How fun is Multiboxing in WoW?

[Tuco]

Hello good members of Dual-Boxing.com, I'm thinking about starting a multi-box squad in WoW after having not played since pre-Cataclysm when I killed Arthas and immediately uninstalled! Back then I dual-boxed a little with my priest main and a warrior and it was pretty fun.

I'm currently playing Everquest and have spent a lot of effort on my boxing crew there ( https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/...elcome.240258/ ), but it's getting a bit stale and I'm contemplating a move to WoW. I'm using ISBoxer in EQ, but would be happy to move to whatever tools are best.

I know that fun is different for everybody, but I'm hoping that folks here can help me decide whether I should go that route. I'm looking to return to my level 80 priest. II mostly want to experience the content I've missed over the last ten years, learn the new game mechanics and build up the best box crew I can. I don't really even know what questions to ask, but I'll try to set some and welcome any additional opinions people have.

1. I'm not sure I want to sign up to 5 box, at least not at first. If I level a 3box up to 110 and then decide I want to add two more to complete my crew and run dungeons, how hard is it to level/gear a new character on a totally new account to 110? How hard is it to level 5 new characters without boosting?

2. If I just want to see the new zones and do the quests from Cataclysm -> Legion, how much fun is that with a 3 box team? Is it fairly streamlined or will I spend half my time struggling through moving them around, doing a bunch of quests that are annoying to do with a box team and streamrolling content that is easy for a soloer and boring for a box team?

3. I looked through the last couple years of boxing composition forum and had trouble understanding a lot of the posts. What composition(s) make sense for a 3 or 5box that include a priest?

3a. I see that in WoW a lot of the top box teams stack multiples of the same class (ex: 5x hunters), is this purely for ease of setup, or is it all but impossible to execute on 5 different classes properly, so you're at a huge disadvantage if you use different classes? Personally I like using boxing to learn different classes, so the idea of playing all different classes is compelling to me.

3b. In EQ I have a trinity style system with my main driver being a tank, having a healer and then 4 DPS. This is what I'd prefer in EQ, but I'm open to any suggestions.

3c. I'd prefer a general purpose composition, but one with a high skill cap (I get bored when I feel like I've peaked in a game).

3d. I have an 80 warrior on a different account that would be nice to continue, but I am not totally set on playing him if there are better tanks for boxing.



Sorry for the longish post and not knowing what I'm really asking, I'd appreciate any information folks have.

[JohnGabriel]

If you are looking to experience all you missed last few years then don't start out on your level 80, start up a new team. They have completely reworked the leveling process so you might want to give the entire 1 to 110 a try. The jury is still out on whether its fun or not.

For me, I started playing WC2 Christmas of 1995 and except for breaks to play Rift its pretty much been Blizzard and only Blizzard for over 20 years. Is WoW fun to me or am I just addicted? Who knows?

As for composistion since its late in the expansion, maybe go the fun route with Warlocks and a Priest. Or all tanks. It didn't take my 2nd team more than a week or two and they are 920 ilvl range, gear is quick.

You could join MiRai and Super in their boxing guild and level up a couple teams with them. I think right now they are preparing teams for the next expansion not enjoying the remaining of this one.
https://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/...Ganis-US-Horde

[Ritley]

Are you by any chance Tuco from FoH?

Anyway questing while multi-boxing can be a chore in legacy content. It gets more and more streamlined for multiboxers as you move through expansions. Once you hit WoD questing becomes much better. That's where all quest items can be gathered/looted by multiple characters at once. There are some annoyances like phasing that become an issue in Cata and on but nothing unbearable.

3 Boxing is doable without it becoming frustrating. I'm not sure I'd try to 5 box a team from 1-110 via questing.

When you see teams that are all one class that is just for ease of setup and play. However, many of the people here and in the ISBoxer discord use mixed team Trinity setups with a tank, healer and 3 dps. WoW is one of the easiest games out to do this with because of their addon and macro system. As for what classes to choose? Well if your main concern is seeing the content you missed while being away then really any class comp is going to work for you.

As for ease of macroing rotations some specializations are much easier. BM Hunters, Frost Death Knights, Havoc Demon Hunters, Ret Paladins are probably the simplest. Affliction Warlocks, Fury and Arms Warriors, Assassination Rogues and Windwalker Monks are not much more difficult to set up reasonably well. Balance and Feral druids require a little more work to set up good rotations for but are doable. Enhancement and Elemental Shaman I find to be a major PITA and all other specs I don't really have experience with outside of using them in same spec teams where I am playing the classes normally and not using macroed rotations.

