When I started this blog (almost exactly two years ago), I had a good bit of time I was able to devote to writing and blogging, and I also needed some sort of creative outlet. Since I was just getting back into WoW after a break, and had just recently gotten into reading a lot of blogs, I thought the idea of starting my own blog about one of my hobbies was a great idea. And it absolutely was. Over the following months I learned a ton about doing things online, met some great people, and had a complete blast writing about my experiences and helping other people enjoy WoW more.

At this point though, my desire to take the time to blog about WoW is waning. It’s not just a lack of time (although that is part of it), but rather I don’t care anymore to spend hours and hours on WoW (and WoW-related things) like I used to do. I used to love to pore over new gear that came out with a new patch, and spend long hours reading up on strategy and discussing new ideas with my guildies, but that just doesn’t hold my interest as much any more.

I still enjoy playing WoW, but it’s not the all-consuming timesink that it once was. So, I think now’s a good time to stop blogging here and explore some new areas that I’m interested in.

Readers, thank you all very much for coming here and reading what I’ve had to say. I hope I’ve been able to brighten your day occasionally, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know you all. May all your PUGs go smoothly and all your drops be epic.

My fellow bloggers, I tip my hat to you and wish you all the best. May all your readers be friendly and all of your comments be non-spam.

I’d like to think we’ll meet again. If I start up any new online projects, I’ll be sure to let you know here.

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I realized after writing the first part of this guide that I mentioned the RAF program but never gave any details on it. If you’re going to be multiboxing a toon, there’s no reason not to sign up for the RAF. If you want to buy another copy of WoW and another subscription, you can, but you can also do the RAF with a free trial account as well. Head over here, send yourself an RAF email, then follow the instructions in the email. You can then create a new trial account and get the RAF XP bonus on both toons.

Just remember, trial accounts are very limited in what they can do: no trades or mail with paying players, and they can’t progress past level 20.

Gameplay

Now that you’ve got AHK set up properly, go ahead and set it to run in the Windows system tray. It does have to be going while you play WoW, but it won’t take up too many resources. Now you can start up two instances of WoW. Once they’re going I recommend setting them to run in Windowed Mode (under video settings) as this will dramatically increase performance. Even if your computer is man enough to run both in full screen, you’ll still save time when you have to Alt-Tab to the other window (and you’ll be doing a good bit of that).

Once you have two windows of WoW going, set your alt character to follow your main and then check to make sure that all of your macros are working. Hit one of your hotkeys on your main character, and make sure that your alt does the corresponding action. If it does, then you’re good to start questing. If it doesn’t, then you probably got something messed up in the script code. Go back and make sure that it’s all correct.

Controlling two characters at the same time is a whole new level of gameplay. It’s strange and disorienting, but also engaging and really fun. It’ll take a bit to get used though, so don’t give up too quickly. When you’re questing, you’ll have to switch back and forth between your characters to make sure that your alt is getting everything too. Accepting quests, talking to NPCs, and interacting with the environment all have to be done from the particular character’s window. There’s no way to accept a quest on your main and have the alt toon accept it as well. It gets a bit tedious at times, but overall it’s much faster.

Once you’ve got some quests and are ready to start questing (bags are clear, you have water and all that jazz), you can head out into the wild. There are a number of things I could tell you about this, but I’ll just stick to the highlights. Most of it you’ll find out on your own easily enough.

1) Set loot to FFA. This will help minimize switching back and forth between characters. When you run out of bag space on your main, trade everything to your alt toon, and keep going.

2) You want to accept every kill quest you can find. These sorts of quests go very quickly and are super easy to do with two characters. Gathering quests are more difficult since both characters have to gather their own set of the loot. I found it was best to let the alt character gather his whole set first, and then let my main toon start gathering. That way anytime you see something sparkly, you know you need to pick it up. You don’t have to switch back and forth to see how many your alt toon has gotten.

3) While in combat, it’s easy to get one toon turned around so he’s not facing the mob. If your alt toon’s back is to the mob, then he can’t attack. Keep that in mind as you run around, and you’ll get the hang of steering pretty soon.

