Instance Boosting Question

[rebelred]

Hi guys,

I started 2xing the other day here and there and it's fun stuff. Last night I got a slight taste of instance boosting and think it's the way to go if possible.

Anyway, I have 3 accounts.

A (lvl 80) referred B referred C.

So I want to take out my 80 and boost with my low level B and C.

My question is will this screw up my RaF bonus since my 80 is linked by referring B?

Thanks! :D

[Gares]

Simple answer is yes. You need an unlinked account to boost with.

[rebelred]

I thought so. Darn it.

Questing it is then. :(

Guess I can try to buy runs here and there. Hope I figure out better questing because it feels like murder ATM. Live and learn.

Thanks for your quick reply. I won't upgrade that 3rd account for now.

[Owltoid]

Depending on how much money you're willing to spend, you could just create two new accounts, RAF link them and boost till 60, and then transfer to your newly upgraded accounts. You could possibly get it all done for 25 per toon (50 total for two $25 transfers) and avoid the $20 cost by asking for a refund w/in the 30 days (after transferring toons off).

[Seurat]

Do a large amount of people have a problem boosting with a linked toon? I have yet to see an issue with using a linked toon to boost. I have 5 accounts linked a->b->c->d->e and my main on a has already boosted 2 teams of 4 up to 60 without once losing the RAF triple XP. So you may or may not have an issue with raf xp gains. I would say, go into an instance with your 3 linked toons and test it out for yourself. After killing some mobs check your log to see if you are, in fact, getting the extra xp.

[Harem]

My understanding (from being corrected here at dual-boxing) is that the A->B doesn't matter as long as there is the B->C. The bonus will apply because of the the B->C and A->B does not negate it.


edit: Here is the thread ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&postID=153880&highlight=#post153880')

[rebelred]

UPDATE

Okay, I decided to spend the time to set this up (going 1-10 on with 2 new toons, etc).

At 10 I ran Account A (80) with Account B + C in VC twice and watched my combat log. I was getting RaF experience. :D

It was frustrating at first until I swapped my DK for my druid since he can just moonfire the heck out of the place. DK wasn't killing fast enough since low level chars were pulling aggro from a mile away.

Not sure what the norm is, but I did 2 runs and they went from level 10 (no bars) to level 13 (few bars), so just over 1.5 levels per run.

Anyone know how to reset this instance without going all the way from dagger hills through cave?

Thanks for the responses. I'm glad this is working as I didn't like the 2-box questing (thinking it might be fine after 40, but getting going is rough).

[shaeman]

Take the time now and run through to SFK.

Can boost there from 10-22 ish very quick runs with no large distances to cover. (other than the initial run if you are alliance).

This sets you up nicely for a trip across to SM at 20.

[Oswyn]

Anyone know how to reset this instance without going all the way from dagger hills through cave?


Do this for one toon at a time. Leave party, and then log out. It will say that it will port you back to your hearth location, but if you will log out before that happens. Then log him back in, he will be at the front of the instance. Then reinvite him to the party (this is important, you have to have people in your group when logging out). Repeat with remaining toons. Then step out of deadmines, reset, and have your group go back in.

edit: Not sure if this would be considered an exploit, but if mods think it is, then I will remove the post.

edit #2: corrected steps above

[rebelred]

Yes, I'm alliance. I was going to run them through VC 1-2 times til 15 and then hit Stockades until 20.

I guess at 20 I'll hit SM.

Thanks for reset tip. I don't think it's an exploit. Lots of people do something similar for the "ghetto summon" to Dalaran.

I also noticed that my team gets RaF bonus when outside killing anything, which gives me the idea of doing any orange-conned quests for my guys with my 80 while running around.

[Owltoid]

Although boosting with the DK is probably working well, you can boost with your druid if your gear is solid enough. Just grab as many mobs as you can and starfall. I can take out SM Cath in two pulls, though I'm sure many can do it in one.

[rebelred]

Although boosting with the DK is probably working well, you can boost with your druid if your gear is solid enough. Just grab as many mobs as you can and starfall. I can take out SM Cath in two pulls, though I'm sure many can do it in one.LOL. Actually the DK was FAIL. He couldn't kill fast enough and my low levels were getting 1-2 hit. I'd miss 1 guy and that was it. And he can't rez, so it became a nightmare. Thankfully, my main is an 80 resto Druid. I swapped him in and just moonfired the place to hell. My guys died once each, but a simple rez fixed it (I keep my guys on follow and just mow through the place).

His gear is heroics + some 25-man naxx stuff, so he's good to go. I'll probably switch back to DK later on when my toons can take a couple hits in case of odd aggro (DKs cool downs can come at wrong time).

