Alt boost is slowing down..need advice :) DMMLP

[chansi]

Hello everyone! Multiboxed on and off for years, but this is my first time running a 5 man team.

I've read over the google doc several times but it seems I am starting to slow down power leveling my alts and I'm afraid I may have gimped myself XP/hr with party averages unless I am misunderstanding.

My Dilemma;

My 60 mage has been running my alts (Druid, Mage, Lock, Priest) They just hit level 28, so we went to SM to try each instance out and it seems I can only pull small packs with my mage and average ~20k/hr

I'd love for my alts to help but they are too low for spells to even hit outside of GY, and because of the party average I have to do way higher content than their level.

My fear is that I gimped myself using a 60 instead of another mage the same level.


Should I keep pushing through until 35 for ZF GY farm? Or boost another mage to ~28?

[Lyonheart]

At 30 your mages get next rank of arcane explosion. I ran sm gy until 31 .. the mages can contribute some before 30 though. it is notably better at 30+. I have almost same team.. paly tank though with 60 mage boosting the paly>priest>lock and mage. I also practiced pulling with the eye but eye pulling seems to work best when the mobs path back through mobs...and gy is too open for that.

With that said, im not sure its faster/better boosting with a 60 mage than having a team all same level doing the dungon the normal way. Ill let you know soon, as i am leveling my other mage to catch up. She is 23 atm. My team is 33.

[nodoze]

Please report back your findings.

My Paladin main is now 58 so I hope to soon circle back with my Mage+3Locks+Priest team who are all 20+.

My plan is to boost all 5 of them by rotating one out periodically though if that is a pain I may just leave a Lock out and level it by itself later. That or if the level difference is a hindrance then I could just level the Mage+3Locks+Priest by themselves.

[chansi]

At 30 your mages get next rank of arcane explosion. I ran sm gy until 31 .. the mages can contribute some before 30 though. it is notably better at 30+. I have almost same team.. paly tank though with 60 mage boosting the paly>priest>lock and mage. I also practiced pulling with the eye but eye pulling seems to work best when the mobs path back through mobs...and gy is too open for that.

With that said, im not sure its faster/better boosting with a 60 mage than having a team all same level doing the dungon the normal way. Ill let you know soon, as i am leveling my other mage to catch up. She is 23 atm. My team is 33.


Hmm, fair enough. I'll stick in SM GY until ~31..At the moment getting 10-15% per run at about 11-12minutes each which..so about 2 hours per level, which isn't bad in comparison to solo play. However, it doesn't feel optimal going from SFK and making crazy XP to the drop in RFK/SM GY. RFK had too much CC for big pulls outside of boars, and doing boars only netted ~5k xp and took roughly 7 minutes so I was looking at maybe 30k an hour for a lot of hassle.

I practiced with eye pulling as well last night and some pulls went good and some...not so good, haha. Mostly I don't have enough damage / mana for the mobs if I pull more than ~8-10. Also, the casters could wreck me at times. However, it usually takes me a good 4-5 hours to figure out a really good path. Going to try using my other mage and warlock to FS/RoF once they hit ~31. It might not help a lot but it seems most of the time I'm out of mana and the mobs have ~500hp left. Hopefully that helps. I'll be farming all night tonight and if I find a good route to use with eye pulling I will report back.


Not sure how diminishing returns work on Classic but it seems like after level 28ish a priest would be the best 60 to boost with as they can just spam low rank heals and keep all the mages/tank/whatever alive.

[nodoze]

Hmm, fair enough. I'll stick in SM GY until ~31..At the moment getting 10-15% per run at about 11-12minutes each which..so about 2 hours per level, which isn't bad in comparison to solo play. However, it doesn't feel optimal going from SFK and making crazy XP to the drop in RFK/SM GY. RFK had too much CC for big pulls outside of boars, and doing boars only netted ~5k xp and took roughly 7 minutes so I was looking at maybe 30k an hour for a lot of hassle.

I practiced with eye pulling as well last night and some pulls went good and some...not so good, haha. Mostly I don't have enough damage / mana for the mobs if I pull more than ~8-10. Also, the casters could wreck me at times. However, it usually takes me a good 4-5 hours to figure out a really good path. I'll be farming all night tonight and if I find a good route to use with eye pulling I will report back.


Not sure how diminishing returns work on Classic but it seems like after level 28ish a priest would be the best 60 to boost with as they can just spam low rank heals and keep all the mages/tank/whatever alive.My hope is that a Paladin Tank doing AoE DPS with the team contributing AoE where they can will be OK as well.

My hope is that things should be easy for the tank, with the tank dishing out good reflective DPS, until the later levels and as things get harder the level gap gets closer and closer and the party AoE contribution comes up so that overall the progress is consistent.

Not sure that will work out in practice...

Please everyone report back your findings when power leveling. Lots of folk now are turning attention toward alts.

[chansi]

My hope is that a Paladin Tank doing AoE DPS with the team contributing AoE where they can will be OK as well.

My hope is that things should be easy for the tank, with the tank dishing out good reflective DPS, until the later levels and as things get harder the level gap gets closer and closer and the party AoE contribution comes up so that overall the progress is consistent.

Not sure that will work out in practice...

Please everyone report back your findings when power leveling. Lots of folk now are turning attention toward alts.

