[WoW] AOE Paladin Boosting, when to move on to next instance?

[sargorn]

i also have a Karazhan geared Prot warrior (~13k hp, 15k armor)and might give her a try as well, just to see if it is doable, but i think it's gonig to hurt big time with no heals.


Any kind of warrior with the Figurine trinket and a shield spike should be able to pull zolo off.

Likely 100x better than a shaman, warlock, druid, or any other class.

[sargorn]

After i dinged 40 i decided to go and try the ever spawning mobs in the Lycaeum, BRD. It took me a good hour to have them all in the lava under Incendius, to what point i realized that you can only side walk for so long, at some point you need to laval jump for a little while, and that ticks for 600dmg every 3sec.. no way my little 40s can go through with 1500hp. So i canned it. maybe some other day.


Practice actually lava jumping. You can -time- your jumps so you don't take the 600 damage 'tick'. Basically going right across undamaged.

Of course you'd probably have to jump them across one by one, oh and remember there are a bunch of destroyers in the lava, and on the island there.

[nomenquis]

i also have a Karazhan geared Prot warrior (~13k hp, 15k armor)and might give her a try as well, just to see if it is doable, but i think it's gonig to hurt big time with no heals.
I'm just boosting in ST with my warrior. I do have badge / kara gear, but equipped quite a lot of other stuff (quest reward blues and the like) to boost my avoidance (and block) up.

I'd suggest using the tankpoints addon (wowace.com) and use the calculator to see the attack table vs level 49 mobs. It will show exactly how much more avoidance (and block) you need to never get hit. I'm running with something like 65% avoidance and 40% block against 49. If you can get the gear to reach this level of avoidance / block you do not even need the figurine. Basically the only time I get damage in this fight is when my shield breaks and I've to use another one. Also, not getting hit at all also means that your normal equipment gets no durability loss. I think I could continue this for a looooong time (but only have 24 shields with me at the moment).

xp/hr is around 170-180k for me, running with 4 lowbies.

Also, if you're kiting mijan with a blacksmithing hammer to zolo, make sure that you're equipping a normal weapon afterwards. I kinda found out the hard way that one can not parry with a blacksmithing hammer equipped :)

kind regards (and happy boosting)

[Lokked]

Anyone mind explaining the Lycaeum (sp?) method of boosting? I've heard mention, but nothing useful found in this forum.

Thanks

[sargorn]

Anyone mind explaining the Lycaeum (sp?) method of boosting? I've heard mention, but nothing useful found in this forum.

Thanks

you go into brd. go to the room with all the fast respawning nonelite dwarves. kill them. wait til they respawn and kill them again.

[Zub]

Anyone mind explaining the Lycaeum (sp?) method of boosting? I've heard mention, but nothing useful found in this forum.

Thanks

you go into brd. go to the room with all the fast respawning nonelite dwarves. kill them. wait til they respawn and kill them again.

The mobs in that room are level 52-53, non elite, and have a 20second respawn timer. They are very easy to kill ~1k hp and there is a CRAP-TON of them :-)
Hard part is getting there with low toons >.<

i think this is them Anvilrage Reservist (http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=8901)

[Zub]

I'm just boosting in ST with my warrior. I do have badge / kara gear, but equipped quite a lot of other stuff (quest reward blues and the like) to boost my avoidance (and block) up.

I'd suggest using the tankpoints addon (wowace.com) and use the calculator to see the attack table vs level 49 mobs. It will show exactly how much more avoidance (and block) you need to never get hit. I'm running with something like 65% avoidance and 40% block against 49. If you can get the gear to reach this level of avoidance / block you do not even need the figurine. Basically the only time I get damage in this fight is when my shield breaks and I've to use another one. Also, not getting hit at all also means that your normal equipment gets no durability loss. I think I could continue this for a looooong time (but only have 24 shields with me at the moment).

xp/hr is around 170-180k for me, running with 4 lowbies.

Also, if you're kiting mijan with a blacksmithing hammer to zolo, make sure that you're equipping a normal weapon afterwards. I kinda found out the hard way that one can not parry with a blacksmithing hammer equipped

kind regards (and happy boosting)
ok thanks for the info, will try it tonight i think :-)
Here's my warrior (http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Shadow%20Council&n=Shaiah)

[ChaoticMonk]

What level range can the boostees be before they start killing each other's xp? eg would lowbies ranging from level 40 to 50 cause eachother to lose out on xp? would it be better to catch up the lower one before bringing in the higher level one?

I finally got my prot pally to 70 yesturday night so cant wait to get home and give Zolo another shot (last time I tried it I was 62...didnt last long).

[nomenquis]

ok thanks for the info, will try it tonight i think :-)
Here's my warrior (http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Shadow%20Council&n=Shaiah)

My warrior: http://armory.wow-europe.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Dun+Morogh&n=Rinai (in the gear used for boosting)
I'm pretty sure you're lacking avoidance / block in the gear currently equipped by your warrior. So you will get hit, and thus take dura loss on slots other than the shield.

Aw, some additional info. I've just finished boosting from 35 to 49 (3x shaman and one pala, all the same level). The only thing that was holding me back was the amount of shields i could get. I've been at 40% block for these mobs and would waste about 1 shield every 8 minutes or so.

Well, to be exact:

At 40% block I'd run through the 85 dura http://www.wowhead.com/?item=30775 provides (took 20 with me, with a iron spike) in about 8 minutes.
I've then used the sporregar shields (5x) with a mithril spike and mijan was able to keep zolo and himself healed. So, I'd suggest getting sporregar shields since they have 100 dura and thus last longer.

After these were wasted I had the pala in my group give me bos (blessing of sanctuary) and used my two epic shields without a spike. I'd rather not do that the next time though, since the pala will aggro mobs, and a dead pala won't get xp :(

All in all, I've had to invest about 180g in the shields (8.xx g each) and about 50g in repairs. Had to repair once, about after 3 hours of (not) getting hit by them (only got actually hit when a shield broke) :)
Took me about 6 hours from 35-49.

[daviddoran]

What level range can the boostees be before they start killing each other's xp? eg would lowbies ranging from level 40 to 50 cause eachother to lose out on xp? would it be better to catch up the lower one before bringing in the higher level one?

