FTL With Multiple Chars/Account No Addons Needed

[Bettysue]

I have seen the question raised a few times here and decided to contribute what i use, so that it may help others use the FTL method, while maintaining altaholic status.

First a few things I should put out in the open and reasons why I do it.

1) /target vs /assist -- I use /target because it reduces the number of macros I require since you can't /follow your assist.
2) This write up is not meant to be the end all do it my way type thing I just want to help distribute my findings.
3) I use no addons, so yes the macros are convoluted and make heavy use of /click, but you can't multibox MLG games without doing it this way right :P
4) I assume you have been able to setup your multiboxing software of choice to send the correct key set when a certain character is leading. I use:

ctrl+shift for account 1
ctrl+alt for account2
alt+shift for account 3
ctrl+alt+shift for account 4
ctrl for account 5

This setup is directly from the wikipage that explains how to set up FTL.

Cool now on to the fun. I have a few screenshots to help, but just in case you can't read them all of the macros I used to establish follow and cast 1 spell are listed below a bolded title for the macro.

Big Button Macro -- This one is key to this whole setup

/click [mod:ctrlshift,nomod:alt] MultiBarRightButton1;
[mod:ctrlalt,nomod:shift] MultiBarRightButton2;
[mod:altshift,nomod:ctrl] MultiBarRightButton3;
[mod:ctrlshiftalt] MultiBarRightButton4;
[mod:ctrl,nomod:alt/shift] MultiBarRightButton5

Okay a few things to note:
1) You can combine modifiers into 1 word so to speak for example [mod:alt,mod:shift,nomod:ctrl] is exactly the same as [mod:altshift,nomod:ctrl]. This way saves a ton of characters and makes the above macro come in at a lightweight 239 characters, allowing a 5 account boxer with tons of alts on each account to do this without the need for an addon.

2) Save space using semicolons followed by a new line to run the same initial command over and over. For example:

/click [parameters] MyMacroButton1;
[otherparameters] MyMacroButton2

is the same as

/click [parameters] MyMacroButton1
/click [otherparameters] MyMacroButton2

and it saves you 6 characters per line for click macros.

3) This macro clicks an "account" macro. The "account" macro has all the characters from a particular account listed in it, and will select an online character. I can do it this way since you can only have 1 char per account online at a time. If you log one out and bring another one in, nothing breaks and the new char just takes the spot of the old char. This does assume you load them in the same logical spot...meaning the send the same modifiers the old char did.

This leads perfectly into the
Account Macro

/target [exists,target=toonone][exists,target=someotherchar][exists,target=myguythatisoffline]

This macro is exactly the same on all account and is placed on the rightside action bar at the very top, the second one has that accounts list and so on. Here it is with five accounts and the bigbutton placed along the right side, note in the picture that toonfive does not have to be in the fifth spot he is just the fifth character I have on the fifth account, in this example. The 2 pics look the same because I was lazy but you would have all unique names across the 5 macros.



Alright now just make sure you have unbound all the shift ctrl and alt modifiers in game. These will override the macro and make everything not work for you.



Once you've done that you are ready to put this all to use, lets make a follow macro

Follow

/stopmacro [nomod]
/click MultiBarRightButton6
/follow
/targetlasttarget [mod]

The first line just keeps the leader from trying to follow themself. The second line will click the bigbutton macro, if you placed it in the same place shown in the pic above, which will click the account macro and target your online char from that account. The third line will of course follow the targeted character. The fourth line makes this truly FTL and targets your previous target if you are a follower, you will of course still be following the designated leader when this macro was activated.
If you had no previous target prior to hitting follow you will have no target now and be following the leader.

Attacking is just as simple

Attack -- Shaman Lightning Bolt

/click [mod] MultiBarRightButton6
/cast [harm][target=targettarget][] Lightning Bolt
/targetlasttarget [mod]

This macro is the same on the leader and each of the followers just as the follow macro is, therefor it does a couple things.

1) click the big button to target the leader only if you are a follower ( [mod] )
2) cast on your hostile target if you're leader ( [harm] ) or your leaders target as a follower ( [target=targettarget] )...the empty brackets are used as a fallback in case the macro is stuck and will allow the cast to try to work as though none of the other business was going on in the macro.
3)target the previous target on the followers.

