Paladin Stratholme Boosting

[heyaz]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBDAYZdQDdU

I use a level 80 prot paladin to boost RAF alts from level 45-55 in stratholme (then summon them to outlands). This instance works particularly well for a prot paladin because you can cleanse slowing debuffs and aoe stun everything. This is the service entrance to UD strat. This is not a perfect pull by any means, and in fact it could go much worse if you get kicked or bumped around by the fat boys.

1. Use blessing of sanctuary + frost aura (to resist the frostbolts). Keep sacred shield up at all times
2. Use glyph of holy wrath to reduce the cooldown to 15 seconds -- you'll need it.
3. Use rank 1 consecrate and holy wrath (to stun) so you don't kill the non-elites. Ret aura will kill them as well
4. You can pull almost everything at once (skip the spider part because they will chain silence you)
5. Strafe! If you get hamstrung with blessing of freedom on cooldown, walk backwards or die.

This method will get you locked out for about 25 minutes. If you want:

1. Split it into two pulls, you will probably die a few times using this method (especially if you get chain kicked with your back facing the mobs)
2. Loot everything to kill time
3. Pull the other side if you like getting chain silenced
4. Log off and go do something productive with your life when you get locked out

The results:

1. 45-55 in a few hours. I only had 2 alts in the group so that slowed it down -- it can be done faster with more group xp bonus. Toon with 2x heirloom items went 45-58 in same amount of time.l
2. About 10 broken shields, but all other gear at about 30% durability after the whole thing - and mostly because I died twice. Use level 5 gray shields, avoidance against lvl 55-60 mobs is near 100%

Note:

That's "The Black Heart" proccing, not blessing of protection. They share the same animation. Don't use BoP.

[Multibocks]

Cool video, btw what is Sacred Shield? I checked wowhead, but it is an uncategorized spell. Is that a talent choice for paladins? I cant believe I have been playing a paladin this long and have no idea what you are talking about.

[falsfire3401]

http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=53601

[Multibocks]

edit: strange it wasnt attributed to anything in wowhead when I searched earlier and I swear I have never seen it in my spellbook. What a nub.

[heyaz]

took me like six months to find that spell too :)
I thought only holy paladins had it for awhile

its what makes this pull possible...

The lower level instances are absolutely trivial with it. in SM they will almost never break through it, you don't have to strafe or anything

[omgwtfmoo?]

I wish I had an 80 Pally to boost my team with....Its nearly impossible to find competent pallies on my server idk what to do.

[cybernerv]

cool vid

although I only 2-box I should try this :)

thanks for the vid

[heyaz]

This is one of the reason I picked a paladin.. I don't play her solo much, would've played a warrior/dk/or druid more but this kind of stuff is just fun.

Now this is just Strat, pally really shines when you get into BC instances... I'm still working on strats to do enormous pulls, like underbog up to 2nd boss (with the bosses) in 1 pull, and testing how far into shattered halls and steamvaults I can go in one pull. Paladins have so many tricks - seal/judgement of light can keep you up forever, divine shield, bop, lay on hands (16 min cd, up every pull), and ardent defender if things go wrong - all allow you to do the really big pulls and survive if you get stunned or something. Once you have all the mobs in a corner though, its near 100% avoidance and you finish the kill with 100% hp and mana in most cases.

Would like to test out engineering rocket boot type things and some pots as well, the biggest challenge is training a million mobs back to the front without dying, once you're there it's not like they ever get a hit on you.

[Multibocks]

I suck at this! I am getting hamstrung all the damn time. I have to pull the undead side in 2 pulls or I die getting back to the slaves. Ah well, nowhere near as fast as you are leveling, but better than nothing. lol.

[Bettysue]

You don't have to be too close to the slaves, they get experience for 100yrds regardless of LoS, if you zoom your default minimap all the way out and can see the DoTs for the chars to be boosted they should be getting experience from all the kills. Try it one round just park them somewhere safe and kill a couple things as you go in until you see where they stop gaining xp, It should reduce the deaths and make the runs faster...read that as give you more time to loot :P

Also if you don't want broken shields wear gear without block on it, dodge and parry don't do any dmg to your shield, and blocking isn't really keeping you alive that much longer, it's the not getting hit thats doing the majority of the work for you.

[Multibocks]

Well I finished my boosting today. Stopped at 59.9 so I could boost my guy to 60.9 and then realized (after I had hearthed out) that I didnt have any horde characters left with extra levels. ARRRGGGH.

[heyaz]

You don't have to be too close to the slaves, they get experience for 100yrds regardless of LoS, if you zoom your default minimap all the way out and can see the DoTs for the chars to be boosted they should be getting experience from all the kills. Try it one round just park them somewhere safe and kill a couple things as you go in until you see where they stop gaining xp, It should reduce the deaths and make the runs faster...read that as give you more time to loot :P

Also if you don't want broken shields wear gear without block on it, dodge and parry don't do any dmg to your shield, and blocking isn't really keeping you alive that much longer, it's the not getting hit thats doing the majority of the work for you.

XP range seems to be less far with RAF. When I kill the unforgiven in that first pull, they get XP but not RAF xp. Since I pull the first room last, I end up where I started so it's not really an issue, plus the alts can come out and loot easier.

Also, the shields will broke no matter what. I have no block rating on my gear and they still break. Blocking does keep you alive, I can definitely tell right when the shield breaks because my hp starts dropping very fast. It does a little extra damage as well with a shield spike and a sporregar shield. Honestly though, shield repair cost is about the least of my concerns - the point of powerleveling is to save time, not save a few gold on repair costs.

[Bettysue]

Ahh ya wasn't thinking about the RAF range, it did seem to be quite short when my wife was levelling her characters. So I will caveate my previous statement, you don't need to be too close unless you are still RAF boosting :P.

I run this instance in about 3 pulls on my shaman, and have never once had a shield break, not really sure what I'm doing differently, aside from sheer numbers at one time. The total time spent getting hit is probably higher for me, and it's the same over all number of guys...no idea. Maybe shamans have a different block/gear damage formula.

[heyaz]

Ahh ya wasn't thinking about the RAF range, it did seem to be quite short when my wife was levelling her characters. So I will caveate my previous statement, you don't need to be too close unless you are still RAF boosting :P.

I run this instance in about 3 pulls on my shaman, and have never once had a shield break, not really sure what I'm doing differently, aside from sheer numbers at one time. The total time spent getting hit is probably higher for me, and it's the same over all number of guys...no idea. Maybe shamans have a different block/gear damage formula.

Well unless you have 540 defense on the shaman, his block is going to be a lot lower. 540 def gives you like 5% more block against level 80s, and a heck of a lot more on level 55s. All i know is with the sporregar shield I just see a giant green cloud from all the blocks, and I can watch the durability count down, so I know I'm blocking a ton.