[WoW]Tag-N-Bag XP Powerleveling

[HPAVC]

I did this along time ago so I could farm and lvl a low toon off elites I used the dragons in azura

It has changed a few times, I was able to have low level toons in tow while I farmed blue sinew and they would ding quite regularly. Quick enough that I had the /guild I just dinged %n!! thing and people were awestruck. But then they went to this color system or whatever right about the time Naxx thinking I could farm for rep off the mobs. While the little guy got insane rep, he got zilch xp for some reason.

Did everyone notice that rep is now static? How nice is that now.

[Autofollow]

Hi All,

I was told about these forums a few weeks ago and have been regularly checking them since. I finally have something to comment on. (yay me).

A little back history: I started 2 Boxing (Hunter/Warlock) about 6 months ago, I then progressed to 3 boxing (added a priest). I'm leveling a mage now, and recently decided on a Pally for the 5th spot. This of course causes the problem of having toons of VERY different levels.

Which brings me back to the original reason for this post.

I do this often to help level alts. One thing I found is that with a Warlock as the high character (and probably with Hunters too), any damage done by the pet reduces XP for the lowbie.

This is partially true.

I've found that if you 3 (or more) box with a high level hunter or warlock, you can have the pet do the damage and *not* take any XP. The key is that you have to have the lowbie in a group, while the warlock/hunter is out of the group (or out of range as outlined below).

Example 4 box setup:
Group 1 = Level 1 Warrior, level 1 Priest.
Group 2 = Level 70 Hunter, Level 70 Warlock. Both pets on passive. Secondary attacks/defenses of pets turned off (Fireshield for imps, the Felguard's cleave, Gorilla's ground stomp, etc..). This prevents accidental tagging.

Group 1 gets the tag.
Group 2 activates the macro /assist Warrior /petattack
Group 1 gets full xp (split between the 2 lowbies).

A couple of notes:

This is very effective at low levels. As the levels of the mobs get higher, the pets take longer to kill them, thus becoming less effective. I usually don't notice the difference until the late 20s. It really starts getting noticeable grinding the elite trolls outside of ZF.

Make sure you have Attack on assist turn *off* in the interface options for the hunter/warlock.

If the hunter/warlock does any damage to the mob, they start taking away xp from the lowbies. Hunter's mark, curse of weakness, etc is Ok, since they do no damage, and do not cause a 'tag'. In fact, pulling with CoW might be a good thing if you are using casters and are getting resists on higher level mobs.

If you are limited to 3 boxing, and have 2 high levels and only need to level 1 lowbie, this method can still be done, using range for the group.

Example 3 box setup:
Group 1 = level 1 warrior, level 70 warlock.
Group 2 = level 70 hunter.

The only difference here, is that the Warlock stays "out of xp range" but within range for the Warrior to still be considered "in a group". In this case the Warrior gets *full* xp.

I haven't had time to get exact details on the distance, but I can tell you that using this approach, you can put the Warlock just a little ways outside of the Gorilla cave in Ungoro, and take the Warrior and Hunter inside and get full XP from those mobs using this setup.

If the Warlock is halfway across the zone (the ungoro GY for example) it's too far and the Hunter's pet starts taking xp (as Blokus has experienced).

Anyhow, that's what I have so far. Of course, Blizz will probably nerf this now that I've posted here . :?

[Shade]

Can you elaborate more on this? What level of mobs are you attacking?

I thought that even if a high level kills a green mob originally tagged by a level 1, the xp the level 1 can get is capped. You're saying that if the level 1 is in a group with a level 70, but an ungrouped 70 actually gets the kill (say of a level 65 mob), the level 1 will get full xp? Like 1000 per mob or whatever?

[Wilbur]

I think its more to do with the fact the level 70's pet killed the mob, whilst the level 70 was out of EXP range to get XP for the kill, thus instead of the XP going nowhere, it defaults back to the people who originally tagged the mob.

[Autofollow]

Can you elaborate more on this? What level of mobs are you attacking?

I thought that even if a high level kills a green mob originally tagged by a level 1, the xp the level 1 can get is capped. You're saying that if the level 1 is in a group with a level 70, but an ungrouped 70 actually gets the kill (say of a level 65 mob), the level 1 will get full xp? Like 1000 per mob or whatever?