I finally got my prot pally to 70 yesturday night so cant wait to get home and give Zolo another shot (last time I tried it I was 62...didnt last long).

Are you talking about mixed lowbies? As long as the lowbies all get xp, it won't really matter. Once any of them get high enough above the mobs, and no longer get xp, they will hurt the overall group xp and should be kicked, and possibly replaced with another toon between level 35 and 57, either one of your own, or any random 3rd party.

[Stabface]

DON'T BUY EXPENSIVE SHIELDS! !!!

It is totally unneeded, if you have any block value on your gear then the cheapest shield in the game will be more than sufficient to take no damage on a block from the skeletons.

http://www.wowhead.com/?items=4.6&filter=qu=1;cr=92;crs=1;crv=0#0+2+1

Save your gold !

[daviddoran]

ok thanks for the info, will try it tonight i think :-)
Here's my warrior (http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Shadow%20Council&n=Shaiah)

My warrior: http://armory.wow-europe.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Dun+Morogh&n=Rinai (in the gear used for boosting)
I'm pretty sure you're lacking avoidance / block in the gear currently equipped by your warrior. So you will get hit, and thus take dura loss on slots other than the shield.

Aw, some additional info. I've just finished boosting from 35 to 49 (3x shaman and one pala, all the same level). The only thing that was holding me back was the amount of shields i could get. I've been at 40% block for these mobs and would waste about 1 shield every 8 minutes or so.

Well, to be exact:

At 40% block I'd run through the 85 dura http://www.wowhead.com/?item=30775 provides (took 20 with me, with a iron spike) in about 8 minutes.
I've then used the sporregar shields (5x) with a mithril spike and mijan was able to keep zolo and himself healed. So, I'd suggest getting sporregar shields since they have 100 dura and thus last longer.

After these were wasted I had the pala in my group give me bos (blessing of sanctuary) and used my two epic shields without a spike. I'd rather not do that the next time though, since the pala will aggro mobs, and a dead pala won't get xp :(

All in all, I've had to invest about 180g in the shields (8.xx g each) and about 50g in repairs. Had to repair once, about after 3 hours of (not) getting hit by them (only got actually hit when a shield broke) :)
Took me about 6 hours from 35-49.

I have been using my shaman for stoneskin healing stream and windfury, and it helps a lot. He does pull aggro and die whenever i need to reset zolo or bubble heal, but as long as the other toons stay far enough away, they are fine so I just rez with my priest. You could do the same, just keep at least one rezzer farther back, and don't do anything with em.

[Zub]

DON'T BUY EXPENSIVE SHIELDS! !!!

It is totally unneeded, if you have any block value on your gear then the cheapest shield in the game will be more than sufficient to take no damage on a block from the skeletons.

http://www.wowhead.com/?items=4.6&filter=qu=1;cr=92;crs=1;crv=0#0+2+1

Save your gold !
make sure you pick one with enough durability tho, one with 25 will not last long i guess

[daviddoran]

I've been using the shield from Mograine from my SM boosting days. I must have had like 100 drop in all my days of boosting, and I DE'd most of em. I'm gonna start keeping them. They are basically free to me, and add a tiny bit of tanking stats at least. I also have some green shields i got cheap at the AH for like 1-2 gold.

I also (being an enchanter) am going to experiment with some proc enchants for the chest, that absorbs 25 damage 5% of the time. I should also get that blacksmith made chest that has a healing proc. I want to be able to last longer without paying much attention (so I can read the DB Forums), and I don't want to PUG For a Figurine of the Colossus...

[nomenquis]

DON'T BUY EXPENSIVE SHIELDS! !!!

It is totally unneeded, if you have any block value on your gear then the cheapest shield in the game will be more than sufficient to take no damage on a block from the skeletons.

http://www.wowhead.com/?items=4.6&filter=qu=1;cr=92;crs=1;crv=0#0+2+1

Save your gold !

Well, the shields you list might be cheap, but only have 25 durability (at least the very cheap ones). So, you'd have to buy more than 3times the amount of shields to last the same time as with the ones I linked (highest dura vendor buyable ones). Also you have to attach 3x as many spikes. Or run alot more often to the vendor for repairs.

Aw, I just listed what I did. paying 180g for shields is (imho) a non issue, seeing just about how much training for all toons will cost from 35 - 49 (58).
If i had to do it again I'd take 20-30 sporregar shields with me, just because they last longer.

I personally prefer to simply last longer without repairs.

*edit* argh, should read up till the end before posting :(

[Zub]

ok thanks for the info, will try it tonight i think :-)
Here's my warrior (http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Shadow%20Council&n=Shaiah)

My warrior: http://armory.wow-europe.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Dun+Morogh&n=Rinai (in the gear used for boosting)
I'm pretty sure you're lacking avoidance / block in the gear currently equipped by your warrior. So you will get hit, and thus take dura loss on slots other than the shield.

Aw, some additional info. I've just finished boosting from 35 to 49 (3x shaman and one pala, all the same level). The only thing that was holding me back was the amount of shields i could get. I've been at 40% block for these mobs and would waste about 1 shield every 8 minutes or so.

Well, to be exact:

At 40% block I'd run through the 85 dura http://www.wowhead.com/?item=30775 provides (took 20 with me, with a iron spike) in about 8 minutes.
I've then used the sporregar shields (5x) with a mithril spike and mijan was able to keep zolo and himself healed. So, I'd suggest getting sporregar shields since they have 100 dura and thus last longer.

After these were wasted I had the pala in my group give me bos (blessing of sanctuary) and used my two epic shields without a spike. I'd rather not do that the next time though, since the pala will aggro mobs, and a dead pala won't get xp :(

All in all, I've had to invest about 180g in the shields (8.xx g each) and about 50g in repairs. Had to repair once, about after 3 hours of (not) getting hit by them (only got actually hit when a shield broke) :)
Took me about 6 hours from 35-49.
Cool ta, I'll grab an earthen Elixir to reduce damage or a agility pot for avoidance. also got some agility food in my bags.
and i'm not sure what my second trinket is, but i'm pretty sure i won't use the baron peasant caller lol
Hopefully it will work :-)

Has anyone tried using the Gif of Arthas to tag the mobs? if not i'll pick a few lichen guards.

