Any improvements in the boosting process in the last few years?

[Prega]

Someone on Reddit posted the other day that RAF now goes to 90. There is no official confirmation of that, so he wasn't sure if it was a bug or not.

i have atm 4 raf active with inside all groups at lvl 85 or +.
i can confirm atm looks like Raf works to 90. i ve done some tests in past days: with recruiter and recruited together bonus xp is about triple then with the recruited only. composition: 1 booster lvl100 + 2 recruiter+2 recruited. if i drop a recruider, i got 1/3 of xp on that character.
i opened a ticket in wow forum asking info about it. No response atm.
Looks not implemented on grant levels, need some more tests. but looks like it s not working retroactive atm.

PS to offer more info:
info with my composition. it s possible and just a bit boring do 85-90 in Temple of Jade serpent with raf. 7/8 runs. some more then 1 hour.

[hyphnos]

That's interesting about RAF going to 90. Did you link your accounts after or before 6.2? I have an active link but haven't done anything post 85 since 6.2 dropped.

EDIT: just tested summon friend on the older linkages and an 85 could summon another 85 which would normally be disabled so this seems to confirm it works to 90.
Also at OP:

Boosting in dungeons is best but it it is much better and depends on how fast you can move through them. My last batch of 4 took a bit over 6 /played (not super rushed and some time idle) They put most of the XP in dungeon "quests" that repeat, ie a big hit of XP at the end after you kill bosses (plus some big hits for "bonus objectives, particularly numerous in Stratholme). Toons don't have to be super close to kills but they can't always be left at entrance to get credit.

It is worth noting that now if you train ONLY the basic level of riding (the 4 gold one or whatever) when you hit 71 you get everything through basic flying (not Azeroth, Northrend, Pandaria licenses) for no cost.

My alliance path, to give you an idea

get to 11
Shadowfang x 2 with quests on second pass gets you to 23 (warning: you can ENTER Shadowfang at 11, the summon stone there doesn't work on 11s so you have to take one toon up, friend summon the other with your booster or park a lock alt there, afaik this is the only place you hit that issue)
Scarlet Halls x 2 with quest on second pass gets you to roughly 30
Scarlet Monastery x 1 with quests will get you to 33
Scholmance x 1 (no quests) will get you to 37
Stratholme Main gate x4 turning in quests on last run will get you to 53
Stratholme Service Ent x 3 will get you to 57 (turn in quest on final run if it will get you there) (caution it will often BARELY get you 57, so make sure you clear everything)
Hellfire Ramparts x 2 with quests on pass 2 get you to 59
Blood furnace x 2 with quests on pass 2 gets you to 65
Setthek Halls x 4 will take you to 70 (you can throw in Mana Tombs once with quests for variety if you like) (other two at Auch don't loop on themselves)
Azol Nerub x 1 with quests at 70
Old Kingdom x 4 with quests (2nd or 3rd run) will get you 75
Halls of Lightning x 3-4 will get you to 80
Blackrock Caverns x 1 with quests will typically get you 82
Stonecore to 85 (2.5 to 3.5 passes)

This pathway is set up to minimize moving around - it's not always the optimal dungeon at any given time but for me moving takes more time than running through a dungeon.

85 to 90 either stormstout (leave new toons at door, summon PLer out with them after over) or Jade Serpent as the final hits are actually good without RAF XP and I'm sure insane nice with.

[sync00]

My last batch of 4 took a bit over 6 /played (not super rushed and some time idle)

I'm trying to figure out what the '6' refers to. 6 hours would be way too short but 6 days seems rather long.

[hyphnos]

I'm trying to figure out what the '6' refers to. 6 hours would be way too short but 6 days seems rather long.

6 hrs 12 min!!

This is with 85-90 mage as booster with blink x 2 charge glyph and the mage talent speed boost. Flying 2 seater, full heirloom (55% now). Largely this works because you put the 2 or 4 paired toons on follow one the strongest one, have that one follow the booster taking them off in bad spots and keeping them in range.

It easily cut the time in half to make 85s from the last time I did RAF, that was running 10-12 hrs if i remember right.

For instance in Stratholme, there are 7-8 "bonus objectives" (kill Hearthsinger, Kill postman, Kill unforgiven etc that pay out 25k XP in full heirloom) up til around 50/51. The final objecive pays out about 105k. And these dungeon bonuses were actually NERFED from when they were put in.

[sync00]

6 hrs 12 min!!

... easily cut the time in half to make 85s from the last time I did RAF, that was running 10-12 hrs if i remember right.

Wow!!!

Is that speed improvement all from mage blinking, etc or is it also because the bonus objectives did not exist before?

[Prega]

That's interesting about RAF going to 90. Did you link your accounts after or before 6.2? I have an active link but haven't done anything post 85 since 6.2 dropped.

