Interview with a 10-Boxer

I have something new for everyone today. After watching some of Nixi's 10-Boxing Kara adventures I thought it would be interesting to have a little chat with him. I sent Nixi an email asking him if he would be interested. Thankfully he was keen to help. Although it turns out he was a little too keen!

Welcome to my biggest post EVAR!

Why don't you start out by telling us a bit about yourself?

I'm a 26 year old expatriate that has been living in China for around 4 years.

How long have you been playing World of Warcraft?

I first heard about World of Warcraft when it was released in 2004. However I was still working my way through college, and knowing full well the addictive qualities of online games after a long romance with EQ, I decided not to try it out despite the rave reviews and positive word of mouth.

When I moved to Beijing in 2005, I saw just how popular the game was on the international front. Coke paired up with The9, (Wow's operation team in China) to advertise the booming game in many mediums. I believe I recall seeing ads on Coke cans, in addition to billboards, and of course every Internet cafe had to have the obligatory WoW poster hanging somewhere around it's establishment. I was well aware of the game's popularity and success, even though I actually held out playing until February of 2006. I remember walking through an alley with an American friend and my Hong Kong girlfriend when we pass an Internet cafe that was proudly displaying a banner with some Chinese words scrawled across and WOW characters on either side.

My American friend, Steve, made a comment that he played Wow back in the US and it was pretty awesome. We decided to go in the Internet cafe and have a look around. The cafe was just outside my apartment, so I was familiar with it and I even went in to use the computers before, so I was pretty comfortable in the thick cigarette smoke and heat. I'd say about half the people, maybe more, were playing World of Warcraft. We rented a computer and the guy beside us was playing, so we kind of hovered over him and got his attention. We managed to get him to register an account for us, so the three of us, my girlfriend, Steve and I just made a character to see if we could figure it out. After two more computers opened up, the three of us got the same guy to register 2 more accounts so we made a party of Night elves - Druid, Rogue and Warrior. I was pretty much addicted after that.

That i-cafe was only a 2 minute walk from my apartment building, and it had a discount on computer time from 8am to noon, so I'd wake up at 8am and go there to play every morning. IIRC the cost was around 50 cents an hour, and during the discount time when I played it was half that. My g/f was getting aggravated that I would stay at the i-cafe for hours to play, so she suggested I start playing at home. Plus my clothes just reeked of cigarette smoke.

Next came the search for the elusive software store in China. I quickly found out there are none. At least nothing that reminds me of Electronics Boutique. Actually, pretty much everyone thought I was an idiot for wanting to -buy- a copy of World of Warcraft. I couldn't get any kind of intelligible answer from anyone, mainly because my g/f's and my Mandarin sucked. We went to the high-tech shopping area where everyone goes for electronics, no EB's there, but plenty of knockoff boxes of various software packages and games. No World of Warcraft. After more searching we finally saw the game's logo and pictures, and we'd ask about buying a copy of the game, but the retailers were confused and didn't have any discs. In the end, someone finally managed to communicate to us that we just needed to log onto China's official WOW site and download the client, for FREE!
I didn't like the idea of waiting for two days to download something so I kept pestering people about getting me disks for the game, to no avail. Actually I can't remember how I ended up with the game on my laptop, but it finally got there. About two months prior to getting WOW, I graduated college, while still abroad. I just had a few credits missing from some research paper that I put off. My language skills were stagnant, mostly due to laziness, but also because most Chinese entertainment just isn't that entertaining to a foreigner. So when my friend Steve and I entered that i-cafe thinking about making WOW characters, our big excuse was, "Doesn't having a hobby help you learn a language?"

I installed the game on her laptop, and we would play together on occasion. My friend Steve left Beijing to some sad little town down south, and he never logged back on. I ended up levelling my own Toon, and my girlfriend's. She just didn't like the grind, actually she just didn't like the game. Like many women, she down right hated the amount of time I was spending on it, but nonetheless she was rather understanding about it and we were together for almost two years after that.

What was experience in World of Warcraft Pre Multi-Boxing?

