Boosting 1-80 Breakdown

[Superhero]

I'm looking for a progression path that is the fastest to boost a team from 1-80.

Here is the path that I'm using right now:

(Alliance)
1-10 = Questing
10-15 = Deadmines or Questing
15-30 = Stockades
30-37 = Scarlet Monastery
37-52 = Stratholme
52-57 = BRD
57-65 = Ramparts
65-69 = Mana Tombs

69-80 = Questing
or
69-75 = Utgarde Keep
75-80 = Gundrak

I recently ran one team from 1-80 using something similar to this route. I have a few requirements that I'm trying to hit so that I'm maximizing my total time:
- Keep the travel distances short without a huge requirement for porting teams all over the place.
- Try to stick at dungeons for more levels to minimize travel.
- Try to time the traveling during times where you are waiting for dungeon lockouts to get over.
- Minimize the amount of times I need to move the characters being boosted.

Do you see any changes that might be beneficial?

//Oh and one comment... if you want to boost a team, do not... do NOT... make them Worgen. I think I wasted like 3 hours doing gray quests just trying to get them out of the starter zone.

[Rhand]

Here's how I run my teams through, all dungeons are done until the dungeon quests are completed. From 70 on it's usually one run per dungeon and my level estimates may be a bit on the low side, you may be a level ahead at times. It's a bit more travel but it's faster than grinding on just mob kill xp in my experience as the dungone quest xp is HUGE with RAF.

1 - 11 Questing
11 - 21 Shadowfang Keep
21 - 33 Scarlet Monastery
33 - 37 Scholomance
37 - 48 Stratholme (Live until quests are complete then Undead until complete)
48 - 58 Blackrock Spire (Upper and Lower)
58 - 63 Hellfire Ramparts & Blood Furnace
63 - 68.5 Sethekk Halls & Shadow Labyrinth
68.5 - 70 Ring of Blood (TBC)
70 - 75 Utgarde Keep, The Nexus, Azjol-Nerub, Ahn'kahet, Drak'Tharon Keep
75 - 76 Ring of Blood (WotLK)
76 - 80 Gundrak, Violet Hold, Halls of Stone, Halls of Lightning

[crowdx]

How much of a hit are you taking if you use a level 90 to boost with?

[Superhero]

I can't imagine it's much different than an 85 boosting. (I'm currently boosting with an 85 paladin.)

It's hard to pass up stockades when it's so easy to get to and clear. SM is a bit annoying. I miss being able to smack the boss and have everything aggro.

[Rhand]

How much of a hit are you taking if you use a level 90 to boost with?
With RAF it really doesn't matter, the speed you get from boosting with a 90 greatly outweighs any xp loss. Without RAF it may be another story but I don't boost them without RAF :)

[Meathead]

I have to admit but I went from boosting to RDF and its really fast and more fun, From 1-30 its just under 4 hours and I learn my classes again, Took 2 hours to get to 15 from questing and 2 hours to get to 30

[Superhero]

I don't really buy into the whole "learn your class" thing by playing it to level up. It changes too drastically at end game when you deal with any real content that you have to relearn it anyway.

I boost through Stockades to get from 15-30 in about 2 hours. That's also with taking a couple 30 minute breaks after getting hit with the "too many instances" restriction. I like stockades because it's just so convenient to get to but I hate how quickly you can clear it and run into the instance restriction.

This is why I actually like BRD quite a bit because you can do a huge amount more worthwhile pulls without having to rezone. Pull everything all the way back from Golem Lord and it takes a good 5-7 minutes. Each run is maybe 10-12 minutes so it takes a bit longer before you get hit with the instance limit. Stratholme is similar since you can go in dead side and pull everything from live side as well.

Hmmm... any other dungeons you can run with good returns that you don't get hit by the instance limit?

[heyaz]

BRD is amazing and I'm looking forward to that one. The pulls were gigantic at 85 - now at 90 and with being able to shapeshift out of those stupid nets I think I can triple the size of the pull. I'll run into an instance lockout but oh well.

When I do 70-80 I just do each instance once, the quests + clearing most of the instance gets 1-1.5 levels, the quests alone accounting for 50-75% of the level. However without HGWT I don't know if it'll be as convenient, but you can always use two alts at a summoning stone which now work for any level as long as the target is 15 higher.

Where I'm not sure now is 80-90.... I'm thinking Deepholm or Twilight Highlands for 80-85, one of the areas with quick spawning mobs. 85-90, I don't know what has or has not been nerfed yet but there may still be the water elementals in jade temple, and of course you could farm AV/IOC this week.