Well, I think that’s pretty much it. Like I said, there is more to learn, but this covers all of the basics and most of the rest you can learn on your own.

Other Resources

Dual-Boxing.com

Wowwiki

Have fun!

If you’ve been around the WoW or MMO scene for any length of time, chances are very good that you’re familiar with, or have at least heard of, multiboxing. Multiboxing is when you are controlling multiple characters at the same time, whether it be two or more instances of WoW open on the same computer, or more than one computer, each with their own program of WoW.

Multiboxing can be useful for a number of reasons. The first, and most common reason, is that it makes killing things very easy. Many people multibox for quicker leveling, and some even do it in PvP to easily take down the competition. It can also be done to let a higher level character help a lower level one. Let’s take a look at how exactly multiboxing is done.

Multibox Lite

If you have more than one WoW account, or even just one paid account and one trial account, you can do a very simple version of multiboxing rather easily. Just open up two instances of WoW, one for each account, tell one character to /follow the other, and you’re set. I’ve done this numerous times to drag a lowbie alt through a dungeon on one of my higher level characters.

The main problem with this is that the second character can’t contribute or interact in any way. This doesn’t matter too much when you’re playing a high level character, but if you have two toons around the same level doing some quests, having both of them attacking at the same time will definitely speed things up.

The big advantage to multiboxing properly is that both of your characters are always contributing in some manner, whether it’s by attacking, healing or some other function.

Multiboxing Program

There are a number of programs out there to assist you in multiboxing. The one that I use is called AutoHotKey. It’s free, it can handle everything you need it to, and it’s also very easy to set it up for multiboxing. (It’s safe too - no keyloggers or spyware.)

AHK allows you to send your keystrokes automatically to multiple programs. So when you’re multiboxing you’ll be playing your main character, and the keys that you hit will be automatically sent to your other toon(s). Here’s how it works.

Once you’ve got AHK downloaded and installed, you need to edit the script, delete everything that is in there currently, and put in the following script:

WinGet, wowid, List, World of Warcraft

~XX::
KeyWait XX
IfWinActive, World of Warcraft
{
ControlSend,, XX, ahk_id %wowid1%
ControlSend,, XX, ahk_id %wowid2%
Return
}

You will need to change XX to the key that you want duplicated, and you can do multiple keys. So, for instance, if you wanted keys 1, 2 and 3 duplicated, then your script would look like this:

WinGet, wowid, List, World of Warcraft

~1::
KeyWait 1
IfWinActive, World of Warcraft
{
ControlSend,, 1, ahk_id %wowid1%
ControlSend,, 1, ahk_id %wowid2%
Return
}
~2::
KeyWait 2
IfWinActive, World of Warcraft
{
ControlSend,, 2, ahk_id %wowid1%
ControlSend,, 2, ahk_id %wowid2%
Return
}
~3::
KeyWait 3
IfWinActive, World of Warcraft
{
ControlSend,, 3, ahk_id %wowid1%
ControlSend,, 3, ahk_id %wowid2%
Return
}

If you want 4, 5, and 6, or Q, E, and R to be duplicated as well you can extend the script to include them.

A quick caveat on using AHK: Using the program as I’ve detailed is completely legal. Hitting one key and having one keystroke sent is fine. If you start playing around with AHK and add in a delay or start sending multiple keystrokes, that is crossing the line into botting and will get you banned.

Macros

Now that you’ve gotten AHK set up, you need to get some macros done as well. Most of the macros will need to be done for the secondary character, but there are a few for the main character that will help as well.

The first thing you need to do is decide which spells on the two characters you want paired up (i.e., cast at the same time). Since I was multiboxing a mage and a priest, I went with Frostbolt/Power Word: Shield, Fireball/Smite, and Fire Blast/Mind Blast.

Frostbolt, Fireball, Fire Blast is my normal spell rotation on my mage so I bound those spells to keys 1, 2, and 3. (You don’t have to do anything special for your main character here. Just pick your three spells, and bind them to the keys.)

