The Armory and Cathedral

So after a very successful Library and Graveyard stint netted me 2 levels, I trooped into cathedral at 34.


I prompty wiped twice for the first few group pulls. Annoyed, I redid my macro so I had a constant healer which helped a little. However it was going too slowly :( I decided to try my luck in Armory instead.


The mobs in armory weren't 'red' to me, so it was smoother. The damage I was taking was somehow significantly higher than what I took in graveyard and library though, so I had to watch my hps and spikes more carefully.


All in all, armory was the best place to level up:

1) Melee mobs mostly - aggro held by consecration and retribution aura

2) Tons of grouped mobs - high exp for mboxing groups

3) Caster mobs are slow casting high nuke; Grounding Totem eats all :)

4) Pats are easy to spot

I dinged 36 by running armory a few times, mostly in effort to find the scarlet tabard which stubbornly refused to drop for me.


Herod was perhaps abit more tricky. But by positioning my toons over the edge and jumping down I was able to tackle him easily. Gift of Naaru self -> jump in spam attack.






Back away from his cyclone axe ability - and stop casting and wasting mana. Although in this case my shamans had too much mana to spend anyway





Post-Herod, please switch OFF RETRIBUTION AURA! If mobs die by retribution aura you get nil exp (and loot - essentially a chance for the tabard). Consecration, 4 fire nova totems BAM :)

I believed the Scarlet Leggings dropped

~~~~~~

Following the morale boosting Ding X 2, I decided to head into cathedral at 36 (still with level 30 skills). It was much better than my first attempt, and I was racking up the exp. Just remember to pull mobs around corners and watch for the runners - though with proper focus firing the runners should not get away.

Clear one side of the stairs up the first garden, then clear one side. clear both door guard groups. Then pull the mobs (slowly!!!) out of the door down the stairs. Like this:

Be extremely careful while pulling, wandering pats can cause you to pull 3-4 groups. My paladin suffered a little with little/no range pulling abilities (ret paladin) but overall it was still ok. Kill the healers ASAP. Do NOT let the arcane exploding mages near the group. 2 of them can wipe you out before your first chain heal hits. No exaggeration sorry :(

After clearing the mobs in the rooms and hall, you're all set (don't forget the hidden mob behind the door on the right branch of the hall)
Not much strategy, spank and tank. Pulled Morg down the middle of the hall, killed him, made Whitemane 30%, she cast sleep. Rezzed Morg, and the fight starts again.

Cast 5Xgift of the naaru after the sleep, killed whitemane, then killed morg :)



Here's another shot of another run :) Proof you can do it Morgaine -> Whitemane too



All in all, SM was EXCELLENT experience for an mboxer :) and an easy one too! Definitely will retry it again and again on my second group. Lots of greens, silk and great boss drops. And of course the exp was excellent

The Scarlet Monastary (1)

So I finally hit 32 and trooped down to SM.

SM has much significance for me because it is supposedly the benchmark test for a multiboxers. Mobs generally tend to function a bit more like the normal end game instances. AOE (Arcane explosions, rains), runners, silencers, high melee dps and coordination bosses (library, cathedral). It was also the instance I loved the most on my first character days. It was found deep in horde territory, and used to be farmed a fair bit so skeletons could be found as evidence of tussles over the summoning stone. It was also one of the first instances to drop significantly good loot. (Back when you could still use at 60!)

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GRAVEYARD

Not much to say much about this place. Typically tank and spank, use LOS and stairs to your advantage. pull the ghosts AOE everything down. The ghosts do spawn some mirror images - once those take damage to do despawn, basically nothing a paladin can't handle. Literally just spamming consecration and judgement (bound to the same key 2) which is the shamans lightning bolt, I could take down any mob with NIL downtime. Manaspring, blessing of wisdom and watershield really really helps even at low levels.



For final boss fight - stairs, run down, pull. He melees so you can drag him back a little bit. Don't need LOS.

** Spoiler! After killing the bloodmage, a lich will be spawned which drops nice loot. He does an AOE FROSTBOLT. So please remember to drop your alts at maximal range where they would not be hit. My alts got killed the first time because I was too close. Sadly, nil screenshots (only did GY once and I didn't know the lich would spawn)

~~~~~
Library

Library was much much more interesting. Ranged mobs and patrols wander around. However there are nil respawning/spawning pats so once you learn the initial position of the pats you wouldn't worry again.

