Okay, so I am computer-impaired....

[AtroxCasus]

Hi guys, I posted in here a while back and everyone was great. I got held up by real life, but now I'm back and geeked up on RaF. My plan is to link the "recruited" accounts to my main, and then gift levels to some of the alts I have on my main account. After that, I know my stepson would love his own wow account with at least one 60 (maybe 70, budget allowing).

Anyway, I finally figured out that maximizer wants you to type out "region1" and not just put a "1" in the box next to region, lol...I downloaded Rob's premade setup and **BAM** I had a full on 1680x1020 (i think) instance running with a little teeny instance on the right hand side right above my action bar for the second account, switching easily between the 2 using F8 and F9. So caught up am I that I suddenly have 2 more RaF accounts...(addiction??)

Okay, too verbose. On to the point...there really is one... I know that many people recommend multiboxing out of separate WoW folders...I am not sure why or how to set this up. I do think it would be great if I could copy the variables from my first clone into my 2 new ones...I would think that would take the keybindings and macros I have written just to dual box, copy them into 2 more accounts and allow me to instantly have them set up for 4 boxing.

I'm running a great setup...Q6600 , dual 8800GT 512, and 4GB of Ram, Windows XP, on one 24 inch monitor, (I am skeered of Vista). In Keyclone, I have it set up to launch each of my original 2 instances on separate cores. I plan on linking the 2 new ones to each of the 2 unused cores.

Is there a "safe" way to duplicate the setup of my original clone to 2 new ones? Is there any point to having the different WoW folders? If it has been explained here, I have been unable to find it. I did find some cool other information that has helped me out. I'm just a "learn by doing" person, and some of the explanations leave my head hurtin...like setting up mages to be able to sheep different targets. My 2 new ones will be mages, and they will join 2 shammies. I use a focus oriented setup on the shammies, the clone focuses the main, and then I use /follow focus and /assist focus macros to kill stuff. Will this "blend" with mage playstyle, or will I need to modify?

Dammit, now this post looks like crap. Hard to focus when a 3 year old wants to help me type...Hope I was at least clear enough that someone can help me out...the folder question, the copying variables to multiple characters, and the best follow/assist setup for mage/shammy.

[Apophysis]

Do you mean the WoW setup (i.e., sound/video settings, macros, savedvariables from addons, etc)? If so, such settings are kept in the \WTF directory and can be account/character specific (depending on the addon if that's what you're asking about). Character specific are stored under \WTF\account\<accountname>\<charactername>

Also, with 4GB of RAM are you running Windows 32bit or 64bit?

[AtroxCasus]

32 Bit. I was going to upgrade to Vista, but nobody I know really likes it much. XP has always been reliable. I did get 4 instances of WoW up and running using Keyclone. It's pretty cool Rob has it set up so you can download maximizers layouts, too. I used the 1650x1080 4 box setup he had, and it works great!

[mikekim]

rather than using seperate wow folders to run your characters from do a search on "Junction linking" which will allow you to run multiple copies of wow from one folder with seperate WTF folders and addons if required.

as for using the mage on follow this is quite acceptable (i've done this with between 2-4 mages on follow, behind different characters) all specced as fire (for better DPS). the only spell i found that i really needed was:

/cast [target=focus, nodead, harm] fireball

(as all followers where set to /follow, /focus and /assist party1)

one or two shots depending on the level of the mob was all that was needed to kill most things ( i had other spells setup, but only ever had to use them on fire resistant mobs) you could also bind them on the same keys as your lightning bolt on the shammy for co-ordinated attacks from both characters.

[AtroxCasus]

Some of the info I have come across suggests using separate WoW folders will increase performance, or prevent reduced performance depending on your point of view. I ran around with 4 toons yesterday and didn't notice any appreciable problems.

Thanks for the input on mages. I was planning on binding similar spells to the same keys across both classes. I am going to have one mage use Frostbolt if for no other reason than the slow effect, giving me more time to cast before the shammies would have to lay the smack down hand to hand style.

