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Question - Trying to Box and have questions before using assist software (1 Viewer)

sgdirtbag

Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2022
RedCents
241¢
Warning, this post is gonna bounce, as I am indecisive, but for now I just started trying to box to get my current main (103 bst) to 120 and trying to do all the HoT and higher progression. My Beastlord is on a paid sub, but the two accounts I am using are Silver (shaman) and Bard (full FTP). Now, I know its gonna be a pain with the very limited AAs, but my plan is when I get the FTP accounts to 110 I am gonna hit them with a krono each, and then try to grind few thousand more AAs (preferably on a double exp period so I maximize my effort.) So, I know I'm in for fun with the bst pet tanking and no actual tank in the group. Here is where I bounce around.

I am trying to decide if I want to main a bst, rogue or SK. (love them all). So I chose a shaman and bard because I "think" of those trio boxes would work well. So if I change my mind with the weather, I can easily incorporate the SK or Rogue into the box group, and not be a total reroll.

Onto my questions:

1) When boxing, how does the solo task progression work? Like is it just painful and you have to manually manage it the slow way, or is there a plugin that helps manage that?
- I do understand you can use the command to make everyone target and /say the dialogue. I am more curious about the ones that require actual actions, like looting, accepting the loot in the adv loot tool, combining recipes, and then turning it in, etc.

2) How do you manage Bard Song Aggro?
- Okay, admittingly there are a lot of famous singers that everyone wants to punch in the face *cough* Justin Bieber *cough*. But why does EVERYTHING aggro a bard, and how do you manage maximizing the bard usefulness without Bard-hate?

3) Does the level 2 access provide the ability to use Very Vanilla, or is that an additional cost on top of level 2?
- I wanna ensure that I know the full cost before I factor in the wife aggro.

4) Will using a custom UI interfere with the way the Very Vanilla, KissAssist, etc works?
- I find the base EQ UI to be very consuming of my viewing space, especially as I get into needing more hotbars for AAs and combat skills.

Okay I had like three more questions, but my headache made them fade away. if I remember them I will ask in a reply.

If I missed something in a guide I'm sorry, please direct me there and I will read said information.

Thank you in advance for any advice or assistance
 
1. there is a command at hand "mimic me" which helps for quest conversations. There are tools like "lootly" which help for loot-distribution. TS-combines and/or handins I manage manually.
2. I have a real tank class in my team and use "disable reaching notes" for group-content. With that setting, I have no problem with the aggro generated by the bard-songs even have the bard playing all the time his songs. But some automation-tools may have the ability to let the bard hold his notes during pulling, to prevent too much aggro-generation, if your group-setup would otherwhise have problems with the bards aggro.
3. VV is part of the "lvl 2 access-deal" as well as a lot of automation-tools, like Kissassist or RGMercs. Some other tools require additional license-fees.
4. On this boards, there is also a "supported" custom-UI. Other custom-UI's may have problems with interferences.

There are loads of guides at hand, to help you to get started. The idea to start with VV and kissassist is a good starting point, that was the way I startet with the stuff at hand as well.

If your Hardware supports it, once you get in the swing, you may consider to build a 6-char-team. Each ftp-char beats any merc by far using the tools available. Check out the description of the "FPS Limiter", even if you start with 3 chars. It will help alot to reduce the use of ressources.
I use "Magellan" for travel purpouses of my team, it helps alot to get your team travel across serveral zones.
For me "Buttonmaster" is of great value. The buttons you create herein have one big advantage over ingame-Hotbuttons: if you push a Hotbutton on Buttonmaster, the button-click is executed, wether or not your char is actually casting.
For micro-managing, i.e. special behavior to react on event-specific content, the "Lua Event Manager" is of great use. Lua is a "lately" incorporated universal programming language used by lot of systems. The VS-Code-addons for Lua helps alot to get used to the syntax, if you plan to put your hands on code-stuff.
 
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2) How do you manage Bard Song Aggro?
The best way to manage bard song aggro is with a real tank. If you are even considering rolling a Shadowknight, you should do it sooner rather than later. You can keep the BST for dps/adps. SHD/SHM/BRD/BST is an excellent start to a group. As time goes on you can fill the other two slots with whatever you want and you'll be able to handle all group content. My main 120 group is SHD/SHM/BRD/BST/MAG/ROG and I easily rolled through NoS.
 
