Some efficient ways of leveling 20 characters at once (Horde side)?

[dustofoblivion]

I just finished leveling my future ZG/AQ20 team to lvl 30, and I did it by group of 5 characters, basically repeating the same leveling process of 'farming dungeons with some questing on the side' four times. I was just wondering if you guys had some creative/out of the box ideas on what I could do to speed things up moving forward. The XP raid sucks; farming dungeons in groups of 10 has not yielded very good XP.

Although I'm not sure team comp matters that much, the team is:

1 Warrior
1 Hunter
1 Druid
2 Shaman (Resto/Ele)
2 Priests (One Disc/Holy, one Shadow)
5 Warlocks
8 Mages

Thanks in advance for your input!!

[Hardcore Scape]

get 5 to 60 and use them to help boost the others. preferably 1 tank 3 aoe 1 healer.

[dustofoblivion]

get 5 to 60 and use them to help boost the others. preferably 1 tank 3 aoe 1 healer.

I thought about doing that, but I had some concerns that the strategy of pulling the entire dungeon and then leaving the party/instance might be considered abuse and be bannable. Is it the case?

[nodoze]

I thought about doing that, but I had some concerns that the strategy of pulling the entire dungeon and then leaving the party/instance might be considered abuse and be bannable. Is it the case?If you mean having main(s) leave the raid and then converting the remaining alts to a party and using mains before you are auto-teleported, yes that is bannable.

In hindsight the fastest way to get 20 characters to cap (assuming you don't have 4 5man AoE teams) likely would have been to take a hunter team to cap and then use their pets to power level...

The following thread covers the options:

https://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/56540-The-Boosting-and-Power-Leveling-summary-thread

In your situation the following stand out to me as options to consider:

Leverage 'Approach 1' by using 1 level 60 main to boost 4 low level alts at a time and leverage average team levels (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1j6tc7Bi0WNN_NbplgM1mbKcJkv89c4EhbYDN18vuYA4/edit#gid=1036339079) in dungeons. My main Paladin is in his 50s and once I get to 60 I plan to use him to boost 4 AoE alts that are in their 20s. In this approach your main and your 4 alts are in the same party in the dungeon.

Leverage 'Approach 2B' in the open world you can tag with a low level team (2+ alts per team) and kill with pets if the mobs are not green to your main(s). In this approach you main(s) and alts are in separate parties...

Leverage 'Approach 2A' in the open world you can tag with a lower level alt/team and kill with the mains if the mobs are green to your main(s). In this approach you main(s) and alts are also in separate parties...

Note that those last 2 are likely not very viable on PVP servers right now.

Edit: Denoted which recommendations follow which Approach delineated in the Power Leveling thread...

[dustofoblivion]

If you mean having main(s) leave the raid and then converting the remaining alts to a party and using mains before you are auto-teleported, yes that is bannable.

In hindsight the fastest way to get 20 characters to cap (assuming you don't have 4 5man AoE teams) likely would have been to take a hunter team to cap and then use their pets to power level...

The following thread covers the options:

https://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/56540-The-Boosting-and-Power-Leveling-summary-thread

In your situation the following stand out to me as options to consider:

You could use 1 60 to boost 4 low level alts and leverage average team levels (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1j6tc7Bi0WNN_NbplgM1mbKcJkv89c4EhbYDN18vuYA4/edit#gid=1036339079) in dungeons. My main Paladin is in his 50s and once I get to 60 I plan to use him to boost 4 AoE alts that are in their 20s.

In the open world you can tag with a low level team (2+ alts per team) and kill with pets if the mobs are not green to your main(s).

in the open world you can tag with a lower level alt/team and kill with the mains if the mobs are green to your main(s).

Note that those last 2 are likely not very viable on PVP servers right now.

Thank you so much for that Excel sheet, that is some incredible info. Can't believe I didn't come across this earlier. I'm definitely going to use this! I might power-level a team of 1 Priest and 4 Mages to 60 before continuing the other characters.

[nodoze]

Thank you so much for that Excel sheet, that is some incredible info. Can't believe I didn't come across this earlier. I'm definitely going to use this! I might power-level a team of 1 Priest and 4 Mages to 60 before continuing the other characters.Glad to help. Most of the info is from others in this forum and other outside sources and I just tried to put them all in a central source in a format that worked for me (and glad to share with others).

With 20 accounts you may also want to look at "Approach 3" in the first initial post at the top of the thread I linked. You may be in a unique position to stairstep your accounts with some lead characters that are higher level but maybe not so extreme as a 60.

3+ Hunters is also pretty crazy as even just 2 pets were leveling alts in less than 10 minutes per level from 11-20 and one character got his alt to ~level 40 in approximately one day played. For edification you may want to read the full thread, especially the later posts, as there were some crazy fast results.

