Advice now that Zolo is 'fixed'

[Perrigrin]

First of I have to say I'm a bit dissapointed it gets nerfed so soon after me starting it, but o'well - Can't say it's surprising they did it :P

So this is now my question: If you followed my posts you know that at 34 I decided to swap from a 5 shaman team to a 70 paladin running 4 shamans. Thanks to Zolo the shamans are now 44 (the 5th is at 34).

Now, what are my options as Zolo is fixed?

1) Run instances with the paladin tanking that is more appropriate for the level and the shamans dps:ing - Should be decent xp, definitely worth it to do the quests.

2) Is there another Zolo like spot? Doubt it, at least not with as easy setup (strat has a similar spawning event, but no way to abort the event to repair etc and more difficult to clear to + harder mobs I would guess, Ie more expensive repairs).

3) Quest with the 4, supporting them with a 70 pally or mage - Probably the fastest option if done in the right spots.

or, the interesting question:

4) Level the 5th shammy to catch up (using boosted questing) - and then run instances with 5x shammies of the same level as the instance -- question is, would paladin boosting be more efficient for 40+ instances compared to the dps of 5 non boosted shamans? My guess is that the paladin would make it safer and faster, but not sure - so looking for input.

thanks!

[Perrigrin]

Replying to myself: I decided that leveling the 5th shaman to catch up is not an option - I swapped in the pally to get to 70 ASAP, and there is no way that a 5x shaman team can level so much faster than a 70paladin + 4x shaman team to make up for the 10 levels I would need to grind out on the 5th shaman.

[Otlecs]

Ah, that's a real pity.

I didn't realise it had been changed (this is the first thread I've read today). Wish I'd known that was coming. I would've spent last night making the most of it instead of wiping a different team in instances.

[Knytestorme]

2) Is there another Zolo like spot? Doubt it, at least not with as easy setup (strat has a similar spawning event, but no way to abort the event to repair etc and more difficult to clear to + harder mobs I would guess, Ie more expensive repairs).


I doubt that they will ever be posted if there are

[Lorune]

Perri i do suggest u try it on the EU servers first. It would not be the first time they forget to implement a hotfix :)

*ugh ugh Vaelastreaz*

On what to do, i suggest u go the questing route. Do it as following.

STV - north area quests
Tanaris - all quests (even the pirate hats yes)
Feralas - some easy XP there
Searing Gorge - best place to lvl ever
Felwood - You should be around lvl53 by now
Ungoro/WPL/EPL/Ungoro in that order

When i was at lvl44 with my pala i did quests area's in that order, and i ended up at 61 when i was done in EPL (this was using a 70 to help me do the quests)

[Perrigrin]

Hehe I will do as I'm camped right outside ST, but I don't have high hopes :P

[Lorune]

I spend till 03:00 am last night till the second the servers went down. I managed to get to 50.7 :)

That kinda says enough about how much hope i got for it to last :P

[Naysayer]

That sucks. Was expected, but not so soon.

[mickske]

I spend till 03:00 am last night till the second the servers went down. I managed to get to 50.7 :)

That kinda says enough about how much hope i got for it to last :PI was at Zolo until 3AM as well. I really hope they did not fix it on EU, but I would be surprised if it turns out that way...

[kega]

Oh noes, I farmed Figurine of the Colossus last nigt just for the purpose of Zolo boosting... Anyone knows about the EU servers, is it fixed?

[Lorune]

3 minutes till they supposedly come up.

Am stuck at work for a bit so i cannot report if its fixed or not yet.

[mickske]

I'm ready to try it when my server comes online. :)

Edit: clearing trash, takes a while with my crappy geared paladin. =/

[Perrigrin]

Just checked it on EU Silvermoon, at 44, the skeletons give 1 xp (+1 group bonus) :(

[Lorune]

Ah well it was nice while it lasted.

[mickske]

Do'h. :(

[Perrigrin]

time to gather those ZF quests now I guess - Bah the price to pay for 5 hours extra sleep last night :P

[Lorune]

Perri trust me the price i am paying at for the lack of 5 hours of extra sleep is also not to nice. However i assume it'll feel better after a good nights rest :P

*Takes another asprin*

[Millz]

This may be a dumb question that i'll regret asking, but what's Zolo?