Use the corridoor and let your paladin body pull everything to himself around the corner so the mob will run close.



Things started looking up since I had 4X grounding totem now. Ability to absorb spells and ignore casters for a good 10seconds was all the CC I needed. Be careful about ranged mobs though, they may start targetting your alts. For the entire library (AND SM for that matter), I did not need a dedicated healer except for 1 instant, just occassional 4 LSW (lesser healing waves) from my alts. Yes, my paladin was still retribution spec.

It got a little hazy at Loksey, which was the first boss which challenged my control as a multiboxer. I couldn't decide how to hit him at first, and went the conventional round the corner pull. That worked, except that 3 dogs + loksey = 1 fast going dead paladin. Wiped once as my paladin went down in 3seconds. Wiped the second as my alts pulled the aggro off the dogs despite retribution aura and consecration. So I decided to have a dedicated healer in this case, who would be spamming LSW while the rest cast lightning bolt. While slower dps, that kept my paladin near full while destroying the dogs and finally Loksey.



TIP:Later, on my second run, I discovered by Gift of the Naaru X 5 on my paladin, I was able to take down all 3 dogs, then Loksey without breaking a sweat.
TIP2: Loksey goes enraged once low health - if you have difficulty with that drop the dogs FIRST then loksey (Which was what I did)

After that, it is a straight forward corner pull around the bends


Doan (the final boss) has a huge AOE arcane explosion (much like kara's shade) so remember to park your alts way back! As you can obviously see, my alts aren't way back enough. I had enough dps to burn him through though. He fell, I got my scarlet key :) Pretty easy fight if you asked me my Paladin didn't run out, just hit the 50% dmg reduction. Tehcnically you should run out.

SM Cath in the future :)

The Gnomer and BFD Photoblog!

Gnomer final boss

My icon for my blog for the moment ;) I thought it was aptly taken. Simply put, this boss is a wuss! Easily downable with minimal heals. All out dps is the way to go.

Lead these people -away- from your group. The land mines tend to deal significant damage in AOE radius when blowing up. Please watch for pats and runners

Once again I appreciate the paladin AOE consecration - makes holding multiple mobs aggro so much easier.

Lord Kelthris from BFD - drag him to some corner and just pound him to death. Minimal healing needed again. Dropped a nice staff for me

