Getting started

If you’re “lucky”, you inherited a charecter from a friend who quit a long time ago.  You could be crazy like me and start one up from scratch like I did as well.  First things first though, how are you going to handle this hardware-wise?  FFXI and WoW now (WoW used to be able to, since Wrath it won’t) you cannot specify another monitor than the primary to render on.  However, FFXI renders mostly on the CPU, while the GPU does actually very little.  That being said the video card is still important.  You’ll be pumping a lot of stuff into video ram with two clients on the same computer if you run it like that.  You can also use two computers, or a PS2 and Computer, whatever works best for you.  I have Anrym running off a completely seperate install, in a second window.  It helps if you have a dual core or higher to set affinity to specific processors.  You can do this in the Processes tab of the Task Manager.

This actually works to make certain applications run nicely together.  For example, EVE and FFXI run flawlessly side by side, EVE and WoW do as well, with some slowdowns but FFXI and WoW cause a memory leak of sorts, and will eventually screw up textures in both games.

Control

Second important part is control.  I recently had a good idea to use the G15Binder plugin for Windower along with a G15 keyboard to control Anrym with a lot more ease and less alt-tabbing.  I don’t have the funds for a G15 right now however, i’ll hit more on that if I ever get one.  If you’re using a Ps2 controller, you obviously need to set appropriate macros, but I have no experience with that.  I have Anrym in a window and I simply alt-tab to her.  Problem with this is: if i’m surfing and alt-tab quickly, I might not get back to her, and using the tab key might change my targets in FFXI.

General rule of thumb I keep with Anrym: I need it quick, and I need it easy.  I don’t want to spend more time on her than I have to, so my macros and setups are geared towards that.  Tab,  macro, tab, back to tanking.  What I need the most help with is PLD/NIN, cureskin is such a gigantic help it’s unbelievable.  But, this needs a LOT of attention.  Shadows down means I take a lot of damage and shed hate.

I have to WHAT?! o.o

Something not a lot of people consider when dualboxing; you pay twice for everything now.  Not just for fees and expansions, but in-game as well.  That being said, depending on the game you might have twice the income too.  It’s definetely something to keep in mind when seriously thinking about starting this.

If you did like me and start a 2nd char late game, you also have to play catchup.  Especially in such a story-driven game as FFXI, that means redoing all the missions.

Fees are still an important thing to consider: do you like the game enough to pay twice+ what you did before?  It is going to help as much as you want to?

Anrym, The Great Experiment

Honestly, from the start I never considered doing Chains of Promathia with Anrym, but since Darian, Karmilla, Southpaw and Ire came back to the game I’ve been not only considering it but planning it.  It was always a plan to get her Sky, Rank 10 and a few other little things but CoP is so *massive* I coulnd’t really think of doing that AGAIN, especially after my first run.

Anrym was originally going to be a White Mage, for several reasons.  Raise III on demand is obviously one, the nice buffs you can get via Haste and Shell V was definetely a plus, and finally the amazing mobility you get from teleports.  Solace and Misery came much later, as well as FoV’s Repatriation.  I had other options too, Red Mage was one.  However, that one didn’t do very well for her; it requires a fair bit of attention, there’s a large amount of spells to consider that could be cast during battle.  It is a large mana battery though, it can last despite only having Cure IV.  Scholar was another, with an even LARGER mana pool, nukes, and a Cure boost as well.  But SCH requires a great deal of attention.  If you can devote time, great!  You’ll have a far more versatile charecter but it didn’t work for my playstyle.

In the end…

She’s a large help these days, she not only ferries my friends around, but telewhores in whitegate occasionally for quick gil.  A lifesaver with a fast Cure V, gets me lots of survivability with Haste.

Analith in EVE let me tackle missions I couldn’t even dream of before with remote repair, and gets me money doing trade routes in a gigantic freighter.

If you can afford it and multitask naturally or if you’re looking for something new in a game, dualboxing might be an option.  It added a whole new level of fun in most of my games.  But I have a special definition of fun according to some people.