Thinking of 25 boxing WoW - Not sure about a lot of things

[Bigfish]

Just off how WoW spawns work, killing things fast enough increases the rate at which they spawn. This can be observed in a number of locations and situations. The point is, with a group of 25 characters, I would imagine you could find a nice plot of land to park yourself on, and just kill things as fast as they spawn. How fast this would level a raid group, I have no idea. They wouldn't necesarily even have to be raided. Just 5 5-man groups killing things fast enough to maximize respawns.

[Sam DeathWalker]

Bigfish that is exactly what I invision. I will never be exping in raid formation. 5 5 mans, as you say. If the first group tags dosnt even matter if everyone else does more damage in "eq lite" lol ...

Modifiers:

1 person group = 1.0
2 person group = 1.0
3 person group = 1.166
4 person group = 1.3
5 person group = 1.4

Mobs that are flagged as elite will give twice the amount of experience as a normal mob for the same level.

Elite XP = 2 * XP


Not sure if this applies to groups but:

Higher Level Mobs
XP = (Base XP) * (1 + 0.05 * (Mob Level - Char Level) ), where Mob Level > Char Level


Just need to make sure the mobs are elite and 4 or more levels above the highest in the group. Assuming that holds for groups:

Total XP will be: (Base XP) * (1.2) * (2) * (1.4) if I am in a group killing a elite mob 4 levels higher then the highest in the group. Maybe there is some kind of cap I dont know.

That sounds kinda nuts but I am sure that there will be some real edge over solo killing ...

Lol they dont have their parenthses right I bet the level bonus is .05 X the 4 level different or .2 so its 1.2 instead of the way they have it of 4.2 .. Still that is pretty phat for a single kill.

[Sam DeathWalker]

Just off how WoW spawns work, killing things fast enough increases the rate at which they spawn. This can be observed in a number of locations and situations. The point is, with a group of 25 characters, I would imagine you could find a nice plot of land to park yourself on, and just kill things as fast as they spawn. How fast this would level a raid group, I have no idea. They wouldn't necesarily even have to be raided. Just 5 5-man groups killing things fast enough to maximize respawns.

Also the reason some have said that this does not occur, and the reason it is not always observable is that the code may not kick in untill a ceritan floor of mobs is reached. Like that example of the tower guards, the guy didnt see instant respawns untill the total number fell below 6 in an area. So certian areas may have a lower limit of mobs before the code kicks in. So someone instantly killing a single mob wont observe the effect and conclude it does not exist. Also if you want insant respawn you must kill instantly, how many kill exp mobs in under 1 second?

[temuchin]

I multiboxed in EQ as well as in WOW. You wont have any problems multiboxing in WOW but there are differences.

First of all, these guys talk about leveling 5 separate groups but there is no comparison, leveling 5 groups to 70 in WOW takes less time than leveling one group to 50 took in EQ, let alone to lvl 70 or 80 plus AAs etc. Contrary to what you've heard, grinding is the most efficient means to lvl in WOW just as it was in EQ. The first guys to 60 and 70 on most servers were lone DPS classes (hunters typically) who grinded mobs and skipped quests. Min/maxing JUST grinding you can expect to finish about 25% faster than someone who does all the quests and spends time running around. Keep in mind however that raids pay a substantial exp penalty, and you'll be leveling each group independently. Also keep in mind that starting with Burning Crusade, grinding exp might be faster but wont necessarily be the best way to level. A substantial time sink especially early in your career is faction reputation... questing is the most efficient way to grind faction so it might make more sense to just do the quests.

In terms of utility, however they're right, unlike EQ which allowed more discretion in grouping raids and encounters, WOW is a much more regimented game. Most content is not suitable for a full 25 man raid. Dungeons since patch 2.x do not allow more than 5 characters, 10mans are limited to 10, and every battleground save AV does not support 25 man teams. World PVP (even on PVP servers) does not exist in WOW that support 25 combatants.