Don't stand in the corridoor of fire ! Ouch

~~~~~~~~~~

Sadly, there isn't much to talk about in Gnomer and BFD. For BFD - don't forget the 'dead' guy in the instance to pick the quest from. And activate the candles after kelthris to fight the big, bad monster. Not much strat involved. Tank, spank, use LOS.

For Gnomer, pick up the quests from IF. You don't have to do all but killing the final boss gets you a nice blue loot you can use, at least. Overall, gnomer is a pretty nice instance for grinding, lots of mobs. BFD is hard to reset as the final room has a port to Darnassus (rather than just outside the instance). So unless you love running (And swimming!) out - just grind gnomer.

That's not to say these 2 instances were useless. Definitely, they provided me with some inspiration to put some macros up. For example, casting 5 gift of the naarus on the tank! That's equivalent threat so it nullifies any alt-aggro. It is, also, at that level a literal shield wall for 15? seconds that it lasts for. Your whole life bar ticks up to full every 3 seconds. (again, with no threat to alts!)

My shamans, were of course, specced elemental. Overall decent damage (constant damage, rather, as crit % was still rather low) but it sure as heck beat enhancement for positioning. I've SEEN enhancement videos work out fine. However, with my current graphics and server lag, its impossible to place mobs right in front of my designated enhancement shaman to hit. Maybe if I get a warrior alt (charge) or druid (feral charge). Who knows.

My paladin on the other hand, was retribution, which brought far more to the tables than protection would have brought. Vengeance, itself, increased consecration damage - enabling easier holding of aggro. Until Totem of Wrath, the 3% crit talent from judgement is still extremely helpful, as is the -2s off Judgement cooldown. Increased crit ? Why not! If I need extra protection its stoneskin totem + Devotion aura for massive AC boost. Overall, I'm enjoying the ret paladin (?overpoweredness) and synergy with 4 shamans.

On top of that, I get 24 mana every 2 seconds from totem ticks for each character. Throw in blessing of wisdom AND water shield and my alts have never drank water before. Let's see how long it will last.

P.s That's not to say retribution > protection. Once the 'true' dungeons kick in (I.E. SM) I believe being protection would pay off. But that's for another post/day.

The Blues!

My last run in VC showed me just how easy it was to level up (And get gear!) No more pesky quests for now!

I was pondering whether I should try to score achievements by doing the various instances or simply run the ones that would give me exp. I decided in the end to try SFK (remembering that on my old toons SFK had multiple bosses who all dropped moderately good loot)

Running IF -> menethil -> Arathi was extremely tiring and dangerous (omg horde again -_-) I would suggest just running your primary character then summoning all of them at the FP again. Rememeber that summoning has a 1 hour cooldown, however ;)

Well SFK was fun definitely. Although anti-magic shell did raise my blood pressure a little, there was nothing that wasn't accomplishable. With minimal patrols, wipes were minimised (nil wipes here) as every fight was planned before initiation.

Here are some shots!

The First

I'm back.

RAF does have its benefits after all - my characters ended up at level 21-22 just after the Draenei starting area. That's with my alts not picking up more than 1/2 the quests! (Thanks shaman totem quests) That left me with much room for error for my next crusade - Deadmines
Yes, I know its probably a little low level for my toons. But it was terribly exciting because1) Its the first instance I would ever do2) Greens to jumpstart my career AND enchanting3) First encounter with blue items :)4) Good training for bosses/respawns/pats in later instances
Besides, Deadmines has always been one of my favourite instances. It was easy, fun and dropped tons of nice gear at low levels. Perhaps it was simply nostalgia as it was too, the first instance my first toon did, ever.

So after an hour of so of travelling (ie, Begging for portal to shattrah -> set hearth -> Stormwind -> Goldshire ->Westfall) there I was in Deadmines. Ironically I ran into 2-3 groups of people LFM - 2 groups were looking for healers, 1 group looking for a tank. I guess multiboxing has its benefits after all. The nerf to mobs outside instances (from elite to normal) made the clearing inwards way easier. That and the fact I had consecration already.

Of course, by now my toons had at least 11 talent points, and I had to decide where to place them. Shamans were no brainer -> both tier 1 talents in elemental were filled up and the clearcasting was picked. For paladin, I decided to go retribution rather than protection. Early points invested in protection yielded little to no benefit. Blessing of King was useless at low levels, and so was +15% strength, +10% armor, -6% dmg reduction etc. etc. On the other hand in retribution I got to +5% parry early on, 2s off Judgement cooldown, +3% crit to mobs judged and Seal of Command. Stun -> Judgement brought instant aggro nearly all the time. Plus cycling it nicely with fire nova totem made crits fly all over the screen. But I digress - perhaps I would dedicate a post simply for talent specs while levelling.