[Stabface]

DON'T BUY EXPENSIVE SHIELDS! !!!

It is totally unneeded, if you have any block value on your gear then the cheapest shield in the game will be more than sufficient to take no damage on a block from the skeletons.

http://www.wowhead.com/?items=4.6&filter=qu=1;cr=92;crs=1;crv=0#0+2+1

Save your gold !

Well, the shields you list might be cheap, but only have 25 durability (at least the very cheap ones). So, you'd have to buy more than 3times the amount of shields to last the same time as with the ones I linked (highest dura vendor buyable ones). Also you have to attach 3x as many spikes. Or run alot more often to the vendor for repairs.

Aw, I just listed what I did. paying 180g for shields is (imho) a non issue, seeing just about how much training for all toons will cost from 35 - 49 (58).
If i had to do it again I'd take 20-30 sporregar shields with me, just because they last longer.

I personally prefer to simply last longer without repairs.

*edit* argh, should read up till the end before posting :(

Well, moot point since you already bought them. But http://www.wowhead.com/?item=17189 has the same 85 durability and costs 1/7th the price - which makes repairs cheaper too. Instead of spikes, can you just use rank 1 Thunderclap every 15 seconds or so to tap everything? It means you'd have to actively play though.

[Zub]

Well, moot point since you already bought them. But http://www.wowhead.com/?item=17189 has the same 85 durability and costs 1/7th the price - which makes repairs cheaper too. Instead of spikes, can you just use rank 1 Thunderclap every 15 seconds or so to tap everything? It means you'd have to actively play though.
That's what i'm planning to do. buy a few of those 1g50 shields and craft a stack of arthas' gift to see if that works, and if not i'll just be doing some thunderclaps her eand there

[puppychow]

You guys think they will nerf this soon? My alts are only level 22, leveling as fast I can so I can do this lol! I'm guessing they will make the skeletons give only 1 xp (or none), its only a matter of time since this method is getting more and more popular.

[daviddoran]

I think that if they wanted to nerf it, they would have during the last patch. In fact, they INCREASED the level of the summoned skeletons by 1-2 levels, so you can use it for just a bit longer and head to outland right after being boosted. They (bliz) knows that this boosting method exists, and obviously are OK with people doing it. It's no big secret that blizz wants leveling to 60 and 70 to be faster.

It's a nice progression, quest to lvl 10, deadmines/sfk runs until 15, alliance can do stocks to 25, SM Cath to 35 and zolo to 58. 4 instances to run, and you can have pretty fast /played time, and do the outland thing.

[Zub]

So i bought a few shields, drink a major agi elixir, use an +20 agi food and scroll go in def stance and agro.
I seem to block/dodge/parry most of the attacks and eventually those that go through eat through me. is it that my warrior (http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Shadow+Council&n=Shaiah) just needs more avoidance?
ow and i tried gift of arthas, and does NOT seem to work :-(

[Stabface]

For fun and to see just how fast I can push myself, I started a new batch of alts tonight. 1-18 in 6 hours so far, not great but not so hot either. The Draenei starting zone sucks, I ended up mob tagging to L10 using my L70 Shaman + Magma Totem. Still, I'm under the 24 minutes per level rate needed to hit 60 in under 1 day, right? :)
It might be impossible, but, I'm hoping to do this:

Stockades -> L24, 2 hours ?
Scarlet Monastary -> L35, 4 hours ?
Sunken Temple -> L58... 10 hours ?
Underbog -> L60, 1-2 hours ?

This should put me under 1 day if I push it ! But how long it's going to take in ST is the unknown to me. Anyone done solid 35-58 here and have a time estimate on it? I see 35-49 in 6 hours, with a repair. I'm hoping to bring a repair bot and an inventory full of shields so I don't have to go anywhere to repair.
It's approximately 2.2m XP from 35-58 BTW... kind of scary to think it all comes from a bunch of skeletons :)

[nomenquis]

Well, moot point since you already bought them. But http://www.wowhead.com/?item=17189 has the same 85 durability and costs 1/7th the price - which makes repairs cheaper too. Instead of spikes, can you just use rank 1 Thunderclap every 15 seconds or so to tap everything? It means you'd have to actively play though.

You're right, I could have got these instead. But if I had to do it all again I'd honestly invest in sporregar shields. They last 25% longer and you don't have to put spikes on them.
Spikes for 20+ shields is not really cheap either, considering a stack of iron runs at 20g+ on my server. Now for a pally the situation might be different :)

Also, thunderclapping will _not_ work. To reach maximum efficiency you have to tag (or tap?) one mob each second (220k/hr / 63ep/mob). Thunderclap only hits 4 targets every cooldown, and you can not controll which ones.


So i bought a few shields, drink a major agi elixir, use an +20 agi food and scroll go in def stance and agro.
I seem to block/dodge/parry most of the attacks and eventually those that go through eat through me. is it that my warrior (http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Shadow+Council&n=Shaiah) just needs more avoidance?
or and i tried gift of arthas, and seems to work:-)

To not get hit you'll need a lot more avoidance I'm afraid. How long did you last actually? And how much durability did you loose on your normal equipment? I'm asking this because I'll be leveling my 5th team member either with a prot pala geared similar to your warrior or I'll account transfer my warrior to level with him.


For fun and to see just how fast I can push myself, I started a new batch of alts tonight. 1-18 in 6 hours so far, not great but not so hot either. The Draenei starting zone sucks, I ended up mob tagging to L10 using my L70 Shaman + Magma Totem. Still, I'm under the 24 minutes per level rate needed to hit 60 in under 1 day, right? :)
It might be impossible, but, I'm hoping to do this:

Stockades -> L24, 2 hours ?
Scarlet Monastary -> L35, 4 hours ?
Sunken Temple -> L58... 10 hours ?
Underbog -> L60, 1-2 hours ?