Windwalker Monks are incredibly powerful even at low gear levels once you get to end game. They have very strong cooldowns on very low timers. Affliction Warlocks are also incredibly powerful by virtue of their top tier sustained damage + self healing. And they get pets that can tank for them as icing on the cake.

[Darth0]

Hello good members of Dual-Boxing.com, I'm thinking about starting a multi-box squad in WoW after having not played since pre-Cataclysm when I killed Arthas and immediately uninstalled! Back then I dual-boxed a little with my priest main and a warrior and it was pretty fun.

Welcome to the family of multiboxers! I started dual boxing at first which led to me going to a 5 toon team. Maybe start small and work your way up to a full team composition. Since you haven't played since Wrath of the Lich King; I would probably start over levelling from 1 - 110. The game has changed so much since those days.

Good luck and see you around the forums!

[Tuco]

Are you by any chance Tuco from FoH?

Yep! That's me.

[CMKCot]

5x of the same class is not only easier with quests and class hall things (Worldquests, class quests, scenarios, are different, for ex.), but also extremely efficient.

once a character has a high ilvl item on a slot, any drop that's an upgrade to anyone else will get traded, so x5 of the same class will be in a constant ilvl increase path. this is how i had 940+ ilvl teams last tier, when to get that ilvl you were supposed to be doing some heavy mythic heroic/mythic raiding.

mixed teams are for show or just to get into LFG for Timewalking. Maybe DPS-healer can be used but its a bit busy. (cant do either properly)


also, you benefit from stacking of skills:

for example,. 5x hunters can use bombardment macro to be always facing the target, making lfr, normal modes and heroic raids be pretty much doable and pretty fun. (you end up with 5x turrets that you can move around)

5x prot palas can use their AOE blind to pull multiple packs of trash and then cycle one by one all the while you can do constant damage with hammers and consecration.. eventually even mytic 10s become just a constant chain pull. you take zero damage.. and even if you did you are immortal. x5 seals on the target (about 500k hps alone...) + constant shields and a hard reset button to use in the middle of most fights if you do 5x bubbles. unless you really screw up you should be fine, its all about pulling always the Maximum possible.

and the heals... once you get helm and shield pant leggos the game becomes officially stupid(you sacrifice the high mobility of boots and ring, but you should be fine), you can even ignore mythic+ affixes like bursting... same with DK teams with 5x of the 3% hp per hit debuff (i forgot the name of this one). if you keep that up, bosses just cant kill the tank.

and with 5X tanks that have amazing damage scaling the more trash you pull, a lot of affixes are completely moot. extra mobs affix is just more meat for the meat grinder and skittish does nothing to you, bursting with proper CD use can be ignored, seen it climb up to 48x and survived it. the bleed one is a joke, at my current ilvl i don't even bother to remove it, or use food bufs like Chow. and even stuff like necrotic is just negated 100% by taunt cycling your tanks.

and with all DPS teams, you completely change the way the dungeons are made.

5x hunters, 5x ferals, 5x locks and burst out SO much AOE that you can pretty much burst down any trash pack before you take any damage. if you had a tank and a healer in that comp, their inclusion ends up justifying itself. you cant kill things fast enough so you need a tank to hold them, or a healer to offset their damage... you don't need either if you can demolish a boss doing moster DPS in a short burst. currently im working on breaking my own DPS records just for shits and giggles, fastest Xavius kill is 28 seconds. (raid boss) and most mythic bosses are down in the 6 - 7 second mark.

even cats (with no pets) can demolish high mythic bosses before they can kill any of your dudes trough off heals and survival instincts.



if you are new i would recommend you do not even try mixed teams, they are very underwhelming compared to mixed, and will eventually frustrate the hell out of you.

