Boxing

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by Knarf, May 9, 2021.

  1. Knarf New Member

    I am planning on boxing a ench/druid so I tried it out on test. Never boxed before and I found it quite difficult. Was continuously screwing up on which character had focus. Anyone out there got any tips on the mechanics of boxing ?
  2. Kylo Classic Augur

    You can't just use 1 computer for 2 characters, you must use 1 computer for each character. 2 post-its with ENC on one and DRU on the other will help with the focus problems, just stick the right post-it on the right screen. Hope this helps.
  3. Thewiz Augur

    Practice makes perfect.
    Skuz likes this.
  4. Pikallo Augur

    If you are alt-tabbing, its a bit harder to keep track but its not THAT hard with only 2 characters. However, you can't do that on Mischief anyway.

    If you have 2 separate computers/laptops and still have trouble determining which character is on which screen, you may want to consider abandoning the idea to multibox.
    Bardy McFly likes this.
  5. Xhieron Elder

    This is it. In my experience the deciding factor is positioning and consistency. One character always lives on one machine, the other always lives on the other, and you never ever switch machines. Driver box is always the one on the right with the bigger monitor. Healer box is on the laptop with the monitor on the left with the big bulky cable. Never log in the driver account on the alt box, even if you just want to port somebody or throw some buffs before logging out.

    I also always play in third person with the camera zoomed out and slightly overhead, so I immediately know which character's back is in the center of the screen. Past a certain point in leveling, you'll never mistake the wolf for whatever illusion you put on the chanter.
  6. Kahna Augur

    Go buy a small number pad for the Druid’s computer. Place it next to the chanter’s keyboard and make yourself a series of hot keys. Follow, assist, heals for both toons all hotkeyed. Then never looks at the druids screen 95% of the time you are playing. The chanter basically just becomes a chanter with a few extra buttons to push.
  7. TheTone Elder

    Keep it simple.

    Main one of the characters and setup the other with like 6-8 macros and don't fret over the small stuff.

    I personally ran a DRU ENC on mangler. I mained the ENC and setup macros 1-3 on druid to heal himself, me, xtar 5 (charm pet)...macro 4 to snare my target, macro 5 to dot, macro 6 to dot AND snare, macro 7 to regen/ds, macro 8 to nuke, macro 9 to sow us both, macro 0 to evac.

    I also had a separate setup when I would main the druid in Chardok and double charm.

    You'll get it faster than you think.
  8. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    If you are planning on boxing on the new server you will need a separate computer for your alt which will fix the issue you are having about which character has focus. However if you are planning on boxing on a server that does not have true box enabled it will just take practice to get better.
  9. Hythos Augur

    You're in luck, 'cause you can learn the ropes, pracrice, and prepare for Mis. right now on any live server.
    The first macro you'll want to set up, is:
    /Tar <main character name>
    /Follow
    Baratu likes this.
  10. Warzon Elder

    You can also rebind keys, when I first started boxing, almost every key on the cleric's laptop would target my tank and cast a heal. The "homer simpson dialing wand" school of boxing. Just mash the other keyboard and move on. I actually kept the cleric on a separate pc for years even when my pc could handle more than one instance.

    Of course now the idea that I would need two computers to play two characters in a game where my phone could run forty instances is so offensive as to make me vomit a little.
  11. Baratu New Member

    I boxed ENC/DRU on Mangler and ENC/CLR on Aradune. It is difficult and you will suck at first. Just need a desire to improve and time to practice. Here’s a few more tips:


    — what Kahna said. Get one of these for your box machine. It’s a game changer:
    https://www.amazon.com/Numeric-Jelly-Comb-Portable-Computer/dp/B01E8TTWZ2/ref=sr_1_3?_encoding=UTF8&c=ts&dchild=1&keywords=Numeric Keypads&qid=1620656503&s=pc&sr=1-3&ts_id=2998471011

    With this keypad I usually have the following keybinds at my fingertips:
    -Follow, turn left (to unfollow), sit, duck (to cancel spell casts)
    -Heal the chanter, heal myself, C-Heal xtar1 (pet or MT), cast 3-5/6 on main assist target (stuns, dots, nukes, snares etc)
    -Heal party members 2-6 (if grouped)

    You have about 18 keys to work with and can fine tune setups for duoing, grouping, and raiding. You are still limited in what you can do, but I can’t imagine how I ever boxed without one.