So my path on Horde is something like:
1-11: Questing
11-23: SFK
23-35: SM
35-45: Strat/Scholo/whatever can't rememeber level range
45-48: LBRS
48-58: BRD
58-62: Ramparts
62-65: Underbog
65-68: Steamvaults
68-70: UTK
70-79: One of each instance, with an extra run of HoL at the end
80-85: ??? I really don't want to quest again
85-90: ??? I really really don't want to quest again

Trying to get billing to merge my bnets since one of the raf recruits is on a separate bnet and cannot get my full heirloom set which now includes pants. That's 45% increased xp until 80 then 25% to 85.

[Meathead]

I don't really buy into the whole "learn your class" thing by playing it to level up. It changes too drastically at end game when you deal with any real content that you have to relearn it anyway.

I boost through Stockades to get from 15-30 in about 2 hours. That's also with taking a couple 30 minute breaks after getting hit with the "too many instances" restriction. I like stockades because it's just so convenient to get to but I hate how quickly you can clear it and run into the instance restriction.


2 hours same time as me when just playing my toons myself :) You may get 4 hours less to 80 then me but its more fun too play :)

[heyaz]

2 hours same time as me when just playing my toons myself :) You may get 4 hours less to 80 then me but its more fun too play :)

so you can quest 1-80 in about 13 hours /played
tell me your secret

[Apatheist]

Zul'Farrak is really fast from 39-46. Particularly if you have a Druid and don't need to worry about being frog'.d

You can ride through the right side, do a big loop around past the aquamancer chick and back to the entrance and clear the whole thing in one pull. Ton of mobs. I usually go Stocks > SM > ZF > UBRS and then TBC instances.

I haven't tried boosting in Strath since Wrath, though. Not sure which has better XP/Hour since the instance level changes.


I have to admit but I went from boosting to RDF and its really fast and more fun

Actually, I leveled my Paladins this way, too. Boosted them through all the boring levels (to about 40-ish) and then RDF'd to 80. Queueing with random tanks was fun. The difference in personalities was interesting. I had some people rage at me and leave group, some thought it was hilarious and wanted to queue again (the fact that we were clearing instances in like 10 minutes with 4 rets probably didn't hurt). I even refered a few people to dual-boxing.com that wanted to know how it's done.

I'm not sure if it was as efficient XP/Hour-wise as boosting, but it was much more entertaining and felt like less of a grind.

[Meathead]

I never said quest I said RDF in a earlier post :) I say it is about 3-5 hours off Boosting I have seen 2 people RAF to 80 in a day a whole day about 16 hours

[Lyonheart]

so you can quest 1-80 in about 13 hours /played
tell me your secret

Not sure about questing.. but I can almost match those times running teams at level ( tank..healer.3dps ) like he said.. boosting beats me by about 4-5 hours.. I'm telling you.. the QUESTS give a HUGE amount of exp.. the time i take an all hierloomed group to clear a dungon is not long at all.. and you can skip some trash.. no need for it.. boss kills+quest exp+ fast and "fun" ! boosting is boring as hell...and when i'm done boosting.. i have no connection with the toons I boosted. When I level them, at level, via RDF I get to know the classes I'm playing and, even though the leveling is still super fast, I have a connection with them.. they feel earned not free, which is how I feel when i boost a toon.. just IMPO.

However, if your doing all the same class, you can not do it as fast of course. If i want 5 of everything as a goal.. i just mix the tank/healer and DPS slots to have the trio you need..but end result will be 5 of each class.

[Meathead]

Thats it, LyonHeart it is all about the connection with your toons, If you got 3 months to level alot of teams up I would rather play them all now then boost I used to boost but it got so boring that I would always quit halfway thru my teams, but now with RDF I LOVE IT! FUN and No Time at all!

[Meeo]

im curious to know what classes you guys are using to boost? i recently came back and am starting to re-Raf new teams up. I cant decide which of my originals to use; Paladin, Druid, Shaman, Mage, or even a Lock of my original 85s.

[Apatheist]

im curious to know what classes you guys are using to boost?

Druid or Paladin are both fine.

[Shodokan]

1-15 questing
15-23/24 Stockades
24-35/36 SM Monastery
36-43/44 Scholomance
44-48 Stratholme
48-58 LBRS/BRD (i use LBRS, but theres more quests in BRD... but takes twice as long)
58-62 Ramparts (1-2 runs)
62-64 Blood Furnace (walk there)
64-65 A Crypts
65-67 Sethekk halls
67-68 Ring of blood
68-70 Utgarde keep
70-72 Nexus
72-73 DTK
73-75 Gundrak
75-76 AoA
76-78 Halls of stone
78-80 Halls of lightning

[heyaz]

im curious to know what classes you guys are using to boost? i recently came back and am starting to re-Raf new teams up. I cant decide which of my originals to use; Paladin, Druid, Shaman, Mage, or even a Lock of my original 85s.

I prefer druid over everything, but I've said that so many times I think people are tired of hearing about it.
I like to be able to sprint, leap, etc. through the instance, go tank if the pulls are big, or just swipe spam to kill stuff.

