Solo or Multibox in Expansion?

[Khatovar]

My husband is a graveyard shift, so my day starts when 90% of the US is going to sleep. Lag and population are never an issue for me.

[Korruptor]

Looking to solo play the expansion but we'll see.

Work and family are dictating my life currently.

[Mooni]

Hi, I'd like to reply to the myriad topics that have sprung up in this one thread, but I'll be good and stick to answering your survey.
I will be multiboxing from day one mega SEXY MULTIBOXING MULTICLASS SEXY SEX

Working on mage right now just to make it happen. Check this shizz out:

Pally tank: Crusader Aura.
Hunter: Aspect of the Dazed
Elemental Shaman: Heroism
Mage: Portals (currently level 76; getting to 80 to bump Feral Droopid out of group since they don't share travel power)
Priest: .... doesn't really bring anything to the group, huh? I should respec the shaman and make a lock here instead for summinz. Holy priest is so easy to macro-heal with though, between shields and renews and PoMend and AoE heals. Totally hands off 90+ % of the time.
REALLY looking forward to this. Team Bravo is the DK/4Ret team and I might just macro them into a Word of Glory/Flash of Light castsequence.

[heyaz]

Actually considering going back to single boxing. I appear to be pretty damn good at a frost mage, I guess all the micromanagement of doing multiboxing made me very fast. That and I'm just concerned that quad shaman in rated BGs will be a big joke, already have to play like a superstar to pull the weight of four slots, and that's against pug groups. Against premades? Forget it

[offive]

Boxing all the way... after going old school solo in beta (at some point doing impossible quests with sub par gear, pre zone itemization, felt like classic)

I like the challenge and boxing will be harder in Cata, no more face roll heroics! Hell in some cases I might either go for a pocket healer or tank to ease the crazys until I get enough ilvl 359 gear.

Besides the sound of 5 guns blasting away from my hunter team is just too much fun, and things die kinda fast.

[Catamer]

I don't know. I don't like the changes they are making. the are obviously anti-boxing.
it's not like you can't multibox it's just more difficult and more difficult with each patch.
they could have fixed the zoning problems at ICC... their idea of a fix was to put a ghost like symbol next to players that are zoned out... as if that fixed anything.

The healing changes are so you have to proc-heal and are intended to prevent good healing from someone not paying full attention to healing procs.
the tanking changes are so that you have to proc-tank and are intended to prevent good tanking unless you are paying full attention to the procs.
macro changes were awful.

the best way I can see these changes are when I raid. The raid tanks go POOF now. I used to ALWAY be the last man standing in a raid wipe, the second to last man standing was the off tank. Now we are the first to go every time and who's to say who's fault is it... the tank for not watching his procs or the healers no being ready with a swift heal. I'm starting to get sick of this game... need a 6 month break so I can get over the loss of what I used to have.

[Zub]

I don't know. I don't like the changes they are making. the are obviously anti-boxing.
it's not like you can't multibox it's just more difficult and more difficult with each patch.
they could have fixed the zoning problems at ICC... their idea of a fix was to put a ghost like symbol next to players that are zoned out... as if that fixed anything.

The healing changes are so you have to proc-heal and are intended to prevent good healing from someone not paying full attention to healing procs.
the tanking changes are so that you have to proc-tank and are intended to prevent good tanking unless you are paying full attention to the procs.
macro changes were awful.

the best way I can see these changes are when I raid. The raid tanks go POOF now. I used to ALWAY be the last man standing in a raid wipe, the second to last man standing was the off tank. Now we are the first to go every time and who's to say who's fault is it... the tank for not watching his procs or the healers no being ready with a swift heal. I'm starting to get sick of this game... need a 6 month break so I can get over the loss of what I used to have.

you're joking right? Boxing has been made easier and easier over the expansions. just think CTM and IWT.

Zoning/phasing issues only affect a tiny amount of the wow population, i'm pretty sure it was quite low on their priority list.

Proc-heal and proc-tank are there to make it more interesting, and challenging, instead of a stupid 1-key mashfest. What makes things challenging to single players obviously makes things 5 times more challenging for boxers, but that's the essence of boxing isn't it?

as for tanks going poof.. i remember our main tank going poof in Heroics during TBC, Slave pens for example, tanks one-shotted used to happen. Same before that, in classic or even some BC raid instances. boss would have a lucky streak, and tanks would be dead, and the rest of the raid running/vanishing or feigning death.


Reading you, it seems you're content with the aoe 1-button fest that the end of wrath has been. Well i guess if you want that you'll have to wait ~1 year for gear upgrades to completely outgear content.
In the meantime, you can always unsub. I know i'm impatiently waiting for the exp.

[Ualaa]

The changes to the game, are in Blizzard's opinion the best way for the game to move both to keep existing players (a balance between challenge and content everyone can do/see) and to attract new players to the game.

