Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Revenge is a dish best served HOT

Now, I'm a pretty lenient guy. Even though I don't like being ganked, it's not that big of a deal. I don't particularly fancy world PVP either, but hey, Mindy's friends are on one, and I don't want to play alone, so here I am.

But the one thing I cannot stand is corpse camping. I hate it. Aggravates the hell out of me. Ganking is one thing, but the when you corpse camp your intentionally just trying to be a dick and ruin someones day.

Tonight, I was running through Terokkar Forest trying to get my main to 64, and two gnome locks from Sandwich no Jutsu show up. I wasn't expecting a fight, but then again I don't remember if I started it or if they did. Anyways, we fought, and I won the first round. I barely scraped by as they were higher level than me and did some AOE fears (any multiboxer's bane right there). So, I start killing the monsters that aggro while we fought, not expecting at all to fight again. I was very, very wrong. They surprised me by rezing pretty quick and got the better of me. By the time I got back, they decided to camp my bodies. I try again to rez and fight, but at half health/mana, I couldn't bring them down since they were fully buffed. I actually brought one of them down to 3%, but ran out of mana on all my mages.

So, I asked Mindy if she would like to lend a hand, even though she just shut her PC down and was about to go to bed. She hops on, but by the time it boots, she sets up, logs in, and starts flying to the base the gnomes leave. I'm still frustrated from being camped, so I suggest we run around and try to kill allies in spite. Her team is a lv 67 Hunter, 67 Mage, and a 67 Priest. We mount up and comb the entire zone. Found one hunter who is lv 70, but she was able to slip away by keeping her distance from us very, very well.

About 10 min later we were about to call it a night when we saw a draenei paladin. We gave chase, and look at that, we found the same two fuckers that camped me earlier. Both were just finishing up a fight, roughly half health each.

This one starts to run, but I got Crusader aura bitch, you can't outrun me. I catch up to him, dismount and cast 3x PoM/Pyroblast, and down he goes. The other one decides to fight, and started to dot up my mages. I promptly turn around and Fire Blast him, bringing him down to 10% ish, then finish off the rest with arcane blast. The fight was so quick Mindy didn't have a chance to dismount and lend a hand.

After that, I felt soooo much better. We went to the entrance of Shattrath and took logged for the night. As much as I wanted to, and Mindy was willing, we didn't corpse camp.

In a way, I almost don't like what we did. I don't like leveraging 5 toons (technicly 8 with Mindy) and go try to World PvP against 1-2 guys. But then again, I remember Stranglethorn vale and the lv 70 warrior and druid that had nothing better to do than camp lv 30 lowbies, or the warlock/hunter lv 70 pair that followed me from the air, constantly sniping my clothies then flying off when I tried to close the distance. I remember trying to go to Ramparts and have almost a dozen 70's camp me.

When I remember those things, I feel like what we did tonight should be just the start of some random world PvP pillaging. I don't know if I want to go down that route yet, but we'll see.

Monday, July 28, 2008

A reminder as to why I multibox

Ever been a part of a pug? Especially one that sucks? Well, this guy has, and just reading about it makes me feel $75 a month is 100% worth it.

It does make for funny blog entries though.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Hungarfen falls before me

I am still pretty exhausted from Comicon and taking my son out for a swim, so I didn't try to do a full clear of the instance on my first go. Instead, I just kinda waded in, nervous as hell since I don't know what to expect, and make my way to the first boss.

I wasn't expecting to go to Underbog first. I thought Slave pens was listed as easier, but I didn't have any quests for it.

Anyways, in my opinion, this instance was fairly easy compared to when I first went into Ramparts, and about the same in difficulty as Blood Furnace so far. Unlike BF, I can't really perform any crowd control, so I have been pulling the groups of 2-3 and just tanking it like I did back in Azeroth. They hit hard, but I had no problems maintaining aggro and burning them down. It was like this all the way to Hungarfen.

Now, this gigantic bog lord for a boss, apparently guarding some gigantic looking pube sticking out of the ground, was a pain. Specifically, I need to constantly move my guys to ensure the spores don't ruin my day. It is extremely challenging to add individual movement to my already stressed out multitask list of tanking, dps, and healing. I tried it twice to move them when a spore got close, but it just didn't work right, or I'd fumble and wipe.

So, I said fuck it, kept all my toons on follow, and just ran with it. I would run up and tank, cast 2 fireballs and move when my health got topped off. Rinse and repeat. Moved out of range at 20% and re-engaged when he was finish doing...whatever bog lords do when they reach 20%. The rest is history.

And for all that, he drops some POS leather glove piece that joined my growing collection of small prismatic shards.

I'll try a full run tomorrow when I don't feel so tired.

