Just want a little clarity on dual boxing

[Spin]

Hi There.

I read through a lot of the 'click here to start posts' and the different guides. A lot of my initial 'how do I' questions are answered and I want to thank you in advance for all of the great information. Now, I don't think that I saw the answer to my questions, so I was hoping that someone could give me a quick answer (or better yet, a link). There is a wealth of information and I'm still trying to absorb it all. Mostly I just want to make sure I've got everythign straight.

In a nutshell, I am currently in a casual raiding guild (alliance) on a pvp server. A lot of the members go to bed way before I do (go go stress & insomina!) and I'm bored farming/bging/ganking/rep grinding/doing achievments on my main. I had a second account that I used to play with friends 'horde-side' but a lot of them have transferred off, so I let that account go inactive. I decided to start software dual-boxing(I have a very nice quadcore setup) on a PvE server with a couple of RL friends that aren't in my raiding guild. At first I was messing around with swapping windows, manually mashing macros on the slave, then switching back to the master, but that's getting old fast. I decided to research multiboxing so here I am. However I'm nervous about a few of the things that I read--specifically about software that has a chance to get my account(s) banned. I understand the difference between passing a 'keyboard press' and automation/bots. I just want to make sure that I have everything straight in my head before I proceed.

First, should I buy/use Keyclone? I don't mind that AHK looks difficult to set up, but I'm nervous about anything that can be used to script since that can result in being banned. I really don't want to lose my account(s) b/c I made a poor choice in selecting a program to pass keyboard pushes. I saw that there are other programs in the guides, but they have the comment 'never used them but they seem ok...'

Second, it looks like regardless of the keyboard command passing software that I use, all I have to in order to start dualboxing is to launch 2x sessions of wow, log in each account, start my software and go. (after the initial setup of course) If I want to play my main in a raid, I shouldn't have any problems or issues, right? Essentially I want to be able to play my main singly with my raiding guild and after everyone logs out for the night, I want to be able to fire up the dual-boxing software and roll-out. It looks like this is easily doable, but I want to make sure that I don't have to spend an hour rebinding keys.

Third, and most importantly, I usually have a couple of IM windows up. When I swap to an IM window, will the keyboard software start sending my text elsewhere? The last thing I want is for everything I say to my GF to get spit into guild chat, suddenly have my t00ns freak out and run off to make friends with a fel reaver or worse have my GF's window spammed with 'wwww1112242141lolwut?'

I gotta say that right now running around with two DKs is a lot of fun even with the silly half-ass method of manually mashing follow and assist & startattack macros that I've made. I would like to pursue this a little further--I just want to make sure that I stay well inside the legal boundries.

[Tombs]

I have essentially the same dual box setup/ambitions as you. Mostly solo raid, occasionally DB in my down-time.

I love Keyclone, I can't think of dual boxing without it. It is legit, I am pretty sure it is kept this way because the author made it for his own use and wouldn't want his accounts banned either. Keyclone by default only broadcasts keys to applications named World of Warcraft, you can change it to broadcast to other apps but I wouldn't worry about accidentally crossing keys between WoW and an IM client with the default settings.

It is pretty easy to set up the macros in a manner that won't force you to re-write macros when you're soloing, that shouldn't be a concern.

[Chranny]

1) I started out using AHK and then later switched to KeyClone for the PiP and the Round Robin features. :> Both are very good in my eyes.
2) Yeah, starting 2x WoW windows is pretty much it. As far as the rebinding your keys when you need to raid is all about your setup.
3) Both KeyClone and AHK requires you to either select or script respectively, which windows you want the keystrokes to be cloned too.
4) Good luck! :>

[Owltoid]

I would suggest Hotkeynet (HKN) as it's currently a free solution and extremely powerful. I'm recognizing more and more that I can do stuff with HKN that is not (currently) possible with other software solutions. I believe that Freddie, the creator of HKN, based many of his ideas on AHK and did it "better." If the AHK scripts don't scare you, then definitely check out HKN. In my opinion, if you can figure out how WoW macros work, then you can figure out how to write scripts for HKN.

The majority of multiboxers are software boxers. There was a poll going around seeing what program many used, and a surprisingly low number were pure hardware boxers. The majority of users use Keyclone.

Multiboxing takes a good amount of time to setup. Not due to the software, but more due to the thought process of how you would like things to work. Would you like to press one button and have your tank and healer do an action, or would you like only your tank to do an action with that button? For many, myself included, that's part of the fun of multiboxing. I spend a decent amount of time just thinking about macros are systems to accomplish a task. I don't have to rebind keys every time I play a different toon, but that's because I set it up that way.

[Kaynin]

Keyclone, Hotkeynet, Autohotkey

Multiplicity, Synergy

Almost all programs are allowed, as long as one key sends one key to each window only.

Golden rule:
Key to key only! Never have one single action do multiple actions.


Personally I use Keyclone, user friendly, very powerful and specifically nice for setting up complicated set ups such as FTL, etc. I also love the maximizer utility, but there are freeware solutions for that too. This is not at all impossible in AHK or HKN. Just that it will likely require you more time to set up.

't is a choice, many viable programs, all that can be made into powerful multiboxing tools.

[Spin]

Thank you all for responding and for the suggestions and advice. I appreciate it! I started my two Dks last night and I'm having a blast with them.

Multiboxing takes a good amount of time to setup. Not due to the software, but more due to the thought process of how you would like things to work. Would you like to press one button and have your tank and healer do an action, or would you like only your tank to do an action with that button? For many, myself included, that's part of the fun of multiboxing. I spend a decent amount of time just thinking about macros are systems to accomplish a task. I don't have to rebind keys every time I play a different toon, but that's because I set it up that way.

That's what actually is drawing me to multiboxing. I absolutely hate soloing and leveling characters. Since I already had two accounts, I felt that I had nothing to lose in giving this a shot. If nothing else, it gives me something to tinker with and that is always enjoyable for me. I've already figured a few things out and I'm making a list of things to do tonight. Most of last night I spent toying with follow macros, combat postioning, general movement, and keybindings. I'm toying with the idea of writing up the experience for the hell of it, but I'm not sure yet. I want to think that out--and at least have a nice pool of data to work with.