Khat's Newbie Guide for Multiboxing Vol. 2

[Khatovar]

Movement Issues

I'm not talking about just running around and doing quest stuff. Long-term movement should always be manged through the follow command. While you can, and in some cases should, "pass" movement keys to all windows, even the slightest variance in latency, position or facing will cause your toons to get progressively more scattered. But, since most things won't just stand still and let us kill them, we have to adapt. So here's some common issues you are likely to run across and the usual solutions multiboxers employ.


Facing

Issue - You got fearbombed or the mob moved and suddenly your slaves are stuck facing the wrong way.
Solution - There's actually several options.

1. Have your slaves follow and then break follow. Just a standard roundup where you quickly tap your follow hotkey and then quickly break follow. Drawback - Follow doesn't have a terribly long range. You may end up running all over the place on your main to round everyone up.

2. Focusing Lens macros. Very simply, a macro that makes your slaves use a Focusing Lens. The Focusing Lens will automatically turn you towards your target when it casts. Drawback - Focusing Lenses are crafted items, and while they have a lot of charges, you will still need the materials and someone to make them for you. They also have a very long range, so you may be facing the right way, but be too far away to actually get back to attacking.

3. Interact With Target. You'd use this just like you would with option 1. tap your IWT key and then quickly tap another movement key to make your slaves stop running toward the target. Drawback - Can't really think of any. IWT has a much further range than Follow and triggers movement. It's the best of both previous options with none of the drawbacks.



Hurty Stuff

Issue - Pools of shadowy death. Walls of fire. Spikes of stone. Everyone knows by now that you have to get out of the hurty stuff. Easier said than done when you're dealing with more than one toon.
Solution - There's few things you can keep in mind to make stuff like this easier.

1. Moving backwards is SLOW. Don't try to backpeddal out of things that hurt. Move forward or strafe out.

2. Follow means delays. Just because your main is running to safety doesn't mean that your slaves are. They're going to stand around in the owie stuff until they tether and start following....usually through the hurty stuff that your main is running away from. Sometimes it's better to just push forward with the arrow keys or strafe.

3. Follow Strobing can be your friend. If you use Jamba, you can enable follow strobing through a macro command. In high-movement fights like the jousting event in TotC, I'll turn on follow strobing and use it to launch my slaves via charge and Jamba's follow strobing will kick in and rubberband my slaves back to me. For the first two bosses in Heroic Tol'vir, I put my whole team on follow strobe and kite the boss around backwards so that my tank is hitting him from the front and my slaves are hitting him from behind while moving, keeping them out of the way of bombs and fire trails.

4. Click to Move can also be your friend. With Click to Move on, you can quickly move over to the appropriate screen and just click on a clear area, or even turn on your mouse repeating to click for everyone.


Phasing

The most common gripe about travel is hitting a phase line and losing all your slaves. Not much you can do about that, unfortunately. However, you can make it a little less painful.

This is another task for Jamba's Follow Strobing. My mount macro automatically turns on strobing so when I'm traveling, I don't have to worry about follow breaking.

Anytime I cross a phase line, I press my forward arrow to push everyone through it. Jamba's follow strobing will then kick in again and everyone is back on follow.

Phases themselves are usually accompanied by a subzone change. Whenever I'm in an area that I know uses phasing, I'll keep an eye out for the new subzone to flash on my screen. That's my signal to use my forward arrow and hold up for a second to make sure everyone is through the phase and back on follow.

Jamba also has the ability to send alerts when you lose follow on your slaves, which can be configured in Jamba > Team > Follow. Or you can use the team display to show follow status. I have my team window set up right next to my mini-map, so when I'm running around looking for nodes to gather, the follow status is directly in my line of vision.


Movement Speed

Several classes have passive speed boosts to either normal movement or mounted movement. This is something you will want to take into consideration as most don't effect your whole party. Spending points in movement-boosting talents might seem like a good idea, but it's not really saving any time if you have to constantly "wait up" or go back and pick up a toon who lost follow because your main moves faster than they can. Or worse, watching them get stuck on things or falling off cliffs because they try to cut corners to keep up with the main.

In cases like this, people will sometimes opt to lead with a slave while traveling. You can also opt not to take speed boost on your main or you can use speed-boost enhancements like boot enchants, riding crops or mithril spurs. Druids and shamans can also drop into travel form to keep up with a main on foot. Finally, you can use multi-person mounts and have the slower toons pair up with the faster toons so they don't get left behind, which is especially useful if you are using a high-level toon to boost a low-level toon since mount speed is inherent now and you can no longer "downgrade" your mount to get a slower speed.

