Boosting - Technique and Tips

Hey all,

I'm looking for feedback and tips on the art of boosting your characters.

Traditionally, I've always grouped my lowbie with a high level hunter and power quest through the low levels, instance thru the midlevels and stop boosting in the high 50s. I opted for the hunter both a) because my first character was a hunter and b) Aspect of the Pack and the ranged kill ability along with traps for CC made it effective for getting around pretty fast and projecting firepower for the kill quests. The downside is obviously the per kill exp hit, which is tremendous, but I figured with a steady supply of quests, and the ability to do red and group quests, the per kill exp hit was worth taking.

Does anyone have a different technique and/or class suggestion for boosting? Is there some different approach to try with the benefit of multi-boxing?

Thanks,

Shaddy

Theres no particular "strategy" per se... and I think that you have the general idea. Without any AOE (huntard), you should aim to run in and kill individual groups as fast as you can. Opinions differ, but I usually loot all the corpses as I go for gold/mats/gear. If you have a lot of gold on your main, I'd just skip looting altogether until you completely finish SM. Like you said, you stop boosting at lvl 50. General concensus here is to do this:

-Level to 10-15 on your own.
-Boost in Deadmines until lvl 20
-do some quests till 25
-Boost in SM until lvl 42
-Boost in ZF until lvl 47

I think that you cant go into SM until lvl 25, but it could be earlier.

After that, you should quest without the 70.

I'm curious too since I'm doing the same thing, but with a warlock. I've got my lvl 25 shammy in SM (you can get there at lvl 22 at least), but I'm not finding the exp to be as good as advertised, so I was wondering about knocking out quests with the lock.

I have also considered using the ungroup pet tactic. Does that still work where the lowbie tags it and the ungrouped booster kills it with the pet, doing nothing other than pet damage?

If you dont have a mage/pally/fury warrior, I think that boosting in SM may not be the best bet. With those bad ass AOEs, you fly through XP. Not sure about locks, never used them.

What's I've been doing is send in VW, grab a bunch of mobs, cast 3 SoC's, they go boom, mobs die. Funnel VW back to near-full health, then rinse and repeat. In Cath, it takes me 5 pulls to clear the courtyard areas.

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Originally Posted by 'tpenick',index.php?page=Thread&postID=43305#post4 3305

What's I've been doing is send in VW, grab a bunch of mobs, cast 3 SoC's, they go boom, mobs die. Funnel VW back to near-full health, then rinse and repeat. In Cath, it takes me 5 pulls to clear the courtyard areas.

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When I ran mobs with my 70 Boomkin it was slow going. I am sure Locks would be a bit quicker with SoC. 5 pulls is pretty good I would think for a Lock. With a Pally you might be able to do it with a single pull if you had some healers just in case. With my Mage (no epics) when I was frost spec, I was able to do in two pulls. Usually 3 is better though as with 2 you run the risk of running OOM.

* Edit * by the way when I saw 2 pulls I mean two complete pulls of SM Cath not just the cortyard. A Mage, or even Pally can pretty much do the Courtyard in one pull and then do the actual Cath in another one. Pretty much place your alts on /follow throw up ice barrier, aggro lower court (your ice barrier should last almost through aggro of lower court), do the occasional AE to keep mobs aggro and chasing, run up aggro next group. When up pop up to second level of courtyard be sure to stop your alts (or risk dying from mobs AE) do Ice Barrier again, continue to aggro mobs (Ice Lance on roamers can speed things up). Once you get both upper and lower done, pop Elemental and Frost nova them, if any don't get stopped pop your Frost Nova as well. Use potions and Evocate, and then Blizzard.

The mages will never hurt you do to extreme resist on your part. So ignore them, continue to Blizzard until all melee are gone. You may have to use ranged frost nova of Elemental once it is off cooldown again. After you finish the melee you can just wand down any casters that are still alive or let your alts finish them.

You should be able to do both upper and lower court yards in a single pull without popping your Cold Snap unless something goes wrong.

As far as inside you pretty much just send your elemental in to get aggro on Morgraine (or whatever his name is) let all the mobs aggro on him, use his frost nova as soon as they are all in range, and then blizzard the heck out of them all. Actually the Cathedral is easier than the court yard if you play your cards right.

Having an alt that is a healer can help. I have heard that it is possible for a Pally in good gear to run up and aggro Morgraine (and thus the entire SM: Cath instance) and do a single pull. I am sure it could be done based on some of the things I managed to do with my green/blue geared mage.

