Questions for all multiboxers

[ShasVa]

1) How do you keep up the hobby financially? I don't care for exact specifics (it's your life, your privacy). I'm just curious. Me, I'm unemployed and living with the parents still. Sad as it might be, it seems to be common in this century.

2) How do you keep your interest? I'm talking about motivation with this as well. Short of mass-RAF, the leveling must be quite slow, even when taking only the "kill X" or "go talk to Y" quests.

3) Has any multiboxer tried to take on any Cataclysm-level content? Everything from the Cata dungeons to Heroic Firelands. Seems to me that maybe you'd need to be as committed as that guy who 36-boxed Shamans that one time. Though I'm not sure even he could snot Deathwing when 4.3 hits.

4) Hunters are an interest of mine, even now when I've become bored of the game (again). If one Hunter can allegedly solo older content, would it be reasonable to theorise that 10+ Hunters could take on Cataclysm content, and survive?

I'm asking all of this out of sheer curiosity. I'd love to raid if I had a decent guild to raid with. Sadly however, that has never happened, as I'm not as elitist as many of the other WoW players out there. So multi-boxing a large bunch of toons (Hunters in this case, my current fav class) would be the only alternative.

[Chamassa]

1) Im not sure how i wouldve managed this a year ago, but since i started working for/with tim, well yea

2) Honestly, its problematic. The only 2 things keeping me play wow throughout this expansion are my EU guild and the raids i lead. And on the other hand Multiboxing stream and Tim enthusiasm. I dont find my fun in the way the game plays anymore, i find it in the people i play it with.

3) Tim and me are sure we can 5-box atleast part of the cata dungeons with just 5 shamans. I know balanced teams (read tank, healer, 3 dps) have taken down anything up to cata heroics. But raids? I guess you could probably do the nerfed tier 11 raids, partially anyway. but doing current content might be hard, theres too many things ur supposed to do as a raidgroup at the same time.
I couldve seen a multiboxer doing karazhan, but firelands probably not, unless you got 3 set of hands :P

[ShasVa]

This is the Hunter I'd envision having once 4.3 has been out for a while -> Profiler - Wowhead

Powerful alright, but unattainable! Why? I've never found a guild that raids often AND isn't a bunch of elitist (profanities). Part of me also does not want to sit in front of a computer all of the time.

I know I'm probably whinging my head off here. WoW does seem to have a certain pull that draws people in. Maybe I just want more than even the game itself can provide.

[Ualaa]

Financially... either you need a job or someone to be paying your subscriptions.
$75/month for a hobby is very little when you're working, but quite a bit without a source of income.

Taking a lot of breaks from the game, helps to keep it fresh whenever you return to the game.
Personally, I get excited about a concept or team and then run with it; when you think something will be fun to play, the leveling process in general is exciting because you get closer to being able to do what you want.
You can switch from one team to another, or bounce back and forth between them.
If it gets stale or old or boring... don't play when its not fun, as that will kill it; don't be afraid to take a break... the game will get exciting again at some point.

In both Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, my teams did basically all five-man content.
I took multiple toons into a few T4/T5 raids, but the guild was rather casual and not really that good of a progression guild; didn't really go anywhere as a boxer.
A few ten-boxers ran quite a bit of the content.
Not sure of anyone doing 10/25 man stuff for Cataclysm, not saying there isn't either.
I've not done any PvE content, aside from the leveling up, this expansion.

Hunters are a fun class; if you think they're worth trying, then try them.
I'd probably build two five-man groups, if I were to attempt 10-man content.
Basically Tank + Healers + 3x DPS; that could be multiple Hunters.
Multi-role toons might be best, in that they can be both Tank/DPS or Healer/DPS toons.
Not saying ten Hunters won't work, nor trying to discourage you from running with it.

[dancook]

Originally Posted by ShasVa

1) How do you keep up the hobby financially? I don't care for exact specifics (it's your life, your privacy). I'm just curious. Me, I'm unemployed and living with the parents still. Sad as it might be, it seems to be common in this century.

I have a decent enough job, own house (mortgage) and understanding girlfriend who I intend to keep for life.

2) How do you keep your interest? I'm talking about motivation with this as well. Short of mass-RAF, the leveling must be quite slow, even when taking only the "kill X" or "go talk to Y" quests.

It's not always easy, just mix it up with questing, dungeons and maybe a few battlegrounds. Then I just want to get to level 85 ASAP with my mages.. I do have an addictive personality.

3) Has any multiboxer tried to take on any Cataclysm-level content? Everything from the Cata dungeons to Heroic Firelands. Seems to me that maybe you'd need to be as committed as that guy who 36-boxed Shamans that one time. Though I'm not sure even he could snot Deathwing when 4.3 hits.

