Multiboxing World of Warcraft
I got a bit bored with playing one character at a time in World of Warcraft, so decided to try and play 5 at a time. Last year i tried with 2 computers and duplicating all keypresses. It worked, but wasn't ideal. This time i wanted to try it the professional way :)
Contents |
Other sources of information
i got most of my information from these sites:
- multiboxing.com - Lots of information about multiboxing, video's and guides.
- dual-boxing - Probably the longest existing forum related to multiboxing.
Hardware/software
It helps to have a 30" screen or 2 screens and a quad-core cpu (my hardware setup). It all runs surprisingly well, probably even with older computers. You have to put all graphics details to low on your slave accounts and limit them to 15-30 fps (/console set maxfps 15).
For the software i used PwnBoxer which does exactly what i want.
- Broadcast only the keys i want to multiple applications.
- Switch your master screen with a slave screen around with 1 keypress.
- Preconfigure the size and location of all your wow-windows.
Wow Accounts
To use the Recruit-a-Friend triple xp and free levels i first created 1 account via the RaF system. With that new account i created 3 more accounts, also via the RaF system. The rule is that 2 friends need to be no more then 4 levels apart to receive the triple xp bonus. So i used my level 80 tank on account A to run 4 slaves through instances. This way account B is friends with C, D and E, receiving their bonusses, even though the character on account A is too high.
Multiple WoW installations
To have different settings for the different accounts i copied the wow installation to multiple folders. However, since my harddisk isn't so big, i made symbolic links for the big folders. You'll need Windows 7 (or MacOSX) for this, since older versions of windows don't support symbolic links.
This is my main installation:
C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\
The video-settings in this copy are set to high and full screen, for when i want to play with 1 character. This is also the only copy which will be upgraded when patches are released.
i made 5 copies for my 5-man multiboxing, where they're all configured to run in windowed mode, and copy 2, 3, 4 and 5 have all video settings to low:
C:\multiboxing\five\wow1\ C:\multiboxing\five\wow2\ C:\multiboxing\five\wow3\ C:\multiboxing\five\wow4\ C:\multiboxing\five\wow5\
Since video settings, keybindings and UI configurations are completely different for 3man multiboxing, compared to 5man multiboxing, i made 3 additional copies for playing with 3 characters:
C:\multiboxing\three\wow1\ C:\multiboxing\three\wow2\ C:\multiboxing\three\wow3\
These folders contain a full copy of C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft, apart from the "Data" and "Interface" folders. These are linked to the original like this:
mklink /D C:\multiboxing\five\wow1\Data C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Data mklink /D C:\multiboxing\five\wow1\Interface C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Interface ...and the same for all the other accounts.
Inside these copies i've got symlinks to 1 account UI configuration:
mklink /D C:\multiboxing\five\wow2\WTF\<Account> C:\multiboxing\five\wow1\WTF\<Account> mklink /D C:\multiboxing\five\wow3\WTF\<Account> C:\multiboxing\five\wow1\WTF\<Account> mklink /D C:\multiboxing\five\wow4\WTF\<Account> C:\multiboxing\five\wow1\WTF\<Account> mklink /D C:\multiboxing\five\wow5\WTF\<Account> C:\multiboxing\five\wow1\WTF\<Account>
This way, you can log on your player #1 in window #2 without having to redo all your UI customizations.
Addons
- Jamba: Multiboxing addon for auto quest-accept, forwarding whispers from slaves to master and more.
- Bartender4: Customizable button bars.
- ZOMGBuffs: Easy buffing.
- Smartdebuff: Easy decursing.
- Healbot: Easy healing.
Keys and macros
On the tank i put this macro:
/in 1 /invite <playerB> /in 2 /invite <playerC> /in 3 /invite <playerD> /in 4 /invite <playerE> /in 5 /master <playerA> /in 5 /script SetOptOutOfLoot(1)
On all 5 players i put these macros and actions:
- Interact with target (bound on "F2" and on "PageDown")
- Accept (bound on F3):
/script AcceptGroup(); /script AcceptQuest(); /script AcceptTrade(); /script RetrieveCorpse(); /script RepopMe();
- Stop (bound on "F4"):
/stopcasting
- Focus (bound on "F5"):
/focus target
- Follow (bound on "Home"):
/follow focus
- Assist (bound on "End"):
/assist focus
- Attack (bound on "Del"):
/castsequence <your favorite damage spell>, <your 2nd favorite damage spell>
Positioning
When you're ready for combat and want all your slaves to stop following you and move in position, configure the F1 key as follows:
- PlayerB: Move Forward
- PlayerC: Move Left
- PlayerD: Move Right
- PlayerE: Move Backward
i configured Shift-F1 to do the opposite, just in case they moved too far apart.
Leveling
When questing, i skipped all the collect quests. They're already annoying for 1 player, so imagine you need 5 times as many items.
- Level 1-10 Questing in Elwynn Forest and Westfall.
- Level 10-20 Used my level 80 warrior to run characters 2, 3, 4 and 5 through Deadmines, and used grant-a-level to get my 1st to 20 too.
- Level 20-40 Same, through Scarlet Monastery. Takes about 3 minutes per level. (video)
- Level 40-50 Same, through Zul'Farrak. Took about longer due the event on the stairs.
- Level 50-60 Same, through Blackrock Depth circle. Again about 3 minutes per level. (video)
- Level 60-68 Quest in outland. Luckily most quests are multibox-friendly, so went really easy and fast. Only problem is that you'll run out of quests around level 68.
- Level 68-70 Quest in nortrend.
This is where i am now. Northrend is not multiboxing friendly, so probably need to start doing massive collect quests or instances in between the normal quests.
Teams for leveling from 1 to 70
These are the characters i made which i'm trying to get to level 80 before the Cataclysm expansion is released. i got them all to level 70 in about 6 weeks. (multiboxing and recruit-a-friend and free level-granting work great together ;)
Team #1
i tried a lot of combinations, but since i like aoe alot and always forget to heal, this looked like the most fun combination. From lvl 20, when you get Holy Nova, until lvl 70 i ran through instances and quests without any problems. Easiest leveling ever. They're lvl 70 now and i'm a bit stuck, probably since Northrend is more dependant on gear. Just need to do more questing i guess.
- Charley: Paladin (tank)
- AñgelA Priest (holy dps)
- AñgelB Priest (holy dps)
- AñgelC Priest (holy dps)
- AñgelD Priest (holy dps)
Team #2
Only reason why i have this weird combination is that i wanted to have one of each class, and these where the classes i didn't have yet. Apart from the Paladin. Each group has one so i'll end up with 3 paladins for some triple-boxing fun later.
Team #3
1 paladin combined with the other 2 paladins will get their own team later. Same goes for the 2 shamans and the 1 from team 2. Also 2 mages to join my main mage.
Teams for leveling from 70 to 80
When all my players reach level 70, i'm cancelling the 5th account and rearranging the teams a bit, to get the most interesting players to 80 first. They're setup up in such a way that they can share the boa-shoulders and chest between the groups. I'm switching between them every time one group has used up all its rested time.
Team #1
An all melee team. The deathknight tanking, with the 3 paladins having "interact with target" and "click to move" enabled. This works beautifully in instances with someone else as healer.
- Cyrberus: Deathknight
- Charley: Paladin (retribution)
- Charliy: Paladin (retribution)
- Charlyy: Paladin (retribution)
Team #2
My 3 mages:
Team #3
The 3 shamans:
Team #4
This team is currently suspended. i gave them alchemy and tailoring professions for use of cooldowns. i might need to get them to lvl75 to be useful in cataclysm.
Team #5
The remaining alts.
