Dual Boxing (2) is it fun?

[Orshok]

I'm just playing a BM hunter-elem shaman where the rotation is easy and they are only level 70. I wouldn't like to SV trap dance. Its not the conditional procs which would worry me but the dance (well, I read somewhere you need to trapdance for SV but maybe it's not true).

I don't use simultaneous keybinds except one "crap" button when Im on CAC : triggers at the same time explosive trap and the "explosive" totem, whatever the name.

I don't like castsequence macros be it on solo or duo. I like to control the actions individually. I have only 1 castsequence macro for the most 4 used totems. Dont' know the english names.

With the key modifiers, I use about 60 different keybinds but 95 % of the time, I just use 10 of those keys. I almost don't use mouse clicks.

For questing, the hunter is just applying serpent sting, and autoshot, maybe one arcane and maybe some volley for aoe. The shaman and the pet are doing most of the dps. Quite relaxing and always full of mana.
I tried an instance with 3 guildies. It went quite ok and here of course, I had to piano a bit more, arcane-steady-teady rotation to increase the hunter dps, use the procs and so on.

[Souca]

my god man thats complicated. and yea, it would be awesome if the clicks you make will go to one macro for the shaman.

in which case i'll have to go through some digging. but if you can click a button to have it send that command to another macro, then that should work. i'll have to see. basically pressing any of the buttons for the shaman will have the command pointing to another macro. and all the buttons will point to the same macro so you'll never be out of order. hopefully someone beats me to it. lol





alternatively, you can scroll up = drop totems; scroll down = castsequence. =]
or... you can do /castrandom for all the buttons.

You can handle this in two ways. Assuming the hunter is using keys 1-5.

1. Bind keys 1-5 on the shammy to the same bar location. You always be using the same button and thus the same sequence.

2. Make a macro that does a click to another button that is the sequence. Place click macro in buttons 1-5.

Depending on the button count, you might be better off using two sets of keys for the hunter and the shammy. Maybe the normal 1-5 for the hunter and the numpad for the shammy. This lets you control the characters independently when you want and its not too bad to hit both keys in the time of a gcd. You can also use the F1-F5 for shammy as well. I used to use only mouse button binds for my prot pally and gave 1-5 to my shaman.

Lots of keys on a keyboard

- Souca -

[Kel]

I've tried 5 boxing (toons in sig) and have to say it was fun and challenging to try and manage a mixed team through DM (the only instance I tried, took some work, but cleared it in the end), if I had the money to pay for the sub I would keep levelling them.

I have two regular accounts, so have tried a few dual-boxing set ups. Most of my earlier set ups had one character as the 'main' and the other set up to follow which I think is something I want to avoid if I can. I'm levelling 2 shaman at the moment and either one can lead the team, I'm finding this much more practical as when it comes to quest hand-ins or looting things I don't have to worry about ending up with the right toon up front.

I've tried druid + hunter, druid + paladin and mage + druid, the pala wasn't doing a whole lot, but I was oly questing and she was prot spec, so not great for soloing anyway, druid and hunter worked ok, but I found it easier to lead on the hunter (for pet control and traps) and there's not much synergy going on there. Druid and mage seemed to work well but stuff tended to die before the druid got around to attacking (big gear disparity). Also tried warrior and warlock, but they didn't match up together very well (I didn't try that hard though).

I think depending on what you want to try dual-boxing can work very well. My little mages (left) were very good at killing quickly and I even managed to take them on an instance run (though it was early on in my DB days and my CC wasn't working very well, so I was a bit of a liability), problem is that dps isn't generally a highly sort after role and you might have trouble getting people to let you take both on a run. Currently levelling two shaman together, I love the way their buffs work together and I'm thinking that at 80 I may be able to take one on runs as a dps and the other as healer, still thinking about how to organise this, but a hybrid set up gives greater flexibility than two pure dps. I've also got two druids at 70 which I levelled seperately but will probably dual boomkin up to 80, I think that will be a lot of fun.

If it's going to take a while to get the funds to get going with a 5 box then I'd definately recommend 2 toons (as you should be able to run them on a lower spec machine), you can use them to gather mats etc for your eventual 5 box group and also it gives you some experience working with macros and whichever MB programme you are going to use.

[shaeman]

3. Aimed Shot / Mult-shit (10 sec CD)

I'm steering clear of hunters from now on.
I have no wish for my character to be covered in excrement.

[Kang]

Lots of keys on a keyboard

Yup. There's no rule saying you have to use the same keys for both toons. Bind your shammy spells to the keypad. Make a couple of macros to help manage the repetitive stuff (totem macro, dps cast macro) and you'll be golden.

[Ellay]

It's how I first started in WoW

[mikekim]

I started by running two accounts (moved my pally onto a new account) and dual boxed with two pc's, keyboards and mice. Pally leading and my Lock on /follow & dotting where appropraite. found this site and discovered keyclone and then moved to 5 boxing.. I now have 6 acitve accounts

[Moorea]

I have 5 man teams but for instance now I dual 1 ret pally and 1 rogue... lotsa dps and having my rogue stealthed and shadowstepping + ambush makes for fun PVP encounters when ppl think they can take on my "lone" pally

[AtroxCasus]

I tried dual boxing after seeing Keyclones 5 mage video. Running 2 shammies and having a blast, but then when I wanted to expand, I didn't want to pay for expansions, so I brought in 2 mages. I found that with the exception of having to track 2 more followers and make sure they face the right direction, it was no harder to run than 2. So with regards to your question, as people have already said, if you get to feel you have mastered dual boxing 2 toons, 5 would be cake.



Beware the addiction though. Oh, and beware the times you'll log in only your main raid toon or something to run dailies, and try to hit your MBing "heal" key when he gets in trouble. Not that I did it, I mean I heard it, er, read it here....yeah that's it, I read that someone did that.

[Agent 0013]

I am new to Dualboxing, but i must say it is a new, fun, and exciting challenge. My first duo was 2 fire mages, and it is great to kill most mobs before they get to you. I would recomend it to anyone who is able to do it. If all else, try it for 20 levels on a trial account for free.