A bit back in this thread it was mentioned that playing with 2 accounts is a pretty fast way to level and I'm seeing the benefits more and more. But I have some questions about this:
1) Is it completely legal to have a character on follow and to order things through say, Whispercast or macros? Is it legal as long as all commands come from direct user actions and illegal when anything automated comes in the picture?
2) I know for a warrior it's very good to have a shaman follow you (not only windfury, but also to drop a fire totem etc. I guess), but what is the best class for a rogue to follow? I'm thinking a shaman too for buffs, but I'm having thoughts of a feral druid for leader of the pack and 2x stealth to get to places (with disenchanting available). I could always switch bear and have the rogue just do white DPS. Any thoughts on this?
3) As for professions of the following character, is it best to have mining/herbalism? My 2 mains (horde/alliance) both have disenchanting. Or perhaps mining/skinning? I guess skinning requires too much switching.
Last edited by Mortimmer : 01/04/08 at 12:10 PM.
Reason: Fixed a typo and added a third question
I have a few questions regarding the Instance Power Leveling you described. I tried it last night with my kids (I am a prot pally). We worked the Cathederal for an hour. I ran into two problems maybe you can help with:
1. Instance Lockout - I received a message you have entered into too many instances recently. After this message the toon would be disconnected from the server. Is there a timer/counter for instance entrance? I am aware of the reset limit.
2. Optimum Level mix for the power level group - I had my kids in the group (level range 30 to 42) and with all 4 in the group they were averaging 150 to 225 exp per kill. Pretty good IMO, maybe around 10k to 20k per pull. When I substituted in my lvl 70 mage (now 2 lvl 70's and 3 lowbies) the exp was cut in half. Is there some average level calculation that happens to determine experience? Is there some logic i am not following as to the 2nd lvl 70 in the group some how reducing the exp?
A bit back in this thread it was mentioned that playing with 2 accounts is a pretty fast way to level and I'm seeing the benefits more and more. But I have some questions about this:
1) Is it completely legal to have a character on follow and to order things through say, Whispercast or macros? Is it legal as long as all commands come from direct user actions and illegal when anything automated comes in the picture?
2) I know for a warrior it's very good to have a shaman follow you (not only windfury, but also to drop a fire totem etc. I guess), but what is the best class for a rogue to follow? I'm thinking a shaman too for buffs, but I'm having thoughts of a feral druid for leader of the pack and 2x stealth to get to places (with disenchanting available). I could always switch bear and have the rogue just do white DPS. Any thoughts on this?
3) As for professions of the following character, is it best to have mining/herbalism? My 2 mains (horde/alliance) both have disenchanting. Or perhaps mining/skinning? I guess skinning requires too much switching.
1) It's completely legal as long as you don't have a program that monitors your other char health and autocast heals or stuff like that. Playing 2accounts is perfectly fine tho. Since I now have 2 computers, I have a special bar for dualbox that has most of the "useful" stuff in sequence macros, all bound to my 2nd mouse. Like mousewheel down will do the hots sequence for my druid, or the dps sequence for my warrior. Easier to just have 2 mouses next to each other and control t like that than 2 keyboards imo. When I was dual logging on same computer, I had a program that sent keys to both clients with one key press, I'm not 100%sure it's legal tho, but since I'm the one inputing, it shouldn't be bannable(since it's by the use of a 3rd party it probably is).
2) I never group my chars together unless in instances, but that's cause it's my 70druid healing my alt warrior. If you plan to make 2 same level chars, it's interesting to think of high level synergy more than what you need for leveling. As you said, a druid for a rogue is probably a better choice, it'll level slower, but at 70 you can do stealthruns and duo a lot of interesting stuff(like large prismatics), which you wouldn't be able to do with a shaman. So yea for a rogue I'd go for a druid, unless you have plans to group that 2nd char with your main and have other synergies.
3) Herbalism sucks lately imo, but if you already have disenchanting chars, I guess I'd go for mining/herb on one(buy an epic flight asap for this one, probably druid since instant flight form and not having to land to pick herbs makes it easier) and JC/alchemy on the other. That'd probably be the best for money.
As for the earlier discussion about when to go to outlands, with the xp changes in 2.3, imo it's better to go to outlands at 58, do the first few easy quest chains so you get new weapons/armor, then go back and finish everything that's not totally retarded in old lands. Outlands quests and old land quests give the same amount of xp(around 10k), but old lands are much easier to do. It's even better if you get disenchanting on that char(even if you drop it once you're 70) cause the old world mats sell for a lot. That's what I did, and since I wanted to keep rep from thrallmar, I've only done the very first outland quest for a new 1h. When I came back to outlands, I was already 62 from the old stuff. I wouldn't have levelled any faster from doing outlands quests really.