I was basically a loner when I was playing. My written Chinese wasn't very good, and I was still very interested in the whole levelling up thing. I'd convince my girlfriend to play with me and then I was comfortable joining groups. Naturally she could read the Chinese without much trouble, there were only some slang terms she didn't full understand, since she comes from a different part of China than the server we were playing on.

I remember the last time she really played with me. We were in Zul'Farak, and she had to tank with her Warrior. The group was just bad mouthing her tanking skills and she got really upset. I wanted her to stick it out, but she bailed on us. After that I started a dwarf priest. The whole goal was to not look up any skills or abilities on English sites and immerse myself into the Chinese. I picked a priest so I could make friends.  Somewhere around Darkshore I ran into a Rogue and we quested together. I can't remember how it came up, but we started speaking English and he guilded me. I didn't like the priest much, so I took over my girlfriend's warrior.

She was my main Toon until I quit the Alliance somewhere in BWL. I never got to play any important roles during our guild activities. We always had like 7-8 warriors for every raid, and i was handicapped with my communication skills. My girlfriend was tired of me playing World of Warcraft all day, and when I wasn't playing I was obsessing over this DPS spreadsheet I developed so that I could optimise my contribution and pick the best items with DKP. Back in the day the only tools was like the first version of Deathwing's spreadsheet on EJ's forums. I basically took my sheet and his sheet and combined them. I added a simulation. The only formula that I copied from Deathwing's sheet was the formula to calculate the haste from Flurry. To this day I don't quite understand how to mathematically figure it out, hence the simulation on my sheet.

She found me a job in gaming. Lots of people at the office play WOW, so a couple months after my hiring someone came up with a 'neutral' Horde server (one that no one had a main) and many of us re-rolled. I became the puppet guild master and we were one of the fastest growing / progressing guilds on the server. We made it into Naxx before something rained on our parade.

Basically there was some kind of hiccup between Blizzard, The9, and presumably the Chinese Government. Content patches, that we expected a week after US patches, stopped coming and while everyone back home was enjoying pre-TBC 2.0 we were stuck, with 1.8... for MONTHS. Then when TBC came out, we were stuck with 2.0 for like 6 more months. I stopped playing Chinese servers somewhere in mid 2007 and started playing US servers.

I was WAY behind the times because TBC was already out and people were downing T5 content and I was starting from scratch. Although I fell in love with the new features of TBC right from the get-go. I levelled a Warrior up to around 40, got mysteriously banned after getting a key-logger, and then I started a new account, another warrior. Long story short, got all my accounts back, and ended up leveling 2 warriors to 70.

Playing on US servers was a breath of fresh air. Communicating was amazing. I was able to lead groups, raids, and just develop deeper relationships. It was really nice to get back in touch with some US citizens. I could go on and on about the differences between CWOW and USWOW, but I'm already in the middle of writing a book. hehe. I stopped playing US servers after dealing with latency, connection instability and random times when the Great Firewall simply would not let me connect, for like days. Even now I can't load Wowwiki anymore. I used to live at that site while developing my Warrior Spreadsheet. But it's been blocked for well over a year now.

What was it that drew you to Multi-Boxing?

In my last days of playing on US servers, I saw a Draenei mage run past me in Menethil Harbor with a line of shaman pups in tow. My jaw fell to my lap and I was one of those people that just started following the dude. I was basically like, "I used to dual box all the time, but how in the hell are you controlling 5 guys THAT well?"  He already had his formation button set up, and macros, everyone danced at the same time and went in and out of ghost wolf. I followed him on the boat and he told me "Keyclone". Go to www.dual-boxing.com for help. If you can't figure it out just PM me. It's a bit complicated at first" I went straight to dual-boxing, read all the stickies, bought Keyclone and I was in for a world of fail playing my two warriors together. Melee just doesn't box well for a first timer.

How did you start out with Multi-Boxing? What was your Progression to 10-Boxing?