I have previously boosted with paladin, mage, dk, and warlock.

[Ualaa]

Last set of RAFing, I used existing toons to boost new toons.

With level 70 characters, boosting the new teams to 60th.
I used a Prot Pally, a BM Hunter and an Elem Shaman to boost with.

This set of RAFing, I'll use level 85 Frost DK's.
If I boost any allies (different server), I'll use an 85 Feral.

[Multibocks]

BRD is amazing and I'm looking forward to that one. The pulls were gigantic at 85 - now at 90 and with being able to shapeshift out of those stupid nets I think I can triple the size of the pull. I'll run into an instance lockout but oh well.

When I do 70-80 I just do each instance once, the quests + clearing most of the instance gets 1-1.5 levels, the quests alone accounting for 50-75% of the level. However without HGWT I don't know if it'll be as convenient, but you can always use two alts at a summoning stone which now work for any level as long as the target is 15 higher.

Where I'm not sure now is 80-90.... I'm thinking Deepholm or Twilight Highlands for 80-85, one of the areas with quick spawning mobs. 85-90, I don't know what has or has not been nerfed yet but there may still be the water elementals in jade temple, and of course you could farm AV/IOC this week.

So my path on Horde is something like:
1-11: Questing
11-23: SFK
23-35: SM
35-45: Strat/Scholo/whatever can't rememeber level range
45-48: LBRS
48-58: BRD
58-62: Ramparts
62-65: Underbog
65-68: Steamvaults
68-70: UTK
70-79: One of each instance, with an extra run of HoL at the end
80-85: ??? I really don't want to quest again
85-90: ??? I really really don't want to quest again

Trying to get billing to merge my bnets since one of the raf recruits is on a separate bnet and cannot get my full heirloom set which now includes pants. That's 45% increased xp until 80 then 25% to 85.


You don't have to quest again. I read someone used RFD until 90 and normal MoP dungeons are not hard.j Just have a viable group. I an questing my 10 man to 90 and I am very close to saying fuck it and using RFD.

Just really tired of collect x 10 quests. Clicking something 100 times takes a while and really is not fun.

One thing is for sure, all groups after these two will be using RFD or PvP to level from 85- 90.

[remanz]

what is RFD! Razorfen Downs ??

[Lyonheart]

what is RFD! Razorfen Downs ??


I think he meant RDF ( random dungon finder )

[remanz]

I think he meant RDF ( random dungon finder )

duh. 5 mages can't use it. I guess I will just walk to each dungeon.

[Lyonheart]

duh. 5 mages can't use it. I guess I will just walk to each dungeon.

Are you doing RaF? Why not do what i do.. make a tank and healer ( whatever you want ) and 3 mages..and grant levels for the other two..or level a new team with tank healer..two mages and somthing else to end up with 5.

[remanz]

Are you doing RaF? Why not do what i do.. make a tank and healer ( whatever you want ) and 3 mages..and grant levels for the other two..or level a new team with tank healer..two mages and somthing else to end up with 5.

err, . no. my raf expired ages ago. Buying new accounts + xfer would be like $250. So I am just leveling without RAF now.

EDIT: actually i am not calculating it right. so I have old accounts 1,2,3,4,5. I buy 2 more battle chests with accounts A, B. then link like this 2->A, 3 -> B, I create 4 mages across 2,3,A,B, use a level 90 on account 5 (already have a level 85 mage here) to boost. When 2,3,A,B, all hit level 80. I level another set of warlocks. Now A and B both have 80 grant-able levels. (this is correct ? since I have 160 levels / 2 ). Use A's 80 grant-able levels on account 2 to get another level 80 mage. Transfer that to account 1. Transfer A's mage to 4. Now I have 5 mages. So far the cost is $20 (battle chest) x 2 + $25 (from 2 xfer to 1) + $25 (to 4. 5 already got a level 85) = $90

Additional , $25 x 3 = $75 to get 5 warlocks.

Am I calculating it right ?

[Multibocks]

I think he meant RDF ( random dungon finder )

yep sorry :(

[crowdx]

Has anyone tried boosting with Lowbies at the Deepholm AoE spot? Or does it only give 1xp until a character gets over 70 or some such level?

[Sam DeathWalker]

I did that, it will give max exp to the lowbies, if the mobs are not grey to the booster. The problem is keeping the lowbies alive, you can stand them way back on the ledge but taking them in will get them killed most likely. Keep in mind though it takes the same number of kills to get the lowbies from level 10 to level 11 as it does to go from level 84 to level 85. Meaning that basically you have to kill the same number of mobs per level (as you get higher you get the more exp per mob). RAF would still be needed I think.

I was under the impression that all zones in the new expansion (mop) will give more exp for a similar HP mob then the same HP mob in the old zones. Is that not still true?

