Got started, now I just need some guidance :)

I have everything running fine, and I understand (more or less) the features of ISB and how they work with EQ. Where I need help now, and not technical help, is how I should be applying this to my EQ group. In looking through the resources (here, dual-boxing, etc), it looks like there's hardly any activity with EQ, as far as ISB is concerned. I'm looking for some guidance in general terms, like how people have organized their hotbars in EQ to work well with ISB, or what regions make sense to use with selective repeater zones, etc. I know there's probably a lot of good collected wisdom out there, and I don't want to spend too much effort re-inventing the wheel. If there are any good EQ general guides out there, please let me know. Oh yeah, one more thing I was hoping to find out how people handled, is memmed spellsets. Do you use ISB to manage you cast bar, or do you do that manually yourself?

For background, so far I'm boxing a DRU/MAG/ENC, all low-mid 80s. So far I've gotten all their UI's identically matched, so for a few things which I don't do too often, I turn on the repeater, and click the hotkeys I want. Then I've also configured a few keymaps, for casting spells. 1 key has each char cast a different spell, or send pet, etc. But before I put too much more effort into making dozens of mapped keys, I want to see if there's a better way I should be doing it.

Oh yeah, one more question (and this gets slightly technical about ISB). When I configure a mapped key, I see that I can send a keystroke to each char as part of the first step (that's what I'm already doing). Then I see that I can add more steps. So does this mean I can essentially make my own macros, like EQ socials, where I can queue up 5 lines per macro? Or are the mapped key steps for something else?

Thanks for taking the time to look at this, and sorry for all of the questions.

Tat

PS - Lax, I'll be paying for a subscription tomorrow, definitely worth the price. Thanks for the free seven days

[firescue17]

. . . I was hoping to find out how people handled, is memmed spellsets?

I broke my spellsets down by A) Combat spells by Resist and B) Buffs. I further broke my buffs down into 3 subcategories: long duration, short duration and short duration combat. Long duration buffs are anything which last greater than 1 hour. Short duration buffs are anything which last greater than 10 mins and less than 1 hour. Short duration combat is anything like reptile skin, sloth, panther, etc., which only last a few minutes.

When I log in, I run my long duration buffs and for all practical purposes, those are done for 2 hours. Next is short duration buffs, haste, druid damage shield, etc. At which point those are handled for 30 to 45 minutes. Directly on my combat hotbar menu (in ISB, not the game UI) is the button for short duration combat. It is immediately accessible to activate prior to the pull, or even during combat when boxing old raid mobs which take longer than 5 to 7 minutes to kill.

I use a general naming convention in EQ across all my characters to save spellsets:

/memspellset Buff LD (long duration buffs)
/memspellset Buff SD (short duration buffs)
/memspellset (sloth, reptile skin, decrepit skin, etc.)

Due to the nature of the short duration combat buffs I handle them in a variety of ways. For example, my druid only has one combat buff at this time. In her case I send the keystroke to cast the single spell gem for Reptile Skin. In conjuction with Mastery of the Past, I don't need to compensate for fizzles. In the case of my Shaman who casts two buffs, Sloth and Panther line, I send the keystroke to activate the in-game macro on her hotbar:

/pause 6, /cast #,
/pause 36, /cast #,
pause 6, /cast #
/cast #

Combat spellsets are as follows:

/memspellset AoE
/memspellset Cold
/memspellset Disease
/memspellset Fire
/memspellset Magic
/memspellset Poison
/memspellset Undead

Very rarely, if I'm farming a target, I will create a spellset specifically for that target: /memspellset: Seru. I almost never have to do this. The reason being is most cases one would be tempted to create a custom spellset can be handled by simply memming an already existing spellset of a different resist. Using my Seru example, I have a DoT setup on my bard. I do not run my bard with 6 dots for normal purposes; however, in this case I do. Therefore, I created a special spellset. Considering my Druid, SK, and Shaman; even though Seru is immune to disease and magic, I can mange those characters by simply switching from one generic spellset to another generic spellset.

One great thing about this particular setup is the opportunity for fall through macros among and between characters and character sets. For example, in my old manner of thinking, my Ranger may have a spellset "DPS" and my Druid may have a spellset "DoT." For all practical purposes, these spellsets could be the same thing, say a fire nuke and 2 magic dots. Previously, it didnt' matter as each character used their own character_server.ini. I could name them whatever I wanted. However, when switching characters in ISBoxer, instead of having to create two Mapped Keys, one to send the spellset to the Druid and a separate one to the Ranger, I can consolidate and send a single "/memspellset Fire" to "slot X."

None of this information is kept in the character .ini. All of it is in the ISBoxer profile. This is accomplished through the sending of sequential "New Keystroke Action" to simulate typing out "/memspellset <resist>. (see image #1)

Why? First of all, I no longer have to micromanage my UI. I can move a hotbutton on my UI and it will have no impact on the ISBoxer profile. "memspellset Fire" actually types out "/memspellset Fire" in the chat window as opposed to sending a keystroke to activate a hotbar button. I don't have to worry about remembering what "ctrl-alt X" does, whether this current character has a hotbar button in that spot, or God forbid, I got a new AA / clicky since the last time I played and moved a social on the hotbar. Once again, to take into account redundancy, the character doesn't even need to have the particular spellset. If an inadvertent command gets sent to the wrong character, one will receive the chat window output "memspellset: index does not exist" (or something to that effect). However, no game action will be taken. This is much better than accidentally evaccing yourself because you forgot to update the ISBoxer profile the last time you moved a button over one slot.

Secondly, and most beautiful of all, it allows one to send the command to the character while another social is active and running. For example, if one is casting a spell on a mount and attempts to use a /dismount hotkey, you receive the "you can't do that right now" message. However, you can type out /dismount and achieve the same effect. Using sequential "New Keystring Actions" to spell out commands mimics that same process. (see image #1)

Third, in conjuction with virtualization, this allows one to create event profiles inside a single ISBoxer profile to include particular bandolier sets, buff lineups, resists, and activate other special event hotbars, clickies, etc. Say one is farming a target in VT for a rare clicky. The last time you found the mob up was six months ago. You vaguely remember the mob has some funky resist immunity, required bane damage, or casts a nasty knockback. Or something. Hmm ... what was it? Tab out to Allakhazam. Look it up. Read the info. Tab back. Discover someone ganked the mob in the meantime. Or, you can do the research and enter it into your ISBoxer profile once. The information will sit there until you need it. Once you find the mob up and clear to it, the only thing required is to activate an "Event: Name" and automatically load melee bandoliers, caster spellsets buffs and debuffs.

Perhaps one is farming Warden Hanvar in Anguish at a content appropriate level. Remember how his knockback / stun was ugly with level 70 resists? One could activate an "Event: Hanvar" which automatically virtualizes your buffs such as "Buff Long duration" is now "Buff Long Duration with Levitation." One could activate an "Event: Overlord Mata Muram" which automatically turns on a special click bar with only face slot clickies for each character. One doesn't need that clicky clickbar blocking their view all the time, but it's rather imperative while doing that particular event.

Once you're done with the event, activate a Mapped Key, "Spellset: Normal" to reset all characters bandoliers, hotbars, and spellsets.

Firescue,

Thanks so much for the reply! That's exactly the type of info I was looking for. I'll be reading it over many more times, and deciding how to apply it to my group.

Thanks again

Tat