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Not sure when they added it... But the shadowhunter mobs now have a Dismounting shot... As if hex wasnt bad enough. I had probably 1/4 of the instance pulled when all of a sudden i see Dismounting Shot. I was like what the heck. So i kill those mount up and again.... So i finished those quests and went back to SM till 45 :(
I read about the same thing. I am guessing though you could probably pull it with druid or shaman travel forms since they cannot be dismounted. It's a little slower but you should be able to grab everything still. I agree thought it makes ZF much less attractive to boost through
agreed ... this is new in 3.1. Not just the hunters tho, casters can dismount you as well almost the second you grab aggro ... i had to hand-of-freedom and speed-pot to get back in range of my toons ... major pain
I never mounted in ZF anyway. Always just ran through the place hacking everything to bits on my warrior.
Only good part in here is still opening the coffins with the zombies... I'd stay in SM a couple more levels if you can stand it. Went from 25-45 in SM wasnt that painful.
I guess it all depends on your method of powerleveling. I used ZF extensively when I was using RAF powerleveling, but then max level was still 70 and my mage was a little too squishy to try to pull the whole place on her at once. Smaller groups were not a problem, just slower (obviously). Plus, both my hunter and warrior had the extremely rare honor of getting both special swords to drop that combine into the epic two-hander (the name eludes me right now). Not really that uber once you get into outlands greens at 58, but it's a unique model with what looks like the Unholy enchant built into the model.
My progression was something like: deadmines 12-17, stockades 17-23, RFK 23-27, RFD 27-35, ZF 35-46, ST 46-54. After that, instance grinding was getting too slow for a 70 epic'd mage, so I knocked out 54-60 in just a few hours questing mostly in Felwood.
Plus, I just like ZF. One of the better designed original world instances, in my opinion.
somewhat related question:
I already have two accounts going, so not planning on RAFing a new account in.
If I create a new toon on my 2nd account, get them to L8 (RFC min lvl), then group them with my 80 hunter and pull the whole place and kill it what will the xp be like for the L8 toon (without RAF bonus, would it be too badly nerfed by the fact the mobs are killed by my 80?)
In other words, using a high level to instance boost you is the RAF bonus required to offset the massive xp nerf from having a L80 blow up all the content?
(I know a hunter isn't the best AEer out there but it's what I've got at 80, I can probably explosive trap and volley the mobs down very well...have uninterruptable volley in my 2nd spec (MM) )
Yeah I hated boosting thru ZF.. I found it much easier to stay at SM and just grind out the last 5 levels to 45.. I used to do 20-40. Now it's 20-45 and onto undead Strat.
I also noticed something peculiar in Strat.. I usually hide my toons behind the gates so they don't get attacked but can still gain xp.. Sometimes for no apparent reason the gates disappear. Random mobs will attack my guys now. It's happened to me several times since 3.1. I could understand if it was a model glitch and the wall was still there but the entire gate just disappears. I can run thru without opening them sometimes.
yeah disappearing gates happen.. i just count it lucky i dont have to stop and do a 10 second unlock or however long it is :)
yeah. Lucky if all i am doing is running thru. However I don't consider it very lucky when I go for a 6 group pull and then the gate disappears and the casters make a beeline for my lvl 45 toons. lol.
Hi guys, here goes my story of boosting lowbies, and few hints about ZF as I was pleased with boosting there.
In Poland we can't use RAF for huge bonus, so boosting doesn't seem so good option.
Although I tried and went this way, moved my lvl 80 Paladin to other account and went boosting, I have based on wowwiki.com/Instances_by_level, and went to RFC at lvl 8 from where shortly (10) I have moved to SFK. Where I did stay till 20. Then usual route to SM (love Cathedral pull) where I made 10 lvls, bought my mount and tried questing a bit (I realy hate questing without mount) which wasnt anygood. Even with help from other toon lvling was slower, nearly 2h for level. So after hitting 32 I went back to SM and did some more grinding. After hitting 35 I was very doubtful if I should go ZF, where Hex was my biggest concern. Tried few mount pulls I got bored with all these Dismounting mobs, I have learned one lesson, Pursuit of Justice if your friend for successful boosting without mount. I was close to abandon ZF boosting, when one of invited guys told me that I should check if zomebies from graves give any XP. And they were giving xp!. I did new route. On my mount stright to zombies, avoiding most of mobs, aggroed only two at the gates and Thekal. After opening all graveyards I went back to entrance, pulling with taunt, exorcism, avenger shield, whatever was in range. I went back to lowbies at entrance - more hints later. It worked and XP/h was enough for me. 5 lvl passed and I got a bit bored so at 40 I went to check BRD where I did stay till 45.
Without moving to far I went to check LBRS when I got hit in my face - doors for UBRS open. I went far into UBRS and made whole run, doing Leeroy achievement for fun. I was doing a bit of upper spire pull, mixed with lower spire pull. Went well enough I made 55 there and went to hellfire ramparts.
