[WoW] Boosting with a 70 - Rogue, Hunter, or Druid

[noir]

Spec/gear doesn't really matter, I can swap as needed.

I've got a 70 Rogue, Hunter, and Druid on a server and I wanna boost my 2nd account. What class do you think's quickest? Gear is KZ-level.

[shaeman]

I would suggest the hunter would be the best to powerlevel with.

My gut feel (no practical experience of rogues or druids past 46 as yet) would be that the druid and rogue lack area of effect, multi target capabilities.

You wil be able to power level them but I think the hunter may be the most effective as it has better aoe and multi target abilities.

I've been boosting my druid and paladin from 32/33 through to 37/38 yesterday, mostly in SM with a few RFD runs. When I started I was taking targets down in 1's 2's and threes. It burnt them down quickly, but I wanted more speed. (I should say at one point I got sick of this then decided to try doing quests in STV). AFter the first 10 minutes killing raptors and completing one quest I decided that instancing was the way to go.

I literaly went into melee mode. I basically set the pet on a target, ran and hit the next mob and the next and the next and the next then dropped an explosive trap, and just let my pet and my raptor strike, go to town.

For the actual cathedral I would open the doors, and send my pet to the very end 2 mobs before the boss, then work back towards me picking up all the ones in the middle. (mend pet on). I would then run in and drop an explosive trap, and try a volley if possible.

If I got a load coming for me I would fight for a bit (it helped my pet heal itself more) and then I'd feign death. Throw a multi shot in there and explosive trap again if need be.

I would then repeat the process for the left aisle and the right aisle. Then I would clear out the left set of rooms and the right and burn down the boss.

I did try taking out the boss and pulling everything in the instance but that was a bit too much.

I was doing SM cathedral in about 16 - 20 minute runs, and was gaining about 22,000 - 25,000 xp per hour according to titan panel, not sure if that's good or not.

[Drizzit]

I say whatever toon has the best gear. I had a choice of a hunter, ench sham, and a rogue to power lvl my toons. The hunter and sham have 80% greens and 20% blues. The rogue had 95% purple and 5% green (had the green to get hit rating up), this rogue is PVP spec with S1 pvp gear. The hit rating isn't that good but i had good dodge and good crit rating. A sm cath would take 30 minutes to clear with my sham, but only took 22 minutes to clear with my rogue. I lvled them from lvl 10-46 (still power lvling them).

[Knobley]

I would suggest the hunter would be the best to powerlevel with.
...
You wil be able to power level them but I think the hunter may be the most effective as it has better aoe and multi target abilities.


To which hunter AOE's to you refer?

About the only thing I can think of at all is explosive trap... muti-shot and volley are not going to be that effective, unless you're planning to pull in VERY small groups, since your pet isn't gonna hold agro on, at most, a couple of mobs.

I had a hunter and a druid to choose from and I chose the druid.

The druid doesn't have any good AOE's either. All he really has to work with is SWIPE, which hit's 3 mobs at a time. The difference is that, he can stand there and take it... so I can pull many many more mobs with the druid and just start swiping and watch the crowd thin.
<shrug>
I don't know what a rogue has to offer.

Knobley

[noir]

Mmm, does anyone boost with Hunters, Rogues, or Druids?

Hunters: pet can tank, pretty much sic pet, fire and forget. No real AOE, slow.
Druids: stealth runs, tanktastic, very slow DPS, can heal.
Rogues: stupid fast DPS, stealth runs, no heals, very minor AOE with Blade Fury.

What I'm thinking so far, Rogue beats the other two for boosting, as the rogue will be burning them faster than anyone else, and everyone will be taking pretty low damage already, since we're not talking about massive pally pull boosting.

[shaeman]

I would suggest the hunter would be the best to powerlevel with.
...
You wil be able to power level them but I think the hunter may be the most effective as it has better aoe and multi target abilities.




To which hunter AOE's to you refer?




The hunter aoe I refer to was explosive trap - and for scarlet monastery it was sufficient. Having stepped in to zul farrak I wouldn't recommend it. [edit: I did use it in zul farrak on the stairs, for a bit of extra damage and to ensure the rushers were tagged by me so full credit was given for the kill]

I did a few more runs of SM cathedral last night - and I found that the rate of clearance didn't really drop that much if i stuck to taking on 4 mobs at a time instead of a full pull of the central aisle. Multi shot works great for theses small groups and I would start pulling the next group just before my pet finished the first lot.

So I think the rogue may actually be the best one. I imagine a well geared 70 rogue would burn through the place. Forget about stealthing just run up and take em down.

[Tizer]

i boost with my hunter, 4 days played to 60. how do you like those apples.

stuff dies quick, faster than it will with a druid, i know coz i've used both. do it, do it now!

(forget the stairs in ZF, not enough elites, reset the instance and start over = quicker exp)

[noir]

Currently 2.5 days playtime at level 55 with Zolo tankadin boosting starting at level 37... doubt I can get close to that using a hunter.