[Perrigrin]

This may be a dumb question that i'll regret asking, but what's Zolo?Check the last post in my blog for a long description (link in my sig), or search the boards here -- Anyways, it's old now, don't work :P

[Los]

they fixed zolo? crap, allthough im glad i already got my babies up to 54! :D

[Millz]

This may be a dumb question that i'll regret asking, but what's Zolo?Check the last post in my blog for a long description (link in my sig), or search the boards here -- Anyways, it's old now, don't work :P
Ah - Didn't know about that, nevermind - mine are all at 64 now so its a bit late.. To be fair though, it's definately a bit of a dodgy way to level.

[Caspian]

The 2 alternatives I can think of off the bat are the baron in strat and the lycerum (sp?) in BRD. I ran my daughter through BRD last week and spent some time in there and she was getting XP fairly fast. There is no boss to dodge and is easy to reset. There are some ranged mobs you would need to run around and LOS to you. The downside to both of these is that they are a huge PITA to get to. Especially with toons on the low end of the instance's level range.

I also do not know if they have also been nerfed, it would make sense.

[Thulos]

On the upside look at all those repair bills saved! I think my zolo boosting cost me around 1200gp for my shaman team.

[Sanctume]

The Zolo worked out great for Prot Paladin even with crappy gear.

And since it's about boosting lowbies with a Prot Paladin, the next boosting from 35 to 50 will be:
35-40 SM Cathedral & Armory
40-45 BRD - 6 pull then reset
45-55 LBRS - 6 to 8 pull, then reset
55-58 Ramparts / Scholo / Strath / EPL turn-in quests.

[Drizzit]

The Zolo worked out great for Prot Paladin even with crappy gear.

And since it's about boosting lowbies with a Prot Paladin, the next boosting from 35 to 50 will be:
35-40 SM Cathedral & Armory
40-45 BRD - 6 pull then reset
45-55 LBRS - 6 to 8 pull, then reset
55-58 Ramparts / Scholo / Strath / EPL turn-in quests.Well at lvl 80 being the new cap how long do you think you can farm SP? Think steam vault will be able to solo with a lvl 80. If it is then one might be able to instance grind all the way to 73/74 that is if the lvl 80 instances cannot be soloed. Well you might also be able to grind on the kara mobs too (not bosses, but just mobs). Even though you cannot reset kara, the mobs respawn rather quick.

[Caspian]

it only takes 30 minutes out of the instance for a soft reset of Kara, or any raid instance. A lot of those mobs hit very hard, and should still hit fairly hard at 80 too I would think.


The Zolo worked out great for Prot Paladin even with crappy gear.

And since it's about boosting lowbies with a Prot Paladin, the next boosting from 35 to 50 will be:
35-40 SM Cathedral & Armory
40-45 BRD - 6 pull then reset
45-55 LBRS - 6 to 8 pull, then reset
55-58 Ramparts / Scholo / Strath / EPL turn-in quests.Well at lvl 80 being the new cap how long do you think you can farm SP? Think steam vault will be able to solo with a lvl 80. If it is then one might be able to instance grind all the way to 73/74 that is if the lvl 80 instances cannot be soloed. Well you might also be able to grind on the kara mobs too (not bosses, but just mobs). Even though you cannot reset kara, the mobs respawn rather quick.

[mackenziemi]

Ok I must have missed something, how did they fix Zolo?

[Perrigrin]

Ok I must have missed something, how did they fix Zolo?The skeletons summoned now only gives 1 xp, regardless of con.

[Greythan]

The Zolo worked out great for Prot Paladin even with crappy gear.

And since it's about boosting lowbies with a Prot Paladin, the next boosting from 35 to 50 will be:
35-40 SM Cathedral & Armory
40-45 BRD - 6 pull then reset
45-55 LBRS - 6 to 8 pull, then reset
55-58 Ramparts / Scholo / Strath / EPL turn-in quests.

I was never able to get a paladin to help me. (Had a guildee offer but we hadn't hooked up yet.)

So, my team (halfway through 43 now) has only my Warlock to boost. Any thoughts on BRD and/or LBRS with such a booster?

[Greythan]

Did they reset all the PL'd toons that were using the AE "zone out" method?

I didn't get to do this, so I don't have a dog in the fight. That said, I don't think this would be considered on the same level as afk'ing and win trading. Those two things had immediate imbalacing impact on other players in PvP. This is an apple compared to those oranges.