Cata dungeons (normal) are no problem, I have no completed any heroics because the odd boss becomes a brick wall that sucks at my morale. For example (heroic) the last boss of vortex pinnacle - I invariable mistime the jump and it's a long corpse run, frustrating. I have been enjoying running each character one at a time through Zul though - my tank is ilvl 361 now

I haven't played hunters

[SethLan]

I almost quit wow, few months ago, (playing wow since vanilla) but than I decided to give it a shot and start boxing, I created RAF accounts. I thought my first team would be 5x locks at level 20 I decided to switch to hunters, got them up to level 73, than I created shamans I push them fast to 80 before my RAF was about to expire. from 81 to 85 wasn't that bad i solo'd some regular non heroic cata instances. (no tank, no healer) My focus is PvP.

paying for 5x is not that much, First i thought thats aLOT! but than i realized how much money I wasted on car parts, cars i owned and modded. I dont buy any games, i dont play console games my PS3 slim is catching dust, i'm saving tons of money right there... I call this cheap hobby.

I did solo bunch of BC, WOTLK(roic) instances. lots of gold made ( i have no proffesions on my toons)

5x hunters would be sick, can you go firelands? no. can you get gear and solo roic 5man instances as hunter? i dont see any problem, 5x arcane mages can solo them. Can i solo on my 5x shamans? not with my S10 pvp gear

If you wanna go PVE, tank and heals would be great,

1 tank 1 heal 3x hunters would rock. You can go BM on 3x hunters and let the pet eat everything.

I'm working on 5x Mages now, just because I'm almost done with shamans gear for pvp.

[Prepared]

1) How do you keep up the hobby financially? I don't care for exact specifics (it's your life, your privacy). I'm just curious. Me, I'm unemployed and living with the parents still. Sad as it might be, it seems to be common in this century.

I have a good job that requires a college education to do. It pays the bills and allows me to multibox 40 characters on good hardware. I have an abundance of extra cash each month so the hobby doesn't really take up that much money even with 40 characters.

2) How do you keep your interest? I'm talking about motivation with this as well. Short of mass-RAF, the leveling must be quite slow, even when taking only the "kill X" or "go talk to Y" quests.

I mostly do PvP in battlegrounds. I don't like to level up too much these days. My only leveling is when the next expansion is released or I need to add to my team. In that case, I will use RAF, put them in a guild and get the heirlooms to level faster.

3) Has any multiboxer tried to take on any Cataclysm-level content? Everything from the Cata dungeons to Heroic Firelands. Seems to me that maybe you'd need to be as committed as that guy who 36-boxed Shamans that one time. Though I'm not sure even he could snot Deathwing when 4.3 hits.

I've not done very much Cataclysm dungeons really. Although I can raid everything by using my top 25 characters, I don't really see the challenge in a fixed dungeon. I like the dynamic of a PvP 40 man battle. :-)

4) Hunters are an interest of mine, even now when I've become bored of the game (again). If one Hunter can allegedly solo older content, would it be reasonable to theorise that 10+ Hunters could take on Cataclysm content, and survive?

10 of any class will not be good at most dungeons that match the level of the players characters. The reason is because of different challenges in the dungeon that require different classes for different situations such as crowd control, healing, etc at the right times.

I'm asking all of this out of sheer curiosity. I'd love to raid if I had a decent guild to raid with. Sadly however, that has never happened, as I'm not as elitist as many of the other WoW players out there. So multi-boxing a large bunch of toons (Hunters in this case, my current fav class) would be the only alternative.

I would highly recommend using a multiboxing team of different classes instead of one. With different classes, you have a broad range of tactics that can be used to handle any situation. Of course, this requires extra thought in how hot-keys are configured and which to press for heals, dps, tanking, etc. You may even go so far as to have specific healers target specific tanks when you press a key so they all get healed correctly while fighting a boss that requires more than one tank.

[Unca]

Originally Posted by ShasVa

1) How do you keep up the hobby financially?

$75 to $150 a month is not a huge amount, I have a number of bills that are as much or more. My cable bill is more than $150 a month. I am lucky enough to have a good job that pays well for a company that has weathered the recent economic downturn very well.

2) How do you keep your interest?

I take breaks every now and then, and I run at a fairly casual pace these days. No raids, no guild groups, no PUGs. Just my own characters at my own pace, mostly world quests with occasional low-level dungeons. I could not play WOW regularly any more, even if I had the time to do so. After seven years there's not much that could make the game feel fresh or new, to be honest.

3) Has any multiboxer tried to take on any Cataclysm-level content?

I haven't. I know some players are doing very well in Cata 5-mans (including heroics) with mixed groups, and one or two are clearing them with mage teams. There is usually some class that happens to work very well like that. Used to be shaman, these days it is mages and paladins.

4) Hunters are an interest of mine, even now when I've become bored of the game (again). If one Hunter can allegedly solo older content, would it be reasonable to theorise that 10+ Hunters could take on Cataclysm content, and survive?

I doubt it, I don't think their pets would last long enough to allow them to burn down bosses. They might be able to handle packs of mobs depending on spec and abilities (Wyvern Sting).

My advice- if you're just after a well-geared group of characters, you will want to create a mixed group. You don't need five different classes, but you'll need to cover all of the roles. Druids and paladins can "natively" handle the roles of tank, DPS, and healer. A tank and four shaman can work well also (three elemental, one resto). You can look into the talents and abilities of various classes and see what you think would work best for you.