In my previous article we shared a fairly common player type: the Alt-o-holic.  At times the pull of this addiction becomes so strong that simply playing one alt is not enough.  The altoholic finds themselves wishing to play multiple toons at once.  Well we, at Dominate, are here to help!

I want to introduce you all to an extreme form of Altoholism called Multi-boxing.  In the past this was typically called Dual-Boxing, but has in general changed to Multi-Boxing.  Seriously, once you have 2 toons running, why stop there! ?

Some of you that have been playing the game for a while have probably had exposure to Multi-boxing already.  Those that have experienced it on a pvp server arena, or battlegrounds most likely shudder just at the mention of Multi boxing.  This is because you are one of the thousands of victims of this cruel form of Darwinism, a true “Peace thru superior firepower” solution to pve and pvp.  For those unfamiliar with it let me paint you a picture before we go any farther.

Imagine being on a pvp server and innocently running out of Booty bay to go kill some Pirates.  You look around to make sure nobody is close to gank you, all is clear so you begin casting on a mob but suddenly about the time your spell hit it’s target POOF you are dead.  Wait, what just happened?  You spin the camera around a there stands 5 shamys all waving at you simultaneously.  You rub your eyes thinking your seeing things, they all move in one motion, maybe it’s a glitch because your pc is overheating…  While you sit there wondering what happened you whatch them all mount up and run off.

No you were not imagining it, You just got Multi Boxed!  Don’t despair, even the best player can’t overcome the sheer firepower that can be thrown out by a master Dual boxer.

Basic Set-up

There are various ways to set-up your computer(s) for what is called Multi-boxing.  That is, running 2 or more sessions of WOW at the same time. These will typically fall into one of four basic formats.

1. running multiple computers manualy
2. running multiple computers using keystroke clone software
3. running wow multiple times on one PC manually
4. running wow multiple times on one PC using keystroke clone software

Multi-boxing is a subject that can and does fill entire websites.  The set-up, macroing and software variations are far beyond what can be covered here.  For real detailed information, help and up-to-date set-ups I highly recommend visiting http://www.dual-boxing.com and http://www.multiboxing.com they have everything you need to know about how to get set-up to dual box like a pro.

• I have always in the past  used the 1st option listed.  It can be cumbersome to control and may not maximize output like the story example above, but it offers the benefits of tackling quests that require more than one character without having to look for someone to party with.
• For the last month I used option 3 with two WOW windows and I click back and forth.  Not very efficient and tedious to use, but I was up and running within seconds of logging on both toons.  There really is no “set-up” other than tiling your wow sessions like shown.
  
• Just this week I have begun the trial of using keyclone software, and while it has taken time to get going, now that I am figuring it out, it is the best way to go by far and worth a few days of research and set-up.  Having all your toons locked together and casting/healing/targeting with one keypress is jus thte best way to go.

Character pairings

The combinations and ways of pairing your Dual boxing toons are about limitless, and vary greatly based on the player’s desires and playstyle.  Usually dual boxers fall into one of two styles.

• Pure firepower
  This is a group like the one I mentioned earlier. Typically they are caster classes and rely on sheer dps to knock down anything in their way in one cast cycle, or 2 if the target is much bigger or elite.  Some people will mix caster classes like mages, priests, shaman, and warlocks, others will stick to one class.
• Balanced group
  These players will stick with two maybe 3 classes in their little party.  The group will typically have a melee toon and play more like a classic group meleeing mobs down, healing etc.  Shaman are a very common toon in these as they offer offensive casting, totems and healing in one class while still retaining some armor for defense, druids and paladins are also a great choice.  My preference is to run a Retribution Paladin lead with shaman in tow.  Plate armor and solid dps backed up by heals and caster dps plus totems..

Since I was a manual Multi-boxer in the past, I typically ran a Balanced group format.  My favorite pair by far has been pali lead and shamy follow.  The pali as we all know is a very strong solo class, add to that the shammy with totems, heal and offensive spells make a nice strong team.  Once they get up in levels they get reallt strong.  Consecrate, Chain lightning and Magma totem make a Brutal AOE grinding package from an early level.  I have run a shamy & Priest pair lately, and while strong, it does not compare to the Pali/Shamy

Now that I have a keyclone package working, I am experementing with the multi caster format and have a mage/priest pair up to lvl 6.  I know it is not much, but I have never leveled a mage past 20 so it is a start!  Talk about power though, it is something that cannot be appreciated until you try it!!  Now I am debating on making another pair of toons to try 4boxing for the 1st time.  However that requires additional accounts, and I will be covered in another article!