[Multibocks]

Here's how I run my teams through, all dungeons are done until the dungeon quests are completed. From 70 on it's usually one run per dungeon and my level estimates may be a bit on the low side, you may be a level ahead at times. It's a bit more travel but it's faster than grinding on just mob kill xp in my experience as the dungone quest xp is HUGE with RAF.

1 - 11 Questing
11 - 21 Shadowfang Keep
21 - 33 Scarlet Monastery
33 - 37 Scholomance
37 - 48 Stratholme (Live until quests are complete then Undead until complete)
48 - 58 Blackrock Spire (Upper and Lower)
58 - 63 Hellfire Ramparts & Blood Furnace
63 - 68.5 Sethekk Halls & Shadow Labyrinth
68.5 - 70 Ring of Blood (TBC)
70 - 75 Utgarde Keep, The Nexus, Azjol-Nerub, Ahn'kahet, Drak'Tharon Keep
75 - 76 Ring of Blood (WotLK)
76 - 80 Gundrak, Violet Hold, Halls of Stone, Halls of Lightning

Couple notes: Ring of Blood (TBC) does not net you 1.5 levels of exp with RAF anymore. More like .5 level. I also suggest doing all the dungeons in Terrokar Forest because they all have quests right there at entrance for huge xp. One other thing, you can move on to LK at 69 and accept quests in The Nexus. Nice list though, thanks!

[JohnGabriel]

Its going to be much different for Monks as well, since they get the extra 50% exp boost for one to two hours a day.

[crowdx]

I just boosted two monks to 81 and they maintained the same XP rate as their RAF counterpart, I did not see any gains due to being a monk ?

[MiRai]

Its going to be much different for Monks as well, since they get the extra 50% exp boost for one to two hours a day.


I just boosted two monks to 81 and they maintained the same XP rate as their RAF counterpart, I did not see any gains due to being a monk ?
That's probably because RaF XP doesn't stack with rested XP and the Pandaren racial deals with rested XP.

EDIT: Derp. You people are talking about Enlightenment (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=130283), not the racial. In my defense, I've never played a Monk. :)

[Multibocks]

Its going to be much different for Monks as well, since they get the extra 50% exp boost for one to two hours a day.
Does this stack with the daily quest that monks get? Its like a 100%xp buff that doesn't drop if you die.

[Lyonheart]

Does this stack with the daily quest that monks get? Its like a 100%xp buff that doesn't drop if you die.

I'm pretty sure that's what hes talking about. They get faster rested.. but the only exp boost they get is from the daily.

[Rhand]

Couple notes: Ring of Blood (TBC) does not net you 1.5 levels of exp with RAF anymore. More like .5 level. I also suggest doing all the dungeons in Terrokar Forest because they all have quests right there at entrance for huge xp. One other thing, you can move on to LK at 69 and accept quests in The Nexus. Nice list though, thanks!
Are you sure about this? I did a team right before MoP and Monks during MoP and was getting just about 1.5 levels out of it with full heirlooms. Also my list does account for the dungeon quests in Terrokar but the problem is that you generally out level the quests. In my method I become eligible for the quests in Sethek doing Sethekk Halls and Shadow Labs then Ring of Blood generally takes me from 68 to 70. Again just my observations so your mileage may vary :)

[crowdx]

Are you sure about this? I did a team right before MoP and Monks during MoP and was getting just about 1.5 levels out of it with full heirlooms. Also my list does account for the dungeon quests in Terrokar but the problem is that you generally out level the quests. In my method I become eligible for the quests in Sethek doing Sethekk Halls and Shadow Labs then Ring of Blood generally takes me from 68 to 70. Again just my observations so your mileage may vary :)

When I did 68 - 70 a few days ago, I went straight to Utgard Keep, with a level 90 boosting it made fast work of it.

[JohnGabriel]

I verified this and monks do get more exp. If they don't then it changed since I leveled up my monks.

I took four monks, all with the RaF bonus and checked the exp reward for a quest, then got the enlightenment buff, checked again and the exp was higher.

Granted the /played time was higher on my monks, but I attributed that to the very very long time in the start area before being able to pick alliance or horde.

[crowdx]

I verified this and monks do get more exp. If they don't then it changed since I leveled up my monks.

I took four monks, all with the RaF bonus and checked the exp reward for a quest, then got the enlightenment buff, checked again and the exp was higher.

Granted the /played time was higher on my monks, but I attributed that to the very very long time in the start area before being able to pick alliance or horde.

Well I never used enlightenment due to the team was mixed as I did not have expansion on the RAF accounts (I bought throw away accounts and so no MOP expac)

[JohnGabriel]

Does this stack with the daily quest that monks get? Its like a 100%xp buff that doesn't drop if you die.