Update:

Went to Comicon, had some fun. I met the makers of Penny Arcade and mentioned the whole PAA thing. They said they had stopped playing WoW roughly a year ago and are no longer in it.

To be honest, I pretty much expected something similar in response, which is fine. I really, really don't want that many people to notice me, as it would make it near impossible to level or do dailies without getting raped.

Lv 63, Zangarmarsh, and the PAA

Finally dinged 63 will all my toons yesterday, and let me tell you, it sucks. This team consists of the highest leveled toons I have ever made, so I was anxious to port back to town and scope out my new spells. All I got were:

Shadow Resistance Aura
Greater Heal
Mana Burn
Mind Blast
Amplify Magic
Arcane Missles
Frostbolt

To quote Dr. Evil: "Whoop de fricken do."

Anyways, past that, I don't like Zangarmarsh. First off, it's a swamp. I hate swamps. Sure, it looks otherworldly and has these massive creatures on 3 legs that scare the shit out of me, but it's still a swamp.

And where there is a swamp, there are trolls, and I just don't like trolls. I don't know why, but I do. I think it has to do with their voices.

Lastly, I have started to run into more and more would be gankers or just crazy smucks thinking I'm an easy kill. I can see a lv 70 swooping down when I'm on a mining node, staring for a few seconds, then opens fire. But when a lv 62 Shaman attacks me with no backup, I start to wonder about his sanity. 5vs1, and he chooses to pick the fight.

Normally, I leave people alone as I run about. Er, well I used to. Going from Hellfire Peninsula to this swampland has increased the amount of world pvp I do by an unhealthy amount, and now I regard all Alliance members from the other side of a 3x pyroblast. This change was made necessary after a lv 61 mage tailed me for about 10 min, waiting for a lv 70 warrior for reinforcement. They didn't survive, but dammit I can't leave any of these gnome lovers alive now because I fear it's going to bite me in the ass.

Personally, I blame the Penny Arcade Alliance. I don't hate them, no, they are playing the game and having fun just like I am. But they are legion. Most of the alliance that I come across are in one of their guilds, and these guys are the ones ballsy to attack solo. I never noticed these guys until now. I'm kinda hoping they don't notice me, as I don't want legions of multiboxing hating 70's coming to prove a point.

Then again, since I have changed my world pvp view to a more slash and burn perspective, I feel that my wishes and actions will counteract one another.

Oh well. I'm going to the San Diego Comicon today, and the makers of Penny Arcade will be there. I personally love their comic so I'm going to stop by and say hi, and maybe mention something about the PAA created in their name.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

PVP and boxing

One thing that I have learned so far as a multiboxer is that you gain a lot of attention you otherwise wouldn't have gotten. To you, seeing 4 toons who look the same follow another same looking toon is normal. To others, it's a freak occurrence that needs to be investigated. And for the opposite faction looking in, it's just safe to assume their bots. And boy, does everyone hate bots.

I was fortunate while I leveled up as I had instances to hide away from the majority of players who get their hard on making sure lowbies continue to dread Strangelthorn Vale. Mindy was not so lucky as she only 3 boxes, but she had Amanda assist her most of the time.

Now that I am 62, I have enough experience with my setup and my few encounters in World PVP to be more than a match for most small groups my level, and also take down the occasional lv 70 ganker. But, that is the extent my group can go I'm afraid. Prot Pallies and Holy Priests aren't known for their DPS, and 3 mages can only carry so far.

So, I decided to try to start a team that is what most people in the general forums complain about. 4-5 man teams of multiboxers, all Shamans.

Why Shamans? Versatility my friend. 5 Shamans brings 5x the totems, enough to buff the entire party with everything a shaman can bring for a PVP fight. They eventually wear mail, making physical attacks easier to handle. They can heal, always a plus. They do great burst damage, and at lv 70 they can bring the dreaded Elemental Mastery + Nature's Swiftness + Chain lightning x5, basically creating an "I win" button not only against a single opponent, but also against his two closest buddies.

BUT! I don't like doing what everyone else is doing. Sure, all the cool kids are boxing with shamans, but I kinda want to do something different. Mages are out of the question as I already have 3. So.....what about 5 warlocks? 5 felguards can do ruin anyone's day, and I can dot up people for lots of damage. I can be undead for their awesome racial. I would even have some survivability with soul link and whatnot. My only problem that I foresee is lack of burst damage. Maybe I won't need it?

So, here I am, torn between 5 shamans and 5 warlocks. I made a shaman team just in case, to try out for a while this tried and true build. I'll let you all know how it goes.

The wheels of progression go round and round..

Earlier today, I decided to do a serious stab at Blood Furnace as my quests in Hellfire wind down dreadfull collection crap.

