Who to Boost?

Well, decision time is nigh. The pre-orders for WoD, including the level 90 character boost, have arrived. True, you don’t have to use that boost right away. You can hang onto it as long as you wish. I thought I had my mind made up, but then I got to thinking … you get fully leveled professions if you boost a character that’s already above level 60. That could really come in handy. I already have Tailoring x2, Enchanting x2, JC, Alch, and Mining maxed on Kargath/Norgannon. That leaves me with plenty of professions still to go. My recent foray into RaF has left me with every class at 85 or above. RaF boosted characters include a rogue, a shaman, and two druids .. the three classes (besides monk, which I have at 89) that I haven’t gotten to max level yet. They are pretty much not a consideration. I NEED those five levels to, um, learn how to play them … >.> Plus it seems silly to boost a character only 5 levels. If I had any stuck in Outland … well, let’s look at what I DO have.

Faranell, level 1 undead mage
Averry joked that he was surprised I didn’t have an Edwin anywhere, so in response, I created one! I considered RaFing him, but decided to leave him alone and give him the free boost. The only real argument against it is, well, I already have a mage at 90 and another one at 85. And that’s not even counting the Alliance one who is 86!

That’s really the only one I was considering boosting under 60. So how about some 60+?

Rathanos, level 85 BE prot paladin
I wanted a separate pally to learn prot on. So I did some dungeons from level 15 to maybe level 30. Then I quested. Then I RaF boosted him from 55 to 85. So … yeah. I still don’t know what I’m doing other than throwing my shield, bashing hammer of the righteous, and uh … wait, maybe that’s shield of the righteous? See?!? I have no clue. Argument for = he’s my wannabe scribe. Argument against = it’s dumb to boost a character only 5 levels, and I can always transfer my fully leveled scribe over from Drak when I have a few extra bucks.

Giska, level 75 orc monk
Proud member of the DPS crew over at The Warchief’s Command Board. Also my future leatherworker. It’s taking forever to level her because I am keeping up on her crafting as I go. But really, other than not having to finish the leatherworking, I can’t think of a good reason to boost her. She’s got heirlooms, she’s got the monk xp bonus, she’s got 15 levels to go.

Oslen, level 40 undead hunter
Obviously, I would level him to 60+ first. He’s my engineer. I don’t have another hunter besides the original character Junahu. However, I DO have a fully leveled engineer … wasting away on Drak. Boost Oslen or transfer Arelin? There’s no Arelin listed on Norgannon, so he would get to keep his name. Hmmmm … *checks bank account*

I think that covers all of the professions on K/N. Kirgra is slowly leveling her BS, and is already 90, so that one is off the table.

Naeladi, level 77 tauren warrior
Still on Drak, and a possible candidate because of her BS. But … she would have to be boosted AND transferred, because she’s on that PvP cesspool.

What about Alliance?

K … wait, what the heck is her name again? Oh yeah. Kriann, level 68 dwarf ele shaman
Well … she’s my scribe there. I still don’t have a shaman at 90, although I RaF boosted one to 85. I play her so much I forgot her name. Yeah. Still … level/prof wise, she’s a decent candidate.

Kroy, level 58 human rogue
He’d only need a couple of levels. He’s an engineer, BUT … so is Ragle. So he’s redundant for professions. I don’t have a rogue at 90, but again, I RaF boosted one to 85.

So, uh … what do you think? One of the above, or someone else entirely!

P.S. I am NOT paying $60 to boost a second character. This is a one-time, free-with-the-xpac deal for me.

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Goodbye to RaF, Yeah

Finally! Officially my RaF doesn’t end until sometime midmorning on Wednesday, but in reality, it ended yesterday. Between work and raiding, I wouldn’t have time before Wednesday to get any more done anyway. Plus, I really didn’t have more to do. I don’t want to boost all of my characters, I want to do SOME solo leveling still! So let’s take a look at how things ended up.

My last pair, Vorta and Crazbi, needed to get to at least 43 over the weekend. But as I got to thinking about it, and since I had time this weekend, I decided that getting them to Outland would guarantee that I could boost one of my pre-existing characters to 85 as well. So that’s what they did.

So here’s the tally:

On Drak, I got Wega to 78 and used the bonus levels to boost my pre-existing warrior Naeladi to 77. Sadly, since the guild kinda died and the mega-combination of six servers transformed Drak into a high-population PvP cesspool, this was kind of a waste. I moved Dyle (now Paddey) and Adryen off the server this weekend, while I still had the second account available to toss them ginvites without the help of a second person.