1. Instance Lockout - I received a message you have entered into too many instances recently. After this message the toon would be disconnected from the server. Is there a timer/counter for instance entrance? I am aware of the reset limit.
2. Optimum Level mix for the power level group - I had my kids in the group (level range 30 to 42) and with all 4 in the group they were averaging 150 to 225 exp per kill. Pretty good IMO, maybe around 10k to 20k per pull. When I substituted in my lvl 70 mage (now 2 lvl 70's and 3 lowbies) the exp was cut in half. Is there some average level calculation that happens to determine experience? Is there some logic i am not following as to the 2nd lvl 70 in the group some how reducing the exp?
I was doing this earlier today as a prot pally and later added a fury war who was bored.
On the first question you should to cathedral and armory, you get 5 instance resets per hour, so if you are running cath in 11 minuts you have some extra (at 70 you can run it in 5 more or less) so you will need to mix in another wing. Armory works well as its one long pull to the end and herod if you want a shard. I also do the first square in library as its 5kish exp for them and also very short (and another shard)
As for exp I dont know if it has some formula but the initial group, one powerleveler and 4 lowbies, gets them by far the best exp, especially if you are already running into the lockout with just the pally.
As for WF on fishingpoles I have no idea, I imagine yes.
I once was fishing up Lurker and just as he spawned I clicked to recast. The raid was ready to go and just after he spawned he turned straight to me and one-shot me. Checking the combat log I had done a 200 damage autoattack and a 650 damage windfury before the tank had even hit him... I now no longer use right click macros to recast when I'm fishing.
This should probably be in the 'stupidest things ever done in a raid' but it illustrates the point here too d-:
I've never been able to WF my fishing pole, but that might be because I tend to use a lure on it. Nice to see that WF totem works with them though. I guess I've got something else to use to humble lowbies other than my dual wield brewfest mugs.
We leveled a shaman, a warlock, and a mage to 57 in equal played time to this mage. The played time seen here includes two hours of AFK time and about an hour of travel time. We wasted about an hour going to BRD to attempt to get better exp there between Scarlet Monastery and Stratholme. Under optimal conditions (but without rested exp) one should be able to reach level 60 in about 1 day 15 hours using PsiVen's method.
We used a paladin in full Holy season 2 PvP gear, specced 9/39/13, and it got the job done well. A few things to note:
We stopped at 57 because the paladin's account expired, otherwise we would have gotten level 60 in under 2 days played.
Full clear RFC, rank 1 consecrate is enough to kill everything while you run as fast as you can.
Full clear SFK, again don't stop for anything. If you hit the cap, immediately go outside and do a clear of Pyrewood village, then come back and by this time the cap should be up.
RFK through RFD was a boredom choice for us and quite possibly not optimal since the travel time to go from Silverpine Forest all the way to the southern Barrens is substantial. Your call.
RFK full clear.
RFD only undead side. The quilboar side will often have reset back to their spawn points, making life difficult for your alts.
For SM, we utilized only cathedral and armory as early as we could. I pulled the entirety of armory at once, bubbled, healed up, and we aoe'd it down. For cathedral, since the paladin had no tank gear I pulled it in two separate groups (one group for both the courtyards and the other for the cathedral).
For Stratholme, kill the undead aoe packs only and reset. As a side note, with the retribution talent and some luck you can enter the back door and use exorcism on the Magistrate before he runs off, but you can use swiftness potions just to be safe. His key to Stratholme is helpful to have.
That's absolutely amazing, but I have one question: How much did you loot?
I did Strat runs on my Paladin to help my friend level his Druid and we went from 53 to 54 in just under 2 hours. We looted everything and I ended up walking away with more than 200g after all was said, sold, AHed and done, but I was wondering if looting all that junk has some impact.
To expound on the subject a little more: Does anyone have/use an addon to help with selective looting? Obviously I want to loot everything so the sparklies go away, so I was thinking something that deletes greys (or preferably something specifiable) from your bags as you pick them up,
To expound on the subject a little more: Does anyone have/use an addon to help with selective looting? Obviously I want to loot everything so the sparklies go away, so I was thinking something that deletes greys (or preferably something specifiable) from your bags as you pick them up,
Loot Filter is probably your best bet. You can filter by color, vendor value, and it has whitelisting and blacklisting capabilities.
