Hello, and Thanks! (Oh, and some questions.)

[bblakeney]

Hey guys, just discovered the world of multi-boxing and, by extension, this site, so let me say this: Hello to everyone! Just read about utilizing the "Recruit-A-Friend" Feature and I must say, I'm hooked. I've been decent at WoW for a while now (although like most relationships, we've had our spats), but having just discovered that my Macbook Pro can dual-box with nary a glitch, I'm stoked that I'm a part of the enigmatic and powerful community of multi-boxers. But, like many of those with a tremendous power thrust on them, I've got some questions!

Let's start with Question One: What race/class/race/class combo should I choose? I'd like to avoid doubling up characters (I.E. Shaman and Shaman), although I'd like to keep things relatively simple as this is all quite new to me. I've read up on the other forums about picking a class as well, and read the wiki, although they seem to be geared towards multi-boxers (5...6...7... Crazy!) - and generally they pick Shamans, which I am terrible at playing. To help you help me better (can't be selfish, now!), I'll lay out a little list of classes I'd like to have 70s of, and classes I'm good with. Classes I love and can play well:
-Hunters. Yes, I know they're easy mode, but I like their skills, their armor, their soloing ability, etc. I'm also pretty lazy, so they get points there.
-Paladins. Mighty, and mightier as of 3.0. Also like the fact that you can get a group at endgame, as opposed to Hunters.
-I'm also decent at playing (A, singular) Rogue. Not going to win any awards as one, but I dig the class.
Classes I like (and would like to have at 70) but am not particularly good at:
-Warriors. I love warriors; love their mystique, their armor sets, and the fact that they can use any weapon in the game. I don't like getting the shit beaten out of me ALL THE TIME on the way to 70.
-Mage. They're great, powerful, glass cannons. I suck at them. That, or they're just too involved for me.

So, that said, what do you think? I'm currently using a Hunter (Lead)/Druid (Heals) combo, but I need something to relieve the boredom there. Also, I don't like druids. I'd also like to see one of my Gnome Toons hit 70 (preferably as a DPS class like a Warrior or a Rogue).

Question Two: Macros, Keyboards, and WTF.
Something that I was rather proud of was my handy-dandy-two-button combo to alternate between attacking and healing. It's not proving to be enough. I set up "-" and "=" to mean 'attack' and 'heal', respectively, and added in some modifier keys (alt-click means heal me, regular means heal buddy) and left the two keys off my Lead Hunter. So in class choice, I'd like to find something that I can control fairly easily. I know nothing's easier than controlling two of the same class, but the only thing that's stopping me from doing that is that there's nobody to heal my DPS. And picking two healers (aside from pally) is... Eugh. So in a perfect world, I'd like my action bar to be set up where I can click a number, then have my "Slave" Toon do the perfect corresponding action (i.e., I charge, and Warlock DoTs or Hunter casts Poison Sting, etc.) and have it work, consistently, reliably, and effectively.

Question Three: Does anybody know where to get a post-patch leveling guide? The Brian Kopp guide that I bought for 30 bucks (which was useless to begin with), is pretty much obsolete now that I'm getting 3X the XP per quest and kill. I'd rather not spend any money on it, but hopefully that won't limit my options too much.

Well, that's about the long and the short of it.

As a couple of additional bits of info to help the decision-making/suggestion-offering process:
-I am very lazy. The reason I love the hunter class is because about 90% of the time, I can just send my pet in and say, "Kill That", then pluck away with arrows. The other 10% I can rip it to shreds with skill.
-I am an Altoholic. It's very, very hard for me to play effectively because I generally just item-link myself shit from toon to toon and think how cool it'd be to be wearing it. The goal of this is to get to 70 quickly, and efficiently, preferably with multiple toons to fulfill different roles at endgame (Getting Thori'Dal, The Stars' Fury by myself would be MIE-TEE-FINE). So while I know that it's hard to figure out that perfect trifecta, let me know what your thoughts are. All the wisdom out there is being scanned and appreciated, it's just tough to find the gems in the midst of all the other scores of forums and pages and wikis dedicated to the subject. I also understand that my questions are a bit like that trifecta of Good, Cheap, and Fast - I can only pick two, but I'm willing to strike SOME compromises.

Above all, thank you very much for reading this verbose and utterly uninitiated thread. It's appreciated, and this Hunter-Or-Mage-Or-Warrior-Or-Paladin-Or-Druid-Or-Rogue thanks you.

--Buster :thumbsup:

[Threeofme]

rofl.. nice post.