Either all of you folks are all horde, or you are seriously underestimating Stockades :)

From 20 > 27 stockades is a very very nice place to boost toons in, only the stun mobs can be "somewhat" annoying, but other then that is pretty much a 10 min clear thing

Yeah, Horde.

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Originally Posted by 'Gallo',index.php?page=Thread&postID=43292#post432 92

After that, you should quest without the 70.

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Why without the 70? I'm in this spot right now so I would like to know.

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Originally Posted by 'Fragmad',index.php?page=Thread&postID=43324#post4 3324

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Originally Posted by 'Gallo',index.php?page=Thread&postID=43292#post432 92

After that, you should quest without the 70.

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Why without the 70? I'm in this spot right now so I would like to know.

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Pre 2.3 I would agree because you would loose too much from kill XP. But post 2.3 increases in Quest XP (which being boosted doesn't effect) and with lower leveling requirements I haven't had ANY problems using a 70 while quest boosting.

The XP bonus you get by doing quest that are still Red and Orange to you by using a 70 to boost you is greater than the Kill XP loss that you will see from the XP drop by using the 70.

When using a 70 to Boost if it is a Mage or Pally go Instance leveling with none collection quest thru ZF (mid 40s) then just power quest to outlands.

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Originally Posted by 'tpenick',index.php?page=Thread&postID=43297#post4 3297

I'm curious too since I'm doing the same thing, but with a warlock. I've got my lvl 25 shammy in SM (you can get there at lvl 22 at least), but I'm not finding the exp to be as good as advertised, so I was wondering about knocking out quests with the lock.

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lvl 25 is too low for the 'full xp' Since the mob is red, you take a reduced xp amount. :)

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Originally Posted by 'Cripes',index.php?page=Thread&postID=43327#post43 327

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 'tpenick',index.php?page=Thread&postID=43297#post4 3297

I'm curious too since I'm doing the same thing, but with a warlock. I've got my lvl 25 shammy in SM (you can get there at lvl 22 at least), but I'm not finding the exp to be as good as advertised, so I was wondering about knocking out quests with the lock.

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lvl 25 is too low for the 'full xp' Since the mob is red, you take a reduced xp amount. :)

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Personally 20-25 I like SFK
25-30 I like RFK
30-38 SM

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Originally Posted by 'mlwhitt',index.php?page=Thread&postID=43329#post4 3329

Personally 20-25 I like SFK
25-30 I like RFK
30-38 SM

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I did something very similar :D

http://www.wowwiki.com/Instance

Good list of the min level and optimum level..

SM is 20 and up btw :D

For alliance people, what I do, is get my alts (usually 3 alts) up to level 10. Then I log on my 70 Frost mage and run the following.

Deadmines 10-20, Takes about 9 minutes to do a full clear, mostly because of all the waiting to have to open the doors, and the HUGE run after the instance is done to run back to the entrance.

Stockaids 20-26, takes about 6 minutes to do, I personally 3 pull the entire instance down, the right wing can sometimes get freaking nasty tho, all those shield slams and such. The only problem with this is, you need to go slower then 6 min a run cause I keep getting the "To many instances" Bs. So usually I just go out and sell and repair in between every 2-3 runs.

26-40 I run SM Cath. I can do the entire thing (Including bosses) In 5 pulls, I could probably do it in 4, just don't cause sometimes I die. But that is still done in about 8 minutes total, so going faster might get the "TO many instances" thing. I don't like Library, I just run it to get the Ill Rod and Robes for ppl, and Arm to me is pointless, HOWEVER It is nice to get the Talbard of Scarlet Crusade :D.

40+ I havn't really gotten to, I got about 8 chars sitting between 30-40 hehe.



As far as the guy that talked about Prot Pally/Fury Warrior doing SM and the rest of classes having issues. Holy Paladins can 3 pull SM Cath no problem, specially with the (healing+Dmg = 1/3 spell+Dmg) Warlocks can do well also but must easier with Demonlogy Heavy VWing spec. And just SoC Mobs.



I did do a test in SM Cath last night, just wanted to see. I brought along my friends 70 mage with my 70 mage to see how gimped the XP would be on my 3 alts. And I was sorta surpised to see that my XP went from 140-150 down to 95-105. And it only took about 3-4 maybe 5 minutes instead of 8-9. I'm wondering if 2 70 mages (or boosters) Would be beneficial considiering I only lost about 33% of the XP For 50% Less time spent!

Last week i boosted my 3x shammys from 15-40. I did stockades in 3 pulls from lvl 15-20. Then i did Cath/SM basicly as it is so small and easy to get around up to lvl 40. Fast as hell. But really mind killing... But atleast you dont have to worry about questing etc before later on when boosting wont be that effective.. so if you got a hunter id say you try that for as long as it works for you. But ofc.. you cant pull and then aoe 20-30 mobs down in a very effective way. For me as a feral my thorns made some mobs be close to dead by the time i got back to my alts for some swipings. And you gotta love Imp LOTP :D

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Originally Posted by 'chris916',index.php?page=Thread&postID=43348#post 43348

I did do a test in SM Cath last night, just wanted to see. I brought along my friends 70 mage with my 70 mage to see how gimped the XP would be on my 3 alts. And I was sorta surpised to see that my XP went from 140-150 down to 95-105. And it only took about 3-4 maybe 5 minutes instead of 8-9. I'm wondering if 2 70 mages (or boosters) Would be beneficial considiering I only lost about 33% of the XP For 50% Less time spent!

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Wow has this thingi that make you unable to enter more then 5 new instances each hour. I got this porblem if i was to fast in SM. So your idea would only work if you would do some runs.. log off for a while and back in for a few more runs.. But if you wanna, lets say.. boost them in a few hours you should keep it to one mage.

if you are tired of getting "too many instances" when doing SM's, just alternate wings (do a library then cath, then reset, then library + cath, then reset).

The reason is they are considered the same instance. So clearing both halves counts as 1 reset.

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Originally Posted by 'mlwhitt',index.php?page=Thread&postID=43326#post4 3326

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 'Fragmad',index.php?page=Thread&postID=43324#post4 3324

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 'Gallo',index.php?page=Thread&postID=43292#post432 92

After that, you should quest without the 70.

---

Why without the 70? I'm in this spot right now so I would like to know.

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Pre 2.3 I would agree because you would loose too much from kill XP. But post 2.3 increases in Quest XP (which being boosted doesn't effect) and with lower leveling requirements I haven't had ANY problems using a 70 while quest boosting.

The XP bonus you get by doing quest that are still Red and Orange to you by using a 70 to boost you is greater than the Kill XP loss that you will see from the XP drop by using the 70.

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I dont have a 70 to power boost me as I rolled fresh on EU Al'Akir, my casters are all lv 32 now and I was struggling to boost my lv 16 paladin (20xp per kill in DM, 3 xp per kill in westfall)

Most effective way so far has been to ungroup my pally for outdoor questing and have the group following him with heals / curses while he kills the mobs (120xp average) - when i get to a quest that is too high to solo - large packs of red mobs or an elite - I group him up and blast through those mobs with the group to get the quest finished - then ungroup him again.

If he is struggling on a mob or going oom I can set 2 imps on his target after it is tagged and he earns about 55xp per kill.

Right, I know about the 5 instances/hr thing. And what i'm considering doing is Running SM Lib/Arm/Cath, Reset. Using either two mages, or a Mage/Lock. and see how my XP/Hr increases or decreases.

I only have 3 alts so its not that big of an issue, sometimes I bring random ppl into the mix to get the max per instance thing.

I'm brand new to multiboxing, but I've now got a couple of teams and 3 lvl 70 mages and 3 lvl 70 priests to use for boosting the individual toons. So, this thread is very interesting to me. About the only input I can add is a recommendation to avoid most collection quest except those where the drop rate is virtually 100%. Also, I usually wait until one of my teams has a good bit of rest XP, then I solo the team members through the particular collection quest.

As for instances, I use my 70s to drag each team member individually through the instances -- Mostly because I'm as interested in the drops (esp BOE blues) as I am the XP and the more times through the better chance for a rare piece to drop.

Anyway, nothing new here, just wanted to share some thoughts...

Cheers,

Michael

For higher level boosting with a hunter (also had one as an old main), I use an /assist pet macro. E.g. in BRD, set the pet to agressive, assist the pet with all chars (including the main). And just wander around killing stuff, hunter grabs aggro every now and then, but just FD.

Hunter was perfectly fine for boosting up to SM, but above and beyond I found frost mage or prot pally a lot more efficient (even with much crapper gear).