Twinking tricks/Leveling alts - Page 7

PsiVen · 12/15/07, 6:30 AM

Originally Posted by BigWhil

I have to ask a question/s regarding how your "instance farm" Because, I have tried the whole "drag-your-alt-through stocks-thing" I have found it quite lackluster but maybe im doing something wrong.

1) Do you HAVE to have a full group of similar lvls to yours (ie. 1x lvl 70 4x lvl15-20's) i know this would ideally give you group exp, but is it a MUST?
2) Does your High lvl have to run out of the instance before the mobs die or does that just increase exp dramatically? (Im using a mage so..no dots wont work i dont think)
3) When you say you lvl up your alt in x amount of hours i assume its over a few days because of the 5 reset limit or am i missing something.

I basically just chuck my alt on follow and aoe the area...

Id like to make it work but it just doesnt seem to be Great.. anything i am obviously missing please let me know.

1) No, it just helps. But it's not like it's hard to get people to come to Stockades, just announce in general chat that you're doing free Stockade runs.
2) Depends on how you're doing it; you can either rely on killing a lot of mobs very quickly, or find a way to make a small set of mobs die just after you leave the instance. With anyone but a warlock and perhaps shadow priest / moonkin I doubt the latter would be feasible.
3) 5 resets per hour, not per day. Do 5 runs, do something else for 20-30min, repeat.

Demerzel · 12/15/07, 8:22 AM

If you are dualboxing and pulling with a highlvl druid/palla:
Gift of arthas on a lvl 70 will procc on a lvl 1 mob. Makes a lvl1 rogue hit for 13 instead of 4.
Also sharpening stones will help.

Farie fire will keep mobs on the 70 pretty good and take no exp off the low lvl.

Pyros · 12/15/07, 9:53 AM

Oh yea forgot about it but, when I leveled my paladin, I had my hunter dual boxxed. Improved hunter's mark is awesome for melees, and group/ungroup with improved aspect of the pack is godly for questing. I had to spec my hunter specially for the leveling, but it was well worth it.

• Icky P · 12/15/07, 11:08 AM

Originally Posted by BigWhil

I have to ask a question/s regarding how your "instance farm" Because, I have tried the whole "drag-your-alt-through stocks-thing" I have found it quite lackluster but maybe im doing something wrong.

1) Do you HAVE to have a full group of similar lvls to yours (ie. 1x lvl 70 4x lvl15-20's) i know this would ideally give you group exp, but is it a MUST?
2) Does your High lvl have to run out of the instance before the mobs die or does that just increase exp dramatically? (Im using a mage so..no dots wont work i dont think)
3) When you say you lvl up your alt in x amount of hours i assume its over a few days because of the 5 reset limit or am i missing something. [...]

You don't have anyone else in the group except your alt and a 60-70 who can DOT. I just tried it out with my friend, as soon as his druid hit fifteen we gave it a try. You DOT stuff up, have your alt/friend hit or cast something to be put in combat with them, then run out when they get to a low health. They'll die running back to your alt/friend and he gets full experience. My friend went from 15 to 21 in about an hour, slowed because I missed a few during tabbing and he died a few times.

For your second two points; Your alt is only going to get a tiny fraction if you're inside when they die. Like from 450 to 30 difference. And you don't have to be constrained by the reset limit. We hit it and I just logged off and back on and then we could keep on reseting.

BigWhil · 12/15/07, 7:01 PM

Sweet as, Thanks for the replies guys/gals. It actually did help clear up alot of things...
I think i'll try the old Dot em up and run out approach on my SP.
Once again thanks

• Xaviera · 12/15/07, 9:59 PM

This isn't really a trick, but it's pretty damn good to know.

Old world instance quests around 60 give serious experience. Every Stratholme quest awarded 14,300 experience each, and tons of AD rep. I even got 9550 experience for FINDING Egan, and then he gave me the quest to go into Stratholme for another 14.3k. I imagine it's the same for Scholomance and Spire too. But due to the extreme density and closeness of quests in Scholo/Strath + WPL/EPL, I highly advise doing those now. With a friend running you through the instances, or just 2-boxing, you can get more exp/hour than you will ever get anywhere again in the game. (For comparison, Level 68+ quests in Outlands award somewhere in the range of 12-16k experience each). I imagine you could do most of the Strath/Scholo chains at mid 50's if you really wanted to.

Pyros · 12/15/07, 10:21 PM

Originally Posted by Xaviera

This isn't really a trick, but it's pretty damn good to know.

