Martha.net

Patch Baby Patch!

Alright, so compared to the coming Cataclysm it’s not that big a change, but there are some serious updates to the basic mechanics for most classes — which is why I’ve put off posting until I had a chance to sit down and sort things out.

Thankfully I was able to download the patch on my solo play installation of WoW and then copy the patch files over to my leader and follower installations.

The temporary loss of X-Perl UnitFrames means I’ll have to go back to using the default UI for the party screens, but hopefully that will be temporary. Still, there were a lot of addon updates (WoWInterface AddOn Survival Guide (Patch 4.0.1)), so I’m glad I waited the few extra days before trying to dual-box again.

Nothing like a patch to break everything! Continue reading →

The Foursome of DOOM

I was taking stock of the blog this week and realized I’ve wandered off a bit from where I wanted to be with it. While I had planned on the various ‘what I learned today’ posts from my own leveling, I meant to focus more on helpful content for other folks just beginning to dual-box themselves. When I started out I had a hard time finding good guides on how to play and what skills and talents were more effective than others.

Which is not to say there aren’t good guides out there… I just couldn’t find them. Most of the multi-boxing websites focus on five man teams, which are amazing to watch, but I just don’t have that kind of bankroll. $30 a month is more or less my limit for money I’m willing to spend (unless I can find a way to make the hobby pay for itself! *daydreams*) Continue reading →

Now that’s a phrase you probably won’t hear most World of Warcraft players uttering, but I’ve found myself avoiding playing my pairs because I hated the speed of the leveling. One of the things I really wanted to do with this website is provide an in-depth walk-through of how to play the various pairs and this took me out of the newbie zones so quickly I ended up skipping a good 80%-90% of the quests.

Plus while I got a chance to play in some of the Random Dungeons early on, I’ve been leery of stepping back into them because my DPS isn’t anywhere near where it should be. If I pull one of the dungeons on the upper end of my range… bad things would most likely happen.

But now that the 90 days are over and the ‘benefits’ have expired, I have a chance to sit back, rearrange things, and get my macros and dual-boxing skills (and these posts) up to where they need to be!

So there will be some new posts this week as I sit down and start hammering my roughshod playing method into something a bit more polished.

I’ve been a bit stumped trying to come up with a replacement for Stringtheory, so I decided to play around a bit with the new account.

Pattern – Recognition

Because I am a geek (and I love druids) I started a new pair of Night Elves named Pattern and Recognition. So far no one has gotten the joke– or even noticed. Although Recognition is the Lead and Pattern is the Follow, so maybe I need to swap them around. I’ve only ever gotten comments on the fact that I am dual-boxing when I have to explain that they need to stop whispering my Follow. Why I have so much trouble convincing people it’s just me, I have no idea.

I started these two with a goal of turning them both into Boomchickens later in life, but since it’s easier to level as feral, I may have to see if I can macro the insanity that is the feral rotation. If not, I’ll level them as a mix of healing and DPS (queue one as heals and one as DPS and do some of both on each). It should be interesting to see what kind of macros I can come up with!

The lure of trying tank-tank (queue as Tank-DPS) with two bears is also amusing… at least I know I’d never lose aggro!

Katessa – Aamira

Whilst thinking of a name for a frost mage, I was looking over my other toons trying to figure out what else would be fun to try. I have a lot of alts and I figured since most of them are low level I should be able to catch up quickly. The lowest level toon was a mighty level 7 warrior named Katessa… that I had stopped playing because she just wasn’t as interesting to play as the other DPS classes. Well, now I’ve got a whole account worth of interesting to add into the mix!

So I started a new Paladin with the goal of going either Holy or Ret depending on how hard it is to match up the two fighting styles. Amazingly by the time Katessa hit 13, Aamira hit 11. (It helped that all I was doing was Aamira’s quests, but still!) So now I have a pair of melee fighter with a little bit of tank and a little bit of heals. I’ve hit the point where I really need to sit down and figure out the best way to macro and keybind everything. Unlike Pattern and Recognition, these two have completely different abilities that I have to meld together. Should be fun!

As I work my way through building more useful macros, I figured it couldn’t hurt to do a quick overview of the various commands and scripts I am using. While I get most of my information from the WoWWiki, I’ve found that it sometimes it’s easier to keep my own notes on how (and sometimes why) macro and script commands work. These posts will be broken down into ‘like kind’ groupings, or into individual posts depending on how I’m using the information.

Target

A target is the PC or NPC that is currently has been selected by the player. Spells and attacks are used on your current target, so using the command /target in a macro allows you to select a specific PC or NPC.

Target can also be strung together to target the thing your target is targeting (targettarget) or the thing your target’s target’s target is targeting (targettargettarget) and so on. I haven’t been able to find anything that says just how many targets you can string together, but I can’t think of a situation where you’d ever need to go further than three hops.