[Drizzit]

I wouldn't be surprised if your toons got rolled back to the pre-zolo boosting level.

lol roll back
http://youtube.com/watch?v=DkZLyFCNssw


edit: lol just found out it was in Spanish (my volume was low when looking for it) see if i can get an English one

here is the english one... kept the Spanish so you can see the difference...lol oh well
http://youtube.com/watch?v=FODPzxzdaEs&feature=related&resnum=0

[Talamarr]

it was an exploit, and you all knew it.

Since when was killing a mob really really really (really really) really slow an exploit? :D

[Tonuss]

I don't think they'll take action against accounts that used it, the do seem to be more relaxed on dealing with power leveling. And when TDog asked a GM about it, the reply was along the lines of "well, if you're not sure..." but did not come right out and say not to do it.

But yeah, I felt it was a bit dodgy and that it would get patched in some manner.

[Talamarr]

Just a few points

1. Blizzard recently made changes to make leveling to 60 much easier and faster. This trick only helped to speed things up during that same range.
2. It was HUGE gold sink. I don't know about the rest, but I paid a ton of money to get some alts 15 or so levels.
3. This was a PvE leveling trick; did not effect economy, PvPers or give an advantage over other players

Because of those things, I'm actually surprised this was nerfed. Especially with mob-tagging being widely known and much faster over all 70 levels.

In any event, it was fun while it lasted and, although the publicity may have been the cause of the nerf, I appreciate those that shared this information; that'll teach you :D

[Sanctume]

I wonder if they nerf the L45 Mage quest in umm, wtf is that zone where Onyxia's lair is?

I did not try it myself (some lame quest chain to Uldaman), but it involves massive amount of level 45 mobs summoned during the event--and mages blizzarding and not completing the quest, only to redo it over and over and over...

[BobGnarly]

I'm with fur on this one, this was an exploit.

I know it's fun to spin it so that it's the proverbial "creative use of game mechanics," but come on - 10 levels in one night?

[Stabface]

I wouldn't be surprised if your toons got rolled back to the pre-zolo boosting level.

it was an exploit, and you all knew it. This knidea goes hand-in-hand with AFKers and Win traders getting stripped of PvP gear.

You're all lucky you didn't get your accounts banned.

I talked to a GM before leveling here and got the "it's not currently against our policies, but that may change at any time" song and dance. At least one other person did as well and posted the GM screen shots. I'll give you abuse of game mechanics, but exploit is a little bit much considering. And it's still possible to level at probably 75% of the XP rate, so are you going to call that an exploit too because 7.5 levels in 1 night is too much?

IMO, the only reason this got nerfed is that someone wrote a bot that would automate it for you.

Unless you had some other naughty stuff going on (account sharing, botting, etc) I seriously doubt anything will happen to people's characters or accounts. The leveling method that Athene used also got nerfed and I never heard of anyone getting hit, I know people who used it extensively as well.
You do know that only a fraction of the win-traders got gear stripped, and an even tinier fraction had any account action taken? And that was posted as an actionable exploit by Blizzard for months - I personally appealed numerous people and they didn't get banned for it.

[Xar]

I wouldn't be surprised if your toons got rolled back to the pre-zolo boosting level.

it was an exploit, and you all knew it. This knidea goes hand-in-hand with AFKers and Win traders getting stripped of PvP gear.

You're all lucky you didn't get your accounts banned.Thank you Fur, I almost posted a couple times in this thread something along the lines of what you said. It's already so easy to just quest and level up, it boggles my mind that you all are trying to do stuff like this. Be glad Blizzard allows us to power level with our 70's. I also see it along the lines of instance exploitation, I recently read a blue posting about instance exploiting with the recent wave of Sunwell trash farming where it's being exploited so that the run out, reset, run in will result in the same trash re-appearing and refarmed for epic drops. Blues posted that it was not intended to be farmed in this way and they advised people against doing it. Same thing with this IMO.

[Talamarr]

Saying Zolo is an exploit is like saying boxing is illegal. GMs were asked and no direct answers were given and Blizzard simply had to nerf the xp from the skeletons if they wanted to stop it; which they did so this is a moot point anyway. It gave no one a competative advantage; in fact, my toons came out of there EXTREMELY undergeared and gimped. My hunter's pet was a joke, didn't have squat for tamable skills. It simply was a lazy alternative to level; like boosting, imo.

