GUIDE: How to configure a party - Cleric & 4 Control Wizards
Cleric & 4 Control Wizard - Offtank, Healz, CC & Firepower:
This Devoted Cleric & 4 Control Wizard (CW) setup allows me full control of the party leader (SLOT 1), my cleric (Sylverangel), to Off-tank and control healz while using the striking power and OP CC (Crowd Control) capabilities of the CWs to manage the fight. Currently I've got all 4 CWs following and assisting my cleric with the full range of Q, E, R, 1, 2 and mouse attacks. Additionally I have them set up to selectively deliver full salvos of attacks for massive damage or round-robin for CC's and selective takedowns - both options always available on the fly.
If you're completely new to all of this then you need to understand a few things first. (Experienced readers should skip to the next paragraph...) Several things are required to be done to set up ISBoxer and Neverwinter before you can go off into dungeons and smash some monsters. First, you will need to make a file to hold all of your in-game keybinds; aka what define what each key you press into in-game actions. For example, I press 'M' and a map appears. M is keybound to the map. What you do is decide what key you want to do which action and then create a file with Windows notepad and put those binds and actions into it. The actions are usually some kind of in-game codes that control things, so type /cmdlist to see all of the codes in the game. Only some of them are useful for what we are doing here though... targeting, attacks, etc. Secondly, once you've decided on what keys correlate to what actions you want in-game, you must go into the mysterious ISBoxer and create entries that connect your keybinds in special ways to make complex actions occur. A keybind performs a simple action (ie; targeting), but ISBoxer can make combinations of them that do wonderful, compund actions like, assist my tank, target his target, CC his target and then nuke his target all in one command. This will take time to learn, so just read what I and others have written, try things out, BACK UP OFTEN, and have fun seeing what you can make ISBoxer do.

The setup used in this guide is meant to be straightforward to understand, replicate and use. The vast majority of the hotkeys/binds are of the type "AlwaysOn" to minimize the amount of explanation required (ie; AlywaysOn, Non-Combat & Combat) and to eliminate any potential for confusion. There are, of course, many better ways to do some of these things, but they require understanding of dynamic macros and concepts that may require knowledge of programming/coding, which not everyone feels comfortable with or has the proper skillset.
IN GAME BINDS:
Since I use F1-F5 for the Q, E, R, 1 and 2 keys in my control scheme I started all of my binds at F6. The binds are stored (in my particular setup) in a file named BINDS.TXT located in the ...\Cryptic Studios\Neverwinter\Live folder. The "<-- blah blah blah" you see at the end of each bind line are my code comments and SHOULD NOT BE COPIED AND PASTED INTO YOUR BINDS FILE).
Important to remember is that once you log each character in, you must use the /BIND_LOAD_FILE command to load in the binds before ISBoxer can use them. So I type "/bind_load_file BINDS.TXT" for each character at login. I'll be adding a menu button or hotkey sometime soon to automate the whole thing across the party (low priority at the moment).
F6 "HardTargetLock 1 $$ Target Sylverangel" <-- Lock on to and target SLOT1 aka Sylverangel; this is 2 commands in one concatenated with the '$$'
F7 "Follow" <-- follow current target
F8 "Assist Sylverangel" <-- assist SLOT1
F9 "HardTargetLock 1" <-- turn Lock onto current target
F10 "SetFollow 0" <-- turn off following; you want this if you are using ranged characters to make them stop in place before attacking, otherwise they follow you right into the heat of the battle and promptly get crunched
F11 "HardTargetLock 0" <-- turn off Lock
I reserved F12 to toggle SweetFX on and off. I have my own SweetFX setup, but Google it to learn more about some cool SweetFX configurations in Neverwinter or just check out this link (has instructions and examples): http://gsngaming.com/topic/9614-neverwi ... eetfx-v14/
GAMEPLAY KEYSTROKES:
I came up with the idea of using F1-F5 (with shift) to mirror my broadcast comands across the party. They are conveniently located above their normal Q, E, R, 1 and 2 counterparts and make playing with them easier because you simply move your hands up a little bit on the keyboard and are used to control the party (ISBoxer implementation shown later on):
F1 = Broadcast 'Q' attack to "all others"; which is everyone except the SLOT1 party leader. This allows for a full-party salvo attack for maximum firepower
Shift + F1 = Round-Robin version of F1 (above). This allows rotation through the team for selective damage attacks, or more importantly, Crowd Control (CC).
F2 = Broadcast 'E' attack to "all others"; which is everyone except the SLOT1 party leader. This allows for a full-party salvo attack for maximum firepower
Shift + F2 = Round-Robin version of F2 (above). This allows rotation through the team for selective damage attacks, or more importantly, Crowd Control (CC).
F3 = Broadcast 'R' attack to "all others"; which is everyone except the SLOT1 party leader. This allows for a full-party salvo attack for maximum firepower
Shift + F3 = Round-Robin version of F3 (above). This allows rotation through the team for selective damage attacks, or more importantly, Crowd Control (CC).
F4 = Broadcast '1' attack to "all others"; which is everyone except the SLOT1 party leader. This allows for a full-party salvo attack for maximum firepower
Shift + F4 = Round-Robin version of F4 (above). This allows rotation through the team for selective damage attacks, or more importantly, Crowd Control (CC).
F5 = Broadcast '2' attack to "all others"; which is everyone except the the SLOT1 party leader. This allows for a full-party salvo attack for maximum firepower
Shift + F5 = Round-Robin version of F5 (above). This allows rotation through the team for selective damage attacks, or more importantly, Crowd Control (CC).
** NOTE: I also like to put a CC spell in (for example) the 'Q' Encounter Power slot of the SLOT2 party member and fill the 'Q' Encounter Power slots of SLOT3-SLOT5 party members with damage spells. This has the desirable effect of placing a CC on a mob and having the next 3 party members follow up with DPS on that target. This is particularly useful in knocking out mobs streaming/swarming towards the party - it's not uncommon for me to have several mobs dangling and being nuked to death mid-air before falling to the ground dead. It's a really nice touch!

