Realsitic setup time.

[Graxon]

First off I wanna say that you guys have some of the best information on Dual/Multiboxing out there. This site has been a big help in my research to determin if dual boxing is going to work for me or not. I have come to the conclusion that I would like to try it, but I want to use the RAF program to test it out. So realisticly how long will it take to setup a software solution and get it running, as I would have 10 days (with limited play time due to Family/Work/Life in gerneral) to decide if it is right for me or not.

I have started looking at Macros and think that I have a basic understanding of how that works.

What things can/should I do ahead of time to get this running with minimal headaches?

Is there a checklist anywhere of things that need to be done to get things up and running?

Thanks in advance.



Grax

[Oatboat]

You can have everything planned out before you start and then just copy/paste macros from a wordpad.

So ... say you want to setup your basic /follow /assist macros.... just find some in the wiki and get them in a word pad. Copy from that word pad when you have your accounts active into your macro screen.

Keep them generic for the start /follow party1 /focus party1 /assist party1 etc.

And if you set these up in the General Macro section instead of the personal toon section you can use those for new teams you start.

Once you set up your first team... the 2nd, 3rd etc get alot easier.

Just try it out and have fun.... 10 day trial is just that.... 10 days to try it... if you dont like it... hey you didnt waste any money.

[Kissell13]

Id say a max of 1 hour to get setup and logged in and boxxing your first (insert number of toons here) toons. After that Id give ya another 2 mins or so before your hooked.

[Gurblash]

setup can range from 1-5 hours depending on how intense you make your macros off the get go. You can keep it really simple and be up and running very fast. Or you can plan out all your macros and spend a good portion of your night doin that instead of lvling.

Your best bet would be to snag a few trial accounts and just play with it for 10 days before you go and invest in new accounts. No loss other than time this way.

[Ualaa]

My first team used the super easy, but not as flexible as I'd like...
Everyone /focus Active Toon
Everyone /assist Focus .... /cast Spell.
That was relatively fast to set up, but still took some time.
I could set up a new team like that, extremely quickly these days.

Moving to a party based system took a while to figure out.
In particular getting follow to work, took a bit of time.

During RAF, in addition to my initial team, I did:
4x Elem Shaman, boosted by a 70 Shaman.
4x BM Hunters, boosted by a 70 Hunter.
4x Disc Priest, boosted by a 70 Priest.
4x Balance Druids, boosted by a 70 Shaman.

It took about an hour to set up each of these teams.
I've used the same basic toon switch macro's, which now is copy/paste, and insert the new toon's name in the macro.
Jamba covers follow for me, but it takes a moment to add each toon to a team, and set up configuration of the addon.
The macro's are pretty easy to set up, with two basic varieties now.
A) /assist [target=party1]; /cast PewPew
B) /assist [target=party1]; /cast [help] Heal Spell; [help, target=targettarget] Heal Spell; [target=player] Heal Spell.
With the party system, every toon needs an assist version of each macro and each needs a non-assist for when they're the leader.

Half the time, is moving things on the UI, which would be the same timeframe for a new single toon.
I have a window for spam that I occasionally view. Another for guild. Another for party. Another for whispers.
I like my damage meter in a place, Jamba window in another. Configuring Dot Timer takes a while, but it is incredibly useful for boxing.

Moving from 5x Shaman's and 4x Druids towards...
4x Shaman's + 1x Paladin and 4x Druids + 1x DeathKnight will take a little bit of configuration.
Basically move the damage spells to some hotkey numbers
And clear up a few keybinds for tanking macro's which I'd want to click independent of the dps.
Overall, having built several teams now, it won't take overly long to do.

[wowphreak]

Depends on how many char yer doing and what sofware yer using plus how fast yeh can grok all of it :P

from a simply setup of all the same chars using /assist charname /follow charname then just drop things on the spell bar can take about 10-30 mins
to more complex ftl /click can take a few days.

Allot depends on how much yeh really know about the game ,how to create macros and what yer goals are.

[Iceorbz]

Ill be honest lol

For me setting up 4 characters, FTL system, macros, addons.. spell rotations and keybindings ect for all the shamans (I had first basically had keys for *EVERYTHING*) and kinda forgot about using modifiers and stuff..this included fixing the x-keys pro, g15 keyboard and razer lachesis mice, keyclone setup and the like.

it took me about 30-50 hours. To get it where i really liked it.
If i had to do it a second time, it would take prolly about 5-7 hours.

[RobinGBrown]

I can set up a new team in about 1-2 mins per character - and most of that is making sure the keybinds and settings are correct. Check the first link in my sig for the simplest possible way to get going with focus based macros.

I have made quite a few teams...

[Kalikiano]

Ill be honest lol

For me setting up 4 characters, FTL system, macros, addons.. spell rotations and keybindings ect for all the shamans (I had first basically had keys for *EVERYTHING*) and kinda forgot about using modifiers and stuff..this included fixing the x-keys pro, g15 keyboard and razer lachesis mice, keyclone setup and the like.

it took me about 30-50 hours. To get it where i really liked it.
If i had to do it a second time, it would take prolly about 5-7 hours.

Im only about two weeks into dual boxing and you are never done. Always learning new macros, addons, or scripts and then improving them. Its like trying to find the perfect UI its just not possible for me Im always changing stuff around.

Basic setup of script/macros/UI is pretty easy its just when they start leveling and getting new abilities that you start adding new stuff all the time.