Keybindings and Macro keyboard layout

[lacitpo]

Been dreaming of multi-boxing for a while and going to finally do it next month when I'm back in town. I have been laying out some plans and there is one area that I'm trying to work out that I have found little to no guides or documentation on.

I'm very interested in a detailed example of your keyboard layouts. What macros, abilities, etc you have bound to what keys, etc.

Here is the tenative setup I am planning on working with for my 4 box setup. My primary goal is PVE instance leveling for the most part. I plan on 3-4 toons to allow my friend controlling either 1 or 2 characters to play with me when he is available. End goal is to gain enough ability to control multiple toons that I can run 5 man endgame instances with some ease, but mostly just to level multiple characters up at the same time and have fun doing it via multiboxing.

HARDWARE
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I am going to attempt this using a macbook pro though I'm unsure how many instances of wow I'll be able to run effectivly with it. Plan on asking on the hardware forum but figured someone here might have some experience in that department. Going to try my Ideazon Fang as use for my keyboard and see how it holds up.

SOFTWARE
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Planning on using the MAC version of keyclone, clonekey.

CLASSES
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Paladin (tank) - Priest (dps) - Hunter (DPS/offtank) - Druid (healing)

considering replacing the druid with a shaman for chain heal, but I really do love druids so I am likely willing to commit to the extra difficulty.

MAIN AND SLAVES
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planning on using my paladin as main and all others as slaves.

COMBAT
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Using basic 1-10 keys to simplify my setup as much as possible.

1,2,3 - Repeated combat macros. All designed to be spammed in no peticular order producing DPS, tanking, and healing on whatever target they have set as focus.
4 - Sets focus for DPS if main targeting enemy and sets focus for healer if main targeting friendly
5 - Emergency Key 1 - Tank taunt macro
6 - Emergency Key 2 - Healer big instant heal macro and paladin righteous defense on healer target.
7 - Finishing moves (hammer of justice, shadow word death, etc)
8 - Combat prep (seal of the crusader)
9 - not sure yet - possibly pet tanking / control
10 - not sure yet - possibly pet tanking / control

BUFFING
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Will likely dedicate an action bar specifically to buffs. Have not looked into automation of this process yet but I'm familiar with a few addons (smartbuff?) that assist in this. I would however be interested in any advice you guys might have in this area.


MOVEMENT
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I have a basic set of party invite, assist, follow, focus, accept, drink, mount macros. These are pretty simple and will likely be bound to stuff like CTRL-(1-10) or something. Movement to be done with basic ASDW setup on main with slaves following. I'm not too concerned with spreadout or lineup macros, though my experience may show me they are needed/wanted in pve content.

Do have on major question. Is there automation of flight paths or is this somethign that requires seperate mouse clicking for each client.

ADDONS
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I plan on using the MultiboxerV2 addon (http://www.dual-boxing.com/wiki/inde...n:MultiboxerV2) in combination with a number of my own addons I've used throughout the years. Automation of things like bag organization, selling greys, quest accepting and sharing (multiboxerv2?) etc.



TARGETING
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Out of combat, targeting seems pretty simple. Retain my main as focus and have slaves following the focus.

In combat, or pre-pull/combat, here is the system I've come up with though I'm very interested in what others do.

1. One key that assigns focus target to DPS if target is hostile, or focus target to Healer if target is friendly.
2. 1-3 combat keys focus all spells onto the focus target.
3. I chose druid healer for this because of their heavy use of HOTS allowing target switching to occure and healing to still continue for a time.
4. Tank is free to switch targets around and tank things as needed and as DPS target dies he simply re-assigns a new focus/DPS target via macro used in step 1.

I do see a small problem possibly occuring during high stress situations where I may need to switch healing targets often requiring my tank to spend "too much" time targeting friendly units and not whacking on mobs. Just looking for some general advice on this setup. Any comments?

[ElectronDF]

You way sounds like it would work, this is just what I do. I HATE to target anything, ever. I don't like having targets unless I absolutely need to. I don't like to think of any of my alts, I want them to just do what I want and not have to tell them specifically what to do. I focus my main and then my alts use:
/cast [target=focus-target] DPSSpell
/cast [target=focus-target-target] HealSpell
I don't have to know who has aggro. I don't have to tell the alts who to DPS. I don't have to heal a specific target, I just heal whoever has aggro.

Then I use 3 macros mostly. Sometimes, 3 more for my same class groups. Attack, heal and misc. I just modify each one to make them match the class and the order (who attacks first, second, etc). The pally has A LOT of different spells, so it is probably good to control him, or he will just be an auto attacker.

My healer has progressivly bigger heals. Some fights, you just need a tiny one, and if you need more, you just mash the button again, and again.
healer:
/cast [target=tankname, nocombat] Power Word: Shield
/castsequence [target=focus-target, combat] reset=12 Renew, Flash Heal, Flash Heal, Power Word: Shield

For my pally, I put Seal of Usefulness on my heal button (you can put 2, one for out of combat, and one for in combat). And then when I mash my heal macro out of combat, my tank gets a bubble and my pally gets a seal to be ready for combat. Then on my attack for my healer, I use Shadow Word: Pain and my pally uses the judge/seal macro:
/cast Judgement
/cast Seal of Combatiness
So the effect is the mob is tanked, has a DOT on it and seal on it with another seal on the pally already and only 2 keypresses.

You can do a lot with macros, just start off small and work your way up.
Hope that helps.

[lacitpo]

Thanks, I didn't know about the [target=focus-target] option for targeting macros. That fully eliminates passing targets to slaves. I also think I like the healing target-target option, though I may maintain some way to select targets seeing as I have a healer as a slave.

Thanks man.

[ElectronDF]

I have a heal anyone option on my healers, but I just don't advertise it a lot, since I don't use it a lot and it gets people to think they have to target someone to be able to heal. Again, I almost never target anyone to heal, I just heal whoever the mob is beating on.
/cast [target=focus-target, help] HealSpell
should heal whoever the main has targeted. It works for BG's, people outside your party, or emergency heals in your party. I put that one first and the heal focus-target-target second.

[Ghallo]

My advice is to acquire something like a G11. Gives you tons of extra keys to the side laid in a nice 2x3 grids. Really improved my Mboxing experience.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

For buffing, you can use smartbuff type addons for out-of-combat buffing, or you can setup something like I did on my pally+mage group:

Pally = /castsequence reset=5 blessing of kings,,righteous fury (note the extra comma to compensate for only doing 2 buffs)
Mages = /castsequence reset=5 ice armor, arcane intellect, dampen magic

I have my priest+locks set up very similarly.