Multiboxing Basics with HotKeyNet

[TheRealBief]

I'm no expert, but I've done a bit of multi-boxing over the years. I've dual-boxed Druid and Shaman back on Molten, and now here on Lordaeron, I box 5 at a time, a full party, since it's about all my poor laptop can handle before major system lag. That being said, you might have seen my mbox alts around.
They are (on Horde) the guild called <Mulgore Meat Delivery>, all Tauren ofc, and on Alliance side I have <The Space Girls>, my Draeni dancing girls. I made them for dancing, but then I discovered something... Multi-boxing 5 different classes is very fun, so I'll describe a bit how it's done.

Basics of Multiboxing:
1. Get HotKeyNet from their official site. It's easy to set up, the script for it is easy to figure out, and there's plenty of tutorials out there.

2. Change your HKN script as needed, to set the number of accounts you will use, and the keys that will be sent. Don't worry, it's easy.

3. Make sure all your mbox toons are on separate accounts, otherwise it's all in vain, right?

4. Now the interesting part: Load up all your multi-box accounts, load up your characters, and invite them all to the same party.
*** Being in the same party is important for your macros, such as auto-following party1, etc. ***

5. Now that all accounts are loaded, HKN will rename their windows to WoW1, WoW2, etc. If you want them to have a specific number, what you do is select each window (alt-tab to it, whatever, I click on the taskbar icons, it's faster than alt+tab) in the reverse order you want them named. For instance, if you want toon X to have its window named WoW5, select it first, then click the next which will be WoW4, and so on. This is simply selecting the game windows in order backwards of how you want them named. When your #1 char is selected, then you can rename the windows. You do this because HKN will look for these renamed windows to send key presses to.

6. Renaming the windows is very simple. Press SCROLL LOCK (or whatever key you use to activate HKN), and press CTRL+R. You will notice that all your game windows have changed names from "World of Warcraft" to the appropriate names. Now you are ready to try some boxing!

7. A simple test! Turn on your scroll lock, and while it's on, any key you press will be sent to the other accounts. If there's something you'd like all the accounts to click (example, an action bar icon that has no hotkey), hold down ~ key (tilde) when you click. The mouse click will be sent to all accounts.
While scroll lock is on, hit your JUMP key. You should see all your multi-box characters jump. Yay!

8. Now for the HARD part! All those macros.... You've seen how HKN sends a keypress or click to the other accounts, so keep that in mind. Each character should have a macro containing actions you want it to perform when a certain key or action bar slot is clicked. If you have 5 of the same class, the macros can be the same (drop 5 starfalls, assist party1, cast moonfire, etc). If, however, you box 5 different classes as I do, each macro will need to be different according to the character. Example: I multi-box 5 Draeni girls I call <The Space Girls>. I have paladin main tank, warrior off-tank, priest heals, shaman and mage for dps. I swap out the mage for druid for buffs and hots/dots. This is better, actually. I have the following macros I use with them:

* Follow party1 -- All party follows party1
* Follow Focus -- All toons follow the focus target
* Train -- Party follows each other, forming a caravan line
* Dance -- Need I explain this one? Makes them all dance, ofc.
* Bow -- Makes some bow, some clap, some cheer, according to my whim, so they can react when excited. ;D
* Self-buff -- Chars that can will self-buff (shaman weapon enhance, priest inner fire, mage shield, etc)
* Target buff -- All party members who can buff will assist party1 and buff the target.
* Panic! -- Causes main tank to be bubbled by priest, and healed by all party members who can heal.
* Blast -- After MT attacks, I pop this and all toons do their instant cast / dots / charge+rend / etc.

I'll explain this last one a bit in detail. For warrior, the macro would look like:

#showtooltip
/assist party1
/castsequence [exists, harm, nodead] [] Charge, Rend, Shield Bash

but for druid the macro may look like:

#showtooltip
/assist party1
/castsequence [exists, harm, nodead][] Moonfire, Wrath, Wrath, Wrath

If you're casting a heal, replace "harm" with "help". I think you can have a "harm" and a "help" in a macro, but not both.
"exists" makes sure the target exists, nodead ofc will let the macro fire if the target is alive, so you don't try casting on a corpse.
Instead of /assist party1, I recommend /assist focus, and set your party leader as focus target. This way, you can swap focus target in case your main toon dies, so you can continue fighting without your macros failing.

You can find plenty of good macros online, just search for "wotlk macro guide" and you're good to go.
Macros are versatile, and it would be wise to familiarize yourself with macros before attempting to multi-box. Without macros, the best you will be able to accomplish is a group of nub moonkin popping starfall together.

My point showing those macros is to show how the same key can be used to do different things on each character.

I hope this was helpful. I recommend HotKeyNet because it's free and easy to setup and use.

If multi-boxing a party doesn't work out well for you, consider dual-boxing instead. I used to know a guy who played 2 paladins, a tank and heals, and he solo'd everything under the sun.... That's actually what inspired me to multi-box originally.


Useful Multi-Boxing and Macro Stuff

To make your macros, check out the Wowpedia macros page: https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Macro_commands

Here's a useful link from the official Blizzard forums: https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wo...et-macro/31865

This link will help you learn to say something ONLY upon successful cast, which can be useful even when not multi-boxing.
https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...uccessful-Cast

Here's a guide to teach you about using targeting in macros: http://macro-wow.com/guide/how-to-pr...acros-for-wow/

And finally, this link may or may not be useful, I'll let you decide for yourself. ;D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeV2aervI1Y

Hope that helps! Best of luck with your split virtual personalities.

[TheRealBief]

I should add that most multi-box software will be detected by antivirus software as a key logger. This is simply because of how these programs work, capturing a key press to send to the other accounts. If you get HKN (or other boxing software) from their official sites, you should be fine. Ignore the key logger warning, it's a false alarm.