I am starting a google sheet to show XP/RUN/HR for SM with a level 60 boosting. I checked the current one that someone was kind enough to put up at

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1j6tc7Bi0WNN_NbplgM1mbKcJkv89c4EhbYDN18vuYA4/edit#gid=566752830

It was a phenomenal resource but I had a hard time determining at what point should I switch to X or Y instance for better gains over A or B when it came to run times, mob counts, etc.

Anyone who is boosting with a 60 right now and would like to keep track, please send them to me. If we could compile a document of rough gains per instance that would be great.

What I'm looking for is how much XP they gain per run, per hour, and per kill. (without rested)


That way, when we boost alts we can have a near exact optimal path for dungeon grinding.

[nodoze]

I am starting a google sheet to show XP/RUN/HR for SM with a level 60 boosting. I checked the current one that someone was kind enough to put up at

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1j6tc7Bi0WNN_NbplgM1mbKcJkv89c4EhbYDN18vuYA4/edit#gid=566752830

It was a phenomenal resource but I had a hard time determining at what point should I switch to X or Y instance for better gains over A or B when it came to run times, mob counts, etc.

Anyone who is boosting with a 60 right now and would like to keep track, please send them to me. If we could compile a document of rough gains per instance that would be great.

What I'm looking for is how much XP they gain per run, per hour, and per kill. (without rested)


That way, when we boost alts we can have a near exact optimal path for dungeon grinding.I maintain that spreadsheet for the community and glad it was helpful at least in part. If there are any parts on the existing spreadsheet that you would like adjusted please feel free to post some comments to the sheet (I tried to make those open) and/or send me a PM and I will do what I can.

If you post the link for your spreadsheet I will try to at least link to it and can incorporate parts of it if it will help. I try to maintain general links under the ToDo tab and otherwise on relevant tabs. For example on the Dungeons tab there are lots of links across the top that are highlighted (some go to other people's guides, etc).

Would love to review yours to get what guidance I can as I hope to start boosting soon.

[Mercbeast]

The most optimal way to probably play that group going forward, at least through SM, is going to be just pulling 5-10 mobs at a time, and blowing them up with flamestrike->->cone of cold->arcane explosion. Use your druid and priest to heal, and mages and lock to aoe.

My mage team is currently a 60 mage + 3 32 mages + 32 paladin. I'm getting ~50-55k/hr just plowing through library, and it's only going to get faster until I hit about level 38-39 as I move up to Cath.

That said, I don't think there is much of a difference for a full proper level mage group, or a level 60 boosting a mage group. I think for you however, since you don't have a full mage group, or even mage/lock group, I'd imagine the 60 mage will speed things up.

[chansi]

The most optimal way to probably play that group going forward, at least through SM, is going to be just pulling 5-10 mobs at a time, and blowing them up with flamestrike->->cone of cold->arcane explosion. Use your druid and priest to heal, and mages and lock to aoe.

My mage team is currently a 60 mage + 3 32 mages + 32 paladin. I'm getting ~50-55k/hr just plowing through library, and it's only going to get faster until I hit about level 38-39 as I move up to Cath.

That said, I don't think there is much of a difference for a full proper level mage group, or a level 60 boosting a mage group. I think for you however, since you don't have a full mage group, or even mage/lock group, I'd imagine the 60 mage will speed things up.

That's my plan for tonight, I think the lock is what might hold me back a little but not much. Once they all hit 31 I'll head into library and attempt to heal with both characters. Another big mistake was not using the druid to heal, that is due in part to laziness. I use VideoFX and healbot to heal from my priest so I don't have to set up anything other than DPS on my bars. I'll bite the bullet and set up keys to heal myself via my druid AND priest. That should be sufficient.


Thank you for the input on a 60 mage boost VS a mage the same level. It gives me solace knowing I don't have to level another set of chars to get a mage to 30 to replace myself.

[myrsnipe]

I do SM at the moment boosting my 2nd team. I have a 60 mage pull armory in 2 pulls, courtyard and then the entire interior. Cath I do all of the outside in one pull, interior can be done in one pull if you get help, and it can be done with gear superior to what's available now, but for the moment I avoid the boss and do it in 3 pulls. I'd love to do it in 2, but waiting for iceblock isnt worth it. I'd also do armory + cathedral, but just switching wings is such a pain in the ass considering the horde dominance on my server, at the moment it takes me on average 6 death runs to any lvl 60 instance, and in sm my low lvl alts die in a single attack

[chansi]

I do SM at the moment boosting my 2nd team. I have a 60 mage pull armory in 2 pulls, courtyard and then the entire interior. Cath I do all of the outside in one pull, interior can be done in one pull if you get help, and it can be done with gear superior to what's available now, but for the moment I avoid the boss and do it in 3 pulls. I'd love to do it in 2, but waiting for iceblock isnt worth it. I'd also do armory + cathedral, but just switching wings is such a pain in the ass considering the horde dominance on my server, at the moment it takes me on average 6 death runs to any lvl 60 instance, and in sm my low lvl alts die in a single attack


Might you walk me through how you pull each instance ? The only way I can think of to do it by myself like that is to pull them all in the courtyard and not the hallway and farm them like ZF zombies/BRD? Just seems like I take a lot of damage if I try to pull the bottom courtyard in one pull, same with the top. Nova > 3 sec left > FS > CoC > repeat? Maybe my issue was just trying to arcane explosion them all down in time instead of using that technique


Thanks Snipe!!

