3-boxing to 6-boxing...need assistance

[shdwdrgn]

An np, Shdwdrgn... Yeah, i'm long-winded at times... you should see my technical write-ups for failures I find while at work (i'm a cpu/chipset/video tester)... Even the engineers complain I give them too much info . So how's the team coming along? What level/AA's/Interesting things have you done/tried/accomplished?

I actually thought it was well done and had a lot of good information so I don't think it was too much info.

My team is going well.

I decided to do a brigand because I wanted it to be a dark elf and figured I could switch to swashie if wanted. There have been a few pains along the way. I started them when they did the bonus xp weekend so that got them levelling fast heh. As of yesterday when I logged off my new toons were levels 71 with around 50 AA. i've been focusing on levelling and not AA. I've noticed that AA is actually easy to get at 80 now, especially with the bonus from the RAF. My oroginal 3 toons have each gone from around 140AA to 168AA or so since I started the new guys just from the xp while mentoring the lowbie (you may lose xp when mentoring, but you gain much more from the RAF bonus) so I figure it'll be easy to get more AA later. I've been mainly just going through the dungeon/instance timeline from eq2.wikia.com and moving up the list. My main goal has been to get them high enough to start doing the solo shard quest (which I know can be obtained at 74, possibly lower) because I know that will be good AA and xp for them also and then can go back and do quests, or whatever i want.

It has been a pain also trying to make sure the brigand is always behind the mobs for most of his attacks. What I ended up doing was adding a step to my follow macro that just broadcasts a step back to all the other characters so I can easily and quickly take them off and then I just have to move the mobs around correctly. I haven't yet figured out how to do stealth attacks though, so i know i'm missing a lot of capability. If you have any advice here that would be awesome.

As for my commands, I have it setup really simply. My dirge and swashie have all of their regular attacks (that aren't stealth/ranged) in one macro within eq2 and I just have repeatadely hit the key to hit that. I know its not the best setup but it works so far. I know I could do better but am at a loss as to how to setup the broadcasting to make this work. I would love to have some tips or examples to help me out with this

As for fighting as a team, it has definitely been a learning experience. I haven't had many problems for the most part but things are definitely getting interesting at these higher levels. I just completed Estate of Unrest yesterday while the toons were 70 and dinging 71 during it, so the mobs were all yellow. Had a couple of issues but mainly because I'm still getting the hang of everything. I was able to successfully complete the zone though.

I am looking forward to getting them up a few more levels and starting some of the shard instances too. This definitely brings a whole new "fun" factor to the game.

Edit: Also, how do you handle quests? I find it a pain to have to switch to each to pickup the quest. Which is one of the main reasons why I haven't done quests yet. This is especially painful since I've completed most quests on my three main so its only the new three that need it which means I have to keep an eye on them to see what quests they can pickup or where they are in them.

[sonicspectre]

Just started a RAF team with SK, Defiler, Warlock (adv/quest exp locked at 14) using IS/ISBoxer. I'm new to EQ2 and boxing. The only other MMO I've played was EQ; I played a raiding bard on and off from release until mid 2006. I've been doing alot of research here re: group composition and macros for the past month or so, so thanks to all the contributors. I'm loving EQ2 and 3-boxing so far and am already thinking about running a full group after I build my new machine, though I'll probably raise the trio I have now to 80 before adding another 3. I may be asking alot, but I want a low management/high damage group with good survivability. I've been reading alot about the various classes, but I have virtually 0 experience, so I wanted to get feedback on my current thoughts about what I might add:

+ 1 out of:

Templar
Fury
Inquisitor

leaning Templar.
Reactives seem better than HOT; templar buffs seem better than priest DPS for a full group. Would Fury be worth considering for the DPS gain?

+ 2 out of:
Troubador
Dirge
Illusionist
Coercer
Wizard


leaning Illusionist/Troubador.
I'm assuming the SK can get by without the
superior (?) aggro management afforded by the Coercer/Dirge. Is this correct? Also wondering if Ill/Troub overlap to an extent that I can replace one of them with a wizard. And whether the Dirge's disease synergy, (along with healing buff and aforemenioned aggro control) with my current trio is a big enough deal to take dirge over troub despite all the casters.

Now that I think about it more, a bard is probably going to be a non-negotiable team member since that's what I would play if later on I end up deciding I don't want to multibox (plus they seem pretty awesome in this game).