[elsegundo]

you might want to get your DK in there to kill the guys in the beginning, at least so none of your lowbies will pull aggro by being too low.
the trick with lowbies is this, bring the mobs to them. dont have them follow you.
in vc, i'd go around and grab everyone in the cave, as i run back to the beginning, they would all be attacking the main instead of the lowbies.
in vc, mobs die too fast to spread diseases, so just DnD them. spread one disease if you get lucky and find an elite. most miners are non-elite.

[Souca]

What level is the DK? I spent the weekend boosting on my 80 prot geared DK and it was insanely fast. I think a lot has to do with the spec though. I spent a good deal of time coming up with a spec just for boosting. The main idea is that you want to be able to pick up mobs without hitting them, hence the need for Unholy Blight. The next important thing is to get the most damage to every mob, not just one. You are basically trying to do even damage to every mob instead of burst to a few. I set up a special macro that I use through SM to prevent me from killing a mob before I can spread my diseases.



#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=target Icy Touch, Pestilence, Bloodboil
/stopattack


Ocasionally I'll still get a white swing in and one shot things, but most times this allows me to get Frost Fever up and spread it to al of the mobs and then Bloodboil them for some nice spike damage. If the cooldown is up, I drop a Death and Decay and then just reapply again.

For anyone who is interested, here is my build: Boosting DK Build ('http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jbE0oZ0xZcghIz0oxeoMcsht')
Here is my armory: Lithanna Armory ('http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Scarlet+Crusade&n=Lithanna')
Route: Quest to 10, SFK to 20, SM Cath to 40, ZF to 45, Strath to 55, Ramparts to 60.
Time: ~1 hour to 10, 12-17 minutes per SFK, 7 minutes per SM Cath, 20ish minutes per ZF, 1 hour 20 minutes for complete Live and Dead side Strath, 20ish minutes per Ramparts (Some times are iffy since I wasn't focused on them. All include reset to reset times.)

If there is enough demand, I could write up a guide to how I handle boosting with this character. Even taking time to loot and slacking around a lot I got characters to 60 in just over 19 hours.

- Souca -

[rebelred]

My DK is 80, but he's a 32/39 DPS build for heroics. I really didn't want to screw with him much since I'm playing him daily.

I leveled as unholy, so I'm familiar with using UB, et al. I'm going to probably use him when I hit SM and try again.

Just did first stockades run (hate that place) and got 75% of a level (16 - 16.75) in about 20 minutes or so. I started leaving my guys in a zone and bringing mobs to em. Been ages since I've been to these instances.

My times are sucky because I'm learning how to do this and trying to remember instances. Still think I'm leveling faster than straight dual questing.

[Souca]

Yea, I also had a helper who a let refer my first account. If he is online I just boost at least one character linked to him and then another pair of mine. Makes it easier if he can move them around.

Another thing I found that makes a huge difference is Blessing of Sanctuary. 20 runic power per doge/parry is insane and means I can pretty much have a corpse explosion every cooldown.

- Souca -

[rebelred]

I might try your build and any tips soon. I can always respec my DK later and honestly I've taken a break from endgame because I'm finding this more enjoyable. ;)

If you've got any other tips (instance or DK), I know I'd like to know.

Thanks

[Souca]

Well, I'm thinking I might frapps a group from 1 to 60 and write up a guide to go with it. Obviously I'd speed some of the footage up ;)

I'll be starting with horde just because that's where my 80s are right now, but aside from starting zones, most things would be the same.

The main tips I have that I think of right now are the following:

SFK at level 10. RFC tapers off to quickly, and Stockades has too many mobs that stun. There are few immune mobs and silences in SFK, but they are minor annoyances at worst. SM Cath at 20. The main problem is that you can clear the whole place in 3 pulls and finish it too fast. After your fifth clear, ~40 minutes, you have to sit around for 20 more minutes before you can go back in. I'm going to see if Armory is worth adding in to cut down on the number of resets. Might not be an option on PvP servers if you are Alliance. For Strath, you need some way to remove diseases or have a healer that you are boosting. There is a disease that reduces health regen by 100% and because the way food works now you can't eat to get health back. It lasts 10 minutes so you will need a way to get healed back to full or have it cleansed. If you can boost a Pally in the group, spec them prot. Once they get Sanctuary, you shoudl macro a key to have them cast it on the DK. This pretty much guarentees you will always have a full RP bar. For shorter run you can just park one outside the isntance, but longer runs make that difficult.
Perma ghoul is your friend. Mine manage to hold two Destroyers in Ramparts last night and actually killed them while I dealth with a big pack. In a worst case scenario you can sack him for 40% health and summon another one right away. Looting will slow you down. It will also make you lots of money and in Strath it will give you lots of Runecloth to get all that rep you didn't earn questing. This is a personal call you can make. Sometimes Iloot everything on the DK, sometimes I loot BoPs on the followers, and sometimes I just burn through. Have fun with it. Even when it goes fast, it gets boring. Make sure you don't burn yourself out with it cause then you won't finish or you'll not want to play the characters you boosted. Boosted characters are expensive. Even if you loot everything, chances are you will end up spending more money on training class skills than you bring in. Even questing up a 5 box group doesn't pay for all the skills they can learn. Outlands can be fun if you are still wearing the starter area grey chest ;)I'll try and start writing these things down, but if you find somethign else works better for you, I'd love to hear it. Part of the fun for me is trying to get this all down and optimized, but then again I have at least 30 some characters horde side alone I plan to boost.