For the secondary character, you’ll have to make macros for the spells. In my case, I made the following macros and bound them to keys 1, 2, and 3 on my priest.

Macro One:

/tar (Mage)
/cast Power Word: Shield

Macro Two:

/assist (Mage)
/cast Smite

Macro Three:

/assist Mage
/cast Mind Blast

A /follow macro for the secondary character will help a lot, saving you the trouble of having to type it every time.

/follow (Mage)

You’ll also need an invite macro for the main character.

/invite (Priest)

Check back soon for the second part.

First off, the achievement -

You know what? Achievement is too long of a word to type every time, and I always get stuck trying to remember whether the e or the i comes first. From now on I’m going to abbreviate achievement as “achy”. (Pronounced “atch-ee”, not ache-y.)

First off, the achy requires you to do some PvP, which is an unpopular thing with most of WoW’s player base. A pretty large section of WoW players don’t PvP at all, and a bunch more PvP occasionally but have a low tolerance for many of the frustrating things that happen in PvP (like, you know, losing =) ). Having to spend a relatively large amount of time in several BGs is more than a lot of WoW players were prepared to do.

The second problem with the achy is that it’s been decried as being “too hard”. It’s pretty easy to zoom through most of the other Children’s Week achies and quests, and then you get to this one and it may take a few tries.

So is it really as bad as people have made it out to be? Should it be removed from the meta? Should I knock off early from work and go get a margarita?

The answers are: Yes and no, no, and YES.

I do think that achy is a bad one, but not for the reasons that people have been saying. Here’s what’s *not* wrong with it:

1) Just because it’s a PvP achy doesn’t make it bad. Sure, you may not PvP much, and you may be used to zooming through a lot of other achies, but it’s OK for something to be different every now and then. Try some PvP, and who knows? Maybe you’ll enjoy it.

2) It’s not “too hard”. Trying to complete an achy in a PvP environment might take some getting used to, but that doesn’t make it too hard. It might take you a couple of tries to get it done, but that’s OK. It is, after all, something that has to be achieved. It’s certainly possible to get the achy done in the time frame given.

Here’s what *is* wrong: For the first time in WoW, people on the same team are forced to compete against each other to accomplish a goal. If you cap the tower in AV, then the guy next to you can’t. If you grab the flag in EoTS, then your guildie can’t (at least until it repops, but that’s another point).

Blizzard has always been careful to avoid this sort of intra-team competition in the past. Everyone gets the same amount of rep and honor for the same amount of work. It doesn’t matter if you cap the flag yourself or not. It doesn’t matter if you’re number one or number 20 on the DPS chart. You’re not competing against the people on your team for rewards. Even the old BG quests (like this one) just required you to be in the area when the action was completed. You didn’t have to take the mine yourself so long as you were close by when it was done.

That changed with this achy. Not only are people not concerned with winning the BG, they are only focused on getting the achy criteria completed. “Sorry I can’t help kill that Hordie, I have to cap this flag here and then /afk out.” “Sorry I can’t stop to help you there, I have to race all the way up to DBN tower and cap it before anyone else gets it.”

I think that Blizzard would defend this by saying that there are plenty of opportunities for you to get your stuff done. If you miss capping one tower because someone else grabbed it, you can hop into another BG soon and try again. But the fact remains that you’re still competing against your own teammates, and that’s never a good thing.

There are a couple of easy ways to fix this. 1) Change the criteria so that you can complete them by being in the area when it’s done, or 2) change the achy so that the criteria are team goals.

1) is probably the simpler of the two. Just make it so that everyone gets credit for being there when the tower is capped or the flag is returned. That way everyone is still doing the same things, but now they’re not competing against their teammates for the credit.

2) would take a bit more work, but would solve the problem just as well. Change the criteria of the achy to be team goals - for instance, winning one match of each of the BGs with your orphan out. This way everyone is working toward the same goal and the problem is solved.

