Two boxing

[Quinner Sparrowhawk]

This may appear to have little to do with tradeskilling but my main reason for asking is to make farming for components more effective. I may succumb to temptation and start a second account since my wife is getting a computer of her own. So, I would like to know the following:

1. What class combos work the best?
2. What is the most efficient physical set-up?
3. And anything else you can think of to help me 2-box.

[Lilosh]

People seem to do Tank/Healer alot.

Cleric/Warrior
Cleric/SK.

If the druid is over 57 or 58, He gets a decent enough CH to keep a non-planar tank alive while 2boxing.

Two root/rotting/nuking classes work well when duoing, I dont know about 2boxing.


-Lilosh

[Tinile]

If you are going to be levelling up to farm stuff, you might want an AoE class (dru/wiz). Also handy for farming is a mage or necro pet. I'm a druid and my hubby is a wiz and he goes around gathering mobs with his pull stick and I start my AoE, as it takes longer to cast, then he hits his and bammo, lots of dead mobs. Of course, a high level enc can plow through mobs if you can find a good pet. Shaman are good as well after 35 (pet).

You can go the healer/tank route, but casters have a much better ability to farm. If you do, I suggest shaman/warrior, as it's a great combo. Druid/pal is a good combo also.

/e stops rambling.

[Ariene]

Shaman / Monk is a really good duo.
Cleric / SK is a good duo to play with but not so great for farming.

Probably good to have at least one of the two be a forager.

You didn't state what your class is to start with so not sure what to say goes best with it.

[Delfontes]

I'd go with either Shaman/Warrior or Cleric/Warrior.

Clerics can keep you alive better... but later on a Shaman can make it so you don't really need to be kept alive.

Personally if I were trying to get my wife to play, I'd show her each and every class, and let her choose one.

Then pick one that I thought would compliment it best.

[Heimdall]

Mage + Druid

Casters are good for tradeskills, mage pets are awesome to farm supplies (far better than necros I found since DS will rip hoards of greens, at least in my experience). Druid has ports and SOW (very nice to have), forage (Very important if you tradeskill), Tracking (not great, but better than nothing), and he can heal and nuke fairly decent. This combo is somewhat easy, and provides tons of ways to hunt (just about every tactic imaginable). Succor is also nice if you want to get out of tight spot or go to Western Wastes. In my experience, I found that having both character being able to gate makes it FAR easier to hunt too, causing me to scrap SK + Cleric combo I had earlier. Also this combo can get you a full set of Elysian armor by lvl 51 without even needing an epic

Mage + Cleric is also not so bad, but far less tradeskiller-friedly, and I do expect them to nerf agro-less pet CH eventually.

[Lothay]

I've some small experience with 2-boxing.

I don't do it to farm often, but mostly to level one or the other character quickly. That said, I like to pair a healer/buffer with any melee focused types, and an enchanter with any caster type.

~Lothay

[Morani]

I'll take a stab at questions 2 and 3.

Set up the computers so that you can reach the mouse of the "puppet" character's box without having to get up AND in a way that you are comfortable. It's not an unusual thing to be using both mice for over 30 minutes at a time so make sure do don't have to stretch or contort in some way that will be uncomfortable/unsupported.

Obviously you'll want to be able to see both monitors from one place.

If you RP at ALL I recommend you get a UI mod that allows you to see the name of the "puppet" CLEARLY and DISTINCTLY or you will forget who's voice you are using. <blushes>

When setting up your hot keys and macros on the "puppet" computer think about the things that will make life easier for you: /follow on a clickable means you don't have to type.

Look into macros for casting spells and devote one of your hotkey pages to hotkey your spell gems. That way you can macro a chain of spells and end it with sitting for "one click" use. Leave the hotkey page of gems up and the social macros up and you can chain 4-5 spells with the /doability command.

Be redundant in your macro and hotkey pages. I.E. you might have "sit" appear in 6 different pages because it makes sense to have it there to avoid flipping pages.

Think about how you organize your macros/hotkeys for best efficiency and don't be afraid to change them as you learn.

If you make a forge capable toon that is used as a "puppet" than be sure to macro that ability or you will never remember to use it.

WARNING
2-boxing is addictive. Once you get use to doing it you will want to do it with other things too and eventually you'll start to suffer withdrawal if the 2nd character isn't around. 2-box responsibly and demonstrate moderation.

[EnfinitiStarr8]

Ranger and a Sham.

Ranger:
200 - Tracking (Track sort by /con, distance, can filter out PC, or /con MoBs such as red guards in an area you want green spiders)
200 - Forage (Lots of good items there)
DS - Has some nice Damage Shields later on in levels, got 20+ greens beating at once it adds up fast, they drop themselves.
SoW and PoK

Shaman:
(Iksar can forage some, all but Vah Shir can Imbune Gem at 29)
Great buffs all around.
Regen and heals
Pet (Sham can have Spirit Wolf and Ranger Wolf pets hehe)
Sham's can tank some also
SoW and Spiritstone and Gate and PoK

Together they make a great team.

[Hibashira]

If you want to farm things for tradeskills, you want the following:

1) portage
2a) melee + healage, or
2b) magic + mana regen
3) track
4) sow
5) snare
6) forage

Given that, your best bet would be combos such as:
Druid + any tank class or pet classes
Druid + Wizard
Druid + Chanter
Ranger + Wizard (short on mana regen but can still work well)

[Jianna]

2 boxers

I didn't plan it, but I two-box an Enchanter & Druid. It works exceptionally well for farming.