Basically I first tried it with my two warriors on US servers. I installed Keyclone on two laptops and since they were both melee I was using two mice and I didn't have a real desk at the time, so I'm sitting on the floor, it's all uncomfortable and it was just terrible.

After a month long break from Wow, my coworkers convinced me to start playing CWOW again. Armed with Keyclone and two accounts, I was ready to move up to 5 boxing. I got another 3 accounts registered, and away I went with a Priest, Warlock and Mage. I basically boosted them with my warrior, and at level 60 my old shaman joined in on the fun. So I did straight instancing with a Warrior, Shaman, Mage, Priest and Warlock.

I consider myself a pro warrior. I levelled 4 up to max level, but it was just hard to box with my warrior as a lead. So I levelled up a paladin to replace her. Once I swapped out my paladin, I never really looked back to using my warrior. I started equipping my guys in the regular 5 man instances. Getting faction and the blue equipment. Once I put the paladin in the mix I never used any CC anymore. I used to have my guys setup so that I would /assist on command. Basically I had a button setup to mark a target with a skull icon (a habit leftover from my raiding days in USWOW), then my other guys would assist onto that target. That left focus free for sheeps, CC and my warrior could switch targets to build threat.

All that nonsense went out the window with my paladin. I just straight up AOE tanked everything and life was so much easier. I dabbled in multi-boxing in raids with some of my guild. It was all new to me, so after many wipes caused by me people were really turned off. Plus I was always pigeonholed into healing... They made me use my paladin and priest to heal, and most of the time they didn't leave room for my full 5 party. As any multi-boxer knows, changing setups on the fly is about as fast as retooling a machine used to form car doors. I mean it seriously takes some time.

All in all I felt like I was learning a lot participating in Kara raids, but everyone was already used to doing it as a farm fest. Another week, another try and I prepared to take 3 Toons, they asked me to tank and heal. Again I wasn't able to prepare my guys on-the-fly so it was miserable again. After some some discouraging runs, I started focusing on doing heroics and getting badges. I'd take my paladin or priest solo in Kara runs, and a couple times I multi-boxed healing, which was a breeze, but by that time my guild wouldn't take me boxing, and pickup groups were wary of me saying I'm playing more than one Toon, so I was forced to just play one guy for the most part anytime I wanted to get into raiding.

My priest and paladin got good gear, through raiding and having more badges. I finally convinced a guy at the office to take my 5 guys to Kara. I'd tank, dps and heal, and just use my 5 guys like I do in a heroic. To prepare I went to Kara with my 5 man team and cleared to the first boss. Didn't kill him but I cleared to him. After everyone else was logged on and ready we made it to the curator. It took over 5 hours probably, and all the mistakes were my fault, but no one logged in to finish the dungeon, even after I tried to plea my case by saying I reworked thing. (keep in mind my communication with people is very, very basic on Chinese servers)

The next week the same colleague offered to put another group together to try, but I was stood up by the other 4 guys. Pretty pissed because I spent HOURS trying to rework my macros and prepare. So I'm busting up heroics, getting my guys in badge gear, and my priest is ZAM ready, so I take her to some PUG ZAM runs with some success. I feel like my warlock and mage are well geared, and I'm trying to get into some PUG badge farming Kara runs.

These elitist bastards wouldn't take my guys even though they severely out-gear Kara with badge loot. They won't take anyone that is in Kara/Badge gear to ZAM. (to clarify my priest made it in some ZAM groups because she is a healer.) Basically you need to have gear better than the instance you are trying to go try the instance. It really pissed me off. And to top it all off, these guys use bugs routinely to get through encounters so no one plays with any real skill.

During this time, I made a warlock because I felt 2 warlocks and a mage would have better dps synergy than warlock, mage, shaman. I couldn't stand wasting the time to plop down totems. The warlock was a dream to care-bear level with my priest on follow.

Back when we were raiding BWL pre-TBC, there was a bug for the first boss where a Hunter could pull the boss without having to deal with the eggs. When Blizzard fixed that bug we couldn't do BWL. It was really embarrassing.

