Dual Boxing Focus Target
Mark (newsgroups)
macros. I am/was one of them. Because I was too lazy to write a macro
for every spell my previous method consisted of using Ctrl-F to
trigger a macro on my slave which was something like
/stopcasting
/follow focus
/assist focus
There may be a bit more too it but the basic idea was to act as a
"multi use button". I used it whenever I wanted the slave to stop
casting, or start following or assist, or all three. It served it's
purpose fine, meant an extra button I had to remember to press before
combat so the slave would target correctly, but in general it worked
ok.
However, I did notice (too late mostly) that every now and then the
slave would actually target a different mob to my master. I suspect
but haven't confirmed that the mob types would match and obviously
both are in range. So I'd pull the intended mob with my main and the
slave would pull a different one. Argh!
A few days ago I changed my setup a bit. I found out about a feature
in BarTender where you could set the default target of an entire bar,
so eliminated the need to macro this. Default target on Bar2 on slave
gets set to something like [target=focustarget, exists]. Then any
button or hotkey used from that bar will try to target the focus's
(main) target. It's a very useful feature and has simplified things a
bit, but I still have the same issue with sometimes the slave pulling
a different mob. Anyone else experience this?
Btw, I've noticed it on both my two dual box teams : Priest/Warlock
and Paladin/Warlock. Maybe the pet has something to do with it?
Zil
> A few days ago I changed my setup a bit. I found out about a feature
> in BarTender where you could set the default target of an entire bar,
> so eliminated the need to macro this. Default target on Bar2 on slave
> gets set to something like [target=focustarget, exists]. Then any
> button or hotkey used from that bar will try to target the focus's
> (main) target. It's a very useful feature and has simplified things a
> bit,
Yes, Macaroon has a similar feature. However I don't use it - I find
that there are only a handful of spells I need macro'd anyway.
Mainly I have a DPS button which runs a /castsequence to cast a
series of DPS spells. I use this 95% of the time (I just set this
key to be the best /castsequence for DPS on each toon, then mash
it in combat - easy mode!). I also have Chain Lightning and Earth
Shock as separate macros, but I think that's about it, so not
really worth the effort of setting up a bar with a different default
target.
> but I still have the same issue with sometimes the slave pulling
> a different mob. Anyone else experience this?
>
> Btw, I've noticed it on both my two dual box teams : Priest/Warlock
> and Paladin/Warlock. Maybe the pet has something to do with it?
As far as I know there is a certain amount of latency involved - even
with /cast [target=focustarget] SpellName your slave's WoW has to
query the server to find your focus's target.
So, if you start casting immediately after your main has changed
target, your slaves may go for the old target.
Also, I find that my paladin at least will auto-target the next nearby
mob when the current target dies. This is really handy (and perfect
for my no-brain-required single-button-dps playing!), but I wonder if
my ranged toons do the same thing - i.e. mob dies, focustarget is
dead, so ranged auto-target the next nearest mob before the main toon
selects a new mob. Perhaps not, but I don't know for sure. Maybe it
only works for melee, or mobs in melee range.
Another problem I had that caused innappropriate targetting by slaves
was because I tend to hit tab to target on my main, but I was still
passing tab through to the slaves. So I'd hit tab, and each toon
would target a (potentially different) mob (and my macros are set so
that they'll attack their current target, if it's unfriendly, in
preference to using the main's target).
I fixed that easily by adding tab to the do-not-pass list of keyclone,
so the slaves never see the tab key press.
--
Zil, Level 80 NE Priest, Aman Shan're, Stormrage Europe
Mephistophilhibbs
>>but I still have the same issue with sometimes the slave pulling
>>a different mob. Anyone else experience this?
Is your main following the target's target when you press F?
Zil:
> I fixed that easily by adding tab to the do-not-pass list of keyclone,
> so the slaves never see the tab key press.
I opted for a whitelist so only the keys that I want to be cloned are.
I set up 1, 2, 3, 4 to be the abilities that I want to use at the same
time (e.g. Heroic Strike and Lightning Bolt), and an addon called
qUserKey to bind Alt-H to Heal, etc.
Hoofu, 80 tauren shaman, Argent Dawn (EU)
Ognian, 80 troll warrior, Argent Dawn (EU)
Zil
> Zil:
> > I fixed that easily by adding tab to the do-not-pass list of keyclone,
> > so the slaves never see the tab key press.
>
> I opted for a whitelist so only the keys that I want to be cloned are.
> I set up 1, 2, 3, 4 to be the abilities that I want to use at the same
> time (e.g. Heroic Strike and Lightning Bolt), and an addon called
> qUserKey to bind Alt-H to Heal, etc.
