Resubscribing to WoW, going from dual to 5 box

[isa23]

Hi, first post. I used to 2 box with a lock and priest / DK and priest but have been away from WoW since a couple months after WoTLK release.

I'd like to resubscribe and go to a 5 box setup, but want to make sure I do this right to get the most from RAF etc.

Here's what I have right now:

Account 1 (same email address as acct 2): WOTLK license, just resubscribed.
74 Warlock
72 DK

Account 2 (same email address as acct 1): WOTLK license, not currently subscribed.
72 Priest
23 Druid
11 Pally

My plant was just to buy the digital Battle Chest license for the other 3 accounts and upgrade to WOTLK later. Any thoughts on how to do the RAF with Acct 1 & 2 already registered?

Also, any thoughts on how to make use of the characters I already have? I don't have to use them, but they are there already if it'll help.

My objective is to be able to level, do instances and generally have fun with the game without being dependent on groups. Doing heroics would be cool, and back in the day I did the 49 / 59 battlegrounds for months on my lock. I'd like to do any/ all of that but am not likely to get incredibly technical with instance running.

Current thoughts on team possibilities are:
Pally/ 3 shamans / Druid (seems like a great instance team)
Pally / 4 priests (sounds great from what I've read here)

I enjoy warlock a lot and would like to have a team with a few of them but am not sure about how well they would do (maybe Pal/ 3 lock / druid).

Also, I enjoy the vanilla WoW content a lot so I'm happy with leveling but would rather move quickly and level 2-3 teams than spend forever on one.

Hardware should not be an issue, running Intel i7 930 / 6gb ram / GTX 470 with water cooling, so stable & cool at 4 ghz. I have not bought pwnBoxer, but plan to asap. I don't think keyclone (which I already own) is going to do as much for me.

Thanks a lot!

[Tim]

Hey there, welcome aboard!

So my first question really is what your goal is once you hit 80. PVE? PVP? Answer that and lets go from there

[isa23]

Originally Posted by Tim

Hey there, welcome aboard!

So my first question really is what your goal is once you hit 80. PVE? PVP? Answer that and lets go from there

I suspect it's PvP since I enjoyed it so much in WoW before, also have been playing Warhammer due to the PvP, but I find that game to be much less well executed than WoW.

I am not an experienced arena player, but before I much preferred BGs to Arena. I may change my mind now that I won't be PUG-ing arenas, but I like the big fields and tactical objectives a lot.

[isa23]

Alright, just bought PwnBoxer and sent out my RAF invites. Will RAF work for my existing #2 account, since it is on the same email as the #1 account? I set up 3 new gmail accts for the others (and have a 4th set up in reserve, in case I need one) just in case I can't reg multiples under a single email / Battlenet acct.

[Tim]

For RAF, I would use all separate email accounts, and do this:

Your old acct #1 -> Invite new account #2
Activate your new acct #2

Log into your new acct #2 -> Invite new account #3
Activate your new acct #3

Log into your new acct #3 -> Invite new account #4
etc etc


Do that.

Also, BGs are becoming the "New Thing" in Cataclysm, way over arenas, so crafting a new team to focus heavily on BGs would seem the sensible thing to do.

[isa23]

Ok, sounds good. From what I can see of the RAF program, I'll lose the possibility of using my existing #2 account since it's been registered in the past. I may just do something like
Acct 1 (existing) > Acct 3 > Acct 4
and then
Acct 2 (existing) > Acct 5

so my new accounts have the exp bonus and my old ones have at least some free level bonuses.

Any ideas on a BG-centered team composition that's still going to be able to do at least the basic instances and have a decent time leveling?

[Snowy42]

Originally Posted by isa23

Acct 1 (existing) > Acct 3 > Acct 4
and then
Acct 2 (existing) > Acct 5

That's going to be the best way to do it, as you've already got 2 accounts. If you were willing to spend a bit more (understandably not) the BEST method of RaF, from what i've seen/heard/done, is doing it more like this:

A > B > C
A > D > E
That is, A recruits B who recruits C
and A recruits D who recruits E.

That way, you can get a char on your main account (A) to boost the slaves (BCDE) through instances from 8-60 (8 is the lowest level you can start instances - RFK)

When you get the team to 60, you will have 30 grantable levels (60/2) on both B and D (total of 60), therefore, granting A a full level 60. It is DEFINATELY the fastest way to do it, and the best way to get the most out of RaF.

[Tim]

Also you might want to use the DK on your first account to power level your team, and maybe consider getting an extra acct just so the DK can power level 5 other guys by rotating 1 in/out of a 5 man group.

[isa23]

Thanks Tim! That's what I'm doing currently, but only have 5 accts total. Not sure why I'd need the 6th acct, could you clarify?

My thinking was that the RAF bonus levels would be used to get a free lvl 59 paladin and shaman or druid on Acct #1 with the DK. That way the 71 DK can powerlevel and then just get some boosted characters.

I also have a 59 DK on my Acct #2 that can quickly boost a few characters on my Acct #1 up to 10 or 15 to make the most of the RAF levels.

I have it set up like this:

Acct #1 (71 DK, 73 Lock) > Acct #3 > Acct #4
Acct #1 (72 Priest, 59 DK) > Acct #5

So Acct #1 should get the most free levels due to a full load from #3 and the cascading levels that #3 will be granted when #4 boosts one of the #3 characters.

Got my first team up to level 33 in the progressions recommended here:
Quest til 8th (just did these as a 5-man even level group so I end up with an 8th level to grant levels to on Acct #1)
Ragefire 8-10
Shadowfang 10-20
SM 20-33 (planning to do til 45, but may try another instance or two for variety)

After that, plans are to do:
Scholomance 45-55+
May do a few other vanilla instances (Stratholme, Dire Maul, etc. Probably skipping Blackrock entirely) to get to 60th and postpone buying 3 Burning Crusade upgrades for another few weeks. It's only $60 though, so if that's going to slow me down I'd rather go the quick route.

[Tim]

Oh I was just saying if you had a 6th account with a high level DK, you could use that DK to power level yourself through low lvl instances

By the way, at 58 you can do Ramparts pretty well until Blood Furnance, and do BF until 64, and then Mana Tombs soley until 68, and then short Shadow Labs until 70, at which point you should be able to solo Utgarde Keep with your 5man team.