I've been getting a lot of questions about how I dualbox or multi-box so I figured I would start a thread with what I do, the mods and programs I use and maybe learn something new.

There are different schools of multi-boxing. The term itself implies more than one computer. When I am just using two accounts, I do this on a single computer and it does well, until I hit Stormwind.

First thing first, hardware. If you plan on doing two accounts on the same computer then you have to have a computer that can handle it. I have an Intel Dual-core 4400GHz, 2GB ram and a single nVidia GeForce 8600GT, 512MB and it does well enough. I run Vista Premium, I also have two monitors.

In order to dualbox WoW, you need two accounts and need to pay the monthly fees along with that.

How to start everything up:
You can run everything fine with just one installation of WoW, however due to the addon and cache management in WoW it is much easier to have two different installations. This way you don't run into issues as much. This is of course up to the taste of the player, but I keep the second account pretty dumbed down as far as addons and whatnot, it creates overhead and generally isn't needed.

Since i have two monitors, I have each client in its own monitor. It's not a necessity and can have an impact on computer performance, but it's nice to have if you can manage it.

Regardless if you are using multiple monitors or not, using windowed mode is VERY handy. I have it set up to run windowed mode and have 'maximize window' checked. This makes it easier to alt-tab if you need to and in the case of two monitors, you can move your mouse over to the other window and loot, get quests, etc much easier.

To make things easier still, yet maybe annoying other times, you can tell Vista to activate, or bring into focus, the window your mouse is currently on. To do this, go into the Control Panel > Ease of Access > Make the mouse easier to use > Check 'Activate a window by hovering over it...'

External Programs:
I use a program called Keyclone. It costs $20 US and it simply passes your keystrokes to any program you specify; in this case, World of Warcraft. So for instance, if you had your 'main' window up and active and hit the 1 key, it would send the same keystroke to the other client.

Addons:
Everyone has their own preference for addons so I won't go too far into what I use, but there is one in general that is great for this setup. Simply enough, it is Twobox Toolkit. This does a couple things; Lets you set a Master, ie; main account. It can relay any whispers or messages the second account gets and most importantly, it has a feature called Sticky Follow. Set yourself up a macro to whisper your second account 'followme' and it will begin autofollow. After combat ends, it will automatically follow you again.

That's the basics of what I have going, please give any other tips you may have. I don't proof my posts to let me know if it doesn't make sense.

Geek!

Torrin...please fix the economy; all of the goofs (caveat: both parties) inside the beltway seem to be unable too...Personally I think that all short sellers should be spitted upon pikes and put up on display along Wall $treet.

Geek!

I second the motion



As well...sounds expensive!

I've attempted this both ways (with a single box as well as with a pair of boxen). The multi box is great for.. yes, entering SW or IF. I guess if you didn't want the lag when you have to go to town, set your hearth to Darn -- no one is ever there.

Desktop space is at a premium, so putting the laptop on the desk is rough at times.
Although I just attempted to try Synergy (http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/). I'll play with it some more later this weekend. Might be the best combo if I can get faster reponse times through the other box. I'll let you know if I can get that set up. Might be nice to run that hooked up to the big screen and also have the laptop on the couch running both. I can get both up and running with this system, but definitely having some type of mouse issues on the secondary box. Also having issues passing commands from my laptop over to the desktop.

Normally I just run in windowed mode when playing Abia's char and mine (attempting to keep them pseudo together in level for the refer-a-friend thing). It's easiest with playing characters with pets. Just set them on aggressive and run around shoot/pewpew etc. I typically only shoot/cast whatever with one toon, while the other just follows. When that one is out of mana, switch to the other and let him/her shoot/cast. Rinse repeat. I have a macro set up in the same loc on both toons that says /follow otherchar, so I just click and run.

--Andist

Artagel/Kalam and I are also heavy into multi-boxing, lately on our new horde toons. I really like the challenge it adds to the game as you try to keep up to what is happening to both of your toons.

The last few nights I've even been trying some 3-boxing as I drag our lower toons through instances while levelling up. It is great fun.

We are both using Keyclone, and it works incredibly well. I've been considering some addons like Torrin mentioned, but my larger issue right now is macro management and not enough macro slots. My secondary toon(s) are macro based so the basic summary of how we do it is:

- setup our secondary toon's focus as the primary toon
- the secondary toon then uses macros for spell casts, targeting the focus's target

macro 1:
/focus PrimaryToon
/follow PrimaryToon

macro 2 (varies for each spell I use):
/cast Fireball

Once you get to this stage, you can start playing with /castsequence so that spells like frostnova can alternate between your toons.

Using 5 toons, with ISBoxer.

That looks really fun!

Using 5 toons, with ISBoxer.

I can't imagine how hard this would be for me. Do you run your own heroics?

I will be once I get to the proper level. I haven't had too many problems with normal instances so far.