- Souca -

[rebelred]

I'm alliance PVE so no issues.

Just ran stocks 4-5 times (forgot) and got my duo from 15 (0 bars) to 20. :D

Think I spent half the time on the ground from those stupid hammer guys. I mean come on. I'm 80 and they are 23 and I couldn't get up (like 10 of em on me plus about 20 other guys). Blah.

After I got used to it, stockades was fairly easy.

As for Strat, I run that with my DK from time to time on undead side from service entrance trying to get the mount. There's never that stupid disease when running from there. Is it really worth starting at the beginning?

I'm not worried about cost too much. I have multiple 80s, profs (2 JCs max too) and other stuff. Even set up my own guild with GB. :D

So according to your advice, I'm going to try SM Cath in a little bit and see if I can't get them to 40 tonight. I've got about 5 hours or so to play I think. I'll probably fail and get to 21 lol.

I know ZF fairly well and know that will be an easy roll for me. This is so much better than questing. I did another duo from 1 - 22 with 4 levels boosting and it still took me much, much longer.

Thanks for your tips and advice. I'd love to get into horde RaF DBing when I'm finished, my next DK is going to be horde (ORC FTW). :thumbsup:

[Souca]

I did a couple SFK runs this morning and recorded them. This isn't the best example, but it should give you an idea of how I run SFK with 4 followers in tow.

SFK Boosting Run ('http://www.fivetimesthefun.com/fluff/SFKRuns_2.avi') - 151MB, 6:19, Xvid AVI

The video is a sped up video of two back to back runs. I included the run back, since it will be something that you have to do. I messed up a couple times, but the followers never died. I did have to go back and get two that fell off follow in the first run, but they didn't loose too much XP. Female Tauren tend to get stuck on lots of things.

While this is a rough video, I would be interested in any feedback so that any videos I do in the future can be more useful to others. If needed, I can create a thread in the movies sections.

- Souca -

[rebelred]

My mac wouldn't play the video, so I'll check it out later when I get to my pc.

I got both my chars to 40s last night (so 1-40s in one day). Wow, instance boosting FTW. Questing isn't even close. Of course it's a tradeoff, but I'll take it.

My first run through SM Cath took me 90 freaking minutes. Dead, dead, dead, come on, dead. My favorite was guys dying right before huge pull. However, on second run I tested out distance. I wanted to see how far my guys could be and still get exp. The run took 30 minutes and only 1 death cause I missed someone. From then on I was running that thing in 10-15 minutes tops with my DK. I can do it in my sleep now.

Then I hit ZF. I took them there at 35 as the exp in SM was slowing up. Yes, my guys died multiple times before I figured it out for the most part. 35-40 went fairly fast.

Thanks for the tips. My DK didn't respec, but he's doing awesome. If he was Unholy with UB and stuff it would be easier (might have to for Strat).

I'm looking forward to seeing your SFK runs and stuff. Once my chars hit 55 tonight I'm making 2 horde DKs and going to DB them to 70 so I can start my horde teams (orc hunter here I come).

[Souca]

Awesome. Glad to hear you got into a rhythm with SM. I have a couple 30s I might drag through SM tonight, I'll see if I can't record it as well. I also might make another cloth run in Strat, so I'll tag the 60s along for rep. If I can manage to not mess up as much as I did last night, I'll share the video. I also need to look into some other codecs. I think the mac issue might just be that it's a rare codec I'm using (Xvid). I believe I have a copy of Flash somewhere, so I'll see if I can't make videos using the flash compression as well.

