Dualboxing - What classes?

[Shiro_Hayate]

I've recently been playing WoW dualboxing (a Paladin and Warrior). I realized the biggest problem in WoW is that the combat was way too fast to be able to dualbox efficiently...so I started thinking, what game have I played that was much slower than WoW and would give me a huge advantage if I dualboxed. Most importantly, group members wouldn't realize I'm dualboxing because of how slow the combat is....

Final Fantasy XI!!!!!

So, I'm coming back. Now my question is, what classes are best for dualboxing? Mind you, I haven't played since 2007 so I don't know what changed.

[wrongfeifong]

Re: Dualboxing - What classes?

FFXI is indeed slower compare to WoW, but as for dualboxing, it will works but it will also be annoying as well. For one is the randomness you will get that making it very annnoying.

If you do missions that require Sneak/invisible. Dualing box will surely get you kill and slow down everyone's progress.

Boss fight are very fast and intensive in this game, not like WoW where everyone is patternize and have UT raid (forgot what the mod name) that does everything auto for you when the boss does certain thing.
Especially when the game usually consist 6 players fights dual box make it hard when even 1 person is important.

FFXI isn't wow. No Auto-botting for you during fights, no "detect who got what status and dispel automatically"

So dual box make it very hard especially during boss fight, you can do normal leveling with 2 melee class or even 2 BST class. Or NM camping.

[Armando]

Re: Dualboxing - What classes?

FFXI's combat system may be slow but it still doesn't lend itself well to dual boxing. Instead of fast-paced combat there's a lot of timers to keep track of, and mages need to be on the ball constantly with buff rotations, debuffs wearing off at random intervals, curing status ailment, dispelling stat boosts, etc.

If you insist on dual boxing, make the second character a Monk. They barely need an attention span to do what they do.

[Callisto]

Re: Dualboxing - What classes?

I would recommend the 2nd character being a Bard myself. The spell duration of their songs is relatively long and they are still very useful if they're doing nothing but casting them. Having a 75 BRD alt is also fantastic for powerleveling your lower level subjobs and such.

My 2nd account is a Ranger, which while more difficult to keep up with than BRD is still manageable since you only really have to tap one button every 4-5 seconds if you use a higher delay weapon like a Bow or Gun.

More importantly, don't try to hide the fact that you're 2boxing at events. People do it, it's acceptable many times, but people need to be aware that the 2nd character is not something you can play to 100% capacity so they don't plan the success of the run around you being able to.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Dualboxing - What classes?

I would recommend the 2nd character being a Bard myself. The spell duration of their songs is relatively long and they are still very useful if they're doing nothing but casting them. Having a 75 BRD alt is also fantastic for powerleveling your lower level subjobs and such.

My 2nd account is a Ranger, which while more difficult to keep up with than BRD is still manageable since you only really have to tap one button every 4-5 seconds if you use a higher delay weapon like a Bow or Gun.

More importantly, don't try to hide the fact that you're 2boxing at events. People do it, it's acceptable many times, but people need to be aware that the 2nd character is not something you can play to 100% capacity so they don't plan the success of the run around you being able to.

I dunno, I see people claiming BRD is easy to dual-box, I believe that as much as RDM melees being able to keep buffs on people.

Which is to say, not at all.

And most BRDs are expected to pull, as a result of that, people who play BRD main without dual-boxing have a hard time keeping buffs up.

Also - BRD, RNG, COR, THF, NIN and PLD all have to pay attention to positioning and timers at all levels of the game. This complicates things greatly, so I would pick jobs where that wasn't a requirement.

I think DNC is a good dual box job and if you can handle the positioning issue, they make an excellent partner for almost any job. DNC + any melee would require a lot less attention than, say a COR + SCH or BRD + NIN.

[Amberly]

Re: Dualboxing - What classes?

Pld and a Thf.

Plus is that you will never jack up SATA.
Minus is that if you do, you can not blame the other guy.

[Chainspell]

Re: Dualboxing - What classes?

lol there's been so many people dual-boxing in our server. As for not letting people know your dual-boxing... why not just tell them? it's pretty common and if you can handle yourself nobody will mind.

Besides people will know eventually, and there's alot more benefits to just coming out with it than hiding it. take it from me

[Telera]

Re: Dualboxing - What classes?

I've never understood the stigma that some people attach to dual boxers. Hell, to me, that requires more money and time effort than I'm sometimes willing to put in. There were, however, plenty of damn times I wished that I had Telera on one account and Caeryn on the other, just so I could PL Cae. Once most of my friends quit, I became much more insular and wanted to just do things alone. Difficult for some jobs, or just tedious on others.

And now, on LotRO, I find myself ardently wishing I dual-boxed. Not that the game is hard, but there's an odd lull around 38/39 where you can run out of solo quests and basically get stuck having to partner up or something to get to 42 or so, where you can solo again without it taking a million years a kill.

If I had a second computer, I would. Buy a lifetime sub for one, and then just pay the monthly on the other and have done.

I won't give job recommendations though. My highest job was Summoner @ 70, the rest never got over sub-job level. But I can agree that a mage job probably isn't the best to try to dual box, unless it's a PL situation.

