New to Multi-Boxing and hello!

[Nekron]

Hi!

Although this might seem redundant with all the new people joining this hobby, just thought I would say hi.

First off, I admire what you 3-4-5-10 (heh even 2) boxers do... the few times I tried dual-boxing, i was completely lost. The setups you guys have are purely mental and the ability you play 5+ characters at once in such a smooth way makes me jealous. :roll:

I have read many threads in most of the forum categories and figured I had to start somewhere.

I currently have a PIV 3.6 ghz (bloody old... I know :wink: ) 2 GB Ram and a geforce 6800 CTO 256mb vid card.

I read that my setup was fine (someone had similar gear) but that a dual-core CPU (or quad) might improve a lot and that a slightly better vid card (was thinking geforce 8800 GTS 640mb) would help a lot too if i want to play 2+ clients on 1 computer (3 monitors).

I currently have a couple 70s on alliance and recently made the switch to horde (bored of raiding). I presume that starting 2 equal level toons is mandatory and that my 38 pally will have to be put to rest for a while. (at least until the other account has a 38 too).

As said, I will only use 1 comp with 2 monitors to dual-box for now, I read that AutoHotkey was complicated to learn but the other one (which is not freeware, cant remember the name right now) was easier and more functionnal.

I read on many things that require either past-experience or slight coding experience, but I was wondering what other beginners used for software-addons-macro dual-boxing. and what more experienced players use also.

If i missed a thread depicting all I am asking to know, I appologize and would appreciate being forwarded to the aforementioned thread.

Thanks in advance!

[TheStender]

Welcome, I just started dual boxing myself, but with only one monitor. Kind of sucks right now.

Lots of info to read here, I don't even understand it all. (Like how do you even bind an action to Alt+Ctrl+Shift+3?) Anyways...

The program is keyclone, and it costs $10, and it's extremely simple to use. Like...really, really simple.

As for macros, right now I only use two since I don't understand them at all, or what I can do to make it easier/better. I use

/target "main"
/follow

and

/target "main"
/assist

So I have a lot to learn as well.

As for leveling them at the same time, I'm pretty sure it's recommended that you do so. Right now I have a level 11 and a level 9, and even that is kind of difficult to manage for me, I need to bring the level 9 up to really make them work well together.

Read the stickies for a lot of information. Good luck to ya.

[Rhod]

Hiya Nekron and Welcome

The stickies in the Macro's & Addon's Forum will have a TON of useful information. Here are a couple posts to get started:

http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums2/viewtopic.php?t=1219

http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums2/viewtopic.php?t=1220

I use keyclone for boxing 2 accounts on 1 computer and it's easy as pie to set up. I haven't tried it on a dual-monitored set up, but I don't see it being an issue. Don't have any experience with AHK, but I'm sure someone will provide some input.

After you get keyclone (or whatever keyboard broadcaster you want to use)and set up some macros....go pwn some stuff....lol. It's really just that easy. You don't need to know coding to multi-box. Just copy the macro's you want to use, change the spell name/character name if necessary, then your good to go.

It'd be a good idea to update your Graphics Card. That GPU will probably struggle quite a bit to run 2 instances of WOW on dual monitors. Your processor and Memory should be OK though.

This is a great community so if you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask.

[Nekron]

Thanks for the welcome and tips! ill definately look into keyclone and learn some macros.

Looking forward to this

[Vyndree]

That GPU will probably struggle quite a bit to run 2 instances of WOW on dual monitors.

I've heard that running wow on 2 monitors on a dual-head graphics card kills the performance. Basically, what I've heard is that running off of anything but your main monitor if you're using 1 computer will kill performance.

But, that's just what I've heard. I run 5 seperate comps and monitors so it's not first hand experience.

[Nekron]

Linux isnt THAT bad.... ok a bit.

so i should up to a sli 2xgeforce 6800 256 instead of 1 geforce 8800 GTS 640, if i use 2 screens, thanks

[Nekron]

Oh ok, i miss-read then. so if i comprehend, im better off reducing the resolution, or simply playing with 1 window in smaller resolution (slave toon) minimized most of the time while the master toon is in regular resolution, rather than using the 2 vid ports.

anyways, if i read on keyclone properly, i can kill the sound to improve performance and minimize the slave window to even more increase it. since keyclone is client-based it will still interact with the minimized window whilst not hurting performance.

Am i getting this properly?

[Nekron]

Correct.

If you have a dual-head card, and you use both ports, and use WoW on both ports, you'll get bad performace.

If you have two WoWs on one port / screen, you'll get better performance.

true just tested it, huge difference (caped at 60 with 2 clients on 1 monitor, going down to 20 with 1 client per monitor)

just got to learn how to use that Keyclone thingy properly and ill be all set hehe

[Kel]

Edit: Sorry this ended up a rather long post

I'll leave the how-too's to more knowledgeable people. if you do want to level your pala as one of your dual-box group you can always have it helping your other dude level up.

I have a priest and warrior who are now almost at the same point, what I've done up until this point is use my priest just for healing, to minimise my warriors downtime.

The priest isn't grouped with the warrior (as this would reduce xp gain).

If you wanted to do this for your pala what you'd need is a targeting macro with your mains name (rather than a party number, as you won't be grouped).

Then stick your healing spells on a button (probably worth downranking as it's not worth healing your toon for 1k if they only have 300hp)

Stick your buffs on a different button (so wisdom for casters, might for melee).

Then Seal of light, wisdom, justice on another button and Judgement on the last.

For the judgement one you probably want a macro that reads along the lines of:

/assist <main's name>
/cast [harm] Judgement
/stopattack
/target <main's name>

Fairly simple, but basically it will judge whatever your main is fighting with whichever seal you have up and then retarget your main (so you can carry on healing. The /stopattack is to prevent your pala one-shotting the mob if it's in melee range (never used it, so apologies if my wording is wrong).

So you can use light for melee toons, wisdom for casters and justice to stop the mobs running off and agroing other groups.

So your pala can turn into a nice support bot while your secondary class levels up to the same level.

[Nekron]

Nice suggestion Kel! i presume i can tag lvl 10+ mobs with my lowbie and kill them with the pally too? or has blizz found ways to block this ?