Basically nothing has been designed from the point of view of helping or hindering multiboxers. Sure, as long as we stick within the ToS/EULA, we generate more revenue than if we were single boxers. But even if you were to count every person who had two accounts (even those who never log them in at once, or perhaps use the Alt-Tab method for trading between accounts) as a boxer, boxers are a very small percentage of the player base.

Click to Move has been an option in the game for a very long time. Interact With Target was brought in to help people with disabilities have an easier time with the game. Sure, those two have combined, to really open melee teams to boxers, but neither option was put in specifically for boxing.

Click Castsequences required initial configuration, and their removal follows a trend. With Burning Crusade, Blizzard broke the ability for me to macro a finishing move if I had 5 combo points, but to cast a combo point building move with 4 or fewer combo points. They have removed the ability for Decursive to automatically target someone in your raid, choose the correct decurse, and decurse that character while you play your Paladin via auto-follow and button mashing with your monitor off. A click castsequence is mindless play, where once the macro has been configured, you make no choices at all, just mindlessly mash a button; as a ranged DPS you could auto follow a friend and one button mash most of a raid. Removal of mindless actions or addons/macros making choices for us, is not aimed at making boxing hard but rather towards making the game more challenging.

Proc based abilities were put in, to keep combat as a dynamic activity. Looking from the perspective of a one-boxer... you are a tank, DPS, or healer, you receive a proc which occurs at random intervals. If you notice the proc and click the relevant ability you gain a benefit from doing so. From Blizzard's point of view, these should be impossible to macro precisely, forcing you to react to relatively random events; that gives an edge to perceptive players or those with quicker reflexes, and helps to keep every encounter more exciting then a one button mash technique. Sure as boxers, we can approximate the clicking of procs, but it won't be as effective as one-boxing.

The healing changes are to make mana an important resource, rather than an infinitely supplied resource and thus not important at all. In the current end game, they could just remove the mana cost entirely and give players an infinite mana supply. It would not impact the game in a large way. I remember raiding in Molten Core, getting low on mana, and having to decide (for the good of the raid) who got to live and who had to die. This model will encourage DPS to not be idiots and have to be bailed out by healers who waste a large amount of mana to keep up a relatively squishy target, when the tank would have lasted 8x as long for the same amount of mana.

Phasing is an incredible tool. We start in an area, do things to change the world, and the world around us changes because of our actions. Sure, they break follow which is a major annoyance for a boxer. However, 99.397% (just picking a large number) of the player base will be running across a phase line manually controlling their toon. Occasionally a one-boxer will auto follow a friend and go to the washroom; and maybe lose follow because of the phase line. It sucks that those break follow, but that is a very minor consideration against having the world change for players based on their actions.

The game changes over time. I don't like every change that has come, nor do I dislike them all. I'm still playing the game, so that says overall I am happy with it. You have a choice whether it is enjoyable or not; who gives a shit if I like the game when you're the one who is spending your money for entertainment? If you find it fun, then it might be worth a few bucks each month, but if you don't enjoy it, what is the point? Breaks can be healthy and they can renew the fun of the game too, that's another option.

[Tyval]

I've just come back after a 6month break from WoW. Right now I'm having fun relearning what I use to know as well as adjusting to all the new changes.

I plan on 5 boxing Cata, though I'm a bit nervous about how hard the new dungeons will be to MB.

I'm hopeful that they will require new techniques and skills but with practice most will be doable.

I figure with the rush of folks, I plan to level as much as I can in the normal instances. I figure I can learn the fights, get gear, avoid the crowds and be more ready once I hit 85 to start trying the easy heroics.

Between now and then I want to improve my MB skill, adding CC as an option etc.

I guess if it proves to difficult, I'll move to solo until gear makes things easier.

On the bright side I have so many ways I can get better. I remember reading on these forums about a fellow who brought a new team to 80 and then completed all the heroics (as well as I think heroic dungeon achievement) without relying on all the uber gear. I figure that shows how much more room I have for improvement .

[Zub]

The healing changes are to make mana an important resource, rather than an infinitely supplied resource and thus not important at all. In the current end game, they could just remove the mana cost entirely and give players an infinite mana supply. It would not impact the game in a large way. I remember raiding in Molten Core, getting low on mana, and having to decide (for the good of the raid) who got to live and who had to die. This model will encourage DPS to not be idiots and have to be bailed out by healers who waste a large amount of mana to keep up a relatively squishy target, when the tank would have lasted 8x as long for the same amount of mana.

I remember in MC we used to have 'teams' of healers, with one team healing, and the other doing nothing, just regenerating mana, and rotating teams whenever the healing team was getting OOM.
Had to have several weapons to swap in fight, one with +healing stats for healing, one with massive spirit stats for regen