Druid or Shaman Booster in May 2012 ?

[Scelesti]

It's a trinket that drops in dragonsoul, can drop from any of the first bosses. Everyone can obtain it, but only spellcasters and disc priest healers should use it. Don't count on it unless you are extremely lucky. I've seen the heroic version drop 3x now, and since my guildies know i want it so badly, they all roll on it and ninja it time after time Either way it's a very nice aoe trinket.

Yes, you should never count on getting that trinket, unless you are in a raiding guild. And even then, your chances of getting it are low. I have not seen it drop on Heroic yet(we're 6/8), and if it did, I'd probably pass since I already have the normal version.

@ everyone saying this or that toon is the fastest booster

... up for a challenge? I say that until you hit the tbc dungeons an ele shaman is the fastest. We could make a video of some of the more important boosting dungeons with a simple chrono. Would be fun to do and it could bring some spice in this end expansion era.

I'm in no way saying a warlock is the best means of boosting, it's just the character I have the most geared and have had the most success with. Go with what works for you. I don't see how ele is the best, but then again I have not seen ele at all this expansion, and am probably missing something that makes it ridiculously easy. I might be interested in FRAPSing an LBRS run to show you how fast I can boost that place(I have some really nice spots to send my slaves to). But like I said, whatever works for you is the best.

A kind of off-topic question: Do you guys move your slaves from spot to spot or do you keep them on follow? I find it more frustrating to have them on follow, but I think if I was more efficient with the way I pull mobs and avoid face pulling mobs with the lowbies that it would be a lot more efficient.

[Mokoi]

As for Why I think a DK is superior to all other boosters (assuming equal gear and availability) is as follows:

1. For boosting, you want AOE damage, and you want to be able to hit from range, to minimize the travel time inside the instance, as well as being easier. Paladins have aoe, divine storm is nice.. but its not ranged. DKs do this 4 times every 8 seconds. Howling Blast will hit every target, and even with crappy gear should one shot every mob up to BC. (assuming you have frost fever talent) other classes can aoe better, but none of them have their aoe instantly and on such a short cooldown as a DK. You can target one mob in a pack of 6, and then you are done. Hit howling blast, and you win.

2. You don't want to rely on aggroing all the mobs and letting them follow you around the instance, to kill them in one spot near your alts. Many mobs in these dungeons have tether mechanics that break if you go to far, and they reset. this is a pain in the butt, especially if you have to run your alts around the instance to get quest items etc later. Also, you have 5 instance runs per hour, so you will be hitting this cap every single hour except for some of the large instances like UBRS/LBRS. Every mob needs to die! /evilgrin

I think.. some instances, you CAN just collect all the mobs, run around as fast as you can, and then aoe them all down in one-shot, but i run at 115% speed on my DK, as fast as any other class and i never stop to kill anything until about UK.

A kind of off-topic question: Do you guys move your slaves from spot to spot or do you keep them on follow? I find it more frustrating to have them on follow, but I think if I was more efficient with the way I pull mobs and avoid face pulling mobs with the lowbies that it would be a lot more efficient.

I think that's a totally on-topic question.

My (not necessarily the right.. or only) answer is this:

10-15: Deadmines - yes, move them to the first boss when you kill him, stay there until second boss is dead etc. Leave them at the mouth of the final cave for all the exp and then collect them for the run back (through the instance, it's faster than going outside again)

15-23: Stockades - Don't move unless you are getting / turning in quests

23-33: SM Cathedral - Yes, I move them to the first door, and then leave them there the whole instance (you can pull the last boss out of the cathedral to get full exp)

33-42: Scholomance - Yes, but only 10 feet in to the area with the quest givers. Then stay there for the second-best boosting area in the game.

42-48: BRD - I usually just follow my main through the instance. Be careful of patrols, they will one shot a fresh no gear no talents lvl 42 lol.

48-57: LBRS / UBRS - Yes, for LBRS, I clear the first room (patrol and the pack at the back) and head to LBRS with my main, alts following. Then I drop them off at the first ledge you see in the main .. area of LBRS (you will see on the video) Clear LBRS, and then I follow my main through UBRS, but staying a boss behind, so they dont pull aggro and die so easily.

57-63: Hellfire Ramparts - nope.. enter.. kill.. leave repeat. then WAIT a long time because instance timers will ramp up fast.

63-65: Sethekk Halls - Yes, follow the main again staying one boss behind, so you don't pull aggro when you are new. (You CAN skip this if you like, but it's actually faster to go here than to slug through another instance lock of Hellfire to get the last couple levels in there.

65-68: Magister's Terrace - Yes, I move my alts to where i killed the first set of mobs, and then leave them there. GREAT EXP!!

68-71: Utgarde Keep - Yes, I have my alts auto-run about 20 seconds after my DK, so they both just basically auto-run through the whole instance. DK stops to kill, but he has unholy aura, so he's faster anyway. This is a good spot to stop boosting.