Some part of me saw this (or a similar change) coming. Blizz has been saying for a while now that Pallies have too much burst in PvP, but not enough sustained damage in PvE, so giving us a new instant cast nuke was clearly not going to help the PvP situation even though it might help in PvE. So here we have Blizzard’s none-too-delicate solution to the problem (which they agree is not too good, and is hopefully temporary).

So how did I take the news this morning? Umm… not well. I felt threatened and bummed, and for a second, I gave into the Blizz-is-gonna-nerf-us-to-the-ground-the-sky-is-falling-OH-NOES!! mindset. And the funny thing is that the nerf doesn’t really even affect me that much. I don’t do much PvP at all, and the original change to Exorcism (allowing us to use it on the non-undead) had only been live for two days.

Isn’t it funny how we can react so irrationally to news like that? Fortunately, there’s help. There is a psychological concept called the Grief Cycle, which explains the mind’s reaction to hearing bad news. The bad news being heard can be pretty much anything - it’s commonly used in the discussion of death, terminal illness, and things of that sort, but I think it applies equally well to to having your class nerfed in WoW. Allow me to walk you through it as I explain what I was thinking this morning.

Shock - Anger - Denial - Mourning - Acceptance

The first emotion experienced after hearing bad news is that of Shock. What?? We got nerfed again?? Two days after the patch?!?! Really??

Anger comes next. May be heavily laced with sarcasm. Well, that’s just so typical. Blizzard hates Pallies. I don’t know why I even play one anymore. All Blizzard does to them is nerf, nerf, nerf. Sometimes they’ll buff us just to raise our hopes so they can crush them again. I hate Blizzard, I hate this stupid game! Why do I even play it?? Gah!

Followed by Denial. No, this can’t be true. So soon after the patch? With no warning? Surely there’s been a mistake. Maybe I can find the original notice from Blizzard. Surely it was taken out of context. Maybe the whole thing is a big misunderstanding.

Mourning. I found the notice. No misunderstanding. The change is real. Pallies are dead.

Last comes Acceptance. Maybe it’s not so bad. I mean, I don’t really even PvP that much so I probably won’t even notice it. Maybe I don’t hate Blizzard. Maybe I should take down that paper-mache red crab I made this morning with plans to burn it later. Maybe the sky isn’t falling. Hmm, I should probably log in and do some dailies. OK, Blizzard, I love you again.

So there you have it. A normal, healthy Grief Cycle. These are the steps the mind has to take in order to deal with bad news. The problem that a lot of WoW players have with this is that they allow (or make, depending on your point of view) themselves to wallow in the Anger stage. This is when 85% of all WoW forum posts are written.

So what can you do when your class is nerfed? First off, remove yourself from the QQers. By this I mean don’t read, listen, or talk to someone who is determined to wallow in Shock or Anger. It will only cause you to stay in this stage and increase the trauma. If you want to read about WoW stuff, read some of the good bloggers who handle this sort of stuff in a mature fashion (like Rohan did this morning). Otherwise, steer clear of WoW stuff altogether until you’ve moved on from the issue.

Secondly, know the stages that your mind is going to go through, and don’t do anything you’ll regret in the early stages. This includes making one of those 85% of WoW forums posts. Just stay away until you can discuss the issue rationally.

That said, Blizzard sucks and if they nerf me again I swear I’ll quit.

Do you think Blizz underestimated the amount of work left to do on 3.1 when they decided to put it on the PTR? People always clamor for more content regardless of how quickly Blizz puts out new stuff, but just about everyone is ready for 3.1 to come along now. I can’t imagine that Blizz wouldn’t like to have it ready and out by now, despite their reputation for hanging on to projects until they are totally and completely ready.

***

Shaman totems. What an absolute pain in the bohonkus. I can’t think of a more limited and frustrating class mechanic than totems (well, maybe soulshards, but I think totems are still worse). “You can get some more strength or spellpower… so long as you don’t leave this 20 yard circle.” Can you imagine Fortitude or Intellect working like that?