[Khatovar]

Gathering, Collection Quests and Other Annoyances

Collections

Just about anyone who's been doing this for a while will tell you that collection quests are the bane of our existence. They aren't even that fun as a solo player. They are downright brutal for a multiboxer, since WoW doesn't like to share quest drops among party members very often. The good news is, you usually don't have to do them. Unless you're obsessive and can't imagine leaving a zone with quests undone, you can usually just skip collection quests. WoW almost always has 2 zones that you can level in per bracket, so you should never have an issue with not enough quests. And if you do, you always have the option of going to the other zone or doing dungeons or Battle Grounds to supplement your XP.

That said, sometimes you just have to suck it up and do them. Certain collection quests are needed to advance questlines that you can't or don't want to skip. The only tip I have for those is don't drive yourself crazy. Spend a little while doing the quest, then go off and do another quest and come back to it.

If possible, check out a leveling guide or do a search for the mobs or mobs in the area on wowhead to see if there's going to be other quests tied to those same mobs or locations. I always do this first because nothing sucks more than spending 45 minutes on a collection quest only to find out that the next step to a totally different quest was going to send me right back out there.

And always, always, always make sure you make everyone loot. Some quests actually do share questdrops for the whole party, but if you use Assist/IWT to loot on everyone at the same time, only one will pick it up and everyone else will get "that object is busy". Usually your master will win out on the lootgrab and you won't see that message, so always double-check.


Gathering and Professions

At first glance, you might think the best thing to do is take all the professions you could want across your team from the start. Usually, this is not a good idea. Most of the time, you are never going to be in the sweet-spot where the stuff you craft is going to be useful. It will either be too low, too high or you will outlevel it in hours anyway. Most likely, you will outlevel the areas you need to gather the mats from too fast to gather all the stuff you need to keep a crafting skill up to date.

It's very, very easy to waste a lot of time crafting. If you have RAF ticking away, you don't want to be spending hours upon hours in a city trying to level crafting when you could be out earning XP. Especially since you may not like the team you have at high levels.

It's usually a better idea to just take gathering professions while you're leveling and either sell the mats you gather to make money for things like mount and spell training, or store them for later use. Most people take mining and herbalism on their mains and skinning on an alt. This is a good standard to go by since it's a lot easier to go back and gather what you need at max level or simply take all that money you earn and buy what you need off the Auction House.

One thing to keep in mind is that gathering skills reward XP. Taking herbalism and mining on a main can cause you to rather quickly outlevel your other toons, so you might need to get creative to keep everyone close in level. You can either skip a few quests here and there on your main, try giving everyone "equal time" with gathering skills, try level locking your main {I don't know if that actually works} or in a case where you have a higher level toon on one of your accounts, you can put heirloom gear on the toons that don't get gathering XP or do a few rounds of boosting using a max-level toon in place of the one that's too far ahead.


Me personally, I also like to include an enchanter so I can DE drops in dungeons and other BoPs as I level up, since some of those mats can bring in some good money. You might also want to include a tailor or leatherworker since most cloth and leather doesn't sell for much {at least on my server} compared to the DE mats. This does 2 things. First, it allows you to feed your enchanter so they are always able to DE what they get. Second, it allows you to turn those bulky stacks of cloth or leather into bolts and upgraded leather, saving you precious bag space. Since I already have several teams leveled, I just send off my cloth/leather to one of my high-level tailors/leatherworkers to craft and send those to the enchanter to DE as needed.


So, what do you take when you're all leveled and ready to do tradeskills?

Alchemy - always a popular choice. Most multiboxers have several alchemists because transmuting is a pretty consistant moneymaker. I myself have 8 I think, most of them on alts I don't play, but I still have 2 on my main team. The flasks are a nice buff to have and it's hard to ignore the profit or savings in being able to transmute gems and special metals.

Blacksmithing - I always like to have BS on my tank. The extra sockets are always nice especially combined with JC only gems, and I'm sort of addicted to skeleton keys since I don't have a rogue. It's also pretty useful since I have 3 plate wearers on my team. Being able to craft plate gear takes a little pressure off getting drops, especially if I can gather my own orbs, and BS always offers some very nice weapons/shields even if you aren't a team full of plate wearers.

Jewel Crafting - The JC only gems are always a welcome boost. Prospecting is a pretty good money maker, too, either selling raw gems or cut ones. Even if you don't sell the gems, you'll save money cutting them for your team instead of having to buy them off the Auction House.

Enchanting - Just like Jewel Crafting, you'll save and/or make a lot of money with disenchanting. With several toons who are always going to need enchants, you don't want to be throwing away money on the Auction House every other day. You should be able to pull in a constant flow of enchanting mats from dungeons and questing. And there's always the stuff you're not going to be able to sell on the Auction House, like all those greens you make while leveling things like JC. Plus, the ring enchants are sweet.

