Dual (singular) fun

After re-activating my second account, I started thinking on ways to take the best out of my monthly money’s worth, and start a couple of new alts to dual-box. It’s the first time I’ve tried to dual box on World of Warcraft, and let me tell you, it poses some interesting challenges!

two clients versus two machines

Two heads are better then one, same goes for the machines.

Both my laptop and my desktop handle Wow very well, even with low latency on both machines. Having the “extra” monitor to check my surroundings and to better control the 2nd character is very handy.

2x keyboards and 2x mice isn’t such a thrill. I’ve looked around for software to enable me to use just one set of controllers. Synergy and Keyclone we’re among the top searches. Synergy acts has a KVM software switcher, thus requiring two machines rather then 2 clients. Keyclone is a key-press repeater to all selected windows, Can be used with two clients or with two machines (provided that you buy a 2nd key for the second machine)

Of these two options, Keyclone is by far the best. Even considering it’s price tag, if you’re looking for a two client solution, it’s your best choice.

Class choices

I’m “Dualing” (that means two) so what are my best choices and why? (1st/2nd)

• Warlock / Priest

Possibly the best comp for Pve and Future farming characters. They both deal Shadow damage, with a couple talents to make better use of it. One character heals, while the other tanks. Soul-freakin-stone! Crowd-Control galore. Healing options from the warlock side

• Mage / Priest

With no tank, this comp would have to deal massive damage in short periods of time. Again a good degree of CC options. Consumables for free, reducing the mana shortage down time. Going Frost will help keep fights under control.

• Druid / Shaman

I’ve tried this last night! Let me just tell you, this is crazy! Cross healing available, the totem buffs, mail armor healer and “Tank with your face” attitude. it’s just full of Win. Downside could be the speed reduction while leveling. So far it’s most the same on my test, but on higher levels  it can be a problem.

• Rogue / Druid

Having a Rogue for a tank can be a dangerous idea, but provided keyclone is working properly, the 2nd character druid will have no problems keeping Heals-over-Time on the main, and still have mobility to provide off-tanking (???), some damage and even crowd-control.

• Hunter / Priest

Same has Warlock / Priest comp. but with a twist! No shadow enhancement from the warlock, but the hunter can heal (more efficiently) his pet versus the warlock, Quick action crowd-control and sustained damage

• Warrior / Druid

Not much to discuss, best survivability, worse leveling time is my bet. Tank and spank 99%  of the time.

• Warrior / Shaman

Same has above, not so high on surviving but still very good.

All comps, are “same race” possibility’s witch makes leveling easier from the start. The test I made on Druid/Shaman were, if nothing else, hilarious and I had a good feel about the duet of healing, I’m looking forward to trying out the Warlock / Priest.

Add-Ons

Installed and updated (kinda) Dual-box toolkit. The icing on the cake, whispers are forwarded to the main character, and follow action can be reset without having to Alt-Tab (or switch). coupled with another set of Crafting add-ons, there’s an eminent tradesman user interface coming up.

Professions

The best choice, regardless of the classes used, would be to have your main be a dual gatherer and your 2nd be a Tradesman. (keep at mail box distance a third character for bank/Auction house trading). On the Warlock/Priest duo, I’m considering putting tailoring/Enchanting on the Priest (2nd) and having the warlock be a “farm-hog” and have Mining/Skinning to make some bucks.

Priest provides gear upgrades, and bag space, while the Auction house sale of ore’s and leathers raises the bank account for the lvl30 mount and such.

It just keeps us going….

in the eyes of the beholder

Hi Dran,

My name is Merder (on the Baelgun server). I really enjoy your blog.

I saw one of your screenshots and I REALLY like the setup you have. Would you mind

sending me a list of the addons that you use? or maybe do a post about your setup. It’s

one of the cleanest looking UI’s I’ve ever seen. I’m a 70 Ally Pally and I have several

addons, but my screen is all bunched up and crowded. I’m always searching for a way

to tone it down a bit.

Thanks

Scott (a.k.a. Merder)

(borrowing this bit from a famous blog)

Hello Merder. It’s great to have had a positive feedback from a reader. Yes, it does feel good!