Of course WOW raiding is heavily based on EQ, down to the fact that Jeff Kaplan and Afrasiabi were recruited by Blizzard for their roles running LOS and FOH in EQ, the mechanics of the game are very different. For one thing there are much more active demands in raids in terms of dynamic positioning and tanking than in EQ. Most raids past tier 1 mandate that you actively move your characters as well as spam agro with your tanks during the course of the battle, if you can make 25 man raids work given the greater mob AI in WOW that would be awesome but both holding agro and positioning your characters takes much more work than in EQ. Not to mention dispelling/counterspelling etc. Also keep in mind that you're going to have to have separate spell rotations for each class not only between characters for healing but also with each individual character to get the DPS required. To contrast it to EQ for example to play a dps warrior you have to actively watch the swing timer in order to properly apply slam and mortal strike (not to mention WW and HS when mana permits) and that's ONE character, you'll need to be doing separate calculations for 15 dps in raid. To relate it to EQ every class is like playing a dumbed-down version of EQ's bard. There's less thinking and situational judgment in WOW than in EQ but timing is important, and there's a good deal of button mashing. You wouldn't exactly call it "skill" but you do have to move each character when your boss mod tells you to move or press the button when your swing mod tells you to swing. Some encounters such as Teron Gorefiend in BT basically involves one raidmember playing a minigame during the course of the encounter, it could take all your concentration to get through that single part, let alone manage your other 24 characters. I dont think it's impossible but IMO it would require more automation in macroing than is acceptable to Blizzard to solo some raid encounters.

Overall, boxing is much easier in WOW than EQ. Basically boxers in EQ were the best of the best, people who knew their classes inside and out.. and playing 2 characters was harder than playing 1, playing 3 was harder than 2 etc. In WOW, macros and add ons make boxing much easier than playing a single character, granted that you have your keyboard splitter/software correctly in place. For example boxing 5 shaman gives you the luxury of ignoring basic cooldown management and timing that playing 1 shaman necessitates... for example dueling a warrior as a single shaman, you'd have to wait for him to activate his global cooldown so you can get some distance from his intercept, fake his pummel with a .5 sec LB etc. Versus a mage you have to save the cooldown on your ES in order to interrupt the right spell or have decent timing to get your grounding totem up before sheep and after ice lance. Boxing gives you a much easier time of it... personally boxing shaman, I dont even have to bother interrupting heals or spells. worry about totem cooldown management, or think about counterspells, silences/fears... only to crank out max DPS in short order.

CAN you run 25 characters easily? Sure I'm not sure what the point would be... you can get as good gear a month or so later simply by having a single decent arena team.

[Sam DeathWalker]

We need to see what wintergrasp brings to the table. Its a whole zone, no limits to number of people, everyone can enter at the same time. ...

Someone did 10 box some raid so maybe some are more boxer friendly, who knows. Ya probably Ill level up 25 and then have to fight in groups of 10 or 5 or whatever, at least I can pick a solid 10 man team from my 25 or something, I don't know. Maybe attacking cities .. I mean I go into the enemy area someone will attack me I assume. I mean horde goes to the allaince starting city and no one bothers to attack them? How is that?

[Ellay]

I'd say give it a shot, open up 25 trial accounts and you've got 10~ days or so to mess around with what you want to try, even if it is low levels you can get a feel for the game and how it plays out without any loss on your end.

[Bena]

I get the feeling that EQ is more pvp orinted than wow. Yes you can go into the capital cities but you'll be swarmed with never ending npcs that will kill you. I'm not even sure how much if any xp you get from killing another faction. What I see is that you'd get to an area.. something like kara entrance or something, wipe the players there and the people will just simple stop going there while you just sit there. Either that or the whole server is going to go after you and end up camping you.

We need to see what wintergrasp brings to the table. Its a whole zone, no limits to number of people, everyone can enter at the same time. ...

Someone did 10 box some raid so maybe some are more boxer friendly, who knows. Ya probably Ill level up 25 and then have to fight in groups of 10 or 5 or whatever, at least I can pick a solid 10 man team from my 25 or something, I don't know. Maybe attacking cities .. I mean I go into the enemy area someone will attack me I assume. I mean horde goes to the allaince starting city and no one bothers to attack them? How is that?

[Lorune]

I'd say give it a shot, open up 25 trial accounts and you've got 10~ days or so to mess around with what you want to try, even if it is low levels you can get a feel for the game and how it plays out without any loss on your end.

Unfortunatly this does not work anymore, they limited it to 3 trial accounts on one IP :/

[Wilbur]

Proxy + diffrent email addresses = win

[Kyudo]

ust need to make sure the mobs are elite and 4 or more levels above the highest in the group. Assuming that holds for groups:

Total XP will be: (Base XP) * (1.2) * (2) * (1.4) if I am in a group killing a elite mob 4 levels higher then the highest in the group. Maybe there is some kind of cap I dont know.

That sounds kinda nuts but I am sure that there will be some real edge over solo killing ...

Again you are showing your inexperience of not having played WoW much I'm afraid. Good luck finding large groups of elite mobs outside of instances that respawn at a reasonable rate.

If it's instances you are talking then fine. Go with AoE heavy groups, be a level or so higher, and just AoE your way through. If you are 4 levels lower however, you'll simply die.