multiboxing

Everyone knows that the Recruit-A-Friend program awards triple experience for both quests and killing of mobs.  It's because of this that many people have delved into the world of dual- or multiboxing so they could quickly level alts to 70 before Wrath is released.  I've gone and called it Recruit-A-Multiboxer because it really has encouraged people to open more than one account so they can level alts quickly.  The triple experience is truly incredible and the speed at which people are leveling multiple characters is simply ludicrous.

Now that Hallow's End is upon us, anyone in the RAF program should realize that leveling has just gone from ludicrous to pure insanity!  If you're still in the dark, allow me to elaborate.

The program awards triple experience for quests turn-ins and yes that means all the quests from Hallow's End.  What I'm talking about here are the quests that are part of the three achievements obtained during Hallow's End, Tricks and Treats of: Kalimdor, Eastern Kindoms, and Outland.  Both the Horde and Alliance havve their respective requirements for these achievements, but the tasks are the same.

To obtain these achiements you are asked to visit the Candy Buckets in various Inns throughout the three continents.  Each time you visit a Candy Bucket it's like turning in a quest, and each quest gives experience!  Normally you get 2600 experience with each Candy Bucket visited.  However if you are doing these are part of the RAF program you get triple experience, . . . that's 7800 experience per Candy Bucket.    [Update/Edit: It seems that the amount of experience is dependent on the level your character is. The previous numbers were based on a level 44 character, but when that character dinged to level 45, the amount of experience wet up to 8250. I'm still investigating if this continues as one levels and whether it levels off or not, but as of right now it seems to scale with level. This makes sense as each new level brings a higher amount of experience needed to gain the next level.]

Now let's do the math real quick on what you'll get by just visiting all the Candy Buckets alone.  The total number of buckets per faction are as follows:
Tricks and Treats of Kalimdor:  16 (Alliance), 17 (Horde)
Tricks and Treats of Eastern Kingdoms:  13 (Alliance), 16 (Horde)
Tricks and Treats of Outland:  15 (Alliance), 14 (Horde)

That's a total of 44 (Alliance) and 47 (Horde) Candy Buckets at 7800 experience each, for a total of 343,200 (Alliance) and 366,600 (Horde) experience!   [Update/Edit:Again these numbers were based on the experience gained from a level 44 character and it appears to scale with level. So the total amount will naturally vary depending on level].  The amount of levels gained from this amount of experience will depend on the levels your characters are currently at, but regardless of that it's still a lot of experience.

It's a lot of running around if you don't have all the flight paths, but remember if you're in the RAF program you have one other benefit to make this easier, . . . summons.  You have the ability to summon characters in linked accounts anywhere in the World of Warcraft.  So with a high level main character it's easy to get your alts to places where they can't quite get to yet with a series of summons.  Sure there's a one hour time limit in between summons, but carefully planned over the course of Hallow's End and over all your characters, it's completely doable to get them everywhere they have to go.

So yes, Recruit-A-Friend + Hallow's End = Insane Leveling, but you don't have to be part of the RAF to still get a huge amount of experience.  Remember that each Candy Bucket normally yields 2600 experience, so even if you aren't in the program you could still benefit from the 114,400 (Alliance) or 122,200 (Horde) experience to be gained.  [Update/Edit: See previous updates/edits as to why this number will depend on your characters level].   This doesn't even include completion of the other quests available during Hallow's End, so with those included it's a lot of easy experience.

What are you waiting for?  Go visit those Candy Buckets!

[Update/Edit:]Added updates/edits above as I found out that the amount of experience gained seems to be dependent on the level of your characters..

This is the most insane thing I have ever seen, a multiboxer with 36 accounts across 11 computers! This was originally posted on the Dual-Boxing.com forums on Tuesday, but I just saw this today. His name is, Prepared, and by looking at his team and equipment rig he may just be prepared for whatever WoW has for him. He said his main focus is PvP, but he did mention that he may try 10- and 25-man raid instances.

Here's the original forum post, but head over to the Dual-Boxing.com forums as there should be some links to more screenshots and there is talk that they are trying to post up some videos!