[asgradth]

Shdwdrgn: Good news! I'm about the opposite of you, my team is lvl 55 and they all have 90+ AA... I find the AA is easier to get from Named Kills while leveling, as opposed to going back and mentoring down. I guess since I already have an uber lvl 80 team, I have much more patience for the non-end-game. Congrats on Unrest. Being able to 6-box Unrest (especially the last 'fight') is an impressive feat. The first time I pulled it off, I had to go smoke a cigarette to calm down, heh. Everytime you run through Unrest, gather all the shineys, they sell for 1pp to 10pp on Oasis (or they did a few mos ago). Also, some toons need Unrest for their Epics, so be sure to let ppl know you can drag them through Unrest (or other zones) for a small 'fee'... muhahahaha.

Instead of having the toons 'backup' to stop them from following, just create a macro key with the command "/stopf", hit it and everyone will stop following. I do this regularly: drag my team near a corner, have them /stopfollow, then pull mobs to the corner. As for getting stealth attacks in, Good Luck. If you figure out an easier way, please let us know. This is why I rolled an all-caster team :thumbup: .

Collection Quests... I'm going through Lesser Faydark right now, none of the 6 toons i'm dragging have ever done Lesser Faye... Two of the early quests are Single Spawn Collections (first 12, then 15). How do I do it? One click at a time. Yeah, it's frikkin annoying. The first time you drag a 6-box team up to lvl 80, collection quests suck. The 2nd time you do it, they're annoying. The 3rd time you do it, you just don't care anymore because AA xp is AA xp and it aint comin easier any other way.

There are some tricks you can do on some collection quests like having the MT target the quest item, then all your toons "/assist MT", then you have one of your Macro buttons contain all the Harvesting skills (collect, gather, mine, fish, etc). I'd say about 25% of the time, you can do a collect quest with /assist and the Harvest Macro... but in the end, I've really just given up and gone the 1-click route times 6. Patience is really all you need... sortuv, heh.

Before you skip any quests (like collections), read up on the quest timeline in Wikia and make sure you're not missing out on a 10 quest chain (like Lesser Faye)... The AA XP is good, the Cash is good (x6) and to get to 200AA, you're probably going to have to do the quest at some point anyways, so you might as well do it now. That's my thinking on it.

As for Questing in general, when 3 toons completed the quests but 3 haven't... That is just, yeah, painfull. Whenever I bring up a new team, I generally run with a new tank for the first 30-50 levels, mainly so i don't have to keep switching to a 'new' toon and checking out his quests. It's much easier when the MT is the 'newbie'... I feel your pain, and you're doing it as best as can be done.

Sonicspectre: Templar & Defiler, together in the same team, is about the best heal setup any tank could ask for, so you're spot on there. The other two are up to you, honestly. I'm running a Troubadour & Illusionist with my SK Warden Conjuror Wizard and I absolutely LOVE it. When i'm not AOEing everything in sight, having four or five mezzes to work with really changes ... well, everything. You NEED a bard, either bard will work, but you need a bard for a good 6-box:
Troubadour: Compliment Casters. Their songs are more caster based and therefore all your casting classes will benefit from a Trouby.
Dirge: Compliment Melee and are required in the MT Raid Group. I love the extra aggro control the Dirge brings to the table. When I run my Guardian, I run him w/ my Dirge, no questions asked.

If you want to guarantee aggro control, run a Dirge/Coercer. If you want to do great casting damage and have more mezz abilities, run Troub/Illusionist. I tried runnign a Dirge/illusionist and Troub/Coercer and it just didn't feel right... but your mileage may vary.

Based upon my current setup, you are correct. The SK can get away without uber aggro control... Just make sure your Wizard isn't casting Ice Comet II on a mob that the SK doesn't have aggro on yet... yeah, big fail there :S

g'luck

[waterval]

I started out with a conjurer, then i added a warden. After a while i found this forum and completed the team to:

Guardian, Warden, Templar, Wizard, Conjurer, Illusionist. I played like that til lvl 74.

After some reading up ive now traded out the conjurer and the wizard for a troubadour and a shaman. On seperate accounts so now all 6 have the 25% extra runspeed cloak that stacks with anything.Utility and survivability should be ubermax now. I'm just dreading that dps will be to low to do anything. But i can always trade the druid out for the wizard.

[Noxxy]

Whoa there horsey!!!

Did I read right waterval - you're going with 3 healers???

You're going from:
- Guardian, Warden, Templar, Wizard, Conjurer, Illusionist
To:
- Guardian, Warden, Templar, Shammy, Troub, Illusionist

IMHO - Grinding will be so slow even baby jeebus would be crying!

But i can always trade the druid out for the wizard.

- Good idea Whilst a wizzy mightn't be ideal, IMHO it's way better than 3 healers, especially with a guard MT

Just the thought of it and I'm nearly crying on the keyboard myself! /wipes away the tears

[waterval]

Hmm ok so much laughter even has an effect on me, new deal: druid is out wizard is in. but now i worry about grouphealing bein to low and i suck at positioning so all the mobs with aoe arc attacks are murder on my nerves.