[myrsnipe]

There's a lot of stuff that needs to be right to pull these off, it took me almost 40 tries to get the consistency down. First off, get yourself endgame blues with high stamina and int, necropile and dreadmist are good, you should value raw stats over damage here. 100 HP chest and 9 stamina bracers are cheap, minor speed on boots are essential!

My build relies on arcane resistance, loads of casters in armory and cathedral that will keep you topped off, as well as a full frost spec. You need chill, imp blizzard, frost barrier, cold snap and stay away from the talent that randomly freezes chilled targets.

For the first pull in armory, run around the courtyard, then pickup the ones in the middle, frost nova and FS, CoC repeat. This pull is the easiest by far. Second pull requires running all the way to the end, use blink to bypass some packs that you can't run pass. Pull the last pack and start running back to the Courtyard, use blink and CoC to slow down pursuers, pick up extra adds that aren't in the direct path if you dare. At the stairs in the middle if you have time use rank 1 blizzard to tighten the pack. Run out to courtyard and wait for pursuers, iceblock when they are on you.

Your job here is to have a combination of high HP, fresh ice barrier and mana shield, frost nova and blink must by ready by the time ice block ends, and be sure all pursuers have gathered around you before ice block runs out. If you froze mobs earlier and they come later after your nova you might die.


Frost nova and blink, you will take heavy dmg, but with full shields it should be fine. While running reapply ice barrier if you can or fire ward to avoid ranged interrupts. If everything went well you can now cast blizzard three times before a nova and finish them off, if not you really don't have enough room to run around and collect them, so cold snap and redo. The hardest part is getting no resist on nova and three perfect blizzards slowing down the mobs the entire time.

For cath courtyard, the hardest part is learning the correct path to run, remember to cut corners and cast AE rank 1. Start pulling from entrance, run out and right on the tiles, up to last pack before stairs (use AE rank 1, don't waste time running into them), run back diagonally to entrance over the grass and then take left side (here I usually reapply ice barrier). Run up to stairs and use AE to get everyone (those on the grass will follow the other mobs), they often overtake me here so nova or CoC is good (often lose ice barrier too, reapply mana shield). Run up the stairs and left onto the side (make sure they follow you up here, if you move too fast after a nova they might cut across the grass and catch you in front of the cathedral), go right and pull the 4 guards in front of cath with fire blast and counter spell, continue to right side and get the last few before running down the stairs.

At this point do the same as with the armory pull, make sure you have fresh shields and HP to survive, you absolutely need 3 perfect blizzards to pull it off. Use frost ward instead of fire ward here if ice barrier is on CD.


Inside cath is nothing special, I just range pull with rank 1 blizzard and do semi big packs, mana is tight on these due to no caster feeding my mana and they heal, but with mana stones you should have enough

[chansi]

There's a lot of stuff that needs to be right to pull these off, it took me almost 40 tries to get the consistency down. First off, get yourself endgame blues with high stamina and int, necropile and dreadmist are good, you should value raw stats over damage here. 100 HP chest and 9 stamina bracers are cheap, minor speed on boots are essential!

My build relies on arcane resistance, loads of casters in armory and cathedral that will keep you topped off, as well as a full frost spec. You need chill, imp blizzard, frost barrier, cold snap and stay away from the talent that randomly freezes chilled targets.

For the first pull in armory, run around the courtyard, then pickup the ones in the middle, frost nova and FS, CoC repeat. This pull is the easiest by far. Second pull requires running all the way to the end, use blink to bypass some packs that you can't run pass. Pull the last pack and start running back to the Courtyard, use blink and CoC to slow down pursuers, pick up extra adds that aren't in the direct path if you dare. At the stairs in the middle if you have time use rank 1 blizzard to tighten the pack. Run out to courtyard and wait for pursuers, iceblock when they are on you.

Your job here is to have a combination of high HP, fresh ice barrier and mana shield, frost nova and blink must by ready by the time ice block ends, and be sure all pursuers have gathered around you before ice block runs out. If you froze mobs earlier and they come later after your nova you might die.


Frost nova and blink, you will take heavy dmg, but with full shields it should be fine. While running reapply ice barrier if you can or fire ward to avoid ranged interrupts. If everything went well you can now cast blizzard three times before a nova and finish them off, if not you really don't have enough room to run around and collect them, so cold snap and redo. The hardest part is getting no resist on nova and three perfect blizzards slowing down the mobs the entire time.

For cath courtyard, the hardest part is learning the correct path to run, remember to cut corners and cast AE rank 1. Start pulling from entrance, run out and right on the tiles, up to last pack before stairs (use AE rank 1, don't waste time running into them), run back diagonally to entrance over the grass and then take left side (here I usually reapply ice barrier). Run up to stairs and use AE to get everyone (those on the grass will follow the other mobs), they often overtake me here so nova or CoC is good (often lose ice barrier too, reapply mana shield). Run up the stairs and left onto the side (make sure they follow you up here, if you move too fast after a nova they might cut across the grass and catch you in front of the cathedral), go right and pull the 4 guards in front of cath with fire blast and counter spell, continue to right side and get the last few before running down the stairs.

At this point do the same as with the armory pull, make sure you have fresh shields and HP to survive, you absolutely need 3 perfect blizzards to pull it off. Use frost ward instead of fire ward here if ice barrier is on CD.


