What's your preference and why? Personally, I think a 2box is the sweet spot, especially on a server with a population like this one. Most single player duos are capable of much more than any soloist, at the least, facilitating a single classes ability to solo. Three boxing is where my feelings get murky. If I need to get something done asap, i log the 3 on and get to work. Adding the third means relying on macros to smoothly execute play between the 3 classes. This makes the game feel much more mechanical than acting in real time. Since I'm rarely dependent on anyone when a trio, I'm way less likely to want to group. Changing group roles means throwing my oiled macro machines out of order. My play definitely gets sloppier when improvising in a group with 3 roles to manage. Dps goes up, xp can go up a little, loot goes down. And when you have 3+people playing, it usually means playing a character out of group for no xp. I've played on a great 2box server that had such a low population that mid level grinding was depressingly slow and lonely, to the point that I gave up on it. Right now TAKP has a really strong playerbase. If that base dipped with a 2box limit and such a top heavy community, I imagine new players would start bailing pretty quick. So I still think 3box is the smart choice for this server. Just curious how you all feel on box playstyles.
I know this isn't a rants and flames thread, and i'm not actually adding anything to this conversation, buuuut I just made this sweet gif and I needed to post it PS I don't actually mean it.
Thucy is a real Chippy Longstockings today. Edit: If we had a two box limit, I think Bst+Dru is the only way to go.
I box only out of necessity and find no joy in the process. However I very much enjoy the things it enables.
I 3box fine, wasnt really the point of the post. Just trying to gauge preferences about whether people really enjoy boxing a team or if feel they need to because its the most efficient way to play on the server.
What do you think you would do with 6 vs. 3? Just curious. Most stuff with three is pretty well within reach with the right trio. I guess stuff like Va'Dyn, Trak, etc. becomes easier but it's not like you're going to roll into VT or something.
i just hate having to exp only 3 characters at a time, i dont mind just actively playing 3, but like on AK i would just be my own group. not trying to be antisocial. some classes (like rogue) are terrible to 3 box with. 3 box limit tends to favor certain trios.
I play ranger/shaman/cleric. My playtime is very ranger-centric. I'd prefer to have my 3 to just 2, but I sure don't play them all to their capability. Cleric is there to heal and res, maybe a reverse DS. Shaman buffs and slows. Two utility boxes that I drag around while I play everquest with a ranger.
My original 3box was War/Wiz/Cleric, lasted until I ran out of AAs I wanted on the Wizard. Afterwards I did Ranger/Chanter/Cleric, I did that trio for a time with a Revenant in Ssra. Recently, the chanter got tanky enough to just tank 5-6 mobs in ssra mines at a time so its fully possible to just duo with the Chanter and Cleric while I have an AFK 3rd toon and invite a friend to AFK 2 of theirs. Best part of TAKP is that you can solo if you choose to and if you have a dedicated partner, like me, can form a full group with just two people and accomplish great deeds. I remember killing Va'dyn with my brother for the first time, now we do Rumblecrush and Zlandicar. If this server didn't allow 3box and was 2box, I probably wouldn't be playing EQ.
I 2-boxed bard and cleric on live when I originally played, so that's what I did here when I started up and I got the hang of it back pretty quick. I didn't add a third until mid 50s? so it felt pretty awkward for awhile. I can be self sufficient, so I don't have to wait around on someone else, but I'd rather group with another person. I get bored by myself and tend to start reading rather than do exp. I've gotten the majority of my leveling and aa's as part of a group.
3 boxing is the TAKP version of the modern everquest mercenaries. I guess if there wasn't a way to solo, some people would not bother playing because they don't feel they can progress, but some people would stay and seek out groups, possibly. That's the thought behind forced single boxing servers I guess but it's not for everyone. People have so many varied ways of wanting to play, it's hard to please everybody at the same time with any format. Personally 3 box isn't my favorite but it's a good compromise considering the great community that's developed here. I think TAKP is unique in that it actually does level the playing field better than any live server can. On AK and on any live servers, if you start to struggle you can just make more boxes and even if you play them really badly, with 8 characters you can probably make progress. On TAKP people play 3 at a time, and everyone is expected to only play 3, so if you hit a wall you need to get better at playing or form a group, not roll 10 more bots. I think that isn't doable on a live server because their whole business is to sell more subscriptions and they don't have a community that polices itself.