71-80: Quest.. or Dungeon Finder if you have enough gear and an appropriate group (I never plan that far ahead, and I'm always naked when I get here haha) I find questing from 71-80 a lot more interesting, since you no longer get a lvl or two per run, I find grinding UK and other WotLK instances really REALLY boring. And if you have RAF... it's really easy and you can skip most collection quests.

[Scelesti]

Hey Mokoi thanks for the response.

Now for my lazy half-assed question: Can you give me a link to your LBRS boosting video or any other videos you've made for boosting? I'm really interested to see where you ditch your toons? I thought you needed to keep the slaves viewable on the minimap, and that was the XP range, but if anyone could provide further insight on this that would be great. I found I could leave my slaves on the bridge in the first ogre part until I get to the area with the Worg bosses. Then I move them to the platform where theres like 6-8 ogres and leave them there for the rest of the instance. But if the range is further than I think it is, then I could probably stretch it even more. I feel like I'm moving my slaves too much prior to getting to the bridge.

I haven't boosted BC instances yet, and I can see how WotLK instances wouldn't be the most efficient to boost in. However, I've been running the BC heroics working on my Outland Dungeonmaster on my warlock and have had zero issues. Some of them go pretty quickly.

[Mokoi]

Yeah my video will show where I ditch my alts. I was going to just do a speed run video since that's what I wanted to show, but apparently there's a need for a more in-depth video so I'll do a big one with all the instances I use.

[Grail]

That video could be epic. As in ultra valuable.

-Grail

[Scelesti]

I'm about to record my LBRS run. Just realized I could ditch them at the ogre room for the entire run.

http://www.twitch.tv/scelesti/b/317863440

Sorry, forgot I had my sound turned on. I really want to see a zenga video.

And for the record, I'm not trying to flex my dick. I honestly want to see how other people do it.

[Pazgaz]

With RAF + BOA (Not sure if they stack, but I have them), and assuming you do the quests in each dungeon, my path in WotLK is (starting at 70):
UK
Nexus
AZN
Old Kingdom
Zul'drak
Ring of Blood thingy.
Instance in Dalaran (forgot the name)
Other troll instance (again forgot the name)
Halls of Stone
Halls of Lightning
UP
I usually need to reset UP, go in again and kill up to the first boss and then I ding 80.
Did this for a few weeks and got all 5 accounts full (10 chars at 80+ each).
And yes, felt like killing myself when I was close to the end, but I kept hearing Ualaa saying "Told you to level as many during RAF, didn't I?"

[heyaz]

Feral druids are extremely good boosters due to two feral charges, two sprints, and two skull bashes. You can just skate through an instance with unlimited mobs trailing you, then back into a corner and berserk+swipe them all down in a few seconds. I started my last boost with a DK - takes much longer to gather up all the mobs at running speed, and there's no way to break a snare or get distance when you're doing massive pulls.

[Mokoi]

fair enough Heyaz, but my point in my video, was that you one-shot every single mob up to lvl 70+ with howling blast, and you do not need to be in melee range for it. You can also run at 15% speed, almost as fast a feral, and kill everything where it spawns, and not train it around the instance, saving you not only armor, but also saving you from forgetting about mobs that break the train and run back to their spawn (ie: hellfire mobs)

Feral is also very nice, and may in fact have better times than a DK in some dungeons, but if you have to run your alts after your main, you really can't afford to lose any mobs while you are training them around.

ALSO.. I think more people have geared DKs around here than ferals, but those of you who do, please make a video, my druids haven't been geared since BC...

[heyaz]

fair enough Heyaz, but my point in my video, was that you one-shot every single mob up to lvl 70+ with howling blast, and you do not need to be in melee range for it. You can also run at 15% speed, almost as fast a feral, and kill everything where it spawns, and not train it around the instance, saving you not only armor, but also saving you from forgetting about mobs that break the train and run back to their spawn (ie: hellfire mobs)

Feral is also very nice, and may in fact have better times than a DK in some dungeons, but if you have to run your alts after your main, you really can't afford to lose any mobs while you are training them around.

ALSO.. I think more people have geared DKs around here than ferals, but those of you who do, please make a video, my druids haven't been geared since BC...

It could come down to preference. I always preferred giant pulls, in instances where mobs didn't reset. I never wanted to move the toons. DK had some advantages, but I picked instances where feral was better for the pulls. My technique was do the biggest pulls as fast as possible without moving alts - Ferals move at 130%, sprint twice at 230%, charge 4 times, etc. I'd gather as much as possible, bring them back, swipe down. I'd just wait out the reset timers. Another technique is to have the alts follow and get everything down - Frost DK is clearly superior there. Feral just can't ranged pull that much, and swipe has limited use.

So I did BRD in 2 pulls (most of it at least), LBRS one giant pull of the lower level, Underbog - another giant pull up to the Hydra boss. Then 71-80, I really just did each instance once - the quests were getting the alts 50% or more of a level, with the pulls filling in the gaps. They hit 80 in a matter of hours.

I'll see if I can get another recording of my BRD, LBRS, and Underbog pulls. I had them on twitch but I guess they deleted over time.