[Xar]

Saying Zolo is an exploit is like saying boxing is illegal. GMs were asked and no direct answers were given and Blizzard simply had to nerf the xp from the skeletons if they wanted to stop it; which they did so this is a moot point anyway. It gave no one a competative advantage; in fact, my toons came out of there EXTREMELY undergeared and gimped. My hunter's pet was a joke, didn't have squat for tamable skills. It simply was a lazy alternative to level; like boosting, imo.LOL, so you are saying that if Blizzard thought this was an exploit they would change it and they did. So then by your statement Blizzard did think this was an exploit, right? Getting enormous amounts of xp in a short amount of time for nothing more than repair bills is not intended game play otherwise they'd just set up NPC's where we could buy our levels. Same thing with powerlevelling with higher level toons, Blizzard nerfed the xp while grouped with them so that it would not be an extreme advantage. If you want a higher level toon, you have to "do your time" leveling. I'm sorry I don't agree with the gimped statement as it's fairly irrelevant to a boxing group IMO, my 5 shammies wore starting quest armor into their 40's and then they were even wearing some level 30 and 40 stuff well into Outland zones. Mobs almost never touch them, dying in 1 or 2 shots. I can only imagine it being even easier on hunters with pets. :)

[Talamarr]

This "zolo" trick, in terms of "creative use of game mechanics" is far more serious than killing a faction boss mutiple times.

And there lies the problem. While it's fun for us to split hairs and debate a topic like this, Blizzard ultimately has the final word, wether it make sense or not. There's a list of things they feel is an exploit and a list of things they feel are ok, and some if it will leave you scartching your head. On top of that, they have been known to change their mind on things too.

...oh well...

[Stabface]

LOL.

Indeed, I know quite a bit about it as my roommate at the time was suspended for 72 hours. A lot of guilds on a lot of servers got suspended, I heard about 250+ on Akama, and a few others too, more I'm sure that never said anything in public or I didn't hear about.

Jaina has a near-instant respawn because there is an Alliance quest that summons her outside of her tower in Dustwallow (you could either kill in the tower or at the quest location). She has (had, been buffed significantly now) something around 2-300K HP - less than most L60 raid bosses had by far -- and was a 1-2 minute easy kill. Each person was netting ~5-6g per kill. So you're looking at 100g+ an hour? I know he made something like 1500g in just a few days or so before the suspension came. Remember this is pre-TBC, no dailies, no gold inflation. 100g an hour was a LOT of gold then. Easily 3-5x what most people could grind. It would be like a 25-man mob in TBC dropping around 800-1000g or more total a kill and repopping every 2 minutes.

ALSO, this is after they supposedly hot-fixed the gold drop by an order of magnitude. There are screenshots floating around of a 900g drop in a loot box from her, I don't know if this is real orotherwise faked.



I'll tell you what through Fursphere, I'll put my feet where my mouth is. I have 4 alts sitting at L40 right now I intend very shortly to level up -- how long should it take me to level to 50? 55? 60?

[BobGnarly]

Saying Zolo is an exploit is like saying boxing is illegal. GMs were asked and no direct answers were given and Blizzard simply had to nerf the xp from the skeletons if they wanted to stop it; which they did so this is a moot point anyway. It gave no one a competative advantage; in fact, my toons came out of there EXTREMELY undergeared and gimped. My hunter's pet was a joke, didn't have squat for tamable skills. It simply was a lazy alternative to level; like boosting, imo.You don't think your toons, that are now 5-10 levels higher than they would otherwise be, have a competitive advantage?

Let me ask you this: Let's say, all else being equal (same class, same start equip, same start level, etc) that you use this method to boost your character's level up, while somebody else takes the traditional path of questing/whatever. At then end of this session you have a 5-10 level lead on this other person. Now you duel, who will win? Or put another way, who will reach 70 first? You gain a very clear "competitive advantage" which is not offset by your 10-min-to-the-AH-fixed-gear-deficiency, and the way you are sure this is true is that you spent the time to do it in the first place. IOW, why would you even bother if it didn't net you such an advantage?