>
I prefer the blacklist, because there are more keys I want to pass
than not.
My blacklist is something short like:
tab, enter, /, E, S, D, F
ESDF are my movement keys
I don't pass enter or / to prevent me spamming /g etc from all toons
at once. :-)
And of course Keyclone lets me toggle the blacklist for times such as
password entry, or when I want all of my toons to /dance or /say
something.
Mephistophilhibbs
> I prefer the blacklist, because there are more keys I want to pass
> than not.
I think that makes sense for multiboxing where you are generally
controlling lots of identical toons, but I have two utterly different
characters and just use the shaman for healing and a bit of extra dps.
I play them more like a single character with a broad range of
abilities.
Zil
> Zil wrote:
> > I prefer the blacklist, because there are more keys I want to pass
> > than not.
>
> I think that makes sense for multiboxing where you are generally
> controlling lots of identical toons, but I have two utterly different
> characters and just use the shaman for healing and a bit of extra dps.
> I play them more like a single character with a broad range of
> abilities.
Don't you wish you had more keys on your keyboard? :-)
I know I do - there's never a free key when I want one!
Brent Stroh
>A few days ago I changed my setup a bit. I found out about a feature
>in BarTender where you could set the default target of an entire bar,
>so eliminated the need to macro this. Default target on Bar2 on slave
>gets set to something like [target=focustarget, exists]. Then any
>button or hotkey used from that bar will try to target the focus's
>(main) target. It's a very useful feature and has simplified things a
>bit, but I still have the same issue with sometimes the slave pulling
>a different mob. Anyone else experience this?
Nice feature - thanks for posting this. I've got a second, trial account I
was screwing around with trying to make sure I'm set up for dualbox before
I kick off my RaF time, and I'm at the point of needing to write a pile of
macros to make it work.
If I temporarily swap Dominos out/Bartender in on the slave characters,
that will save me some time, and leave the slaves more or less solo-able if
I feel the urge.
So I need a macro to set the slaves' focus, a macro to auto-accept
everything, Jamba to cover easy grouping/sharing/following, and Bartender.
Any other advice from folks who have btdt? I'm not planning on making a
hobby of dual-boxing, just taking advantage of RaF to get everyone to 60. I
currently have 5 characters parked between 47.9-50.9, so the 60 RaF levels
I get from pairing my warrior & shaman with RaF chars and running 1-60 will
get everyone there.
--
Mertuka - Rogue (80) : Mallan - Priest (48) : Medanu - Druid (47)
Ralinth - Warlock (80) : Magorg - Hunter (47) : Ralethian - Paladin (48)
Rakhalga - DK (80) : Meedak - Mage (50) : Rahuraluna - Shaman (13)
Relikag - Warrior (10)
Zil
> "Mark (newsgroups)" <marknew...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> >A few days ago I changed my setup a bit. I found out about a feature
> >in BarTender where you could set the default target of an entire bar,
> >so eliminated the need to macro this. Default target on Bar2 on slave
> >gets set to something like [target=focustarget, exists]. Then any
> >button or hotkey used from that bar will try to target the focus's
> >(main) target. It's a very useful feature and has simplified things a
> >bit, but I still have the same issue with sometimes the slave pulling
> >a different mob. Anyone else experience this?
>
> Nice feature - thanks for posting this. I've got a second, trial account I
> was screwing around with trying to make sure I'm set up for dualbox before
> I kick off my RaF time, and I'm at the point of needing to write a pile of
> macros to make it work.
>
> If I temporarily swap Dominos out/Bartender in on the slave characters,
> that will save me some time, and leave the slaves more or less solo-able if
> I feel the urge.
Or I guess you could just stay with Bartender, and have 2 bars, one
with the macro modifier and one without, and just switch bars if you
want to solo. (caveat: I've never used Bartender so I don't know if
that's any easier than swapping addons).
What I do is make my macros of the form:
/cast [target=focustarget,exists][] SpellName
So I will cast based on my focus if I have one (i.e. when multiboxing)
or using my normal target if I have no focus (i.e. when soloing), so I
have no need to swap bars etc - one macro fits all cases.
> So I need a macro to set the slaves' focus
You don't say what key cloning software you're using, but if it's
Keyclone, you get great results by using the same keys in wow to
set focus that you use in Keyclone to do the PiP swapping.
e.g. I have Keyclone set so that ctrl-f1 selects WoW 1, ctrl-f2
selects WoW 2, etc
so in game I bind ctrl-f1 to
(on master): /jamba setmeasmaster all (i.e. tell Jamba this toon
is the leader)
(on each slave): /focus NameOfToon1
and so on. Then when I press, for example, ctrl-f2, Keyclone will make
the window for my 2nd toon fill my main screen, move the window for
screen 1 off to the side, and WoW will tell toon1 to focus toon2,
and toon2 will use jamba to set itself as the master. All on one
keypress. This, combined with focus-based macros, make it dead easy
to switch leader, which can be a huge benefit for collection quests.