As an example:

/target Stringtheory

Would set my current target to Stringtheory so that I could heal or buff her.

/target targettarget

Would set my current target to whatever Stringtheory is targeting (assuming that I had first targeted Stringtheory), allowing me to attack or buff the NPC or PC.

/target targettargettarget

Would set my current target to whatever is being attacked by the mob Stringtheory is targeting. Which could be good if I want to buff or bandage the party member that the mob is currently beating on (which would hopefully be the tank!)

/target targettargettargettarget

Would just set my target back on the mob that Stringtheory was attacking… unless the other character in the group was attacking something else. This is the point where I just don’t think it’s a very useful to chain this far.

TargetParty

A good way to target party members for buffing is to use /targetparty, which starts with the first member of the party and every time the macro is pressed, targets the next party member. You can also select specific party members by using /target party1 (or party2, party3, party4– which are similar to the F1 through F5 keys, except the numbering starts with F2).

Assist

This set’s your target to the target of the person or UnitID you have listed.

/assist Stringtheory

Would set Overdraft’s target to whatever Stringtheory has targeted.

/assist focus

Would set Overdraft’s target to her Focus’s target (who may or may not be Stringtheory)

/target Stringtheory
/target targettarget

Would do the same thing, but with a lot more characters. Since there is a 250 character limit, we want to use whatever we can to cut down on the length!

Focus

Focus is a way to ‘remember’ a target. While you can’t affect a focus directly, you can target your focus or use “focus” as an identifier in scripts.

/focus Stringtheory

Would set my focus to Stringtheory, but would not target her.

/focus Stringtheory
/target focus

Would set my focus to Stringtheory and then target her. Once the focus is set, it will remain the same until you /focus something else or use /clearfocus to set it back to null.

This macro is used by the following toon to do a wide variety of tasks. I’ve tried to put as many of the generic things in this macro as I can, without running into conflicts. So far it’s working as intended, although I haven’t had a chance to try out all the functions.

KitchenSink Macro (On) – Follower

/follow Overdraft
/script AcceptGroup();
/script AcceptQuest();
/script RetrieveCorpse();
/script RepopMe();
/script ConfirmSummon();
/script AcceptProposal();

KitchenSink Macro (Off) – Follow

/script CancelDuel();
/script StaticPopup_Hide("PARTY_INVITE");
/script StaticPopup_Hide("QUEST_ACCEPT");

I ended up splitting this macro into two parts because it got too long. This one is a modified catchall macro I got from the Multiboxing macros post on WoWWiki. I took what they had and then started adding in everything else I could think of. This will most likely be weeded or split out later. This macro:

1. This sets Stringtheory to follow Overdraft
2. Accepts a Group invite
3. Accepts a Quest
4. Resurrects when close enough to a corpse
5. Releases from a corpse into the graveyard that is my oft-time home
6. Accepts a Summon
7. Accepts a Random Dungeon invite

1. Cancels a Duel invite
2. Hides the Group Invite window
3. Hide the Quest window

Instant Party (Just add mages!) – Leader

/invite Stringtheory
/script SetLootMethod("freeforall", "Overdraft");

When I start up the accounts I hit this and then KitchenSink and I’m good to go. I’ll most likely add in things that set the Focus or whatnot, but for now I’m starting simple.

The one thing you learn very very quickly while playing in the Dungeon Finder is that you had better come with at least a full stack of food and drink (and sometimes more than a full stack, if you happen to pull Wailing Caverns (hereafter refereed to as “Good God, Will this ever END?!?” ). So it behooves you to grab some macros that will keep your pair fed.

FUDS NAO – Leader & Follower (Mages only)

The one thing that makes the mages’ constant dying tolerable is the ability to sit my butt down at every single available moment and stuff my face with conjured foodstuffs. Which depending on the group can either be ‘never’ or ‘after every pull.’ Amusingly it’s one of the few things that clues other players in that I’m dual-boxing (ie: “Something isn’t right about those two…”) The following is a must have macro, even when I’m playing solo!

/cast [modifier:alt] Conjure Food; Conjure Water

When I hold down alt the macro casts Conjure Food, when I don’t it casts Conjure Water. Since my gals eat and drink in tandem I start out casting two of each and then keeping track of munchie numbers with Overdraft’s UI. I do trade away food some times, but it’s harder than you’d think to make low levels folks gnosh on the run.

Feed Me Seymour – Leader & Follower

(Otherwise known as the OM NOM NOM macro, but I figured I’m only allowed to use LOLcat once…)

/use <Name of Drink>
/use <Name of Food>

Will make your toon eat and drink at the same time. Since the mages create their food as needed, I use both for them. Alternately you could set up the macro to only do both if you press ALT. Just put the modifier in front of the action you do not want as the default.

