My current understanding of RAF and multiboxing

[Wag]

Hello! I have a RAF situation that I was hoping could be confirmed by some experts.

My goal is to 5box. I want to have 5 accounts with each class at 60 by the time my RAF links expire.

Understanding my situation:
I have an 80 pally. No new chars will be created on this account. The pally will be used for boosting only.
I am going to purchase 5 new accounts.
Before I get into too much detail I would like to explain the way I will link and purchase these accounts.
80Pally ->Account A ->Account B ->Account C ->Account D ->Account E
That should get me 5 free months. The only account to not get a free month would be E.
Q) Is this the smartest way to do it?

The problem / confusing part:
I can only have 5 players in a party so the best I can do is 4 toons to 60 at a time.
This creates a problem, one account will be left alone getting no progress with characters.
That is the part I need help on. What would be the most efficient way to do this?

[Simulacra]

HI Wag and welcome to the wonderful world of multiboxing

If it were me I'd forget boosting and just quest/instance grind as normal, why?

Well the biggie is the no one gets left behind and has to catch up issue - that is a major pain in the arse, plus you actually learn to play your team, remember you are getting so much xp that levels really fly past so quickly you won't even notice them.

I boosted my initial team with my lock and made both these mistakes, I was sitting at 60 with a pally, 3 mages and a priest and had no idea how to play a pally and I'd had to go back again and again to level 1 mage by itself

[Wag]

I understand the logic of not boosting. However, I feel that is it faster and I will be playing these characters, 5 boxed, questing and grinding normal from 60-80. I think that is enough to get familiar with them.

[EvoX]

Hi Wag. I'm in the process of doing almost the same thing (minus whatever you edited out) and I'll agree and disagree with Simulacra's post. I did a RAF of 4 accounts and quested instead of boosting. I was playing an average of 20-25 hrs per week, because my work schedule hasn't allowed for any more playtime than that. I'll agree that I did learn to play the classes and had a decent understanding of their abilities and their group synergy by doing so, but I was only able to RAF 4 groups to level 60 in that timeframe. Now those accounts just sit dormant and I consider it a fail. So I bought more battlechests and started over instance boosting a new set. I'm playing the same amount of hours and my RAF ends Oct 21. I'm on my last set of alts which I'll finish this weekend, leaving me time to transfer my main and do another couple sets on another realm if I feel like doing so. I am excluding a set of Death Knights from the RAF, but they don't need to be in the mix of things as it doesn't take much additional time or effort for a DK to leave the starter area at level 58. Take them for a few grouped runs of LBRS and they'll be at 60 also. I'll post a descriptive guide in a few hours explaining what I'm doing and how to make your alts go "ding" at the same time from 1-60.

What I will outline is that In order to have 5 level 60's (one of each class per account), it will require 6 accounts and boosting 9 groups of 4 toons from 1-60.

[zanthor]

80->Unplayed account->2->3->4->5

by the time you hit 60 on 2-4 you'll have:
29 levels from 5 to give 4.
29 levels earned + 14 from granted levels from 4 to give 3.
29 levels + 21 from 3 to give 2.
29 levels + 31 from 2 to give the unplayed account.

Which gets you a freebie 60 the day your first team hits 60. If you are smart and don't grant from level 1 but rather level to 30 it scales even better.

(Someone check my math, I'm tired ;).

[EvoX]

80->Unplayed account->2->3->4->5

by the time you hit 60 on 2-4 you'll have:
29 levels from 5 to give 4.
29 levels earned + 14 from granted levels from 4 to give 3.
29 levels + 21 from 3 to give 2.
29 levels + 31 from 2 to give the unplayed account.

Which gets you a freebie 60 the day your first team hits 60. If you are smart and don't grant from level 1 but rather level to 30 it scales even better.

(Someone check my math, I'm tired ;).


All this time I assumed that grantable levels had to be "earned" and not granted. :(

[EvoX]

Anyway, my method isnt the most efficient and you end up with an extra account filled with level 60s of each class that may not be useful after RAF, unless you wanted to transfer any of them to other realms on one of your 5 accounts in the future... this gives you the option of being something besides a DK. Anyway, here's a quick outline of how to keep them all the same level:

Account M: Main (booster)
Account A: Refers Account B and Account C
Account X: Refers Account Y and Account Z

Group 1 uses accounts M, B, C, Y & Z. They get to level 60, then B&C grant A to level 59 and Y&Z grant X to level 59.
Repeat this process for a group each class (excluding DKs of course).

Pros to this method: No lost grantable levels this way. Each class has level 59s when they've completed. Easy to keep track of - Head doesn't hurt trying to figure out how to balance out all the levels. :D

Cons to this method: Not everyone gets a Zheva mount. Costs an extra $65 (Battlechest & a 60-day game card). You end up with the extra account of 60s (may or may not be a con). In your case it sounds as though you're going to have 7 accounts active during RAF since your booster isn't on the Vet account.

[dubiox]

Well if you are rich I think you could hub and spoke from accountA, then grant from BCD to A and account xfer to E.

It's grant per two levels right? So for every team boosted to 60 (80 boosts ABCD, A RAFs BCD) you would have BCD * 60/2 levels to grant, 90 levels. So after you grant a 60 for E that leaves 30 levels. So for every two teams boosted to 60 you get an extra toon. So there are mage,lock,sham,warr,rogue,pally,priest,hunter,drui d, so 9 classes (plus DK). So you could level 8 teams of 5 and then grant and transfer just four toons of the last class, saving a small amount of time boosting (and ending up short one toon of one class, but that is no big deal).

Not sure why the other posters stopped at 59. I have three 60s with a few minutes /played so I know you can grant to 60.

I think granting is pretty much overrated. Seems to me that the 3x XP is the main benefit of RAF.

-K

[EvoX]

I stopped at 59 and 95% out of fear that reaching level 60 would be the cutoff for RAF. I didn't want to boost all the way to 60 and learn the hard way that crossing the line to 60 made granting unavailable. /shrug

Regarding hub & spoke, the difference of level 30 vs 31 amounts to roughly 15-20 min of boosting. I had considered this as well, but the cost of the transfers being double the cost of an extra account over the RAF period was my reason for suggesting the method above. It isnt as fast, but less expensive and much easier to manage/keep track of.

[Wag]

80->Unplayed account->2->3->4->5

by the time you hit 60 on 2-4 you'll have:
29 levels from 5 to give 4.
29 levels earned + 14 from granted levels from 4 to give 3.
29 levels + 21 from 3 to give 2.
29 levels + 31 from 2 to give the unplayed account.

Which gets you a freebie 60 the day your first team hits 60. If you are smart and don't grant from level 1 but rather level to 30 it scales even better.

(Someone check my math, I'm tired ;).
perfect. so by leveling 4 60's I get a 60. Works so good.