That's absolutely amazing, but I have one question: How much did you loot?
I did Strat runs on my Paladin to help my friend level his Druid and we went from 53 to 54 in just under 2 hours. We looted everything and I ended up walking away with more than 200g after all was said, sold, AHed and done, but I was wondering if looting all that junk has some impact.
To expound on the subject a little more: Does anyone have/use an addon to help with selective looting? Obviously I want to loot everything so the sparklies go away, so I was thinking something that deletes greys (or preferably something specifiable) from your bags as you pick them up,
We looted nothing at all (besides boss drops to disenchant) until Stratholme during levels 45-51, where the two other players (one guy was dual-boxing) looted everything. After 51, only the resto shaman looted between pulls and the other guy killed and drank.
What is you technique? is it a matter of using your main to just clear everything or do you do the DOT and run out technique?
Using the main to clear everything, and the alts when possible. In other words, when we just entered a new instance and the alts were too low level to contribute, I aoe'd alone on the paladin and the shaman healed me (sometimes, the frost mage would use improved blizzard, despite the large amount of resists, to help proc some slowing effects on mobs that ran in fear at low health). When the mage and warlock were about 5 levels below the mobs and every level after that, everyone contributed to the aoe. Furthermore, we had everyone specced purely for aoe. The mage had improved blizzard, no improved frostbolt. The warlock had shadowfury and pyroclasm without conflagrate. The shaman was full restoration.
Some useful notes:
Using earth shield on the paladin, improved concentration aura, and timing holy wrath/holy light with shadowfury and frost nova is very helpful in Stratholme.
The focus meta gem is a must-have in my opinion, especially for holy wrath.
Stoneskin totem and blessing of sanctuary make huge differences. Windfury totem and mana Spring were also very helpful, especially windfury.
When you're pulling entire instances or just large pulls in general, try to strafe as much as possible so you block more attacks.
Unlike PsiVen who did everything solo in prot gear and utilized Seal of Wisdom, I used Seal of Light. In my opinion, a good rule of thumb is that if you're using Seal of Light and Judgement of Light with Windfury and staying above 50%, or perhaps 35% for ardent defender, you're probably not pulling enough.
Incredible. I wouldn't have thought this possible, can you explain something because I can't seem to understand it:
I thought that not only does having a very high level player with you reduce the experience you get by a lot, but also that
killing a mob 5 levels higher than you, does not give less XP than killing one like, 13 levels higher than you. If this is true in both cases, how did you manage to still get so much XP in so little time (for instance, how much XP per SFK run did you get?), and also, if 5 levels higher is the max XP rewarded, why not go to the lowest level instance that has such mobs instead of going to the highest available?
If any of these are false (like, having a level 70 with you only reduces XP by 70% or something like that?) (or, if killing a mob 13 levels higher than you DOES reward more than killing one 5 levels higher), please tell me what is correct.
There's this place in Duskwood, a cave of worgen. It's not Roland's doom and it's a cave not on the map. It's west of Roland's doom and southeast of the Rotting Orchard.
Anyway, the spawn rate of these things is bugged. Endless spawning of level 29-31 worgen, and it's not instanced so you can bring a level 1 there. I haven't tried this yet so I don't know how fast someone can get leveled up.
Incredible. I wouldn't have thought this possible, can you explain something because I can't seem to understand it:
I thought that not only does having a very high level player with you reduce the experience you get by a lot, but also that
killing a mob 5 levels higher than you, does not give less XP than killing one like, 13 levels higher than you. If this is true in both cases, how did you manage to still get so much XP in so little time (for instance, how much XP per SFK run did you get?), and also, if 5 levels higher is the max XP rewarded, why not go to the lowest level instance that has such mobs instead of going to the highest available?
If any of these are false (like, having a level 70 with you only reduces XP by 70% or something like that?) (or, if killing a mob 13 levels higher than you DOES reward more than killing one 5 levels higher), please tell me what is correct.
You're correct. Even with the reduced exp for killing high level npcs and having a level 70 in your group, the speed at which you can pull/kill more than makes up for it.
and also, if 5 levels higher is the max XP rewarded, why not go to the lowest level instance that has such mobs instead of going to the highest available?
Short instances with dense npcs are the best. For example; it's about a million times better to do SM Cath instead of Gnomeregan.
On that note, there is a gnoll camp in Wetlands that has a buggy respawn rate.