Two things Blizz needs to do to make totems workable: 1) Make totems center on the shaman instead of a particular spot on the ground. This would make the totems portable and help with having to recast so frequently. 2) Increase their duration. Making the totems portable would be a great help, but if they only last 30 or 60 seconds it would still be a frustrating system. Make them last 5 or 10 minutes - long enough to survive boss fights, but not so long that Shamans don’t ever have to think about them.

***

Speaking of soulshards, I was perplexed by the recent changes Blizz made to them. The problems with shards are that they take up a large amount of inventory room (or an entire bag slot), are tiresome to acquire, and are absolutely essential for any raiding warlock. Blizz changed things so that shards are easier to acquire, but put a limit on the number locks can have, thereby increasing the need to acquire them. I’m not sure what the point of all of that was.

***

Speaking of inventory (did you like that segue again there?), I have noticed lately that there are a few characters that I’m avoiding playing because I haven’t cleaned out their bags and bank lately. I know that I’ll need to clean out their bags before I can go quest, but the thought of doing that chore is keeping me from playing them. Am I the only one who does this? My warrior, particularly, is one of these. He still has the items from his last Kara run in his bags and I shudder to think of the clean up job I’m going to have to do when I finally play him again.

***

I’ve been in the Outlands a good deal lately working on my Chef title. I had to do the old cooking dailies to get a couple of recipe drops for the Outland Gourmet, and I’ve also been doing the fishing daily to get the Captain Rumsey’s Lager recipe. It’s sorta strange being back in Shattrath now. It’s not quite as barren as IF and Org were right after the BC release, but it’s close. Thankfully, Blizz was nice and gave us a portal to Shat from Dalaran, so getting out there is super easy.

***

The Horde needs a flight path at the Bulwark, already!

***

I think the worst leveling stretch in the game now is 50 to 58. It seems to take as long from 50 to 58 as it does to go from 35 to 50. Is this just me again? There just don’t seem to be enough quests out there. And what really gets me is that we used to do it all the time before the quest XP was increased in 2.3, and it somehow seemed easier then. I guess the difference is that we used to run more dungeons to supplement the questing XP, but I don’t remember running that many??

On to the links:

Wowhead has their usual version of the PTR patch notes up here. It’s pretty much the same as the official WoW.com version, but this one has all of the links already entered so it’s easier to look into stuff a bit more deeply.

***

Blizzard posted a new policy on UI addons for WoW that I found interesting. In particular,

1) Add-ons must be free of charge.
All add-ons must be distributed free of charge. Developers may not create “premium” versions of add-ons with additional for-pay features, charge money to download an add-on, charge for services related to the add-on, or otherwise require some form of monetary compensation to download or access an add-on.
…
4) Add-ons may not include advertisements.
Add-ons may not be used to advertise any goods or services.
…
5) Add-ons may not solicit donations.
Add-ons may not include requests for donations. We recognize the immense amount of effort and resources that go into developing an add-on; however, such requests should be limited to the add-on website or distribution site and should not appear in the game.

Number One was obviously done in response to Carbonite’s release of the pay version of their addon. I haven’t heard of any addons with ads in them, to necessitate number Four, but you know it was only a matter of time before someone decided to put some in. And QuestHelper will definitely be affected by number Five, as it asks for donations in-game currently.

I’m interested to see how this affects these addons going forward. There’s obviously a ton of work required to keep some of the more popular addons going and up to date and I’m curious to see if their authors will keep doing all of that work if their income from it gets cut sharply.

***

Rohan, from BoK, started a raiding wiki not too long ago called Raider 101. As the name suggests, it’s geared towards people who are newer to raiding and who are just looking for a basic intro to how to play their class in a raid setting. It’s got some great info up already, and a few of the sections still need some help getting filled out. Go check it out and, if you can, lend a hand filling out the last few articles.

Druid Talent Specs

Go check them out and let me know what you think!

I’ve always used WarcraftPets.com to look through the different pets and find new ones that I can get, but they recently started a great new function that lets you track your pet collection and find new ones more easily. If you are interested in getting the 50 (or 75) mini-pet Achievement, I highly recommend using this tool to help you keep track of everything.

