I have played everquest for years but around POP era my family and I all left for other games. I go back and forth and came back in time for the heroic characters. I did username retrieval and found I had quite a few accounts I could create heroics on, so I did. Normally I am a 1 account guy and had lots of chars around 80 on that account. Now though with several accounts I am trying to box.... my main acct has 92 monk 91 SK and an 85 mage on it(lots of other chars bit decided to move them with the heroics). The limit of my box exp so far is running a ha with SK shaman and a ranger and it was easy even killed the named but it consisted of 2 rogue mercs and a cleric merc. The shaman would cast the slow proc on tank, then refresh lynx as needed. Ranger did autofire, SK and rogue mercs did heavy lifting. Even then the alt tabbing was annoying and trying to get the 3 chars to entrance was a pain too.is alt tabbing the best way, or what would you guys recommend? ... typing on phone apologized for any spelling error or autocorrect malfunctions
2boxing is much easier for most people than 3. There's lots that 3box or more, but for me and others that extra alt-tab really slows everything down. I have 3box'ed, but I would never do it with anything other than a bard using melody. SK + monk/ranger would be tough, if you were going to do anything other than auto fire on ranger Rule of thumb is melees/hybrids require a lot of button presses and moving to stay in melee range, so best to pair them with a passive char like Mage/Druid/wizard/shaman, etc. boxing melee + hybrid may drive ya nuts. The easiest to get used to it is caster + healer + caster/healer. Put ur alts on autofollow, and make sure your refresh rates match so they don't run circles around who they trying to follow. Porting classes and Mage for coth can make 3+ boxing easier. Hope that helps
winEQ... will make your life easier to swap between the accts. And it's okay by the powers that be to use within the guidelines of the EULA. http://www.lavishsoft.com/
I run two mages one bard with two healer mercs and room for any guildmates or friends who would like to come. I destroy HA in about 20 minutes per run unless I am tipsy. My main mage has macros and key binds, second mage much the same, but mostly uses macros. My bard does his best to inspire the group with a wonderful four song twist which even includes a fifth song of cresendo twisted in every 17th song. I do not claim this is the most efficient or best box crew, it is just the one I, personally, can blow through all group content with.
I three box various combinations but usually Druid, Ranger and Enchanter or Ranger, Enchanter and Mage. I box on 2 25 inch HD monitors. My main (usually the Ranger) is on a monitor by itself. The other two are overlaying each other but with part of the screen visible for both. That way everything is an easy click. I also use macros a lot so I combine multiple spells/discs on a single button. I also use a logitech programmable keyboard but mostly just use that to have a button defined for each window. That way no matter what I am doing, I can get any screen up in front with a button press.
I used to alt/tab around, now I run in windowed mode and just click on the character I want. Having to cycle through a character you don't want, to get to one you do is a waste of time and I find it much more confusing. I 3 box most of the time, and have my accounts arranged on my taskbar so they are always in more or less the same order regardless of what 3 box combo I'm using. I.E. Tank is first slot, dps is 2nd, healer is 3rd etc. I like being able to go directly to the character I want. Once you have all your macros set up, it's very fast to get all 3 accounts going this way, as you can combine clicking on the account with keybind macros. At the end of the day it's not a lot of difference, but being able to instantly select your healer/evac whatever has saved me on a few occasions where I would have been eaten trying to alt/tab around. Windowed mode also tends to keep those background windows "open", so when you do switch to them it's instantaneous, whereas alt/tab can get a bit slower if things are getting minimized every time you tab. I also used WinEQ for along time, now I don't bother. I actually find it slightly faster not using any external program as well. I certainly don't miss it. If I was going to run [Unmentioned 3rd Party Software] or something I could see it, but for general game play, windowed mode has been the most efficient for me. Really well thought out macros and combinations of classes are the real key to boxing. Having multiple classes that have to be active at the same time is the worst thing you can do to box, it makes things very frustrating and you don't get everything you could out of the classes. It's one reason why multiple melee classes on a box team isn't optimal. There are a lot of reasons that Bard/Mage/Druid is one of if not the best box setup in the game, synergy and timing of those classes plays a big part though. No one has to do something while the other person is busy on that team, and it's dead easy to macro.