This might help reduce wife agro and allow you to sneak in a CWTN Class plugin. Look at Sic's signature and you will find a plethora of information for just about everything you want to do with boxing.


 
like the previous posts have said there are a lot of answers to the question you asked right here on the rg site. welcome to the best boxing community in eq ... RG is full of helpful and pro-active members. got a question? cant find the answer in the site. just ask!

gifted you one month of level 2 access so you can check out the whole site. cheers and happy new year
 
1. there is a command at hand "mimic me" which helps for quest conversations. There are tools like "lootly" which help for loot-distribution. TS-combines and/or handins I manage manually.
2. I have a real tank class in my team and use "disable reaching notes" for group-content. With that setting, I have no problem with the aggro generated by the bard-songs even have the bard playing all the time his songs. But some automation-tools may have the ability to let the bard hold his notes during pulling, to prevent too much aggro-generation, if your group-setup would otherwhise have problems with the bards aggro.
3. VV is part of the "lvl 2 access-deal" as well as a lot of automation-tools, like Kissassist or RGMercs. Some other tools require additional license-fees.
4. On this boards, there is also a "supported" custom-UI. Other custom-UI's may have problems with interferences.

There are loads of guides at hand, to help you to get started. The idea to start with VV and kissassist is a good starting point, that was the way I startet with the stuff at hand as well.

If your Hardware supports it, once you get in the swing, you may consider to build a 6-char-team. Each ftp-char beats any merc by far using the tools available. Check out the description of the "FPS Limiter", even if you start with 3 chars. It will help alot to reduce the use of ressources.
Thank you for the quick response.

I have considered a 6 toon team if I can figure out the first three. I would likely add a mage for the CotH, Pet, and other abilities; a Zerker for autoattack and forget; and not sure on the third class. I definitely cannot afford 3+ monthly subs, so making a FTP tank would probably not be the smartest idea.
 
play however is fun. some folks make pet tank groups. my suggestion first go around is to drive your group with a tank. be sure that one is geared and AA'd properly. it will allow you a lot more opportunity for the other toons in your group(s)
 
Just wanted to chime in on a couple things.

The best thing to do is watch a number of videos before getting started. Redbot has an excellent series on the basics of VV and using MQ, found here: https://www.redguides.com/community/threads/multiboxing-everquest-the-red-guide-videos.68686/unread

In addition, Sic has a bunch of videos in his signature that go through specifics on certain plugins and how to use them, and the best (imo) is his video on how to move your toons around. It's one of the most difficult things to learn and get good at.

Finally, custom ui's can hypothetically not work well with some aspects of MQ, but I've used a number and have never had an issue, as long as the elements the plugins/macros need are showing. Right now I'm using AyaNos with no issues.
 
Thank you for the quick response.

I have considered a 6 toon team if I can figure out the first three. I would likely add a mage for the CotH, Pet, and other abilities; a Zerker for autoattack and forget; and not sure on the third class. I definitely cannot afford 3+ monthly subs, so making a FTP tank would probably not be the smartest idea.
You can always play full-time on the Test server. Always gold, always CWTN plugins. etc. Your existing toons can be test-copied over so no progress would be lost. The downside is the downtime associated with the Test server, but huge upsides everywhere else.

As far as the first 3? IMHO always think of a full group first. What is required for continued success and the least amount of frustration? Holy Trinity. Tank, Heals, CC. You already have 2 of the 3 in the BRD, and SHM. Choose a tank and you are all set. Add the DPS (already have BST) and go from there. BER and ROG go very well with a SHD tank in that regard. Some might say, the perfect melee group. I know you wanted CoTH capability and I have run groups with a MAG, but let me say, I have not missed CoTH in my melee groups except once or twice for a short time while farming an aug or something.
 
Warning, this post is gonna bounce, as I am indecisive, but for now I just started trying to box to get my current main (103 bst) to 120 and trying to do all the HoT and higher progression. My Beastlord is on a paid sub, but the two accounts I am using are Silver (shaman) and Bard (full FTP). Now, I know its gonna be a pain with the very limited AAs, but my plan is when I get the FTP accounts to 110 I am gonna hit them with a krono each, and then try to grind few thousand more AAs (preferably on a double exp period so I maximize my effort.) So, I know I'm in for fun with the bst pet tanking and no actual tank in the group. Here is where I bounce around.

I am trying to decide if I want to main a bst, rogue or SK. (love them all). So I chose a shaman and bard because I "think" of those trio boxes would work well. So if I change my mind with the weather, I can easily incorporate the SK or Rogue into the box group, and not be a total reroll.