So I started to clear Deadmines, downed the first boss, got overconfident, decided to ignore that pats that would come from behind. I cleared towards the next boss. Naturally got wedged between 2 groups of elites, despite quick shifting my toons around to face the right groups, we wiped. (first ever) It tasted kind of bitter, despite massive coordination and superior firepower, you would still wipe to cockiness.

So I carried on and decided to be much more cautious this time. That is to say, I didn't pull too obscene number of mobs. Sometimes consecration can be too addictive.

Of course, firing the cannon always made me happy

Clearing the bridge wasn't as difficult as I remembered doing it in pugs for some strange reason >.<>

Clearing up the ship was fun but I had to watch my toons carefully to ensure no one fell off or was left in some corner

After that, all that was left was VanCleef himself. He died as I just ran out of mana. Was a fun fight though :) Missed him terribly. Thanks for that cape.

All in all... a fun expedition. Not much tips/tricks to show off this post. Just lots of pictures.

The Beginning

The first thing I realised once I started playing was how -different- it was having 5 toons. Is it weird to feel jealous when one of your characters get a green drop while the others just stand and watch?

Secondly the graphics (on highest) setting on my new comp was pretty decent and there was no more jerky lag though my internet did give me some problems sometimes

Also, having 5 characters made doing almost every quest line and profession possible, although immediately I realised that training the skills would take titanic efforts

Quickly, I selected my main as the person to receive first dips on any new loot. Loots rules were as such. Any major improvement (>7 item levels) would be given to my main. Otherwise it would trickle down stepwise (2-3-4-5) to my other toons. My main would be skinning/Mining while my 2nd alt would pick up the scraps with enchanting. I was tempted to raise my characters with tailoring (which can later be DE-ed) but I wasn't sure if I had the cash. On hindsight I should have picked 1-2 to do so. (but by then I gave all my cloth away sigh)

Of course that led to much protests from alts 3-5 which gained almost no loot except from quests. Using my massive powers of dictatorship I ruthlessly quelled any arguments or potential bycotts from my alts. There would be no dissension in my ranks.

The draenei starting area couldn't be more frustrating for a multiboxers. Alot of quest lines could not be open simply for the fact that there are alot of collection quests! I soon learned why mboxers avoid collection quests like a plague. It took nearly 1/2 an hour to finish -one- collection quest. Thank goodness for RAF bonuses!!

Rules for levelling while questing

1) Follow the normal quest sequence with your main

2) In any case, alts always just simply take kill quests

3) Get a macro ASAP to share quests and accept them

4) Don't need to be greedy - it is fine to keep your main 1-2 levels ahead of everyone else. Eventually it all evens out. RAF bonus ensures killing mobs is a fine way to level as well

5) Elite quests are easy with 5 people :)

6) Avoid collection quests like a plague! But read carefully! some quests just simply need you to collect a single crystal from a source - those are doable easily

I don't think there's a need to go much into details about level 1-15 levelling. /Playsequence /follow /cast lightning bolt /follow. See copper -> mine. See dead animal -> skin. Ooo green shiny rewards! Take, wear.

However, I must say that doing shaman totem quests nearly killed my patience AND my brain cells. Argh! I 'm glad I finally got it over with! Running around aimlessly for hours to finish 1 (ok, 4X1) Totem quests got my really really grouchy.

To avoid recounting such terribly painful moments, I'll just look at the bright side and say that I was happy with my Earth and Fire totems once the quest was done. It was truly a nice reward for a multiboxer :) Wading completely through mobs with 8 totems and a paladin was definitely very far from difficult. As a hint too, shaman totem quest chains give ALOT of exp for the character, and they literally overtook my main character by 2 whole levels. It took me a while to balance things again.

I may be oversimplifying the thought, macro, and questing process with a few simple paragraphs, but once you get the hang of things, it just glides along pretty easily. Apart from the few 'oooohs' and 'ahhhhs' from other players that pass by you, it was a genuinely refreshing experience.

The Prequel