This should put me under 1 day if I push it ! But how long it's going to take in ST is the unknown to me. Anyone done solid 35-58 here and have a time estimate on it? I see 35-49 in 6 hours, with a repair. I'm hoping to bring a repair bot and an inventory full of shields so I don't have to go anywhere to repair.
It's approximately 2.2m XP from 35-58 BTW... kind of scary to think it all comes from a bunch of skeletons :)

I've been running 220k xp/hr in the 47-49 range. At 35 I got less xp/hr (180?) and I'm pretty sure that ones the skellies are green to my party they'll give a lot less xp. I'm going to boost again today, so I should be able to give you some data after I'm done.


kind regards

[shaeman]

I've been running 220k xp/hr in the 47-49 range. At 35 I got less xp/hr (180?) and I'm pretty sure that ones the skellies are green to my party they'll give a lot less xp. I'm going to boost again today, so I should be able to give you some data after I'm done.


kind regards
Really, 220k xp/hr. That's incredible. I must get me a 70 warrior/paladin.

My shaman, no rested bonus boosting 2 lowbies pretty much hit about 140k xp/hr. I even minimised downtime by dying,ressing and repairing with a repair bot. I need to find some way to get my shaman to last longer than 30-40 minutes against Zolo, as it takes a while from pulling him for him to start dropping skeletons, then even longer before you have that huge mass of skellies to contend with.

I've got earthen elixir on for the reduction of 20 damage per hit. Does anyone know of any other elixirs that may help and be usable in conjunction (I'll take a look tonight).

I know I can get +500 armour elixirs which might be good - e.g deflect more damage.

I've been chugging mana pots, perhaps there are potions that can help provide more armour (and would they stack with an elixir).

I'll have to take a good look at my alchemist tonight

[Trashbag]

I find that if I don't use my epic shields (S2 Shieldwall and Crest of Sha'tar), i take way too much dmg :( my armor tends to break after about 1hour 25mins of straight zolo'ing, which forces me to reset the mobs and then hearth to repair. My pally is pretty badly geared, so I'm looking to offset some of the dmg mitigation with potions.

I've tried the earthen elixir, but it doesn't seem to stack with BoS. Seals + super mana potions is what I use to keep myself alive and going, but unless I use a realy bad weapon then the skeletons just die to quickly. What weapons do you guys use ????

I've bought some 'Club' s from the noob zones, but they only have 25dura on em, so they break quickly :T Anyone got some suggestions ???


perhaps even a mod that will pop up a raid warning when my shield or weapon is about to break

[Zub]

To not get hit you'll need a lot more avoidance I'm afraid. How long did you last actually? And how much durability did you loose on your normal equipment? I'm asking this because I'll be leveling my 5th team member either with a prot pala geared similar to your warrior or I'll account transfer my warrior to level with him.

Yeah i'm getting some 15-20 dmg in here and there, even with the earthen elixir and demo shout.
According to tankpoints i'm standing at 92% avoidance on those lvl 49.. 8% of shitloads of skellies mean i still take a lot of damage oevr time, which i can only pot through.
With a Paly you should be fine tho, every bubble you can heal back to full.

I bought a cheap 12hp/5 neckpiece to give it a try, and was using lesser ward of shielding as well (200dmg/90sec), but still didnt last long. 6-7 min maybe. about 5 bubbles of my lvl 40 toons.
Durability? the shield was at 40/120 when i jumped down (missed the stone, died lol - forgot i had toggled autorun off for placing on the ledge >.<) the rest had about 95-97% left

Thunderclap only affects 4 targets max so indeed doesnt work. back to my shaman i guess. expensive, but works .. some.

[shaeman]

Thunderclap only affects 4 targets max so indeed doesnt work. back to my shaman i guess. expensive, but works .. some.
Zub,

I'd be interested in comparing findings with your Shaman tanking zolo.

How long do you last before your gear goes red like mine :) I'm kind of getting 30-40 minutes before dying. I use repair bots instead of hearthing to stonard.

Are you using a fair amount of mana potions?

[nomenquis]

Really, 220k xp/hr. That's incredible. I must get me a 70 warrior/paladin.


I know I can get +500 armour elixirs which might be good - e.g deflect more damage.


It gets a lot worse as you level up, At level 50 I'm only getting about 200k/h and I only expect it to get a lot slower :(
*edit* 180k at level 51 :(

Also, before you use armor pots check how much armor you already have. The armor cap for 49 is about 12,5k (http://www.wowwiki.com/Formulas:Damage_reduction)



I've bought some 'Club' s from the noob zones, but they only have 25dura on em, so they break quickly :T Anyone got some suggestions ???


perhaps even a mod that will pop up a raid warning when my shield or weapon is about to break

Just make sure youre using a melee weapon and not a bs hammer / skinning knife. They last forever, but you'll be taking a lot more dmg since you will not parry.
Sadly I dont know of any good mod for that :(

kind regards

[Zub]

hum, now that i think of it, my clones are shamies... ther fore they have stoneskin and healing totems...
surely those should take agro, my healing totem on the main never gets killed.

Obviously the little shamies will die once i jump down, but they can pop/rez each other..
hum.. must try :-)

[bodefeld]

Thanks to this excellent thread, I managed to boost my new team of four warlocks to 58 in just over two days played. That's my personal record and the locks are now questing on the hellfire peninsula.

For the Zolo/Mijan part, I used my T4 prot pally it worked really well. Basically hours of nonstop XP, virtually only limited by the amout of shields I bought in Stonard. After twenty shields, my first "real" piece of gear was broken.

I found this trinket very helpful, as it obiously does not have an internal cooldown (procced about 20 times in 10 minutes) and slows down the damage to your gear:

http://thottbot.com/?i=4936 ('http://thottbot.com/?i=4936')

It seems worth checking for the "right" instance where Zolo is on the very first platform you see before going further up to the circular hallway. When he is there (and Majin can be dragged to him from one of the neighboring platforms) all you need to do is park your toons near the entrance of the instance in the appropriate corner. Now when you eventually need some repairing done, jump down, hearth and have the locks port you back into that very instance.

Thanks so much!