So I'm getting bored with the heroics, and my guys are in full crafted gear, rep gear, lots of badge loot and I can't multi-box any raids with other players. The major issue is communication. I couldn't really explain to my team members what I can and cannot do effectively. Some guys from the office tried to play with me, but even then we talked a bit and we came to the understanding that our communication isn't good enough to collaborate on such a weird style of play.

I got 4 more accounts, and started to quietly level up 3 shamans and another paladin. I felt like I wanted to try Kara by myself. But after all the buzz on the Dual-boxing forums about shamans being UBER in PVP and PVE, I just wanted to try 4 of them. (I had one at 70 waiting on them.)

Once my shamans and 2nd paladin got to level 70, I had 11 level 70s at my disposal over 10 accounts. I really wanted to try 10 boxing. I had a pretty good grasp on how to box, and I had experience boxing with more than 1 computer using Keyclone, so I just needed the hardware to power 10 accounts. I had went out and bought a q6600 2.4 ghz, 4 gig ram, 8800 GT computer before so I could 5 box at home. I ended up taking that computer to my office, and using my office desktop (that was chocking to death) to run 4 accounts and my laptop to open 1.

So with the hardware in place at my office to 10 box, I gave it a shot one weekend. I only killed Attunmen, and cleared to the maiden and cleared to Moroes, but was unable to kill either. I was convinced that I had to solo Kara. I took my girlfriend (different from the first I mentioned) out and bought her a really nice dress, did the whole nice guy thing before ambushing her with a trip to the Electronics malls so I could get another 5 boxing computer. Got both PC's setup, and I 10 boxed my way through Karazhan. Detailed in this thread.

I have seen that you have quite a few Kara Bosses down, though nothing in ZA. Have you tried all the bosses in Kara? Is it do-able? Have you hit ZA at all?

I haven't killed Nightbane or Netherspite. I don't want to say Netherspite is not do-able, because someone will make me eat my words, but it is not do-able for me. I tried it once, and it was just full of fail.

Nightbane is doable. I've put him in the air and got him back on the ground again only to mess up somewhere at around 48% of his life. That fight is really difficult, but I think if you are over geared you can do it. The phase transitions are the hardest part for me, and there are always bad fears that seem to get my guys too far out of position (even with tremor totems).

I only tried ZAM seriously once. The bear boss was also full of fail, but unlike Netherspite, i feel he is doable. The bird boss I got down to around 30% before my healer ran out of mana. Again these are gear issues. The bird boss was easy to from a technical stand point. I 4 boxed him later in a raid without a problem. (in addition to the bear boss and the dragon hawk boss, but there are other guys on the forums that do that all the time.)

What has been your Biggest Challenge you have faced 10-Boxing?

The sheer amount of time it takes babysitting them outside of raid time. Keeping up on transmutes, gearing them, getting reputations, keeping everyone stocked with potions, oils, etc. I basically gave up after I got my notoriety with the Karazhan videos. It's a full time
job and I already have a full time job and g/f.

Some Servers seem to be more friendly towards Boxers. How is yours? What sort of comments to you get?

Well, because my Chinese isn't fluent, my translations might not be the best, but I'm constantly getting told I'm people's "idols," and they "worship me" and i always see in BG chat, "are you the famous 4 boxer I heard of?" or, "are you the one with the video?". 

A lot of people just went ape shit on Chinese sites and forums after my friends and I disseminated the 10 boxing information. Lots of people assumed I was born in China and went off about how much better Chinese gamers are than foreigners (as in non-Chinese). I felt a strong sense of pride for China, because I do live, work and play here, and pay taxes. Also, inside I felt good about being an American, but when I play I try even harder to dodge questions, because I don't necessarily want everyone to know I'm not from China.