The daily that monks get stacks but only the time not the effect. For example, the enlightenment buff gives 50% exp buff for one hour, if you get the buff again it is 50% buff for two hours.

[Multibocks]

Are you sure about this? I did a team right before MoP and Monks during MoP and was getting just about 1.5 levels out of it with full heirlooms. Also my list does account for the dungeon quests in Terrokar but the problem is that you generally out level the quests. In my method I become eligible for the quests in Sethek doing Sethekk Halls and Shadow Labs then Ring of Blood generally takes me from 68 to 70. Again just my observations so your mileage may vary :)

Ah i forgot my shaman don't have heirlooms, but I'm not sure how this are tripling the xp i got...

[griznip]

Is boosting much faster than running a 5-man team w/tank & healer slots using dungeon finder? Isn't the dungeon finder XP bonus tripled as well?

What's the boost strategy? 1-main account to boost the 4-linked-RAF accounts?

[JohnGabriel]

Is boosting much faster than running a 5-man team w/tank & healer slots using dungeon finder? Isn't the dungeon finder XP bonus tripled as well?

What's the boost strategy? 1-main account to boost the 4-linked-RAF accounts?


There is grind boosting and dungeon boosting. Both use a high level main toon with linked RaF accounts.

Dungeon boosting is as described in this post, there are other posts on grind boosting but its basically just parking your alts in a specific place in the world while your high level toon kills everything.

While boosting you can't use the dungeon finder because the main is too high level. Running dungeons using 5 toons of appropiate level is much much much much much slower than boosting.

[heyaz]

This is the method I used on my last set:

-Quest to 11
-Boost using a lvl 90 guardian druid up to 80 (dungeon list already in this thread)
-Grind boost in Deepholm trogg area 80-85 (a few hours per level with heirlooms + guild banner). At least 10k gold worth of drops/cloth especially with potion of treasure finding.
-85-90: Quest up to Jade Temple (uninstanced quest hub), grind water elementals that spawn endlessly, 3-5 hours per level, faster than questing and tons of drops. If you loot you'll end up with like 50 spirits of harmony and several bank tabs full of BOE greens.

For the last two phases I recommend bringing a repair bot or jeeves or your bags will fill up and you'll run miss out on a ton of loot. Also use your mobile guild bank if you have one to empty your bags. At the water elemental area your bags will fill about every 1/5 of a level.

[griznip]

There is grind boosting and dungeon boosting. Both use a high level main toon with linked RaF accounts.

Dungeon boosting is as described in this post, there are other posts on grind boosting but its basically just parking your alts in a specific place in the world while your high level toon kills everything.

While boosting you can't use the dungeon finder because the main is too high level. Running dungeons using 5 toons of appropiate level is much much much much much slower than boosting.

Much slower? I did my first 5-accounts using RAF/Dungeon Finder and thought it was fast. I'd be curious to see how fast dungeon boosting is!

Thanks for the heads up! Anyone have number of hours from 1-80 using this method?

[MiRai]

Thanks for the heads up! Anyone have number of hours from 1-80 using this method?
12 - 15-ish at this point I think.

[heyaz]

Can be done in about 10 hours I think. 1-80
80-85 in 8 hours
85-90 in 20

[Ualaa]

Playing with RAF bonuses, but no heirlooms...
Because the five new accounts don't have any, and I don't want the referred accounts to out level the referring accounts over time...

Anyway, my time from 1st to 80th is closer to 30 hours /played.

That is with an 85 booster.
The team quests from 1st to almost 11th.
They reach 11th enroute to Shadowfang Keep.
Level there until 24th; I hearth and train their ground mount, then head to Scarlet Monastery.
They're in SM until 36th, when they relocate to Scholomance.
At 44th, they hearth and train the faster mount and then head to Stratholme (dead side).
From there (at 48th) they head to BRD.
I stay in BRD until 58th, for Outland.
Ramparts from 58th to 62nd, run over to Blood Furnace for 62nd to 64th, then hearth to train flying.
Auch-Crypts 64-65th, Sethekk Halls 65-68; then hearth and train cold weather flying.
Utgarde Keep 68-70th then Nexus 70-72nd (either one, then the other).
Drak'Tharon Keep for a level 72-73.
Gundrak, from 73-76.
Halls of Stone 76-78 and Halls of Lightning 78-80.

I tried doing RoB at 67th and AoA at 75th, but with the whole Cross Realm Zones and opposing faction players interfering... that's a monumental waste of time.
It's much faster to just do 2 extra runs in whatever dungeon who were already doing.

[Ticks]

I just did RoB in Nagrand at level 69 and just got 1/2 a level with RAF. Not really worth the effort IMHO. On my way to Nexus or Utgarde Keep.

[crowdx]

Playing with RAF bonuses, but no heirlooms...
Because the five new accounts don't have any, and I don't want the referred accounts to out level the referring accounts over time...