I still have not found a post or explanation of how people are assigning multiple sheep targets to the mages. The setup I have now would have the 3 clones end up attacking or sheeping whatever the main has targetted when she starts her attack. In solo play, my mage targets something, and then I have a macro that simultaneously sets it as focus and sheeps it, allowing me to target the tank's target, and resheep as needed. Hopefully, while running multiple toons, I won't have to worry about re-sheeping, but it would be nice to have each mage able to sheep separate targets, and still add fireballs to the dmg on the mains actual fight target. (I'm sure my terminology is off on some of this). Since my mages will have my main set as focus, and also following and assisting focus, I guess I would need to make a separate macro for each mage that sets the mains target as focus and sheeps it, making sure each mage has it set on a different key...then target mob1, have mage 1 sheep, target mob2 have mage 2 sheep, then target fight mob and use the /setfocus main /assist /cast fireball macro?

[Apophysis]

Check out the macros here and in our wiki here.

Simplistically (not a literal translation of how the macros work):
1) you'll use the main to target
2) set one mage's focus on this first target
3) target another target with your main
4) and set a different mage's focus on the second target
5) cast polymorph with both mages on their focus

Requires multiple key pressing of course but once you have focuses set you won't need to retarget those targets in order to re-cast polymorph.

[MrWoW]

I dual-boxed a warlock/spriest to 60 to catch up to my other 60 warlock to tri-box with. At first I started with 2 WoW folders (WoWMain and WoWSlave folders). When I started tri-boxing I made a copy of my WoWSlave and I now have WoWMain, WoWSlave1 and WoWSlave2 folders. WoWMain is on 1 HD (and CPU-0) and the Slaves are on a separate HD (and CPU-1). I did it like this as the WoWSlave's have a much different UI than WoWMain and by simply copying it I saved setup hassles. I found playing from the same WoW folder also caused a few graphical issues and some minor lag that went away when I moved to separate folders. I also play my 'slaves' sometimes solo with friends and keeping different WoW's helps me switch from 'slave mode' to 'solo mod' alot easier by a simple log off/on to the appropriate WoW.

[AtroxCasus]

HOw do you determine which folder is being used by what toon?

[AtroxCasus]

here[/url] and in our wiki here.

Simplistically (not a literal translation of how the macros work):
1) you'll use the main to target
2) set one mage's focus on this first target
3) target another target with your main
4) and set a different mage's focus on the second target
5) cast polymorph with both mages on their focus

Requires multiple key pressing of course but once you have focuses set you won't need to retarget those targets in order to re-cast polymorph.

Thanks. What I am not getting is if I am using /setfocus "main" and /follow focus and /assist focus [target=focus target] ...will I still be able to set up a macro where I am targetting with the main, then setting that target as the mages focus? I would have to do a /clearfocus at the beginning of the macro, right? Then, I also won't be able to use the follow macro unless the mob is dead, because if I hit my follow, it will clear the focus (the mob) and set focus on my lead. I get the macros for straight up sheeping and the concept of setting each mages focus through macros and the main "setting" those focus targets. I'm just not clear on how to incorporate that into my current use of focus for follows and assist. When I was first trying out dual boxing, I was using a simple macro that was basically "/target "main" /follow /assist and found it required me to constantly hit it after targetting a mob and before casting anything because they would otherwise remain on my main and not tthe mob.
I hope that makes sense. I know 2 shammies and 2 mages is a weird combo, but ATM I am not planning on keeping any of them around past the RaF benefits except for a shaman on my main account. Finding guildies to fill in for tanks and heals won't be a problem. I just wanted a DPS combo to start out with and learn to box before moving on to dmg/healy combos.

[Apophysis]

I would have to do a /clearfocus at the beginning of the macro, right?

Basically, yes. If you use /focus in your main macro (to follow, etc.) and/or in your targeting macros then you'll need to clearfocus in the polymorph macro. You're also correct that hitting the main macro (again, to follow, etc.) before your new focus is dead could reset focus (depends on the use of clearfocus and some other possibilities in your setup).

Here's an example

I personally don't use a /focus based multiboxing setup. I run PVE teams so I'm content with using the standard /target party1 & /assit party1 type macro setups. If my tank goes down I'm high-tailing it out or wiping. This allows me to use /focus exclusively for crowd control. Now, that's not to say that you cannot use /focus based setups and still succesfully use /focus for CC...it simply didn't suit my macro & play styles.

Edit: I should actually clarify my first paragraph above. You can actually set your /focus in a separate macro from the /cast polymorph macro. Thus, your /clearfocus statement would belong with whatever macro is used to set /focus on a target.