The trickiest thing is getting into a rhythm and knowing where it is safe to part your characters. As they get higher level, you can get a little sloppier, but once you know the safe spots and the pats, it doesn't hurt to leave them in a good place even when they are higher level.

- Souca -

[rebelred]

Yeah, having your guys in starter gear (now red) with no skills trained doesn't help either. :D

Last night I trained my guys since they were 40. Tonight I did ZF for about 90 min and got them to 45 (Strat time!). One guy died a couple times on accident, but the other has rez, so that saved me a lot of time and frustration.

For tonight's strat festivities, I'm going in through service entrance. There's no curses to worry about and it's good enough. It takes me about 14 min on my DK to run it, but that's without looting or killing too much, so I'm good to run that non-stop without the hourly instance issue. I'm still hoping for the baron's mount. :D

Going to ZF from 35 was a great move. SM Cath is going down at that point and it's easy to level up in ZF.

Hoping to hit 55 on em so I can try ramparts to 60 tomorrow and get my new DKs tonight. :D

I'm really looking forward to DBing outlands. Still trying to decide on a good pair. I was thinking either druid/priest or shammy/priest (mage/priest and pally/priest options as well).

[rebelred]

Souca,

After have the worst first strat run in history (toons kept dying and taking forever to get back to service entrance----actually quick an hour into it with only 1 boss down....stupid gargoyles), I decided to respec my DK to your spec. I made a couple tweaks (like not taking corpse explode because I'd forget to use it). I had a TS destroyer sitting in my bank that I've been wanting to try, so it worked out.

First of all, I'm very happy with the move. I can get aggro much faster. I missed not having Unholy Blight. Aside from hitting all the wrong keys for the wrong stuff the 2nd time through, it went ok. I'm now on my 7th run through strat undead via service start and finish it in about 25-30 minutes with full looting.

Best part is I've found all sorts of blues off random mobs and just got a BoE epic gun for my hunter. woot!

No mount, but my guys are 50% or so honored in rep. ;)


I had planned to stay until 60, but I need a change of scenery, so a few more runs and I'm off to ramparts. Best part is I could do this all over again so much faster.

Thanks for the tips and the push toward respecing back to unholy. :D

[Owltoid]

I'd suggest respecing for your boost sessions. A moonkins starfall & typhoon has to be much quicker and more mana efficient than moonfire on every mob.

For SM Cath, just have your guys stay where they zone in. Stealth to the cathedral doors (don't open yet), throw some HoTs on yourself, and start body pulling everything you see. You can easily keep yourself up with HoTs and switching back to moonkin form. Do not put on thorns as many will die before they're in range of your lowbies. Once you have pretty much everyone in the zone, drag them back to the hallway to break LOS, and AoE them all (usually requires 2 typhoons and a starfall... I pop out the treants to pick up stragglers).

Since you need to wait three minutes for your cooldowns, loot the bodies and heal up. I used this time to disenchant with my lowbies. Note that your lowbies still haven't moved from their starting spot (except to loot) and once done looting will return to the same starting spot.

Next, go to the Cathedral and pull the boss. Sprint back to the hallway and wait for the masses to come. Starfall/typhoon/treants and you've just cleared the instance in two pulls.

You can easily do this w/in 10 minutes and your lowbies are never in danger of dying. If I ever hit the "too many instances" then I spend time doing my enchanting & tradeskills with the mats I just collected.

[Owltoid]

Heh, my last post was a big waste of space since I just read that you're nearing Ramparts. In that case the only advice I have is to get to Outlands the instant you hit 55 (you may need a summon as I tried to zone in with my level 55 and couldn't go through the portal). The exp, gold, and loot are all significantly better.

[Souca]

Owltoid, no worries; more info is always good. I might have to try your druid spec for some other realms where I don't have the DK. As for zoning into Outlands, you need to be 58 to go through the portal, so I always use a warlock summon to Scyer tier for hearth and then the Ramparts entrance.

Corpse Explosion is iffy sometimes. There is a annoying bug with its target in some situations, so it's a love hate relationship for me. The place it really shines is when I do my really big Strat pulls. With the glyph I basically get two explosion for every cast. I have seen crits of 2700 from both pops and it really thins out the groups.

Ramparts at 55 will seem really easy. I was ratehr surprised how much I could pull in there and kill. The XP is insane and the boss drops are actually useful.

- Souca -

[rebelred]

Yeah, I could do SM Cath in my sleep now. That's cake. And Strat is very easy at this point. I do 25 min runs to baron and get disappointed with no mount. I've got loot galore from this place. :D

I need to do 2 more strat runs to get guys to 55 and 56 and then I'm off to ramparts. I soloed that place with my DK when he just hit 80 (crap spec, no gear, etc) and it was cake. I'm looking forward to going back and trashing the place a few times.

