[WoW Guide] RAF Boosting/Cascade Chaining

[Ualaa]

You can RAF (Refer a Friend) from your account management page, for your account, on the world of warcraft main page.

I always suggest linking like this:
A - B - C - D - E

To form a chain like this, you would sent an RAF invite to yourself, from Account A's account management. Then use the code emailed to you to create a trial/RAF account. Then use a retail cd-key to upgrade the trial account. Then the repeat the process, but each time do it from the new accounts page.

The Battlechests are probably the best option for accounts which you intend to keep. They are marginally cheaper then Classic Warcraft + Burning Crusade. I would imagine Blizzard will put out a Classic + Burning Crusade + Wrath box at some point after the release of Cataclysm.




The account with the best boosting toon will be referred to as Account A.

The best booster is usually a Prot. Paladin, although any tank class is a strong choice too (Death Knight, Feral Druid or Warrior).

An AoE class is good, but they don't have the survivability to boost in the more difficult dungeons.




They have changed the granting levels.

A toon RAF'd to 60th can now grant 30 levels (instead of 29 levels at 59th).

With boosting, you can go 1st to 60th in 10-12 hours /played.

A week is more common, for experienced but not hardcore players.




Let's say (over the course of 3 months of RAF) you boost a 4x group of:
Druids, Hunters, Mages, Paladins, Shamans and Warlocks...

That is 6 toons, or (6x30) 180 levels to grant.




A Has 0 RAF Toons and a Booster.
B Has 6 Toons and grants A 180 levels.
C Has 6 Toons and grants B 180 levels.
D Has 6 Toons and grants C 180 levels.
E Has 6 Toons and grants D 180 levels.




But we have cascade linked our accounts into a chain.

B Has received 180 levels from C and can give an extra 90 levels to A
C Has received 180 levels from D and can give an extra 90 levels to B
D Has received 180 levels from E and can give an extra 90 levels to C




And...

B Has received 90 more levels from C and can give 45 more to A
C Has received 90 more levels from D and can give 45 more to B




And...
B Has received 45 more levels from C and can give another 22 to A.




So A in total has 180+90+45+22... 337 levels.
A boosted: Druids, Hunters, Mages, Paladins, Shamans and Warlocks.

Let's assume A boosted with a DK.
And that you are only interested in playing the six classes we boosted, each as a 5-box group.

337 divided by 6 = 56.16.

On A, we will need to create one of each of those six classes.
We will want to level them to 4th.
And ideally be 19+ bubbles into 4th level.
We do not want them to ding 5th, from exploration exp's if we move them about.

We can grant levels to any toon our level or lower.
But cannot grant levels to a toon of 60th or higher level.
So a toon who is 59th, can be level granted to 60th with a 60th or higher toon.

56 granted levels to a level 4 toon, makes the new toon 60th level after granted levels.
And they'll still be 19 bubbles into their level, probably 61st by the time they arrive in Hellfire.




This is from an Alliance perspective...

1st to 10th, Quest with booster in the party.
10th to 16th, Deadmines runs.
16th to 20th, Stockades runs.
20th to 45th, Scarlet Monastery runs (slow at the end, but better then Sunken Temple or Zul'Farrak)
45th to 55th, Stratholme - the more eastern entrance.
55th to 60th, Ramparts.




Two options at this point for boosting further (no RAF beyond 60th).

The faster first.

Group two toons together - it needs to be a group.
AoE of some sort is much faster, Arcane Explosion is ideal.
Equip as much +Sta (green AH gear) as possible on the AoE toon.

Take these two toons to Borean Tundra.
Meet three Shaman's there (any pet class works, but Shammies are the best).
Find the rhino's (watch for the Elite rider on a rhino, kill with shammies on sight).

Prepare the Shammies... Magma Totems x3 on one key. Stoneclaw x1 round-robin.
If you have dual-spec Resto, E.Shield on the mage helps.
Have them auto follow the mage.

Mage runs around AoE spamming - pisses off several rhino's.
Drop Stoneclaw and Magma's.
When Stoneclaw dies, drop another until all Rhino's are dead.
Heal up and repeat.

Important - A group of toons who tag (damage) a mob get full experience for its kill if the only other damage done to the mob is by pets. And totems are considered pets. Do not help with kills (nukes) on your higher toons.

Note - Rhino meat, in stacks of 5, sells very well on the AH. It is used in a Dalaran cooking daily. If you loot everything, you will easily triple the 60-70 process.