> a macro to auto-accept
> everything, Jamba to cover easy grouping/sharing/following,
You shouldn't need a macro to auto-accept everything - Jamba should do
that for you.
Another incredibily useful thing for multi-boxing is the recently
added WoW keybind for interact-with-target. Bind this to the same key
on all toons, then set up a macro to allow your slaves to assist the
leader (i.e. select the same target), such as:
/target [target=focustarget]
Now, if you want to pick up quests or hand them in, just:
- target NPC on leader
- hit key so all slaves target the leader's target
- hit the interact-with-target key
- follow the quest dialog on the master (Jamba will duplicate your
steps on the slaves)
It makes questing way easier than it was pre 3.1 ! (back then I had
to right-click the NPC in each of my 5 toons' windows).
You can use the same key sequence for looting corpses on the slaves
too; target corpse with leader, assist with slaves, interact with
target, then each slave will try to loot the corpse.
Oh, I just though of something else that's really useful for multibox
questing, and that's Carbonite. Its quest log shows you not only your
own quests, but also the quests of others in your group and their
progress. So I can see from my main screen how many widgets each of
the other team members has collected, for example. Also, the quest
doesn't get marked as completely finished until all members in the
party have completed it.
Brent Stroh
>Or I guess you could just stay with Bartender, and have 2 bars, one
>with the macro modifier and one without, and just switch bars if you
>want to solo. (caveat: I've never used Bartender so I don't know if
>that's any easier than swapping addons).
First off, thanks for sharing this info - dual-boxing.com has an awful lot
of information, but it's not as clear and concise as what you just wrote.
And based on the new keybind in 3.1, I also wasn't watching the post dates
closely enough in my reading.
Depending on how many spells I feel like using, it may ultimately be easier
to add a handful of macros to my Dominos config rather than figuring out a
new bar mod for a relatively short term situation. I don't have much
interest in moving away from Dominos right now, simply because a) it works,
and b) I've finally got it set up the way I like it.
Tangent: Haven't found a hud/cooldown mod that works for me, so I finally
dropped a bar mid-screen on my 80s with icons for my dots/debuffs. Adding
Rogue Power Bars on top for some other odds and ends gives me the info I
need without having to look away from the fight. Less standing in fire. :)
>You don't say what key cloning software you're using, but if it's
>Keyclone, you get great results by using the same keys in wow to
>set focus that you use in Keyclone to do the PiP swapping.
>
>e.g. I have Keyclone set so that ctrl-f1 selects WoW 1, ctrl-f2
>selects WoW 2, etc
>
>so in game I bind ctrl-f1 to
>(on master): /jamba setmeasmaster all (i.e. tell Jamba this toon
> is the leader)
>(on each slave): /focus NameOfToon1
I was using PiP with HotKeyNet - I thought I had pretty much these two
macros set up, but I was experiencing some weird follow behavior. Decided
to use the second monitor, rather than PiP, but I've still got to revisit
those macros...
>You shouldn't need a macro to auto-accept everything - Jamba should do
>that for you.
Even better. I was testing with a brand new warrior, and a level 13 shaman
chasing her around throwing lightning every now and then, so I couldn't do
much testing of quest acceptance/turn-ins. My current plan is to put a
pally in front of the shaman, but I couldn't test that combo on a trial
account - Horde lack pallys until TBC. I'm also thinking about a druid
behind my warrior - heals, some damage spells, and more durable than a
clothie healer.
Using the slave character for primarily healing with some added DPS should
cut down on downtime, as well as speed up combat, I'd think. I'm on a PVE
server, which eliminates an entire class of dual-boxing issues.
>Another incredibily useful thing for multi-boxing is the recently
>added WoW keybind for interact-with-target. Bind this to the same key
>on all toons, then set up a macro to allow your slaves to assist the
>leader (i.e. select the same target), such as:
> ...
>You can use the same key sequence for looting corpses on the slaves
>too; target corpse with leader, assist with slaves, interact with
>target, then each slave will try to loot the corpse.
So for loot collection quests, this will do the trick nicely, it would
seem, but I'll be switching master/leader, or clicking in both windows for
pick-up-off-the-ground collection quests...