If you want to farm things for tradeskills, you want the following:
1) portage
2a) melee + healage, or
2b) magic + mana regen
3) track
4) sow
5) snare
6) forage

Chanter makes a pet, druid buffs it, chanter tashes mob to pull, pet kills it, rinse & repeat.

As for regular play time, it's a nice combo too, for both fear kiting & rotting. The druid is on the second machine and I'm a hotkey maniac. I have pages upon pages.

Be redundant in your macro and hotkey pages. I.E. you might have "sit" appear in 6 different pages because it makes sense to have it there to avoid flipping pages.

Absolutely! I have a bank of healing hotkeys set up in the names of the usual suspects I group with. 6 to 8 heal hotkeys, plus an assist, afk/follow and sit for my main page. When I get into a group, I put the correct heal hotkeys on my page and I'm ready to go.

First of all, tells to both characters are a royal pain in the butt. Therefore, I group them asap and have this hotkey on every page:

/target Jianna
/target Jianna
/follow
/afk Jianna's driving tonight, please talk to her. =)

As for heal hotkeys, they are a complete necessity. I can slow, mez, stun, buff, etc. all the while glancing at computer #2 and clicking the hotkey named Soandso, keeping my group healed. Healing hotkeys are setup like this:

/target Soandso
/target Soandso
/pause 2, /cast 8
/cast 8

(I put the double target in there in case of lag. The pause is in case the first cast fizzles.)

Now, I have a second set of characters that fight together, a Cleric & Warrior. The Cleric is on the 2nd computer. Her hotkeys are setup differently.

/stand
/g Celestial Healing %t!
/pause 2, /cast 8
/pause 40, /cast 8
/sit

Or if I'd rather not click on the group member to target due to lag or fast pulls, etc: (This requires a bunch of hotkeys personalized for your group, but is very handy once you've taken the time to make them.)

/target Soandso
/stand
/pause 2, /cast 8
/pause 40, /cast 8
/sit

Pause is the only command you can stack on a line with another command and the pause has to come first even though you want the pause after the cast. The pause to wait before sitting is however long it takes to cast your spell. If you right click the spell and it says Cast Time: 3.8, then your pause should be 38, if it's 10.0, then the pause should be 100. (You may have to add a second or two, just test it and see.)

My best advice is that two-boxing can get a little hairy at times. Stick with it, you'll get the hang of it. If you feel stressed out, camp one and you'll feel better.

WARNING
2-boxing is addictive. Once you get use to doing it you will want to do it with other things too and eventually you'll start to suffer withdrawal if the 2nd character isn't around. 2-box responsibly and demonstrate moderation.

Yes, if Lianna isn't trailing behind Jianna, I feel like something is very wrong.

[kiztent]

I have the following set up:

21" monitor ahead and left, 17" ahead and right.

Keyboard under each monitor.

2 mice to right of both keyboards (left mouse, left box, right mouse, right box).

Just make sure you have a hotkey follow on the off box.

Now, on to the classes.

I'd recommend having a wizard or druid on one box for deliveries (not really needed now). Having a spare forager helps too (park the ranger in east karana while hunting).

You need a melee and a healer. Generally, when you 2 box, you pay more attention to one screen than the other. So you want to pick the off box to be one that doesn't lose effectiveness when you don't pay attention.

You have a couple of options. Consider this: you need a snarer. This means your tank is a SK or a ranger, or your healer is a druid.

For a SK main box, cleric would seem a wise choice. Clerics lose the least effectiveness when you bot them (AoF, hero, symbol, slap CH macro). However, clerics are... delicate. They can't invis, and the SK can't invis them, neither of you will have sow. Shaman is the obvious partner here. Even though you lose a LOT botting a shaman (canni), 75 percent slow > all. Make an ogre to imbue jade (sigh, I picked a cat).

For a ranger main box, cleric is probably a better partner. Bigger AC and HP buffs, ranger has better damage output than a SK so doesn't need haste as much as a SK (SK damage output sucks).

Druid main box, I'd take paladin for the heals. With no slow and weaker heals a druid is going to need some help in the healing department.

Obviously, you could make any combination work (enchanter/SK is popular, SK self heals with enchanter mana regen, enchanter has mad haste and can slow some).

Personally, I prefer the SK/shaman combo. 2 buffed hasted pets, and me wailing on a slow mob with lifetaps to cover additional healing if slow is resisted. Rawr.

Currently I have on my left account (that's the one I pay attention to): 56 SK, 53 ENC, 47 ranger, 34 mage, 16 SK (tinker)

The right account is: 54 shaman, 54 cleric, 17 druid, bazaar mule

[Legenial]

(I put the double target in there in case of lag. The pause is in case the first cast fizzles.)

All my bot-macro's look like this:

/sit off
/pause 5,/target legenial
/pause 2,/cast 2
/cast 2

The /pause in front of the /target fixes any lag issues and gives you an extra line to do stuff in

In that light, if you're using a druid bot, you could use that line to do a forage (using /doability &lt;number of forage button>).. Just need to remember to click the foraged item into your inventory after hitting the heal

[Emelyn]

Enchanter/Druid works astoundingly well.

Enchanter is a way better farmer than most people think.

[Quinner Sparrowhawk]

Wow! Thanks for all of the feedback. I expect to have the second box and account up and running in June when school gets out. I will be sampling all of the different combos and generally having too much fun. It will be very nice to have nothing to do but get up and play EQ.........and go to Certification Classes, Yearbook Seminars, School Inservice, etc. And they call it summer vacation.

My wife unfortunately hates any game more complicated than solitare.