Instance Boosting. EEEK

[jrkilroy]

I started up a new alliance team and thought I would try instance boosting. I'm still well inside my RAF time, but I've done Alliance to death with a bazillion alts over the past few years.

Things did not go as I expected. Level 10 on five toons, no problem. Drop one, call in my level 80 'lock and off to Deadmines we go!

It took me half an hour to get the part to the instance entrance. I had two of the low level toons die en route when follow broke. Then, as I was clearing DM I thought things were going OK until I had to move the lowbies forward and I found the two mobs I had missed while I was clearing up to that point.

And then, that stupid patrol that spawns in the area you've already cleared...

My question: Does Dead Mines just stink that bad? Should not bother with boosting while in RAF and just quest? Was I just being sloppy? I feel like I wasted two hours for one level on four toons :mad:

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Most people boost with a class that can either easily AoE to pick up instant aggro or one that can rez. Which is why paladins/bears are so popular.

[thefunk]

Once you figure out the route it's easy. Also a 25k health geared pally is a bazillion times easier than a 15 or 20k healthed one. As for lock Id imagine it a bit different

[jimbobobb]

deadmines is trash - go to shadowfang keep. You don't ever even have to move your toons from the zone in.

sfk to 20, sm to 40/45 depending on how masochistic you are, and then either zf/st to get you to 45, or scholomance from 45 onward.

[Ualaa]

I did:

01-10 Quest
11-16 Deadmines
16-20 Stockades
20-45 Scarlet Monastery
45-55 Stratholme (Scholomance is good too)
55-60 Ramparts

During RAF I did my boosting with an Elemental Shaman, level 70 (this was pre WotLK).
An AoE tank, or at least AoE class is a better booster, but anything that can clear the instance will work.

In Deadmines, each mini boss you kill, creates a patrol which wanders from the entrance (or wherever they spawn) towards the docks and back.
Once you get your toons to the docks, you are safe.
Alternatively, wait at the mini bosses for a minute or two, and then take the patrol out.

When you're boosting, you'll want to pull a bunch of mobs, and AoE them down.
And then another pack.
You'll eventually need to move the lowbie up.
When they're very low, getting even close to the mobs will cause a train.
But if there's AoE from the booster, that can save them.

Then exit the instance, reset it, and do the same thing.
Ideally, you want 12 minute clears.
As, after the first hour, you get a maximum of five resets per hour.

When you are in the later SM stages.
Run Cathedral, then Armory, then reset.
Then run Armory, then Cathedral, then reset.
You can leave SM at 40, but you won't really level any faster elsewhere then staying here till 45.

[Svpernova09]

When you are in the later SM stages.
Run Cathedral, then Armory, then reset.
Then run Armory, then Cathedral, then reset.
You can leave SM at 40, but you won't really level any faster elsewhere then staying here till 45.

IMHO @ 40 take the time to travel to Tanaris and grab all the ZF quests in Gadgetzan and go to ZF and do them. They don't really take long and with RAF, all the quests will give you at least an entire level @ 40. Not as easy as mindlessly clearing SM, but a nice alternative / break

[Ualaa]

It is all preference...

I've seen people do ZF in that range, while others do Sunken Temple.
Some like Stratholme others prefer Scholomance, and still others UBRS/LBRS in a later level range.
In an earlier range, I've seen recommendations for Wailing Caverns.
With a booster, you could even do quests at some stages.

Ultimately, they all work.

[SaraiE]

If your accounts were linked A-B-C-D-E, A being the booster, you can travel to instance on your lvl80, summon them, A-B, B-C, etc.. That way, they will arrive in the instance and not have to deal with broken follows and die en route.

Quicker too, without mounts, running is a pain and not having all the flightpaths...

SaraiE

[zenga]

I feel like I wasted two hours for one level on four toons :mad:

As a beginning boxer that is a feeling i 've had quite often when i do new things. But i see it as an investment for the joy that boxing brings :)

[Kang]

My question: Does Dead Mines just stink that bad? Should not bother with boosting while in RAF and just quest? Was I just being sloppy? I feel like I wasted two hours for one level on four toons :mad:

Yes Deadmines does suck this bad. I recently was boosting lvl 10-15 in Deadmines and had similar problems. I just accepted the fact that at least one toon will die each run. After a few runs you will get into a rhythm and the pace will pick up. Your toons will die less frequently. What I found is you need to do a bunch of back and forth to kill the patrols or keep up a really aggressive pace in order to prevent the pats from catching up and wiping you little ones.

[heyaz]

Once you figure out the route it's easy. Also a 25k health geared pally is a bazillion times easier than a 15 or 20k healthed one. As for lock Id imagine it a bit different

eh not until like stratholme or ramparts. In the low level ones the mobs don't even break through sacred shield

[daviddoran]

Its gonna be fun to do this with the upcoming new RAF mount. Makes me wonder if the lowbie will be able to fly in one, cause with Cata, if you have a pally with a 310 mount, and crusader aura, you can take a lvl 1 and just get exploration exp insanely fast, and get "the explorer" title way early.... I'm definately gonna do that when cata is out.

