WOTLK Fresh Server Dualbox Combo questions.

[dfaire3320]

Totally new to dual boxing (via dual screen or alt tabbing) and I've been thinking about doing my first big push on Fresh Wrath server.

My main focus is to get to level cap as quickly as possible so I can start farming gold to take advantage of the super cheap AH prices that are prevalent on fresh servers. I'm not to concerned about either character being my Main character. I will level that one later and fund it with my initial leveled duo. I know leveling solo would probably be faster, but I'm thinking that duoing two characters to max level will be able to start doing dailies and amassing gold substantially quicker along the way by quest rewards than leveling two individually

I know that gold will be at a premium early on bc there's essentially zero raw gold on the server day one. I want to be able to pretty much invest every extra copper in the AH and buy as many ores and herbs as i can at rock bottom prices and sell for a profit later on, but at the same time be able to level 2 classes as quickly and efficiently as possible.

I know mages and hunters level really quickly.
That being said: mages tend to have quite a bit of downtime in order to eat and drink. HOWEVER, their food and water are essentially free and later on they can port to knock down on travel time over long distances. And Hunters, although there's not a ton of downtime. Im afraid Ammo will eat into my goal of spending every little bit of extra gold i have in AH.

Druid is another class I'm considering. they level rather efficiently but they start out so slow and I'm afraid ill get bogged down with the millions UPON MILLIONS of people in the starter zones.

I guess, Long story short, What class combo do you guys recommend that is a good combo that will both level quickly and efficiently in the open world but at the same time will save me as much gold as possible either by not needing to buy as much food/water/ammo or having a leveling kit that requires me to purchase as little skills as necessary to get to cap. Dungeons really aren't a leveling option for me b/c when I play, I need to get up and down periodically to tend to other things.

I am also wondering if I should forego picking up any gathering professions during my journey to save that much more time leveling. I don't know how much time would be added by capping mining/herb or the added 3 seconds or so to each skin would add to my leveling time vs. the initial profit skinning would provide by having extra things to vendor.

So far Im thinking one of the following five Combos, but open to anything really

Hunter/Hunter: Duo pets, Ranged, Fast leveling: But ammo and pet training may be costly and if i decide to do try to do a dungeon or two, not being a healer or tank will make it difficult to find a group

Hunter/Druid: Benefits of a healer class, efficient levelers, druid will be a great farmer later on. I dont know which one I would pilot or if i would go dps or Resto on the druid.

Warlock/Druid: go resto on the Druid and leave on auto follow and just moonfire/wrath mobs and rejuvinate/heal the warlock so they can lifetap constantly keeping their mana up between pulls. zero downtime but I'm afraid "just" being resto would slow the leveling process down quite a bit.

Mage/X: pretty much just for free food and water and ports. some ideas are paladin/mage for aoe tanking and blizzards. or mage/ranged for good dps without having to alt/tab a ton

Druid/Druid: either both feral or feral/caster. good for stealthing past mobs, taking turns healing each other, as well as a good comp to get into a dungeon or two because the option is there to heal, tank, or both at the same time.


Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated!

[Purpleflavor]

So leveling fast is 99% about travel speed. That puts hunters, druids, shaman, and mages above all else. Warlocks get an honorable mention due to their ability to mass pull an entire area.

To cut straight to the chase, the answer is either
If you have a pre-planned route then the answer is easily hunter/hunter.
If you dont have a full planned route, then mage/mage obviously to port.
and if max level asap is your goal then there isnt any other options.

If leveling to max is your priority, then do not worry about earning or saving gold or cost of drinks and ammo. Do not gather or do any professions. You will make 100x more gold in the first 2 hours at level 70 than your entire leveling process, and gathering/professions are far easier to advance at max level than while leveling, plus on a fresh server every node in the starter area will be swarmed. When you hit 70, a lot of the wotlk quests and likely an entire zone or two will not be completed, and those quests when you are max level give gold instead of exp. Also you will need the reputation, so it's easy gold and you can also farm elementals in Wintergrasp for serious money. So dont waste any time at all making gold while leveling.

The only other class worth pairing with mage is hunter, but you dont get aspect of the pack until 40 so it's definitely not worth it unless you want two different classes for end game.

Druid/druid is a good alternative as balance but it's not as good as hunter/hunter. As feral you lose a lot of time getting into melee range for everything though this is ferals first powerful era. It can be better than hunter on an active pvp server though, so consider that, but also consider that if you're leveling on a new server then you'll be higher level than any pvper and those that are your level are just worried about their own leveling.

Shaman/Shaman really hit their stride at lvl 30 with recall, very underrated speedrunning class because of slower kill times, but that is greatly reduced when dualboxing and they can take down elites pretty easy similar to hunters.

if you got this far then the best tip i could give you is to buy Joanna's leveling guide and practice it at least one time during beta or on TBC before official release. It's really important to outpace the mob of starting players if you're questing.

[nodoze]

Hunter + Hunter is likely the easiest & fastest for most people. Very hard to beat a built-in speed-boosted Trinity setup that can be acting somewhat independently (alternating one pet tanking with 2 DPS hunters & the other pet dashing & gathering multiple mobs to bring to the group)... Personally I like to go with Beast Master & let the pet(s) do the heavy lifting and just vendor most everything & you shouldn't have any trouble with ammo.

[dfaire3320]

I'm thinking Hunter/Hunter is going to be my preferred dual boxing combo for wotlk fresh servers. I think they will be able to tag highly contested mobs in the starter zones rather quickly...i hate running for a mob as a melee class or queueing up a fireball as a mage only to have it tagged by another player at the last second.

my next question from a leveling and gold making standpoint: Would it be better to solo to 80 or dual box. I know soloing will be a bit faster leveling wise but i think at max level or along the way to max level, 2 characters will help me get a decent bankroll for when i do decide to start buying stuff on AH to flip while its still cheap

My only concern is, it may take me TOO long to level and get that initial gold to invest if im dual boxing and the market will have already corrected by then, taking away all the potential profit.

[simpletom]

Honestly I don't think dual boxing will be the fastest way to level on fresh. I have been experimenting a lot with the current 50% xp buff and a little bit in the beta to see what its like. My concerns for when the fresh goes live especially how competitive some zones will be you are going to feel the burden of having the second character on collection quests. Mana regain has been buffed, its a bit buggy at the moment on beta so not sure what will actually see in live.

If I was going to dual I would probably go with frost mage and a prot paladin and just mass pull everything, try to get ahead of the masses with grinding mobs instead, respawns will be fast, unfortunately mage and paladin really won't become a leveling force until about level 25.

[Purpleflavor]

are ya winnin?