    — On the healer box, I turned F2-F6 into party member heal macros.

    — /pause 5 everything in macros. I don’t know if it’s a latency, server, or game code thing, or an issue on my end, but I found that if I don’t put at least a /pause 5 after targeting, spells will sometimes not land on the target. They just disappear into the ether. It happened to me just the other day when I had a typo in a macro.

    — Fizzle protection! Especially at lower levels. A single fizzle can really throw you off, mess up your flow, and/or make a chaotic situation worse. Build fizzle protection into your more important macros, like healing your enchanter. I believe you need /pause 8 to account for the global CD after a fizzle.

    — Here’s an example of how my “Heal Enc” macro looks.

    /pause 5, /tar EnchanterName
    /pause 8, /cast 1
    /cast 1

    Here is how my heal party member macro looks:

    /pause 5, /tar group 2
    /pause 8, /cast 1
    /pause 30, /cast 1
    /tar Myname
    /sit

    (I target myself at the end because if the party member has a pet, and I have to heal them twice in a row, I’ll target their pet the second time unless my target changes to something else)
    Appren likes this.
  12. Baratu New Member

    Don’t forget /stand!
  13. Azzlann Elder

    Macro's are your friend, you can make almost every step simpler, or turn 3 steps into one. Then add a small numpad for some of those macro's and then your set. After that it is just playing/dying until you get everything memorized and comfortable.
  14. samenye Lorekeeper

    Some great advice in this thread.

    I also add /tell messages to my main character on the numpad macros so I know what the box is doing without looking at her screen.

    That's very handy when she tells me "Snaring an_ogre_war!" instead of "Healing an_ogre_war!" because I fat fingered the wrong key.
    Pelrond likes this.
  15. TheTone Elder

    This is key...I used to try and sift thru the battle spam to see what my box was casting, but this is way nicer.
  16. Ultrazen Augur

    Macros and keybinds. The druid can be entirely macro'd, you never have to really do much on it. You're either on follow, or sitting at a camp. Here's some easy macro's to get you started, but you really need to go full on down the macro rabbit hole, makes it a snap.

    /target Enchanter
    /pause 3
    /stand
    /pause 3
    /follow

    The pauses are to allow for latency/lag etc. 3 in macro world = .3 seconds, so /pause 10 would be a one second pause. You can figure out a lot of macros for yourself with just this. Here's another one.

    /pause 3, /assist Enchanter
    /pause 3, /stand
    /pause 50, /cast 1
    /sit

    You'll assist on whatever target the chanter has, stand up, cast whatever spell is in slot one, and then sit down again after 5 seconds (this can change based on whatever the cast time of the spell you're using is, give yourself a second leeway for animations etc.)

    With proper macros, you'll be playing the Chanter 95% of the time. The rest is just practice. It will become second nature pretty quickly.
  17. Accipiter Old Timer


    Add a /stand to that (or /sit off?). It'll save you a lot of aggravation.

    Edit: Oops, didn't read ahead.
  18. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    Boxing 3 manually here for a few years now, I am definitely no expert but the "muscle memory" does get better & better the more boxing you do.
    Gina can help a ton too if you know what you are doing with it - its not hard just takes time to learn.
    extended Numberpads idea is $$$ they are cheap and can make boxing a ton easier - I plan to go that route eventually myself.
    Bardy McFly likes this.
  19. Kahna Augur


    I really like to hotkey "move forward" as well, it doesn't break follow but it will scoot your follow toon right on top of your main, making maneuvering in squirrelly dungeons so much easier.
  20. Knarf New Member

    Good stuff thanks ...