Misunderstanding Boosting

[Tofino]

So I set up a RAF thing between my main and two new accounts. I played for a bit before discovering this place and realizing I should have done things in a chain as per Ualaa's advice, to be optimal. I also noticed that when I was boosting in instances, none of my guys were receiving RAF xp, and after some looking around, realized that was because the mobs were trivial to the booster.

Ualaa posted that by setting up your RAF in a chain (A refers B, B refers C, etc.) you end up with a situation where, when boosting, A-E are all grouped, and the B-C, C-D, and D-E links all get RAF xp because the boosting character A is not involved in them. However according to Blizzard's FAQ (http://eu.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_GB&articleId=30562):

Do I always gain triple experience while I am linked to my recruit?
No, only when you are partied with a character on the linked account and both players are present when slaying the monster or completing the quest provided that the monsters / quests are not trivial to any party member. Also, if the two characters are not the same level, only the lower-level character is given the experience boost.

The highlighted bit is what concerns me -- if I blow more RAFs, am I actually still not going to get RAF xp because of this rule? (Since boosting toon A is still in the party, and the mobs are trivial to him.) Was this recently updated? And I tend to think that this paragraph is inaccurate anyway, since the last sentence is clearly untrue (unless the level difference is 4+).

I realize I did screw up my original 3-boxing fun and blew two RAFs in the process :(. Want to get future ones right! I was happy to mess around with this one, though as I learned a lot about ISBoxer and Jamba. Lots of reading, lots of testing. My party was just a 3-man WAR/SHA/MAG which made for good fun.

[Ualaa]

Regardless of that post, B -- C will get the RAF when grouped with A.
A -- B -- C.

That is, if B and C are grouped, near each other, within 4 levels of each other, 59th level or lower, and fighting content which is not trivial to them.

If you don't want A in the chain, when A is boosting, that is your option.
You lose out on the granted levels.

[Tofino]

Regardless of that post, B -- C will get the RAF when grouped with A.
A -- B -- C.

That is, if B and C are grouped, near each other, within 4 levels of each other, 59th level or lower, and fighting content which is not trivial to them.

If you don't want A in the chain, when A is boosting, that is your option.
You lose out on the granted levels.

Thanks Ualaa. I figured that you were correct and Blizzard EU was wrong :).

I will reorg my chain. I wonder if Blizzard will have a sense of humor and be able to redirect my RAF, or if I need to start again? I wouldn't mind, but the totem quests are annoying.

[zenga]

It's not the first time that blizzard eu states wrong or just outdated info. As a new player I've been looking lately around for info of course, and it happened on several occasions. e.g. Checked the AV brackets and they said the new bracket starts at 71. Which is clearly wrong.

[Moorea]

Just to confirm as I just set that up;

With a level 80 A and B,C,D,E being level 1 I got 6 xp (+4 raf, +1 grp bonus) killing 1 wolf on all 4 level 1

In other hand, despite A in the group B does get raf xp thanks to C being there

[Ualaa]

I suppose the Blizzard quote is entirely accurate, if we make the assumption that RAF will be between two toons and that is it.

So when its only A -- B, the mobs cannot be trivial to one of the two.
But then again, it's easier to just remember:
a) 4 level spread maximum; and
b) level 59 maximum.

[Tofino]

Thanks all. I re-set things up tonight the right way.

[Moorea]

I suppose the Blizzard quote is entirely accurate, if we make the assumption that RAF will be between two toons and that is it.

So when its only A -- B, the mobs cannot be trivial to one of the two.
But then again, it's easier to just remember:
a) 4 level spread maximum; and
b) level 59 maximum.
except they used "any" not "both" party members

ps: on the other hand the link in OP doesn't work - so maybe they fixed the language now

[crowdx]

So what is the benefit to doing it this way instead of 2 accounts referring to 2 new accounts and having an unlinked 80 running the lowbie toons through dungeons? I have done it this way before and in so doing I can grant a level to the original account and so for every two toons on the new account I gained an extra 60 from granted levels from the new toons.
Does the A- C linking focus on someone with only one oriiginal account with a high levle toon on it?
Am I missing something here?

