RAF Question - Please validate my thinking

[Sarduci]

I have a main account with a 70 paladin, a 70 priest and a 62 warlock. I'm going to use the paladin to boost to 60 since I've heard it's possible to do 1 - 60 in less than 20 hours boosting.

That being said, what I'd like to do is this:

main->a
a->b
a->c
a->d
a->e

Account "a" is a dumping ground for the free levels. Every two 60's on b,c,d,e create 4 more 60's (give or take, I plan on leveling to 10 first) on account "a". With this setup, then my main account would get 2 more 60's for every 4 new 60's that were gifted on account "a". The toons in account "a" would then be transfered around to the other accounts to round out the accounts with one of each class.

Yes, i know this will take time. I have 160 hours of vacation to burn before the end of the year from work. The time investment is not an issue here, I just need someone to validate my logic. I'm still working out the math on the number of transfers this would be to get a 60 of each class on all 5 accounts.

Projected leveling path:
1-10 quests
10-20 stocks
20-45 SM
45-60 scholo/strat

Thanks for looking!../forum/images/smilies/thumbsup.png

[kadaan]

From the FAQ:

... Also, if the two characters are not the same level (4 or more levels difference), no bonus experience is granted to either character.

If your main account is linked to account a, account a will not receive the RAF bonus exp while being boosted.

[emesis]

I have a main account with a 70 paladin, a 70 priest and a 62 warlock. I'm going to use the paladin to boost to 60 since I've heard it's possible to do 1 - 60 in less than 20 hours boosting.

That being said, what I'd like to do is this:

main->a
a->b
a->c
a->d
a->e

Account "a" is a dumping ground for the free levels. Every two 60's on b,c,d,e create 4 more 60's (give or take, I plan on leveling to 10 first) on account "a". With this setup, then my main account would get 2 more 60's for every 4 new 60's that were gifted on account "a". The toons in account "a" would then be transfered around to the other accounts to round out the accounts with one of each class.




Yep, this should work and sounds like a good plan. I started out from scratch with RAF after having been away from WoW for awhile, so I didn't have this option and opted for a A->B->C->D->E setup to get as many toons up without boosting.

Since you're planning on boosting with your main and 4 accounts not linked to the main, do be aware that Blizz has stated that the 3X RAF experience gained when a non-linked higher level is in in the group is not intended and will be nerfed. Posts on this forum indicated that said nerf has not happened, however.

One bonus thing to keep in mind for your plan. The levels that you gift from B, C, D, and E to A count as earned levels for the RAF link between A and main. So, you get 29 free levels to gift from A to main for every new 60 you create via gifts on A. I can't believe that that works, but it does!

[emesis]

From the FAQ:

... Also, if the two characters are not the same level (4 or more levels difference), no bonus experience is granted to either character.

If your main account is linked to account a, account a will not receive the RAF bonus exp while being boosted.

I took his plan to be that account A will not have any toons on it that are partied. It's just a dumping ground for the levels, as he states. The pally is on the main account, and will be boosting toons from B, C, D, and E. That should work. I'd confirm it with trial accounts, myself.

[Sarduci]

From the FAQ:


... Also, if the two characters are not the same level (4 or more levels difference), no bonus experience is granted to either character.

If your main account is linked to account a, account a will not receive the RAF bonus exp while being boosted.

I took his plan to be that account A will not have any toons on it that are partied. It's just a dumping ground for the levels, as he states. The pally is on the main account, and will be boosting toons from B, C, D, and E. That should work. I'd confirm it with trial accounts, myself.Exactly, account "a" will not actually be played other than to make toons and transfer them around. My 4 existing shaman being transferred + making and transferring 4 rogues and 4 warriors seems to be all that would need to be done. Considering how my shaman need new gear anyway, I'm thinking it may be easier to just boost up 4 new ones. I'm going to work out the numbers using cascaded levels and see if it's any easier on the transfers, but I'm thinking not considering how the last account in the chain has nobody feeding free levels into it.

[kadaan]

I also just read in another thread (Boosting With a Linked Account ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=16397')) that having the 70 doesn't break the bonus, it just doesn't create it. So if main->a and a->b, the a->b link is still valid and both will get the exp.

Although if account a is a dumping ground and won't be part of the team, then none of the a->b a->c a->d a->e links will be valid and nobody will get the exp bonus ;).

[Sarduci]

Ah ha! I knew I was missing something and you figured it out. Thanks for the help, guess I'll have to go back to the drawing board and figure it out again.

I'm going to look at it from a main->a->b-c-d now.....

[emesis]

Although if account a is a dumping ground and won't be part of the team, then none of the a->b a->c a->d a->e links will be valid and nobody will get the exp bonus ;).

<slaps head>

Duh. Egg on my face for missing that. Glad you pointed it out!

