boosting with druid?

Hello,
I currently have two accounts. One with a 70 rogue the other with a 74 druid. I'm thinking of leveling four characters with boosting by having the rogue account refer four accounts which can then grant levels back to characters on rogue account.

From some of the reading I've been doing it seems paladins are best for boosting. How well would it work with a druid? My goal with this is to have several high level characters so when I get the itch to play a different class I'll have one available to play around with. And if I get comfortable with multi-boxing maybe trying to run instances. thanks.

-johnny

For the longest time, Paladins were the only very strong AoE tank.
With the release of WotLK, Warriors, Deathknights and Druids can all effectively AoE tank, like the Paladin.

At lower levels, a Balance Druid in Moonkin form, using mostly Huricane can probably boost the quickest (of the druid specs).
Eventually, the survivability of a Feral Bear, with Frenzied Regeneration and Swipe spams will allow for larger pulls and surviving through them.




You have two accounts now, and are thinking of boosting four accounts with your druid (total of five accounts)... or boosting three accounts with the druid's account (total of four accounts)?

Call the druids account A.
Your existing other account is B.
Your new accounts are C and D -- or -- C, D and E.

Account A cannot be linked to C, D or E, if it will be used to boost.
If B is linked to C, D and E, then B must be on and grouped with C, D or E for any RAF bonus to occur.
Levels gained on C, D and E will result in levels granted on B.
For every even number of toons that reach 60 or higher between the boosted accounts, B gets a level 2.99 toon boosted to 60.99.

I'd personally go with something like... (Four total accounts)
A is boosting account.
B refers C.
C refers D.
Levels gained on D equals granted levels on C. Levels gained on C equals granted levels on B.

Or...

A is boosting account. (Five accounts total)
B refers C.
D refers E.
Levels gained on C equals granted levels on B; levels gained on E equals granted levels on D.

It all depends on which accounts you want the granted levels, and to a lesser degree which accounts get the Zhevra Mount (which saves you about 100g if its a new to 60 toon).

A druid will do fine. As will a mage, or a warrior. When people say a paladin is better I think its marginal......

I think a druid will be fine. The pali just has a better 'oh shit' button.

I agree with RAF-ing like this A->B->C-D rather than A->B A->C A->D

The reasons are that

1. Granted levels count as earned levels which then can be used to grant MORE levels up the chain

2. You won't have to transfer toons from A to the other accounts.

Prior to the patch preceding WotLK, a Paladin could AoE (Consecrate) to hit as many targets as were in their radius. They could also Holy Block and Blessing of Sanctuary, to inflict a lot of damage on any creature not behind them. The Paladin could effectively kill any number of mobs, provided they had the health to survive.

With the patch prior to WotLK, a druid can hit as many targets as there are with a Swipe rather then hitting only three. Warriors and Deathknights also have effective AoE tanking now, which they did not have prior to this.

At this point in the game, any tanking class will be an exceptional booster. The reason people used to say you needed a Paladin, is mainly because they could kill 50 mobs at once, while the druid or warrior could kill 3 at once.

Thanks for the replies and clearing up that granted levels count as earned. Thought I read that was changed. Good to hear druids are capable boosters :)

Here's my new plan: account A has the druid and account B has the rogue. Accounts C, D, and E will be new. I'll do the referals as b -> c -> d -> e.

:thumbup: I tested the granted / earned levels last night and it worked fine.

So essentially, if you had the following levels on each account:

Acct1: lvl 60
Acct2: lvl 30
Acct3: lvl 30
Acct4: lvl 30
Acct5: lvl 30

If you end up with this, you can granted levels all the way down the chain giving all accounts a 60.

I setup 5 new RAF accounts after I realized I did the referring chain the wrong way and now have the setup correct and should end up with a total of 30 level 60's by leveling up only 6 toons to 60. Should give me a nice aresenal to choose from when I'm done.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 'Nisch',index.php?page=Thread&postID=164534#post16 4534

:thumbup: I tested the granted / earned levels last night and it worked fine.

So essentially, if you had the following levels on each account:

Acct1: lvl 60
Acct2: lvl 30
Acct3: lvl 30
Acct4: lvl 30
Acct5: lvl 30

If you end up with this, you can granted levels all the way down the chain giving all accounts a 60.

I setup 5 new RAF accounts after I realized I did the referring chain the wrong way and now have the setup correct and should end up with a total of 30 level 60's by leveling up only 6 toons to 60. Should give me a nice aresenal to choose from when I'm done.

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Depends on who Acct1 is, but if Acct1 is the boosting account then this is not true.

