New Boxer: Questions regarding Powerleveling + RAF + PC-Setup

[Mallaen]

Hello everybody,

first I have to thank everybody who has contributed to this great forum. You guys are awesome and learning about how to multibox efficiently in the year 2010 has been a blast so far. Special thanks go out to Ualaa and Lax. I'll definitely use ISBoxer for my Setup since reading + watching your detailed guides was really fun (even for a dummy like me) and IsBoxer seems both easy to set up with the wizard plus a far more powerful tool than most of the other stuff around.

I've been playing MMOs for about 13 years now, starting way back with Meridian 59 in 1997, Everquest since beta 3 in 1998, AoC, DAoC, Shadowbane, FFXI etc. Started Playing WoW in beta times too but never really sticked to it. Leveled a couple of toons to 60 in the original times, then two other chars to 70 when I started playing again after some break.
Ever since I was on a regular team with a multibox pioneer (4 or 5-boxing in 2002 at DAoC Release in Europe) I've been fascinated by it and wanted to try it out myself.
Since it's fairly cheap nowadays to get yourself the needed equipment to multibox wow on one machine I think I'll give it a try.

First I'd like to get some input on the hardware I'm going to buy next week if possible. I don't exactly want to know wether the setup will be able to run 5 instances of wow, since I'm pretty sure it will be after what I've read here. I'd rather have some input on the components I've decided to buy. Maybe you know a better / cheaper alternative for some of them:



CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 (C3) Black Edition, 4x 3.20GHz, boxed (HDZ955FBGMBOX) 130€
CPU Cooler: EKL Alpenföhn Groß Clockner 30€
RAM: G.Skill RipJaws DIMM Kit 4GB PC3-10667U CL7-7-7-21 (DDR3-1333) 90€
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 70€
Grafics: Sapphire VAPOR-X HD 4890 170€
Power: be quiet Pure Power 530W ATX 2.3 (L7-530W/BN106) 50€
MoBO: Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P Motherboard*70€
DVD: LG Electronics GH22NS50 19€
HD: Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB 39€


Which adds up to 668€ (992$ at the current rate)

I already have a pretty decent case including case dampening and silent fans that I will stick to use for this setup.

I may upgrade to 8gb but I want to try out with 4gb RAM first. I'll probably also buy a new monitor. I was thinking about the Asus VH242H for 175€. Additionally I plan on buying a Razer Naga mouse since I think a 17key mouse is pure awesomeness :P


Ok, let's go on to the next questions. I plan on leveling different teams up to max level but mainly a cookie cutter 1 prot pala + 4 elemental shammy team. What's the best way to push my toons to 60?

I have an old lvl 70 warlock. His gear is pretty crappy, mostly Karazhan or T4, some PvP Rewards and stuff like that. Unfortunately I can't even remember wether my 70 priest or my 70 warlock got the good stuff... So the equipment might even be shittier since I didn't log on for years hehe. Still, I should be able to easily take out at least Cathedral with this toon I guess. I honestly can't really remember how well I'd perform in lowbie instances, it's been a while :) And even though it might be slower than a druid or a paladin, since you can only enter 5 times every hour that shouldn't be a big problem.

But do you think I can powerlevel with this rather shitty geared WL anywhere after SM effectively? My plan would then be to PL my toons up to level 50 or so and then switch to regulard questing / instancing until I can go to outland. But if it wouldn't be effective anyways I might just regularly level up all 5 toons at the same time doing mostly quests in instances and so on. This way I'd learn a lot more about effectively playing my toons together early on which is a big plus...

But then there is the next question: I undestand that you can grant 30 levels with every account that was recruited by a veteran to the veteran. So if was to use this powerleveling method more than one time it would be best to always grant my powerleveling account because he is used up by the warlock leveling the other dudes.