I 3box a SK, Enc, and Cleric. And usually run 3 wiz mercs if i'm not grouping with friends. What I do on my setup is play in windowed mode, and just use the mouse to select the EQ instance I want to bring up to the front. The key to that is to always have the characters lined up at the bottom of the desktop in the same order. So that it becomes second nature to click on the right character without looking. Probably not the most efficient way of doing it, but it works well for me. I also use hot button macros to cast the most commonly used spells to save time. So, for an example of a normal battle: I use a hate spell to pull with the SK, switch to the Enc to debuff it with a macro, switch to the cleric and hit a macro to cast a heal on the SK a few times, then switch back to the SK to cast some spells/abilities. (That all takes maybe 5 secs at most) Then I just switch between characters as needed until the fight is over, dps or mez with the Enc, cast any extra heals with the cleric etc. Which doesn't take long since the dps mercs are tearing the mob up. If i'm fighting a named with a strong AE I will sometimes use a healer merc, so that I don't have to concentrate on the cleric so much. Though I try not to, because you really notice the missing dps losing even the one wiz merc.
I've tried the alt tab method for 3 boxing and just don't like it. I use 3 monitors and put a windowed EQ on each of them so I can see everything going on. It's faster for me to move the mouse to another screen and click in my dead space (my UIs are all the exactly same) to switch between the characters. I box a pal, bard, and now a shaman. I was boxing my SK or another character but just made a shaman and so far it's fun and better. Hotkeys to help and always depends on which classes you are boxing if you want a harder or easier time. Before the 3 monitors I'd keep the taskbar visable and click each EQ tab to switch because i'd always get screwed up with the each alt tab on the 3rd window. Happy Boxing!
I'm a 3 boxer. But I do things a little differently. First off I have two distinct set ups across my three accounts ENC Mage Bard Monk Shaman Shadowknight I also have a Druid on the bard/SK account My Mage and Enchanter are on one PC, running to a 42 inch tv, and my Bard/ Sk account, since they require little effort, are on a laptop. I have all my keys macro'd and key bound, and I use WinEQ and a Logitech g510 on my main PC, so I can switch to each window with a push of a button. There isn't any content I cannot take out with my Mage Enchanter and Bard, But my shaman SK monk combo is still young, and my monk, shaman are still relatively new. So they aren't 100 yet. I tried to place my toons strategically on each account so that I could buff my characters. But I would later find that placing my shaman on my mages account was rather foolish. As Shaman/Mage is a powerful combination as well. I have considered placing my shaman on my Enchanters account.. But I'm not 100% sure I want to do that ! As clarity is nice for the shaman. In my main group of ENC MAGE BARD, I pull with my enchanter, debuff as my Mage engages and begins a DPS cycle, then my bard begins a /melody ... And all works out. I am essentially 2boxing, as the bard requires little to no attention. I do occasionally substitute a Druid in for my bard. And he typically spams heals on the Mage pet. I am still learning my Druid. All I know is she heals like a boss. Between my Mage and my Enchanter, I sustain about 70k DPS, and I can burn about 140k.. Ish. Depending on how on the ball I am. With a Druid. That number drops significantly. But I can survive longer, with the heals. So.. Lol it's a trade off. I'm a boxer that prefers not to box. I will drop a box in a second if someone is LFG. But I'm picky. If you can't do as well as I can boxing. Your not going to last in my group. As I don't give my two "slave toons" as much attention as I should. Because I refuse to sacrifice any of my enchanters power as I box.
I am 3 boxing now and i had to go with a mage for 3rd box the trying to run all 3 toons without some type of fail was a pain in the butt COTH rocks running one toon only FTW.