To put is as simply as possible:

A = boosting account with a high level

B, C, D, E = new account

A -> B -> C -> D -> E

Now, if you were able to get E to 60, then the boosting from level 30 works for the others. However, if E is only level 30 then it cannot grant levels above its current level. Therefore getting E to level 30 with the hope of chain level granting will not work.

If you want 5 toons then what you could do is:

A -> B -> C where your A account uses a high level to get B & C to 60. Now you create two new toons on A and B. Your newly leveled 60 on account C boosts the new toons on A and B to 30 at which time you can now boost them up to 60. You are left with the following:

A: the original high level and one level 60

B: two level 60s

C: one level 60

You now have your original booster and 4 60s that can be transferred to a new account. If you think it's significantly faster to boost two toons as once instead of four toons, then this is the way to do it. If you think it's faster to do four toons at once then just create the accounts.

One nice thing about boosing four accounts at once is that once they're 60 you can roll a new team of four, get them to level 30, and have them granted to 60.

Sorry if this is a confusing post but I saw a few incorrect strategies in this thread and I don't want you to waste your time.

Well, I forgot to mention that I have 10 accounts and I have a full chain of 5, using the 6th to boost the last in the chain up to 60, then RAF-granting my way back up the accounts.

gone are the days where swipe only hit 3 mobs at a time. seriously, that was a terrible limitation. now i run through instances like butter with my druid. actually think its a lot more fun than with my pally. now... my pally has limitations. hammer of the righteous hits 3 only? whaaaa???

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 'elsegundo',index.php?page=Thread&postID=166374#po st166374

gone are the days where swipe only hit 3 mobs at a time. seriously, that was a terrible limitation. now i run through instances like butter with my druid. actually think its a lot more fun than with my pally. now... my pally has limitations. hammer of the righteous hits 3 only? whaaaa???

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Which spec do you use for running instances? My druid is currently specd for feral dps for leveling(now at 76), would picking up the tanking talents be
ncecessary for boosting?

I have three battlechests due before the weekend and keyclone installed. Should be a fun experience getting it all configured.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 'johnny555',index.php?page=Thread&postID=166801#po st166801

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 'elsegundo',index.php?page=Thread&postID=166374#po st166374

gone are the days where swipe only hit 3 mobs at a time. seriously, that was a terrible limitation. now i run through instances like butter with my druid. actually think its a lot more fun than with my pally. now... my pally has limitations. hammer of the righteous hits 3 only? whaaaa???

---

Which spec do you use for running instances? My druid is currently specd for feral dps for leveling(now at 76), would picking up the tanking talents be
ncecessary for boosting?

I have three battlechests due before the weekend and keyclone installed. Should be a fun experience getting it all configured.

---

not necessary at all. just stick with your cat talents as most of them already helps you in bear.

also you should opt for dps gear vs tanking gear. in bear form your armor bonus is already multiplied by 5, and your stamina bonus is erm... i forget, but you get higher stam anyway. dont be tempted to switch out your dps gear for tanking gear as you probably wont need it.

also also, if you watch those tanking videos on youtube, they might help... but with a druid, you can catform/stealth and prowl to the very end of the pull, then pull from the back... grab mobs as you head back towards the team. with a pally you cannot do that as you cannot stealth through. instead, youre forced to double back (which is time you're not attack but getting hit).

RFC hordeside is your first instance. for alliance, it would be sfk. yes, sfk. deadmines is linear with too many nooks (where the miners are) and has a lot of patrols if you're not careful. also not all bosses can be pulled with the group, as the tauren (you know the guy with the chest) will stun you. if he stuns you while there's 20 defias on you, that's a bad thing. sfk also has a quick shortcut to the beginning. something you dont see with deadmines.

One quick thought:
If I would boost with a druid, I would spec him Moonkin as long as the mobs are beneath 50 (or maybe 60).
Because with 'Starfall' you have the best AOE-Pull mechanism, and with Moonkin-Form, combined with Hurricane the needed AOE to down the mobs..
...running cathedreal like this should be realy easy for example.

A possible boosting Build for this could look like this .
Key Talents would be:
- Starfall
- Owlking Frency
- Mondkin Form
- Gale Winds
- Celestical Focus

Quote:

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Originally Posted by olipcs',index.php?page=Thread&postID=166994#post16 6994]One quick thought:
If I would boost with a druid, I would spec him Moonkin as long as the mobs are beneath 50 (or maybe 60).
Because with 'Starfall' you have the best AOE-Pull mechanism, and with Moonkin-Form, combined with Hurricane the needed AOE to down the mobs..
...running cathedreal like this should be realy easy for example.