EDIT: just tested summon friend on the older linkages and an 85 could summon another 85 which would normally be disabled so this seems to confirm it works to 90.
Also at OP:

Boosting in dungeons is best but it it is much better and depends on how fast you can move through them. My last batch of 4 took a bit over 6 /played (not super rushed and some time idle) They put most of the XP in dungeon "quests" that repeat, ie a big hit of XP at the end after you kill bosses (plus some big hits for "bonus objectives, particularly numerous in Stratholme). Toons don't have to be super close to kills but they can't always be left at entrance to get credit.

It is worth noting that now if you train ONLY the basic level of riding (the 4 gold one or whatever) when you hit 71 you get everything through basic flying (not Azeroth, Northrend, Pandaria licenses) for no cost.

My alliance path, to give you an idea

get to 11
Shadowfang x 2 with quests on second pass gets you to 23 (warning: you can ENTER Shadowfang at 11, the summon stone there doesn't work on 11s so you have to take one toon up, friend summon the other with your booster or park a lock alt there, afaik this is the only place you hit that issue)
Scarlet Halls x 2 with quest on second pass gets you to roughly 30
Scarlet Monastery x 1 with quests will get you to 33
Scholmance x 1 (no quests) will get you to 37
Stratholme Main gate x4 turning in quests on last run will get you to 53
Stratholme Service Ent x 3 will get you to 57 (turn in quest on final run if it will get you there) (caution it will often BARELY get you 57, so make sure you clear everything)
Hellfire Ramparts x 2 with quests on pass 2 get you to 59
Blood furnace x 2 with quests on pass 2 gets you to 65
Setthek Halls x 4 will take you to 70 (you can throw in Mana Tombs once with quests for variety if you like) (other two at Auch don't loop on themselves)
Azol Nerub x 1 with quests at 70
Old Kingdom x 4 with quests (2nd or 3rd run) will get you 75
Halls of Lightning x 3-4 will get you to 80
Blackrock Caverns x 1 with quests will typically get you 82
Stonecore to 85 (2.5 to 3.5 passes)

This pathway is set up to minimize moving around - it's not always the optimal dungeon at any given time but for me moving takes more time than running through a dungeon.

85 to 90 either stormstout (leave new toons at door, summon PLer out with them after over) or Jade Serpent as the final hits are actually good without RAF XP and I'm sure insane nice with.

All my Raf links activated before 6.2 (2 start of May, 2 around end of May)

More info. It s (not official) true: Raf working in 85 - 90.
Today levelled 3Druids+1Mage(lvl 85) group with monk lvl100 booster.
Total Time required:about 1 hour and half. Summoned at stones by "Summon a friend". Did 4x Temple of jade Serpent runs and 4x Mogushan Palace runs. After donated with "grant a lvl" 5x levels to a priest lvl 85, now lvl 90
So all Raf bonuses look working atm. But no official response or info by Blizzard.

My pathway - horde side, Raf active:
1-11 levelling in orc starting zone
11-21 do Ragefire Chasm
21-37 SM
37-57 Stratholme
57-59 Ramparts
59-62 Blood Furnace
62-67,5+ Mana Tombs
67,5+-69 Shettek Halls
69-70 Shadow lab
70-73 Nexus
73-78,5 Gundrak
78,5-80 Halls of Lightning
80-83 Blackrock Caverns
83-85 Stonecore or at 84 go for Grim Batol
85-90 Temple of Jade Serpent or at 87+ go for Mogushan

[JohnGabriel]

Every time an expansion comes out they reduce the amount of experience needed to reach the previous expansions level.

I remember when it took 12 hours /played time to do 1-80

[Mosg2]

The fastest 1-85 I ever did was 3 hours and 57 minutes /played. That was with summoners set up at each entrance and logging out every time I hit the 10 instance per hour limit. Usually it takes about 6-7 hours without all that shenanigans. Funnily enough, 1-11 takes the longest :/ I usually level by questing from 85-90 since I 15-box and I'm boosting a set of 10 toons.

1-11 By hand
11-23 SFK
23-34 SM
34-45 Scholo
45-48 BRD
48-58 LBRS
58-63 Ramps/Blood Furnace once
63-68 Sethekk Halls
68-71 Nexus
71-75 Drak'tharon
75-80 HoL
80-85 BRC

[Andreauk]

My tip in the levelling process for those with a grp non boosted is queue for Detention block as soon as it appears in the dungeon finder list.

Use the mole machine, select first option and once there aggro the mobs accross the ledge then drop down.

First Fineous Darkvire, he may come with the trash he may not.. then behind you Lord incendius. You can do this really fast and then requeue for the same instance using the dungeon finder. This will keep you going until you can unlock ramparts in bc and is very fast even if you are only in looms without ref a friend xp.

[sync00]

For those of you that do Stratholme, do you complete all the objectives? Do you find it worth opening the mailboxes to get the bonus?