For all those experience MBers. Tell me somethin'

[Shuckles]

Well, I recently(25 minutes ago) decided that I was going to start multi-boxing. I got keyclone and everything. I have setup everything perfectly.

I am just wondering, is there is a reason people multi-box 4 or 5 people at once sometimes? I am doing 2 to start off, 2 Gnome Mages. But Im still jw.

Also, do I need to still be using all the strafing macro's and etc? I have my arrow keys for my second character, and QWEASD for my main character. Is that good for only 2 characters?

[Dzonatan]

Personally I multibox 5 pallies just so I can do instances whenever I feel like it. You should start using jamba and get used to interact with target keybind and click to move option ASAP.

[ElectronDF]

I solo played for a long time. I added a backup healer so I could do elite quests (used to be a lot back in vanilla WoW). Then I added a DPS so I could do the elite quests easier/faster. I tried to do an instance, but with only 3 people, you really had to outlevel the instance so much, it wasn't really fun. So I pressed on and got a DPS and a tank. It made all the difference. I could isntance whenever I wanted. I could do group quests and fight elites whenever I wanted. About that time, Blizzard ganked all the elites from vanilla. But I really liked doing the instances. So I grew up from solo to 5.

[Bot]

this is pure speculation but it seems to me like people who run 4 characters do it with the intent of doing 5v5 arenas with a friend doing the healing. that way they can focus purely on just dpsing the other team and not so much about keeping themselves alive. thats just my deduction anyways. and the obvious reason for running 5 characters is to do 5 man dungeons alone. 2 boxing is fine you just end up being kinda limited cause theres not a whole lot two characters can do. i guess you could do 2v2 or 3v3 arena with a healer.

[Zal]

4 Boxing - generally for pvp purposes so that you can sub in a healer, also able to sub in friends for instance runs.
5 boxing - don't have to deal with PuGs and can go straight to any instance whenever you feel like it.

[illuminat]

My first post here and i am just a 3 day old boxer

I am just wondering, is there is a reason people multi-box 4 or 5 people at once sometimes? I am doing 2 to start off, 2 Gnome Mages. But Im still jw.

Well the reasons people have given for 4 and 5 boxing is very true.
the one that matters to me (i started boxing only 3 dayes ago and have just started doing hellfire after my RAF boosting to lvl 60).
the power and level of difficulty for having 4 or 5 of the same class is very nice.
its easier to do 5 shamans/mages/locks/"insert favorit class here".

And does anything really beat the look of 5 shamans in a spread formation and chain lightning?
So for me it is to have a powerfull team at my hands when i feel like it.
And to easely fill a 25man for our guild when we got 5+ spots open and got room for 5 dps.

instances, not having to pug, and so on.. they are more bonuses for me.

Also, do I need to still be using all the strafing macro's and etc? I have my arrow keys for my second character, and QWEASD for my main character. Is that good for only 2 characters?

That solution works for 2 characters indeed. Nothing is really wrong . there is just many wayes of doing right .
What many seem to be doing with "slaves" movement is to bind a key for the slaves that moves.
so for example the ~ key will do nothing for the main, strafe left on slave1, strafe right on slave2, move back on slave 3.
and so on. you get the picture.

Happy boxing.
Now i need to wait for my money to land in my bank account so i can buy myself tbc+wrath .

*edit* fixed some spelling/grammer errors

[Khatovar]

Well, I recently(25 minutes ago) decided that I was going to start multi-boxing. I got keyclone and everything. I have setup everything perfectly.

I am just wondering, is there is a reason people multi-box 4 or 5 people at once sometimes? I am doing 2 to start off, 2 Gnome Mages. But Im still jw.

When I started, it was to dual-box healers for raiding...no one likes to heal. Then my husband and I decided we really didn't like not being able to do instances because no one was ever on, so I added 2 more to make a 4+1 team. When I went to EQ2, we did the same thing as a 5+1 {groups are 6 people there}. Now we're back to WoW with the intent of trying to raid, so we're both 5boxing to create a 10man raid force.

It all depends what you want to get out of multiboxing. If you just like to quest, or you have a few people that you normally play with or even if you just like to do battlegrounds, then you don't need more than 2 or 3. For me personally, questing was always what I did while I was waiting for other people to catch up to me so we could raid or instance. Now I don't have to wait on anyone else.

Also, do I need to still be using all the strafing macro's and etc? I have my arrow keys for my second character, and QWEASD for my main character. Is that good for only 2 characters?

You shouldn't need all the elaborate setup stuff that you run across. A lot of those are things people use to have more control for several characters. There's no need to make things more dificult for yourself. Just play how you are comfortable playing and make changes as they come to you. You have no idea how bad some of us were to start with and how often we came to this site after saying "Hmmm, I need a way to do something like this..." Start adding things after you get comfortable with the basics and start figuring out where your team/setup is lacking for the things you want to do.

[Otlecs]

If your sole aim is to level the characters and then play them individually then you don't need anything more elaborate than a simple follow and assist macro.

And therein lies your answer as to why people multibox 4/5 characters too - they (we?) have loftier aims, with the intent to at least instance "alone" when it's hard to get a decent group together. The challenge of cracking a new instance is huge, but the satisfaction when you do crack it is equally huge.

My fresh 80 shammies with a pally tank finished HoS, HoL and UP over the weekend (normal mode). Not particularly hard once you've got the tactics down, but cracking the tactics myself was quite a rush. The rep grinds don't seem quite so bad when you can just log in and get on with it

edit: typos :whistling:

[holden]

when i started out multiboxing i was 2boxing a shaman to drop windfury and strength of earth totems and heal my warrior, back when windfury was awesome ;p

i moved on to 3boxing three ele shamans, which was an absolute blast to lvl, but was kinda limited to pvp at 70 and i wasnt really into pvp at the time.

and now i'm playing 5 druids so i can do whatever i want whenever i want without looking for a group.. ill probably dual spec my feral/resto to boomkin as well and have some fun in bgs as i enjoy pvp a lot more now than i used to.

[midnightrain]

I was 5-boxing a multi-class group back in TBC and then retired for a while. I recently reactivated two accounts, and have been having tons of fun running them through quests towards level 80.

I mention this in case anyone out there is thinking of multiboxing but hasn't yet taken the plunge. 5 accounts can be daunting at times, but running with only two toons is practically the same as running with only one, and then you have two characters to choose from at level cap. As others have mentioned, another advantage of running 2 or more is that you can finish those more difficult quests where groups of 2-3 are normally required.