The majority of my work went into building up my stable on Kargath/Norgannon. The character count there is now quite impressive, although there is still much to be done.
I have a laundry list of 85s there now to level through Pandaria:
Oranis, frost mage and GM of Lemon Squares
Alestav, rogue
Vozzkaz, shaman (leveled solely from granted levels, she has an ilevel of 0 and no spec, HA)
Hunahuna, balance druid
Vorta, feral druid
Rathanos, prot paladin (pre-existing, boosted from 55-85)

PLUS since I transferred Adryen, he is 88, so he needs a couple levels. Then there’s Giska at 72, Oslee the warrior who got the leftover levels and went from 34 to 50, and Oslen the hunter who is something like 32. I did delete my level 30 priest once I transferred Dyle over.

It was fun, but … I don’t know if I’d do it again. Running two instances of WoW at once really strained my video card. (I’m on the lookout for a good deal on a better one.) Plus, since it is a limited-time deal, I felt obligated to spend my free time working on getting as many levels as I could. I wanted a zhevra, and I wanted to have every class at 85 that I didn’t already have. Mission accomplished on both of those counts. And really, since I was changing servers, it came at a good time, because I could build up my alt army there.

Oh yeah! Side bonus … my personal guild Lemon Squares went from level 1 to 10 because of this project! With some help from Trout’s level 90 priest and a little from Slice as well.

Ok I’m a Little Bit Sick of Outland

Two weeks left in RaF and to be honest, although I’ve enjoyed creating new characters and running around in pairs leveling superfast, I’m kind of ready for it to be over. I have all of these OTHER characters, plus the new ones, who all want to be leveled. I have just one set to do after the set I’m on but … well, I got bogged down this weekend. I had some crashing issues on Saturday, after I had already had to deal with a griefer who sent me running from Silithus, where I had intended to level 54-58, to Blasted Lands instead. But I got through it, and the Tauren ladies made their way to Outland.

They only made it to 62 though, when I had intended to get to Northrend over the weekend. I just … too much raiding …. aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I had to take a break and just watch tv. No interactive plz.

I’m sort of regretting the time I put into Wega now, considering I’ve pretty much abandoned that server group. Oh wellz.

Also, Garrosh is a big fat jerk. (No, not Averry, the one at the end of SoO)

Outland Again

So, after my last RaF pair finished on Friday, I made a new set. I learned a few things on the previous run which have made this one go faster … so much faster that Alestav and his buddy Edgabran rode through the Dark Portal last night.

My plan is to have them fully leveled sometime Sunday and be working on the next pair. I’d like to get two more pairs done before my time is up late next month.

I don’t do the usual multiboxing strategy of having both characters act in tandem. Could I? Probably. But I’m too lazy to set it up. I have one character handle the killing while the other is on follow. When the second character needs to pick up/hand in quests or loot quest items, I tab over to his window. It may be less elegant than true multiboxing, but it requires no setup other than a convenient ‘follow’ keybind. With this in mind, here are the things I have learned to make leveling go faster:

1. Use a pet class as your main questing dude, i.e. warlock or hunter. It makes no difference whether the character is on the main account or the RaF account. And no, frost mages don’t count. I already tried that with Oranis. Sure it’s doable, but the pet doesn’t tank, so there’s a lot of downtime. He had to port to town often to keep up on his first aid training. Lesson learned.

2. Aside from the obvious ‘wear as many heirlooms as possible’, you should also make sure to log out in an inn. That rest xp is very much worth it!

3. Don’t be afraid to skip quests! Some, like the one to pick Banshee’s Bells in Eastern Plaguelands, just take too long when you have to pick up so many items on each character. For fastest leveling, kill x things are the easiest and fastest to complete. If you’re on a quest that a lot of other people are on and everything is dead, just move on to another. You level so fast you can often skip ahead to the next hub after doing only one or two quests at your current spot.

4. Move to the next zone as soon as you can. You’ll get more xp by doing level-appropriate quests, and with full heirlooms there will be no issues with having to kill yellow or even orange mobs.

I think that’s about it. I’ve been keeping up with 10 levels per day on this pair pretty easily, without playing them on Tuesday because it was raid night.

I have everything on this server now except for druid and shaman. I think. Let me count … DK, Lock, 2 paladins (because of transferring Van), hunter, warrior, priest, mage, rogue, monk … yeah. Factor in the xp transfer from the characters on the RaF account, and I might end up with another double by the time it’s all over!