Boosting - Technique and Tips

[Shadoghast]

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

[Gallo]

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.

[tpenick]

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?

[Gallo]

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.

[tpenick]

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.

[mlwhitt]

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.

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.

[Lorune]

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

[tpenick]

Yeah, Horde.

[Fragmad]

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.

[mlwhitt]

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.

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.