"A lot have asked me, why create so many? The main reason is to invade Stormwind and Ironforge when they reach top level. I'm sure the Alliance will put up a big fight when that happens. We'll see how it goes. If they don't make level 70 before Wrath of the Lich King, then it will be at level 80. That is my main goal. That will probably happen after I've got some PvP gear from the battlegrounds. I'm also planning to do some 25 and 10 man raid instances but that is secondary to my PvP goal. Of course I'll be doing arenas too to build up PvP gear but I'm not expecting to do that great there because I'm way behind in gear right now. I need to get to level 70 first, then level 80 and by then I will probably have all green gear while most others have been doing the battlegrounds and arenas.

It costs me exactly $5711 in subscription costs per year with 36 accounts on the 6 month pay schedule. Not bad considering I'm looking at it like it's a hobby and there are more expensive hobbies out there than World of Warcraft. :)

32 of my shaman are level 61. One shaman that I had before I started the 32 is at level 70 along with 8 other level 70 classes that I had. My mage, priest and druid are in the center of the circle of shaman in the pictures but they are kind of hard to see. I've also got some mages and priests that I'm currently working on that are level 23. Once they are at level 31.9, I will stop working on them, get 16 of them to level 60 with the recruit-a-friend bonus levels and work on the shaman again.

When Wrath of the Lich King is released, I plan to be at the store when it opens and will purchase 36 copies of it. With tax, it should be about $1500 for all of them. Then the shaman are on their way to level 80 along with the priest, druid and mage.

By the way, I have 9 level 80 shaman created on the Murmur PvP realm in the Wrath of the Lich King beta. I mainly tried it out to see how well my computers would work as they are. With the exception of one my desktop computers, I should be fine with the hardware that I have.

I use 3 addons in the game. CT_MapMod is used to give me locations for quests, etc. ClassIcons is another addon that I use to show the class of the target. It helps for PvP encounters. Then the last addon I use is SSPVP2 which is excellent for displaying timers and other things while in the battlegrounds.

For my keys to send to all instances of WoW on my 11 computers, I use Octopus 1.3.2. Maximizer in Octopus allows me to start up all WoW instances at the same time or any individual instance such as if a WoW instance has crashed. It also allows me to shutdown all of the computers at the same time.

Here is a picture of my computer set up:

Not shown to the right is another laptop which runs 3 copies that I just moved there. The keyboard on the right was moved to the top shelf there as I don't really use that keyboard while playing. I have macros that set my main assist/cast/follow. Any of the eight screens to the front can be set to main assist/cast/follow as my mouse scrolls to them all using Octopus."

We're at an odd time for players of the World of Warcraft. The interlude between expansions where game activity has either slowed or stopped completely while people wait in eager anticipation. It's a time where many individuals and guilds have decided to stop pushing or progressing through the (soon to be) old content and either just settle on preparing for the expansion (saving materials or gold) or just stop playing all together. Sure there are those that are still pushing on, and those that are in the beta and actively progressing through new content, but for the most part things have definitely slowed down.

Though it's a slower time in the game, it doesn't have to be boring. I personally believe this interlude is a perfect time to try out new things. Go ahead and try a new spec, a new class, a different race, or even learn what it's like on the "other" side and hop factions. It's a perfect time to do all the things that you didn't have time to do before and you definitely won't have time to do when the Wrath of the Lich King comes out.

I've been dual boxing Team DoubleD for the past few weeks and they are one quest turn-in away from 60. My intent was to level two healing types, but along the way I realized that Pally tanking is actually pretty fun. So I got to thinking about what it would be like to try playing a tanking class? I've been a hunter and to some extent a priest for most of my WoW career. I've never really considered a tanking class and every time I tried one I just couldn't do it for very long. I think the highest I ever got a tank (warrior) was level 18, I couldn't even get him to 20. I just found that I had so much I wanted to do with my hunter main, Ziv, that other things fell into the "only if time" category.

I know when Wrath comes out there will be the mad dash to 80 as well as relearning to play the class again incorporating in all the new changes. There's new content to experience and explore, new skills and talents to master, and once you hit 80 possibly progressing though the new end game raids. That doesn't even take into consideration leveling an alt to 80 if you have more than one 70, or even a new Death Knight to 80. There's going to be so much to do. Who will seriously have the time to try out a new class, or level a new alt, or try the "other" side? I know I won't for a while, so now is the perfect time to try new things!