So it began that I accidentally (accidents happen more frequently than I thought) stumbled onto a multiboxers video. Ironically I can't recall who it was. InitialLy I was shocked - awed - inspired. I was stunned to realise that 1 person could control multiple characters and achieve so many things.

Then I stumbled onto Ellay's video on multiboxers in Arena. (Owing, of course - why else would anyone put a video up on losing)

So I started my research:
What - The art of controlling multiple characters, usually over multiple accounts, occassionally over multiple computers, by a single players
How - Various programs such as keyclones which enables a single computer to run multiple characters in multiple accounts with the same keystroke. Or multiple computers linked together via hardware
Why/Who - Interest in new things, boredom with the normal things. Some people (like me) stumble onto such a hobby and fel in love with it
When - It started long ago with Everquest and DAOC, when some evil genius saw the benefit of a multiboxing pvp player

Naturally, this excited me. As someone easily bored, this could provide beastly entertainment any number of games. As someone as interested in alts, micro-management and theorycrafting as well as playing the game itself, this presented itself as an opportunity to elevate my gaming experience in an MMORPG (or other games! who knows?) (Heroics solo!)

Immediately the multitudes of possibilities came to me. I could run my own dungeons by plugging the gaps with my own characters, do pvp without screaming at my teammates. I could farm for gold, attempt things I would never do with just my one character.

Naturally the negative points stared at me too
-I needed a computer powerful enough to run 5 copies of WoW at the same time
-A good amount of investment of time (And money) to set up macros and startup my 5 character running. I needed patience, too
-What was the point of multiboxing dungeons in an MMORPG? Isn't the whole point social
-How about equipment - would be bothersome to equip 5 chars rather than one, and if raiding 5 pots/flasks compared to just one
-If I grew bored 1/2way, what should I do with my accounts
-Maintaining 5 accounts financially :S ouch.

On the other hand, I couldn't stop ruminating about the different character setups I could have. 5 shamans ? Tank + shaman ? 5 druids??

I started intense research on multiboxers and their blogs. Most seem to enjoy themselves, though I became acutely aware of a fair number that stopped blogging or stopped multiboxing altogether. I glanced from the forums (dualboxing.com) and various blogs the character combinations 'possible' (most will say any combo is possible) and the most popular.

On top of that... Professions! I could potentially never have to beg someone for enchants, pots, flasks and later on, inscriptions again. But I'd have to spent an insane amount of time farming to raise skill levels. Meh, those come later I guess

So there I was, thinking about it and after a few weeks, decided to set myself some money monthly with a goal at the end of a few months to purchase my computer and accounts. It DID help that RAF (Refer a friend) bonus came out and that definitely had a pull factor into starting to multiboxing. Furthermore I hadn't WoW-ed in ages and I did miss some of my friends online.

It is suffice to say that I spent alot of time thinking about it, but I shall not bore you with the various debates in the mind!

And so after many months of plotting, planning and saving;
System cost 2200 sing-dollars
Includes quad-core, 22" Monitor (wide) and 4Gig ram

Naturally, it was a tough choice even right before I bought my computer. A tinge of regret did cross my mind when I forked out (blood!) money for it. But I guess my excitement equivalent to a schoolboy with a new toy overrided it almost immediately. Here I was, at the threshold of greater glory.

Again, the choices of classes and professions did clash in my mind, but I think my first and foremost point was to quickly adapt to the multiboxing game. That meant picking something proven easy to use. 2 different combinations came to me immediately:
1) Paladin + 4 Shamans
2) 5 Druids
(Of course, taking into account dual-spec introduction soon, 5 druids was really really tempting)

Naturally I didn't just stick to something so common. The ability to mash different flavours together (MS warrior, Druid Tank, Hunter BM, Rogue and Resto Sham with totems!) did tempt me. But I guess if I keep thinking big I would never start. Nearly went crazy from so many possibilities! (Mage / Lock / Moonkin/ Resto sham with Paladin!) (Deathknight X 5!) Argh!

After much debate, I decided to start off with my paladin + 4 shamans and 'save' up my 5 druids for later when I learn the game more. I figured with literally 1 spell to cast for shamans (Lightning Bolt), Totems and a proper Paladin tank (not to mention Ret being deemed OP-ed these days), I'd stand a higher chance of not throwing a fit in front of my brand new 22'' monitor.

And so the legend (I hope), starts.... my Paladin and his (her) four Shamans...