I cleared the instance without really any problems. I only wiped once on the last boss, trying to gather all the channelers in one spot at the gate before taking on the boss himself. Big mistake. On the second try I kept my mages at max distance and tanked all the channelers at once. Much easier. Past that, the boss was easy as cake.

Next up, lv 63, Zangarmarsh, and the Slave Pens!





Friday, July 25, 2008

The Toons

Here we go, my time to show off my team!


First up to bat is my main man, Caine. A prot pally through and through, he is the toon I play as my "main" and virtually everything is based off of him. There has only been one boss so far that I have failed to tank as him in my quest to conquer 5 man content (and that fool is Shade of Eranikus, and as soon as I ding 70 it's payback). Having a pally as a tank greatly reduces how much I have to focus on when I go through instances since I can pull multiple mobs and retain aggro on them all very easily. He is also my #1 toon on all upgrade descisions. If something can benifit the tank or benifit someone else, it goes to the tank.


Next up is Abyl. As you can probobly guess, these two names are based off of the biblical Cane and Abel. I know, soooo origional. Anyways, Abyl is the priest for the group. Great all around healer and occasionally throws in some shadow word: pain or holy novas when things get dicey. Frail as a feather though, her defense is only 272, which is rediculously low for a lv 62. Any mob or player that hits her is practicly guaranteed a critical or crushing blow. Additionally, she is #2 when it comes to upgrades, making her the best caster I have.


Rounding out the rest of the team is my trio of mages, Furfur, Furfir, and Furfar. At the time I was searching for names, I came accross this wikipedia entry of demon names, and Furfur was one of them. So, I rolled with it for no real reason, and made slight edits for the other two. These 3 get the shaft end when it comes to gear, specificly the latter two. That said, all produce decent (imo) DPS for thier level since they are all a mix between fire and arcane. Like Abyl, thier defense is pitiful, all well under 300.


Right now my progression has gotten me to Blood Furnace. So far I have completed the following Instances at thier respective levels. And by completed, I mean every boss killed.


Gnomeregan - lv 28
All of Scarlet Monestary - lv 30, 33, 36, 38
Uldaman - lv40
Zul'Farrak - lv 44
Maraudon - lv 46


I have tried other instances, such as Scholo and Strat, but Outlands is just too irrisistable for me to ignore. And to grind through these and get gear that's going to be immediatly replaced by Outland quests.


As a side note, while I have owned and played WoW since release, I have never leveled any toons to 70. In fact, the highest toon I have is my origional gnome warlock Vincenta, and she sits at 62. My Team just dinged 62 recently, so I have just about hit where I have left off since BC came out. Everything from this point on is completely new to me, including all outland instances and quests. I am fucking excited.


Well, that's it for this one. I'll leave you with a pic of my victory over Vazruden and Nazan, by far the hardest boss encounter I have ever had to fight so far.



The Setup

Well, to dispell any myths about multiboxing, you do not need multiple comps to run multiple instances of WoW. I personally don't have that kind of upfront cash to spend, so I go with a software solution. Here is my typical setup.



Nothing too fancy as you can see.

For the specifics, I have the following specs for my PC:

Hardware:
2gb of RAM
Nvidia Geforce 7900 GT w/ 256mb of RAM
Generic 80gb 7200rpm Hard drive IDE
Maxtor 200gb 7200rpm hard drive IDE
Envision 19" widescreen monitor (left)
Dell 19" widescreen monitor (right)
Onboard 10/100 NIC

Software:
Windows XP Home (set to horizontal span)
WoW + Expansion x2 (physicly installed)
Keyclone

And that's about the meat of what I use to play 5 copies of WoW. With this setup I can play with my main character with near max visuals, while my other 4 alts are all at thier lowest settings and capped at 15 FPS. I generally get 30-60 FPS on my main, except in major cities or places with a lot of NPC's. I haven't tried dialing down my main's graphics yet so there is still room for improvement.

On the software front, I don't have any mods to assist me with anything. In fact, I don't have any mods at all. The vanilla interface has done it's job well enough for me these past 4 years that it doesn't warrent a replacement in my opinion.

Now, why only have 2 copies of wow installed as apposed to 5, or just 1? Well, with 5, that's 5x the storage space and it increases the load time for each instance of wow exponentially. I tried this origionally, and zepplins/boats became my enemy. When it finished loading me to the other continent, quite often I had to make a mad dash off the vehicle because it would be already on it's way back! Not fun.

Having everything out of one folder wasn't too great either. Sure, load times are a breeze now since everything is loading from the same folder.However, all of your visual/sound/interface settings would also all be shared. Fine if you have everyone at the same settings, but my main has different settings than my alts, so I would either need to reset him each time, or reset my alts, depending on what my comp wanted to save when exiting. So I use 2, one for my main's settings, one for my alt's settings, and I get the best of both worlds.