Not sure if I want to DB my duo through outlands first or bring up some other stuff. I'm learning toward the 7 levels in outlands so I can get to NR yet again. Wonder if they can take outlands in their now 0/100 starter gear? :)

[biobee]

Route: Quest to 10, SFK to 20, SM Cath to 40, ZF to 45, Strath to 55, Ramparts to 60.
Time: ~1 hour to 10, 12-17 minutes per SFK, 7 minutes per SM Cath, 20ish minutes per ZF, 1 hour 20 minutes for complete Live and Dead side Strath, 20ish minutes per Ramparts (Some times are iffy since I wasn't focused on them. All include reset to reset times.)Zomg.... i just came accross your posting till i realize we have the same instance sequence :)

quickest way to level with RaF? ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&postID=175324#post175324')

We have a slight different style on each instance run, maybe can merge or modified the run.

I have not tried running ramparts with lvl 55 RAFs. how much xp does ea mobs get?

[biobee]

I did a couple SFK runs this morning and recorded them. This isn't the best example, but it should give you an idea of how I run SFK with 4 followers in tow.

SFK Boosting Run ('http://www.fivetimesthefun.com/fluff/SFKRuns_2.avi') - 151MB, 6:19, Xvid AVI

The video is a sped up video of two back to back runs. I included the run back, since it will be something that you have to do. I messed up a couple times, but the followers never died. I did have to go back and get two that fell off follow in the first run, but they didn't loose too much XP. Female Tauren tend to get stuck on lots of things.

While this is a rough video, I would be interested in any feedback so that any videos I do in the future can be more useful to others. If needed, I can create a thread in the movies sections.

- Souca -Nice Vid, i will tape mine in some of the instance run, maybe without the RAFs chars as i have none to level atm after 11 chars is raised. Anyway my alts are not tagged with the boast but park near the entrance

[Clanked]

I had originally thought that linking A>B>C>D>E wouldn't allow boosting. Reading this thread changed that...

Now I am stuck with these options, and I don't know which is best:

1) Fresh Paladin + Fresh Group + Questing to 60
2) Fresh DK + Fresh Group + Questing to 60
3) Fresh DK + Fresh Group + Boosting to 60

I have about 7.5k gold saved up from Pre-WotLK, so I should be able to afford spells/lvl 60 mounts no matter what method I choose.
I am definatly leaning towards the DK route for various personal taste reasons. So that really narrows it down to 2 and 3.
Would a lvl 55 +4 be efficient at questing to level?
More importantly, how well can a fresh 55 DK instance boost?

[rebelred]

Update: This morning I took the duo to ramparts and got main gifter to 60 and the other guy to 60.9. ;)

By 55(and56) I couldn't take strat anymore. Ramparts was cake. The only deaths came with the dragon fight. Funny because I left them on another planet and they still got smacked. However, this could have been avoided if I had heals setup. It's a short run, so I didn't care. I was getting a full level per run, which took about 20 min. Basically, I just rolled through to first pathing boss, up stairs to hang right to warlock guy and then back to dragon guy. Drop down to instance start and repeat.

I'll never quest before 60 with any char unless impossible. This has been so incredibly fast. And the strat run was full of loot. I was getting angry with ramparts. Mail pieces kept dropping, but my shaman is on the account with my DK. Guess I better bring up another shaman. 8o

To clanked, when you come out of the DK starting area, you'll be level 58 with awesome blue gear. When WotLK came out I got a DK from 55-80 in a week through regular play, so they can mow down content on their own. As for instance boosting, if you can play the class you should be able to at least boost any char from start through SM (35-40ish). Going past that, Strat, may be possible, but it would be insanely slow. It's one of those things where you'll have to try it yourself and see how you do.

[Nyth]

Got a question related to that.

I linked my RAFs as follow (I had 2 accounts Acc1 & Acc2 to start with) :

Acc1 -> Acc3
Acc2 -> Acc 4 & Acc5

I have a pally lvl 71 with woltk quest gear on Acc1. I f I understand correctly, "boosting" with him would prevent Acc3 from getting RAF xp, but would give the other accounts the XP. Am I correct ? And would the 71 pally be strong enough to boost properly in the later levels (50-60) ?

Another question : I never see people doing instances with their 5 leveling toons (e.g. all at the same level, compatible with the instance) during the 0-60s. Is it because compared to questing it yields no xp ? I was wondering if doing SM at lvl 35 repeatedly would be a possibility compared to questing.

Any thoughts on this ?