Group is now:

Guardian Templar Mystic, Wizard Troubadour Illy.

Still sturdy but now not invincable anymore.

[mesmerise]

i was wondering , with a full melee team, how do you manage knock back effect, i was clearing hall of fate last time with my lv 70 toons and i was curious how hell it would be with a melee team, lot of mob casting knock back and it seems not only frontal and sometimes you can't just hug a corner or a wall.

[shdwdrgn]

i was wondering , with a full melee team, how do you manage knock back effect, i was clearing hall of fate last time with my lv 70 toons and i was curious how hell it would be with a melee team, lot of mob casting knock back and it seems not only frontal and sometimes you can't just hug a corner or a wall.

Its can be interesting at times. But the knockback is mainly frontal that i have seen so I just make sure my tank has his back to the wall. In IS I setup a 2 step process for the follow key. The first hit makes all the toons follow, and the 2nd hit makes them take a step back and thus break follow. So my strategy pretty much starts with me finding where I am going to pull to and line up the slaves appropriately, then tell them to stop following. Then I pull and when the mob is in place he will have his back towards me. I try to avoid having the slaves setup in a spot where I have to pull past them just in case the mob does his knockback or another aoe while running past them because that would be bad. If something happens and I need to realign the slaves I tell them to follow again and then get them in position and then tell them to stop following and I can adjust the mob again if needed to make sure his back is towards them.

This setup worked pretty well for me in HoF. As i got higher though I got lazy and just kept them on follow most of the time which worked ok also..not as well for staying out of frontal AoE's and such, but the mobs weren't that hard at that point so it was ok heh.

I also don't necessarily aim to put the slaves behind the mob, I'm ok with somewhat to the side because most of the attacks the brig has can be done from the sides or back. I think only backstab has to be from the back. This means that if it isn't lined up perfectly its usually ok.

I hope this makes sense...if not let me know and I'll try to explain better.

asgradth: I decided you were right and so have started to do quests in fens. Well part of my decision was the fact that one of my toons needs max riliss faction so I would have to do it some point anyways. So I just started with Fens and will move up from there. I can do KP or whatever else later if needed I guess. But yes, my next team I will be doing the quests with. My main reason for not doing it this time was to make use of the xp bonus from the RAf, which also helps with AA at lvl 80, so I figured I could just use that to get the others caught up and I wanted to get my full team up to lvl as fast as possible so I could start doing instances and stuff.

By the way, since you have done most if not all of the high lvl instances do you think you could put them in order from easiest to hardest to box so I can know where to start, etc? or at the very least tell me which ones to stay away from I don't want to start one only to realize I can't finish because it is too hard to do when boxing. Any information for the high level instances would definitely be helpful.

[Noxxy]

For AOE rips...the MT always spins the mob

You can either leave the slaves on /follow or like shd suggested, use something like a /stop - both work fine as long as you spin the mob so it is facing away from the slaves - this is the ideal position anyway for the rogues to go to town if you have any

If you still find that your team is taking too much rip damage, I have to ask, have you been working DEF at all? If not, a handy trick is to go into Harclaves, complete the quest to get the buff, grab a whole herd of mushrooms and basically stand there getting ganked - DEF will go up pretty fast - good idea if you go this route to grab the cheapest and nastiest hex doll you can find as well and basically cast it at the same time to cap out your focus (from 20ish to 400 in a few mins at 80)

A simple tactic I use for nasty knockbacks - especially boss encounters:
- Have all your slaves on /follow
- pick a safe/confinded looking corner of the boss room or area you are in
- drive the MT straight into the corner
- get the slavces to step back (I have the slaves movement driven by the arrow keys)
- fine tune the slave position a little to consider the size of the mob (i.e., if the mob is huge, the rouges may actually be underneath the mob as opposed to behind so shuffle them back a bit more, etc)
- MT pulls mob
- runs into the planned corner
- spins to the face mob
- mob runs over and stands between your slaves nicely positioned between so no one but the tank gets the knockback

[shdwdrgn]

If you still find that your team is taking too much rip damage, I have to ask, have you been working DEF at all? If not, a handy trick is to go into Harclaves, complete the quest to get the buff, grab a whole herd of mushrooms and basically stand there getting ganked - DEF will go up pretty fast - good idea if you go this route to grab the cheapest and nastiest hex doll you can find as well and basically cast it at the same time to cap out your focus (from 20ish to 400 in a few mins at 80)

That's a great idea. My slaves have horrid def and focus. That will be a great way to get it up. Thanks!