I've had people from battlegrounds roll on my server to ask me about how I play, but they are respectful. I only had one time, after a long night of arenas stomping some team over and over, where someone rolled on my server to tell me "stupid bitch, still playing? You've been reported. Enjoy your ban" People on my server refer to me as the "Elite gamer" like it's my new title of respect. It sounds better in Chinese of course. :)
Multiboxing is not nearly as mature in China as it is in the US/EU. I get my share of questions that ask if I'm a power leveller, but after playing this game for years, and my colleagues also having long and storied CWOW careers, they all say I'm the first multi-boxer they've ever seen in game.

Many are aware of it though the videos, and I discovered dual-boxing.com is also known somewhat among the informed Chinese gamer, but it's still not within the reach of the masses here.

After I started boxing I saw one of my colleagues looking for instructional videos and text on how to get started using Autohotkey (because it's free), but even after trying to encourage some co-workers no one has given it a serious try. Many guys at the office will care-bear level using a main and a lowbie on one computer, but switching between them is still done with the tried and true alt-tab.

Do you have any advice for people who want to start Boxing, especially on a 10-Man level

1. Just remember the KISS rule. I'm not a big fan of the multidisciplinary team. I tried it, for a long time, but I found myself wanting more simplicity. I rolled a warlock to replace a shaman with my original team, to reduce classes and differing class mechanics, and then when I went for the 4 shaman team I just realized how much easier it goes when you keep things simple.

The game isn't -that- hard and you don't need to cover every mechanic and ability. If I was able to start with 10 new characters today, and I emphasize the word "today" since WotLK is coming, for PVE 10 boxing, I'd go with 4 shamans, 1 priest and 4 paladins (then 1 more shaman or priest, still not decided).

In my experience Paladins are the BEST raid boxing characters. You get a capable tank and healer that pretty much only spam 1 or 2 abilities to handle each role. It's a multi-boxers dream because they don't require micro-management. Some fights need two tanks, so you use 2 paladins to tank, and each has his own personal Flash of Light spammer. When you are fighting bosses that need 1 tank, you have 3 Flash of Light spamming paladins to heal.

The priest should have good DPS and healing gear, because priests are amazing raid healers and I take control of my priest for the vast majority of raid encounters. Once I get my tank into position, I basically control the priest to heal.

Shamans for simple DPS (lightning bolt) and as of now the stacking totems are awesome. Encounters with fear? (Nightbane, trash to Attumen) No problem with tremor totem. The reason I'm debating the whether the group needs 5 shamans or 2 priests is because so far I've had mana problems with the shamans. A full-time shadow priest would be invaluable. But in reality that last slot could be taken by any DPS really.

2. PVP with 10 characters kind of sucks. Anything more than 5 boxing and I have major problems with logistics and completing objectives in Battlegrounds. When I PVP I use my 4 shamans exclusively, and I've dabbled with the others, 2 to 10 boxing and everything in between.

3. Prepare to spend plenty of time babysitting Toons.

4. You need to be prepared for the costs associated with it. If anyone is seriously considering 10 boxing, then they probably aren't hurting financially. I basically ran Kara 5 or 6 times and I stopped. The 2nd PC and monitor is just wasted, I spent all the time and money just to get my 15 minutes of fame. :) I'm seriously considering trying 40 or more, and I will if I get a raise and remain in China. Again, this is just to keep playing the good old American "Mine is bigger than yours game."

5. I'd imagine WotLK will change the landscape and only time will tell if 10 boxing is possible in the new raids. I'm guessing no. Because Blizzard seems to be making encounters more complex and getting the gamer more involved. I've already looked at a couple of new talent trees and I just groan thinking about finding more button space, making longer macros, and dealing with the lack of buff stackability.

I don't want to have 10 different classes with a grand total of 500 different abilities, and I -know- blizzard is going to try to add more 'micro-management in order to make sure the solo gamer feels more involved. Netherspite needs 3 people to act independently, and I've already said it's impossible for me, if any raid in the future has any bosses that require 3(2?) or more players to act independently it isn't happening.

Anything else you would like to share?

I've pretty much wrote a book so I doubt you need much more rambling. :)

Thanks for an amazingly detailed Interview Nixi. I for one can't wait to see what you have install for us next. I will now leave you with some Screenshots...

Razorbax