Tizer, level 60 in 4 days questing? Or just instance boosting?

[daviddoran]

i boost with my hunter, 4 days played to 60. how do you like those apples.

stuff dies quick, faster than it will with a druid, i know coz i've used both. do it, do it now!

(forget the stairs in ZF, not enough elites, reset the instance and start over = quicker exp)With my holy paladin, I was able to kill all the non elites on the stairs before they get to the stairs. In fact, I would kill the entire group way before the second group spawns. They all seemed to chain aggro, so I just waited for em to spawn, consecrated, and /flex. There was some down time between groups, but I killed em so fast, that it wasn't even funny. Back when I was farming for shards to sell (made decent money) I would hit the first 2 bosses until my last reset, then I would go to the stairs and do the bosses there. (by first I mean the guy that spawns the basilisks, and second is the witch doctor. I could just mount up and run straight to em, with minimal aggro of others, cause they would become visible right as I passed them (pally aura+ epic mount = fast) so it was a rather quick run. I ran into some bugs, where runers would never come back and let me finish them off. They would just wander around, keeping me in combat, preventing me from drinking, rezzing or mounting. I either had to track em down, or run slowly out of the instance. That cost me a LOT of downtime.

[Tizer]

Currently 2.5 days playtime at level 55 with Zolo tankadin boosting starting at level 37... doubt I can get close to that using a hunter.

Tizer, level 60 in 4 days questing? Or just instance boosting?
Yar instance boosting, but i also managed to get 50 AB marks in that time too :)

[Knobley]

With my holy paladin, I was able...


Currently 2.5 days playtime at level 55 with Zolo tankadin boosting...

I thought we were discussing whether it's best to use a hunter, rogue, or druid, not how great you can do with a pally. Obviously this is faster with pallies and their great AOE skillz. It's actually pallies that I'm trying to level, so that I can use them to level other toons in the future.

Can you tell I have pally envy? ;)

I have a hunter and a druid at my disposal.

As far as rogues go, I don't have one, haven't played one, and can't comment on their effectiveness as boosters.

3-4 pulling with my hunter would work, but I can't see it being faster than mass pulling with the druid (dire bear form) and swiping.

4 days played to 60 doesn't really sound all that impressive to me, but that may change once I get my guys to 60.

I just got back from vacation and suffered a hard drive crash, so I haven't been able to play much lately, but I've done a couple of runs through SM and don't think I'm gonna have much difficulty drudging my way through it with the mass pull/swipe down method with the druid. I don't think it'll be quite as fast as could be done with a pally, but should be faster than 3/4 pulling with my hunter.

The big question for me is where to go at around 35. I've taken my druid to zolo, and he wasn't able to survive the skellies very long :(

[Tizer]

4 days doesnt impress you? Oh im sorry, i'll try harder next time, just for you ;)

[Knobley]

4 days doesnt impress you? Oh im sorry, i'll try harder next time, just for you ;)

:)
Well, as I said, that may change once I get mine to 60. When I soloed my way to 70 on two different toons (druid and hunter), I was at 60 in under 4 days. And if I can do it, then it's just not that impressive. But that was soloing. We'll see how things shake out with multiple accounts.

Knobley

[noir]

So I tried boosting my new pally last night in Deadmines with the hunter, and I'm pretty convinced it's better than druid or rogue. Why? Range. I can right click a mob and it pretty much instantly dies from a shot of my S2 Xbow. XD If it survives, I ignore it. The pet will finish it off.

The biggest problem I had was the alt getting mad aggro and getting instagibbed. I luckily found a lowbie who followed me around for awhile, so I just invited them and said, hey, heal my alt and I'll set it on /follow on you, just hang far back, loot all you like. Pretty convinced this is the best way, cos otherwise, I need to manually make my alts hang back and move them forward every once in awhile for XP.

Overall, the XP/hr. was just terrible. I'd only do this for loot. Otherwise, questing is much faster XP than boosting in the low teens.

[Knobley]

If you haven't already read it, you might find this thread ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=9052') describing my and Talamarr's DM experiences interesting.

Knobley

[-silencer-]

I don't know what a rogue has to offer.

A 5/32/24 Combat Sword/Subtlety spec is about as good as a rogue can get for rushing - this was specifically my rush build on my 70 rogue.
5/5 Malice (+5% crit)
5/5 Lightning Reflexes (+5% dodge)
5/5 Parry (+5% parry)
1/1 Riposte (10 Energy, 150% damage instant attack + 6s disarm)
5/5 Precision (+5% hit with both weapons)
5/5 Dual-wield Spec (+50% off-hand damage)
5/5 Sword Specialization (6% chance for extra attack),
2/3 Slice n Dice (+30% duration to 30% increased attack speed),
1/1 Blade Flurry (15s, 2min cooldown:+20% more increased attack speed, plus each hit will do the same damage on nearby enemy),
2/2 Weapon Expertise (+10 weapon expertise),
1/1 Adrenaline Rush (5min cooldown: +100% Energy regen rate for 15s - +40 Energy every 2 seconds),
2/2 Sleight of Hand (-2% being melee/ranged critically hit),
1/1 Ghostly Strike (40 Energy, 20s cooldown: 125% damage instant attack, +15% dodge for 7s),
3/3 Serrated Blades (Ignore 560 of target's armor),
2/3 Setup (30% chance to add combo point when dodging an attack),
1/1 Hemorrhage (35 Energy, 110% instant attack, 10 charges for 15s of +36 damage per attack),
2/2 Dirty Deeds (Special attacks do 20% more damage on enemies with less than 35% health)
1/1 Preparation (10m cooldown: Clear cooldown on Evasion / Vanish / Sprint)