[mikekim]

I've just boosted my shammies from 40 to 50 in a couple of hours played (i was getting between 190-220k per hour according to xp fu)

I used some cheap green plate and shields lvl 67 (85 Duration) with either +mp5 or +sprirt.
i got my mp5 regen up to 220+ and could just take the beating and heal when required, by the time the heal was needed again (consecration aura and spiritual focus), my mana was full (no figurine :( )

had to reset Zolo about every 30 minutes, by jumping off the ledge- had to repair my armour every 4 resets (had 8 shields used approx 2 per reset).

I've now decided at 50 to carry on leveling normally - the only thing that hit me was the cost of skill leveling 10 levels and the fact that my shammies are now level 50 wearing 38-40 gear 8|

[shaeman]

I will continue to level my alts to 58 using this method.

My pally hit 50 and is in gear that is 40 or below. He can't kill a mob one level below him without major difficulty. My shadow priest is in the same position.

I figured the best way to approach this was to get my characters to 58 as quickly as possible. (this is where the fun starts for me).

For the first few quest chains in HFP they will be boosted by one of my 70's. This should allow them to get some gear upgrades to be able to cope again.

I will make up the deficit with auction bought greens.

[Greythan]

Well, I think I've given up trying to figure a way to use my warlock and his pets on Zolo and his skellies. Just seems prohibitive if you don't have a class that can a) effectively mitigate level 49 mob melee damage and b) passively damage the mobs without resorting to AE spell casting.

If any horde side boxer needs a few lowbies to fill out a group while doing this on Madoran, let me know. ;) Otherwise, I'm off to do some ZF and then questing.

[Stabface]

I've bought some 'Club' s from the noob zones, but they only have 25dura on em, so they break quickly :T Anyone got some suggestions ???


Skinning Knife but, I do not know if you can parry with this (doubting it).

[nomenquis]

Just finished boosting (35 to level 58 ). Some stats:

I 'killed' 48594 skellis. Kill rate was just a little bit below 1 per second (so all in all i guess about 14 hours in fight).

The last 4 levels were a lot worse than all the others in terms of speed. 57-58 took about 1.5 hours because ep was down to about 34 per kill.
I was doing that with 4 alts, so if you bring less than that ymmv.

Transferring my warrior now and then will do the same with just one alt, let's see how long that takes.

kind regards

[Stabface]

Thanks for the #'s !
Perhaps Baron skeletons will be a better choice from low 50s to 55, and then Outlands instances 55+ hmm....

[nomenquis]

Thanks for the #'s !
Perhaps Baron skeletons will be a better choice from low 50s to 55, and then Outlands instances 55+ hmm....

I'm pretty sure that baron sucks because you'll have to heal the alts
If they're dead they won't get xp for newly spawned skellies

kind regards

[Stabface]

Shouldn't be a need to heal them on Baron... just park them out of LOS of the damage aura.

[Trashbag]

Would be good to get some feedback from someone who has tried Baron, like others have said you can park your alts outside his room to negate all damage/aggro on them.

I just got my two alts to level 58 using Zolo, and like others have said, once you hit 54+ it really slow down (still fast tho!). From 56-58 it took about an hour/level.


When I first started doing Zolo, i was finding things pretty difficult. My paladin isn't geared at all (still in greens, + s2 honor/boe epics) and would take a lot of damage. Anyway here are some notes.

- Make sure you are in the corner of the platform, there is a slightly elevated part and if you stand on this the 'most' of the skeletons will take the same path to try to hit you. Which means you can position yourself so you can always block/dodge/parry etc.

http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/3994/wowscrnshot072608100405eq0.jpg

- Don't expensive shields unless you want to pay big $$$ with repair costs. I picked up a bunch of 85 dura shields from the vendors at Stonard. Compared to my s2 shieldwall and the crest of sha'tar. These were unbeleivably cheap to repair, but others have mentioned even better/cheaper shields you can use.

- With my gear, i was taking a lot of damage which meant my armor durability was getting punished pretty bad. My gear lasted around about 80minutes on average, but even while I was fully red I could get the session going with, seal of light and judgement + loh.

- The biggest improvement to my zolo sessions was when I switched to a lowbie weapon. I got about 10 of these (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=2130) and was using them to grind. Now the plus side to these is with reckoning, you can keep your seals and judgements going on a target for quite a while. As I mentioned earlier, I was able to keep myself up mainly with seal (no judgement) by smacking the skeletons. Sometimes i'd tune out and forget to recast seal, or not notice that my shield broke which meant I'd take a lot of extra damage. When this happened I could judge Zolo or Mijan, recast the seal and go to town on them. Cause of the low damage, I was able to heal myself almost to full (same can be applied to mana regen with seal of wisdom, or even a combo judge light, seal wis)

- My final pointer is to make use of your alts abilities/talents. Once my druid hit 45 or so, I was able to spec him into Improved leader of the pack which effectively gave me a 500hp heal every 6 seconds, combined with seal of light, I would never run into any problems unless I wasn't paying attention. I also had a warlock with bloodpact and improved imp which gave a nice little hp boost.. and in turn boosted my improved lotp heals.


I tried using an earthen shield potion to reduce the damage taken to me, but I have a strong feeling that it doesn't stack with Blessing of Sanct, at least I wasn't noticing any noticable change with it on/off.


I burned way too much money on this at the start, hope this saves some time/resources for others trying this for the first time.

[GizmoxLoW]

You guys do know you can do ramparts at 55 right? from 55-60 took me no time at all. specced my palidan ret and went to town... i skipped the very last boss since my shamans didnt have the spell dmg to help kill. but enough to keep my palidan alive...

[nomenquis]

What level range can the boostees be before they start killing each other's xp? eg would lowbies ranging from level 40 to 50 cause eachother to lose out on xp? would it be better to catch up the lower one before bringing in the higher level one?

I finally got my prot pally to 70 yesturday night so cant wait to get home and give Zolo another shot (last time I tried it I was 62...didnt last long).

I'm on my second boost in here. And from my observations it does not matter what level the other chars are, as long as the mobs are NOT grey to them.
I get more xp on my 37 schami if i have a 45 and a 41 with me than without them.

