BOXability of SWTOR

[Mosg2]

@Mercbeast:

WoW doesn't do autofacing either and people have been pretty successful in PvP I'm getting on the 4x Sith Inquisitor train I guess. If there's a flashpoint I can't handle 4x I'll just use a companion as a tank and if that doesn't work I'll drag in another player.

They seem a lot like Shaman in WoW. Maybe not as survivable.

[Mercbeast]

@Mercbeast:

WoW doesn't do autofacing either and people have been pretty successful in PvP I'm getting on the 4x Sith Inquisitor train I guess. If there's a flashpoint I can't handle 4x I'll just use a companion as a tank and if that doesn't work I'll drag in another player.

They seem a lot like Shaman in WoW. Maybe not as survivable.

Half the advanced classes in the game have an AoE knock back. This is like half the classes in WoW having an AoE fear that you cannot block.

You simply will not be able to effectively box Huttball. It won't work.

Inquisitors are light armor. If you want to draw a parallel between TOR classes and WoW classes.

Inquisitors are priests.

Personally, I've leveled up a half dozen level 50's in the last month in the proper beta and I've multiboxed with ISboxer on the beta weekends. Right now with how the game is, four boxing is going to be a nightmare.

First as of right now you HAVE TO hardware box, so unless you have 4 computers capable of running the game atm, you are simply SOL.

Second, there is no elegant way to setup assist or follow. You have to brute force it all the way. Right now, this is how assisting works.

Target Party 1, Target of Target.

Following = Target Party 1, Follow Target.

Now if you run 4 clients on one computer (let's hope they make this possible) you are going to run into a situation where you cannot easily just jump from client to client with window swapping and have assisting working off of your new master. Your assist/follow macros will all be set to one character, this means that if you want to run 4 characters and have the ability to hotswap you need 4 different sets of assist/follow macros.

With 2, it is simple, the other guy is always party 1.

Right now there is no chance I would recommend anyone 4 box out of the gate. Two WILL be ideal and 3 if you really have to push it will be a balance between taking advantage of the absolutely fantastic companions, and filling your group up with PC's.

Companions can tank all of the flashpoints in the game, and they can do it as well as a player can in a pure mitigation/threat generation standpoint.

For me, two is absolutely ideal. This allows me to run a tank companion with a healer companion or a DPS companion. In world PvP I can run a DPS/Healer with two DPS companions and I will have extremely solid damage throughput. I can also run DPS/DPS with DPS companions, or DPS/DPS with healer companions.

Interestingly enough, I feel that the ideal 4x PvP team will actually be scoundrels and operatives in the melee tree. Melee works surprisingly well with autofollow tied into your DPS spam key, and the HOTs they get will make it very difficult to down them in PvP. Stealth, super burst, healing, medium armor. They are very beefy.

[Esca]

Merc, thanks for the detailed info about boxing in the Beta. I'm just a little confused about the fact that you say that you've successfully used ISboxer to multibox, but right after that you say that you have to hardware box:

...I've multiboxed with ISboxer on the beta weekends......
......First as of right now you HAVE TO hardware box, so unless you have 4 computers capable of running the game atm, you are simply SOL.........

Could you please explain this a little better? Are you saying that ISboxer will open but that performance is really bad running 4 sessions on a single computer?

[Apps]

Merc, thanks for the detailed info about boxing in the Beta. I'm just a little confused about the fact that you say that you've successfully used ISboxer to multibox, but right after that you say that you have to hardware box:



Could you please explain this a little better? Are you saying that ISboxer will open but that performance is really bad running 4 sessions on a single computer?

Bioware has made this very clear... no macros at the launch of the game. This makes SOFTWARE boxing rather difficult, if not impossible.

Of course as soo as someone "says" impossible, some knuckle head will argue it, or claim they have a work around.

Either way, what hes saying is, HARDWARE boxing should work at launch.

[Crum1515]

I believe he is saying that only one instance of swtor can be open per a PC at the moment. macros presence, or lack there of has no bearing on software or hardware boxing really. but please give me a free pass, as today i am hopped up on pain pills and bed bound, so if i missed the point completely please just ignore me today