DK+4Ret -- Leveling Tanking Spec and other Qs

[Boylston]

Quick update on my team:

DK is Level 64 and specced Blood/Frost to barely have the haste+10% AP buff.
Old Pally brought out of retirement is L70 and in Karazhan purples, currently specced Ret

3xNew Pallies just hit L55 and have graduated from Scholomance powerleveling. They're nekkid and unskilled with weapons, largely. (They've been powerleveled with my L80 Bear, which is on the DK account)

The Current Plan:

1. Use my bear tank to powerlevel the new pallies in Ramparts until they can hit L58 and unlock Hellfire quests.
2. Run HF quests to gear up the new pallies (include DK if he hasn't done them-- I can't recall, I think he was PLed to L64 and didn't quest)
3. Once geared, begin instance running with DK+4xRets, including the L70 character.
4. Alternatively, quest and BG with DK+3xRets... I'd like some instance experience with the full team before they hit Northrend content, though.

Questions:

Will I likely need to adopt a more beefy DK tanking spec at 64 in order to survive instances? Any recommendations on the best tanking spec, if so...?

I can't remember XP formula details, but dragging a L70 along in Outland instances shouldn't be a big XP hit as long as the mobs con green to him, right? I'm hoping that any minor XP loss will be offset by extra DPS and Healing capability that a L70 should be able to pump out.

Would you bother with instance leveling at all in Outland, or just mow through quests and try to get into WotLK instance content ASAP?



Thanks in advance for your input!

[Talos]

What i did was MAINLY questing, and only done a few instances 1time each just to clear out the quests i got for them.
You should hit 68 after clearing no more than 3-4 zones in outlands.

As for the lvl 70, if you notice the mobs are not green to him, just keep him logged on but park him in a corner in the nearest inn (or just temprorarily log him off) till the mobs are lvl 63-64 (whatever cons green to a 70).
For simple questing having just 4 instead of 5 characters makes no difference... for the instances log in the lvl 70 to ease the instance clear (as you are only there to clear the 3-4 instance quests).

expect to hit lvl 68-70 in about 1-2 days /played time. from there use all 5 to wreck havoc in northrend and really start experimenting with instancing and group composition.

As for the DK... might want to try frost up to Howlingblast and get the Howlingblast glyph and Icytouch glyph.... this allows you to tank withouth using plaguestrike.
Howlingblast, Obliterate, Blood Strike, Bloodstrike, Froststrike, repeat.
EDIT: DONT Forget to add in "/cast runestrike" to every macro on the DK as its a toggle on ability usable after a dodge/parry and is used as your runedump !
add in Bloodboil on AoE trash.

[Kicksome]

My 4x Rets are almost 78, I think I started them during x-mas break so this is pretty fresh in my mind.

I'd boost Scholo until 60 - just park on the bridge and have your 80 kill everything. I'd get close to 1 level a run up until 60.

Go to outlands at 60 and buy your flying mount.

Outlands questing until 70, along with Q'ing for AV when possible. I did 0 collection quests in outlands (collect anything more than like 3 items), and I dinged 70 in the place with all the Ogre's. I FLEW through 60-70 - questing was awesome. I did 0 boosting in outlands - questing was SUPER fast with flying mounts and crusader.

At 70 head to Northrend.

If you have 80's on your Pally accounts, have your 80's buy cold weather flying book and send them to your alts - (Heirloom item). Flying and doing the 70+ quests speeds things up a TON.

it really slows down from 71-74. I have done all questing so far up to 78. I think I went from like 72-76 over the weekend.

I've done 0 instance runs so far and this is going really fast. I also Q up for AV maybe 1/2 the time I'm on - ESPECIALLY when I was 71-74

[Boylston]

Thanks for the feedback, keep it coming. I had definitely planned on Cold Weather flying books when that time comes, it makes a huge difference.

Kicksome-- Boosting Scholo is out of the question, if for my own sanity's sake than anything else. I moved everyone to Thrallmar and don't want to go back. I would rather powerlevel through Ramps/BF for a few levels until 58 rather than going back. I think your feedback on Outlands questing is probably the best scenario. Crusader Aura plus flyers should make it go by quick. I think I might just run DK+3NewRets to get them up to L68 and start Northrend questing. I do want to level in instances a lot from 70-80, just so I have a feel for the team from a PvE perspective and know what kind of strats I might want to use when the heroic grind starts. I expect that I will be able to accumulate some rest XP once I'm in Northrend, which always seems to equalize the "quest vs. instance grind" XP battle. I play on a PvP server, so the more time I stay indoors, the better.