Anyway, my time from 1st to 80th is closer to 30 hours /played.

That is with an 85 booster.
The team quests from 1st to almost 11th.
They reach 11th enroute to Shadowfang Keep.
Level there until 24th; I hearth and train their ground mount, then head to Scarlet Monastery.
They're in SM until 36th, when they relocate to Scholomance.
At 44th, they hearth and train the faster mount and then head to Stratholme (dead side).
From there (at 48th) they head to BRD.
I stay in BRD until 58th, for Outland.
Ramparts from 58th to 62nd, run over to Blood Furnace for 62nd to 64th, then hearth to train flying.
Auch-Crypts 64-65th, Sethekk Halls 65-68; then hearth and train cold weather flying.
Utgarde Keep 68-70th then Nexus 70-72nd (either one, then the other).
Drak'Tharon Keep for a level 72-73.
Gundrak, from 73-76.
Halls of Stone 76-78 and Halls of Lightning 78-80.

I tried doing RoB at 67th and AoA at 75th, but with the whole Cross Realm Zones and opposing faction players interfering... that's a monumental waste of time.
It's much faster to just do 2 extra runs in whatever dungeon who were already doing.

This seems much more like my recent boosting experience, although I boosted with a lvl 90 and did AoA. Even though I did not time my overall played on the boosted characters and I spent time AFK, it did seem a LOT more than 10 hours.
I am currently in the process of a second set and just to get to level 11 took about 2 hours

[Ualaa]

If you were to log them out, once they reach... cannot enter more instances... that would save time.
This is a warcraft bug, most likely; when five toons do instances together, never alone... and 1-2 cannot enter, yet the rest can... ?

If you had Warlocks (or the old, "Have Group, Will Travel"), that too would save time.

I'm personally leveling teams to 80th.
In as little real time as is possible for me to level them.
I don't want to be 10th level for an extra hour.
But it is real time I care about; logging a toon for an hour, because of the instance bug or leaving them sitting at the zone line and trying to enter every 5 minutes, either way it is the same amount of real time.

[JohnGabriel]

I checked the /played time on my monks, which was the first set I RaF boosted since MoP, and they are at 22 hours played time.

This is much higher than the 12 to 15 hour /played time I was getting pre-mop, but the panda start area is very long. I have been blaming that but it could be an overall increase in boosting times.

[griznip]

What class do you find to do the best as your booster? Druid? Pally? Monk?

[Ualaa]

This round of boosting, I've been using a Frost Death Knight.

Quite a few like to use a Druid or Paladin.

[MiRai]

What class do you find to do the best as your booster? Druid? Pally? Monk?
A class that can DPS, can sustain taking damage. and one that you know how to play well.

[crowdx]

I love my druids, their swipe kills everything. Now at level 90 HoL is still run in Cat form killing so fast, even the last room before Loken cat form pulled the whole room. Felt a little like cheating :-P

[griznip]

I love my druids, their swipe kills everything. Now at level 90 HoL is still run in Cat form killing so fast, even the last room before Loken cat form pulled the whole room. Felt a little like cheating :-P

What spec are your druids? Guardian or Feral?

[crowdx]

What spec are your druids? Guardian or Feral?

Guardian

[Ticks]

I've been using a level 90 Shaman with ilvl 480. Chain lightning with lowbies in tow.

[heyaz]

I prefer Druid also. Guardian spec. Getting out of snares for free (once you get to BRD/LBRS/UBRS you will be snared endlessly), two sprints, skull bash, charge, aoe disorient and pushback. They move through the instance so fast and can swipe it all down at once (switch to cat form and pop berserk). For later instances you'll need to stay in bear form for the bigger pulls but with incarnation you can put out a ton of aoe in bear form as well. My druid is about 461 in mostly pve tanking gear and nothing is a problem 1-80, entire instance pull no problem except maybe 75+ instances but by then I have the alts following so they can complete the quests (50-75% of a level for the quests alone).

I don't do instance boosting beyond 80, in cata instances there are too many stuns, knockbacks, aoe crap to kill your alts, etc. and I know at least a 90 guardian druid cannot handle large pulls, and the xp/hour was terrible. The best method I found 80-85 was the troggs in deepholm. You can pull endlessly and they don't hit hard enough to put a dent in your no matter the size of the pull.

[heyaz]

Oh one thing I wanted to mention about the Scarlet Monastery level range.

If you have time to spare, and don't want to deal with instance lockout (which is inevitable when doing resets at that level), in the Graveyard the zombies that spawn forever actually give xp, although just a little. Instead of 2-3 minutes per level for a full instance pull, it's about 15 minutes a level killing those zombies.

Just go and kill the elites but not the zombie piles and then stand at the front of the instance in front of your alts. The zombies aggro by proximity only so as long as you are in front of your alts they will not get aggro. They automatically die after a few minutes so, unfortunately, you can't go afk for awhile and stack up a million of them, you'll need to hit an aoe every minute or two.