Onto my questions:

1) When boxing, how does the solo task progression work? Like is it just painful and you have to manually manage it the slow way, or is there a plugin that helps manage that?
- I do understand you can use the command to make everyone target and /say the dialogue. I am more curious about the ones that require actual actions, like looting, accepting the loot in the adv loot tool, combining recipes, and then turning it in, etc.

2) How do you manage Bard Song Aggro?
- Okay, admittingly there are a lot of famous singers that everyone wants to punch in the face *cough* Justin Bieber *cough*. But why does EVERYTHING aggro a bard, and how do you manage maximizing the bard usefulness without Bard-hate?

3) Does the level 2 access provide the ability to use Very Vanilla, or is that an additional cost on top of level 2?
- I wanna ensure that I know the full cost before I factor in the wife aggro.

4) Will using a custom UI interfere with the way the Very Vanilla, KissAssist, etc works?
- I find the base EQ UI to be very consuming of my viewing space, especially as I get into needing more hotbars for AAs and combat skills.

Okay I had like three more questions, but my headache made them fade away. if I remember them I will ask in a reply.

If I missed something in a guide I'm sorry, please direct me there and I will read said information.

Thank you in advance for any advice or assistance
1) Yes, there's macros and plug-ins that help with parts of your question,
2) You don't, if your bard is getting aggro your group tank sucks...
3) Yes, level 2 let's you use VV, useful community posts can also earn your redcents (or humorous gif posts too...)
4) Depends, I rock regular ui...works great

Let me quote @ImGreg ... welcome to boxing you'll soon be like him down below...

excellence GIF
 
1) Yes, there's macros and plug-ins that help with parts of your question,
2) You don't, if your bard is getting aggro your group tank sucks...
3) Yes, level 2 let's you use VV, useful community posts can also earn your redcents (or humorous gif posts too...)
4) Depends, I rock regular ui...works great

Let me quote @ImGreg ... welcome to boxing you'll soon be like him down below...

excellence GIF
*and last nights bourbon
 
Thank you for the quick response.

I have considered a 6 toon team if I can figure out the first three. I would likely add a mage for the CotH, Pet, and other abilities; a Zerker for autoattack and forget; and not sure on the third class. I definitely cannot afford 3+ monthly subs, so making a FTP tank would probably not be the smartest idea.
What I do is keep my tank subbed and rotate a second sub around the other classes to keep them caught up on AAs and boost DPS (except when the healer is subbed...no real benefit there aside from AA catchup). Don't need to worry about sub on the tank until mobs start hitting harder in the mid 70s-80, but around that time, you'll be able to group with the BST and let the pet smash stuff, if you want to hold off a sub until the group catches up.

When I started, I started with 3 and later caught another 3 up. It definitely would have saved time and simplified it to tackle it all at once. Unfortunately the BL probably won't be much help in getting the others caught up as they can't group and he won't offer them much aside from maybe sitting there and healing the SHD until they're in groupable range. Based on what you've said, it sounds like you'd want to run:

SHD SHM BRD ROG/BER MAG/ROG/BER BST

With BRD double-invis, you probably won't miss COH a ton.
 
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If you can afford 2 subscriptions constantly, I would suggest to sub the tank and rotate the second sub on the other 5 chars, starting with the priest. Doing it this way, my feeling is you can go wherever you want. As long as the tank is on his feets all is doable. The rotation of the sub on the other 5 chars will allow to get all Aa's needed. When a subbed char goes back to silver or ftp, the Aa's gained remain and stay active. My feeling of the today's eq is, that most power comes from the Aa's and the tank is the one char, who depends most on the gear. All other classes do almost as well with the best ftp-gear available for the actual content you are exploring.
 
Afternoon all,

Thanks you again for the replies. I know that I should do a real tank if I really plan on boxing. I have an SK on that gold account, and I am fairly experienced playing one so I could use him. That was my main for about 15 years when I played on FV (never raided just grouped and swarmed).

The main reason I have asked about using the beastlord being the gold account is that is what I expect to raid with my guild, so I figured that would be the paid account.

Thanks for the one month 519. I will start tonight.

I did watch the 5 videos talking about how to set it up and some of the uses like the navigation plugins that let you go through multiple zones, and how it doesn't protect you from training yourself with mobs. I also remember seeing in the video about broadcasting commands, so I'm interested in seeing all the possibilities with that.

Gonna use that free month and read up on the other plug-ins.

Again thank you all, and I have to look at all those links in Sic's signature.
 
Question - Trying to Box and have questions before using assist software

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