They’re Mine, All Mine!

Right now, I’m at 44 pets, so I need 6 more for the Achievement. Here’s my collection so far, broken down into categories as to how they are obtained. If you’re looking to start your own collection, a lot of these can be obtained fairly easily.

Rare Drop - 1

Green Wing Macaw

Vendors - 30

Ancona Chicken
Black Kingsnake
Blue Dragonhawk Hatchling
Blue Moth
Bombay Cat
Brown Prairie Dog
Brown Rabbit
Brown Snake
Cockatiel
Cockroach
Cornish Rex Cat
Crimson Snake
Ghostly Skull
Golden Dragonhawk Hatchling
Great Horned Owl
Hawk Owl
Mana Wyrmling
Orange Tabby
Red Dragonhawk Hatchling
Red Moth
Senegal
Siamese Cat
Silver Dragonhawk Hatchling
Silver Tabby Cat
Snowshoe Rabbit
Tree Frog
White Kitten
White Moth
Wood Frog
Yellow Moth

Quested - 6

Jubling
Mechanical Chicken
Miniwing
Smolderweb Hatchling
Westfall Chicken
Worg Pup

Created - 3

Lil’ Smoky
Mechanical Squirrel
Tranquil Mechanical Yeti

Seasonal - 3

Father Winter’s Helper
Peddlefeet
Winter’s Little Helper

Other - 1

Baby Blizzard Bear

Sorting Through The Rest

According to Warcraft Pets, there are currently 111 mini-pets in game, counting all sources (drops, quests, vendors, TCG loot, etc), but there are a bunch of pets that I either can’t (e.g., one-time event) or won’t (e.g., TCG loot) obtain. After throwing out all of those, there are a total of 84 pets that I can get, and I have 44 of them so far. So I’ve got 40 pets remaining to try and get my hands on.

Rare Drop - 10

Azure Whelpling
Phoenix Hatchling
Mojo
Black Tabby
Crimson Whelpling
Dark Whelpling
Disgusting Oozeling
Emerald Whelpling
Firefly
Hyacinth Macaw

Rep Grind - 7

Tiny Sporebat - Exalted with Sporregar
Pengu - Exalted with The Kal’uak
Nether Ray Fry - Exalted with Sha’tari Skyguard
Cobra Hatchling - Chance to get it at Revered with The Oracles
Proto-Drake Whelp - Chance to get it at Revered with The Oracles
Tickbird Hatchling - Chance to get it at Revered with The Oracles
White Tickbird Hatchling - Chance to get it at Revered with The Oracles

Fishing - 6

Toothy
Snarly
Muckbreat
Magical Crawdad
Chuck
Giant Sewer Rat

Created - 1

Lifelike Toad

Seasonal - 13

Tiny Snowman
Whiskers the Rat
Willy
Winter Reindeer
Wolpertinger
Speedy
Spirit of Competition
Spirit of Summer
Scorchling
Sinister Squashling
Peanut
Mr. Wiggles
Egbert

Achievements - 3

Stinker
Little Fawn
Kirin Tor Familiar

Moving Forward

Of those 40 pets, not all are good choices for obtaining immediately-ish. The seasonal pets obviously have to wait until their season comes around, and two of the three Achievement pets are rewards for getting pets, so I’ll have to wait to get them. The Kirin Tor Familiar, though, might be a good option, if a bit difficult to get.

The Lifelike Toad is definitely a great option. The recipe is a world drop, so it’s a bit difficult to get, but the mats aren’t bad at all and I’m sure I can find someone to make it easily. So there’s one of the 6.

It’s looking like anything else going to be a grind of some sort, whether it be rep or mobs. I think I’ll probably go for one or two of the dragon whelplings, because I’ve always admired them ever since I started playing WoW, but never had the money to buy one or the desire to grind the drop until now.

I think I’ll go with this:

Lifelike Toad
Pengu
2 of the dragon whelplings
2 of the Oracle-Revered pets

And that’ll be 50!