Edit: I denoted in my earlier post above in blue which recommendations follow which Approach delineated in the Power Leveling thread...

[Mercbeast]

I thought about doing that, but I had some concerns that the strategy of pulling the entire dungeon and then leaving the party/instance might be considered abuse and be bannable. Is it the case?

This, as far as I know, doesn't work in classic. They fixed it or changed it. It's related to the damage done change they did to tap leveling. In vanilla, there were no such restrictions. In classic, the tap leveling rules we are familiar with now, make it so leaving group or logging off even after doing damage, still impacts the actual XP yield.

The fastest way to level your groups, is still going to be tap leveling though, I'd guess in some situations, and just good old aoe grinding instances in others.

Level your hunter and locks to 60, I'd recommend forgoing a tank for this probably. Just get a carrion bird for the hunter, let it be main tank, and then add 3 locks and a healer, Use your hunter and warlocks to tap level everyone else in 2's or 3's. Their pets do not count towards stealing XP. This is a function of the safeguard Bliz has in place, to prevent pet classes from going AFK in an area with their pet on aggressive while the pet kills everything. Pets do not count as a "tap" in that, a pet cannot 100-0 a mob and get xp.

So, run around with an army of pets following your lower level characters cleaving everything down after the lowbies tap stuff.

The other option is as Hardcore Scrape suggested. Split your teams off into viable AoE groups, and AoE grind them through instances.

Certainly pet tap leveling will be faster to level 40-45, but tap leveling beyond that, will slow down considerably with more than 1 person in the group. I tap leveled my first mage from 44-60, with a group of warriors and a priest, and it was stupid fast XP, but it was 3 warriors and a priest killing stuff for a single character.

With as much aoe potential as you have, I don't think I'd recommend instance boosting with high levels, other than maybe a left over group that lacks some AoE. Once you're comfortable and familiar with aoe grinding a 5 box with 3 or 4 aoe'rs, it's going to be as fast, or faster than most boosting situations. Boosting is great for like, carrying slow ass levelings like warriors, or rogues, etc through the levels, but if you can plop 4 mages and a priest into a group, you will be able to fly through the levels, and using a 60 mage to level them is a side grade at best.

[dustofoblivion]

This, as far as I know, doesn't work in classic. They fixed it or changed it. It's related to the damage done change they did to tap leveling. In vanilla, there were no such restrictions. In classic, the tap leveling rules we are familiar with now, make it so leaving group or logging off even after doing damage, still impacts the actual XP yield.

The fastest way to level your groups, is still going to be tap leveling though, I'd guess in some situations, and just good old aoe grinding instances in others.

Level your hunter and locks to 60, I'd recommend forgoing a tank for this probably. Just get a carrion bird for the hunter, let it be main tank, and then add 3 locks and a healer, Use your hunter and warlocks to tap level everyone else in 2's or 3's. Their pets do not count towards stealing XP. This is a function of the safeguard Bliz has in place, to prevent pet classes from going AFK in an area with their pet on aggressive while the pet kills everything. Pets do not count as a "tap" in that, a pet cannot 100-0 a mob and get xp.

So, run around with an army of pets following your lower level characters cleaving everything down after the lowbies tap stuff.

The other option is as Hardcore Scrape suggested. Split your teams off into viable AoE groups, and AoE grind them through instances.

Certainly pet tap leveling will be faster to level 40-45, but tap leveling beyond that, will slow down considerably with more than 1 person in the group. I tap leveled my first mage from 44-60, with a group of warriors and a priest, and it was stupid fast XP, but it was 3 warriors and a priest killing stuff for a single character.

With as much aoe potential as you have, I don't think I'd recommend instance boosting with high levels, other than maybe a left over group that lacks some AoE. Once you're comfortable and familiar with aoe grinding a 5 box with 3 or 4 aoe'rs, it's going to be as fast, or faster than most boosting situations. Boosting is great for like, carrying slow ass levelings like warriors, or rogues, etc through the levels, but if you can plop 4 mages and a priest into a group, you will be able to fly through the levels, and using a 60 mage to level them is a side grade at best.

Thanks, lots of great advice here. I was wondering though, what's your take on AoE farming hyperspawn zones as opposed to dungeons? Spots like the Nightbane Worgen Camp in Duskwood. Could it be potentially faster?

[Mercbeast]

Never know until you try it. The good Worgen Camp, in the canyon with the cavern, is like 12 mobs, but only 4 are insta, so you'd be basically doing 4 at a time until the full respawn.

Also, rumors going around pet tap leveling may be nerfed/fixed.