Boost grinding a 62 in Northrend.

[cmeche]

I am bringing up a shaman(will be #5) on my 5th account. Never realized boxing pvp would be this much fun, I just figured a tank on the 5th account would be all i needed. Now after the long grind from 1-62 with no raf....I headed out to northrend to see how grinding on the rhinos would be with my team helping.

Setup:
3 lvl 80s dropping magma, rotating on stoneclaw
lvl 62 shaman grouped with a lvl 72 junk priest that i have(need to be grouped to take advantage of non-party totems)

Basicly i have everyone follow the priest....priest hits 1-2 holy novas to tag the mobs.......magmas are dropped at same time i pw:s the priest.......about 5 seconds later,.......5 dead rhinos and hardly any loss of mana. Stoneclaw really helps for this type of grinding too.

With heirloom shoulders/chest, shaman was getting around 500xp per mob unrested. My preist with no heirlooms was getting 700-800xp as rested. After my fist hour of grinding, i was easily staying around 250k xp per hour on the lvl 62. I am guessing this is alot faster than questing in BC? What do yall think?

[Ualaa]

Interesting idea.

It depends on how many mobs are in the area, and if you will run out of stuff.
Competition for the rhino's could slow you down at times, but still a very good idea.

[cmeche]

Interesting idea.

It depends on how many mobs are in the area, and if you will run out of stuff.
Competition for the rhino's could slow you down at times, but still a very good idea.

True, if there is even 1 other person/group grinding on the rhinos.....xp would drop bigtime. But if you can find a good time(for me its early morning at work ;)) when you have them all to yourself....it will be a nice xp boost.

Only problem is the boing repitition. Questing in Nagrand would be so much more entertaining, but yeild far less xp.

[Sam DeathWalker]

This is the kind of thing I been doing for the last 6 months and everyone say I am stupid ......

Its called Tag Boosting.

Wish I was in Northend, still doing like 20 BC mobs per pull is nice (at the black temple training area).

[Smoooth]

This is the kind of thing I been doing for the last 6 months and everyone say I am stupid ......

Its called Tag Boosting.

Wish I was in Northend, still doing like 20 BC mobs per pull is nice (at the black temple training area).


I think this method is a lot more viable at 60+ since it's only effective while rested. Since you get a % of level rest per day and the levels get longer and longer the higher level you are the longer it takes to go through the rest.

Getting 1 level per week at 60+ is pretty decent but in the lower levels is pretty bad.

Why don't you go to northrend? Go outside warsong hold in the starter area and have your "xp group" macro shocks to get the tag while the rest lightning bolt. You should be able to 1 shot them still and the spawns there are way fast. If your guys are still under about level 62 you might want to wait a bit.

[Ualaa]

I find a lot of the leveling aspects of the game to be extremely monotonous.
The cure for this, is to have a partial distraction while playing.

My mixed group will be AV'ing for 6-9 levels (depending on the toon).
They'll all be in the same pvp's until the last one dings 80.

For the most part one AV is the same as another.
Rush to Drek/Belinda, kill him/her.
Then either guard a tower/bunker, retake a tower/bunker or continue with the swarm.

I can have a dvd playing on my screen (love a 30" widescreen)...
Enough attention on it, to distract me from the fact that I've done the same BG 599 times this month.
But the game is right there in front of me, so I'll notice right away if someone comes into my tower etc.

Questing is similar.
The first couple of times, a zone was interesting.
Leveling a few single toons with my girlfriend to 80th was fun.
Then add in leveling a team to 80th.
Then the prospect of four more teams to go.
Well the quests aren't as interesting now, and will be really boring for the last team.
But a distraction while its going, helps immensely.

[Sam DeathWalker]

Why don't you go to northrend


WotLK X 36 ..... $1000 ....

[Ualaa]

Absolutely and utterly hate all the collection quests my shammy/pally team had to do.

Just about anything as an alternative is better.

Pure grinding all the way is probably the only thing worse.
If there was an option to grind on level 90 mobs, with level 100's supporting me....
That would be very attractive.

The number of collections, which open kills, is horrendous in Northrend.
It sometimes takes 90 minutes of grinding on mobs, to get 12 drops (which is actually 60 drops).
Fifteen minutes of grinding is tolerable with one toon; 90 minutes plain sucks.
And that's not an isolated incident.
Sure there are plenty, where everyone can loot, and kill quests too, or Fed Ex quests.
But there are numerous collections which are so monotonous.
Especially after having done them with 4 solo toons and a boxed team.

[Marious]

I am wondering if you would get similar XP if you just went into say BWL or any of the lv 60 raids, AQ, ZG, I will have to give this a try since you can get a bunch of the mobs in there and bring them to your group, there is a ton of areas that have lots of mobs like the troll area.