Inside cath is nothing special, I just range pull with rank 1 blizzard and do semi big packs, mana is tight on these due to no caster feeding my mana and they heal, but with mana stones you should have enough


I appreciate the in-depth response! I've got the 2 piece from magister, dreadmist, and necropile. Going to run Scholo tonight and take a break from leveling to try to get some more necropile pieces, I can get the 4 piece from bracers and boots without sacrificing the other extra armor bonuses. Or do you think its worth it to lose magisters and squeeze out a little more stam?

One last request - could you post your mages build? :) I'd love to follow it and see how it goes.


Edit;

Made a build I'll try in the morning, got some more necropile pieces of the resist bonus and enchanted everything.

Is this similar to what you have?

https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc/embed/mage/230055000203--21300231132351301

Wasn't sure if piercing ice or Imp CoC was better because of armory.

[Lyonheart]

Hmm, fair enough. I'll stick in SM GY until ~31..At the moment getting 10-15% per run at about 11-12minutes each which..so about 2 hours per level, which isn't bad in comparison to solo play.

I forgot to mention that.. but that is what i was seeing as well, about 2 hours per level. Once my alt mage got the lvl 30 rank of AE, i was clearing GY so fast i was having to wait 10mins or so to reset the instance limit. By then all my alts were contributing more.. the lock gets hellfire at 30 as well ( although i did not use that much..due to having to spam heal the lock when casting hellfire )

[nodoze]

I forgot to mention that.. but that is what i was seeing as well, about 2 hours per level. Once my alt mage got the lvl 30 rank of AE, i was clearing GY so fast i was having to wait 10mins or so to reset the instance limit. By then all my alts were contributing more.. the lock gets hellfire at 30 as well ( although i did not use that much..due to having to spam heal the lock when casting hellfire )That puts into perspective how good less than 10 minutes per level from 20-30 is....

If I recall correctly that was 2 level 60 Hunters boosting 2 alts by killing their tags via Pets only. Last I heard they were slowing down but approaching the point at which the alts could tag level 48+ mobs and then the Hunters could also DPS on the tags.

Curious if any 2+ (or even better 3+) Hunter+Pet groups were able to keep going boosting 2+ alts to cap. Likely only really doable on PVE servers now (or ones where your faction totally dominates) but could be an amazing approach.

[chansi]

Skipped GY and went to armory, can do it in 3 pulls but I have no clue how you manage to group them all up running from the back to the front. By the time I have to IB when a majority come....usually a group of 2-8 come running about 8 seconds behind.

I CoC when they get close, blink when its up, cut corners, but there are always stragglers. Also have trouble kiting around the grass in the courtyard as they hit me constantly and I get stuck on everything.


Edit: re-read your post and I thought you meant to pull every mob as you run to the end and double back. haha. Going to try just blinking past the mobs and pulling the very last pack first, will leave another edit with my results


Edit 2: smooth as butter skipping to the back with the 3 pull....but i just dont know a good path to get them around the courtyard. i get stuck on everything, and when avoiding it I get smacked. its really starting to piss me off lol.

[myrsnipe]

I did some recordings of my pulls, I'll see if I can't upload them to YouTube with some commentary if it helps

[chansi]

I did some recordings of my pulls, I'll see if I can't upload them to YouTube with some commentary if it helps


that would be great. I can try to do the same for RFC and SFK etc once I run another round of toons.


make a nice little guide for everyone on the most efficient routes for alts 10-60 with a 60 mage driving.

[Mercbeast]

There's a lot of stuff that needs to be right to pull these off, it took me almost 40 tries to get the consistency down. First off, get yourself endgame blues with high stamina and int, necropile and dreadmist are good, you should value raw stats over damage here. 100 HP chest and 9 stamina bracers are cheap, minor speed on boots are essential!

My build relies on arcane resistance, loads of casters in armory and cathedral that will keep you topped off, as well as a full frost spec. You need chill, imp blizzard, frost barrier, cold snap and stay away from the talent that randomly freezes chilled targets.

For the first pull in armory, run around the courtyard, then pickup the ones in the middle, frost nova and FS, CoC repeat. This pull is the easiest by far. Second pull requires running all the way to the end, use blink to bypass some packs that you can't run pass. Pull the last pack and start running back to the Courtyard, use blink and CoC to slow down pursuers, pick up extra adds that aren't in the direct path if you dare. At the stairs in the middle if you have time use rank 1 blizzard to tighten the pack. Run out to courtyard and wait for pursuers, iceblock when they are on you.

Your job here is to have a combination of high HP, fresh ice barrier and mana shield, frost nova and blink must by ready by the time ice block ends, and be sure all pursuers have gathered around you before ice block runs out. If you froze mobs earlier and they come later after your nova you might die.


Frost nova and blink, you will take heavy dmg, but with full shields it should be fine. While running reapply ice barrier if you can or fire ward to avoid ranged interrupts. If everything went well you can now cast blizzard three times before a nova and finish them off, if not you really don't have enough room to run around and collect them, so cold snap and redo. The hardest part is getting no resist on nova and three perfect blizzards slowing down the mobs the entire time.