I think for most of us, the answer is something like: I often/usually play three, but look for every opportunity to play less whenever I am on and having fun with friends and folks in guild. ...or it’s one AFK, so I can leech exp from Welorf. Those are probably your two most legitimate answers.
These days I get only a few hours a month to play, and its often late night hours. I'm thankful for the third box to allow me to spend those hours in dungeons, or in harder content than a two box would allow. However, I also don't play enough to really master having that third box, so when I do group, I'm not fantastic in switching roles. It takes some time to get the hang of it again and again. If I had more play time, I could gain back that muscle memory. If I swapped things up, I'd probably just do a two box (shaman + X, or Bst + Dru) and seek out groups for anything outside of a mindless exp grind.
I was skeptical of boxing until I played on TAKP. Now I can't see myself playing any other way. I prefer two over three currently because I can't keep my boxes straight with alt-tab, but I also can't find a key combo I like with hotkeynet
At least on my system, Hotkeynet doesn't seem to respect ctrl being held down when switching windows if I want to rapidly switch between clients. so I have to lift off of ctrl every time i want to switch. Is there a fix for that?
And I've done it all for a decade with a trackpad and haven't even mapped my movement off of directional. I can't even click and walk!
I’m a fan of using Print Screen, scroll lock, pause for 1-3. Let’s you use one hand flipping and numpad movements when raiding, or pretty efficient two hand flipping and moving in a group. I’m sure everyone has something that works for them but that has held for me.
I remapped some buttons on my mouse to be the window switchers on hotkeynet, and it's working for me so far. Another option, if you have a mouse with enough buttons.
I couldn't figure out hotkeynet at all. I use Dexpot, which is a hell of a lot more user-friendly. I have one keyboard that I use the F13, F14, F15 keys for, and another for when I play with my girlfriend that I use CTRL+Delete, CTRL+END, CTRL+Page Down to switch, since it doesn't have the extra F-keys. I'd play 6 toons if I could. /shrug
I have a weird ambivalence around boxing. On the one hand, I like alone time and pushing my own limits (and not having to feel bad about wasting others' time if I wipe over and over trying something stupidly hard). On AK I'd sometimes load 9 toons to solo AoW or whatever. That was a weird sort of fun without the automation you see on modern megabox servers. On the other hand, I remember fondly the old EQ Live days where being dependent on others forced me to meet folks and get outta my comfort zone. I suspect boxier servers end up with lower populations and less tight-knit communities (as a general trend, not a hard-and-fast rule), but who knows. A two-box server seems like a sweet spot for emus. Last I checked, I think the other emus' box limits were all 1, 3 or a bajillion. It also seems way easier to balance the raid scene on around two-boxing than three.
I feel like if we were a two-box server the population of tanks (and tank-adjacent classes) and priests would remain virtually unchanged, and there would just be 0 rogues and many many many fewer wizards, magicians, bards, etc etc. I'm okay with never seeing three war-clr duos grouped together.
I'm with Pithy on this one. I think trios converge around the tank/priest/dps model because you have the option of being an effective group all on your own. If you're two-boxing, just about any melee/priest combo is as good as any other, and caster/caster or caster/priest duos built around kiting or charm are also fine options.
Hogwash! There are no rogue 3-boxers because they're poor tanks and no sane person wants the fuss of constantly repositioning two melee characters. If you're two-boxing, you may as well play rogue/priest as almost anything else.
2 melees isnt that bad, both of mine push and its just a minor annoyance (+ practice for wallpinning)
I think the mainstream duo on a two-box server with TAKP's charm ruleset would be ENC/CLR, just like the mainstream trio is ENC/CLR/X here. Not everyone wants to main an ENC or CLR, but people like pixel speed and nothing really compares to ENC on that front, especially once PoP drops. CLR isn't quite mandatory in a charm duo, but it's close. Hard to argue with hitpoint buffs, pet stuns, pet CH, and rezzes. There'd be a lot of priest/melee duos, for sure, but they'd take ten times longer to do anything than a charm duo. Unless they made friends with a charmer TL;DR, charm is overpowered? Hot take, I know.
SHM/ROG would be a pretty solid two-box. Grab KEI, do everything but DPS on the SHM, mash backstab on the ROG with haste and avatar. BST/DRU and BST/CLR would rule the world of priest/melee duos. Slow, haste, aggro, tanking, DPS, mana regen? Nerf beastpals.