[Schwarz]

I am wondering if you would get similar XP if you just went into say BWL or any of the lv 60 raids, AQ, ZG, I will have to give this a try since you can get a bunch of the mobs in there and bring them to your group, there is a ton of areas that have lots of mobs like the troll area.

Taken from http://www.wowwiki.com/Formulas:Mob_XP


Mobs in 5-man instances give slightly more XP, but mobs in most raid instances give no XP. Raid instances that DO award XP include Upper Blackrock Spire and Zul'Gurub.
(elites in instances give 2.5 * XP when solo-ed; untested for normal mobs in instances - Stilpu (http://www.wowwiki.com/User:Stilpu)) (confirmed zero XP at lv 58 in Molten Core, at lv 69 in Karazhan and Zul'Aman. confirmed XP gain in Zul'Gurub when a lv 56 dinged 57 but exact amount earned is unknown - Ishotala (http://www.wowwiki.com/index.php?title=User:Ishotala&action=edit&redlink=1)) (Some monsters, like in the Amphitheater of Anguish, give the doubled exp PER player. If you do those quests with less than five players, you'll get more experience than this formula. The total amount of exp they deliver is 10 * normal_XP. Has to be confirmed, through. pikachuyann (http://www.wowwiki.com/index.php?title=User:Pikachuyann&action=edit&redlink=1))


I haven't boxed in a while. I have been thinking about coming back. If I did I would be in a similar situation as the OP. I need to level a toon from 60 to 80. I am not sure but I think it might be easier/faster to level just the one character. I think alot of people fall into the trap of thinking "I have 5 accounts. If I don't play them all at the same time then I am wasting time". I know I used to fall into thought. Let me know how fast levels are coming for you.

[Marious]

Ah but there is safety in numbers, while you can't really solo those area's at his particular level and you will get ganked left and right once opposite faction finds out but if your boxing even with your low guy getting killed you will be sure to kill them over and over until they go away :)

[Schwarz]

I am saying give up on the grinding levels route and try just solo questing leveling. I have heard from people that 60-70 is stupid easy now. Takes like 3 zones and you are already 70. The new old world (BC content) is probably just as isolated as the old old world. You shouldn't have to worry too much about pvp.

[cmeche]

Went out there again this morning. I kept track for 30 min, in which i made 180k xp. 99% of that was unrested.. I grinded for a little over a hour only had to stop twice for respawns, but never for mana.

I really dont know.....but i dont think you can solo quest anywhere in outlands and produce anywhere close to 180k xp an hour much less 30 min.
I hit 67 today, 1 more lvl of this grinding crap and then ill start questing for upgraded gear. Once i hit the 71-80 pvp bracket i plan on hitting that up big time since Isle and AV are won majority of the time by alliance.

[Schwarz]

Is there a group of 3 shaman then a seperate group with the lowbie shaman and the priest? Or all of them in the same group?

[Schwarz]

Also where are you grinding?

[cmeche]

Yes two seperate groups....read this (http://www.dual-boxing.com/wiki/index.php/Boosting_with_Pets)
Shaman's totems are considered "pets" so the same concept applys.
The rhinos i am grinding are in borean tundra......between warsong hold and amber ledge......there are TONS of rhinos there.

[Schwarz]

Well I reactivated my 5 accounts and tried this out today. I didn't keep track of any numbers but I got from level 61 to half way thru 63.

I have 3 shaman in tow and they drop five nova totem while my paladin/druid cast concentrate. I think i am a little low on dps b/c I have to usually drop a magma totem after the novas go off. I am going to install fubar and keep track of xp. The only snag that I hit was I kept pulling some level 72 elite.

[Schwarz]

I finally got fubar to work correctly. I am looking at around 350k an hour on a level 65 toon. It took me just under 80 mins to level from 65 to 66. My paladin kinda runs out of mana so I am having to stop and drink every once and a while also. Plus I have deaths every once and a while.

Not the funnest thing to do in the game but the levels seem to be going fairly quick. Started with a level 61 saturday and have a level 66 sunday morning (and I slept!!!). Hopefully I will grind out 70 today. Then I am not sure what I should do.

[cmeche]

i dont drop nova totem at all. I drop 3 magmas then1 stoneclaw..... then its off to the next set of rhinos. The stoneclaw taunts enought to hold aggro the whole time the magmas dps them down. Plus, my low lvl shammy drops tow...so each mob has an additional 3% chance to get crit. Each group takes a max of 2 seconds to tag/totem drop....then about 5 seconds later they are dead.

I came close to hitting 400k xp an hour unrested yesterday. With the right path, there is no waiting for respawns.
Only thing better would be ungrouped, aoe tag the mobs...then have a lvl~70 mage and/or boomkin aoe them down. You would almost get twice the xp per mob....but its a lot harder this way and mana is an issue.

[Ualaa]

This is a very nice method for me too.