For cath courtyard, the hardest part is learning the correct path to run, remember to cut corners and cast AE rank 1. Start pulling from entrance, run out and right on the tiles, up to last pack before stairs (use AE rank 1, don't waste time running into them), run back diagonally to entrance over the grass and then take left side (here I usually reapply ice barrier). Run up to stairs and use AE to get everyone (those on the grass will follow the other mobs), they often overtake me here so nova or CoC is good (often lose ice barrier too, reapply mana shield). Run up the stairs and left onto the side (make sure they follow you up here, if you move too fast after a nova they might cut across the grass and catch you in front of the cathedral), go right and pull the 4 guards in front of cath with fire blast and counter spell, continue to right side and get the last few before running down the stairs.

At this point do the same as with the armory pull, make sure you have fresh shields and HP to survive, you absolutely need 3 perfect blizzards to pull it off. Use frost ward instead of fire ward here if ice barrier is on CD.


Inside cath is nothing special, I just range pull with rank 1 blizzard and do semi big packs, mana is tight on these due to no caster feeding my mana and they heal, but with mana stones you should have enough

If you do enough damage on the pull out, a low level healer makes this (armory) trivial. One CoC or some rank 1 AE spam as stuff gets close is probably all the threat you need to build. Paladin/Priest/Druid/Shaman just sits in the open close enough to heal, and gives you a little healing before IB. Then go to pound town.

[myrsnipe]

Maybe, I was boosting a hunter team so I had no extra aid (it strikes me now that I could have done some work with frost trap)

[chansi]

Tried bringing my healers in, no matter where I stand with them they draw aggro as soon as I iceblock.


Even tried pulling a small pack of 6 and using max rank AE, as soon as I IB they sprint for my characters.

https://i.imgur.com/YNSxCqp.png

X are the spots I've tried sitting them. Blue is where I iceblock.

[Mercbeast]

The idea is to top up after Iceblock. Maybe that made it unclear or just said it wrong. There should be no threat issues if you stay far enough away. Then you pop out of IB, nova blink and start topping yourself up.

[chansi]

The only way I can do it is if I stick them in the far far corner and only get heals when I'm inbetween the two corner pillars. I don't pre-heal at all to draw aggro. No matter where I put them outside of that back corner it doesn't seem to work out too well. I guess heals sometimes are better than none haha.

[myrsnipe]

I recorded the sm cath gardens 1 pull, might start adding more as I'm boosting


https://youtu.be/pdZD_ozTYi8

[Lyonheart]

I recorded the sm cath gardens 1 pull, might start adding more as I'm boosting


https://youtu.be/pdZD_ozTYi8

Thanks for the video! that looks fun.. im guessing you run into the lockout timer with this method?

[myrsnipe]

By only doing the one pull? Yeah, it takes about 5 min including looting. I reccomend pulling interior in 2 pulls, center with all the abots in one and then gather both sides (not wings) as doing the boss pull is hard solo.

The better solution is to do both cath and armory per reset, I recorded how to do 90% of armory in 2 pulls earlier today and going to upload tomorrow

[chansi]

Are you using rank 1 blizz on the pack closest to the boss, running out, and using blizz? or CoC/FS? I've got the two courtyards down if everything goes right...but once I get to the inside the always break apart when they stop to heal and the heals are so strong they live for forever....and they can silence your frost spells even if you arent casting them.

Edit:

Have always started with rank 1 blizz on the furthest pack in middle, running out and rank 1 blizzing the door to slow them.

From there I've tried to nova/FS/CoC.

Tried to nova/CoC

Tried to nova/blizz

They always break apart and stop at different times to heal, and cast two different heals.

A full mana pool on a half pull and they are all at 60% +


Side pulls are ezpz with all the mages regenerating my mana pool.




Edit 2: I'm leaving all these edits, trials, and tribulations up so if anyone else is getting discouraged they can see someone else prevailed who was struggling just the same.


Managed to pull middle with ease, my issue was as soon as they got low I would keep using blizzard. Once they are at about 20-30% run in and nova/CoC and start spamming AE and they drop like flies. :)

[myrsnipe]

Managed to pull middle with ease, my issue was as soon as they got low I would keep using blizzard. Once they are at about 20-30% run in and nova/CoC and start spamming AE and they drop like flies. :)

Yeah that's what I do, I keep man's pots on hand here because those abots have insane heals and you might risk going oom. If you struggle with these its advisable to split the middle in two pulls

[myrsnipe]

Video for Armory 2 pull is up

https://youtu.be/gjl_TUuDrMk

[chansi]

Have gotten haflway through level 37 and I don't think I'll ever level 4 chars with a 60 ever again and I don't recommend it to anyone else.


Went smooth through several runs now every reset I'm getting literally 12-18 mages per level outside. Constant resist from defenders. It's literally so RNG dependent it isn't even worth the small amount of time you'd save running alts. Thank god I only have 3 more levels in here or I'd be done multiboxing.


Have resorted to pulling 1 level at a time outside and still get resists, this time I'm blizzarding an entire pack and looking at the reticle with my own two eyes and 10 break free and charge me.

[myrsnipe]

Had some friends in my guild point out a few things that might make it a lot smoother, owing to be being a terrible mage considering i really only play my warrior, going to redo the first video soon

[Hardcore Scape]

I am planning on boosting up 3 aoe and a healer by using my level 60 warrior as the booster, but instead of the alts just sitting at the entrance they will end up helping dps and heal basically the same as I leveled normally to 60 but with a tank that has way more survivablity for bigger pulls, and way more threat to instant damage on the dps, thus speeding up the leveling and reducing the amount of stress for wiping, should just be a very cozy time even though there is a 20 percent hit to XP using a lvl 60.