>Oh, I just though of something else that's really useful for multibox
>questing, and that's Carbonite. Its quest log shows you not only your
>own quests, but also the quests of others in your group and their
>progress. So I can see from my main screen how many widgets each of
>the other team members has collected, for example. Also, the quest
>doesn't get marked as completely finished until all members in the
>party have completed it.
Something else to appreciate with Carbonite.
I've taken Elba's RaF TourGuide files and converted them to an addon
similar to what the WoW-Pro folks did, so those guides can co-exist with
the default set. Although they've gotten mixed reviews, the overall
impression seems positive. I suspect Carbonite's map highlighting will
more than make up for coordinate issues.
Thanks again - looking forward to getting started once I wrap up a class
I'm in the middle of.
Mark (newsgroups)
> Zil <zen13...@zen.co.uk> wrote:
> >Or I guess you could just stay with Bartender, and have 2 bars, one
> >with the macro modifier and one without, and just switch bars if you
> >want to solo. (caveat: I've never used Bartender so I don't know if
> >that's any easier than swapping addons).
>
> First off, thanks for sharing this info - dual-boxing.com has an awful lot
> of information, but it's not as clear and concise as what you just wrote.
> And based on the new keybind in 3.1, I also wasn't watching the post dates
> closely enough in my reading.
>
> Depending on how many spells I feel like using, it may ultimately be easier
> to add a handful of macros to my Dominos config rather than figuring out a
> new bar mod for a relatively short term situation. I don't have much
> interest in moving away from Dominos right now, simply because a) it works,
> and b) I've finally got it set up the way I like it.
I was a BarTender user already, so for me it was helpful, but as you
aren't I wouldn't suggest changing unless you are a quick learner and
don't mind dabbling a bit. In my experience, bar mods are amongst the
worst to get working as you like them, it's always a pain to change.
Having said that, to just do some very simple bars, BarTender is
pretty easy.
> >You don't say what key cloning software you're using, but if it's
> >Keyclone, you get great results by using the same keys in wow to
> >set focus that you use in Keyclone to do the PiP swapping.
>
> >e.g. I have Keyclone set so that ctrl-f1 selects WoW 1, ctrl-f2
> >selects WoW 2, etc
>
> >so in game I bind ctrl-f1 to
> >(on master): /jamba setmeasmaster all (i.e. tell Jamba this toon
> > is the leader)
> >(on each slave): /focus NameOfToon1
>
> I was using PiP with HotKeyNet - I thought I had pretty much these two
> macros set up, but I was experiencing some weird follow behavior. Decided
> to use the second monitor, rather than PiP, but I've still got to revisit
> those macros...
The weird following behaviour might be if you minimise one of your WoW
clients. I have to keep both maximised (or possibly edit the priority
from task manager).
> >Another incredibily useful thing for multi-boxing is the recently
> >added WoW keybind for interact-with-target. Bind this to the same key
> >on all toons, then set up a macro to allow your slaves to assist the
> >leader (i.e. select the same target), such as:
> > ...
> >You can use the same key sequence for looting corpses on the slaves
> >too; target corpse with leader, assist with slaves, interact with
> >target, then each slave will try to loot the corpse.
Nice! I didn't know about this.
Mark (newsgroups)
> Mark (newsgroups) <marknewsgro...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > A few days ago I changed my setup a bit. I found out about a feature
> > in BarTender where you could set the default target of an entire bar,
> > so eliminated the need to macro this. Default target on Bar2 on slave
> > gets set to something like [target=focustarget, exists]. Then any
> > button or hotkey used from that bar will try to target the focus's
> > (main) target. It's a very useful feature and has simplified things a
> > bit,
>
> Yes, Macaroon has a similar feature. However I don't use it - I find
> that there are only a handful of spells I need macro'd anyway.
>
> Mainly I have a DPS button which runs a /castsequence to cast a
> series of DPS spells. I use this 95% of the time (I just set this
> key to be the best /castsequence for DPS on each toon, then mash
> it in combat - easy mode!). I also have Chain Lightning and Earth
> Shock as separate macros, but I think that's about it, so not
> really worth the effort of setting up a bar with a different default
> target.
I can't believe I haven't done this before now. This weekend, thinking
about this thread, I decided to try it. I'm duoing a holy priest /
frost mage. The mage literally just casts frostbolt in most cases so
doesn't need a cast sequence, but my priest now has something like:
#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=10 Holy Fire, Mind Blast, Smite, Smite, Smite
I bind this to 'q' and pretty much just spam that key. Mobs are often
dead very quickly and it's simplified things a lot. So thanks for
pointing this out, not sure why I never picked up on it before from
the dual-boxing forum.