Old world instance quests around 60 give serious experience. Every Stratholme quest awarded 14,300 experience each, and tons of AD rep. I even got 9550 experience for FINDING Egan, and then he gave me the quest to go into Stratholme for another 14.3k. I imagine it's the same for Scholomance and Spire too. But due to the extreme density and closeness of quests in Scholo/Strath + WPL/EPL, I highly advise doing those now. With a friend running you through the instances, or just 2-boxing, you can get more exp/hour than you will ever get anywhere again in the game. (For comparison, Level 68+ quests in Outlands award somewhere in the range of 12-16k experience each). I imagine you could do most of the Strath/Scholo chains at mid 50's if you really wanted to.

Yea with the boosted xp, those zones are pretty insane. You can't do every strat/scholo quest at 55(which is the starting level for most quests, barov is 52, a few 54, but most are 55), but doing everything you can probably nets you 2levels, and with a decent geared char, it's rather easy. With the xp boost, as was said I tihnk previously in this thread, it seems to be better xp/hour to just stay in old lands until you're done with everything, especially if you can get a 70 to powerquest you thru the zones(killing stuff for you, reducing the xp you get per mob, but speeding up the process a lot).

I assume, since I haven't done it, that a full brd run with every quest completed nets you around 2.5levels too. It used to be 1+level at the appropriate levels. It's better if you know what you're doing however, because there's plenty of prereqs, and specific order in quests that force you to die/get out/turn in/run back etc. But I'm definitely running BRD when I hit the level for quests on my new alt. It's also good money since you get brilliant shards/illusion dusts for disenchanting stuff there(at least you used to).

PsiVen · 12/16/07, 3:10 AM

Originally Posted by Icky P

And you don't have to be constrained by the reset limit. We hit it and I just logged off and back on and then we could keep on reseting.

I'm fairly certain that this is false and it was merely the time you spent relogging that allowed you to zone in again. I'm not sure exactly how the 5/hour timer works, but as long as one reset takes at least 12 minutes you'll never run into it.

roddo · 12/17/07, 3:31 AM

I tryed putting a high level scope on a level 6 gun yesterday, and it doesn't work. I used an adamantite to begin with (level 55 req) and a sniper scope (level 40 req). Not sure exactly how to twink a hunter out besides getting them the best gun possible and maxing out agility but getting the best agi chant possible in every slot. Was really hoping that the +10 adamantite scope was usable for twinking but oh well, better luck next time.

Kink · 12/17/07, 5:50 AM

I just want to say thanks for posting about LughtHeaded and Tomtom on the first page of this thread. Those two mods alone have saved me more time than anything else. I highly recommend them to everyone who is levelling an alt, be it twink or not. Or even your frist main!

Edenfall · 12/18/07, 8:29 AM

Originally Posted by Amathal

Just so you guys know, Lifebloom doesn't work on low level targets, and when you try to rejuv someone that is much lower level than you it automatically lowers the rank of the rejuv. While not a bad idea, spamming low rank rejuv wouldn't be that much fun for someone :P

I will say though, I have been leveling an Undead Warrior and I have had a bit of help. As soon as I hit 30 I got my Whirlwind Axe and had it enchanted with Savagery. Had improve slam at 2/2 when I hit 31, and my sustained dps went from the high 30s when i was level 29 to around 90 dps at 31, getting slam crits sometimes around 550.

You gotta do things like this if you wanna level fast, a level 30 Warrior using a level 40 weapon enchanted with a level 70 enchant...she rips threw things.

Unfortunately, you wouldn't be able to do something like this as a druid, because all that matters to you is AP.

Actually, the spell Regrowth works on all level characters. The first rank is learned in level 12. Regrowth is very overpowered, especially at lower levels. So if you are lvl 70, specced for 50% more crit on Regrowth and have about 1k +healing (Don't really know how much reduced to the rank would be) then it is seriously overpowered. Also, I don't know, but the talent which increases the +healing gained to Healing Touch may or may not scale down on the ranks.

The point is that it will take a lot for a lowbie to die with a 70 Druid healing by his side, considering mass heavy grinding.

My tip:
The Lunar Festival lasts for a couple of weeks. Wowwiki says: "For 2008 – The Lunar New Year is on February 7th; the Lunar Festival is scheduled for February 5th to February 23th." And during this festival you can simply speak to the "Elders" around Azeroth, hence completing a quest which yields a LOT of experience. I do not know if the experience from completing these "quests" scale with levels, but it's worth a shot. I remember getting about 8.9k experience from each elder quest - during the last Lunar Festival, but I cannot remember what level I was.

If you have three friends, one being a warlock, they can escort and summon you around to find more elders. There are 50 Elders around, and using thottbot and wowhead will help you finding most of them.

Lumphoof · 12/18/07, 9:31 AM

Originally Posted by Kink

I just want to say thanks for posting about LughtHeaded and Tomtom on the first page of this thread. Those two mods alone have saved me more time than anything else. I highly recommend them to everyone who is levelling an alt, be it twink or not. Or even your frist main!