My friend and I were testing boosting XP and a full run of armory is 8k-9k xp even with a lvl 60, so you would get 40k-45k xp an hour just farming that, and then you can add another SM wing to your farm to get 10 dungeons an hour if you get fast enough, making this way faster than normal leveling and way less annoying if you get it down.

[nodoze]

I am planning on boosting up 3 aoe and a healer by using my level 60 warrior as the booster, but instead of the alts just sitting at the entrance they will end up helping dps and heal basically the same as I leveled normally to 60 but with a tank that has way more survivablity for bigger pulls, and way more threat to instant damage on the dps, thus speeding up the leveling and reducing the amount of stress for wiping, should just be a very cozy time even though there is a 20 percent hit to XP using a lvl 60.

My friend and I were testing boosting XP and a full run of armory is 8k-9k xp even with a lvl 60, so you would get 40k-45k xp an hour just farming that, and then you can add another SM wing to your farm to get 10 dungeons an hour if you get fast enough, making this way faster than normal leveling and way less annoying if you get it down.I am taking a similar approach with my 60 Paladin being the Tank and AoEing pushing Threat and then all the Alts AoEing as well.

My thoughts were similar that I should have an easier time on pulling and tanking.

[chansi]

I can see it being a LOT easier with a tank at 60 and healing yourself.

What seems to be happening on my server the last two or three days..

I said earlier, 34-36 was a breeze. Then all of a sudden, I've got multiple mobs not getting hit by blizzard. Did about 5 more runs today so far and almost every pull in cath I am having to cold snap or sheep defenders. Prior to this, they'd all be grouped up in a line nicely and not break. Literally. Every single pull they break, even with spamming blizz. They sprint through it and run right at me.

Edit: another 2 runs and just to test the shitty RNG, pulled bottom half and got 10 resists between 2 runs on novas. Unreal.

[Lyonheart]

I am planning on boosting up 3 aoe and a healer by using my level 60 warrior as the booster, but instead of the alts just sitting at the entrance they will end up helping dps and heal basically the same as I leveled normally to 60 but with a tank that has way more survivablity for bigger pulls, and way more threat to instant damage on the dps, thus speeding up the leveling and reducing the amount of stress for wiping, should just be a very cozy time even though there is a 20 percent hit to XP using a lvl 60.

My friend and I were testing boosting XP and a full run of armory is 8k-9k xp even with a lvl 60, so you would get 40k-45k xp an hour just farming that, and then you can add another SM wing to your farm to get 10 dungeons an hour if you get fast enough, making this way faster than normal leveling and way less annoying if you get it down.

im guessing you would use as much aoe damage items as well? would you do it in def form?

[Hardcore Scape]

Yea def form, I have 2x force reactive disks and dense dynamite is legit the new meta for tank threat (costs 30 silver to make 1) I can start dps instantly after popping one, and then oil's of immolation if needed. Having one of Fire shield/thorns/crystal spire also would help a lot. And any extra bonus you could add a couple items that aoe, I think there's a weapon enchant that does. Rag trinket, nag ring, blood cape, razor guants are all extra threat but yea it would probably work with just demo + dense dynamite or oil.

https://gyazo.com/806e3666c8f5cb0ee2306b073510d71d

something like this with like force of will/ 2 percent dodge trinket/ mark of chosen trinkets

and then for talents just make sure you get 5/5 parry , improved demo, defiance and any other talents you think help mitigate damage.

Early dungeons up until SM I might just use a mage if its quick and not annoying at all, then switch to a warrior at SM.

[nodoze]

Yea def form, I have 2x force reactive disks and dense dynamite is legit the new meta for tank threat (costs 30 silver to make 1) I can start dps instantly after popping one, and then oil's of immolation if needed. Having one of Fire shield/thorns/crystal spire also would help a lot. And any extra bonus you could add a couple items that aoe, I think there's a weapon enchant that does. Rag trinket, nag ring, blood cape, razor guants are all extra threat but yea it would probably work with just demo + dense dynamite or oil.

https://gyazo.com/806e3666c8f5cb0ee2306b073510d71d

something like this with like force of will/ 2 percent dodge trinket/ mark of chosen trinkets

and then for talents just make sure you get 5/5 parry , improved demo, defiance and any other talents you think help mitigate damage.

Early dungeons up until SM I might just use a mage if its quick and not annoying at all, then switch to a warrior at SM.I agree with Protection Warrior if Horde but if Alliance I would do Protection Paladin.

I also agree with Hardcore Scape's gear recommendations and had put the following together for Protection Paladins (some of which is also valid for Protection Warriors):

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1j6tc7Bi0WNN_NbplgM1mbKcJkv89c4EhbYDN18vuYA4/edit#gid=296552331

Note: The above spreadsheet has quite a bit but is still a work in progress...

Note that Protection Paladins can have multiple paths toward the same goal... One often recommended path is to go max defense with something like the Deathbone Guardian (https://classic.wowhead.com/transmog-set=921/deathbone-guardian) set though some of the best talents in the Protection Paladin tree activate when the Paladin is crit (like +30% Block from Redoubt & extra attacks via Reckoning) and defense lessens crits so another option is to go for max armor/stamina and not worry as much about defense (especially when the mobs are low level). Some people focus on spell damage which can be significant though you are getting into Bind on Pickup (BoP) Raid gear for the good stuff and the BiS list above is more dungeon or BoE gear (though some pieces are from Raids)...