I decided to take a mage and druid, both level 60 (RAF boosted), so almost 61st but no spells etc.
Much cheaper to buy ground mounts in 3.2, which is nice.
Ran them to the AH, purchased anything cheap with Stamina on it.
Trained them in the spells relative to their spec.

For the mage, took the arcane talent to increase chance for arcane spells to land.
Also took the frost talent to increase the chance for any spell to land.
That works out, will probably be 21/50 or 20/51 (Arcane/Frost) eventually.

The largest issue at the moment is running into a group.
Drop a Stoneclaw Totem.
Wait a second for several mobs to come on over.
Spam Arcane Explosion until the Stoneclaw is about to go.
Drop the 2nd Stoneclaw and the three Magma's.
With Target Target on, I'm ready to drop the 3rd Stoneclaw if necessary.
Most often it is not.

Unfortunately with a 61st level toon, 5 or 6 arcane explosions...
Tags anywhere from 2 to 5 mobs, with an average pull of 4-6 at once.

The mobs seem to be 67th and 68th on average, so the exp's per mob won't diminish until 63rd or 64th.
With the bonus that as I gain levels, I'll be hitting more mobs, which should mitigate this nicely.

Had a somewhat annoying time with this towards the end of my first session.
I had a hunter tagging along, who was skinning things.. none of the toons present can skin.
Except he'd send his pet onto one mob in a group and then shoot another himself - just before I got to the group.
Kind of annoying, that basically worked into a 30% exp penalty.
I asked him to stop, but he basically said.. the mobs are free for anyone.
So I said, I had to log for a bit. He did say he leveled skinning from 375 to 448.
But he got annoying at the end, the last 10 or 12 pulls, taking two mobs per pack.

This is definitely faster then questing.
The toons dinged 61st on the first couple of pulls.
They ran out of rested (1.5 levels worth) in under 90 mins.
I'd say I'm averaging 61-62 and 62-63.. maybe 70-75 minutes a level.
It would be faster if I on 5 arcane explosions I could tag more then half the mobs in a pack.
And it would have been faster if the hunter was not stealing two per pack.

Overall a very good experience.
Thank you for sharing.

[Schwarz]

So I am starting to look to the future and I am not sure what I should be doing next. I currently have 3 level 80 shaman running around in their own group droping magmas and healing every once and a while. My lowbie paladin (soon to be 68) gathers everyone up. The paladin is grouped with another druid (level 66). I don't know if it is me or if the grinding has gotten slower.

To go from 67-68 I am looking at around 2 hours of gameplay. The jump of experience needed from 70-80 makes this type of grinding look impossible. Unless I start getting ~1k per mob then I would think different.

I think once I hit 68 on both my lowbies I am going to do the starter quests in Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord. The two lowbies really need a new set of gear as they have been boosted most of the way.

Once this has been done then the age old question arises once again. What do I do next?

1) AOE grind (once the lowbies are 70 do I put the level 80's in the same group? or Do I keep 2 groups running as I have now)

2) Instance grind. Paladin should be able to tank some content right around it's level. Shaman dps should make running stuff a cakewalk. As long as having 3 80's in my group doesn't kill the mob xp.

3) Quest. This is the way I leveled my org team. I do remember a bunch of collection quests but with 2 toons it should be pretty easy instead of 5.

4) AV grind. I am pretty sure this option is not for me. I don't really care about PVP gear and from the reading I have done it is pretty slow (unless you are constently winning).

[cmeche]

I had a long response deleted by my error......:mad:

1 thing to note is that any high lvl in your group will cut xp bigtime......so keep them non-grouped unless you have some quests that you want to do quickly, then just group them together.

Once you hit ~72 with the paladin, you can drop the druid and just tag the mobs with the ungrouped pally........then dps them down with the shaman. Around that lvl, mobs are still green to the lvl 80s and will not take away any xp you would get with the pally. Just dont drop and dps totems, as that would take away xp from the pally.

So,
Pally and Druid grouped..........shaman drop totems.........no xp loss bc of high lvls.......but xp per mob is split between Druid/pally

Pally ungrouped.......shaman dps but not through totems....no xp loss bc of high lvls.....pally gets full xp per mob.

[Catamer]

I tried several Aterac Valley with my level 72 shaman. With a little luck you get a winning A/V and I was averaging 425k xp/hr. I was having fun just being a healer. It's amazing what a level 72 can do with a magma totem. I was able to prevent several level 80s from taking a tower by just dropping a magma and hiding behind column, rinse repeat. of couse if any level 80 melee is there I get one shotted but most non-melee classes are idoits when in a tower. I thought 425k/hr was better than if I was questing or grinding but I'll have to try a few rhinos and see.

sorry, I forgot to mention that was rested XP.