[Sarduci]

Everything is boosted via the paladin....
main->a-b-c-d
First set: 4 paladins
Second set: 4 Priests
Collect free warriors on main, a, b, c
Third set: 4 warlocks
Fourth set: 4 mages
Collect free rogues on main, a, b, c
Fifth set: 4 hunter
sixth set: 4 shaman
Collect free druid on main, hunter on a, mage on b, warrior on c
Transfer hunter on a to main
Transfer mage on b to main
Transfer warrior on c to d
Create rogue on d and power level with a fresh toon on c, use anything on main, a and b to do it.

That's 3 transfers and a duplicate toon on one account. But that is doing the 0 to 60 grind 7 times..... From estimates, that'd be about 140 hours of playing or about 1.5 hours per day for 90 days. Considering how I have 3 weeks of vacation, I'm thinking this is realistic.
Cost would be 20 * 4 + 30 * 4 + 40 * 4 + 25 * 3 = $435 to do the transfers + new account costs and expansions.

[aboron]

I think the closest you can get to what you wanted is:

main->b
b->c
b->d
b->e

(boost b,c,d,e with main - gift all levels to chars on b and re-gift onto main (plus the actual earned grant levels), transferring as needed



Or if you really wanted to use the original 6 accounts:

main->a
a->b
b->c
b->d
b->e

Then you could re-gift from b to a, and then again from a to main

EDIT: ( Or you could do what you just wrote while i was posting this ;) )

[Sarduci]

Lol, yeah, lots of typing..... Thanks for tossing in your info.

I worked out a Main, a->b, c->d to see about saving some money on software purchases.

9 times through, 6 transfers

(20+30+40)*2 + 6 * 25 = $330.00

That saves about $100 but is an extra 40 hours of work.

[Seurat]

If you're worried about saving money it was posted previously that Amazon.com is selling Battlechests which contain WoW + BC for $24.99 instead of the 20+30 (50) you had used in your estimates.

[Halo]

Also, if you aren't dead set on leveling up DK's as part of the deal, you really don't need to get WotLK yet. Eventually, yes. But, you could put it off until your RAF runs out. Who knows, maybe you'll burn out running SM for hours on end. (Last night, I felt blessed when I got the "you entered too many instances already" message after a few hours).

I have a very similar system going with main unlinked, B->C and D->E linked with some plans to do transfers as needed.

[Berliner]

I have a 70 druid and a 60 mage on my main account A and have very limited play time right now so I'm only going to level one group. I have it linked A to B to C to D, and C to E. I'm levelling 4 mages on B/C/D/E to 60, at which point A, B, and C will get free 60's with no leftover levels because of cascading. Then I'll transfer one toon A->D and roll a DK on E so that I end up with 5 mages, druid, paladin, shaman, warrior, and a DK with each account being a mage + 1. Lots of PVE combos possible that way and only 2 groups to level to 80.

I'm the OP of that boosting thread and it's still working with my linked 70 druid. Three runs through Deadmines and they went from 10 to 16. Ready for stocks now. Given the wording in the Blizzard FAQ, I'm sure this is a bug but I hope they don't fix it before I get to 60... ;)

One thing I noticed is that the amount of XP my mages were getting per mob in the mines actually went up as they leveled. I'd say the XP formula includes some calculation about the difference between high and low level characters in a group. And that it overwhelms the difference between the low levels toons and the mobs (at least at these low levels).

[Sarduci]

Actually, death knights aren't in the figures. WotLK is just in there for a comparison in costs since i'll be buying it anyway.

so, looking at it from the position of having a boosting account with 3 toons on it over 60....
4 RAF
$25 * 4 + 5 * $40 + 3 * $25 = $375
2 RAF
$25 * 2 + 5 * $40 + 6 * $25 = $400
Ignore RAF and just play
5 * $40 = $200

Well, looks like the number of transfers kills the 2 RAF now. Also these numbers may not hold true for someone who has more or less existing toons over 60 than I do.

Now it just comes down to buying a new guitar, fixing my old one that needs $200 in parts or feeding the WoW addiction.... decisions, decisions....

[Sarduci]

One thing I noticed is that the amount of XP my mages were getting per mob in the mines actually went up as they leveled. I'd say the XP formula includes some calculation about the difference between high and low level characters in a group. And that it overwhelms the difference between the low levels toons and the mobs (at least at these low levels).This behavior is normal, as you catch up to and then exceed you'll get more xp as you close the level gap between you and the mobs. At lvl 15 in the stocks I was getting 37xp, at lvl25 I'm getting 65xp. I'm just sad to say it took like 15 runs instead of the three you needed to go from 10 to 15.

[kadaan]

It definitely scales with level, and at the same rate that the exp required to level does. I remember doing about 10 levels in stocks and it would take the same number of runs per level until the mobs conned green. Even though the exp required to level went up, the exp per mob went up at exactly the same ratio.