I went Shammies so i cant advise, but gl and most af all HF!

[elsegundo]

just wanna say welcome. its late and i'll edit this post tomorrow. but go for warlocks. like hunters, they have pets to take the damage while they put on the damage. what you'll miss though, is the survivability in the beginning. but any good warlock would be able to get out of a tough jam. For a first time RAF-er, just go with two of the same. you'll start up another team in about two weeks anyway. i did a pally/lock team once and it was great. so maybe combine your two favorites and make a hunter pally team. ret isnt so bad, and the blessings/auras are great. ok its late. good luck.

edit: ok back from a short nap.... still needing my coffee. =] anyway....
if you dont like to double up classes, then try at least, two ranged characters. if one has a pet, that would be great too. like stated above, a warlock would be great. or a hunter would work as well. remember you wont have the benefit of a pet until level 10. even with warlocks, you get no tanking pet until level 10. its not too hard. i'd also pick the classes for its buffs.

i would also try a ranged/melee combo where the ranged will just stand back and nuke while the melee, preferably a tank of sorts, run in and takes the aggro. this can be accomplished in many ways. the three major tanking classes are warrior, pally, and druid. however, warriors do have it harder without much aoe tanking skills. i'd actually stick with the druid as a tank especially now that swipe has a wonderful AE zone of damage. add the increased crit% with self-heals and you're good. pallys are great too. im sure there are plenty of pally tanks out there who will explain more about them. i am not one of them, but i do like to use a druid. now for a ranged/melee combo, we also need to decide on the ranged aspect of this. do you want a warlock to DOT everything up? or a warlock to nuke? how about a mage to nuke? or a mage to AOE? or a priest to AOE? haha. do you value health regeneration more? then a class with some healing might help you better. shadowpriests are awesome for this job, or even a caster druid, either balanced or resto, but i'd pick balance. you really do not need to specialize as a tank/healer combo. you'll be burning through so many mobs that you may slow down to heal every once in a while, but you will not need a dedicated healer. trust me, even my priests combo dps way more than they heal. and this is without a tank. there's lots of things to consider, but its basically your decision as to what you'd like to play. finally on the whole class combination thing, warriors are not a dps class. they can dps, but they're not a dps class. =]

in terms of macros, you have the gist of it, which is good. what you might want to match up are the opener spells, and certain instant spells would go welll together. some spells work best with other abilities, so you might want to check those out. i cant really give you much on this as you havent really decided on a pair to play yet. you did mention you're playing a hunter and a druid for heals, and though i find that boring since i'd rather use the druid as a tank or as a dps with pet as tank, i do think you can match up some skills such as aimed shot+starfire, or arcane shot+moonfire. buff the pet with thorns, if your hunter's MM, trueshot aura+leader of the pack, and only go out of catform for heals. but thats using the druid just for heals and the aura, which is, again, boring. well there you have it. until you have some kind of plan, we cant really help you on what kind of macros to use.

there is a thread here with a list of quests for boxers, which involve plenty of non-collection quests all over azeroth. you'll have to use the search feature for that. good luck. you can even go through james leveling guide, free, to do your quests and just skip the difficult ones. getting 3x exp means having to do only 1/3 of the quests mentioned. good eh?

one last thing, boxing is not for the lazy. it is well involved and requires lots of forethought put into every combination, as well as involvement in tactics and battle planning. you will play more than just "send pet+auto shoot". if this is really what you want, play two hunters. or even two demo warlocks. but try to get involved in the game... you'll probably do a lot better and have a whole lot more fun. good luck with everything.

[Fef]

Welcome ! Your post was very nice to read, thanks for that. Now to you questions :

Question 1 :

First, some general comments. I would avoid playing two mêlée classes. It is just harder to manage, not impossible, but harder. I would play two different classes. Two is still easy to manage (buttons and macro wise), and it's more fun. On top of that, one can look for synergies. One of the characters should be able to tank, at least to some extend (A Hunter's pet can be a rather good tank when paired with a healer). One of the characters should be able to heal.

Then it is a question of personal taste. Here are some things I would like to try:

- Warrior + Shadow Priest : The warrior can tank and do damage, the priest can do damage and heal. Very efficient levelling for sure.
- Rogue + Druid : Both can stealth, and that's great. The Rogue just does damage, and the druid can do all a druid can do (mêlée damage being hard considering how involving the Rogue gameplay is).
- Warlock + Shadow Priest : Synergy between the Shadow Priest and the Warlock (how is it called again ? Shadow Weaving ?). Warlock pets can tank, and the Priest can heal.
- Paladin + Shaman : Because of the Shaman's self-rez, and because then you will have a solid group base when you decide to upgrade to 5-boxing.