Did only few runs yesterday but it was very promising. XP/h rate was goood, not so long instance, good loots ;]
So few hints so far:
- if you are boosting with paladin be sure to have Pursuit of justice
- Essence of gossamer trinket is very good for limitating incoming damage from many mobs
- you dont need to backwalk, just strafe and be sure mobs are not hitting your back
- if you are boosting without RAF always try to get some low lvl company, it will compensate some by a small amount difference between lvl 80 booster and lowbie. They are happy to loot, and you will get part of this loot. And on other hand, you have someone to talk too when you get bored ;]
- remember 12m30second rule, you can do 5 instances during one hour, so spend efficent that 12m30s. Loot, make some smalltalk, pull more, whatever. Avoid staying longer than 12m30s just to kill few more mobs if it's not pack which will give you 5 or more percent of level;]
- I tried stick to my own rule: If its not 1 level per hour its bad. Best one were 1.5 lvl per hour. Thats without rested bonus. With rested you can
Pulls:
RFC: just get as much you can and move your lowbie toon to you, you cant pull everything and get back easily, they slam a lot. just move lowbie to you.
SFK: three pulls
1) aggro everything to the undead guy who opens doors, kill why waiting for him, move your lowbie to doors
2) aggro everything on countyard, enter thru kitchen doors, leave thru other exit back to countyard, kill them there
3) move your lowbie to foot of the tower and go back into building and aggro everything up to wolf boss kill them there, on way back cut your walk by jumping down as you leave tower
SM: Caaaaaaaaathedral lovely one pull. Dont aggro anything, open doors taunt/hit Morgaine from range, run out of cathedral and aggro everything on upper level, jump back in the middle of fountain, heal if needed and aggro everything down there, go back to corridor to LOS casters. Kill. No moving with lowbie at all ;].
My personal record were around 2m30s. Few mobs reset due to pathing errors but I dont care. A lot of problems with 12:30 rule, but you can take time and loot and then open shop with silk cloths ;].
ZF: More in post, zombie run generaly. Let your lowbie stay behind these sand blocks right side near entrance. Even after occasional Hex they wont aggro. If you doing zombie runs, make a macro to target Hexing mobs (forgot their name) and kill them first. Make a good use of taunt and other ranged abilities to pull more.
BRD: Two pulls usualy. Make Shadowforge key. Go into instance, take left, open gate, kill elemental, go thru right gate, position your lowbie near doors. Open, get inside, use mechanics to open upper doors. Go there without aggroing anything, your first aggro should be first group after doors, go aggro anything up to General Angerforge, strike him few times, he will spawn one more group of dorfs. Get back to the first room near your lowbie, aggroing everything on your way. Hide behind stairs to LOS casters and kill.
Second pull will depend on your time, go and aggro some packs of mobs on corridors near Bael'Gar. Kill everthing within melee range, dont bother with officers, they bubble to waste your time.
UBRS/LBRS:
First pull occurs in UBRS, without aggroing anything go to the doors to pyromancer boss and start aggroing in summoning chambers (these one with rune locks on floor), aggro around and stay in last one which will be one close to instance entrance where your lowbie sits. Kill kill and then kill, a lot of summoned mobs with XP ;]. Very funny but sometimes deadly pull. Two thing you must watch, firstly try to avoid geting hit with charge while you near room entrance, I made very long fly to lbrs once or twice, secondly be sure that mobs are not on your back, when your health is going down too fast, move a bit, prooly few mobs are smashing your back;]
Second pull LBRS, evade few mobs and get to first bridge, kill rider as he throws net, and go futher up to ogres, dont descend down to trolls (shamans and witchdoctors), just aggro humanoid/orc pack on right and then few ogres. Get back thru bridges, aggroing remaining mobs, get back to first room in instance and kill them there.
I liked first pull, a bit chellenging sometimes ;]
Ramparts:
First few tries, just gathering few groups, kill, move lowbie near dead bodies, repeat for next group.
Hope anyone read this ;] Feel free to share your ideas to improve this, as I have few more lowbies to boost.
I actually had heard something from a GM about this prior to 3.1 but did not put it together until now.
I would do ZF in one Giant Pull using my DK on a mammoth. What would end up happening is the mobs we come in waves and with totem love he could handle the whole instance coming at him. It was basically every mob accept some of the boss mobs and or event mobs.
A few times I would actually have the ZF instance server, assuming there is such a thing, crash on me when I would have a ton of mobs on my DK and they were all taking AOE damage. All my toons would get disconnected and when I tried to log back in I would get World Server is down. Mal'Ganis itself was still up and I could log into alts but could not log into my ZF toons.
The second time this happened I was getting chracter name already exsits for almost 15 minutes when I put a ticket in. A GM got back to me and the conversation went something like this.
GM: Let me guess you were boosting RAF toons with an 80 and pulling most of ZF.
Me: Yeah pretty much when you don't get dismounted ZF mount pulling ownz.
GM: Yeah this is being addressed in 3.1 create new characters on each account and then delete them it will solve your problem.
That was not word for word and I did'nt really put it together until this post. Apparently other people were crashing the ZF server or at least causing issues from the 100+ mob pulls so they nerfed it in 3.1.
I really did not think to much about it at the time. The GM already knew how I ended up with my characters stuck in a crashed instance and had that air of he had heard and or dealt with this before.
What was the Zolo fix in ST?
Zolo spawned skeletons no longer give xp. They used to give about 40(?) per kill and he would spawn them endlessly.