I did this for 3 or 4 levels to avoid instance lockout because I didn't feel like logging out for an hour to take a break.

[Shodokan]

Oh one thing I wanted to mention about the Scarlet Monastery level range.

If you have time to spare, and don't want to deal with instance lockout (which is inevitable when doing resets at that level), in the Graveyard the zombies that spawn forever actually give xp, although just a little. Instead of 2-3 minutes per level for a full instance pull, it's about 15 minutes a level killing those zombies.

Just go and kill the elites but not the zombie piles and then stand at the front of the instance in front of your alts. The zombies aggro by proximity only so as long as you are in front of your alts they will not get aggro. They automatically die after a few minutes so, unfortunately, you can't go afk for awhile and stack up a million of them, you'll need to hit an aoe every minute or two.

I did this for 3 or 4 levels to avoid instance lockout because I didn't feel like logging out for an hour to take a break.

You can also summon them on top of the cloth farming citadel in icecrown for the 30 mins between instance lockouts for 2-3 levels or so.

[propagandalf]

I thought I'd give this boosting stuff a try before my RAF time ends. I already ran one 5man team up to 80 just using random LFD's. Now I'm boosting a 4man team using an 81 Guardian Druid.

Silly question, is there a trick to getting your team to these dungeon locations? You can't use LFD and because of the way I sent my RAF invites I can't use summon friend to get them all to a location (30 min cooldown sucks!). Maybe I'm missing something (I hope), because it's really tough getting lowbies to far away dungeons. :(

Awesome thread, btw, thanks!

[crowdx]

I thought I'd give this boosting stuff a try before my RAF time ends. I already ran one 5man team up to 80 just using random LFD's. Now I'm boosting a 4man team using an 81 Guardian Druid.

Silly question, is there a trick to getting your team to these dungeon locations? You can't use LFD and because of the way I sent my RAF invites I can't use summon friend to get them all to a location (30 min cooldown sucks!). Maybe I'm missing something (I hope), because it's really tough getting lowbies to far away dungeons. :(

Awesome thread, btw, thanks!

What I generally do is fly one of the higher level characters I have to the dungeon, then summon one set of lowbies, log out the higher level and log back with the second set of lowbies and have them summoned by the set I already summoned.
Obviously this only works if you have higher levels on the accounts you are boosting characters on.

[propagandalf]

Yeah, that's what I figured, but I guess I messed up my RAF connections, because that didn't work for me unless I deal with the 30min summon friend cooldown. My booster is on an account that isn't RAF linked, and then the other 4 are 1 on a vet account that are linked to 3 on recruit accounts.

Durn, that makes traveling a pain.

[crowdx]

Well you would still only need to summon a single toon to the instance entrance,then chain summon the rest. I also use the summoning stone to get my booster there if he is not linked in the RAF chain (which he normally isn't).

[MiRai]

1. Use 2-Man flying mount
2. Use summoning stone
3. ???
4. Profit

[JohnGabriel]

You can buy a Winged Guardian mount from the Blizzard store for your booster account.

[Ualaa]

1. Use 2-Man flying mount
2. Use summoning stone
3. ???
4. Profit

Can you summon, via a summoning stone, with two characters?
I thought you needed three.

[crowdx]

Can you summon, via a summoning stone, with two characters?
I thought you needed three.
Nope, I have been summoning with 2, Locks need 3 to summon the first portal thing.

[propagandalf]

Yeah, summoning stone!

[Lyonheart]

Can you summon, via a summoning stone, with two characters?
I thought you needed three.

it used to be 3 and a level range limit.. not its only 2 needed and they can summon any other level player starting at level 15.

[Ellay]

Can I use the random dungeon finder if I don't have a perfect group type? say 1 healer / 4 dps and the dps cannot spec anything but dps?
Looking into possibly doing RAF as I want to try out some new classes since everything has changed so much.
Additionally instead of boosting, is this a good method of just burning through the dungeons to grind out the xp? How much slower overall will the leveling be?

[shadewalker]

Can I use the random dungeon finder if I don't have a perfect group type? say 1 healer / 4 dps and the dps cannot spec anything but dps?

Unfortunately, no. You must have a class that can heal and tank.

Edit: or more specifically at least one class that can heal and at least one class that can tank.

[JohnGabriel]

Can I use the random dungeon finder if I don't have a perfect group type? say 1 healer / 4 dps and the dps cannot spec anything but dps?
Looking into possibly doing RAF as I want to try out some new classes since everything has changed so much.
Additionally instead of boosting, is this a good method of just burning through the dungeons to grind out the xp? How much slower overall will the leveling be?

You can usually take 3 dps at a time through LFD without hate, especially at lower levels.

