Square One – A Beginners Multiboxer Guide to World of Warcraft  | read this item

1. Intro
a. Requirements

2. Glossary of useful terms

3. Pros and Cons of Boxxing

4. Methods of control
a. Generic Macros
b. Assist
c. Focus
d. NoFocus
e. FTL

5. Summary

So you want to box? Welcome to the club! It’s an exciting alternative method of gameplay that will introduce you to more challenges than you can imagine!

Requirements.

Accounts.

You’ll need multiple accounts. There is no way to play 2 characters on the same acct at the same time. Yes you will need to pay for all of them, regardless if it’s 2 or 25.

A Method of Keystroke Duplication.

There is a plethora of keystroke duplication methods available.

Hardware Duplication

Hardware duplication can be done via use of KVM devices which have a broadcast mode, Vectra multiplexers are very popular for those who choose to hardware box as well.

Software Duplication

Software duplication involves running an application on 1 or more PC’s. If multiple machines are involved, one of these is typically a master/server, while the remaining are slaves/clients. They communicate via the local network. If 1 PC is used, the application captures all keystrokes and instead of delivering them to only the currently active window, delivers it to all windows previously dictated within the application. These applications also tend to have a method of launching multiple games at once, easing the startup process.

Hardware.

You will need a computer or computers capable of running multiple copies of WoW. Some people choose to run 1 copy of WoW per machine, others run multiple copies of WoW on 1 machine. What you decide depends on what keystroke duplication method you have chosen.

Note: The Keystroke Duplication method you choose is not the deciding factor on your hardware, and vice versa. Unless you have the funds and desire to start from scratch, the best place to start regarding making this decision is by reviewing what you have on hand now.

Hardware Pros:
There is no software (“3rd party application” in typical EULA-speak) for you to be banned/penalized for.
With no software, no software can crash.

Hardware Cons:
It’s on all the time.
There’s no method of not passing selected keys. You pass everything.

Software Pros:
Typically very configurable, there are many options that are not available to hardware keystroke duplication.

Software Cons:
It can be viewed as a “3rd party application”, causing you to be banned/penalized depending on your game.
If it fails, your crew is standing there dumbfounded.

Big Button – Typically this refers to a single button which resets your toons to a default configuration, and for following.
Driver – Your “main” character for your team. Typically used to describe the character in which you give primary input.
Failover – The ability to switch from 1 toon to another and maintain control (from limited to complete) of the remainder of your toons. The best example of this when your driver dies.
Keymap – A method of “redirecting” keystrokes. Example: Pressing 1 on WoW1, would be redirected to a keystroke of 2 on WoW2, WoW3, and WoW4.
Macro – A function within World of Warcraft which permits the end user to customize commands
Master – An alternate term for Driver.
Multiboxer – Someone who plays multiple characters on multiple accounts at the same time
Multiplexer – Any device which duplicates input, whether that be to multiple application or multiple computers.
Slave – Characters which take their cues regarding movement, combat, and all other activities from the Driver or Master
Team – Your group of characters.
Toon – An alternate word for Character

Why is knowing the pros and cons of boxing important before we even get into learning how to box? New boxers sometimes don’t understand the hidden pitfalls, and can get into the habit of doing things that are ultimately hazardous. Hopefully this will produce a lot of “A-HAH I understand why it’s done that way” moments.

Pros:
THIS IS FUN!
Grouping - You don’t need to find as many people to group with – Less or No Pugging.
Space - 2/3/4/5 the bagspace, vaultspace, availability for additional professions.
2/3/4/5 times the damage. *disclaimer* – you will not be capable of doing any more damage than multiple individual players could.
Focus Fire – You ever have that 1 DPS warrior in that PUG who was completely unable to assist anyone?
Variety – You can do things single players can’t by themselves! *disclaimer* – you will not be capable of doing any activities that multiple individual players could not also do.

Cons:
Cost – in more ways than 1. Real world expenses – You have more physical hardware, you have electrical expenses, and you have more accounts to pay for. In game expenses – You have 2/3/4/5 x the toons to gear up, 2/3/4/5 the repair bill.
Loss of Detail – You will only have as much functionality as you put time into developing. You will almost never attain the detailed level of control as 5 individual players.
Reduced Level of Control: You will have reduced level of physical control of your slaves. You will only have detailed control of your driver.
Time – To be successful at boxing you will need to invest TIME into your team. Boxing is NOT an express lane to leveling 5 guys quickly. Typically it takes LONGER. Unless you choose to invest 5x the time into collection quests, you can write off collection quests. Luckily, you can grind instances.
Harassment: YOU WILL GET REPORTED. There is no if’s ands or but’s about this. The flipside of this is, it’s legal. As long as you are in control of your toons, you aren’t doing anything wrong.