However, if you're only interested in boosting one character then by all means take characters a lot lower than this char with you. I'm reaching even higher xp/hr (270k and more) on my 45 hunter than I did with my 4 other chars (all in the same level range).

http://www.wowwiki.com/Formulas:Mob_XP seems to explain it well.

edit:
something is odd: As soon as the hunter reached 49 he actually seems to be 'stealing' ep from my 40 shaman :(



kind regards

[Trashbag]

You guys do know you can do ramparts at 55 right? from 55-60 took me no time at all. specced my palidan ret and went to town... i skipped the very last boss since my shamans didnt have the spell dmg to help kill. but enough to keep my palidan alive...I used to do this with my warrior, but I have since moved him off my account. How geared is your ret paladin ??? Don't you find that he has a lot of down time?

[Bena]

tip:

if you stand in the corner like in Trashbag picture.. but slight forward so that Zolo is left and BACK.. behind you slightly.. I found that he wasn't getting damaged at all. I was able to stay there untill I was all red and it was time to repair; he was still almost full health.

[TheHamburglar]

I'll be running BRD and going to the room with all the Mobs that are on a 30 sec timer, A 70 mage or maybe even a lock could kill them faster than a Pally or Warrior I think. The Magma Totem or Fire Nova Totem of a 70 shammy Should be able to kill the backs no problem. Maybe even a Priest with lolnova. Or a Hunter with a Fire Trap. At 61 my Pally gets around 30-40 xp. I'll check and see what my Lowbies get a 55.

[Stabface]

The problem with non-Paladin AoE is the damage cap... Consecrate does not have one, but most (every?) other AoE does...

[ChaoticMonk]

The problem with non-Paladin AoE is the damage cap... Consecrate does not have one, but most (every?) other AoE does...I think thats only true with ranks 4 and above. Rank 3 and below of concecrate have the cap.

[Stabface]

The problem with non-Paladin AoE is the damage cap... Consecrate does not have one, but most (every?) other AoE does...I think thats only true with ranks 4 and above. Rank 3 and below of concecrate have the cap.

No rank of Consecrate is damage capped... or it is capped so high that it's unreachable. I do the same per tick with rank 1 or rank 6, no matter if I am attacking a single mob or the entire SM Armory.

[Zub]

Tried the Lycaeum in BRD with my 70 mage and 2 level 49-50 shamies.. well, after a bloody long run to egt in there, and a few deaths to get the lava jumps well, and a fair clear to even get to the lava, i found out that i got 19xp per kill on those non-elite, fast-respawn Anvilraeg reservists.
There's a efw there, but 19xp ust doesnt cut against the 70xp from zolo's skellies.
Imho, BRD Lycaeum not worth it.

[sargorn]

Yeah, with my paladin I was pulling 250xp/hr w/ 35% block during the low levels, checked at 57 and it was down to 140xp/hr. Stuck with it at 150-140k xp due to someone saying baron was a lowly 90k /hr.

Priest is on 20hrs played, shaman is on 23hrs.

At the moment trying to figure the best way to get to 60 under a day and without cheating and questing outlands out.

[Trashbag]

If you can find a nicely geared level 70 MS Warrior, running through BF can net you around 150k/k

Your alts can both heal so downtime would be minimal and the shammy can provide windfury :) A plus side to this is you can hit honored with Thrallamar before doing any quests which means getting revered for the healing/mp5 helm enchant will be cake. You shouldn't even have to do 1 run of Shattered Halls.

[Narezza]

Thanks to this great post, I was able to successfully try Zolo out with a pally, and of course, I was blown away by it.

I have some questions though. Can anyone guesstimate the recommended armor/block/defense values? I'm using a formerly holy Pally that I switched to prot for this exercise. The gear is either T4/T5 holy gear, and/or some pre-kara/heroic prot gear. I'm running about 10k health, 13k armor, 400def, and a block % around 12%. Its working, but because of the mix of epic holy and rare prot items, I can really have values all over the place. What are some common numbers you guys are having success with?

Also, Im burning through the white shields every 15-20 minutes, but Im seeing a lot of damage on my regular gear also. Perhaps once every 1.5-2 hours, I have to go repair due to being fully broken. Is this a positioning issue, or is that normal?

Thank again!

~

[Freddman]

I have a friend with a lvl 70 Feral geard Druid that is willing to help boost me from 35-50+ in Sunken. Is it possible to do Zolo with a feral druid?

[shaeman]

There are a number of posts in this thread where people have tried a druid.

Some say it's doable, others saying it didn't go quite so well.

It may depend on your friends gear. If you are boosting shaman you can drop some healing stream totems that will help your druid.

if you enter "zolo druid" in the search box on the top right, it mostly lists the threads mentioning the method and success/failure.

[dRiN]

I have a friend with a lvl 70 Feral geard Druid that is willing to help boost me from 35-50+ in Sunken. Is it possible to do Zolo with a feral druid?I did it, and posted about it in this thread.

You can only tag through swipe in an effective manner. You will only reach 120K xp per hour (because of all untagged mobs despawning). Have to learn how to move so you dont swipe up on zolo. I pulled. Waited for alot of spawn then straved rightish untill all mobs and totems where on the left, and started click targetting swiping away. If you have crappy gear, use all your cooldowns and respec in such a way that you have a mana efficient shapeshifting healing build. Use all the abilities the alts can give you without getting in combat. (I specced my shammies imp healing imp stoneskin and gave em some +healing greens). Get fully buffed on elixirs and food, get the elixir that mitigates 20 dmg from a hit (after I found that one it was alot easier). Swap to kitty on reset and falling down the platform. And ofcourse all normal rules posted in this thread apply.
Goodlcuk

[shaeman]

Get fully buffed on elixirs and food, get the elixir that mitigates 20 dmg from a hit (after I found that one it was alot
Earthen elixir.

[Stabface]

It might be impossible, but, I'm hoping to do this:

Stockades -> L24, 2 hours ?
Scarlet Monastary -> L35, 4 hours ?
Sunken Temple -> L58... 10 hours ?
Underbog -> L60, 1-2 hours ?