[Armando]

Re: Dualboxing - What classes?

I don't think it's stigma so much as it is "I hope this guy doesn't mess up and kill us because of trying to use two characters at the same time."

I wouldn't hold dual boxing against anyone but if someone in the party tells me that the tank is also controlling the RDM I would be uneasy. It's not an easy feat.

[Callisto]

Re: Dualboxing - What classes?

I dunno, I see people claiming BRD is easy to dual-box, I believe that as much as RDM melees being able to keep buffs on people.

Which is to say, not at all.

And most BRDs are expected to pull, as a result of that, people who play BRD main without dual-boxing have a hard time keeping buffs up.

Also - BRD, RNG, COR, THF, NIN and PLD all have to pay attention to positioning and timers at all levels of the game. This complicates things greatly, so I would pick jobs where that wasn't a requirement.

I think DNC is a good dual box job and if you can handle the positioning issue, they make an excellent partner for almost any job. DNC + any melee would require a lot less attention than, say a COR + SCH or BRD + NIN.

I agree that playing BRD to capacity would be extremely difficult while 2boxing, I know from experience...I more mean that a BRD played to half capacity(doing nothing but singing buffs for example) is more beneficial under most circumstances than any other job being played in a similar fashion.

If it's an XP/Merit party, GTFO with 2boxing unless you're using an alt to outside Haste/PL, but for something like a Ballad mule against larger mobs, I think it's definitely doable.

[Telera]

Re: Dualboxing - What classes?

Oh no, I didn't mean here. I meant in general, for a while, I kept hearing people going on about dualboxers like they were cheating/exploiting somehow. And I kept thinking to myself 'They pay fees for both, both are legit characters being controlled by a person. There are no hacks or game-code bugs involved. I'm not seeing the cheat.'

More like, I attribute it to jealousy, or people who see it as lazy, but damn, if I take the time to level one character to cap and I can use that to make the alts' lives easier, you better believe I'll take it. Soon as I get a second PC, I'm dual-boxing LotRO.

I do understand the whole 'I hope he's paying attention and doesn't get me face-raped by that pugil' thing, though. That makes sense.

[Callisto]

Re: Dualboxing - What classes?

Also for reference I typically only play both of my characters simultaneously in one event, Einherjar...it's sort of a pickup group that is just to finish my alt's Buc Belt, and I haven't quite disclosed that it's a 2box It's definitely difficult to try and play both to capacity at once, though it helps that my RNG character is on the 360, so I can see both screens at once and control each character separately with relative ease.

That said, I certainly enjoy/would recommend having 2 accounts if it's not a big deal financially, but I typically would not recommend trying to fully play both at the same time. My 2nd account is mainly used for things like ToD gathering, Dynamis glass mule, and LS bank mule, to transfer non-deliverable items with relative ease; but in most content I'd say the group would benefit much more from me playing either character to full capacity than both to half.

Also, I recommend leveling different jobs on each, with the exception of maybe doubling up on certain useful jobs, such as BRD for self-PL purposes. I intend to level THF and BLM on my alt as soon as my main's WAR is done to give it a bit more utility.
______________________________

Oh no, I didn't mean here. I meant in general, for a while, I kept hearing people going on about dualboxers like they were cheating/exploiting somehow. And I kept thinking to myself 'They pay fees for both, both are legit characters being controlled by a person. There are no hacks or game-code bugs involved. I'm not seeing the cheat.'

The larger complaint is that people who 2box many times are trying to get the best gear for both accounts, or expect double points/rewards in their LS' drop system...2boxing is necessarily benefiting the group as I said previously, many times it's people just half-assing 2 jobs and sometimes messing things up because of it, yet they expect to get gear over others who play one job to full capacity.

[ospeff]

Re: Dualboxing - What classes?

The "main" character can be anything, this is the character you actually pay attention to, etc. The second character can be melee. Simplest one would be Samurai or Warrior, just put up hasso/berserker, auto attack, and WS when 100tp.

So... ANYTHING + SAM or WAR

If you plan on getting far without having to PT then the 1st one has to be something that can heal, like others said DNC would fit that nicely.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Dualboxing - What classes?

Oh no, I didn't mean here. I meant in general, for a while, I kept hearing people going on about dualboxers like they were cheating/exploiting somehow. And I kept thinking to myself 'They pay fees for both, both are legit characters being controlled by a person. There are no hacks or game-code bugs involved. I'm not seeing the cheat.'

When someone's dual boxing and then turn around and call it "soloing" I don't really consider them a credible soloist because so many factors are thrown out the window when you have outside help.

Otherwise, I don't give a damn if someone dual boxes at events, but I prefer they stay out of my EXP and merit PTs because they seldom if ever are as good as two actual players.

I just don't like BSTs who say they soloed to 75 when they had a RDM PL them every step of the way. They didn't learn to solo and they didn't learn a thing about pet hate. They get raped in BCNMs and I love to laugh at em

[Chainspell]

Re: Dualboxing - What classes?

well dual boxing... some people do that while eating pizza while watching a movie while chatting with 5 people while talking on the phone while leading an event while controlling 4 other characters while etc...

if you can handle yourself and you've got a lot of practice at it, dont let other people tell you what you're capable of