Also, your anology to multiboxing is not quite on since GMs have clearly stated MBing is acceptable, and even before this hot-fix they at best just hadn't replied giving the nod to MBing. Post-hotfix, I think it's clear which way they lean.

You're correct though that it's a moot discussion at this point, and as such, I'll bow out and we can agree to disagree. I just can't believe that somebody thinks that a method of reaping 2-3x more xp than any valid approach known is anything other than an exploit, but I guess I'll just remain befuddled.

[puppychow]

Blizzard usually uses common sense when applying the banstick, to wit:

1. did you use any external programs (hacks, cheats, bots, etc) -> instaban. Keyclone will always remain fuzzy here, Blizzard is ok with it so far but some day they could suddenly decide its not ok
2. Did you get a warning not to do what you are doing, and keep doing it anyways
3. is what you are doing for personal monetary gain (gold seller, account ebayer, etc) or for ingame gain only. obviously a very fuzzy line


In general if you don't break the above basic rules you will get away with nothing happening, a warning, or a temporary ban. The Jaina killers got temp bans, not perma banned. Arena win traders for the most part got 72 hour bans, not perma bans. Of course AFTER the temp-ban wave went out and was well publicized, anyone still win trading got perma banned.

Zolo was a "bug" in the game, it has been around now for 4 years, and only in the last month has it become so popular that Blizzard finally had to fix the loophole. Just like the "Athena" leveling trick was around since day 1, but only got fixed after it got too much publicity, even though its retardly difficult to do and few sane people would even bother trying.

By contrast people still boost through SM cath and have for years, and Blizzard is ok with that because it requires some work on the boosters part and only gives a small advantage over questing (~1 hour per level from 20-40 boosting, not that much faster than following Joana or James guide really but much easier for a multiboxer). The zolo trick was 4-10x faster than questing.

[Sanctume]

Let me ask you this: Let's say, all else being equal (same class, same start equip, same start level, etc) that you use this method to boost your character's level up, while somebody else takes the traditional path of questing/whatever. At then end of this session you have a 5-10 level lead on this other person. Now you duel, who will win? Or put another way, who will reach 70 first? You gain a very clear "competitive advantage" which is not offset by your 10-min-to-the-AH-fixed-gear-deficiency, and the way you are sure this is true is that you spent the time to do it in the first place. IOW, why would you even bother if it didn't net you such an advantage?You guy would probably win! My 38, now 50 paladin was wearing gear from SFK while in Zolo. :D

Check this one out: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=The+Underbog&n=Sanctitty

[Kyudo]

Fur I respect you, you've been posting for a long time, but saying people should be banned for this or insinuating that it's bannable pah.

If it'd been there when you were levelling you'd probably have used it, as would 95% of the community. I wish I could have, but I dont have a 70 to tank on my reroll realm.

Blizz implemented it.

People realised it'd do things that Blizz never realised.

Blizz didn't like it, nerfed it.

It wasnt around for long.

Wont get people banned.

End of story.

If they do ban people for having levelled using Zolo, police state here we come.

Pls dont get all high and mighty

[Stabface]

You don't think your toons, that are now 5-10 levels higher than they would otherwise be, have a competitive advantage?

Let me ask you this: Let's say, all else being equal (same class, same start equip, same start level, etc) that you use this method to boost your character's level up, while somebody else takes the traditional path of questing/whatever. At then end of this session you have a 5-10 level lead on this other person. Now you duel, who will win? Or put another way, who will reach 70 first? You gain a very clear "competitive advantage" which is not offset by your 10-min-to-the-AH-fixed-gear-deficiency, and the way you are sure this is true is that you spent the time to do it in the first place. IOW, why would you even bother if it didn't net you such an advantage?


I expect that if I have a L70 helping my low level gain XP and someone else does not, I damn well better have a level advantage when it's all said and done.
My first character just to L60 took 4-5 times longer than a character I recently leveled to 70 on a different server. I didn't have any other toons there and I did get some minimal help from some RL friends but mostly it was just questing and grinding my way up. Comparing 1-60 on these toons I'd have easily gone 10x faster, even with the XP changes it's still several times faster. So taking advantage of game mechanics to be a much more efficient leveler (read: knowing where to go and what to do) an exploit as well?

[Stabface]

Arena win traders for the most part got 72 hour bans, not perma bans.

Didn't they get their PvP gear stripped too?


