Dual Boxing vs Solo Efficiency

[Apollo127]

I recently got the itch to try out dual boxing. I purchased ISBoxer and have messed around with 2 group comps so far, Shaman/Mage and Priest/Mage. I don't really have a specific reason to dual box besides general interest. I have most of the kinks figured out and I just wanted to hear some opinions on if dual boxing is any more beneficial then just solo play?

My original thought was it would be nice to have a mage be on my 2nd account so that I could use him for boosting alts on my main account but I wanted to figure out if its worth my effort/time or if I'm better off just solo playing if I have no intent on playing more then 2 characters?

Another general questions as far as group comps, is there any specific class that would benefit the mage the most? Also, if I stick with shaman/mage or priest/mage would it be best to have the "driver" as the mage or shaman/priest?

[nodoze]

I recently got the itch to try out dual boxing. I purchased ISBoxer and have messed around with 2 group comps so far, Shaman/Mage and Priest/Mage. I don't really have a specific reason to dual box besides general interest. I have most of the kinks figured out and I just wanted to hear some opinions on if dual boxing is any more beneficial then just solo play?

My original thought was it would be nice to have a mage be on my 2nd account so that I could use him for boosting alts on my main account but I wanted to figure out if its worth my effort/time or if I'm better off just solo playing if I have no intent on playing more then 2 characters?

Another general questions as far as group comps, is there any specific class that would benefit the mage the most? Also, if I stick with shaman/mage or priest/mage would it be best to have the "driver" as the mage or shaman/priest?

There can be gains for duo-boxing but it is not typically near the benefits you can get from a 5box like being able to do your own Dungeons/Raids, summon yourself, etc... Ultimately how much you will benefit from a duo can depend on what your main is, what your goals are, what play-styles you can/want to do, etc...

For example if your main is a Warrior, having a duo with a Healer can help your main do dailies and/or do buffs or farm gold. As another example, if your main is speced as a healer, having a DPS in your duo can really help with some things...

It should be noted that if you can master the blizzard-kiting approach to farming then a single Mage is really the best option for gold for many people (if you want to better understand this approach I would view Arlaeus's youtube channel and/or join his discord). Even with the recent changes, if you get to where you can easily do things like a full "Maraudon 1 pull", you can get more gold/hour from a single mage than most 5 boxing approaches... If you mainly farm with a Mage via Blizzard-Kiting then you could get some minor benefits from having a Priest duo as that could give you the fort buff, spirit buff, shield+renew for initial pull, a free rez if you die, easy self instance resets, etc (Arlaeus 2-boxes)... In many kiting scenarios you could just buff with the Priest at the entrance and leave the Priest there but if you know where you will be using Line of sight pathing you could park your priest near the pathing spot where the priest could shield/heal you while kiting (but if your mage dies likely your priest will die shortly thereafter so you would need to decide which approach works better for you)... For example I did something similar to that with my 60 Paladin healing my 60 Mage if he got into trouble but if my Mage ever did die and my Paladin got aggro, even with bubble and being dual-spec'ed Holy+Protection, I couldn't always get to the entrance before dying on my Paladin...

With no other objectives (like you want to main a certain class, etc) I would recommend going Mage+Priest and learning Blizzard-Kiting driving with the Mage (and likely parking the Priest). I would just buff with the priest and use the 2nd/Priest account to rez/reset if/as needed (you may find it best to use an alt on the priest account to reset). You can also try to park your priest at the pathing point to shield/heal but that may not be very viable in all scenarios...

[Apollo127]

Thank you for the informative reply nodoze!