Tailoring/Leatherworking - Just like Blacksmithing, they can be great choices for helping to gear your team up. Both offer nice bonuses. Personally, I have these on alts and not my main team, just so I have someone who can do them. Things like bags, cloaks, threads and armor kits are nothing to sneeze at, but I didn't feel like they offered enough for me to level them all over again on my main team. Blacksmithing, on the other hand, would allow me to make weapons and shields for everyone using BoP orb drops, so I thought that was reason enough to relevel it. But that's my personal preferance. If you've got a lot of cloth/leather/chain wearers on your team, you would get a lot of use out of having a LW or Tailor who can grab the orbs and make gear for them.

Engineering - this is an iffy one. People seem to either love it or hate it. People even bounce between loving and hating it. People like me. On one hand, I love it. Things like gas clouds and the like for bonus elementals is awesome. There's a lot of cool toys, the tinkers are nice enough and I love throwing bombs. But I also often feel like it's pretty lackluster for the amount of effort and money I put into it. It's never something I'd give up Alchemy, BS, JC or Enchanting for and so far it's one of the only skills I've refused to level again. It just doesn't offer anything incredibly useful to my team as a whole.

Inscription - This is the only other skill I refuse to level again. A lot of people swear by the money-making potential of it but I don't think that's bonus enough to keep it leveled on my main team. I'm happy enough to have it on a dusty old alt somewhere.

The Gathering Skills - I always keep Skinning, Herbalism and Mining on my main team so I can gather my own mats to use or sell. I usually split them up between my DPS because I want the bigger bonuses that come from the crafting tradeskills on my tank and healer. I always figure a stronger tank and healer makes things easier when gearing up, so I have BS and JC on my tank for the extra sockets and JC only gems and Alchemy and Enchanting on my healer for the flask, Alchemist Stone and ring enchants. Then each of my DPS slaves have a crafting tradeskill and a gathering tradeskill. In case you missed it all the way down at the bottom of the other guide, here's how I manage gathering from the slaves.

[Khatovar]

Super Awesome Useful Macros

A Better 1-button Mount Macro

/use [button:2] Traveler's Tundra Mammoth; [swimming] Abyssal Seahorse; [flyable] Headless Horseman's Mount; Headless Horseman's Mount
/dismount [mod]
/script VehicleExit()
/jamba-follow strobeonme slave

So, thanks to luxlunae's comment, I revisited the mount macro to make better use of conditionals for multiboxers.

If you click using the right mouse button, you'll summon the Traveler's Tundra Mammoth for a multiperson mount for boosting or the vendors. If you use the keybind normally, and you are in swimmable water, you will summon the Abyssal Seahorse. If you are someplace where you can fly, it will summon your flying mount. Otherwise it will summon your ground mount. Change mounts as applicable.

If you are already mounted, it will dismount you. Adding the [mod] conditional will make it so you need to trigger the macro with CTRL, ALT or Shift in order to dismount. Or you can specify a particular modifier. This way if some of your guys mount up and some don't on the first press, the guys that are mounted will stay mounted and the ones who aren't will try to mount again.

If you are in a vehicle, it will exit the vehicle.

Finally, it will enable Jamba's Follow Strobing.


Looking For Dungeon

/click LFDRoleCheckPopupAcceptButton
/click LFGDungeonReadyDialogEnterDungeonButton
/run MiniMapInstanceDifficulty:Hide() MiniMapInstanceDifficulty.Show=function() end

Accepts the role ready check and enters the dungeon. The last line also hides the little instance difficulty flag, since I generally already know what I queued for.

/run LFGTeleport(IsInLFGDungeon())

This one ports you out of the dungeon.


Invite Etc

/jamba-team invite
/click [nomounted] SmartBuff_KeyButton
/jamba-follow strobeoff all
/run UIErrorsFrame:Hide();

This is the Master's version. It invites your Jamba Team to group, uses Smartbuff to buff your group {only if you are not mounted}, turns off Jamba Follow strobing {I only use strobing when mounted, normal follow is enough for just running around} and hides the annoying errors text.

/click [nomounted] SmartBuff_KeyButton
/cast [nomounted, nocombat] Totemic Recall
/follow party1
/clearfocus
/script SetView (4); SetView (4)
/run UIErrorsFrame:Hide();

This is the slaves version. It also uses SmartBuff and hides the errors text. It also sucks up the totems from my shamans, makes my slaves follow my tank, clears my focus {I use focus for CC} and adjusts my camera view.


Targeting

/targetenemy [noharm][dead]
/castsequence blah, blah, blah

If you currently have a hostile target, it will drop down to do your cast sequence. If your target is not hostile or is dead, it will target the next hostile target and then let you cast.


If you're looking for class specific macros, head on over to The MoP Macro Library.

[MiRai]

Good stuff.