What I've done is went ahead and rolled up a new Dwarf warrior and will give that a chance (at least I'll try to get past level 18). I've also rolled up a new Dwarf priest to accompany my warrior through Azeroth (dual boxed). But wait, didn't I just level a new priest as part of Team DoubleD? Well yes I did, and I realized that I'm not the hugest fan of Dranei priests. I'm sure they make great priests, but basically I'm just not a fan. If this was any other time I wouldn't even think about re-rolling an alt of a class that I already have at a decently high level, but like I said, now is the perfect time to do so!

So take advantage of this interlude because you may not get another chance at it again for a while.

Last night I finally joined the "Recruit-A-Friend" (RAF) program and let me tell you that the speed of leveling is amazing. No, let me rephrase that, . . it's absolutely ludicrous.

Though the triple experience from killing mobs is nice, it's nothing compared to the triple experience from turning in quests. Since running Team DoubleD as a RAF pair, I was amazed that they had leveled from 37 to 39 from just turning in a few quests that I had already completed.

Following through on my idea and plan from yesterday, I jumped on to one of my dual boxed teams, Team DoubleD, and just stared in puzzlement.  It's been over a month since I last logged on to this team and I believe I forgot what to do.  Glancing back and forth between the Paladin and the Priest screens, I was a little lost.  I knew the basics of what I should be doing, but I didn't quite remember the specifics of what I had set up in my UIs and what all the buttons in my Action Bars were for? 

I continued staring at the two screens trying to decipher what it all meant.  Like hieroglyphics the icons in those Action Bars remained a mystery.  What are these cryptic names like "Pa1", "Pa2", "Pa3"?  What the hell does that macro button "NfH" do exactly?  Why is it when I hit the "1" key nothing happens?  Now why did hitting the "2" key make my character do that? 

A sinking feeling came over me and I realized, . . . oh my god, I've been re-noobed!

My dual-boxing skills reduced to confusion, my workflow and routines gone, my macros were useless. I couldn't believe it, I am a noob once more.

The thing with dual- or multiboxing is one of routine and coordination.  Some level of coordination whether it be between you and your hardware or your characters to each other is definitely required, and setting up routines are a big part of that. 

I have a very simple start up routine when I log on to any of my teams and it allows me to quickly get ready to adventure and quest. I use to have a routine when I engaged mobs to fight them, and had macros to help with coordinating attacks and the occassional heal or bubble when things got rough. But apparently I had forgotten all that.

Since I've gone through a re-noobification, it's best that I start from scratch and restablish my routines again. Perhaps I'll even get around to writing about my set up and how I'm doing it.

Lately I've neglected playing any of my multi-boxed teams. I believe the last time I got on to any of them was when Patch 2.4 was released and I got the level 30 mounts for Team DoubleD. Wow, has it been over a month already?

I haven't given up on those teams, I just got into doing other things. The distraction actually began in mid-July when I checked Team DoubleD into an Inn to get some rest so I could have some rested XP when I resumed. So I hopped back over to my hunter, Ziv, and it was at that time that I started the endeavor for that Frostsaber mount. I also joined a new guild that I enjoy the company of and have been doing instances with them and gearing up the core group.

We've slowed down a bit on the instances and I've been getting anxious to run the teams once again. To get back into it, I'm going to participate in the "Recruit-A-Multiboxer" program but haven't done so yet. It turns out the with the "Recruit-A-Friend" program there is a serendipitous benefit to having Team DD resting in that Inn for so long. So here's my idea and plan.

The idea is to play Team DD and use up their rested (double) XP before changing over to the "Recruit-A-Friend" program. Why would I first use up the double experience gains when I could get triple experience from being in the program immediately? Well, it's to get even more double XP. Confused yet?

Everyone knows that participating in "Recruit-A-Friend" will yield triple experience from killing mobs and quest turn ins. Participating in it also means that any rested XP your characters have already or gains while in the program will not be consumed. So that means the rested XP bonus will be waiting there for when the program finishes (either by hitting 60, or by reaching the 90 day limit).

