[WoW] Boosting with a 70 - Rogue, Hunter, or Druid

[Knobley]

With my holy paladin, I was able...

Currently 2.5 days playtime at level 55 with Zolo tankadin boosting...

I thought we were discussing whether it's best to use a hunter, rogue, or druid, not how great you can do with a pally. Obviously this is faster with pallies and their great AOE skillz. It's actually pallies that I'm trying to level, so that I can use them to level other toons in the future.

Can you tell I have pally envy?

I have a hunter and a druid at my disposal.

As far as rogues go, I don't have one, haven't played one, and can't comment on their effectiveness as boosters.

3-4 pulling with my hunter would work, but I can't see it being faster than mass pulling with the druid (dire bear form) and swiping.

4 days played to 60 doesn't really sound all that impressive to me, but that may change once I get my guys to 60.

I just got back from vacation and suffered a hard drive crash, so I haven't been able to play much lately, but I've done a couple of runs through SM and don't think I'm gonna have much difficulty drudging my way through it with the mass pull/swipe down method with the druid. I don't think it'll be quite as fast as could be done with a pally, but should be faster than 3/4 pulling with my hunter.

The big question for me is where to go at around 35. I've taken my druid to zolo, and he wasn't able to survive the skellies very long

[Tizer]

4 days doesnt impress you? Oh im sorry, i'll try harder next time, just for you

[Knobley]

4 days doesnt impress you? Oh im sorry, i'll try harder next time, just for you

Well, as I said, that may change once I get mine to 60. When I soloed my way to 70 on two different toons (druid and hunter), I was at 60 in under 4 days. And if I can do it, then it's just not that impressive. But that was soloing. We'll see how things shake out with multiple accounts.

Knobley

[noir]

So I tried boosting my new pally last night in Deadmines with the hunter, and I'm pretty convinced it's better than druid or rogue. Why? Range. I can right click a mob and it pretty much instantly dies from a shot of my S2 Xbow. XD If it survives, I ignore it. The pet will finish it off.

The biggest problem I had was the alt getting mad aggro and getting instagibbed. I luckily found a lowbie who followed me around for awhile, so I just invited them and said, hey, heal my alt and I'll set it on /follow on you, just hang far back, loot all you like. Pretty convinced this is the best way, cos otherwise, I need to manually make my alts hang back and move them forward every once in awhile for XP.

Overall, the XP/hr. was just terrible. I'd only do this for loot. Otherwise, questing is much faster XP than boosting in the low teens.

[Knobley]

If you haven't already read it, you might find this thread describing my and Talamarr's DM experiences interesting.

Knobley

[-silencer-]

I don't know what a rogue has to offer.

A 5/32/24 Combat Sword/Subtlety spec is about as good as a rogue can get for rushing - this was specifically my rush build on my 70 rogue.
5/5 Malice (+5% crit)
5/5 Lightning Reflexes (+5% dodge)
5/5 Parry (+5% parry)
1/1 Riposte (10 Energy, 150% damage instant attack + 6s disarm)
5/5 Precision (+5% hit with both weapons)
5/5 Dual-wield Spec (+50% off-hand damage)
5/5 Sword Specialization (6% chance for extra attack),
2/3 Slice n Dice (+30% duration to 30% increased attack speed),
1/1 Blade Flurry (15s, 2min cooldown:+20% more increased attack speed, plus each hit will do the same damage on nearby enemy),
2/2 Weapon Expertise (+10 weapon expertise),
1/1 Adrenaline Rush (5min cooldown: +100% Energy regen rate for 15s - +40 Energy every 2 seconds),
2/2 Sleight of Hand (-2% being melee/ranged critically hit),
1/1 Ghostly Strike (40 Energy, 20s cooldown: 125% damage instant attack, +15% dodge for 7s),
3/3 Serrated Blades (Ignore 560 of target's armor),
2/3 Setup (30% chance to add combo point when dodging an attack),
1/1 Hemorrhage (35 Energy, 110% instant attack, 10 charges for 15s of +36 damage per attack),
2/2 Dirty Deeds (Special attacks do 20% more damage on enemies with less than 35% health)
1/1 Preparation (10m cooldown: Clear cooldown on Evasion / Vanish / Sprint)

First, buff up.
Elixir / potion for +agility/crit/stamina depending on need - speed or survivability.
Food for +agility/stamina.
Instant Poison on both swords.
If you are fighting a bunch of low-hp mobs, use a sword that grants extra attacks over pure damage (unless it's like 3x the damage) - this is why I never get rid of the Thrash Blade. It's important for Blade Flurry and poison procs.

Sprint through mobs, pull into corner so you are facing ALL mobs then use in this order:
Evasion, (Only lasts 15s for +50% dodge, so it's best to start it off now while the most mobs are attacking you, plus you'll get a combo point or two from Setup talent.)
Ghostly Strike, (40E +1 combo point = get Dodge up for Setup.. 30% chance to add combo points on dodge)
Slice n' Dice, (25E = Need to get it up regardless of combo point count, hopefully 2-3 now due to Setup talent + Ghostly Strike)
Blade Flurry, (25E = Get thouse double-hits started..)
Adrenaline Rush, (+100% energy regen for 15s - very important combined with Blade Flurry to get off as many attacks as possible)
Hemorrhage, (35E : instant 110%, but the extra damage given during attacks applies to Blade Flurry hits as well.
Use Riposte as much as possible (very low energy cost and high 150% damage = lot of extra powerful attacks x2 with Blade Flurry. With Adrenaline Rush giving 40 Energy every 2 seconds, that's a lot of Ripostes if you can get the parries).
Refresh Ghostly Strike dodge bonus every 7-10 seconds. (7 seconds if you have a lot of mobs hitting you.. 10 seconds if you're doing fine on taking damage.)
Refresh Hemorrhage if charges wear out or switch to new mob (I believe hemo +dmg affects Blade Flurry 2nd attack damage too).
*Always* keep Slice N' Dice up. It should be the only finisher used, since it's better to only use energy on special attacks that double up with Blade Flurry - Riposte/Ghostly Strike/Hemorrhage.

If hp start getting low but SnD/Blade Flurry/Adrenaline Rush are still active, use a powerful potion. You need to keep attacking while you have those skills working.
Vanish when hp after potion is running out and too many mobs remain.

Preparation to clear Sprint / Vanish / Evasion cooldowns.
Bandage back to full health.

Round up new group and do the above, but you'll probably have to go without Adrenaline Rush until the cooldown is up.

The nice part about this build is that it works fairly well against bosses too. Work on pumping out as many high damage attacks as possible in the shortest amount of time. Open up with Cheap Shot (if not immune) or Ambush(dagger swap) so you can get a 5-combo point Slice N Dice off as soon as possible.

[noir]

Nice rogue build. I think I vendored my Thrash Blade. =/

And I've seen that other thread. Pally boosting a Hunter is 100X easier than Hunter boosting a Pally... XD

[Tidomann]

You run into problems boosting with a rogue/warrior... SM disarm > warrior/rogue

[krum]

I too have a 70 rogue and a 70 hunter. The rogue having S2 swords and being combat specced, does around 30% to 50% more dps than the hunter.

[noir]

DPS and ability/speed at boosting are not even remotely related...