Trick - On your AoE Pull LV 60 Toon (Mage), set loot to Master Looter. Have yourself as the Master Looter. Choose to "Opt out of loot". Set the loot threshold to Green and above. Any corpse with a Green/Blue/Purple on it, will sparkle for you to "master loot" it to a party member. Every other corpse will not sparkle.




I did 60th to 70th on a Mage/Druid in 12.5 hours of play time, spread over 3 days (its pretty boring). A DVD going as a distraction is almost required to retain your sanity. I had full rested on the toons and ran out (1.5 levels gained) in 40 minutes of pulls -- without any rested, this would have taken an extra 40 minutes.

This only works for two toons at once. But even doing it twice, is faster then instance runs. Every piece of gear a fresh 60 gains in Outland will be crap compared to the quest pieces a fresh 70 gains in Northrend; the only Outland gear that will survive past 75th is T5/T6 raid pieces. You're not losing out on gearing, by boosting.




The slower method but which works for the whole party is to continue with instances. You want mostly melee type mobs. Underbog works from 60-66th, and Black Morass from 66th to 70th (just don't start the event).




And if you don't have a booster for any level range, questing is faster experience then anything else. Battlegrounds will likely beat pure grinding without quest turn ins for the mobs you grind upon.

[Tim]

Good stuff! I've made a couple grammatical/word flow changes and put it here: Ualaa’s Recruit-A-Friend guide to multiboxing|Multiboxing.com

[Iru]

As I'm still slightly confused by this, can someone explain the following: other than for the toons in account A, when do I grant levels to the next round of toons?

I start out with a group of 4 toons - one per account (B-E) & all the same class - and level them to 60 solely through instance runs lead by a toon on account A.

Do I then repeat that process with the next class or do I give them a head start by granting them to 30? Also, I get the logic of creating the 5th toon of each class on A once I'm done, but how am I supposed to use grantable levels from account E on a toon on account A when there's no direct link between them?

Am I missing the fact that granted levels create grantable levels just like those gained through questing etc?

[Ualaa]

You have several options for how to set up your accounts. The best choice will depend on several variables, including:

- The number of accounts you already own.
- If you are going to be keeping all of the RAF accounts.
- If you have a high toon to boost with.
- Where you want the granted levels.
- How many teams you are going with.

I suggest the A -- B -- C -- D -- E, because the majority of people who start boxing have already played a lot of warcraft, generally as a 1x boxer. So most will have a toon who can boost fairly well on their existing (A) account.

The A-E chain, will let you grant 30 levels on A-D, per level 60 toon that A boosts. Further, you will cascade granted levels based on levels granted to you, resulting in the most total levels gained.

Generally speaking if you already have 5 toons (from one-boxing) on Account A, you don't mind if (A) boosts, which means they level no toons on their own account, and are only receiving one high level toon, via grants, per two toons boosted.

If you are going 5 brand new accounts, on a new server, the chain is also the best plan, as the granted levels are spread across the team.

I would generally recommend granting levels at the end of the RAF period (but before RAF expires). And to start with the whichever account has been referred the furthest number of hops. If you do a chain, start with E, then do D etc. The reason is because you gain the ability to grant levels based even on levels granted to your toon.

If you were:
A -- C -- D
B -- E
I would do grants on D first, and then C/E next.

[Iru]

I wasn't asking about the order of account chaining - I understood that - I was more asking about the process for WHEN you grant levels after the first set of toons gets to 60.

It seems to me that every toon on account E is going to have to be boosted all the way to 60 no matter what, as there's no account to grant them levels. If that's the case when do I grant levels on the other accounts as doing so immediately breaks the 3x xp on the account E toon

[Ualaa]

I would wait until the toons are all 60th.

As in, use the granted levels on toons who are leveled entirely via granted levels.

If you are boosting a set of toons, you would not want to grant this set any levels. But once the set is 60th, they will want to grant levels.

The easiest method is to wait until you are done boosting teams.
And every toon is already 60th.
You'll get a number of extra toons as a bonus.

[eqdude]

Originally Posted by Ualaa

You can RAF (Refer a Friend) from your account management page, for your account, on the world of warcraft main page.

I always suggest linking like this:
A - B - C - D - E

I agree that this gives the most benefit through the chain for every level gained by "E" However, "B" will only be able to grant lvl 60 to half as many toons on "A"

For instance, if you build 6 lvl 60's on B, then you will only be able to grant 3 lvl 60's to A using Ualaa's chain. If you are boosting your characters to 60, then you may need to grant a lvl 60 on your main account in order to create the team of five characters that you prefer.

If you are going to use characters that you have already built as the fifth character on each team, then it's no big deal. But, for example, if you are building five shammies and you don't have a shammy on your main account, then it becomes a problem.