[wow] Suggestions for starting instances?

[ockhamsrazor]

I'm a new 5 boxer who has limited experience with Wow in general. I previous solo'd a priest to 70, and did some instances, but stopped playing shortly thereafter (other circumstances).

Now I've got a team, (pally, priest, mage, shaman, druid) up to 61 and am so far doing quests to level. At what point should I start doing instances?

Is it better to just do the quests until 80 and then learn the instances with my team, or should I do instances as I go?

If you suggest instances as I go, along with questing, at what point will I be geared enough to do them? All my chars have quest rewards, no enchants, no glyphs, etc...no money :-(

Anyway, thoughts?

Thanks,
Matt

[Gramzngunz]

While I'm just starting a 5 box pve team myself, I can't give you advice from experience, but I also think I have a good idea on how to go about it. I plan to start doing instances as early as RFC :D Plus learning all the instances at the end just seems daunting. and a lot of the early ones dont' have heroic versions, so you will have simply missed that content all together. I want to do EVERY instance while I level up. There were lots I never really did as I'm a self proclaimed "pvp guy", but now I'm going full force pve w/ this team. If you are worried about gearing, just do instances that are slightly below your level. You'll still get some nice blue gear better then your quest greens from instances you might be say... 5 levels too high for? I would start with running instances just a little below your level to get a feel for it. From then it's just trial and error I think :D make sure you have pve specs for you guys too. If I was handed your team, I would do the hellfire area, get all the quest greens I can, then hit up Ramparts and see how it goes! Plus after you got Hellfire quest greens you could do some level 60 content with ease I would guess because of how good outlands greens are compaired to old 60 gear. Sorry for wall of text, hope this helps!

[ockhamsrazor]

I appeciate the wall of text :-) It's better than no response :-)

On a related question, I was following an internet guide rather than grabbing random quests so far. Do you think it better to just do every quest in Hellfire, saving the instance for last, or continue to follow the guide and just use RFD to hit the hellfire instances?

[Heenan]

I used to be crazy anal about completing every single quest until I got to all of the instance quests. But now with the random dungeon finder I would only pick out fun or easy quests to do. Definitely skip any collection quests.

So leveling a new team, I would just hit quests that are quick with a good reward like this Wanted: Ragemane's Flipper (http://www.wowhead.com/quest=12857) right at 75 so my tank gets a decent upgrade... then back to running instances to level/gear up.

That's just an example. I would wowhead the zone I was in and see if there were any good rewards from quests that were worthwhile, etc.

[ockhamsrazor]

Oh wow - never knew about wowhead. What a great way to cherry pick quests ;-)

[kate]

Personally, I felt like I learned a lot from running tons of instances as I levelled. With my all paladin team I did 95% of my leveling in instances, generally only doing quests that were instance quests. It was really, really slow in some cases, but I learned a lot about boxing in instances which helped a lot later on, and also helped me understand some of the more common problems we boxerfolk run into.

The new team I'm leveling is a mix of quests and instances - I'm kind of roaming around zones and doing boxer-friendly quests, and then when I run out of quests I'll run a few instances to pick up the xp slack until I'm able to do the next zone. This has, so far, been MUCH faster and more interesting for me now that I've got the mechanics of boxing pretty well understood and just need to work on my tactics for handling heroics & gimmick heavy encounters.

I'd say you would probably be fine with the second version - mixing quests and instances - because really, running SM 900 times to level isn't going to teach you anything :D

[Littleburst]

If you have never boxing 5 chars in an instance, it might be helpfull to be at a comfortable level when you're starting it. So start with ramparts at 61 or so. Blood Furnace at 62, Slave pens and Underbog at 63 or so and it should be OK. Aslong as your gear isn't utter crap.

Wowhead is the best (outgame) addon there is. The more you get to know the site, the better it gets.

[Harrypott]

My first team is at lev 70 so was where your at a week or two back. I found instances to be really slow since my toons weren't very geared etc like yours. Doing all the easy hellfire quests gives u heaps of gear, and should give u the quests for ramps etc so I did ramps a bit and the second instance there a bit too. Beyond that I quested to 68 and instances when I ran out of easy quests in a area and wasn't high enough for the next. I choose the dungeons specifically and just kept running them. I only ran 4 different ones in BC.

You learn a lot doing instances, but it takes a lot of time. Now I'm 70 I'm running uk normal, it's slow but I'm leaning and becoming a much better boxer because of it.

Harry

[Zub]

go try instances, really :-)

just one thing: TAKE YOUR TIME.
there is no rush.

Take time to position your guys well, read some boss starts to avoid unecessary wiping, be prepared to run from the graveyard a few times.
It's good fun, it's a challenge most of the times (compared to 5x blasting through solo quests) and it's very rewarding when you succeed.

if you wait for level 80 you'll have so much to learn that you might get overwhelmed. Learn as you go.
Plus, instances at lower/mid levels have been nicely toned down, so they will be an easier start

good luck!
-Zub

[nauren01]

I think dungeons are what multiboxing is all about - for me its what still is fun after years of playing. Quest are ok for the first time, after the xx's toon I just cannot do them anymore :) I think its great that they re-design the starter areas, big releave.

For my Pala/Shamy team, I went to lvl 20 with quests, then never left Ironforge again, just using the dungeon tool... Even the dungeon quests I leave out - traveling to the dungeon or quest giver usually gets your xp rate down more than the reward gives.

