New member seeking answers...

[orianthi]

New member here so seeking for guidance and will be asking lots of noob questions so my apologies in advance. I was at first saving for surround gaming (3 monitors), currently playing Aion but got burned out only after 1 month (there’s nothing to do - it’s all eyecandy/gimmick). I am always interested in multi-boxing, i did it 5 years ago but using 3 PCs to control 3 accounts (2 PCs with nostromo calling all macros). I am aware of advanced softwares that broadcast keystrokes so you only need 1 powerful PC (or at least the minimum number depending on how many accounts you box) and i’m aware of available hardwares too but i just can’t afford them (for a hobby). I’ve read that WoW is one of the best games to multibox so i resubbed my 2 accounts and will be re-activating 1 or 2 more. Me and wife owned these accounts eversince WoW was released and have more than 10 level 80s but i plan on starting fresh (obviously).

Okay now that my introduction is done… i am planning to multibox (3-4 accounts), i am doing this (aside from it’s fun) for PvP and so i can do instances on my own. I just bought PwnBoxer and found that my Phenom II X4 945/single HD 5380/4GB RAM can handle 2 clients using two monitors but not so sure about 4 accounts, i always like to play at max graphics - at least on my master account. I can upgrade to a crossfire config and RAM to 8GB maybe and still survive my wife’s wrath, core i7s are out of the budget.

I am almost decided on using an all shaman team but i still don’t know if i really need a tank. An all shaman team will be far lethal in PvP but i have doubts if they can clear heroic instances (for BADGES) without a tank. So this will be my first question who have experiences on both cases, i guess i can have a tank and a shaman on one of the accounts for PvE and PvP respectively but there will be times when i wanted the shaman to get instance loot. Can an all shaman team clear at least most heroic instances (level cap) for farming badges and gear?

The second question would be, can i do it (clear heroic instances) with only 4 accounts (4 shamans or 1 tank and 3 shamans)? I may not be able to afford a 5th account since i have to buy the game and expansion packs (i still have to enable my 4th account with the lich king expac). I don’t think i’m a bad player, but i remember i failed to clear BRD back then with 3 50s but don’t have the right tools or classes.

I think these 2 questions (haha how did i came up with these walls of text, i may have multiboxing the forums as well) are sufficient for now to get me started (i did try 2 shamans last night after i bought PwnBoxer and i had lots of fun even with broken macros - well also maybe because i took a break for almost 2 years now from WoW.

Will i be welcome if i roll on blackrock server where most of the multiboxers reside?

Thanks in advance.

[Ualaa]

With a four shaman team, you'll initially need a tank to do heroics. Once you severely outgear the instance, you will be able to four-man it without a tank.

I'd personally go with four shaman (or three) and a druid. That gets you a tanking option for PvE, and the druid can go Boomkin and play the same style as the shammies. Your choice on managing Eclipse procs for similar to shaman dps, or just approximating the proc, which still gets the entire team +13% spell damage from Earth & Moon, not to mention Mark of the Wild, Battle Rez, Innervate etc.

If your focus was entirely PvE, I'd say Pally tank, three Elemental Shammies and a Warlock. Click castsequences let you mix classes. With a mixed focus (PvE and PvP), the Druid is far stronger in a PvP boxed role (healer or boomkin) then the Pally is. Warlock still gets you the 13% spell power boost (but druid does that too).

[Tim]

For a Shaman team, I'd go a druid, simply because for PVP purposes, the druid IMO as resto will outshine the pally.

But yea, 1x Druid 4x Shaman can do heroics easily the moment you hit 80. Once you get geared you can farm quite a few heroics without a tank on the shaman team.

[fruit]

Hi im a newbie............

[pinki104]

yeh always have shammys and druid

[Lindline]

Originally Posted by orianthi

I can upgrade to a crossfire config

This isn't going to work. As Tim will attest to, crossfire only works with fullscreened games. Pwnboxer works with windowed game clients.

[orianthi]

what's the problem with xfire? not seeing any issue so far - i'm using xfire (ATI 5830), 5 accounts, 2 monitors. verified crossfire is turned on by looking at each gpu load in the catalyst. 2nd monitor is plugged in my primary card so i can span displays.

the only issue that i have (most probably unrelated) is that sometimes my mouse to key remapping doesn't work (but it's only like 5% of the time).

also, looks like i'm going to end up with the classes i enjoy the most (which is far from the best multiboxing teams) - paladin, shaman, warlock, hunter and rogue (and maybe warrior). i tried different combinations and even activated 5 new RAF accounts but i enjoy the game more with these classes.

[EaTCarbS]

Xfire/SLI doesn't have a good performance/cost ratio for World of Warcraft. When I was running SLI, I gained a net 5 fps, most people get less.

[Ualaa]

Basically Warcraft is not optimized to take advantage of crossfire/SLI mode. The majority of people with dual cards get better performance in non-crossfire/SLI modes. The extra card still lets you go with extra monitors.

If your software supports using a specific card for a specific instance of warcraft, you can do so; the strength is a more balanced load at your default mode of play, but by placing specific clients on each video card, that can mess with PiP swaps (changing which window is the active/main one).

The dual cards, as in two chips on a single board, don't really do that much more in Warcraft then the x1 versions of the cards. It is because Warcraft doesn't get much from the extra card. My old 4870 X2 card, actually performed slightly worse then the 4870 base card.