The Force Reactive Disks are great but very expensive to make and keep repaired (and you need 2 or 3 as they break so often) so another option that can be looked at is the Argent Defender (https://classic.wowhead.com/item=13243/argent-defender) which gives a chance for +50% block on hit and coupled with Blessing of Sanctuary (https://classic.wowhead.com/spell=25899/greater-blessing-of-sanctuary) and Thorium Shield Spike (https://classic.wowhead.com/item=12645/thorium-shield-spike#comments) should be putting out quite a bit of damage/mitigation (about 60 damage with each block). With lots of low level mobs hitting you you should have good uptime on both the shield's +50% Block & +30% Block (from Redoubt talents) for some really nice reflection/mitigation (that is a crazy +80% Block on top of normal block). You can also get another +30% Block (to go >100%) from Holy Shield but it is only for 4 blocks every 10 seconds (has a hard cool-down), is mana intensive, and precludes you going very deep in the Holy Tree so it is hard to justify if you want to also Raid heal from a single spec.

For Paladin self healing while AoE tanking the Hand of Edward the Odd (https://classic.wowhead.com/item=2243/hand-of-edward-the-odd) gives you instant cast deep heals and Uther's Strength (https://classic.wowhead.com/item=11302/uthers-strength) trinket procs (coupled with the boosted Priest alt's Power Word Shield) also give you enough respite for heals often (especially against lower level mobs). You should map a key such that when Uther's Strength procs you simultaneously cast both shield from the Priest and heal from the Paladin...

For motivation:

Video on The POWER of Prot Paladin Dungeon Farming in Classic WoW (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAI91yEpr7M)

[chansi]

Wish I didn’t hate alliance cities and towns, would love to use a paladin. :)

I’m nearing the end of SM, level 39 on the alts and not sure where to head next. I turned cath into 4 pulls to avoid so much rng with slows, can clear it in ~14min with the odd death because the abbots heal at the right time.

any advice on where to go next ? Might farm BRD entrance on the mage and park them all towards the front. Thought about ZF but it’d be hard to run four chars to safe spots with no deaths.

[Lyonheart]

I would use a play as well.. but i dont have one leveled to 60.. i do have a warrior at 60. I am alliance and plan to do 5 paladins for fun at some point. ( i have one at 33 now but he is on same account as warrior.)

[nodoze]

Can anyone confirm that Blessing of Sanctuary (https://classic.wowhead.com/spell=25899/greater-blessing-of-sanctuary) stacks with the Force of Will (https://classic.wowhead.com/item=11810/force-of-will#comments) trinket on the live Classic servers?

Getting almost -50 damage from every hit (-24 -25) when fighting lots of lower level mobs should be absolutely crazy...

I thought I read somewhere from old posts that they do NOT stack in Vanilla but then also read somewhere else that they did... Now I can't find any direct reference for either scenario...

Would be great to know before spending a ton of time farming the trinket...

[chansi]

No clue Sanctuary. :(


Just an FYI if someone googles it instead of using the doc, BRD is level 40 req.

Gonna try to solo farm it on my mage tonight with my alts parked by the boxes...Outside of this I'm not sure what to do. Stuck because a single mage isn't strong enough to farm big ZF pulls solo, since my XP gets cut / party averages I have to go to dungeons that are a way higher level than my own alts so they can't even help.

If that doesn't work, might just 4 man RFD or something until they can get to 45-48ish

[chansi]

Well, BRD was around 8k per run and each one took 20 minutes.

Going to see if parking my alts at the entrance to ZF while doing GY will work.

[nodoze]

No clue Sanctuary. :(


Just an FYI if someone googles it instead of using the doc, BRD is level 40 req.
...On the Levels tab of the Google Doc spreadsheet BRD is correctly listed as 40:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1j6tc7Bi0WNN_NbplgM1mbKcJkv89c4EhbYDN18vuYA4/edit#gid=1036339079

Let me know if something is incorrect and I will try to fix it.

[chansi]

Yes, the document has always been correct....however I googled it first real quick and every website said 42 which is a lie. :)


Tried to run ZF by parking them near the entrance, and couldn't make it halfway to GY before XP gains gave out..Then tried pulling small packs which took forever.

Pretty sure I'm now stuck dungeon running with 1 random DPS to be efficient in any way.

[chansi]

Bump for posterity, has anyone ran 4 alts with a 60 mage? If so, where did you go / what did you do around the end of cath? I'm nearing level 44 and not sure if it is better to pick up a random DPS or try to 4-man ZF and just dungeon run that until I can get into BRD. :)

[nodoze]

Bump for posterity, has anyone ran 4 alts with a 60 mage? If so, where did you go / what did you do around the end of cath? I'm nearing level 44 and not sure if it is better to pick up a random DPS or try to 4-man ZF and just dungeon run that until I can get into BRD. :)Maybe pick a standard set of mob packs in ZF and do an hour with the Mage and an hour of just 4 and compare the XP/hour.