So it might be the most effective way to, let's say, level a Paladin to lvl 30 and then grant 30 levels to 60, then level a shammy to lvl 30 on the same account and grant 30 levels again, then level a mage and so on... So basically I'd powerlevel the 4 other toons and grant level to my first account. So Account A is the veteran and the recruiter for ALL the other accounts basically? This way of course I'd always have to group with Account A or the other accounts wouldn't benefit at all. And Do I undestand it correctly that you cannot grant levels after you hit lvl 60? This would basically mean that I'd have to stop leveling at 59 and then push 2-3 chars to lvl 30 on my Veteran account (which should be easy with the shammies healing) and then grant them to lvl 60?

Oh and another question: my lvl 70 toons are on Magtheridon (Horde)(EU) right now which was (and probably still is) one of the most ambitious servers PvE wise and also pretty crowded PvP-Wise, so lot's of BGs etc. going on.

Would you guys suggest moving to a new realm or would you stay on such an old realm? How about the ganking on a PvP Server? I've read something about being corpse camped for ours by angry lvl 80 chars lol... Is that a real problem? Is it safe to level outside or is it better to stick to instances as much as possible?

Ah well, I know that I ask mostly for opinions and not so much for definite answers. I just can't wait to start, but I have to wait until my Uni exams are over next week hehe :)

Thanks a lot!

[Owltoid]

Not to be a dick, but what's your first question? That's a lot of text...

[Svpernova09]

Not to be a dick, but what's your first question? That's a lot of text...

It's better than most first posters we get. I salute someone taking the time to type all that out and get it all going rather than expecting to be spoon fed by posting "I CAN HAZ BOXING?"

[SaraiE]

I started boxing late dec. 2009, and I have a 70 Pally with green gears and my experience is that NO, after
SM, my pally did not fair well in higher instances, say ZF!

I quested from 45 to 60. But the 3X experience is great and it wasn't so painful.
I would go to Hinterland, then do the two zones between BRD, thorium point and the other one opposite of the instance. Should get you to 55, and do WPL or Silithius. But then at 55, you can go through the portal and quest there too...

My setup was ABCDE, A being the booster (powerlvler). So having a 70 makes things a lot easier with questing.

SaraiE

[Mallaen]

Thanks for sharing your experience! :) I think a lock might even do better in ZF than a poorly equipped Paladin since when AoEing isn't viable option anymore the lock should grind thorugh single target mobs much faster with the right spec. I guess it might still not be effective enough - so thanks for the questing input :)

I guess I was kinda wrong about that RAF connection thingy. If I connect all the accounts to the powerlevel char then none will get any benefits obviously because he won't be in lvl range. So I have to split them like you said. So I guess I won't be able to grant more than 30 levels per account.

[Ualaa]

I would really recommend 6gb or more ram, if you are planning on 5-boxing. A decent rule of thumb is 1gb for the operating system, and 1gb extra per toon you which will be run at one time.



With one existing account, I would daisy chain the RAF.
That will let you make the most out of granted levels across the team.
For every link in the chain (A to B, B to C etc) you need to boost 2 toons for full effect of cascading levels.

If you want the cascading levels to all add up to full toons, go something like:
A -- B -- C
A -- D -- E
And then boost 4 on BCDE with A.
Resulting in 2 extra toons on B/D from CE, plus 2 extra toons on A from B/D.
And then 2 additional toons on A, 1 each from B/D based on levels granted from C/E.

It is probably easier/better...
To just link:
A -- B -- C -- D -- E
Let's say you boost the same four toons, on BCDE.
A-D each get 2 toons from the account linked after it (4 x 60 levels gained = 240 / 2 = 120 levels to grant = 2 toons).
In this situation, the ideal option would be to boost an even number of toons, get one extra toon per account (except the last one in the chain) for each pair that is boosted. And to then possibly transfer a toon or a few toons to E. Even without the transfer, E will have several toons from the boosting.



A semi-geared tank will be faster boosting then an AoE caster.
But I've done boosting both with a tank and with a DPS.
A 70 hunter in Kara level gear (T4) was more the adequate for DM/Stockades/SM/ZF boosting, and while not strong enough for Strat/Scholo, easily boosted through quests in Searing Gorge, Tanaris, Un'Goro, Sithilus, W/E Plaguelands etc, for the last 15 levels or so.