I don't even really have mana issues. By the time I'm finished the
grind for a quest, I may be getting a bit low, but by the time I've
mounted and reached the next location I'm back at full mana. So no
real *need* to change, but I am curious to see if shadow spec would be
more effective. Also wondering if I should respec the mage a bit for
clear casting procs or something because I never use the frost
elemental.
Both characters are about to hit 53.
Zil
> #showtooltip
> /castsequence reset=10 Holy Fire, Mind Blast, Smite, Smite, Smite
>
> I bind this to 'q' and pretty much just spam that key. Mobs are often
> dead very quickly and it's simplified things a lot. So thanks for
> pointing this out, not sure why I never picked up on it before from
> the dual-boxing forum.
Any of my toons that I might like to multibox have a general DPS macro
tied to a key (the same key on all toons, naturally), all using focus
if present, target if not, allowing me to group any of my toons, focus
leader, then the leader selects the target, I spam my DPS button and
everyone does some reasonable spell rotation. As a bonus the same
key works when the toon is solo, for when I'm feeling lazy. :-)
It's obviously not going to give max DPS, but it's was better than
spamming 1 single spell per toon, and way easier than having to manage
different spell rotations on multiple toons manually.
> I don't even really have mana issues. By the time I'm finished the
> grind for a quest, I may be getting a bit low, but by the time I've
> mounted and reached the next location I'm back at full mana. So no
> real *need* to change, but I am curious to see if shadow spec would be
> more effective.
Why not just try it and find out? :-)
Personally I found Holy nicer, but then I was used to it.
> Also wondering if I should respec the mage a bit for
> clear casting procs or something because I never use the frost
> elemental.
Again, if you're not sure then why not try a different spec and see
how you find it!
I think Frost is nice for the slowing effects, especially if you're
multiboxing. It makes the mob take longer to get to you, so you're
much less likely to take damage from it. And with multiple toons your
damage output is much greater, so the slowing effect is more valuable.
As for the frost elemental, spend some time concentrating on it,
trying to use it at every CD. After a while it'll become habit.
(Maybe!)
Zil
> Even better. I was testing with a brand new warrior, and a level 13 shaman
> chasing her around throwing lightning every now and then, so I couldn't do
> much testing of quest acceptance/turn-ins. My current plan is to put a
> pally in front of the shaman, but I couldn't test that combo on a trial
> account - Horde lack pallys until TBC. I'm also thinking about a druid
> behind my warrior - heals, some damage spells, and more durable than a
> clothie healer.
>
> Using the slave character for primarily healing with some added DPS should
> cut down on downtime, as well as speed up combat, I'd think. I'm on a PVE
> server, which eliminates an entire class of dual-boxing issues.
I wouldn't worry about dedicating a toon primarily to healing. get
your slave a nice DPS /castsequence, and use that most of the time,
but have some healing macros set up so you can heal the master when
necessary.
With my 5-man group I've never had a dedicated healer. All my shamans
are elemental, but they do all have a couple of healing macros I
can hit:
- lesser healing wave on leader
- chain heal on leader
- lesser healing wave on self
Their heals are obviously not as efficient as a resto shaman's would
be, but I get 4 of each spell cast simultaneously - it's amazing how
quickly I can heal my paladin from almost dead to full health!
It also means I get the benefit of 4 DPS instead of 3, making
all fights so much quicker.
And, by the way, those macros have been enough to even see me through
heroics.
> >You can use the same key sequence for looting corpses on the slaves
> >too; target corpse with leader, assist with slaves, interact with
> >target, then each slave will try to loot the corpse.
>
> So for loot collection quests, this will do the trick nicely, it would
> seem, but I'll be switching master/leader, or clicking in both windows for
> pick-up-off-the-ground collection quests...
Yes, that's the best way. First, avoid all collection quests that need
either items with low drop rates or more than about 8 items, (unless
you really, really want the quest reward or the follow-up quests) -
they can be very frustrating.
Second, collect all items on one toon, then switch leader and repeat.
This is generally easier than the interact-with-target method.
If the collection quest is just for 1 item, though, or one of those
rare quests where everyone can loot a quest item off the same corpse,
then the interact-with-target button is better.
> Thanks again - looking forward to getting started once I wrap up a class
> I'm in the middle of.
No problem. Have fun with your multiboxing, and let us know how you
get on. I'm always interested in see how other people do.
But, depending on your server, be prepared for some funny looks, etc.
I used to frequently get someone see me and just /w "lol!" or "wtf?"
or occasionally "bot!".
