Concerns of a new multi boxer

[Inspiration]

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.

[Glord]

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.

[Ossigor]

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.

[moji]

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.

[blast3r]

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.

[TheBigBB]

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.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

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.

[-silencer-]

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.

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.

[Vyndree]

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

[Inspiration]

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.