5x prot palas is a good start, you can easily que for LFD once you are a few levels in (they can fill the heal/dps/tank slots even if they are all prots.), leveling is pretty easy and at max lvl you can immediately jump in mytics and m+ and eventually do up to mytic 16 -17... depending on the week. its a REALLY fun ramp up, and a constant stream of upgrades.

the skill required is pretty high, if you want to push. a few weeks to get the team set up properly, then you have to learn and execute all the trash pulls perfectly. high mythic can lead into a slow +1 grind where a small mistake can set you back a lot, specially on tyrannical week. lets say that m+ is mindless up to +9, then it can get pretty demanding. (used to be demanding and ridiculously expensive... imagine popping War pots on trash x5 back when they were 1k each.)

another fun team is 5x hunters, but you cant que for LFD. 5x druids is also pretty fun, and you can que to anything. the problem with druids is that you need pouncersx4 to make mythic + doable. (you kinda need a tank.) and 5X monks to farm anything that's farmable.

once you have your teams set up you can then create new teams mixing parts of each, you get the best of both worlds.

[Pocahuntess]

CMKCot - Ha! You just gave me something to try out this weekend! Thanks for that detailed post!

[Tuco]

Thanks for the advice folks, it's really welcomed.

5x of the same class is not only easier with quests and class hall things (Worldquests, class quests, scenarios, are different, for ex.), but also extremely efficient.

I really appreciate this well thought out response because it fills in a lot of knowledge gaps I have in the why and how stacking 5x is effective, but it definitely parallels the sentiment I've gotten this weekend while looking into multiboxing in WoW. The idea of loot dropping and being tradable if you have an upgrade is something I had no idea about (and being personal in the first place), but really motivates stacking 5x of a class.

If you can forgive me for pushing back a little just to fill more gaps in my knowledge:
1. The idea of stacking DPS and simply burning the boss before it kills everyone is foreign to me. It's been a decade since I played WoW, but has individual survivability really gotten so strong that you can just sort of ball up, avoid their telegraphed attacks and survive a boss without a dedicated tank + healer pumping heals into them? Or do typical box groups try to simply outgear content and a group of real players at a given ilvl will attempt much harder dungeons than a box crew?

I've been watching a lot of vids on multiboxing, would you say that this is pretty typical with a relatively complete group with a skilled player doing hard content, where clearly the hunters are able to burn the boss, keep mobs focused on their pets (and they survive) and avoid the boss's telegraphed damage?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_B3G8tUO10

2. What do you (and anyone else) think of @Chibilukina's success with a 2dru/3 hunter group?

My group composition is a bear tank, 3 BM hunters and a resto druid with the main focus on my group being for Mythic+. Each character has a very simplistic rotation and because of this it allows them to perform rather optimally with being able to clear Mythic 15 back before they redid the difficulty of Mythic+. I still believe they can do that even now (I just need to sink more time into it to make that achievable).

Each of the toons currently are 900+ ilvl and 45+ on traits and have the necessary requirements to complete go further than the highest Mythic+ I have done so far after patch 7.2 (being Mythic 13). The wall right now is just a time sink; I haven't been able to invest so much time into Mythic+ as of late (work lately being a punkface).

Has Chibilukina simply worked harder than he would've needed to had he stacked 5x of one class to achieve what he has? Or does he have a really critical set of synergies within his makeup that make it superior in some way? Or was he simply playing classes that were relatively OP?



I think at this point I'd like to play, because it looks really fun and interesting, but really can't come back to WoW without returning to my priest, but don't want to play some gimpy group that gets gear slowly just because I'm attached to my priest.

[luxlunae]

CMKCot.... wow. I haven't wanted to do 5 boxing in years but I think I'll be spinning up my other three this weekend. Lax should hire you to write multiboxing copy.

[charly]

@tuco Chibilukina is my hero xD I played his videos dozens of times and, to my knowledge, he is the only multi boxer who got creative enough to finish all the dungeons in 10+ in legion. 5 x team might get you to M+15 for specific dungeons and affixes but it won’t be as successful than his compo. Here is a non exhaustive list of the challenges he overcame:
- constant move of the 4 ranged to deal with the mechanics. That is the most important imo.
- instant heal to deal with the fact that when one toon needs to move, they all move.
- same thing with hunters, instant dps.
- speed buff with the Druid guardian to get out of incoming damage zones like with odyn.
- at that time, multiple brez available so more forgiving.
- burst of dps for mobs that need to die quickly such the lightning mob for odyn or the avatars for the boss at the end of the vault.

I’m taking a break right now but I’ll likely level the exact same team for bfa. I had a lot of fun with 5 x DPS but it got frustrating to get high keys for dungeons I could not do without being over geared. So I ended up doing pugs for high keys in mythics and raids, one toon at a time. That part was not fun.