Some people got their gear stripped but did not get a suspension. Some people got both. I didn't hear of people getting suspended but not getting gear taken away, possible but unlikely.
MOST people who exploited the arena/bgs had nothing at all happen to them. Play in the <1500 bracket for a while and look at all the S3 weapon/shoulder teams that are terrible at PVP and you'll get a feel for how many people bought points and personal ratings and were untouched.

[Toned]

This thread is full of fail...If you find a way to lvl fast or make money that is an exploit NEVER post it.

Reason1: It will get nerfed Blizzard has openly stated that some of their employees multi-box, so I bet a lot of them browse these forums daily.
Reason2: The more people that know about it the faster it gets nerfed.
Reason3: The MOST IMPORTANT reason, If you are posting these exploits that makes it look like the multi-boxing community supports exploiting. Not only that but some noob user(s) will go oh it's on dual-boxing.com it has to be legal. So he/she begin exploiting and end up getting banned because of you. Don't get fellow nooblets banned that's not cool and the people that benefited from the exploits don't be suprised if you log into a bunch of lvl 35s in a week lol.

[Zaelar]

Exploiting something doesn't mean you're doing something wrong. Ever buy low sell high? Thats an exploit. Do quests in a planned order to level quickly? Exploit. Save quests to do after you hit 70 for the gold reward? Exploit. Level up and do a group quest by yourself at a higher level than intended?(or play a hunter) Exploit. Play multiple characters at the same time? Exploit. In all of these situations you're exploiting a game mechanic that is intended, but the results of someone finding a way to get the most out of it probably wasn't intended. They knew you could sit at zolo spawning stuff that gave exp, they just didn't think it could be so rewarding.

And it wasn't around before TBC. You needed level 70 to make it work to a degree worth using.

[Kyudo]

I guess a lot of you never heard of the Jana Proundmore mass ban of an entire horde guild?
So I'm intreagued about this statement. I looked it up, interesting stuff, same conclusion. Players found something interesting, "exploited" it as much as possible, Blizz hotfixed it.... Bit of human nature in action tbh.

And it was a 3 day ban to be precise.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=69637795&pageNo=1&sid=1#12

[Toned]

Exploiting something doesn't mean you're doing something wrong. Ever buy low sell high? Thats an exploit. Do quests in a planned order to level quickly? Exploit. Save quests to do after you hit 70 for the gold reward? Exploit. Level up and do a group quest by yourself at a higher level than intended?(or play a hunter) Exploit. Play multiple characters at the same time? Exploit. In all of these situations you're exploiting a game mechanic that is intended, but the results of someone finding a way to get the most out of it probably wasn't intended. They knew you could sit at zolo spawning stuff that gave exp, they just didn't think it could be so rewarding.

And it wasn't around before TBC. You needed level 70 to make it work to a degree worth using.I think you're confused about what exploiting is. Saving quests or doing them in a planned order isn't exploiting. Working the auction house isn't exploiting either that is taking advantage of some one elses stupidity. Sitting at Zolo doing nothing is exploiting, opening the mechanar chest as a rogue was exploiting the mobs pathing.

[puppychow]

back to the original topic, imo ZF is absolutely horrible for boost leveling. I took my 4 shamans (40) and 70 pally in there, parked em at the zone in, and had my pally mount up (woot) and run and grab a bunch of mobs. Note: do not try to grab 3/4ths of the instance, they WILL kill you (lol). I grabbed about 40-50 mobs (up to first "junction" where it splits in 3 ways), brought em back, and aoe'd em down.

And it was awful, every single mob runs when its at low health, and most never actually come back to you! wtf! they just wander around all over the place, and you have to run them down and kill them one by one. Takes freaking forever. I did it for about 2 hours, pulling about 2 sets and resetting the instance, took about 15-20 mins per run. I was getting ~35-40k xp/hour, which is pretty awful. Did do a final clear-whole-zone and complete some quests (including stairs and final boss).

Anyways with a pally I wouldn't recommend boosting with ZF, its not that great. Gonna try out BRD tomorrow, hopefully that is a little better.

[Xealous]

Arena win traders for the most part got 72 hour bans, not perma bans.

Didn't they get their PvP gear stripped too?


