to do for now is run two toons around together to get the bonus XP from RAF. They both need to be able to "IWT" with quest giver. Zygor already has a setting for auto accept and turn in, requiring further input if there is a reward to select. I want both toons to level to 85, not just one with granting levels to the partner. I am going to hold the grantable levels to give to a different toon on veteran account.

Comments gave me a lot to think about. Time spent learning, researching, and setting up is time not spent leveling. So it looks like ISBoxer (+ Jamba) would be the way to go. It also seems like for "stage 1" I could just take toons out together and change who is following who. With 2 monitors, I would not have to window switch, but I am considering alt tabbing and not using a 2nd monitor at all. I don't specifically want to multibox, I want to level two toons at the same time, following the same quest line. Much later on, I may want to do a "...hey I think I could use this software to heal my tank while I....." etc etc.

If you opt to go manually at first, you can set Jamba up to automatically share quests from your master to slave, and forgo the IWT, but not all quests are sharable, so make sure to doublecheck that your slave receives all the quests. Quests that require the use of an item are often unshareable. So you'll need to manually accept those on the slave. And you'd also have to manually loot by switching to the slave screen as well.

If you want to have two toons level together, via questing.

For RAF, they need to be:
- Grouped
- On directly RAF linked accounts (Example A > B > C, etc... A+B or B+C).
- Within +/- 4 levels of each other
- Both level 79 or lower
- Within a certain physical proximity of each other

If you were to run say 2x Elemental Shaman.
Having them both cast, will result in mobs dying twice as quickly.
And rather than using 80% of the mana on one Shaman, you use 40% of the mana on each...
Meaning, more kills before needing to stop, and the ability to survive larger pulls than a single character can survive.
And faster killing, resulting in reaching higher levels in less time played.




If your goal is the maximum number of characters, from RAF...

You're going to want to boost, which means having a minimum of three accounts.
The first account (A) has a booster on it.
Generally you link A to the others, purely for receiving benefits.

You need two (or more accounts) to group together and be similar level, so they get RAF benefits.
With three accounts, you'd go A > B > C.
With five accounts, you'd go: A > B > C & A > D > E.

The basic idea is that B/C (and possibly D/E) qualify for RAF, because they're together/similar level/their accounts are linked/etc...
Even if A/B (or A/D) won't work, because A is level 85...
The B/C (or D/E) does work...

So you group your accounts together.
And your 85 can kill stuff very quickly.
Quest from 1st to 10th, the goal here is quest rewards...
Since having an 85th (in your party) greatly reduces the experience from killing mobs.

Once you reach 10th, you can do instances.
An 85 can easily survive every single mob (at the same time), in almost any dungeon you're going to be boosting in, especially pre-WotLK.
While an 85 will leach a large amount of the experience...
Your two level 30 toons (just an example), could go to Cathedral (Scarlet Monastery), and survive 1-2 mobs at once... but would be decimated by 3+ level 35 elite mobs.
You might get 1000 experience (picking a number out of my ass here) with the two toons.
If you put an 85 in the party, you might only get 200 experience (again picking a number).
But your 85 can pull 75 mobs in the first pull, and 75 in the second pull... and clear the entire instance is 3-4 minutes instead of the 45 minutes it would take your two toons.

If you do the math... 150 mobs (at 200 each) in under 5 minutes... vs 150 mobs (at 1,000 each), in 45 minutes...
And that's assuming you don't pull 3 at once and die, run back, etc...
Boosting is MUCH quicker, by an order of magnitude or two.

My goal, and what I want is :

"My goal is to level by questing, having 1 toon following a leader. The leader will do 99% of the work. All I want for now, is the follower to : 1. Follow, 2. loot as directed, 3. interact with quest giver as directed.
(once I am comfortable with how this works, I may practice being more active with a follower)" <<--software solution for this would make me happy and do what I want

I am aware of RAF restrictions and usage policies.
I do not want 3 accounts.
I am not interested in boosting.

I am also aware I can manually switch back and forth between windows, running two monitors, or one.

I have the maximum number of characters on one account. 6 of them are 85. I am asking to find out how I might use a software solution to speed/assist/make simpler, RAF quest leveling 2 toons together.
The toons not 85 are lock, paladin, shaman, druid. I can solo level every one of them, questing, killing every thing that needs killing and not run out of health/mana, ever.
I see your logic that having both perform combat functions would speed things up. Thats a bit more than I am looking for at this point, I may be getting into the area where I realize this hobby is not for me ? (I saw that in the FAQ's/nub guides you folks have)

I have been doing reading and searching all day, and have gotten zero leveling done :o

Let me try and sum it up again.

The "least" I ever want to do is what I requoted above. Getting both toons to kill, is not a need right now.
The "most" would be eventually being able to run a 2 toon group for fun, dailies, something of that sort. and that would be MUCH later. I play on a populated server, have toons in 2 guilds... finding someone to do something with is not a problem.
This is a desire to level 2 toons, by themselves, questing, RAF, and BoA, as quick as I can. Then I would do the other 2. That is all. I do not want them boosted by a 3rd. I do not want to dungeon with them. I do not want to PvP with them.