First, buff up.
Elixir / potion for +agility/crit/stamina depending on need - speed or survivability.
Food for +agility/stamina.
Instant Poison on both swords.
If you are fighting a bunch of low-hp mobs, use a sword that grants extra attacks over pure damage (unless it's like 3x the damage) - this is why I never get rid of the Thrash Blade. It's important for Blade Flurry and poison procs.

Sprint through mobs, pull into corner so you are facing ALL mobs then use in this order:
Evasion, (Only lasts 15s for +50% dodge, so it's best to start it off now while the most mobs are attacking you, plus you'll get a combo point or two from Setup talent.)
Ghostly Strike, (40E +1 combo point = get Dodge up for Setup.. 30% chance to add combo points on dodge)
Slice n' Dice, (25E = Need to get it up regardless of combo point count, hopefully 2-3 now due to Setup talent + Ghostly Strike)
Blade Flurry, (25E = Get thouse double-hits started..)
Adrenaline Rush, (+100% energy regen for 15s - very important combined with Blade Flurry to get off as many attacks as possible)
Hemorrhage, (35E : instant 110%, but the extra damage given during attacks applies to Blade Flurry hits as well.
Use Riposte as much as possible (very low energy cost and high 150% damage = lot of extra powerful attacks x2 with Blade Flurry. With Adrenaline Rush giving 40 Energy every 2 seconds, that's a lot of Ripostes if you can get the parries).
Refresh Ghostly Strike dodge bonus every 7-10 seconds. (7 seconds if you have a lot of mobs hitting you.. 10 seconds if you're doing fine on taking damage.)
Refresh Hemorrhage if charges wear out or switch to new mob (I believe hemo +dmg affects Blade Flurry 2nd attack damage too).
*Always* keep Slice N' Dice up. It should be the only finisher used, since it's better to only use energy on special attacks that double up with Blade Flurry - Riposte/Ghostly Strike/Hemorrhage.

If hp start getting low but SnD/Blade Flurry/Adrenaline Rush are still active, use a powerful potion. You need to keep attacking while you have those skills working.
Vanish when hp after potion is running out and too many mobs remain.

Preparation to clear Sprint / Vanish / Evasion cooldowns.
Bandage back to full health.

Round up new group and do the above, but you'll probably have to go without Adrenaline Rush until the cooldown is up.

The nice part about this build is that it works fairly well against bosses too. Work on pumping out as many high damage attacks as possible in the shortest amount of time. Open up with Cheap Shot (if not immune) or Ambush(dagger swap) so you can get a 5-combo point Slice N Dice off as soon as possible.

[noir]

Nice rogue build. I think I vendored my Thrash Blade. =/

And I've seen that other thread. Pally boosting a Hunter is 100X easier than Hunter boosting a Pally... XD

[Tidomann]

You run into problems boosting with a rogue/warrior... SM disarm > warrior/rogue

[krum]

I too have a 70 rogue and a 70 hunter. The rogue having S2 swords and being combat specced, does around 30% to 50% more dps than the hunter.

[noir]

DPS and ability/speed at boosting are not even remotely related...

[kalendae]

I tried both my feral druid in all purples badge gear and my mostly blues and s2 xbow hunter.
the hunter is way way way better than the druid.
druid in cat form is super high dps with good gear but has no survivability, in bear form the dps is just way lower than a hunters.

go beastmaster spec, and get the owl as a pet (screech is aoe and holds packs of mobs, this is how they don't go for ur alts)
now spec all the important bm talents like extra dodge on your pet etc. focus more on the pet than your dps. get the leggings of beast mastery (directly adds like 500 hp and a bunch of stats to your pet not u)
then have ur alts on follow (or strategic spots depending on their level and instance) and just go thru instance like normal, send in pet then dps single target down.

it may sound slow, but it is REALLY fast. each mob drops in a few quick seconds, you will get good and start sending pet to next group and streamlining. learn to do the non clipping steady shot/auto shot rotation macro
it is quite worry free and fast instance boosting.

AND you can boost exact same fast way through scholo (scholo > strat for hunters u just tear thru clothie mobs) and hellfire ramparts (ramparts ur alts will die on last fight until they are higher in hp so self res on some alts helps)

i don't loot with the hunter since mobs are far away when they die sometimes and hunters are always really low on space. looting while boosting with hunter will really slow you down.