/use <Name of Drink>
/use [modifier:alt] <Name of Food>

or

/use [modifier:alt] <Name of Drink>
/use <Name of Food>

So for my pair of mages, the macro would look like this:

/use Conjured Fresh Water
/use Conjured Muffin

If you want to have a macro that uses foods in a specific hierarchy (use this until I run out, then use that) you would set it up thusly:

/use Conjured Fresh Water
/use Refreshing Spring Water
/use Conjured Muffin
/use Spiced Wolf Meat
/use Charred Wolf Meat

Alternately, if you want to stay away from naming the foods, you can simply keep the food in a specific bag slot (easier to do with bag-related addons turned off). If you were to keep the food and drink in the top left slots in your backpack, you would use this:

/use 0 1
/use 0 2

Bags are numbered 0-4 from right to left, with the backpack being 0. The slots in each bag are numbered (starting at 1) from left to right, beginning with the leftmost slot on the top row. This is pretty simple for the smaller pouches, but as you work your way up you may find it’s easier to specify the name of the munchies than bag slots. Personally I really like my bag addons and am happy to just update the name when I learn a new spell. (I also have a Tailoring main and thus my alts have way too much bagspace for their levels)

Keyclone is the program that I use in order to pass commands to both open WoW windows. I picked it mainly on the basis of the recommendations on the Dual-Boxing.com forums and the fact that it sounded like the easiest of the available options. Compared to some of the setups folks are running, my needs are pretty darned basic. (For other options, check out the Multiboxing entry over at WoWWiki or the Software entry over at Dual-Boxing.com’s wiki).

I downloaded the trial version and then forked over the $19.99 fee when the trial ended. I’d encourage people to give the trial a try before buying. From the feedback on the forums, not everyone likes using Keyclone as compared to the multitude of other options. But for me it was definitely the best $20 I’ve spent on WoW outside of the vanity pets!

I set up the program back when I started the baby mages (and other various alts than never went anywhere) so I’m going to have to hunt down the various tutorials I used. I could just wipe out all the settings and start over… but I am a lazy mage-runner.

The most obvious link is going to be the Keyclone tutorial from the Solid Ice website and the entry on the Dual-Boxing.com wiki. They are basically the same thing, the only bonus to the Wiki is that folks can edit it if they so desire.

The tutorial on the Solid Ice website has step-by-step instructions, with accompanying screenshots, and walks you through installing and setting up of multiple accounts. It also shows you two very simple macros, but the tutorial is more focused on the program than the game.

The Wiki on Dual-Boxing.com is slightly more helpful, but not overly. For the most part they seems to have just copied the Solid Ice tutorial over into the wiki (abet without having to click on the graphics to make them legible). I’m tempted to sit down and expand it in to a more useful entry when I get the time.

So, for the moment, I’d recommend hitting YouTube and just doing a search for Keyclone. There are a lot of videos out there, most of them are easier to follow and more in depth than the Solid Ice tutorial.

I’m keeping an eye out while I work and if I see something more useful I’ll make sure to post and update. I’m sort of planning on writing my own tutorial at some point (or expanding the Wiki to where it is actually useful), but that’s not as high on the list right now as getting to actually play my poor idling mages.

If anyone has any suggestions for links, please let me know!

While I was starting to play around with the settings in WoW it occurred to me that things would be much easier if I only had to do everything once. Since I currently use the same WoW folder to play Overdraft and Stringtheory and my Main (and other alts) some of changes I make would have to be undone and redone every time I switched from dual-boxing to running solo.

So I decided to make things easier on everyone involved and just copy the WoW folder three times. That way Overdraft and Stringtheory get their own installs (and settings) and the rest of my Guild of Alts would get to keep their normal settings.

Because WoW has some really gorgeous graphics and I want them turned up when I can!

So anywho, we’ll see if the ’3 Wow folders’ idea will work… news at 11.

Stringtheory and Overdraft

I started dual-boxing a bit back, just so I could have some extra firepower for those first few squishy levels of Mage-dom. When Stringtheory and Overdraft got big enough for the new Dungeon Finder, they went their separate ways. It was easier to play them individually, although not really as much fun, but I figured running dungeons as a pair would be a headache.

Except that running dungeons in general tends to be a headache. (Any PUG is better than no PUG, but only if you stretch the idea of ‘a learning experience’ to include prima donnas, people who drop group without warning, and folks who do their level best to make sure everyone else is miserable.)

Now I’m starting to think that these two might have a future as a team… (at least it drops the chance of bad PUGmates to 3-in-5 instead of 4-in-5). So it’s time to dust off Keyclone and see if I can’t make this work.

Since this is basically a ‘learn as you go’ blog, I’ll be putting all the notes on talents, glyphs, Keyclone settings, etc on here as I find them. Mostly likely things will change as I find new and better ways to make dual-boxing work (or just how not to be a Fail!Mage) and I welcome any comments or suggestions.

…But comments mocking my Fail!Mage-ery without contributing anything else? Those I shall mock.