Dual Box MM's

I've tried it in other games, and it rarely works very well. Even when it is sort of effective, you'd be better to just find an actual team mate. And yes, I've seen waaaay too many 'auto follow with healing aura on auto' dual boxers. In fact, for a few years it was viewed as required for 'good' teams to have someone do that. Such teams were usually train wrecks, and a defender played by a single person would probably have prevented the train wreck. Or at least lessened the casualties.

Funny. I've been on pugs where I would wish some tool would just put a power on auto and go afk.

This contains in it the inherent assumption that someone will be teaming though...

One of the main reason I dual box is that I like build synergy between characters, but cannot usually commit to teaming (mostly due to small kids).

It sounds like a difference in experiences too... I've only teamed with other multi boxers (other than one friend I dual dual box with a good amount) a few times, but they have all been highly positive experiences. Those players knew exactly what they wanted out of the 2-3 characters they were playing, and they did it well. Whether it was capping defenses/resists/damage/etc.

I would rather have a moderately skilled dual boxer than two low skilled players pretty much any day, and sometimes more than two moderately skilled players - because the dual boxer doesn't have to talk to him/herself on chat/vent/etc. to coordinate: not to mention two characters built specifically for synergy can frequently bring more to the team, on a raw # basis, than two random characters. Usually, someone who has the time and effort (and money) to invest in setting up two gaming systems is fairly serious about their gaming, and does not suck... but that's just my experience of course.

I'm not saying dual boxing or solo playing is any better than the other, just that I think some of the venom in your words is either unwarranted or based heavily on negative experiences that others may not have experienced.

Also, as per your original comment:
I've dual boxed all those, and they all work quite well. Pain does indeed heal well enough - heck, thermal heals well enough on auto and it lacks the aura.

It's really not that hard to keep two sets of pets alive. But, they are supposed to die anyway (instead of the mm)... they are pretty easy to resummon.