Boosting 60+ in Outlands instances, numbers

[Stabface]

I'm boosting a new group up through Outlands and wanted to post some numbers and get discussion going on optimizing this a bit.

So far I have boosted 60-62 in Ramps, each run takes ~8-9 minutes and gives ~13-14% of a level @61->62, no rested or heirloom bonus. This is ~7-8 runs per level or basically 80 minutes. I either loot some stuff on the 5th run or take a break if I get locked.
I use an 80 Prot Paladin, my gear is not that great -- about what you'd want to start running Heroics with as a tank, pretty much L80 blues with some crafted bits. I used Figurine of the Colossus, Seal of Light and Lifeward enchant for healing, along with Divine Shield or Hand of Protection + heal on the tougher pulls. I'm also an Engineer so Saronite Bombs on every pull for a nice chunk of damage.
I do the instance in 4 pulls: entrance up to the casters who fear, everything up to the closest patrol point of the boss, everything up to the 2 guards at the bottom of spiral stairs, finally everything upstairs excluding the 2 guards at each of the bosses and the bosses themselves.

XP seemed to drop off once I hit 62, my internets crashed 1/2 through the 1st run at L62 but I'd only made 1 bar. I think I'll need to move up instances, perhaps Auchenai Crypts ... with all the tasty, tasty Undead and additional +5% damage/XP boost from the Auchindon blessing it should be faster if I can handle large enough pulls.

[Stealthy]

How many toons are you boosting?

Cheers,
S.

[Stabface]

Sorry - it's 4 alts.

[Smoooth]

I dont recommend crypts...It has those casters that summon the totem things that mind control you. Either you will go wipe your whole team or everything will evade back to their spots.

[Stabface]

I spent ~45 mins with "additional instances cannot be launched" tonight before logging out in complete and utter frustration. Maybe I'll try Auchindon in a few days but gonna take a day off I'm pretty sure.

[ciscokid454]

i'm trying to plan out where to take some teams soon.
I figure 55-62/3 ramparts, 62/3-64/5 either UB or sp or Mana tombs, once you hit 65 you can easily move to uk/an/nexus if you want

[Smoooth]

Why not just stay in ramparts until 65 then move to UK? Ramparts can be cleared so fast I doubt the more xp per kill in a higher zone will make up for the lost speed. A level 64 will still get xp off mobs level 56+.

[Darelik]

so i got bored. when my shammies hit 65 (pally was level 70 on quest-blue 70 gear) i hit up slabs and it was fun :D

[Stabface]

Have to agree with Smoooth here, I took a trial run through all 3 Auchindon instances this morning before work ^.^ and I don't think they are worth the extra effort. There's too many random secondary target effects (mobs that put SWP or mana burn on your alts) as well as mind control to deal with in both Crypts and Sethekk. The XP was somewhat better but more in the 10-15% range not a huge increase (part of that from the 5% tower buff, rest from the higher level mobs).
Ramparts has knockback deaggro and stun but both of those are easily dealt with, back to a corner and keep Consecrate down and mobs will immediately re-aggro. It's brainless.

BTW the XP for 1 full Ramps run at L62 is right at 10%. So 10 runs, 2 hours, easy. It's also worth doing the pre-req for the Ramparts instance quests (fairly short, check a database site for details) and then the Blood Furnace ones after that as they give a lot of XP.

One downside is that the reputation gains stop at 1 point shy of Honored, wish it went up through Revered as the discount on mount training would be quite welcome.

[Memn]

I would definately recommend UK at 65.

so you ony need to bridge the gap from 62-65

The only other options I can think of are
Blood Furnace
The Underbog
Sethikk Halls
Shattered Halls

[Stabface]

I've tried some instances now and here are my thoughts :

Blood Furnace - random secondary effects, my alts are completely ungeared so they get 2-3 hit by those grenades.

Underbog - is pretty decent actually, and large enough that you don't hit instance limits. There were some random secondary target effects but none of my alts got killed. Worth checking out more...

Sethekk Halls - mind control totems, more secondary effects like charge or area effect (chain lightning), aggro dumps on the shadow bolt casting guys. Mobs are getting rather high for the alts to help. The last boss will just plain own your alts (maybe if you ran them far away and solo'd him, but not sure).

Shattered Halls - mobs are too high for alts to help much with damage.


I'll finish boosting in a day or two and report back this weekend on Utgarde Keep. :)

[wowphreak]

Just do shattered halls that's what I did with my group had an 80 pali with just blue gear bought of of AH.
Was trying to get Figurine of the Colossus but never got shitty luck I guess :P

[Stabface]

SH is too slow without help from the alts.

[Diwa]

Tried Underbog until 65. Just clear all the mobs until first boss [Hungarfen] then reset. If you're running shamman team I suggest to start Underbogs @ 55 and farm for Totem of the Thunderhead ('http://www.wowhead.com/?item=24413')

[Starbuck_Jones]

I ground out 60-61 with my 3 new alts in Underbog. They had full rested and I did not keep exact track of how long it took, but it was about 9 runs up to and killing Hungerfen. I did not go any further than that. It was quick each run. Took about 12 min each. I was able to do it in 3 pulls. Simply going from triple xp to rested XP. Instance grinding from 60-70-80 just isnt going to cut it due to the fact that once you run out of rested you loose half of your xp gain.

About the fastest way to grind the last 20 levels is going to be a mix of questing while you are building up rested xp on multi-box friendly quests and then hit an instance and grind off the rested you save up. Preferably instances that you have quests to complete in.

[Diwa]

^ Yup just doing alternate teams and maximize the rested XP.. I also do 3 pulls in 3 different areas and sometimes I leave Hungerfen and just reset to maxime the 5 instance/hr limit limit.

I'll start questing @ 68 since thats the minimum level for Northrend Quests


Now in Underbogs I have my 4 lvl 60 mage starting to grind their rested XP and it's really carnage. Using my lvl 80 Pally to Tank, tried both Prot and Holy spec. Holy spec Holy Shock + Ret spec Judgement of the Wise talent combo was enough to survive and gave more mana to the mages. What I do after pulling all the mobs near the mages, I spam Consecretion, Judgement of Wisdom etc..macro and cast Holy Light then swith to 4 Mage windows and cast Blizzard. The moment I return to my Pally window, Holy Light has been casted and HP is 100%. So I cast Holy Light again. If my Pally HP is under 75% I cast flash of light+Holy Shock then Holy Light, switch to mage windows. The mages average 2k DPS without equips.

Tried also using Destro Warlocks and it works perfectly.


I'll try Black Morass @ 66 since you can pull mobs using a mount.



I would definately recommend UK at 65.
Tried this and it's not a walk in the park because my shaman's spell hit rate is not that good for lvl 70-71 mobs in UK resulting into a low DPS output and slow leveling my rested XP.

[Littleburst]

Didn't want to make a new topic, so i'll just add it here, since this topic seems most valuable:

If you want to boost 60-65 do it in underbog and clear till the second boss(the dragonthing on a plateau above water)

Place slaves here:
http://img573.imageshack.us/img573/2199/ubboost.th.png (http://img573.imageshack.us/i/ubboost.png/)

Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)

That's when you enter the instance, the small group of mobs you'd normally skip to the most left/north, If you put the slaves on the edge of it, they'll recieve experience even when you kill Ghaz'an (http://www.wowhead.com/npc=18105).

Goes a lot faster then questing for me.