More Claythings and Crafts

KJ, Bear Druid, Felpuppy

I went on a bit of an artsy binge and have a few more clay WoW figures to share with you.

I've uploaded some pictures into my image gallery, but here you can see my buddies KJ, Bear Druid, and Felpuppy just hangin out on my desk.

I'm also working on some WoW soaps (healthstones and hearthstones)

There are a few things I want to do differently with the soaps -- namely embedding the designs rather than carving them. I found that rushing to pour hot soap into a small crevice before it dries out and hardens was a bit of a challenge.

Clay Tree Druid

Clay Tree Druid

I made this little guy during my raid today because I had so much time between talking over strats, wiping, and buff time...

I think the tree is an improvement over my clay moonkin and clay Suvega.

So...

Nogs' Multiboxing Wallpapers

Nogs' Deadly Grace Wallpaper

Nogs on dual-boxing.com just posted his website full of multiboxing-related wallpapers and the like.

http://www.multiboxing.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

I absolutely adore "Deadly Grace" -- it's found a permanent home on my work PC. ;)

Take a look!

Ask V: Raid icons!

Raid Icons

Xerga was nice enough to post on the Vboxing forums with a question! Lets get right into it!

Hiya V!
I just had a question about the hunter 5boxing Deadmines video. It looks (to me at least) like you're assigning a raid icon & the pets are automatically attacking their designated targets. Could you share how you did that with those of us who don't know how to already? Thanks much, and I'm loving the site =)
Xerga

Whee, this is a question I get asked alot. :)

If you haven't already seen it, my 5 Hunter Deadmines video is in the video blog -- I've also embedded it at the end of this blog post.

One of the key features in that video that everyone takes a moment to oogle over, is my use of Raid Icons as markers for my pet's targets.

Most of you will instantly recognize the all-familiar skull icon. Heck, sometimes I use it in pug runs ("Everyone kill the skull!!"). Raid icons are a very handy way -- multiboxing or not -- to have a visible visual cue for different roles. In my raiding guild, every mage has "their" icon, which always gets used for them when they are assigned to sheep something. This simplifies the run and makes things nice and speedy since we don't have to go over the strat every time we pull trash.

...but I digress.

Raid icons are great for multiboxers because we are trying to keep track of multiple roles. In the case of the hunters, I'm trying to keep track of which pet is tanking which mob.

WoTLK: Multibox This

4 Hunters + 4 polar bear cubs + ??? = PROFIT!

Image gallery has returned!

My Rig

The old blog software is now gone for good!

I've successfully migrated all of my lovely old album over to some new album software built into a Drupal module.

In any case, it's back and functional! Enjoy drooling over my hardware rig!

If you can't find the giant "images" button at the top of your screen, you can get there by visiting http://www.vboxing.net/images

Ask V: Building Macros for multiple Roles (classes)

This question was asked on a World of Warcraft e-mail alias at work, and I've gotten quite a few comments about my response. Since many feel it's useful, I'm reposting it here as a reference. :)

"I've decided to do the whole recruit-a-friend(myself) thing, and am planning on 2-boxing a hunter and priest.

The question is how to effectively dual box different classes?"

...

The trick to separate classes (and indeed, separate roles) is to find as many abilities that are similar, and match them up.

Alternately, a good idea is to find a nice rotation and basically “faceroll” the other character by putting a /castsequence with that rotation on every button on their bar. However, I find this to be very unelegant and not nearly as flexible as the first.

Read more -->

Do you have a good question you've been dying to ask me?

A small update

Well, it's time for an update.

The hunter group I had been leveling had been blessed with the Recruit-a-friend bonus, so having taken advantage of that up until level 60, I took my first steps into Outlands this weekend. I'm just a couple bubbles to 62, which sadly have to be grinded out since I ran out of quests -- yes, I did all of the collection quests including collecting 150 crashed zeppelin debris, 40 purified hellboar meats, and 60 buzzard wings.

I'm also re-leveling a bunch of NEW ghost saber cats. This will be the THIRD set of hunters that I've had to run around in darkshore collecting cat figurines for. I am completely nuts. They are about level 50 and under right now, and do not hold aggro whatsoever. Yet.

One should note that the Outlands are not exactly PvP-server friendly on weekends, and there were quite a few run-ins with horde. I dug my "mains" out, though Velani was still specced enh for raiding which isn't ideal, but I managed.

Speaking of enhancement...

Shammy KJ Offtanking ;)

In another epic encounter akin to my previous felmyst tanking goodness I once again pulled off an amazing string of dodges and resists (the particular tank for this mob had already died)...

Dual-boxing is just as fulfilling as 5-boxing

There's a common misconception that your worth as a multiboxer is measured by the number of characters you can play at one time.

Well, and let me say this as a very satisfied part-time dualboxer...

Size isn't everything.

Sexual innuendo aside, I've been taking advantage of the recent Recruit-A-Friend (RAF) bonus to level some alts that, under normal circumstances, I couldn't level up without getting bored.

Yes, that's right -- I'm leveling up TWO characters at a time, instead of my normal 5.

What classes? Well, I've got a nice little water vendor Mage, and a big feathery Boomkin.

Don't worry, though. I have reasons for my choices....

....In any case, my duo is a perfect pair.

While I could have made an entire team of 5 to level with them, I'm finding quite a bit of joy in the ability to micro-manage their abilities. Dual-boxing is definitely a seperate experience from 5-boxing, particularly because you can actually reliably split your attention between each of the two characters. Unlike 5-boxing, where you have to admit that... hey... you just can't earth shock 5 different targets reliably -- dual-boxing allows you the complexity of maintaining and managing different cooldowns and abilities at the same time.

I'm very pleased with my mage+boomkin duo, and later on in their leveling career they'll likely be paired up with some other characters and 5-boxed from 60-70... But I still enjoy dual-boxing just as much as 5-boxing. Sure, there isn't as much of the pewpew dps "oomph" compared to 4-5 dps, but the fun with dual-boxing is in the challenge anyway.