Another good mod is DoubleWide, which expands the quest interface window. I also like TourGuide, which provides you a good "check list" for quest's. TourGuide is still in development, and I have not found a good user guide for it, but when I tried it out, it worked like a charm - it ran me through the Ghostland quests in a very optimal path.

If you are Horde, having a high level run you through the Traitor's Destruction quest chain at L15 is a great idea, you get a very nice blue weapon which should last you to L30. I slapped Fiery on the Sin'dorei Warblade, and I'm thrilled with the results. I used the white Firery weapon to 15, Sin'dorei to 30, when I will pick up a weapon from SM.

Covertghost · 12/18/07, 9:52 AM

Since the haste rating on druids seems to teeter out at around level 20ish, anyone tried stacking massive amounts of spell damage from about 20-35?

Rockstar · 12/18/07, 10:23 AM

Originally Posted by Kink

I just want to say thanks for posting about LughtHeaded and Tomtom on the first page of this thread. Those two mods alone have saved me more time than anything else. I highly recommend them to everyone who is levelling an alt, be it twink or not. Or even your frist main!

I'd like to third this (!). Being able to bring up a set of Wowhead comments, as well as get precise co-ordinates in relation to your in-game position is an incredible boon. This helped my 50-70 levelling immensely, and reduced any 'accidental' deaths - and thus my levelling time - from taking on quests I couldn't reasonably solo.

A good tip for those who wake up early for work would be to log on and check the AH for reasonably priced equip with low bid and high buyout prices; and to clear up the ones on Short/Medium (put up the night before by rather optimistic sellers) which may be useful for your characters before all the stereotypical student-gamers wake up (and yes I realise there are exceptions). Whilst twinking your character is quite obvious - logging on before work for a few minutes does help those who are either short of money, or those like myself who twink and level multiple characters depending on which ones have restXP, and thus need to keep gathering reasonably large amounts of gear. It can cut down your reasonably high expenses when levelling multiple professions while gearing those characters in the latest equip.

xiaoxin21 · 12/18/07, 10:23 AM

Originally Posted by Covertghost

Since the haste rating on druids seems to teeter out at around level 20ish, anyone tried stacking massive amounts of spell damage from about 20-35?

I tried leveling my druid as balanced speced before and I dont quite like the result. You have to find and replace gear on the AH pretty often and lots of downtime drinking/eating/bandaging. You kill mobs really fast while your mana is still up.

Feral spec on the other hand have virtually no downtime, lots of quest gear to use, and only slightly less damage(might be more if you buy all the of the tiger on the AH), also a mini travel form at lvl20-21 if you take feline swiftness.

Duilliath · 12/18/07, 10:31 AM

Originally Posted by xiaoxin21

I tried leveling my druid as balanced speced before and I dont quite like the result. You have to find and replace gear on the AH pretty often and lots of downtime drinking/eating/bandaging. You kill mobs really fast while your mana is still up.

Feral spec on the other hand have virtually no downtime, lots of quest gear to use, and only slightly less damage(might be more if you buy all the of the tiger on the AH), also a mini travel form at lvl20-21 if you take feline swiftness.

I was stupid enough (or persistent, if you prefer to put a positive spin on things) to level my second druid as Balance. Reasoning being that I'd seen Feral with the first one.

In the end, I started twinking her just to get a *reasonable* killing pace. Until level 42-43ish, don't even *think* about going Balance. Period.

You might kill at the same speed of that twinked mage or twinked shadow priest or what have you, but you're missing one vital, nay - essential, tool; mana regeneration. Priests get Spirit Tap. Warlocks Life Tap. Mages at least get their own water as well as cheaper frost spells / mana refund on crit. Druids get... bugger all until mid 30s where they get a few cheaper spells and innervate + dreamstate around level 40-43.

Without twinking, you'll empty half your mana pool to kill a single mob. With twinking, you'll be able to kill a couple more but you'll still be drinking as much as you spend your time killing stuff.

Voley · 12/18/07, 10:35 AM

I always wondered, whats better for a rogue twink when you level it, ap/crit or stam/agi on pants?

maddfez · 12/18/07, 10:52 AM

So, I discovered yesterday that the epic engineering helmets have no level requirement, just the 350 skill to use. Also discovered that you can zone into heroic Blood Furnace at 63. The result...

http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/ch...otem&n=Bubblun

Regarding heroics, I would theorize that the minimum level to zone in is the same as the normal mode of the dungeon. With the change to getting heroic keys at honored, I'd imagine you could do this at 58 or 59.