Only yesterday, someone /spit on each of my toons in turn and walked
off. When i asked him "What's up with the spitting?" he raved on
about how he thought multiboxing should be banned, how I need to get a
life, find some real friends to play with etc. Charming guy!
It helps to have thick skin and/or a big ignore list.
Mark (newsgroups)
> Mark (newsgroups) <marknewsgro...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > #showtooltip
> > /castsequence reset=10 Holy Fire, Mind Blast, Smite, Smite, Smite
>
> > I bind this to 'q' and pretty much just spam that key. Mobs are often
> > dead very quickly and it's simplified things a lot. So thanks for
> > pointing this out, not sure why I never picked up on it before from
> > the dual-boxing forum.
>
> Any of my toons that I might like to multibox have a general DPS macro
> tied to a key (the same key on all toons, naturally), all using focus
> if present, target if not, allowing me to group any of my toons, focus
> leader, then the leader selects the target, I spam my DPS button and
> everyone does some reasonable spell rotation. As a bonus the same
> key works when the toon is solo, for when I'm feeling lazy. :-)
>
> It's obviously not going to give max DPS, but it's was better than
> spamming 1 single spell per toon, and way easier than having to manage
> different spell rotations on multiple toons manually.
Hmm, not bad. I wouldn't normal use this, but I guess I could have the
macro sitting on an unused bar until I needed it. My next team, level
9 at the moment is a paladin / warlock. I will have to figure that one
out, shouldn't be too bad I guess.
Initially I had started a priest / warlock team but realised that I
had a priest and a mage quite close together already (45 and 50) on my
main account. I transferred the priest to my 2nd account and leveled
him to 50 and then started dual boxing with the mage.
> > I don't even really have mana issues. By the time I'm finished the
> > grind for a quest, I may be getting a bit low, but by the time I've
> > mounted and reached the next location I'm back at full mana. So no
> > real *need* to change, but I am curious to see if shadow spec would be
> > more effective.
>
> Why not just try it and find out? :-)
Laziness. I have the setup working quite well now, and have respec'd
quite a bit already so the costs are quite high. I like the idea of
mind flay for more slowing affects, but holy is working just fine for
now. I am tempted to fork out 1000g for dual spec for the priest.
Also, discipline is interesting. Heh, so much to try, which is why I
don't understand why people swear they will never play certain specs.
> Personally I found Holy nicer, but then I was used to it.
It's a bit slow soloing, but can get the job done.
> > Also wondering if I should respec the mage a bit for
> > clear casting procs or something because I never use the frost
> > elemental.
>
> Again, if you're not sure then why not try a different spec and see
> how you find it!
See above.
> I think Frost is nice for the slowing effects, especially if you're
> multiboxing. It makes the mob take longer to get to you, so you're
> much less likely to take damage from it. And with multiple toons your
> damage output is much greater, so the slowing effect is more valuable.
Yes, the slowing is valuable. I meant however that I'd spec out of the
upper talents which get to the elemental and spec into arcan for
clearcasting. But I don't have any mana problems at the moment so
think I'll just stick with my current spec.
> As for the frost elemental, spend some time concentrating on it,
> trying to use it at every CD. After a while it'll become habit.
> (Maybe!)
I'm not sure how I'd do it. Just cast it, set it going and forget? My
laptop is decent, but it's not powerful enough that I can run 2 x WoW
at both full settings. I get really crap framerates. So my 2nd WoW is
configured with very low settings, small window, max fps of 15, cut
down addons, etc. This allows my main window to be as I like it
without too much slowdown. So it's not that easy to switch to the
second window, which is where I run the mage. The priest is the main
in this group.
I plan on updating my PC at some point soon, in which case I would
hope to spend some time making the setup more like yours where you can
switch characters easily.
Zil
> As for the frost elemental, spend some time concentrating on it,
> > trying to use it at every CD. After a while it'll become habit.
> > (Maybe!)
>
> I'm not sure how I'd do it. Just cast it, set it going and
> forget?
That's what I was originally thinking, but in retrospect, if it was
me, I'd just add it to my dps macro:
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/cast water elemental (or whatever the spell is called)
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear(); UIErrorsFrame:Show()
/cast frostbolt (or some other /castsequence for your DPS cycle)
The elemental would then get cast whenever it's not on CD, giving you
maximum use of it.
The 2 lines above and below the water elemental cast are to prevent
errors appearing on screen and making a noise when the spell is on CD
(otherwise it gets annoying!)
> My laptop is decent, but it's not powerful enough that I can run 2 x
> WoW at both full settings. I get really crap framerates. So my 2nd
> WoW is configured with very low settings, small window, max fps of
> 15, cut down addons, etc. This allows my main window to be as I like
> it without too much slowdown. So it's not that easy to switch to the
> second window, which is where I run the mage. The priest is the main
> in this group.