[chansi]

I planned on it if I couldn't get a reply by the time they hit 44.. was hoping someone else went through this :)

[chansi]

Tried to 5 man it with my 60 and it went miserably. Mage just pulls off the tank so there is no point in even playing him, other characters don't do enough damage for mage to tank. Stated before; if you are gonna boost use a tank. Mage is useless after 40. Looks like its picking up a 5th random and hoping they don't get annoyed I'm MBing.

[nodoze]

Tried to 5 man it with my 60 and it went miserably. Mage just pulls off the tank so there is no point in even playing him, other characters don't do enough damage for mage to tank. Stated before; if you are gonna boost use a tank. Mage is useless after 40. Looks like its picking up a 5th random and hoping they don't get annoyed I'm MBing.Thanks for reporting back and sorry it petered out for you.

Sounds like if you want to go all the way to 60 the ideal main would be a Paladin with a Warrior as maybe the next best option. Maybe a Soul Link Lock with defense elixers would be another decent Tank option.

Would be good if anyone is able to boost all the way to 60 reports back thoughts/experiences.

[Lyonheart]

Also interested to see if anyone boosted a single character all the way to 60 and how they did it. I dont have a pet class, so i cant do that, i might be able to do tagging at some point. Im wondering if quest boosting would be the way. I have a 60 warrior im going to try for awhile and see how it goes. I also need to get my lower mage from 23 to 33 to catch up with my 2nd team ( dropped her for the 60 mage boosting ).

If the warrior doesn't work out from ZF onward, I might just quest boost my paladin to 60. Just from playing around with him on my second team.. i can tell already that its night and day better for AoE leveling, I mean 2 concs and nothing ever agros the clothies

[chansi]

I'm sorry too, sorry if my frustration is coming through my posts. Just want 60!!! hehe.

I even killed a few packs damn near the big connecting room and the fountain that takes you to either GY or ghaz'rilla and the characters were still too far away to get XP from ZF GY. :(

Does anyone know of any ZF safe spots other than the first one in the fountain room and the two at GY?


Tried some various safespotting but when I run them through with my 60 a bunch aggro on the lower levels, gonna try pulling them all with the 60 and staying alive, then safespotting to the GY today.

[chansi]

Tried several various ways of pulling first, running them all over, etc. Either the mage takes too much damage because it takes too long to run the characters to a safespot or they reset when my mage gets so far away and then attack the alts. Racking my brain to think of a solution but since you have to pull half the instance to get them to the GY it is very hard to survive/run them at the same time. Doesn't really seem to be working unless someone knows really easy safe spots along the way. Even parked them near the fountain and didn't get any XP from the graveyard just over the wall.


Edit: tried to pull a few packs at a time for AoE and they just cast and heal constantly and get all out of sync for AOE.

[Hardcore Scape]

Tried several various ways of pulling first, running them all over, etc. Either the mage takes too much damage because it takes too long to run the characters to a safespot or they reset when my mage gets so far away and then attack the alts. Racking my brain to think of a solution but since you have to pull half the instance to get them to the GY it is very hard to survive/run them at the same time. Doesn't really seem to be working unless someone knows really easy safe spots along the way. Even parked them near the fountain and didn't get any XP from the graveyard just over the wall.


Edit: tried to pull a few packs at a time for AoE and they just cast and heal constantly and get all out of sync for AOE.

do you only have 1 level 60? if mounting through to the safespots doesnt work at around level 43 or 44 then I am just going to kill my way through with 60s to scarabs/graveyard and then log off them except for the tank or 60 mage to do zombies. And if I wanted to be reallyyyy fast I could summon my alts to graveyard after mounting through on the 60s.

[chansi]

Only one. It was very difficult because you have to aggro everything on the mage so the alts can run through to the safespot fine, and stacking them all on it is a pain. Then half the time a totem jerk would aggro and throw down a totem sticking them in an aggro loop. Usually frost shield is down after the first hallway. I'll try some more tomorrow.

[chansi]

Another update; found some more safe spots but what ends up happening is when I reset them on the mage to re-pull and get them to the same safespot, they mobs run back and just sit on my chars staring at them. Gonna try one last time to pull them all and lure them to GY to my chars can safely get to a safe spot

[chansi]

One last update;

Have tried every which way to get them to ZF gy, nothing works. BRD is awful XP even at level 44. Questing takes forever because you are running from zone to zone or halfway across one... and half of them are collection quests. 60 jaw bones? no thanks. Seems to have completely stalled out using a 60 mage.

Probably just done multiboxing altogether or will switch to alliance and run with a paladin tank starting at level 1.

Boosting with a mage was a complete mistake thanks to Blizzard's grand idea to cut off certain parts of dungeons from XP gains.

Good luck to anyone else in my shoes.

[bakkwin]

I'm sorry too, sorry if my frustration is coming through my posts. Just want 60!!! hehe.

I even killed a few packs damn near the big connecting room and the fountain that takes you to either GY or ghaz'rilla and the characters were still too far away to get XP from ZF GY. :(

Does anyone know of any ZF safe spots other than the first one in the fountain room and the two at GY?


Tried some various safespotting but when I run them through with my 60 a bunch aggro on the lower levels, gonna try pulling them all with the 60 and staying alive, then safespotting to the GY today.

Did you get this figured out?

I actually get exp from the big fountain while a mage does their that at GY

My druid at 50 just stealths through to the the big fountain. If i stand at the wall that puts me closest to GY i get exp. Its about 8% per clear.