[Ualaa]

Your links only really affect you in a few ways.

- The parent account gains one month free, when the linked account pays for their first month.
- The parent account gains a Zhevra mount, when the linked account pays for their second month.
- The parent account receives half as many granted levels, as the linked account gains levels.

And:
- Each linked pair receives 3x normal experience for quests/kills when:
a) they face non-grey opponents; and
b) are within 4 levels of each other; and
c) are 59th level or lower.



So if you have one existing account, and are going to five box, you'd be best served with a chain.
A -- B -- C -- D -- E

If you have two existing accounts, and want to five box, then each needs to be linked.
A -- C -- D
B -- E

If you have three existing accounts, we are limited to only five toons in a group. So we go:
A
B -- D
C -- E

If you aren't keeping all of the accounts, then granted levels become more of a concern.
If you're only keeping the one account, link something like this (transfer a toon to Account B).
A -- B
A -- C
A -- D
A -- E
Boost four toons on A, C, D and E, with B. Granted levels go back to A, from everywhere.
And then re-transfer the booster from B back to A.

Lots of ways to set it up, depending on what you are doing/wanting.

[crowdx]

Personally I think the 4 new accounts will be throw away accounts due to I already have 4 Lich King accounts and one BC account (most likely will upgrade it once I finish with RAF.

[Moorea]

Still curious on the A(booster)-B-C-D-E plan what do you after the first team is level 60 and how you get more level 60s on A

A-B-C
A-D-E

still seems the best to me in that case for the goal of having 1 or more level 60 team as fast as possible (fast==with boosting; ie leveling only 4 at a time, getting the 5th through 2 grants)

[Ualaa]

Everyone has their own situation.

If your existing "A" account has six toons between 60 and 80, because you've been playing the game for 4 years... you'd use one for boosting, and want the most total granted levels across your five accounts.

If you are starting from scratch with five accounts, and no toons on any account, again a chain gets the most total granted levels.

If you have one existing account, a single toon at 80th, but want to box.. you'd boost with the 80, but want as many granted levels on A, so you have several options; you wouldn't want many granted levels on the other accounts, because you could just boost a team a week (playing casually).

Whichever way you go, you'd boost as much as you'd like.
And then do the granted levels after the boosting.
And start with the accounts furthest out in the chains.

[Moorea]

Just give *1* example on how you actually end up with a new 5 man team to 60 with the A-B-C-D-E scheme and boosting from A ?
(actual example; starting by
"make 4 toons on B,C,D,E; level them to 8 (or 10), boost them to 60 and then..." then what ? how you get a 5th on A ?
)

[heffner]

You can get a 5th on A through gifting levels when you use the A-B-C-D-E approach.

So, in one case you have to level up a toon to L30 or L31 on account A and gift the 29 levels from B (which you get once you level to 60). If you level two or more toons to L60 on account B you have enough levels to gift a L1 to L60.

Also, keep in mind levels gifted from account C to account B also result in more levels to gift on account B. For example, if you have a L30 toon on account B and you gift 30 levels from account C, account B will now have 29 (or 30??) to gift from that process (from both leveling + gifted levels). Just pointing this out since I hadn't realized gifted levels also grant gifted levels when I was doing RAF.

Account E is the one that actually loses out.

[Moorea]

well if there is no better answer than having to have a level 30 on A; A-B-C-D-E is definitively a lot worse than doing A-B-C and A-D-E which will give you 1 level 60 for every B,C,D,E boosted by A

[Ualaa]

Ok here is an example.

I have an existing account which includes an 80 paladin, a 77 hunter, a 76 mage, a 64 druid and a 61 warlock, and maybe a few more incidental characters.

I've been playing wow for 3 years as a one-boxer and want to try five-boxing.
And don't really need that many new toons on my existing one account.
As I already have a Paladin to join a 4x shaman team, a druid for the 5x druid team, etc.
But I will want some new toons, a healer for a mixed team, maybe some more too.