>
> I plan on updating my PC at some point soon, in which case I would
> hope to spend some time making the setup more like yours where you
> can switch characters easily.
To improve framerates you can turn down various video details in the
WoW settings, but that only helps a little. There is an addon that
will dynamically change your detail settings as your frame rate
changes, which can be useful:
http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info12976-DynamicPerformanceV1.1fanfix1.2.html
When you update your PC, make sure you have enough RAM - you'll need
at least 750MB free for each WoW instance you run, a bit more when
you get to Dalaran. For 2 accounts I'd say you need a minimum of 2GB
RAM.
Mark (newsgroups)
> Mark (newsgroups) <marknewsgro...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > As for the frost elemental, spend some time concentrating on it,
>
> > > trying to use it at every CD. After a while it'll become habit.
> > > (Maybe!)
>
> > I'm not sure how I'd do it. Just cast it, set it going and
> > forget?
>
> That's what I was originally thinking, but in retrospect, if it was
> me, I'd just add it to my dps macro:
>
> /script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
> /console Sound_EnableSFX 0
> /cast water elemental (or whatever the spell is called)
> /console Sound_EnableSFX 1
> /script UIErrorsFrame:Clear(); UIErrorsFrame:Show()
> /cast frostbolt (or some other /castsequence for your DPS cycle)
>
> The elemental would then get cast whenever it's not on CD, giving you
> maximum use of it.
> The 2 lines above and below the water elemental cast are to prevent
> errors appearing on screen and making a noise when the spell is on CD
> (otherwise it gets annoying!)
Hmm, might have to give this a try, thanks.
> > My laptop is decent, but it's not powerful enough that I can run 2 x
> > WoW at both full settings. I get really crap framerates. So my 2nd
> > WoW is configured with very low settings, small window, max fps of
> > 15, cut down addons, etc. This allows my main window to be as I like
> > it without too much slowdown. So it's not that easy to switch to the
> > second window, which is where I run the mage. The priest is the main
> > in this group.
>
> > I plan on updating my PC at some point soon, in which case I would
> > hope to spend some time making the setup more like yours where you
> > can switch characters easily.
>
> To improve framerates you can turn down various video details in the
> WoW settings, but that only helps a little.
Not sure what you mean here. Cutting my the video details, screen
size, etc on the non-main window helped a lot. I now get 30+ FPS on my
main window when in Azeroth (guessing I'm going to suffer when I get
to Outland). Previously, if I tried to run both at decent settings I
was getting < 20 on both, and often < 10, making it unplayable.
> There is an addon that will dynamically change your detail settings as your frame rate
> changes, which can be useful:
>
> http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info12976-DynamicPerformanceV1....
I'll have a look, could be useful.
> When you update your PC, make sure you have enough RAM - you'll need
> at least 750MB free for each WoW instance you run, a bit more when
> you get to Dalaran. For 2 accounts I'd say you need a minimum of 2GB
> RAM.
My laptop is pretty good. I have 3GB RAM, can't remember all the other
details offhand but it's a Dell M1530 with decent CPU and GPU. I was
expecting it to handle two WoW windows easily, and was quite
disappointed. Tempted to switch back to XP as perhaps the OS is the
problem.
Rob Wynne
> On Jul 20, 12:13ï¿œpm, Zil <zen13...@zen.co.uk> wrote:
>> Mark (newsgroups) <marknewsgro...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> > > trying to use it at every CD. After a while it'll become habit.
>> > > (Maybe!)
>>
>> > ï¿œforget?
>>
>> That's what I was originally thinking, but in retrospect, if it was
>>
>> ￜ/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
>> ￜ/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
> ￜ/cast water elemental ￜ ￜ(or whatever the spell is called)
>> ￜ/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
>> ￜ/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear(); UIErrorsFrame:Show()
>> ￜ/cast frostbolt ￜ ￜ ￜ(or some other /castsequence for your DPS cycle)
>>
>> The elemental would then get cast whenever it's not on CD, giving you
>> maximum use of it.
>> The 2 lines above and below the water elemental cast are to prevent
>> errors appearing on screen and making a noise when the spell is on CD
>> (otherwise it gets annoying!)
>
> Hmm, might have to give this a try, thanks.
>
This might not work (I'm not home to try it), because I'm pretty sure that
the Water Elemental cast is on the GCD. You cannot stack spells in a macro
that way unless they don't share a cooldown. (This caused many BM hunters
fits in 3.1 when they moved Kill Shot onto the GCD, making it no longer
possible to fire in a macro such as the above.)