Nearly all, if not all, programs mentioned here read as capable of helping me do that. The "best" for me would be the easiest, and quickest, to get setup and do the 2 person questing with. Pretty certain I do not need Jamba for my simple desires. Window switching to accept quests is fine with me.

-mathrod

If you're going to continue to run the accounts, as a boxed pair.
I'd go with either IS Boxer ($50/year), or if you're comfortable writing your own scripts Hot Key Net (Free).

If you're boxing, just for the leveling up.
And will be running two separate accounts, once the leveling is done.
Use HKN (if you're comfortable writing your scripts) or Keyclone ($20, lifetime license) if you're not.

IS Boxer has far superior mouse broadcasting.
Gets you instant swapping between master/slave.
And is very user friendly, in that you can just plant a spell on '1' for both toons, and press '1' in-game on either toon which will have them both cast at the active region's target.

If you go with another boxing software.
Use /focus, that's going to be the easiest assist method.
Everyone has a /focus ToonA and everyone has a /focus Toon B.
Toon A Focus, is on the same keybind for everyone; when you push it, they all focus the same toon.
Then you DPS with: /cast [@focustarget] NukeSpellHere
And Heal with: /cast [@focustarget,help][@focustargettarget,help] HealSpellHere
And Follow with: /follow [@focus]



If you're leveling two together...
Via questing or running instances, etc.

Go with double damage, even if you'll play as Heals/Tank at maximum level.
You'll kill faster, and with both regenerating mana... have less down time; not to mention survive harder pulls.




If money is not a consideration...
The cost of an extra Battlechest + WotLK expansion...
Then RAF A > B > C.
Boost toons on B/C, with A.
When you're done RAF, discard C and forget about ever owning that account.
It's still going to be a lot faster than questing with A/B.

You could even do B = Pally, C = Mage.
Then transfer the Mage to B, for really fast leveling... if the goal is maximum toons in minimum time.

If it's: I want to play the game, and enjoy the questing process...
Then RAF is irrelevant, and boosting is detrimental to experiencing the lore and learning the insides of every class and combination.

Ok, lemme see if I can sum this all up for you.

First, and I believe we accidentally skipped over this. Welcome to the forums!

Now, I'll pull a few quotes to help nail down my comment below.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wakasm

Having been in a similar situation (I knew nothing about multiboxing before I found this website), I can't say enough great things about ISboxer. (Personal Bias!) :SNIP:

If you can't get all that you want done (your list) by the end of the free trial, then boxing might not be for you since ISBoxer is that easy to set up and work with. The Wizard alone saves so much time. You literally should be able to get 90% of what you want done in 20 minutes assuming you have your accounts set-up and characters created.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by thefunk

Innerspace/ isboxer: rolls royce and online support. Wizard included for quick set up. Dont underestimate how long that could take with other software.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by mathrod

So it looks like ISBoxer (+ Jamba) would be the way to go. It also seems like for "stage 1" I could just take toons out together and change who is following who.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by mathrod

This is a desire to level 2 toons, by themselves, questing, RAF, and BoA, as quick as I can. Then I would do the other 2. That is all. I do not want them boosted by a 3rd. I do not want to dungeon with them. I do not want to PvP with them.

Nearly all, if not all, programs mentioned here read as capable of helping me do that. The "best" for me would be the easiest, and quickest, to get setup and do the 2 person questing with. Pretty certain I do not need Jamba for my simple desires. Window switching to accept quests is fine with me.

-mathrod

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Im also 30+ in my years. Married, strong career, many kids. My time is very valuable. I started boxing quite a while ago, but no where near as long as the majority of the brain trust in this community. I also tried a couple different softwares until I settled on ISBoxer.


tl:dr - Get in the free trial of ISBoxer plus Jamba. You can accomplish nearly if not all of your leveling before the trial. The software will be the easiest and quickest to get set up, and get you going. If after the free trail you decide you dont need or arent interested in all it offers, no problem, you can ditch it completely, and pick up one of the free ones that are less sophisticated with a harder set up. If however you decide you want to just stick with it. As you mentioned, paying for it really isnt an issue... its $10.00 for 90 days. ... Ive wasted more than $10.00 just writing this post for you.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mathrod

With 2 monitors, I would not have to window switch, but I am considering alt tabbing and not using a 2nd monitor at all. I don't specifically want to multibox, I want to level two toons at the same time, following the same quest line. Much later on, I may want to do a "...hey I think I could use this software to heal my tank while I....." etc etc.

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...oh and its worth mentioning, ISBoxer also has a window wizard too. You can use 1, or 2, or ~+ monitors. 1, or 2, or 99+ client windows within those monitors or monitor. (all be it 99 on one monitor may be a bit hard to see..lol) Anyway, you 100% definitely wont need to ALT+TAB for anything, with ISBoxer and Jamba.

Thanks to everyone. I think I will do as you suggest with ISBoxer. Btw, LOVE the avatar.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mathrod

Thanks to everyone. I think I will do as you suggest with ISBoxer. Btw, LOVE the avatar.

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lol. Thanks. .. and good luck! :)