6 boxing from level 1 on trak - picked because it's basically an empty server. The doods are all about level 64/65 now. I prefer this over running the mercs (makes me feel like I'm a kid again playing gold box D&D or wizardry/bards tale/might and magic) and yes I do spend a lot of time buying spells (Shadow Knight, Cleric, Druid, Bard, Shaman, Mage). Spend almost as much time tweaking and refining (not to mention adding new spells/skills, moving bars around to make things more efficient). It's probably the most fun I've had playing a video game for a very long time. [Unmentioned 3rd Party Software] is really a godsend for this kind of play. Alt-tabbing just gets really tedious.
I've tried 6 and it was just too much for me. I wasn't using [Unmentioned 3rd Party Software] or anything. I can do 4 fairly well depending on the make up of the group. I'm more efficient with 3 toons and 3 mercs. I can swap out tank, healer or dps as needed with the mercs. I did set up 2 group, 3 toons each with mercs and do some older raid stuff. That was fun. I tended to wipe a lot but it was still a blast.
I prefer to run only one toon at a time ... but can play up to 4 toons ... 2 on each computer ... Normal boxing is 3 ... Beast, monk on new computer and the druid on the old one. I boxed this trio prior to mercs. Now that i have gained free merc slots, i switched from healers to dps and went back to healing the beast (tanking) with the druid ... mobs die so fast now its awesome!
Two boxing on 2 monitors with discrete video cards for each and then a 3rd monitor for quest lookup info. I'm using [Unmentioned 3rd Party Software] to make sure EQ loads on a different video card for each instance but still haven't figured out the macro stuff.
I 6 box with [Unmentioned 3rd Party Software]. Group makeup: CLR/ PLD / MAG / ENC / NEC / WIZ I set all major commands to work from the Paladin. I tank and pull with the PLD, the other classes are parked and follow the cleric. Keys 4-6 are initial debuffs, pet attack and normal spells Key 7 is a rotational most efficient mana DD spell for all classes. Keys C,V,B,N are reserved for Cleric heals which target my PLD, instant to group over time and a rebuff of rallied vie F1-F3 are stuns that the enchanter, wizard and cleric offer for use. All other keys are used for Paladin stuns and spells. With a macro setup, you can effecticely control all characters from 1 character. Ill even map sending the mage pet to tank adds the PLD designates and provide him with heals via the cleric. If you have questions on how to do this, pm me and ill give you the breakdown in the [Unmentioned 3rd Party Software] program and setup.
I'm an Alt+Tabber. It took a long time and surely it will invite derision from other boxers, but over time I've developed the muscle memory to run up to three accounts this way, which I do about a third of the time (usually it's just my SK/bard). If I land on the wrong toon, I know that two Alt+Tabs in rapid succession ("bams" as I call them) will get me to the one I want. If I were starting fresh, I'd use WinEQ in a heartbeat, but I'm too old and stubborn to change my ways. With efficient use of macros (and /stopsocial), this works for me.
Elaborate please? I'm aware of /stopdisc and /stopsong. I've not heard of /stopsocial before; however, it may have gone past me in patch notes.
/stopsocial will stop a macro after whatever line is currently being executed. I have it as a button on (hidden) hotbar 10, mapped to Shift-X. I don't need it too often, and I don't know how long ago is was added, but it comes in handy. For example, last night I had just brought a couple mobs back to camp when a roamer strolled by and joined the party. I had just pressed my shaman's standard counterbias/leopard/fastDoT macro; he had just finished casting CB when the add came. I didn't have my bard with me. Rather than waste a disc by having my SK tank all three mobs, I hit my shaman's Shift-X to stop the rest of the social so I could VP the third mob out of the way.
Good to know, thank you. I actually missed one previously. To be thorough for anyone else reading the thread: /stopcast /stopdisc /stopsocial /stopsong