Another possibility is using an addon like PowerAuras to trigger when the
spell is available. PowerAuras is inanely flexible, and lets you create
all manner of alerts based on a spell being available, or a proc occuring.
When I was first learning my paladin, I relied on it to tell me when
certain cooldowns were available, and I continue to use it on my hunter to
warn me when my mana is getting low and I need to switch to Aspect of the
Viper for a bit.
--
Rob Wynne / The Autographed Cat / d...@america.net
http://www.autographedcat.com/ / http://autographedcat.livejournal.com/
Gafilk 2010: Jan 8-10, 2010 - Atlanta, GA - http://www.gafilk.org/
Aphelion - Original SF&F since 1997 - http://www.aphelion-webzine.com/
Zil
> >>
> >> /script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
> >> /console Sound_EnableSFX 0
> > /cast water elemental (or whatever the spell is called)
> >> /console Sound_EnableSFX 1
> >> /script UIErrorsFrame:Clear(); UIErrorsFrame:Show()
> >>
> >> The elemental would then get cast whenever it's not on CD, giving you
> >> maximum use of it.
> >> The 2 lines above and below the water elemental cast are to prevent
> >> errors appearing on screen and making a noise when the spell is on CD
> >> (otherwise it gets annoying!)
> >
>
> the Water Elemental cast is on the GCD. You cannot stack spells in a macro
> that way unless they don't share a cooldown. (This caused many BM hunters
> fits in 3.1 when they moved Kill Shot onto the GCD, making it no longer
> possible to fire in a macro such as the above.)
I'm not in a position to try it either, but I belive it will work.
The water elemental will be cast if it's not on CD (which will trigger
the GCD and prevent the frostbolt).
If it's on CD, then that line will be skipped (with an error message &
sound which you won't see/hear due to the surrounding lines) and the
frostbolt will be cast.
I do similar things in the dps macro from my paladin, I think.
I certainly do it with trinkets in place of the water elemental spell,
and that works fine.
Brent Stroh
>I wouldn't worry about dedicating a toon primarily to healing. get
>your slave a nice DPS /castsequence, and use that most of the time,
>but have some healing macros set up so you can heal the master when
>necessary.
Poorly worded on my part - yeah, the shaman will be contributing primarily
DPS, with heals as necessary. During my test run, I put lightning on the
same keybind as heroic strike on the warrior. Initially, I tried it on
"attack" but quite often, the shaman was still walking when the warrior
started attacking... That also has the benefit that I'll be able to cast
more than once when fighting things over level 3...
Getting various spells and abilities sorted into logical pairs is likely to
be the most interesting part of this.
>But, depending on your server, be prepared for some funny looks, etc.
>I used to frequently get someone see me and just /w "lol!" or "wtf?"
>or occasionally "bot!".
Maybe I'm naive, but I think I'll probably be largely under the radar since
I'll only have two characters, of different classes. That doesn't scream
"Multi-box!!!" as much as some of the groups I've seen. :)
>Only yesterday, someone /spit on each of my toons in turn and walked
>off. When i asked him "What's up with the spitting?" he raved on
>about how he thought multiboxing should be banned, how I need to get a
>life, find some real friends to play with etc. Charming guy!
>
>It helps to have thick skin and/or a big ignore list.
Sounds like the test case for /ignore. :)
Zil
Brent Stroh <bms...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Getting various spells and abilities sorted into logical pairs is likely to
> be the most interesting part of this.
That's one way to do it, but frankly it's much, much easier to have a
single "dps" key, with an approrpiate /castsequence on each toon.
For example, on your shaman, I'd have:
/castsequnce Lightning Bolt, Earth Shock, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt
at least initially until more spells come along. As you get the talents that
reduce LB casting time and more spells you can adjust the sequence appropriately.
(For the warrior I can't suggest anything, since I've not played my warrior
properly for a couple of years now).
So I have my big "dps" button, then class specific stuff on keys that are
only mapped on some toons, so that I can still cast situation-specific
spells on certain toon only.
e.g. my pally's Consecration is on '1', and on the shamans '1' is mapped to
nothing. my shamans' Chain Lightning is on a key that is mapped to nothing
on the paladin.
> Maybe I'm naive, but I think I'll probably be largely under the radar since
> I'll only have two characters, of different classes. That doesn't scream
> "Multi-box!!!" as much as some of the groups I've seen. :)
Yes, I imagine just 2 toons will go unnoticed.
To be honest, sometimes the attention can be fun. But Sometimes, when it's just
ignorant people who presume I have no life and no friends and can't wait to
tell me, it can be a pain.