This is the “3.0 version”, if you can call it that, of my user interface. I’ve been working on it for a long time now, always trying to make the best use of space, and while trying to keep addons visible and functional, also working to make it appealing too.

Breakdown!

I tried to apply some basic self made “rules” aswell as some “hardcore” Interface design concepts.

• Has clean as possible (like you point out)
• No compromise on Information gathering (quality before quantity)
• Force the design to prevent “tunnel-vision” play
• Low on memory (tolerable at least)
• Fast access (I Press before I click)
• Five Pixels of design (1)

With this in mind, building the user interface, was like playing lego’s. Everything had to slide with minimal impact on other Add-ons.

Cowtip on the top left corner of the screen provides useful, quick and easy to see information. It works out of Mouse-over events so a quick nudge on the mouse and I have a little bit of target information.

On the opposite corner I have the mini-map, Simple Map provides more then needed information, customization and adaptability to most user interface’s. It works great for me too, all add-on buttons are hidden except for the tracking Icon and the Omen threat meter (yes, that’s how important it is!!!)

On the Left of Mini-map are my buffs and debuffs, these are stock Ui, with the time option enabled. Below it I have the quest tracker (stock). Another Design major, If it’s not broken don’t fix it!

A look at some cooldown action

Wandering to the Left bottom corner, there’s Prat and the first of two Eepanels2. The panel provides a “darker” background to my chat window, while Prat gives me a (really) never ending custom options (editbox un-docking for instance).

Above it, there’s cooldownTimers2 divided in 2 groups, one for items (left), and one for abilities (right). They are placed that way because I’m less likely to need to see my Hp pot cooldown in favor of my Bloodrage, Revenge or Sweeping strikes cooldown.

Of to the far left there’s the mother of all Instance loving, group snugging wow-fans, Omen2. While providing me with CLEAR threat generation info, it still notifies me (with a quick glimpse of the eyes) of who’s trailing behind me so I can prepare for events properly.

Next to it (Left side) there’s Grid. I use it more on my healer (Niam) the on anyone else. The value of this single add-on to a healer! One click (or mouse-over) and you can pop off a heal, decurse or cleanse, faster and reliably. truly priceless! It still holds it’s end on my warrior, allowing me to see an overall picture of debuffs across the “raid”.

Parrot in Action

Center screen (besides Dranzig) there’s Parrot, Semi-circling to the left are the damage taken, health gained, blocks, parries and dodges. On the right damage inflicted, damage Dodged, blocked or parried (by the mob).

Enter the big guns, Pitbull took me days to configure. There are so MANY options!!! The config consist of left side bars (Me, Focus, Pet) and right side bars (Target, Target’s target and Party). cool things to note: It shows who has just gained Aggro. It shows if a target is CC’ed. It shows health incoming. It shows Buffs, and debuffs of the target. and that’s just a scratch at the surface.

Above my frame, sits the Swing timer and the Cast timer, via Quartz, I can also have one on my target’s frame (also right above it). Shameless Shield Bash abuse ^^

Bartender3 and Cycircled vol skin present me with buttons to mash, and this configuration has alot under the hood. The Three stances change the top bar to the according stance-bar it also changes with Shift modifier for quick use of some abilities. The middle (static) bar, has some “clicable” spells, either high cost or less used. The bottom bar shifts with Alt modifier to present professions and other abilities (like Hearthstone). The little Bar over my Pitbull frame is a “witch stance I’m in” (sometimes it gets confusing) and trinket action (it’s only six buttons across, three for stances, one for weapon swap macro and the two trinkets)

Better view of Pitbull

Finally, to wrap up, there’s fubar with some more information. It goes in order from left to right: Performance, Durability, Topscore, Experience, Mail, Bag space and Local time.

You can say it unfolds or blossoms. With some aspects of it showing themselves only in specific circumstances.

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(1) The five pixels of design, stand to a concept of Operating systems building. It shows that independently of the users knowledge or capacity, there are always 5 Pixels on your computer screen that you will not miss to click or see! The five pixels are, of course, the four edges of the screen and the pixel immediately under your mouse pointer. These present themselves has a great source for crucial information (take a look at windows or Mac bar, your windows close button, the right-mouse button menu, and so on…)