Wanting to begin dual-then-maybe-multi boxing, out of necessity.

[SeriphinX]

Been playing WoW for a while now..got 2 accounts..several different alts, only one real main..59 Ret Pally..the rest are ragtags...My guild is too progressive and have since waved byebye to all content not in the new Wrath pack. Since I haven't even began BC yet, chances of me getting decent gear are now zero..not to mention all the PUGS have dissappeared unless its in Wrath. So here I am, wanting to try my hand at whatever-it-takes-to-get-decent-gear-boxing. Now when I say decent, anything green, blue or purple regardless of how old it is, if its an upgrade for me and looks somewhat cool, I am all for it. I am low maintenance. I've mainly been living off of the Auction House all my life. It's getting too expensive now for that. So my questions are:

1. Does dual/multi-boxing help with getting gear for your characters? Doesn't have to be raid level stuff, I'm happy with just instanced stuff.

2. How does this actually work? I have never pwr lvl'd myself in WoW and am unfamiliar with the mechanics..Do you just group your target alts from other accounts with a high level main and have the main tank everything while the alts whack away? Or is it just that the main drops everything that moves and the alts loot away? Do lower level toons even get exp for being in a group with a high level like that?

Just trying to get a sense of how the logistics work between high-level main and the target alts you are trying to level.

My main goal is to at LEAST have one toon in a full suit of ANYTHING lol..tired of look all patch-work from solo quest drops. So will boxing help me in this?

Thank you very much,

SeriphinX

[Fizzler]

Multiboxing does help you get gear but it is not as simple as that. Be prepared to go from being ecstatic to just pissed. You have to relearn how to play not only in the outside environment but for instances. Traditional methods and strategies do not apply.

If you are adept at making macro's and basic software configuration you will have less of a learning curve otherwise there is quite a bit of trial and error. The good thing is if you read these forums and more importantly the wiki you will be able to learn from others.

I know you want to equipment one toon but you really need to equip the others as well as you progress deeper and deeper into the instances. And no you do not just simple follow a main or visa versa. They are a team and if you plan on getting equipment of any substance you will need to learn to play all the classes at once. I prefer to have the main as a tank and the rest DPS/heal

[elsegundo]

you can get decent gear through quests.
pugs have not disappeared. in fact, flying over HFP i get more traffic than any other zone now looking for ramps or bf group, or cruel intentions or something.
thats if you dont mind partying with 4 death knights.

[heffner]

What Elsegundo said.

And yes, it is highly likely that if you 5-box you can do instances by yourself and obviously get gear. I wouldn't consider it a time saver though unless you're overgeared or higher level than what the instance was designed for.

Personally, I wouldn't do less than 5 if you want to focus on instances (unless you have some solid friends that are available as a fifth). I started out with dual boxing, primarily so I would have a choice of class to play. Then RAF came out and the rest is history for me.

As for quests, multiboxing doesn't really help that much [and may be worse]. Some quests you have to get a partner or group for, but you don't NEED to do them. I solo'd my non-MB characters up and geared them with quest loot, Battleground PVP gear and crafted stuff . I had serious problems trying to do some of the G3+ based quests in BC and never actually ended up doing them - they are still in my quest log (I started back into WoW 1 year after BC was released, so people were focused primarily on raiding). So, you definitely don't need to multibox to get good loot. With WoTLK I don't know if this will hold true or not, however I believe there is still some good crafted gear.

As for your second question, do a search on BOOSTING (this was termed powerlevelling in EQ, but that term is more associated with paid boosting through a service in WoW). I believe (never did this before) that a high level just kills everything in a lower level instance with the person being boosted in the group. Nothing magic about it. You don't get a lot XP per kill, but you kill ALOT. I believe this is how it's done anyway, I may be wrong. Alternatively, the BOOSTEE tags a mob and the BOOSTER kills it. This approach would probably be more useful at higher levels. I believe this is how the first 80 reached 80 so fast.

[Nachtkinder]

As for your second question, do a search on BOOSTING (this was termed powerlevelling in EQ, but that term is more associated with paid boosting through a service in WoW). I believe (never did this before) that a high level just kills everything in a lower level instance with the person being boosted in the group. Nothing magic about it. You don't get a lot XP per kill, but you kill ALOT. I believe this is how it's done anyway, I may be wrong. Alternatively, the BOOSTEE tags a mob and the BOOSTER kills it. This approach would probably be more useful at higher levels. I believe this is how the first 80 reached 80 so fast.

First off, the Athene and party got banned for the tagging thing. I wouldn't do it.

As for boosting, with RAF you still get 3x xp (or did back when I was leveling 1-60) if you and your other toon was there with a 70 from a non-RAFed account. It would end up yielding pretty decent xp.

I don't want to sound like a dick, but these days a level 59 isn't really hard to obtain. While I'm sure you wouldn't want to, starting over a set of mulitboxed toons from level 1 with the Recruit a Friend program will get you back to 60 in less than 2 days /played.

Lastly, you said you want a full "set" of gear. Since you played pre-BC i'm sure you're referring to the TONS of sets they used to have. That isn't so much the case anymore, and while in TBC there was one blue dungeon set for each class, it was mainly tier gear from raids. Playing as a multiboxer won't help you at all there for months since no one is going to let you come on more than one guy when they first start raiding. The other sets of gear are pvp...which is debatle if mulitboxing can get you those faster than singlely.