Alts are cool, chicks dig scars, DOMINATING is eternal.

Wicked of Dominate
<Fenris>

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One Simple Macro Is A Big Help

Everyone is looking for things that will make playing the game simpler.  Unfortunately, simple isn’t always better.  But every now and then you run across something that really changes the way you play.  We don’t always do simple (because the pros gripe at us), but it’s a pretty good bet that not everyone knows about this little gem.

If you’re a healer, you already know about this one, although you might not even know it.  Anyone who uses Clique, Healbot or Vuhdo use it all the time, it’s just built into those mods.  But recently I ran across a situation where I needed to extend the capability of clicking on something to cast a spell.

Every time we do a post about gear we get hecklers.  When we do product reviews it really is because we like the thing, not because we’re paid to talk about them.  The Razer Naga mouse is a great example, the G13 from Logitech is another.  Yes, you can do well with a two dollar mouse and the keyboard, but the G13 and the Naga really make the game easier to play at a much faster pace.

The problem is that not every product interfaces well with the game UI and all your mods.  In other words, getting the G13 and the Naga to do everything I wanted them to do wasn’t just a matter of plugging them in.  The G13 really needs bartender and the Naga . . . is a story all it’s own.  The Naga has a product specific in-game mod, but it overrides Bartender, so I had to find another way to get those 12 extra buttons to work.

The issue there was that I wanted to be able to use those buttons by clicking on the Vuhdo bars.  That turned out to be tricky.  But the neat thing is that once I found the solution it made a LOT of things easier on all my toons – and not just for healing.  The solution is also so easy that even a complete newbie can figure out ways to use it without having to know everything about the game or being a master at making macros.  And you will even find plenty of ways to use it even if you don’t use stuff like the G13 and Naga.

Let me introduce you to the mouseover macro

The mouseover macro lets you cast any spell you like on any target without having to target them first.  OK, that sounds wierd, so let’s go at it another way.  There are several ways to “target” a friendly player or mob.  One way is to click on their toon, lots of folks target this way, clicking on the boss or mob directly instead of tab targeting.  Tab targeting is another way to do this.  The only problem is that tabbing may or may not select the mob you want to actually target, so you’re looking for the red aura around their feet to see what you are nuking.  Another method is to click on a character portrait.  You can click on a bar in your group or raid in any UI to target a friendly player.  There are other ways to target with hot keys, but we won’t review them all.

As you can see, each method has certain drawbacks.  If you tab target you can’t target friendly players and don’t have complete control and may have to tab several times to get the right target.  If you are trying to target friendly units, you have to click a portrait or the player’s toon directly.  There isn’t really one targeting method that does everything – but the mouseover macro fixes all of that.

All you have to do is open the macro screen and type this:

/cast [target=mouseover] Spellname

Now, the spell name needs to be whatever spell you want to cast exactly as it appears in the tooltip.  For instance, if you want a macro for something you rarely use but need to cast quickly in an emergency, such as Lay On Hands, you would make the macro read like this:

/cast [target=mouseover] Lay on Hands

Notice that the words ‘Lay’ and ‘Hands’ have a capital letter, but ‘on’ does not.  You have to type the spell name in exactly the way it appears in the tooltip.

It comes in handy for a lot of spells for every class.  And what it does is reduce your reaction times by a click or two.  Instead of having to target something with a tab or a click, all you have to do is hover your mouse over the toon, the portrait, or any other bar on your UI and hit the button for the macro.  You don’t have to hit a button to target and then hit the one for the macro.

Warriors can use it for things like intervene, intercept and interrupts.  Paladins might want lay on hands and divine intervention.  Mages might like it for something like slow fall and priests for levitate.  I use it on my druid for innervate.  Anything you want to cast where it’s just easier to hover your mouse and hit a single button that helps you play faster is fair game.

So for my Naga mouse, I have up to six mouseover skills on the bar assigned to the mouse, and then Vuhdo for the standard stuff on left and right click and the scroll wheel.  This little macro has opened up a whole new level of versatility and I just didn’t know about it until I needed to find a solution.  It’s nothing new, but it just might help you Dominate like never before.

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