[Ualaa]

My plan is to AV (or other PvP's, but predominantly AV) from 71-80.
I have a team, which did quests and some of the collections are stupidly annoying.

At the moment, I'm working on a mixed team.
I've decided to go with a Mage for the 2nd toon on the team, instead of a Hunter.
So I'm boosting the Mage at the moment.
The tentative plan is to AoE boost to 68 or so.
Then see which is faster Quests or further boosting AoE.
At 71st, I'll move the toon (with 4 others) to pvp's.

If you're winning in AV, and getting 425k an hour, that's probably better then with this.
But, if you're not winning in AV, then this style of boosting is definitely better.
Mix and match, they're both excellent exp's.

[Schwarz]

I had a long response deleted by my error......:mad:

1 thing to note is that any high lvl in your group will cut xp bigtime......so keep them non-grouped unless you have some quests that you want to do quickly, then just group them together.

Once you hit ~72 with the paladin, you can drop the druid and just tag the mobs with the ungrouped pally........then dps them down with the shaman. Around that lvl, mobs are still green to the lvl 80s and will not take away any xp you would get with the pally. Just dont drop and dps totems, as that would take away xp from the pally.

So,
Pally and Druid grouped..........shaman drop totems.........no xp loss bc of high lvls.......but xp per mob is split between Druid/pally

Pally ungrouped.......shaman dps but not through totems....no xp loss bc of high lvls.....pally gets full xp per mob.


Thanks for the information. If I decide to instance with a lowbie paladin and the 4 level 80 shaman how much of an xp cut should I expect. Ideally I would like to get back into instances and try and hone my skills again.

Also what a freakin weird way of designing things that around level 72 no more totems and just dps from the shaman. Where did you come across this at?

[Stabface]

I am not sure if these mobs for the Oracles daily give XP but there's a metric ton of them and the respawn is ~90 seconds. I have a 76 alt so maybe I'll fly out and see.

http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=28079

[cmeche]

Thanks for the information. If I decide to instance with a lowbie paladin and the 4 level 80 shaman how much of an xp cut should I expect. Ideally I would like to get back into instances and try and hone my skills again.

Also what a freakin weird way of designing things that around level 72 no more totems and just dps from the shaman. Where did you come across this at?

http://www.dual-boxing.com/wiki/index.php/Boosting_with_Pets
That basicly explains how to use high lvl "pets" without sacrificing xp.

At 80, the lvl of mob that no longer give experience or honor(grey color) is 73 or 72....i think. Its either 73, 72, or 71.... and i am too lazy to log in to find out. If a mob is not "grey" to your lvl 80s, you can tag the mob with your ungrouped low lvl pally, then dps the mobs down with the 80s and still get full xp on the pally. BUT, if you use any type of "pet"...such as a hunter/warlock's pet or shaman totem to help with the dps...it will cut the xp that the pally gets.
The only way "pets" will help and not cut xp is if your pally is grouped with another low lvl toon.

[Sam DeathWalker]

You want to make sure the mobs are not grey to the highest level killing them.

That way you get a lot of exp on the lowbies.

Say a level 70 and a level 60 killing a level 70 mob.

low level gets 60/130th of the total exp, which is really good.

There is more info on this here and boy what a difference this few months has made:

http://www.dual-boxing.com/showthread.php?t=19496&highlight=tag+boosting&page=1

[Stabface]

I am not sure if these mobs for the Oracles daily give XP but there's a metric ton of them and the respawn is ~90 seconds. I have a 76 alt so maybe I'll fly out and see.

http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=28079

I checked BTW and these mobs don't seem to give any XP.

[Schwarz]

Bump. It has been ~ a week since the OP posted this place. I have moved from grinding to questing just so I can gear up my paladin a little bit. I was wondering what you have been doing to level your 5th shaman past level 70?

[cmeche]

Im almost 77 atm. I do AV as much as possible. In between ques, I do grizzly hills dailys. Allience wins AV 90% of the time in the morning with all towers destroyed. This nets me about 130k xp a win. Depending on que times and having people who know how to AV, each game is roughly 10-15 min long. About 520k-780k xp an hour if you are winning constantly.

Being a low lvl shaman(71) in AV, I tried to grab all the +hit quest rewards from BT. Even if it was melee gear with +hit...I took it. I also took the 3% to hit option in the talent tree. Reason being is that using thunderstorm to launch lvl 80 horde off towers is priceless. If the thunderstorm misses, the 80 will wipe the floor with me and the 3-4 other sub-80's trying to guard the tower.

[Catamer]

I agree with the A/V. I'm having a blast taking my level 75 shaman through using my 4 conquest badge geared 80 shaman. A/V is so full of lowbies now that if you bring an 80 in there your a god. my 4 level 80s shaman can tank the end boss even with a tower or two not capped. ( 5x elements earth or fire and just watch the boss melt ).