So, these numbers are pretty close to correct. 4 new alts are sitting at L33 with 11H played, started 6H30M played at L18 (didn't keep close track of that. Stockades took a little longer and SM is going a little faster. I should be L35 within 30 minutes once I can actually zone back in (damn instance limit!).
Warlock and 2 alts are sitting at Sunken Temple instance portal already, I"ll just have to repair and fill my inventory with gray shields . :)

I'll do Zolo from 35->55, hoping it's <8 hours. Then off to Underbog for the final push to 60... very optimistic that I can get in under 1 day /played yet!

[Freddman]

I have a friend with a lvl 70 Feral geard Druid that is willing to help boost me from 35-50+ in Sunken. Is it possible to do Zolo with a feral druid?I did it, and posted about it in this thread.



You can only tag through swipe in an effective manner.
You will only reach 120K xp per hour (because of all untagged mobs despawning).
Have to learn how to move so you dont swipe up on zolo. I pulled. Waited for alot of spawn then straved rightish untill all mobs and totems where on the left, and started click targetting swiping away.
If you have crappy gear, use all your cooldowns and respec in such a way that you have a mana efficient shapeshifting healing build.
Use all the abilities the alts can give you without getting in combat. (I specced my shammies imp healing imp stoneskin and gave em some +healing greens).
Get fully buffed on elixirs and food, get the elixir that mitigates 20 dmg from a hit (after I found that one it was alot easier).
Swap to kitty on reset and falling down the platform.
And ofcourse all normal rules posted in this thread apply.
Goodlcuk
Ahh thanks. Better give it a try later then, only at lvl 25 atm so a bit further to go :)
About the Thorns not tagging, i saw that someone used the Naglering from tagging the mobs, that might be usefull and then there is no need for swipe?
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=11669
The same goes for the Crystal Spire, http://www.wowhead.com/?item=11567#comments

[dRiN]

I have a friend with a lvl 70 Feral geard Druid that is willing to help boost me from 35-50+ in Sunken. Is it possible to do Zolo with a feral druid?I did it, and posted about it in this thread.
...
Goodlcuk
Ahh thanks. Better give it a try later then, only at lvl 25 atm so a bit further to go :)
About the Thorns not tagging, i saw that someone used the Naglering from tagging the mobs, that might be usefull and then there is no need for swipe?
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=11669
The same goes for the Crystal Spire, http://www.wowhead.com/?item=11567#commentsMaybe the naglering works, I don't have experience with it : )

The nice thing about swiping alot is a high chance for getting Imp Leader of the Pack to proc. I used to mangle when it is up (+65 agi trinket proc on mangle), keep maul up on every swing (if rage allows) and swipe when mangle is on CD. The more hits you make the more healing you will get.

ohw and I also took mana pots for the shapeshifting healing mana stuff. I could keep my druid up with 6 items in red :D So gear is not the issue if you use all buffs / cd's to the max. (4 shammies with totems though).

[The Ts]

pull Mijan to zolo and then its endless cause mijan heals all bosses around him when he gets 40% and that will keep zolo up and he will endless spawn the undead

[Heenan]

pull Mijan to zolo and then its endless cause mijan heals all bosses around him when he gets 40% and that will keep zolo up and he will endless spawn the undeadWow, is that the Mijan technique that I keep skimming over? That's crazy. Now you just need to keep a couple bags of cheap shields and stay in there forever. Awesome.

[puppychow]

The zolo trick is now dead the skeletons only give 1 xp (technically 0 xp + 1 xp group bonus).

[bsides]

The zolo trick is now dead the skeletons only give 1 xp (technically 0 xp + 1 xp group bonus).So I heard... that's terrible really. I just got my pally to level 70 to do that. Damn Blizzad... this was alive since forever! WTF? :(

[Heenan]

Son of a...

[Tekviper]

Looks like last maint they made zolos skellys give no more Exp .



Why Blizzard Why !!

[Tekviper]

What really Bewilders me is WHY did they rause the level of the skellys by 2 and then make this change. :cursing: :cursing: :cursing:

[Heenan]

Yeah, and everyone telling anyone with a Pally to go try it out. And then tons of groups getting leveled to 56 over a weekend.

[Stabface]

Yeah... because leveling twice as fast as normal from 35-58 is bad, right, bring the hammer on down on it pronto? Like all the other "unintended game mechanics" blizzard identified and fixed really quick?
Perhaps say like the Mechanar chest farming that went around a while ago, where there were literally dozens upon dozens of Rogues doing it all the time for several weeks/month+ before it was (sort of) fixed? See also Mana Tombs, Slave Pens, Underbog, etc chest farming. Glad they fixed that one so fast before the market on 70 BoE blues tanked, right?

Or maybe the Arena win-trading exploit / point selling which went on for most all of S2 & S3 - literally months and months, thousands of people? To this day the repercussion of that continues to be felt in PvP, and to be honest it will continue to be felt until WotLK comes along and gives us a gear reset.

Or all the other exploits that went on for months before Blizz did anything about it? Remember when tons of farmers were teleport hacking in Dire Maul? Or in Scholomance?

I'm sure the extra L50-somethings that Zolo was pooping out would have totally wrecked WoW, glad they fixed it so quickly.

[Trashbag]

damn, i should have gotten off my arse and made better use of this. Still I'm glad to have boosted a druid and warlock up using this method.

Had two priests almost ready to go, but... looks like they'll be shelved for a while.

[ChaoticMonk]

Whats a decent alternative boosting wise?

[daviddoran]

I guess it's back to staying in SM Cath until 40, then going to ZF if you can take it, or perhaps BRD, then either Stratholme, Scholomance, or LBRS until 58 (or 60 if you like doing it that way) Or I guess Ramps at 55 if you can get them summoned by a lock/ported by a mage. It really starts to slow down boosting wise as the toons get higher, so you either gonna run em like a normal 5 man, or quest to finidh it up. I'm hoping I can use a combination of toons later on to boost to 70 once wrath comes out. I imagine an 80 tankadin and an 80 mage could tear through outland instances like nobodys business. That leaves me only boosting 3 at a time, but at that point, I will have so many toons at 60+ I will be able to swap toons out left and right.