If the characters are already capped with rested XP (like Team DD should be for being in that Inn for so long), they won't gain any new rested XP. See where I'm getting at? Use the double XP now to get more double XP later. Pretty nice huh? But why should I do that when I should be able to get to 70 within those 90 days right? True, but I also want to use the program bonuses on several teams that I'd like to level all the way to 70, and since the triple XP gains ends when my team gets to level 60, the rested XP is just a nice additional bonus. So basically I'm just leveraging it so I could take maximum advantage of the program.

So that's the idea at least, the plan is to play Team DD for a few more days until my second account is due to have it's subscription renewed. Then I'll be able to "recruit" myself and start reaping the new benefits. So it's double XP now, and double XP later, with a lot of triple XP thrown into the middle.

If Blizzard's new "Recruit-A-Friend" program doesn't scream dual- or multiboxing then I don't know what does. Though this program is actually designed to get new people into the World of Warcraft, the benefits of this program can't be ignored by any current or would-be multiboxer.

The one thing that completely sticks out from the FAQ is:

"While adventuring with your linked friend/family member, you will each gain triple experience."

Allow me to emphasize that again. Triple Experience when grouped with your linked "friend". That's triple experience from killing mobs as well as quest experience! Talk about leveling fast. This triple experience while grouped with your friend will last for 90 days.

There are other benefits as well such as the ability to summon each other from anywhere in the game, and also the ability for your friend to grant one level of experience to one of your low-level character. You will also get an exclusive Zhevra mount.

Naturally there are some limitations to the program. Your "friend" will need to upgrade to the full game past the 10-day trial for an additional 60 days, but if you want the full benefit of the 90 days of triple experience you'll want to at least keep it active for that time.

The multiboxing community is already abuzz about this new program, and many are taking advantage of it. A few community members have weighed the cost-benefit of transferring their existing characters to newly "recruited" accounts and have determined that it's a small additional expenditure to a potentially large benefit.

So if you were ever on the fence about dual- or multiboxing, this could be the big push to have you give it a try. I mean think about it, there is no better way to quickly level new characters.

I know I'm going to be taking advantage of this seemingly ridiculous offer, will you?

[Update] Blue poster Syndri has some Q&A posts on the Official Forums that will answer a lot more questions than the FAQ itself. The thread is quite long but Syndri is very active in it and really does attempt to answer as many questions as possible. So take a look as your questions may have already been answered. The Q&A part begins here, is continued here, here, and here.

When I first started dual boxing a couple months ago and was looking to join a guild, I wondered if it was better to disclose up front with the GM that I dual box or just let it be. I came to the conclusion that it was probably still better to just be up front with the GM as to avoid any troubles down the road.

Well it seems this isn't such a huge issue after all and I was probably just being paranoid since I was new to the whole multiboxing thing. I just joined a new guild and there were no problems. I joined with my main, then followed up with a simultaneous request from Team DoubleD. I did the obligatory mention in guild chat that I was both of them and that was that.

So perhaps no disclosure is necessary at all. However if you're multiboxing a larger team, it's more likely you and/or your GM will get comments. So it may still be better to just disclose you're a multiboxer from the beginning.

Over the weekend my Blizzard Authenticator arrived. I missed ordering one when they first became available, but was able to order one when they became available for a few hours on July 11. I believe it's a tiny price to pay for the added account security.

There are already a few write ups and pictorial tutorials on how to get this working with your account so instead of repeating what has already been done, I'm just going to link to Aurdon's post at I Sheep Things because he even has a little video on it.

To you multiboxers out there, once you link your accounts to the same Authenticator, you could use the same code on all your accounts as long as you log in to all of them within the time before the code changes again (something like 30 seconds).

This is really amazing. A few days ago, Nixi posted details of him 10-boxing Karazhan on the Dual-Boxing forums. But today he posted a video of his Terestian Illhoof fight.

It's just him behind two computers, each with five accounts.

Quoted from "Nixi"
     That's just me behind all 10 toons.

     Protection Paladin x 2
     Fire Lock x 2
     Elemental Shaman x 4
     Fire Mage
     Holy Priest

It was no cake walk for him either, but it's an amazing accomplishment nonetheless.