Will Ulduar Be The End of Multibox Friendly Raiding?

[BigSmitty]

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/un...3p1/ulduar.xml

The only reason for the title is by reading the above link from the WoW EU site, it mentions various types of vehicles, etc. As my groups aren't high enough yet to have dealt with vehicular combat, from a logistics standpoint, wouldn't this be a bit of a MAJOR challenge? Motorcycles, catapults, etc?

Some thoughts from those of you doing the Naxx/VoA/Sarth with some current end game raid experience would be much appreciated.

[Soundeyes]

Good luck with that massively coordinated multiboxing battlefield action:

"You and your friends will have to use these vehicles wisely to break
through Ulduar's defenses. A mix of motorcycles, demolishers, and siege
engines will be at your disposal, each granting unique abilities to the
pilot and the passenger. Motorcycle drivers, for example, can create
pools of liquid tar that snare opponents and can be set on fire by area
effect attacks, while demolisher passengers can load themselves into
the vehicle's catapult so that the pilot can launch them into the
distance. If used judiciously, these and other abilities will help
decimate the Iron Army and any other threats lying in wait between you
and Ulduar."



Oh yeah and this sounds like it would be brutally hard to multibox too:

"One such threat is the Flame Leviathan. After you've plowed through the
innumerable ranks of the Iron Army, you will be confronted by an
enormous tank. Mimiron built the Flame Leviathan as part of the
V0-L7R-0N weapons platform, which means that it packs quite a punch.
Normal spells and abilities won't be enough to take down this
juggernaut, so you will have to rely on your siege vehicles to
outmaneuver and defeat the boss. After wearing the massive war machine
down, you will have to launch players onto the tank's back to destroy
its defense turrets and sabotage the Leviathan before you can move on.
Of course, if you'd like an additional challenge beyond this naturally
frantic (but extremely fun) fight, you can try your hand at one of the
Flame Leviathan's different Hard Modes (see sidebar)."

[puppychow]

Vehicle combat may not be too bad in ulduar, this is from a blue on mmo champ:

The first boss has you enter 1 of 3 different vehicles (Chopper, Demolisher, and Siege Engine) to fight your way through an immense Iron army to the Flame Leviathan and defeat him. After that, there's very little use of vehicles by players. We'll have the fight up on the PTR at a later date, but this fight isn't in the first wave of boss encounters to be tested. (Source)

So maybe just the first boss has vehicles and none after (although probably some bosses have vehicle phases like malygos).

Still, i'm guessing the difficulty, especially for "hard mode", will make multiboxing... challenging!

[BigSmitty]

News Flash - The sky STILL is not falling.

Seriously - Everything that we've been told that we CAN'T do - somebody here does. We will adapt. We will overcome. Pray to the multiboxing gods for the ability write more creative macros.

There was also a preview somewhere that said Ulduar will have 9 bosses. Only 1 will be optional and vehicle based. Obviously this has changed a little - but I don't think it'll be that bad... I personally just jumped into Naxx. Yes, its difficult, but I don't see anything that I can't do with some practice and dedication (and very understanding guildies)

I was making the assumption that most multiboxers would see it as a very refreshing challenge, hence the title being multibox "friendly". According to the EU story, Uldar has 14 bosses, 11 of which have a "hard mode" type of challenge. Still should be fun to see. Would hate to have the slaves on /follow if I got tossed out of a catapult though...

[Bollwerk]

Personally, I like doing raids solo and instances 5-boxed. But maybe I'm alone in that. Raids are more of a social event for me with my guild. I like only focusing on one toon, so I can chat, etc. I like seeing Blizzard be creative with boss fights.

[Bena]

I don't think that it's the end of boxing but with the way raid/dungeons are being designed it will probably be quiet tricky to box them. It's not that Bliz hates boxers but rather they're trying to create interesting/challenging content which usually involves movement/vehicles/new mechanics based play. I've accepted the fact that mostly likely future content won't be 100% boxable; I plan to raid that content with one of my many toons 1 boxing. As the previous poster said.. single boxing is still fun if you get a good group. If it ever gets to a point that all I can do is run old content with my box teams then that would be time to think about packing it in.. so far still having fun though.

[Kaynin]

Vehicle boxing was fixed and is very possible since the last patch.

Oculus/Malygos, done all and survived to the kill.

The multiboxing sky will never fall. :>

[weeep]

NEWSFLASH: raiding NEVER was multiboxing friendly.

[Kaynin]

Well, it's definatly more challenging, but I wouldn't say raiding is multibox unfriendly. Maybe most guilds and acceptance of multiboxing is unfriendly, but not game mechanics.

But I disagree with saying it is multiboxing unfriendly. Having done all ten man content uncluding Sartharion with 2 drakes up. Working on 3 drakes, >In a casual guild!< At all times with at least 3 of my characters present. I'd say raiding is very multibox friendly.

But jsut adds more layers and makes it all more challenging, and ore fun. More fun to me means it is more raiding friendly. :P

[weeep]

But I disagree with saying it is multiboxing unfriendly. Having done all ten man content uncluding Sartharion with 2 drakes up. Working on 3 drakes, >In a casual guild!< At all times with at least 3 of my characters present. I'd say raiding is very multibox friendly.

It just means that the other raid members are outgearing the encounter. Bring 5-box group to Naxx10 with everyone in raid wearing blues (as it is supposed to be), and we'll see how far you will go.
Also Sarth is not the best example, because it is retardedly easy encounter for DPS classes and everything there can be done on /follow.