I just grind/quest to 10, then I do SFK to 20-21 (its soooo easy in SFK, I like to stay there, and at 10 its about one level per run, so its not that annoying to do an extra few runs to get an extra level or 2 out of it) then I do SM. I like to run em through all 4 wings, to get them the chieve, and the key, so they can go back, should the need arise. At 40, I either go back to questing so my mind doesnt dissolve, or do a few runs in ZF, BRD, ST, etc, to get to 55 then it picks up again with ramps, as you can leave them at the entrance and pull all of the lower floor, nearly in one pull, then run out reset, repeat. Then I do the starter quests in hellfire for much needed gear upgrades, and quest to 65, then u can boost again inside Utgarde keep to 70 and do northrend starter quests.

[misterkurk]

I had no problem with Deadmines. I had 2 toons at lvl 21 and wanted to start 4-boxing, and deadmines was great!
I parked my 2 low lvl toons at the begining of the instance (just when they got inside = no /follow !); Used my 80-mage to go over every "living" thing (just run, don't kill) including the 1st Boss ; ran back to the start of the instance; kill everyone with AoEs. Repeated that for all Bosses -> no pats, no aggro for the little ones.
After 2 hours I got tired and started to 1 shot the first bosses to open the doors and drag almost all the instance to the beginning.
Now I'm running instances with my team w/o the 80s help, It takes longer, but is more fun IMHO

[emps]

Got a lot of miles from SFK til 20 then SM...

60-70 -> Howling Fjord.. I just grouped 4 60s and had a lvl 80 pocket healer (not in the group). Tag'd all mobs within range and let the npcs do the killing.. Of course I yielded to those that are questing but was mostly by myself. 10 levels done in two nights. Very very boring but was able to endure it for two teams.

Edit: used NTK to track if i had successfully tagged my target. lvl 60-64ish is a pain since they miss quite a bit. On my hunters I ate hit food spec'd MM for hit. I sequenced serpent sting to stagger among my 4 guys and switched targets as soon as I see the debuff on my screen. I was in viper all the time. With druids, same thing with food.. Just cycled insect swarm and innervate when necessary.

[drevil]

With the changes in 3.3 instance boosting still viable?
http://www.dual-boxing.com/showthread.php?p=257692#post257692

Boosting 45-60 where/how?
http://www.dual-boxing.com/showthread.php?t=29014

Spot to park toons while instance boosting
http://www.dual-boxing.com/showthread.php?t=29391

[Owltoid]

I do Deadmines in one pull with a moonkin. Park your toons at the entrance, stealth to every miniboss and kill them (to open the doors), keep stealthing all the way to the ship, then start grabbing every mob you can find while popping rejuv on yourself from time to time. Train the whole instance back to the beginning, pop a starfall and blast some typhoons, you'll see your toons get more than one level in one pull.

After deadmines, switch that boomkin to feral and just destroy Stockades and SM. Grant levels from 40 to 45 (those seem to be the biggest pain in the ass levels) and then use that beautiful feral druid to take out Scholo. Profit.

Druids are the best booster currently, by far.

[OzPhoenix]

Druids for their stealth, Paladins otherwise - either of those two boost with an efficiency fringhtenly better than any other classes can ever do it.

For Horde the progression is pretty easy: (give or take a level or two either side)

RFC 10-16.
WC 16-20.
SFK 20-24
SM(GY) 24-26
SM(LIB) 26-28
SM(ARM) 28-30/1
SM(CATH) 30-40
ZF 40-46 (I just hate Sunken Temple... lol)
BRD 46-54/55
STRATH/SCHOLO 54-58

And then I'd just quest 58-60 in Hellfire Penniensual and there endeth the RAF. When I was doing my recently leveled 5-pally team I pretty much followed that with no boosting, adding a couple of levels to the minimums to ensure the tanks survival.

[thefunk]

I love deadmines, ran it so many times back in vanilla that it was a new challenge running it with 4 level 10's. I'm not repeating anything new here but

- Make sure tank has high enough HP, I ran this with a new 80 pally with 17k hp, then again a few weeks later with 28k hp and it makes a big difference (especially in stockade)

- I usually make one of the slaves look back towards the entrance for any mobs and double-check his screen every 5-10 seconds

- Once in the cave with the boat, you can pull the ENTIRE room, I usually place the slaves on the mount to the right of the wooden concourse just after the entrance, pull every mob in the boat area and then run back. I try and stun and kill mr smite before killing everyone else otherwise I end up getting stunned myself.

You could also keep backtracking to kill the spawning mobs.

[Powerwar]

When I still had RAF time on my accounts ( lots of time ago ) the fastest way was to just do the kill quests. Usually it was about 3 or 4 quests to ding.

Killing 10 murlocks/skeletons/pirates takes less than a minute with a lvl 80. When I landed into a new zone it was like 10 minutes per level. Half of the time was consumed by traveling to the mobs place and delivering the quests back.
Also did the instances, but only to complete the instance quests. Never grinded instances one time and another because it was too boring.

For example, the argent dawn quests in WPL are 30% of level each one, and the last quest was almost half level if I don't mistake. Try doing orange and red kill quests for the extra experience.
If you are alliance and run casters, then do the uldaman quests, specially the necklace one because the reward necklace will last you til lvl 63 or something like.