It is located south of the greenwarden quest giver around the middle of the map. I was leveling my warlock with a druid throwing hots up. It was seriously a tab-dot fest for 15 straight minutes.
It is truly sick experience for the low 20s. I'll post the screenshot if I remember after work.
Darceidus, for one I'd like to say that what you've done is pretty amazing. I've recently been doing the dot and run thing while 2-boxing my paladin (alt) and warlock.
I've been wondering, do you think Stratholme would be possible with a warlock? I'll be running through with a paladin, priest and hunter. The problem I foresee is the pushback on Seed of Corruption, as well as being able to keep the warlock up through all of the damage.
There is a method to by-pass the instance per hour lockout that I think may be helpful for you all who feel held back by it. This was demonstrated to me by a guildy when I was using my frost mage to aoe grind him though SM Cath:
This requires at least 2 characters.
1. Go to the entrance portal, but remain inside the instance.
2. Pass leader off to the other character
3. That character needs to boot the original leader.
4. When you see the "you're gonna get kicked out in 1 min" message, exit the instance.
5. Reform your group and pop back in.
The instance should be reset. Continue to do this, and you can run the instance indefinitely.
Note that this seemed to not work 100% of the time when we added a third party member, but I'd say it still worked 75% of the time. Never figured out why the 3rd person complicated things.
Another question for a dual-box situation: Is there an addon that simply allows executing a command through whispers? I know there's whispercast, but how about commands such as /target playerx, /follow? Any hint towards useful addons for box-to-box communication would be appreciated (but not things that automate or are otherwise illegal).
Last edited by Mortimmer : 01/08/08 at 5:49 AM.
Reason: Removed a misplaced carriage return.
Another question for a dual-box situation: Is there an addon that simply allows executing a command through whispers? I know there's whispercast, but how about commands such as /target playerx, /follow? Any hint towards useful addons for box-to-box communication would be appreciated (but not things that automate or are otherwise illegal).
Much thanks to Brick for the Loot Filter reference. That was exactly what I was looking, and I look forward to maximizing my gold:bag space:town return ratios with it.
I've been wondering, do you think Stratholme would be possible with a warlock? I'll be running through with a paladin, priest and hunter. The problem I foresee is the pushback on Seed of Corruption, as well as being able to keep the warlock up through all of the damage.
If your Paladin is willing to spec to help maximize your running (like Darceidus' Shaman speccing Resto and the Mage speccing AOE, etc.), have him pick up Improved Concentration Aura - the 50% pushback resistance is invaluable for the unprotected Seed of Corruption.
To take a page from Illhoof, another option would be to use Hellfire - it's completely pushback immune with 2 points in Intensity plus Concentration Aura (even unimproved). That being said, I don't know how much damage you'll take with it while getting beaten on, or if a 45-60 character's healing is enough to keep you alive through that (if they're healing at all).
Darceidus, for one I'd like to say that what you've done is pretty amazing. I've recently been doing the dot and run thing while 2-boxing my paladin (alt) and warlock.
I've been wondering, do you think Stratholme would be possible with a warlock? I'll be running through with a paladin, priest and hunter. The problem I foresee is the pushback on Seed of Corruption, as well as being able to keep the warlock up through all of the damage.
Stratholme i think would be quite hard with a lock, as I tryed soloing right from the zone in and got owned (70 lock with decent pvp gear, 11.5k hps, 1k spell damage, 340ish resilience at the time) as i couldn't channel seed fast enough, and every pull it seemed was 8-10 mobs. However with your group make up consisting of 2 healers and one concentration aura it would be alot easier than what i experienced.
Also on a side note, does anyone know where to find minimum entry level req's for dungeons? My shammy is 40 and I'd love to have my buddy take me to strat asap for some sick leveling.
1. Use VW and make sure that the AOE taunt has refreshed before attacking the AOE pack. Send VW in, then click the AOE taunt. Seed as fast as possible, switching the VW's target each time to the mob you cast the seed on. Then run toward the AOE pack, so that when the seeds go off, all the mobs take the damage. It should kill all the non-elites and leave the elites low enough for drain tanking.
2. PVP gear is your friend. Get an an arena pieces or two. Not just for the hit points, but for the AC. PVP gear is perfect for soloing the level 60 instances.
3. Bring extra soulstones and the old level 50 warlock quest trinket if you have it.
Now, in response to the thread, I'm not sure this is very efficient for power levelling alts. It is time-comsuming and the disease debuff is a PITA, unless you want to bring a lot of pots to deal with it.
01/04/08, 12:00 PM
Similar Threads