Question 2 :

What you describe can be achieved by a clever use of /castsequence. You should find a lot of examples in the Macros & Addons section. Then what to do is very dependent on class selection, of course. In general, in multi-class groups, I prefer to leave the more involving character as a main. Typically, I don't see how a Rogue could be played as an alt. Usually, the caster/healer has by far less skills that need to be used during combat. That becomes even more true with more different classes : the more classes, the most simplistic the approach of each class. At least that is my approach. Of course, some multi-boxers use a lot more of the potential of each of their classes, in particular through the use of clever macros, but I'm just not that good.

With only two characters, I would therefore not bother with too complicated macros or castsequences. I think your key+modifier approach is good. The thing is that while levelling, mobs drop so fast that complicated sequences are not often usable as the mob will be dead before step two or three.
I have been playing Hunter + Shadow Priest quite a lot. I was mainly playing the hunter close to its full potential, and the priest had about 3 dedicated buttons with sequences : DOT (Shadow Word - Pain, Vampiric Embrace, etc ...), DPS (Mind Blast, Mind Flay), Heal/bubble the Pet/Hunter.


Question 3 :

I never used a levelling guide. If you're playing under RAF, I just would not bother. Just go out and quest, avoiding collecting quests when possible. It goes so fast all the way to 60. Interestingly, I have the impression it goes faster and faster as you approach level 60 (I had that feeling with my three groups), so don't be turned down by the first 20 or 30 levels.

Post 60 is another story. I did it only with two characters at the time, and then the rule was simple : do every quest in the zone, then move to the next zone. I plan to do much more instances with my 5-men groups though. That will be in 3 weeks, when my RAF period ends. Until then, I keep on levelling "options for the future".

[DemonWithin]

I advise if you're new to multiboxing to roll shammys, they are easy to learn with, powerfull, can heal rez dps magic melee they do everything. once you get the hang of multiboxing then i'd advise to branch out to other classes otherwise if u roll something that cant heal or rez if u make a mistake (which is easy when you're learning) then you are boned. GL HF multiboxing rocks ^_^

BTW if you multibox on Frostmourne drop me a pst! DemonWithin or DemonChain i love to play/talk to other multiboxersm =D

[bblakeney]

Gents,

Thanks so much for the warm welcome and the replies. I guess I'm still debating which class to pick, though... I just rolled a hunter/hunter combo and I LOVED it. But endgame will be... Useless. Wouldn't mind Warrior/Pally; I like both of those classes so it's NBD. It's becoming clearer that I'll find the perfect situation through experimentation (which you guys had alluded to in your informative messages, but I had to test out for myself :P ), so I'll knock around a couple different combos and see what I dig. As I side note, I generally play as "Clift/Klift" when I can, and I've got toons mainly on Andorhal and Cho'gall ("Keller" on Cho), so if you see me, say hello!

Also, I, like a dumbass (although not really; it's a bit deceiving), purchased a WoW 60-Day Prepaid Game Card. I was under the assumption that I could use it to activate my trial account but Alas! I cannot. So I was wondering if anybody here would be interested in trading it for a Retail Activation Key ($19.95). The 60-Day Card's 30 bucks, so for the price of one month, you're getting two - and it would help me out greatly! If you don't want to do the trade but want to buy it, that works, too. Just let me know.

More to follow as I keep testing new stuff out. I'll be sure to keep you guys updated so I can check out your set-ups in-game.

Thanks again, guys!

--Buster

P.S. Demon: I can't find Frostmourne! Is it an EU Server or did you mean Frostmane?

EDIT: LMAO, Two Gnome Rogues named "Gecco" and "Recco". THE SHIT!

[Vyndree]

As for leveling guide, I've had much fun with the addon "TourGuide" -- alongside TomTom it works perfectly for my needs and is small and lightweight enough that if I don't choose to use it, it's easy to turn off and forget about. All it does is provide you with a basic leveling guide, to which you can click a little checkbox to skip a step/quest (for example, collections), and it places a arrow on your screen to the next waypoint (i.e. questgivers, mob spawns, etc). You choose the zone, and it's very simple to turn on/off.

For 2 different classes, check out Building Macros for Multiple Roles. Class choices are really a personal preference, so choose whatever you'd like to have based on your goals. For me, I'm an altaholic so I'm leveling up one of everything so I can mix/match at 70. ;)