The short answer is ''Yes, XP is capped. No, a level 1 cannot get 1k XP from a level 65 mob".

Sorry for not being more specific in the initial post. I was interrupted with a Kara raid invite on my hunter from one of my guild officers, so I had to wrap it up a bit earlier than intended.

Experience does in fact have a cap, no matter what your group dynamic is. Experience is gained by the predetermined XP cap that Blizz has already in place. Use the following link for those figures (thanks hpavc for the link earlier in this post) http://www.wowwiki.com/Formulas:Mob_XP

There is another factor I refer to as 'XP reduction'. This is experienced when a high level toon or pet does damage to the mob after the lowbie tags it. The only way around this I have found is by a) grouped lowbies+ungrouped hunter/warlock pet or b) grouped lowbie+(any level outside of xp range)+ungrouped hunter/warlock pet or c) lower level nukers that do not get the tag.

You also need to calculate in your lowbie's chance of surviving long enough to get a tag if the mob resists. Dead toons get no xp. 3-4 levels above your lowbie's current level seems to be optimal. Having a 70 priest outside the group healing your lowbie helps a lot with this. I've often found that when a mob resists a lot, I just have the high level Priest get healing agro, and stand there until the lowbie gets the tag (Note: Reflective Shield, Fire Shield, and Darkmoon Card: Vengeance on the Priest are bad things in this case). Then I will send in the pets.

Just to be sure we are on the same page here:

The XP reduction work around is for mobs level 1-61 (assuming you are using a level 70 hunter/warlock). The level 70 can *not* do any damage to the mob (until it's a level 62 or higher mob). The 70 *pet* can, as long as the owner of the pet is not in the same group that got the tag.

For level 62+ mobs, once the tag is made the level 70 toons can start nuking with no xp loss, as long as they are not grouped with the toon that tagged it.

This of course changes if you use preset teams of lower level toons for your firepower as zanthor posted in the initial post of this thread.

Personally, I don't like having a bunch of toons sitting around at odd levels, that I know I can't eventually level to 70, because they are needed to power a lowbie up if I choose to change my end game group dynamic. But that's just me.

[Blokus]

Autofollow. I think you just made my day. I will be trying this out tonight to help a couple of lowbie mages with my warlock. Warlock only 50 but just got Felguard as a pet.

Let's see, send in the pet while the mages scorch, hopefully one will hit. If not, try instant Fire Blast before pet gets there. Mages just stand in one spot, kill everything in reach, move on to next spot.

If the mages get threatened, use Warlock Fear or Howl-of-Terror to scare them off for a few moments until mages are ready for them.

Rinse, repeat, learn, refine. Seems like a plan.

[D00mbunn13s]

Another trick to try, and i haven't yet, but i will tonight with my Warlock...

Have the blueberry on passive, target the mob and do the aggro ability like suffering or in the Felnoob case use Anguish to draw and aggro the mob, DO NOT ATTACK.

Once you have done that, have the lower lvl toon attack the mob until it has done damage. Be it by spell or Melee. Once they have established who is going to get credit for the kill, have the pet kill the mob.

i might even try this at lunch in a few minutes and let you know if it works or not.

[Tentates]

yes D00mbunn13s it works, warlock is a pushing machine =)
i simply use curse of shadow and a passive pet to take aggro

my xp/hour @level 21 was great :shock:


important: you must have 2+ lows in a group, with a single person it didn't work. if the second toon is not in range for xp AND in the same zone - you got full xp *eg*

p.s. sorry 4 my english =)

[D00mbunn13s]

I tried it this morning with my 70 warlock and lvl 9 warrior running around Mulgore. They were not grouped, and i didn't have the warrior in a group with another low toon, so i don't know if that was the case.

When i killed a lvl 8 wolf, using the method above, i got 27 exp. When i killed a different lvl 8 wolf without using the method i got 54 exp. So do i need to put the warrior in a group with another low level character on the other side of the map?

[Tentates]

yep - put your warrior in a group with another low toon and you got max available xp / 2
at level 9 - killing a lvl 9 mob you got solo 90xp (in a 2 person group 45xp )

my 4th and 5th warlock now level39 - followed by three lvl 70 wls with aggro felguards...
the toons are pulling with Curse of Agony(Rank1), assisted by the high warlocks - casting curse of shadow and the felguards killing every mob *g*