All major attack spells are just copy paste and replace the spell name

Healing isn't too bad but a little more complex

Heal -- Shaman Healing Wave

CODE]/click [mod] MultiBarRightButton6
/cast [target=targettarget,help][[target=targettargettarget,help][help][] Healing Wave
/targetlasttarget [mod][/CODE]

I'll just start with the second line since that's all that is different.
Heal the leaders target should it be friendly, or the leader is targeting an enemy and you should heal that enemy's target. If the leader isn't targeting anything heal him if you're a follower, if you're all alone, or you are the leader just heal yourself.
The empty bracket leader heal self bit assumes you have selfcasting turned on on each character.

I hope this helps it's really not much different from the FTL setup in the wiki, it just gives you the core macro to setup FTL when you run lots of alts in your groups, without requiring an addon to play. It has the added benefit of making the FTL macros account wide, meaning each account can have the same 6 macros in their general section leaving the character specific macros open for spells and whatnot.

I left the follow button pic attached but did not include it because I moved the big button over to the side bar, and wanted to prevent confusion based on the incorrect name in the first line.

[Woodster1]

Thumbs up
Very nice guide, thx much.

Now i just need a way to keymap the modifiers since half of my keybinds use alt/shift/ctrl.
I already have a keymap for the FTL Setup from http://www.dual-boxing.com/wiki/inde...aderless_Setup

But no clue how to use em with the Accountbased Setup :/

[Schwarz]

BettySue are you on Azgalor? I think I saw you in dalaran. I am in the process of getting my 5 box team back together. Maybe after I get geared would you want to try and run some 10 man stuff? I am doing 1 paladin/4 shaman (paladin is 78 right now so I should be doing heroics by this weekend).

[Bettysue]

yup yup azgalor is home Funny thing is you're the one that got me started on it so many moons ago. I saw you on the platform for one of the zeps and had to figure out how the hell you did it. I found here and well the rest we all know

Ya I'm pretty much down for dying a bunch to get cool stuff. If you catch me online hit me up, I'm sure we can run something.


Edit: I knew I had a pic

[Schwarz]

Yes!!! I am famous. Looks like they are all in Scarlet Monastary gear. Man the good times. That had to be right around when I first hit 40 and got chain heal.

Not sure if you raid or not but I might be able to get you into Zero Tolerance. They are the third most progressed guild on the horde side. I am pretty pysched for the guild leveling b/c there are a lot of crazy people with crazy ammounts of time in ZT. I don't raid any more but I am looking forward to the guild perks.

Oh yea and loan me some gold Betty!

[Pocalypse]

First thing I saw on there was [mod:ctrlshift,nomod:alt]. Does this work the same as [mod:ctrl,mod:shift,nomod:alt]? Does WoW read it correctly?

Will L/R modifiers work this way too? Will [mod:lshiftrctrllctrl,nomod:ralt] work?

I'll test this when I get home, but if it does this'll shorten my macros a lot.

[Edit: I should really read the whole post before replying... you explained it in the next sentence, awesome .]

[Bettysue]

Haha yup, it works, I kinda discovered it by accident one day while typing out a macro furiously I fogot to type the second mod: and it still worked, after some testing I discovered it worked with nomod as well as the left and right versions of the mods.

It does save quite a bit of room.

[Fizzler]

Great post addon less boxing like hardware boxing it is a lost art and when the dust settles and if Blizzard decides to nuke the ability to box (which I am sure they won't but it makes for a good discussion) Hardware and addon less boxers will be at the top of the food chain.

[Pocalypse]

Hmm, I think the nomods still need to be kept seperate, otherwise it looks for no (alt+shift), but will activate on either alt and shift. I think nomod:alt/shift should do it though.

[Bettysue]

Hmm, I think the nomods still need to be kept seperate, otherwise it looks for no (alt+shift), but will activate on either alt and shift. I think nomod:alt/shift should do it though.

Whoops you're right I missed it, you need the slash for the combined nomod checks...lucky for me copy pasting the macro in this case will work because of the order.

I'll edit it really quick though thanks for the catch.