/edited to fix the link

Pyros · 12/18/07, 12:43 PM

Originally Posted by Lumphoof

If you are Horde, having a high level run you through the Traitor's Destruction quest chain at L15 is a great idea, you get a very nice blue weapon which should last you to L30. I slapped Fiery on the Sin'dorei Warblade, and I'm thrilled with the results. I used the white Firery weapon to 15, Sin'dorei to 30, when I will pick up a weapon from SM.

While the weapon is good, unless you can't find a 70 to run you thru instances, it shouldn't last you more than until lvl 20. At 20, you run SFK and get one of the new blues there. [Arced War Axe] or [Haunting Blade] rock it.

There's actually plenty of good "overpowered" blues in low level instances now, since they lowered the level reqs on them and replaced most greens with better itemized blues.

Schnappi · 12/18/07, 2:06 PM

Originally Posted by Pyros

There's actually plenty of good "overpowered" blues in low level instances now, since they lowered the level reqs on them and replaced most greens with better itemized blues.

Unfortunately not everything is retuned for lower levels. I wrote this on the European R&D forums (and got all of 1 reply :s)

Most of the Azerothian dungeons got their levels retuned (read: lowered) with the latest patch. The fact that all mobs in the instance vary by 3 or 4 levels at most makes for a better gameplay experience when compared to the level ranges before 2.3.

There is a problem with the retuned levels though. The related quests havent been changed. This leads to 2 possible issues:

a) Quest rewards can be a bit overpowered because you are able to complete the dungeon (and the quest) a few levels earlier than originally intended for the reward. This isnt too much of an issue because it has always been possible to get quest rewards prematurely with the help of a high level friend. We can perhaps call this DIY Twinking.

The same can be said about loot. But boss loot is still subject to "requires lvl X" specifications. And again, it has always been possible to ride a higher level player's back to get is as soon as possible.

b) Quests can be unavailable at the time you should hit the dungeon. By the time you can accept the quest the related dungeon is already trivialized by your level. This has a very bad effect on your gameplay experience. Fighting through a dungeon filled with grey and green mobs is not fun or challenging. The non-challenging-green-mob-problem is why Blizzard changed the levels to begin with. Yet to finish certain dungeon quests you have to do exactly that.

As an example:
RFK is now 24-27. It's very fun to do in a 25-26 group.
The main Horde quest "A Vengeful Fate" requires lvl 29 to accept. Another one "Going, Going, Guano!" requires lvl 30. RFK in a lvl 30 group is a non-challenging snooze fest.

I suggest the following changes:
a) (Optional) Lower the ilvl of the loot to something more fitting the new levels. A lvl 27 boss shouldnt really drop loot that requires lvl 31. This is optional because it doesnt change item balance or gameplay. It would just feel more appropriate.

b) Lower the quest levels. Right now you face the choice of either not doing the quest (and possibly missing out on great loot and xp) or you can slug through trivialized mobs. Both options are quite bad. Also, there is nothing in-game to point you towards dungeons suited for your level now. Until this is solved I recommend people to take a look at Instances by level - WoWWiki - Your guide to the World of Warcraft to find the new dungeon levels.

Lumphoof · 12/18/07, 2:53 PM

Originally Posted by Pyros

While the weapon is good, unless you can't find a 70 to run you thru instances, it shouldn't last you more than until lvl 20. At 20, you run SFK and get one of the new blues there. [Arced War Axe] or [Haunting Blade] rock it.

There's actually plenty of good "overpowered" blues in low level instances now, since they lowered the level reqs on them and replaced most greens with better itemized blues.

I really like the Haunting Blade, I'm just not sure if its a large enough upgrade to warrant farming the instance. I'm trying to minimize the amount of instance running I do, focusing on solo questing as much as possible. I can muster up a 70 to run me through an instance easily, but I'd like to save that for 'real big upgrades'. I'm hoping to not set foot in an instance again until I hit 30.

◊ Cowbell · 12/18/07, 3:56 PM

Originally Posted by Schnappi

As an example:
RFK is now 24-27. It's very fun to do in a 25-26 group.
The main Horde quest "A Vengeful Fate" requires lvl 29 to accept. Another one "Going, Going, Guano!" requires lvl 30. RFK in a lvl 30 group is a non-challenging snooze fest.

To derail a little bit, this is a really great example and the exact instance that made me scratch my head. I tanked RFK on my prot paladin alt last week (so it wasn't like I got drug around as a low-level healer by the rest of my group) at level 26, couldn't use the quest scroll that drops from the last boss until level 28 and by the time I could equip the level 31 drop I won, I pretty much had better quest rewards.

They did a really good job with making Azeroth levelling a lot less painful, but there's still some stuff that needs to be looked at. However, I don't think this is very high on the priority list and honestly, since even non-twinked alts blow through that stuff so quickly I don't think it's really important in the long run.