Some people got their gear stripped but did not get a suspension. Some people got both. I didn't hear of people getting suspended but not getting gear taken away, possible but unlikely.
MOST people who exploited the arena/bgs had nothing at all happen to them. Play in the <1500 bracket for a while and look at all the S3 weapon/shoulder teams that are terrible at PVP and you'll get a feel for how many people bought points and personal ratings and were untouched.Afaik - this all depends on whether you're in EU, US or Asia. I know in Asia for win-trading you will get stripped, but US and EU are a little bit more lenient XD

[accretion]

Hunters, feral druids or any heavy dps classes work quite well for boosting in ZF. I still think the zone sucks, but the mobs aren't terribly dangerous to a 70 and the level difference means a lot more xp for the boostees. Same for Uldaman, by the way. Sure, it's boring, but if you have lots of rest bonus, it's the fastest to level from 35-50 now.

[Quarto]

Took my 4 shaman to BRD tonight to boost with my 70 mage. Shammies are all 41-42.....think I will be heading back to ZF for a few more levels.
BRD is a pain in the ass to get to, and takes quite a bit of mana to kill 1-2 groups. I only stayed for about an hour and really didnt get much xp. Back to ZF- close to a FP, easy to pull a bunch w/ mount.

Man, boosting sure does slow down once ya hit 40!!

[Havelcek]

I hope any future threads about "Zolo" like activities get locked and deleted by the mods because it makes this community look like a bunch of cheaters and condoners of it. This couldn't be further from the perception that we are trying to convey to the rest of the world. Shame on everyone who bandwagonned onto this thing. :thumbdown:

[Meathead]

I hope any future threads about "Zolo" like activities get locked and deleted by the mods because it makes this community look like a bunch of cheaters and condoners of it. This couldn't be further from the perception that we are trying to convey to the rest of the world. Shame on everyone who bandwagonned onto this thing. :thumbdown:

Im with him :D :thumbup:

[Tonuss]

I expect that if I have a L70 helping my low level gain XP and someone else does not, I damn well better have a level advantage when it's all said and done.Yep. That is why I said that they are more lenient when it comes to power leveling. They obviously allow it and place no particular restrictions on it aside from the lowered experience-per-kill based on having a higher-level character in the group. Therefore if there is a method of PLing that they consider goes to far for comfort, they do not ban people, they just tell them it wasn't intended to be used that way and eventually they hotfix it or patch it.

What crosses the line is obviously up to Blizzard. A paladin clearing the SM Cathedral in two pulls is not a problem, but a paladin killing Zolo's adds for hours at a time will be patched. I have no problem with this, multiboxers understand that it's Blizzard's game and Blizzard's rules.

I agree that anyone who finds something like this is better off keeping it to themselves, but eventually this stuff gets out and Blizzard will know about it. No use worrying about it, really. You can still PL your alts pretty efficiently, they've simply removed one of the simpler and more effective ways.

[GizmoxLoW]

Where is the offical response to zolo posted. i cat seem to find it. Checked the main wow forums and nothing..

[Ticks]

Where is the offical response to zolo posted. i cat seem to find it. Checked the main wow forums and nothing..

i don't think there is one. Stealth fix.


Fixed

[Stabface]

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=8557297008&sid=1#7

[Havelcek]

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=8557297008&sid=1#7
Thanks for the post, I didn't know that Blizzard had approved the use of Zolo. I apologize to anyone who might have felt like I was calling them a cheater.

[blast3r]

To be honest I can't remember if the spawned skeletons in Scholo give XP. There is one room where a MOB will keep spawning them over and over again and unless you kill that MOB it will never end! Those give XP?

http://www.wowwiki.com/Scholomance_Dark_Summoner

[Stabface]

Not sure if they give XP or not. But it's not endless skeletons, they will only summon until they run out of mana (which takes a while, admittedly)

[blast3r]

Not sure if they give XP or not. But it's not endless skeletons, they will only summon until they run out of mana (which takes a while, admittedly)

Maybe at the time it felt like it was forever. :) Well, I think there are like 4 of them there but guess if it is based on the mana they have it wouldn't be worth it I guess.

[Stabface]

They aren't too far in - you could kill the rest of everything on the way, leaving your alts parked at the entrance. Then tag the 4(?) summoners and blow up skeletons until they stop summoning them. Then run out and rinse and repeat. If the numbers are accurate, judging from the mana they have and the ability cost, you'd get 70+ skeletons from each one, not bad...