Regarding claims that boxers do this for profit:

My numbers may be a little off, but the point is easily made

Base Cost: $100 for 5 Wow, $150 for 5x BC, another $150 for WOLK, $75 (1 month membership x 5) – $475

If it took someone 10 days played to level 5 accounts to 80, and sold each for $300 each, he’d make $4.27/hr ($1500-475=$1025/240 hours). The current US Federal minimum wage is $7.25/hr.

Methods of Control

*Important Note* – Regardless of what method of control you choose, keep this in mind as a base rule: If, when you leave your desk, your toons do anything at all (other than in game functions) – It’s BAD. If you have any question regarding the legality of your setup, ASK SOMEONE.

Generic Macros.

If you choose not to use a boxing addon, these macros will assist you managing some of the more mundane tasks.

Group invites – Set Loot Method

/invite toon1name
/invite toon2name
/invite toon3name
/invite toon4name
/ffa

For accepting trades, quests, BG timers, release after death, assign this to the same key on all your toons.

/script Setview(5);Setview(5)
/script AcceptGroup();
/script AcceptQuest();
/script AcceptTrade();
/script RetrieveCorpse();
/script RepopMe();
/script AcceptBattlefieldPort(1, 1)

There are other commands that can be included in this generic “Accept” key, I’ve highlighted the more popular ones in the above listed macro.

The Assist Method

This is fairly simple. 2 macros can illustrate how this works.

The big button:

/target MainToon
/follow

Spellcasting:

/assist Maintoon
/cast InsertSpellHere

Most boxers begin with this – it’s extremely simple and gets you out of the gate really fast. The downside is there is no failover. If you main guy dies, you’re stuck with your slaves casting on the last target targeted, and no more. Boxers typically very quickly veer away from this method for the following (and more complicated) alternatives, as the negatives of this method become clear very fast.

The Focus Method

This fundamental philosophy behind the focus method is your slaves take their cues off of whomever they have focused. This is a widely used method.

The big button for this is relatively simple

/target Maintoon
/focus
/follow

DPS and casting is typically as such

/cast [target=focustarget, harm] [] Pewpewpew

The [] is for when the driver is dead, and your slave becomes the new driver/main.

The easiest way to facilitate failover is the assignment of manual keys for the new driver – i.e.: Toon1 dies, switch to Toon2’s window, click F2 (or whichever key you have assigned to switch all toons focus to the second toon)

The macro would be:

/target Toon2
/focus
/follow

Now the second toon is the leader. Rinse and repeat regarding macro creation for the remainder of your toons.

The No Focus Method

With the No Focus method, your slaves take their cues off of whoever they currently have targeted.

The big button for this method comes in 2 variants. The initial, less complicated variant operats as such:

/target [target=Brain, nodead, help, exists]; [target=Toon2, nodead, help, exists]; [target=Toon3, nodead, help, exists]; [target=Toon4, nodead, help, exists]; [target=Brain, exists]
/follow

Translated:

/target [target=Main guy if he's alive]; [target=#2 if he's alive]; [target=#3 if he's alive]; [target=#4 if he's alive]; [target=Main guy – you’re all dead]
/follow

The negative to this method is you needed to go from toon to toon in a specific order.

A new variant was developed to counter this deficiency which involves keymaps and creates a “Psuedo FTL”. A button press is still required to re-align everyone to the correct toon, but it doesn’t require a specific order.

For this method the big button is as follows:

/target Maintoon
/follow

Regardless of which version you choose to select, with this method your slave never actually target the mob. DPS and casting macros typically appear as follows

/cast [target=targettarget, harm] [] Pewpewpew

As with the focus method, the [] is for when the driver is dead, and your slave becomes the new driver.

For more information regarding this method please Google “No Focus Manifesto”. The newest version with the Pseudo FTL is version 2.0.

The FTL Method

Of all the methods listed, FTL is the most complicated and requires massive amounts of setup. Some 3rd party software has had some success in automating the FTL setup process, but knowledge of how it works is absolutely required. FTL stands for Focusless, Targetless, Leaderless. It utilizes the strengths of hotkeys to minimize input. Simply put, regardless of what window you’re in, there is nothing you ever need to press to cause a failover to the current toon. All toons assist the current controlled toon.

The macro for the big button using the FTL method appear as follows:

/target [mod:ctrl,mod:shift,nomod:alt,target=ToonA]
[mod:ctrl,mod:alt,nomod:shift,target=ToonB]
[mod:alt,mod:shift,nomod:ctrl,target=ToonC]
[mod:ctrl,mod:alt,mod:shift,target=ToonD]
[mod:ctrl,nomod:alt,nomod:shift,target=ToonE]
/cast [target=targettarget,harm] Lightning Bolt
/targetlasttarget

Additionally, you need to write keymaps for every spell you wish to use.

For more information regarding this method control, I recommend you Google “focusless targetless leaderless”.

Summary

Multiboxing is an exciting and challenging alternative form of gameplay. If you’re up to the task, prepare yourself for many hours of research, experimentation, research, macro writing, research, machine upgrades, research and ultimately fun! (followed by more research).

I hope this has been helpful, and thank you for your time.