The dungeons with a real challenge (i.e. more than 5 tries before succuss) imo are
- Sethekk hall (end boss)
- Utgarde keep (first boss + last boss)
- Nexus (this caster lady, my #1 reason to die over all^^)
- Forge of souls (Devourer)
- Halls of reflection (every step)
- and to my shame: the stupid undead trash casters on the way to Lord Tyrannus in the pit, killed me more often than the boss himself...

So most others are ok to start with :) Leave those out that have event driven timers (violet hall, etc.). At you lvl, Ramparts should be fine, make sure you watch a video on positioning for the end boss.

Once you get the groove its usually very easy, can't believe I died on Prince Kalesh's ice bomb so often...

[ockhamsrazor]

Thank you for the replies - you have definately stoked the fire to try some instances :-) I guess I'll wait to 64 so I have a bit more gear before trying ramps.

[uffela]

Now I've got a team, (pally, priest, mage, shaman, druid) up to 61 and am so far doing quests to level. At what point should I start doing instances?

At 61/62 Ramparts and Blood Furnace is no problem, except for Nazan (http://www.wowhead.com/npc=17536) - I couldn't beat him at that level. Make sure to gem/enchant the tank as much as possible. Stamina works wonders. Get some choice quest rewards for the tank too and you'll be all set. I collected head, shield, xbow and legs for mine.

I run a Prot War (http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Magtheridon&cn=Wurrior), Mookin, Elsham, Fromage, Disc team and I give all my love to the tank. That makes things so much easier.

Good luck and have fun!

[alcattle]

The dragon is easy with ranged DPS, just nuke him down a lot before you attack the last guards and it lands. I have killed the dragon before I killed the rider. Tanks and heals are important to get there, some of the mages do the fire rain thing.

[kate]

The dragon is easy with ranged DPS, just nuke him down a lot before you attack the last guards and it lands. I have killed the dragon before I killed the rider. Tanks and heals are important to get there, some of the mages do the fire rain thing.

Having gone at the dragon always with a melee group, I didn't know you could do that! I'll give it a go when my new team is in range. Good tip!

[Zub]

I run a Prot War (http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Magtheridon&cn=Wurrior), Mookin, Elsham, Fromage, Disc team and I give all my love to the tank.
haha, that made me laugh.
i know, i laugh at simple things :-)

[alcattle]

haha, that made me laugh.
i know, i laugh at simple things :-)
starting to worry ........

[blast3r]

Time to start instances is about level 10. :)

[thefunk]

haha, that made me laugh.
i know, i laugh at simple things :-)

my thoughts exactly!

[PineBeach]

I started doing instances as soon as all my characters were level 15, but it was very very hard. I still haven't managed to beat the last boss in hellfire ramparts even with all my characters at level 64, I've done it loads of times witha single character in randoms, but when boxing, all my characters just die immediately. I'll probably lookup a guide on how to do it at some point. There's at least one quest that requires you to defeat that boss and there's one other that starts from an item you pickup from the guy you fight before the last boss attacks you.

[moosejaw]

^^^ You need to range attack the dragon while he is flying and before you engage the last 2 guards. This was mentioned earlier in this thread but you may have missed it. You can take the dragon down to almost no hps and if you have a dot class he may die as soon as he lands. :)

Good luck.

For the OP. Get into those instances now and work out the kinks before you get pissed off doing heroics.

[ockhamsrazor]

Thanks for the encouragement! Over the weekend I sucessfully ran Ramparts several times. :-) I was overleveled, 63, so it seemed fairly easy. As a matter of fact, the bosses were cake - it was the trash I struggled with on occasion.

I'll try blood furnance now that I have those quests as well. The problem I had consistently was my priest getting agro and not being fast enough pulling them off. I've been having to learn to stop mashing my dps key because my pally tank is using a rotation on it as well. And I can never manage to get a taunt spell off while I'm frantically pressing my footpetal main attack button.

I tried manually managing the pally without including a dps seqeunce in him, but then I forget to use all his abilities when things get hairy and I find he is standing around not doing much.

How do everyone else deal? Do you include your tank in the main dps spam or manually cast throughout the fight? Should I train myself now to manually cast for the tank going forward?

[sectio]

Include the tank in the main spam.

Ramparts is a good one to grind at your level. Do Blood Furnace instead when you get bored.

[Zub]

yeah include the tank in the dps spam.
what i do is have (for example) taunt on a separate keybind, which means that to press i *have* to stop pressing my dps key since i'm not going to press both keys at once.

ALso, you might want to add a /stopcasting at the beginning of a taunt macro, that will make sure that your tank will cast the taunt, even if it was in the middle of casting something else.

I also added all threat reducing abilities to that taunt key on my slaves. That is, when my tank taunts, my shaman does a wind shear, my priest fades, etc.

you might also want a key where the tank is generating threat alone (with no slaves doing dps). I typically use it to pull and for a couple seconds before mashing my common dps/tank key
my pull key has avenger's shield, consecration and exorcism, which I can cast while the mobs run to me.

[ockhamsrazor]

Hmmm, I like the idea of a stopcasting addition. However I was using Grid + Clique to do the taunts. I guess I could swap it to a mouse over macro instead so I could actually use a macro. Something to think about.......