A possible boosting Build for this could look like [url='http://www.wow-europe.com/de/info/basics/talents/druid/talents.html?tal=503210310533103321303501123100000 00000000000000000000000020500331200000000000000000

this[/url] .
Key Talents would be:
- Starfall
- Owlking Frency
- Mondkin Form
- Gale Winds
- Celestical Focus

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=]


i will try that on my balance druid!! thanks.

I was boosting with my feral druid last night (he's cat dps spec) - It was absoultey fantastic.

WIth the druid I cleared the initial corridor, parked my lowbies, and stealthed to the doors. As an 80 you can open the doors without aggroing the guards on either side. Initially I would stealth in, faerie fire the boss then switch to bear and gather up as many mobs as I could on the way back. However I did seem to take more damage that way (and I actually died once when I tried to put on barkskin and hit thorns instead. My night elf form doesn't take damage so well and it took me a couple of seconds to notice. Stupid and embarrasing :) ).

Later I would just faerie fire the boss in cat , hit sprint and run straight through the fountain, drop down to the pool, and go round the corridor to line of sight the casters. I would then switch to bear and melee them all down.

I did have issues with runners who seemed to run off, and at the point where they would return seemed to aggro on my lowbies and kill one of them before I noticed. I got a bit better noticing this. after I killed the initial pull I would spend a quick couple of minutes rounding up those i missed (I hit the instance cap anyway so had time to do this).

I went from 20/21 to 29/30 on two characters in about 2.5 hours all told (not including the running time from ironforge to the instance)

This wasn't a chore at all - compared to my previous boosting experience in there on a level 70 hunter a few months back where I could have banged my head on the desk to relieve the monotony.

One issue I had - after pulling the first boss I would never drop out of combat. Turns out the lady boss had spawned but just stood in her room. If one of my characters had died and battleres wasnt up I couldn't res them. In the end I found I could just shadowmeld to drop combat then res them. Then clean up any stragglers.

it took me two readings of that post to figure out you were talking about SM Cath.

the instance is a bit tricky to pull all at once. last i did it i was 70 in a mix of green/blue gear and when swipe only hit 3 at a time. it was annoyingly slow. indeed the runners are annoying as well as the guys that heal themselves. i took my time in that instance. usually doing several pulls before the boss.

i would love to go back at 80 and one-pull the whole instance. =]

I do apologise - how on earth could I forgot to state it was cathedral.

You should definitely, definitely go back and try it. I never tried boosting with a druid before - but swipe hitting only 3 would have bored me to tears.

I'm hoping to go back in there tonight and want to hit 45 before I leave. Although no doubt I'll get distracted by a few heroic runs.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 'shaeman',index.php?page=Thread&postID=167346#post 167346

I did have issues with runners who seemed to run off, and at the point where they would return seemed to aggro on my lowbies and kill one of them before I noticed. I got a bit better noticing this.

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Here's what I think is happening to you. The runners aren't coming back and smacking your lobies. The runners are going off and fetching guys who never noticed your druid running thru, and THOSE mobs are smaking your lobies.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 'shaeman',index.php?page=Thread&postID=167696#post 167696

I do apologise - how on earth could I forgot to state it was cathedral.

You should definitely, definitely go back and try it. I never tried boosting with a druid before - but swipe hitting only 3 would have bored me to tears.

I'm hoping to go back in there tonight and want to hit 45 before I leave. Although no doubt I'll get distracted by a few heroic runs.

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yea swipe with the 3 mob limit is very annoying. a lot of my damage used to be through thorns. i would love it when i crit, because then i'd get some health back! frenzied regen, a healtstone, and a healthpot and i would be ok. but now i might pop a frenzied regen. thats it. i'll go back to Cath sometime soon. it will be fun boosting some random lowbies. =]

and about the runners, i find that if i pull into the hallways, then runners will run around inside the hallways. if i pull them outside into a courtyard, they will run around in the courtyard. very rarely do they run into the next room. also, while' swiping, i'd run my team close by, but out of LOS so they dont get caught by anyone yes still close enough to get exp.

In SM cathedral I solved the runner issue.

I parked my lowbies at the rack of weapons as you turn left immediatly after entering the instance. (so in the first corridor).

Previously I had line of sighted the casters by moving round the doorway towards my lowbies. Instead I started line of sighting them the other way. So my big bear butt was pressed up against the end wall of the corridor. The runners ran of as usual, but never got within aggro range of my lowbies.

I've since moved on from Scarlet monastery, and am now boosting my team in stratholme.

All I can say is Druid boosting rocks.