But in your case if you're doing the dungeons to break up the boredom of questing, then you are already in the area of the dungeons at your level. You wont need to use LFD you can just take your 1 healer + 4 dps team inside.

[Lyonheart]

Ellay, If your goal is 4 or 5 of each class you want ( hunters..mages..shamies..etc. ) I would recommend making holy trinity teams like this... Say you want 5 paladins in the end..5 hunters..5 mages..5 preists. You can mix and mach the sets on the way up to make tank..healer..3 dps. Just alternate which account has tank and heals each team..so in the end you end up with what you want. Between that and granting levels, you should be able to level entirly via RDF and end up with what you want 8)

[Ellay]

I think I just want a specific class to 80 right now on top of my original shamans. I figure the power balance shifts though every patch update like it always has and it's not sometimes how skillful you are but if you picked the flavor of the month class.

Not to derail too much, but the extremely frustrating part is. I have almost a quad pair of every class 70+ but they are scattered throughout 5 different servers and different factions. If they offered a combo server transfer option that was actually a discount it might peak my interest, but it's much cheaper just to generate a new set of accounts especially with the black friday deal and spend a couple days leveling.

[Ualaa]

Consider a fresh batch of RAF.

Take a booster, whatever the best toon is...
Likely your highest level toon, especially if they're a tank type.
Feral Druid, Frost Death Knight, Paladin in particular.

Transfer that toon, to the server of choice.
Send your heirlooms with the toon, if you have any.
Send as much gold as you're allowed to take.
If you have more gold, buy items you can sell on the destination realm, especially if they're cheaper on the origin realm.

Boost with two RAF chains:
A > B > C
A > D > E

You end up with at least one character on A, for every team you boost.
B and D, each grant half a character to A... assuming A levels to 2nd (39x2 = 78 granted levels).

Because you have two links in each RAF chain, if you want the cascading of granted levels to add up to full toons (boosting from 2nd, not 1st...)...
You need to boost sets of four toons, as in boost 4 or boost 8, etc.
But it's probably good enough, that if you boost five classes on BCDE, A gets at least those five classes via granted levels.

BC and DE have valid RAF chains, even if A is a lot higher and more than 4 levels higher than B/D.

[Qebm]

Another great thing about dungeon boosting is that you don't need the booster to be on the same realm as the lowbies, as long as you can manage to bring them into the dungeon and you have a way to invite yourself via realID (one of the account registered under a different battle.net account, or a friend who can temporarily invite your toons)

[MiRai]

and you have a way to invite yourself via realID (one of the account registered under a different battle.net account, or a friend who can temporarily invite your toons)
You should be able to invite yourself via RealID by manually typing /invite character-realm (no spaces in the realm name if they exist).

[Mooni]

80-85: ??? I really don't want to quest again
85-90: ??? I really really don't want to quest again.

You could have the booster do all of the quest work and just drag the boostees around on autofollow. Granted, there are times when you'll need to loot items (Collect 5 Panda Spleens or whatever), but the looting isn't as bad when you have AoE looting.
As for AoE grinding, I used Deepholm a week ago, on that one spot with the Troggs. Evidently they've shut down XP on the ground-floor guys, but the ones that are way up a cliff still give XP. I'm at work so I can't be more specific than that, but I think I found it by googling "Cata aoe grinding" and "Mop aoe grinding".

Also, remember that the chest/shoulder heirlooms actually work until the moment you ding 81. The pants/hat/cape last until the moment you hit 86 (even though their stats are inferior to quest items by that level)

[Flight]

Going to try boosting for the first time ever tomorrow after leveling many toons and teams through questing.

using a lvl 90 (Heroic MoP equipped) Paladin - presuming Retribution spec until close to lvl 80 ? Do you need to change spec and equip a shield with a spike on it at some point like you used to do ?

[MiRai]

Do you need to change spec and equip a shield with a spike on it at some point like you used to do ?
Doubtful, but you can likely pull more at once as a tank.

[Sservis]

I would say, very doubtful. People were boosting when the cap was 85, and at 90 with heroic gear, you'll blow through the dungeon. You can always do a trial pass and see how it feels if you want, before you start your RAF timers. Personally, I've done Halls of Lightning with the Jade Forest vendor gear on a fire mage at 87 or 88. I also used a bad aoe rotation (only arcane explosion), so it wasn't a case of skill. I think some of the bosses required a bit more focus, but not much.

[zenga]

I used a 90 ret pally a few months ago, with some low ilvl pieces off the AH. Was under the impression once I was starting with wotlk dungeons that i had to equip my good geared prot spec, but that turned out to be totally different. As prot it takes ages to kill large packs, and as ret you just breeze through them. Even through the first cata dungeons.

If you have a heroic raid geared ret like you say, you wont take a scratch. Can solo everything up until MoP dungeons with great speed.