V = Broadcast of F6 & F7; this causes all other party members to Lock onto and follow the SLOT1 party leader.
Shift + (3, 4 & 5) = Broadcast '3, 4 or 5' to all party members. Basically an 'Oh SHIT' method of making everyone gulp a health or other potion when things get desperate.

Shift + 6 = Broadcast '6' to all party members. Useful for mounting your entire party on horses to quickly navigate the party across the maps. Press 'V' after using this and the whole party then gallops off into the sunset following their SLOT1 party leader.
ISBOXER CONFIGURATION:
Now for the ISBoxer portion. To bring our desired keystrokes and binds to life in the game, go into ISBoxer and create new 'keymaps' to match the actions and keystrokes you planned out and identified in both your BINDS.TXT and your game keystroke setups. Here are the in-game 'Q' attacks that are bound to F1 and Shift + F1 that I explained above.
This first screenshot is the in-game "Q" key attack via a press of the F1 key. This attack is really 4 commands all glued together (using 'steps' and 4 sub-'actions') to make a compound action comprised of:
- Assist SLOT 1 (The F8 in-game keybind we manually loaded in from BINDS.TXT when we started the game)
- HardTargetLock SLOT 1 (The F9 keybind we manually loaded in from BINDS.TXT when we started the game)
- SetFollow 0 (The F10 keybind we manually loaded in from BINDS.TXT when we started the game)
- Have all other party members iInitiate their in-game 'Q' attack by sending the character 'Q' to all other windows besides the one currently being used; aka 'all other'

This next screenshot is remarkably similar to the one used above for 'Q', except for one thing - this is the 'Shift + F1' combination I'm using in my control scheme and the ONLY real difference (besides holding the Shift key lol) is that the checkbox for 'Round-Robin' is selected in the keymapping action. That's all there is to it! So there you have Round-robin actions de-mystified.


All of the other Keymappings are very similar in that they simply broadcast out a keystroke to all windows; ie - your characters. You can see the Shift + 6 below... 3,4 & 5 are identical in nature. That's the simplest way to get all of your characters to do the same action at the same time. I hope that helps explain how some of this works.

So congratulations! You have now created your keybinds file and set up ISBoxer to use them - go forth and conquer:!:
One recommendation that I have in testing your setup is to choose a foundry quest and do it there. My favorite foundry quest is right in town next to the vendors and I don't have to go far from them, the mailbox, bank or auction house. When you're equipping, supplying and moving a party of 5 characters around, this can be a big time-saver. Foundry quests are also nice in that you also get free astral diamonds for completing your daily foundries and simultaneously testing your setup this way.

A final parting discussion point is what pets/companions to use in conjunction with the setup. Since the pets cost gold and it's 4x the cost (one for each CW), there's a significant outlay of funds required to try them out. My main already has the Dire Wolf, Ioun Stone (my fav), Cleric, Man at Arms and Wizard. The added damage and CC from the wizard companion might be nice, and I know that the Dire Wolf (and dog) do a nice job of knocking back your foes, but the Man at Arms does an excellent job of holding the enemy at bay long enough for the CWs to "nuke" them to death. I'm leaning towards a team of 4x Man at Arms to help keep mobs busy while the CWs nuke and CC and while I'm dragging ads, healing and offtanking with my cleric. Since my goal is end-game dungeons, I'm of the opinion that in the long run, it will be the better buildout. End game dungeons require a healer, and if you're not controlling it as a main and dodging the ads, it's probably not going to go too well. If someone proves me wrong, that will be a good thing.

I hope that you, the reader, find this useful and educational. As was my original goal, I've tried to keep it straightforward and simple to follow in hope of helping you comprehend how keybinds and ISboxer setups work for multi-boxing Neverwinter.