So I like A -- B -- C -- D -- E.
Which gets me the most total levels granted across all of the accounts.
I want the spread to be everywhere, not specifically having a whole bunch of toons granted to account A, which already has five characters 60+ on it.
Most people who are getting into boxing, will RAF with four new accounts and are already one-boxers with several toons.

In this case, not even looking at the cascading granted levels, if you boost a set of 4x Shaman, 4x Druid, 4x Paladin and 4x Mixed Classes, that is a total of four sets, which gets you 2 level 60's on A. (and 2 more 60's on B, C and D).

That gets you:
A: 5 + 2 = 7
B: 4 + 2 = 6
C: 4 + 2 = 6
D: 4 + 2 = 6
E: 4 = 4

You could transfer a toon from A to E, and have 5 teams at 60+.




A chain gets you the most levels across the accounts.
Which will be the most benefit for the majority of new 5-boxers.

[Moorea]

My case is having a ton of 80s on 1 realm; I transferred 1 booster to KJ and I want to create new 5 teams there with 4 new throw away RAF'ed accounts (transferring back the level 60 to my existing 5+ accounts)

I don't want to create 1/2 the 60s on A in that case; I want at least as many 60s on A as on the other, and more is better (as then I don't have to pay to transfer those as A is part of permanent set)

For this case I think
A-B-C
A-D-E

Where A is existing booster and B,C,D,E are new Raf'ed throwaway account is the best

Sadly I followed the advice without thinking and created A-B-C-D-E and now trying to figure out how to salvage that setup to get toons on A - I think maybe levelling some level 8 pair on B-C or C-D should do it but not sure yet, I'll revisit when I get to 4x 60 (they are 46 now)

[Ualaa]

If I understand your last post correctly.

You have one account which you will be keeping.
And are using 4x RAF accounts, to get as many levels as possible on that one account.

I don't see how 4 throw away RAF accounts will get you teams of 5 on KJ.




Anyway, I would think the ideal set up would be:
A -- B
A -- C
A -- D
A -- E

But put the booster on B, not on A.




With:
A -- B -- C
A -- D -- E

B/C and D/E get RAF, so 1x Booster and 4x Boosted.

For every two level 60's boosted on BCDE, via granted levels A will also get two level 60's.

But A is the booster in this case, so that is it.




With:
A -- B
A -- C
A -- D
A -- E

A/C/D/E get RAF, so 1x Booster and 4x Boosted.

For every two level 60's boosted on ACDE, via granted levels A will also get three level 60's.

But A is a boosted account in this case, so A also gets 1x level 60 per set boosted.

[alcattle]

If Moorea wants a 5x team on KJ, has one true account with booster(s) best way to go would be

A=booster
B+C= old accounts, no one on KJ
RAF1 and RAF2
group A+B+RAF1 and A+C+RAF2

end up with 4 new 60s on the other accounts, B+C will get new 60s for each Pair of 60s on Raf1+2 and only costs 2 throwaway accounts

[Ualaa]

The goal of new 5-box teams on KJ.
Combined with four throw away accounts.
And wanting all of the granted levels to go to A.
Kind of has me stumped.

Maybe its 5 existing accounts + 4 throw away accounts.

In which case we go with one booster.
And then up to four more accounts in the party.
But the best we can do will be two existing accounts and two RAF.
So:

Booster
Existing1 -- RAF1
Existing2 -- RAF2

Pretty sure this is what you have listed, in your post.
Let's say Moorea does to 2 sets to 60th.
And then grants a 3rd 60th on Existing1 and Existing2.

It will be cheaper/longer, to repeat the process with Existing3, Existing4, RAF3 and RAF4.
The faster/more expensive option will be character account transfers.
Without transfers of some sort, whichever account boosts has only one toon.

[heyaz]

Well it's kind of like this

A-B
B-C
C-D
EFG
ellemeno-p

where P is the antiderivative of X,
and also a^2 + b^2 = c^2

a + b + c = x. iI x is less than the cost of a RAF, we don't do one.