[ChaoticMonk]

So as I understand it, for allience it would be:
1-10: Quest it out/grind 10-15: Deadmines or Keep questing/grinding 15-20: Stockades 20-40: Scarlet Monastery
40-??: Zul'Furrak ??-58(60): Scholo/Strat/LBRS or ??-55: Scholo/Strat/LBRS then 55+: Hellfire RampartsHow long do you stay in ZF and why not hit ZF at 35 and how viable are the other instances in those ranges (Ulda, Mara, DireM)?

[sargorn]

So as I understand it, for allience it would be:
1-10: Quest it out/grind 10-15: Deadmines or Keep questing/grinding 15-20: Stockades 20-40: Scarlet Monastery
40-??: Zul'Furrak ??-58(60): Scholo/Strat/LBRS or ??-55: Scholo/Strat/LBRS then 55+: Hellfire RampartsHow long do you stay in ZF and why not hit ZF at 35 and how viable are the other instances in those ranges (Ulda, Mara, DireM)?

After SM it depends what you have available to level with.

Prot paladins are absolutely terrible at ZF. The totems don't help, but it's more about how the trolls run away... and don't run back.
MS/Fury warriors do quite well at it though.

It also can depend on your alts or 'team' and the level of interaction you're comfortable with them doing.

The reason why you stay in SM til 40's is that it's just so good and easy. Lots of tightly packed non-leashing mobs that don't stun. Also you can do Cath+Armory in 12minutes and not rub against the 5/hr limit.

Uldaman may be ok. Only thing that is against Uld is it's level range, you'd only milk a few levels out of it to 42-43ish after SM.
Mara's too spread out to group things up properly.
ST (proper) - trolls run stupidly like ZF, dragons are aoeable, but there simply isn't enough of them to be worthwhile.

DM may be ok. A lot of the tree mobs in east have heals which might be annoying.
West is a pain.
North might be worth a shot.

prot paladin wise (with little alt interaction) I go,
SM to BRD to Strat

[sargorn]

Well, for what it's worth, I got the priest to 60 under 24hrs.

22hrs 34mins 11secs to be exact. Rest in peace ST grind.

Shaman clocked in at 1day 44mins, damn totem quests + the barens.


Also, neither of them have level 40 or 60 mounts, nor have bought skills since level 20 or so.

and very little rest abuse, apart from level 59 - just because I wanted to be sure to ding it :p

[ChaoticMonk]

Could you imagine it with the RAF 3x xp....real shame ;(

[daviddoran]

Could you imagine it with the RAF 3x xp....real shame ;(

hell, you could probably get 4 toons to 60 in like 12 hours lol I guess we will have to "settle" for regular boosting at 3x exp.

[Morx]

I've heard that a blue posted that the 3x exp from RAF is not going to work with boosting? Anyone else have the actual blue post to confirm this? I'm leveling like mad on a pally with druid friend, doing quests, and was going to boost new toons with the pally as soon as I hit 70, but it might not be around.

Thanks for the info.

[Stabface]

Yes, go to the Customer Service forum and check the RAF FAQ.

[ChaoticMonk]

I've heard that a blue posted that the 3x exp from RAF is not going to work with boosting? Anyone else have the actual blue post to confirm this? I'm leveling like mad on a pally with druid friend, doing quests, and was going to boost new toons with the pally as soon as I hit 70, but it might not be around.

I would start the boosting the new toons now while you still can because they did say it would be removed but no info as to when. They did also say that if you boost before they fix it it would not be considered an exploit.

You'll find the blue post(s) in this thread http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=8765584132&sid=1&pageNo=4

[gigauae]

any good instance run worth doing at lvl 40? tired ofrunning cathedral hehe, as someone said in this post pro paladin is terrible in ZF, and seems with my lvl 70 pro pal, and 4X shamans am running out of options ;(

[ChaoticMonk]

Well apparently staying in SM until 45 is viable with the 3x xp boost. Other than that you could try squeezing out the 5 levels in Uldaman or ZF before heading to Scholo/Strat.

I personally stayed in SM until 40 then quested in STV to 45 (skipping all collection quests except scaring shaky) but when I gave Strat a shot I could barely handle 2-3 groups (undergeared and no colossus trinket) and it took me forever to take them down so I'm gonna look into simply boosting as many groups as I can to 40-45 before they get rid of it then start questing the rest of the way/gearing up my pally.

[Morx]

Wish my buddy would just let me use his 70 DPS warrior. I could level so fast. :(

Why he gotta be greedy and actually follow the ToS? Psssh! :P

[ChaoticMonk]

Wish my buddy would just let me use his 70 DPS warrior. I could level so fast. :(

Why he gotta be greedy and actually follow the ToS? Psssh! :P
Now now, lets not be promoting something we shouldn't :D Doing quests with the 3x xp bonus is still insanely fast. One thing that I didnt like was having to skip collection quests which would end with you having to leave a zone before your time. Thankfully your now able to skip them and still be on track with the zones' level requirements.

[Morx]

Oh ya, I'm doing that currently with my paladin with druid friend. Last night went from 45-48 in a few hours. I had just dinged 46 in STV finsihing up quests. Me and buddy do all the collections and everthing. Went back to turn in about 6-7 quests we had completed, and dinged 47 from it. lol.

Yay 10 minute level. :thumbsup:

It'll keep rolling like that, but I think my buddy is going to help us through ZF/BRD tonight to get a few quick levels.

[ChaoticMonk]

Wouldn't hurt to grab the quests before you go in too, specially when it comes to BRD as theres a TON of them (assuming your allience, don't know about horde). Best of luck!

[puppychow]

I found hinterlands great from 43-45, there are a ton of kill quests packed in a tight area that give crazy XP when tripled.

[Babbaganoosh]

Yeah, the hinterlands was made for multiboxing. there are almost no collection quests at all. It's all kill this many mobs and/or go find a bucket of tools. Triple xp is icing.

[Morx]

Up to level 65. Spent all day yesterday running Slave Pens, Underbog, Ramparts, and Blood Furnace. Picked up the quests for each of them, and was pretty fun getting into the whole tanking mode on my paladin.

Learned that horrible horrible players can sometimes make a difference when you can't take down a boss because the healer goes OOM, due to the fight taking too long. lol.

But also, learned that it is super quick to get groups going when you already have tank/healer. Just pickup some DPS and go! :thumbsup: