New to Multi-boxing; have a couple simple questions

[msher]

Hi guys! I stumbled upon the RAF / multiboxing thread in EJ earlier this week so I've been doing some mild research on this whole phenomenon. I plan to take a shot at this in the near future, but I want to make sure I have my information correct; so I'm going to keep poking through guides and walkthroughs here to make sure I've got it right (if they let me play online video at work, I'd have already watched the setup vid).

I really have a question regarding gear, skills and whatnot. What did you guys do for the characters regarding leveling weapon skills, first aid, and any tradeskills/professions? My initial plan is to either boost two linked accounts to 60 or link one to my main account and dualbox to 60. Once there, take a break to skill up and gear up before continuing into Outland (possibly transfer other chars to main account and solo each char through Outland at this point). Is that better than just powering through as much content as possible before RAF dies?

Also, what kind of expenses in-game did you have for your characters? Was it just paying for mounts at 30 and 60; or did you also buy bank slots and some gear?

Is Enchanting the only skill worth leveling as you come up; before 60? Possibly Skinning, too?

I'll keep poking around for answers to my other questions before I ask more because they are likely answered elsewhere. Thanks for all the great info!

[msher]

So from some more poking, it looks like leveling gathering professions + enchanting is the way to go for leveling (which makes sense). I only plan on 2-boxing; so it would be relatively easy to swap to gather specific items. Gear, it looks like you look for Outland greens to gear up the characters (plus any tradeskills at a later time). And since there's 60 -> 70 before you can get a flying mount, I assume that is the time to make the gold for mounts (seems pretty easy; especially if one of the chars is an enchanter).

Another question (I'll likely find the answer as I poke but a definitive yes/no would help): is it worth doing or setting up any of the daily quests in Outland / SSO before heading to Northrend? Since these are going to be characters with relatively minimal attention from me, I figured sticking around Outland to do some dailies and stock up on some gold/gear wouldn't be a bad idea. I know there is *much* better gear in Northrend, but really the stability issues I've seen lately on my server have me scared about doing much of anything focused in Northrend. Plus, as Suvega points out, there is a LOT of gold to be had in TBC.

[elsegundo]

So from some more poking, it looks like leveling gathering professions + enchanting is the way to go for leveling (which makes sense). I only plan on 2-boxing; so it would be relatively easy to swap to gather specific items. Gear, it looks like you look for Outland greens to gear up the characters (plus any tradeskills at a later time). And since there's 60 -> 70 before you can get a flying mount, I assume that is the time to make the gold for mounts (seems pretty easy; especially if one of the chars is an enchanter).

Another question (I'll likely find the answer as I poke but a definitive yes/no would help): is it worth doing or setting up any of the daily quests in Outland / SSO before heading to Northrend? Since these are going to be characters with relatively minimal attention from me, I figured sticking around Outland to do some dailies and stock up on some gold/gear wouldn't be a bad idea. I know there is *much* better gear in Northrend, but really the stability issues I've seen lately on my server have me scared about doing much of anything focused in Northrend. Plus, as Suvega points out, there is a LOT of gold to be had in TBC.

are you capped at 70?

[Spook]

RAF is a two edged sword. You can level up WAY faster, as you not only get triple kill experience, but triple quest experience. Where it cuts the other way is the fact that you level up WAY faster, earning a lot less gold along the way.

If you don't have a higher level toon feeding your group, you'll be gold starved. If that's the case, only buy the level up skills that you need and can use, skipping learning anything not needed. Don't buy anything at the auction house. With a group of two you won't likely need it, and with more you for sure won't need it. Quest junk will do for gear. Loot everything you can (this WILL slow you down), and sell it. You "may" want to take skinning, to earn a little bit of gold along the way. Mining and Herbs take too much time away from leveling. Avoid any trade skill, like enchanting, blacksmithing, or whatever. They are a gold sink.

If you DO have a higher level toon feeding your group, then I'd still avoid the Auction House, but you can at least level your learned skills. I'd skip looting anything outside of instances. You'll miss a few green drops, but it just slows you down. I wouldn't bother with any professions until you get to a higher level (60, 70, 80, your choice). It slows you down, and the whole point of multi-box RAF is fast leveling. However, if you have the cash for it. do whatever trips your trigger.

If I don't have a healer in my group, I'll usually learn first aid on my tank or main character, but if you're gold starved, the cloth sells decent on the auction house.

If you spend very carefully, you can probably get by spending about one thousand gold per character, including fast ground mount by level sixty. Mostly I run nearly double that, and I never buy gear, bank slots, or anything not needed. I don't even repair gear, as I level though it so fast that I never wear it out.

Whether you instance boost, or quest, you should be able to make level one to sixty for your grouped toons in less than two days played if you don't get distracted with professions, PVP, dueling, or whatever. Good luck, and have fun 8o

[msher]

Thanks, that helps! I have a lvl 80 Hunter main that I raid with, and my bank character has just under 10k gold; so I have some money to play with. That's good to know. I read somewhere else here that enchanting was worth leveling on the side to DE any drops along the way. I can see this as being particularly useful for instance and quest BoPs; but at the same time, I guess I could just vendor the useless gear, since it's more about leveling than gear.


I'm obviously not capped at 70, but I felt that stopping the DB alts at 70 to make back some of their gold wouldn't be a bad idea. I'm on a PvP server, so the fact that Outland is deserted and has some decent gear/gold potential, I was considering that as an option.


Once RAF is over, I'll obviously take the characters back to level up any skills I'd like them to have, but I wanted to make sure I could do something while leveling to make it easier on the back end regarding training/skills.

[Spook]

[Snip] Another question (I'll likely find the answer as I poke but a definitive yes/no would help): is it worth doing or setting up any of the daily quests in Outland / SSO before heading to Northrend? Since these are going to be characters with relatively minimal attention from me, I figured sticking around Outland to do some dailies and stock up on some gold/gear wouldn't be a bad idea. I know there is *much* better gear in Northrend, but really the stability issues I've seen lately on my server have me scared about doing much of anything focused in Northrend. Plus, as Suvega points out, there is a LOT of gold to be had in TBC.

I'm not sure of the answer to that. It depends a bit on your goals. In order to do Outlands dailies for maximum gold, you'd really need to not have Lich King installed on those accounts. That way, you'd get maximum gold for each completed quest, BUT you wouldn't get any experience for them. You'd be gaining gold, at the expense of leveling.

My current group went straight to Northend when they hit level seventy (those that go at sixty eight seem to struggle), without even buying their flying mounts. I'll deal with that issue when I get my cold weather flying. In the meantime, it seems that quest gold is about double in Northend, compared to Outland. For me at least, I see no reason to hang around Outland very long. The early gear in Northend isn't much better than decent Outland gear, but if you're just blasting through Outland like my last group did, the Northend greens are a worthwhile improvement, and VERY easy to get. Just do quests!

[elsegundo]

if you're not capped at 70, then stopping at 70 to make some gold with dailies will not net you any more gold than going to northrend. go to northrend at 68. with the quest rewards/gold you get there, you will have no lack of gold for training. plus, you dont need to buy a flying mount until 77.