Lastly, lets talk about keyclone. Keyclone is a simple 3rd party program that does one simple yet essentail job for any multiboxer, it broadcasts keystrokes to all instances of WoW. Without this, I probobly wouldn't be multiboxing. For $20, it's a damn bargin. It is incredibly simple to use and install, basicly just unzip it and go. It will automaticly detect any WoW's your running within seconds of startup and start broadcasting keystrokes to them only if your currently using one of them. This means I can open a web browser and surf the net and not have to worry about my keystrokes going to my toons. It also doesn't require any scripting knowledge, or have any scripting elements to begin with, so I don't have to worry about slipping into the botzone trying to make a legitimate script to broadcast yet it end up bieng something against the EULA.

So, that's all I use to play 5 toons simultaniously.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Multiboxing =/= Botting

So, I might as well get this out of the way before I go any further.

Multiboxing falls into a "love it or hate it" catagory. Some people feel it's detrimental to the game. Others feel it's blatant cheating, or botting. Then there are others who think it's cool to watch, or just amazed by it.

For the purpose of this post, I am just going to make it clear what Blizzard's stance (you know, the guys who made the game and enforce it's rules?) is on multiboxing. If you want to hear it strait from a CM, you can follow this handy dandy link

Simply put, Blizzard does not see any unfair advantages to playing like this because the same exact advantages can be gained by grouping. Having 2,3,4,5, or however many toons controlled by 1 player is fine, so long as there is no automation involved.

Now, what defines automation you ask? (well, maybe you didn't ask, but I'm gonna tell you anyways!). Blizzard's stance is if you push 1 keystroke, that that keystroke does multiple actions that generate global cooldowns on a single account, then you have entered the bot zone. For example, if I pushed 1 and it cast fireball every 3.5 seconds until target was dead, that's botting. Now, if I push 1 every time to cast fireball, then it's all cool.

Where people like to focus the debate on is keyboard broadcast programs, like the one I use. These programs allow for a single keystroke to be issued to multiple instances of WoW at the same time. People see too problems with this.

1. It's a 3rd party software that is helping you play the game. 3rd party programs are generally forbidden by Blizzard.
2. because it's broadcasting keystrokes, each keystroke is essentially doing multiple actions per stroke.
3. Having multiple toons under one mind brings too much power to a single player.
4. It breaks the spirit of the game.
5. It unbalances the game, unfair, etc.

1st, Blizzard picks and chooses which third party program is allowed and disallowed. Mods are very popular with WoW, and every one of them is considered 3rd party, and I don't see them banned. And they won't be, so long as they are cosmetic and don't play the game for you.

2nd, well, this changes depending on how you look at it. If you, like most people, look at it as 1 stroke = multiple actions per player, then yeah, we entered the bot zone. However, Blizzard looks at it at a per character (toon) level. At this level, we are in the clear.

Let me clarify. Say I have 3 mages (which I do). If I push 1, they all shoot fireball at the same target. 1 keystroke, 1 action per toon/3 actions per player. Blizzard is fine with this, because they don't care about the per player part. Cry and moan all you want, but this is Blizzard's stance.

As for 3, the same said power can be yours if you group with people. 5 people can dominate 1 person very easily, be it they are controlled by one person or 5.

4th**, well, tough cookies. I always took that the spirit of the game is to have fun, but hey, it's what you make of it. Your opinion of it is going to be different than mine, and there is nothing about the "spirit of the game" in the EULA. If I am doing something that you don't like me doing, then go punch your tough shit card.

And for the rest, to me, it's just complaining. There will always be that subset of people who have to complain about everything, always unsatisfied regardless of what's done to the game. Blizzard's stance is that grouping gives the exact same benefits, so it's a level playing field.

That's all I got to say about this. Hopefully I never, ever have to come back to this post, ever.

** I reread some of the responses from blues and whatnot, and appearently it is an actionable and bannable offence to be against the spirit of the game. *shrug* I guess they don't feel that it breaks it.

1st post

So, I decided I wanted to branch out a bit from my main blog.

Reason bieng, more than 50% of my gaming is dedicated to WoW nowadays. Everything else (namely the 360) fills the rest.

Now, for those of you who don't know what multiboxing is, it's a generic term where 1 person plays 2 or more characters simultaniously. I know, shocking concept. I personally play with 5 toons, while my wife Mindy plays with 3. We play on the Dark Iron PVP server in a small friends only guild called Straberry Assassins. No guild website, no forums or anything. Just guild chat and a vent server which amanda pays for.

And I still can't write that name with a strait face. I am hoping Amanda was drunk when she made it.