I want to AV queue as well for PvP experience with the team (the whole point, right!?). I haven't played a non-80s character in BGs since they added XP. How good is the XP gain in a place like AV? Do I need to be doing anything special in the BG to maximize XP?

[suprafro]

Questing may be just fast but personally I did nothing but instances 60-67 and 70-77 and really had a blast. Then I did AV 67-69 and 77-79. 60-67. My experience was that it was taking about 2-3 hours per level chain clearing dungeons, 70-77 was more like 4-5 hours per level. I tended to stick with instances which I slightly outleveled to make the clears more efficent yet still net decent XP. With this team, you can chain pull multiple packs and AOE them down just like your playing diablo

AV at the lower end of the bracket range did not seem worth while to me as I was horde, games tended to take too long or alliance would win. However at the higher end of the bracket range (67+, 77+) your team can single handedly mow through the entire alliance team and all the NPCs similiar to the way in which they clear instances

[Kicksome]

As far as AV honor - I think at level 78 I have about 50K honor. I made about 200 AV marks total. So maybe an average of 500ish honor per game.

In the 71-79 bracket you get exp as follows (my best guess)
1) Cap a tower 15K exp
2) Kill Galv/Balinda 15K exp
3) Win - you seem to get like 20K exp 3 times for some reason
4) You get these 5K exp spikes - maybe for capping a GY?

If you are losing bad, probably not a great idea to stick around if you are going after exp/honor.

AV was really fun most of the time - and when you get sick of it - you can always go back to questing/instances.

I'm on a PvP server as well, and I've had almost 0 problems with gankers. A couple deaths at SM and a few deaths at Honor Hold, and a few deaths at the Ebon Blade place so far.

[Ualaa]

Holding a tower/bunker, until it burns gets you experience/honor.
Having the four tower/bunkers burn, first gets your side the victory usually.
Sometimes Galv/Belinda are defended, I'd go for a tower/bunker initially, particularly at lower level when others are a lot higher then your toons.

The bunkers are a lot easier to burn as a boxer then the towers.
Much easier to get up, in them.
So, as an option -- Burn alliance bunkers (as horde) or Back-Cap alliance bunkers (as alliance).

[ghonosyph]

onething to add on to your cast sequence macros IF you are using rune strike in them at the end
.

DO NOT JUST ADD /cast Rune Strike


ADD IT LIKE THIS /cast !Rune Strike

the reason being, that rune strike is a toggle-able ability. When you toggle it on, it waits for the next melee attack before firing off and as such, spamming it in a macro such as that will only do one thing if you dont add the exclamation point ---> toggle it on and off.


I'm currently running 5 pallys up to 80, i love my girls. they all hit lvl 44 just a few days ago and i'm taking my time leveling them and learning how to really play with the team has been fun.

This will be my first team i've leveled professions on fully, all of them have jewelcrafting and enchanting, and its proving that the amount of instance grinding i do is providing all the greens(+quest drops) to level without purchasing much. The lead toon has mining /enchanting to provide for the jewel crafters as well =D

Kinda sucks i didnt think about this sooner, and i may end up droppping enchanting on all of them and going with engineering as i think thats what most everyone is using for arena and it seems rather powerful in our setup. meh

[Boylston]

Kinda sucks i didnt think about this sooner, and i may end up droppping enchanting on all of them and going with engineering as i think thats what most everyone is using for arena and it seems rather powerful in our setup. meh

I haven't bothered with professions yet. I think I am going to do Engineering on all 5 if it turns out I am a decent PvPer with them. Thankfully, my L70 pally already has engineering (which was a bizarre choice, back in the day!).

I was thinking Eng/Enchanting for the main, but to be honest, I may go Enchanting on all of them. It's so nice to be able to generate a ton of enchanting mats as you level/quest and just grind up those quest rewards. Too bad it's a pain to level those professions. Alternatively, I may just get some gathering professions on each one so that you never have to pass a node and miss out on the mats.