I'll go check and see if they give XP.

[Jaws5]

I guess if we follow some the the logic here, at 70 boosting 4 other toons is an exploit. 70 can kill much faster than lvls instance was designed for.

Exp hit for one 70 is not that bad considering the time it takes them to clear the instance.

At some point lvl 90, 100, 150 etc Bliz will make option to start a char out at 70 80, etc.

They are doing this now with death knights, could they not do this with other classes?

death knights start at 5x, I think

:)

[Vyndree]

I talked to a GM before leveling here and got the "it's not currently against our policies, but that may change at any time" song and dance. At least one other person did as well and posted the GM screen shots.

I'd agree -- though technically they did the same with AFK'ing in BG's.

Policies change, and now that they have you can pretty much guarantee that anything similar to the old "Zolo" is very likely to be considered a bannable exploit in the future. They've made their statement by nerfing the current "creative use of game mechanics". Now that Zolo is a no-no, we can safely say that doing anything similar to Zolo NOW would be an exploit.

EDIT: Fixing for clarity since I had a PM about it -- I'm not opposed to the people who did Zolo while it was still a creative game mechanic. I only have a problem with people who try and repeat the "Zolo-style" leveling process now that Blizzard has put their foot down. Given that Blizzard has put their foot down on Zolo, it's reasonable to expect that they do not believe that similar methods should be used for other bosses. Much like taming spirit wolves in Dustwallow -- it was fine before the fix -- it just isn't now.

[Tasty]

I'm not opposed to the people who did Zolo while it was still a creative game mechanic. I only have a problem with people who try and repeat the "Zolo-style" leveling process now that Blizzard has put their foot down. Given that Blizzard has put their foot down on Zolo, it's reasonable to expect that they do not believe that similar methods should be used for other bosses. Much like taming spirit wolves in Dustwallow -- it was fine before the fix -- it just isn't now. :)

[Knytestorme]

Thanks for the post, I didn't know that Blizzard had approved the use of Zolo. I apologize to anyone who might have felt like I was calling them a cheater.
Yes, because you sure didn't come right out and say that did you?...oh, wait


I hope any future threads about "Zolo" like activities get locked and deleted by the mods because it makes this community look like a bunch of cheaters and condoners of it. This couldn't be further from the perception that we are trying to convey to the rest of the world. Shame on everyone who bandwagonned onto this thing.

[Xar]

Wow this thread is still going, lol.

Did anyone read Vrakthris's follow up post in the thread linked above?

[Zaelar]

I don't recall ever hearing about anyone getting into any kind of trouble for leveling of any kind, and I doubt they would start now. If they wanted to discourage this they would have made it public.

And no, getting banned for letting your friend in china power level your character isn't getting banned for leveling, it's getting banned for account sharing. Same with third party programs.

Lastly, leveling via Zolo still works, it's just extremely slow and not worth doing anymore. It got nerfed, not removed from the game.

[Stabface]

No XP for the Scholomance skeletons.

Lyceum @ 4x L40 is not very good at all, giving 14xp per kill and these guys hamstring and shoot guns so its annoying. I pushed the limit with my Paladin as to how much/fast I can pull and got about 55-60K an hour XP rate (which is north of 4000 kills per hour lol). Considering the lava hopping and killing trash for bad XP to get there, not worth it.

[Sanctume]

To be honest I can't remember if the spawned skeletons in Scholo give XP. There is one room where a MOB will keep spawning them over and over again and unless you kill that MOB it will never end! Those give XP?

http://www.wowwiki.com/Scholomance_Dark_SummonerIIRC, the summoned skeletons don't give xp.

[Sanctume]

No XP for the Scholomance skeletons.

Lyceum @ 4x L40 is not very good at all, giving 14xp per kill and these guys hamstring and shoot guns so its annoying. I pushed the limit with my Paladin as to how much/fast I can pull and got about 55-60K an hour XP rate (which is north of 4000 kills per hour lol). Considering the lava hopping and killing trash for bad XP to get there, not worth it.Yeah, that Lyceum sucks for xp. The most I got from BRD was 75k / hour; and that was just 3-boxing it. The average is 50k in 4 large pulls--depends on how many fire elementals spawn since I try not to pull more than 4 fire elementals in a pull.