Refine Your Skill And Hit 80 In Record Time

We’ve been hinting at this for weeks now. Gavin and Law have been testing out a new way of leveling from 1 to 80 and it has exceeded our expectations. There comes a time when you just have to admit that you have to really stay on the front end of the curve in order to keep dominating, and this time it wasn’t us.

The new dungeon finder system brings the power of instance leveling to anyone and everyone. And even without the RaF bonuses, it’s faster than leveling solo. Plus, as we mentioned yesterday in the article “How to NOT be a Nub”, you’ll end up being a far better player on your new level 80 toon if you level in instances than if you go the solo route.

Leveling solo can leave you with a lot of bad habits as a DPS; and for tanks and healers it’s even worse.

You will hardly ever see anyone leveling in a healing or tank spec, so you end up with a level 80 toon that you have no idea how to play as a tank or healer – having been DPS the whole time up to 80.  But that has changed and the days of the solo leveler have become obsolete, even if you don’t know it yet.

Oh yeah, you can scoff if you like. When the car was first invented, folks laughed too. But in just a few decades the horse drawn carriage went from being the primary form of transportation to something you do out of nostalgia. the dungeon finder system has made solo leveling something that is just far less efficient and it won’t be long before most players figure that out. You can get on the cutting edge now, or be left in the dust. And WoW changes and moves a whole lot faster than RL.

Besides just being faster, as well as letting you play your desired spec (such as prot or resto) instance leveling also gives you far better gear and a lot more gold as you level up. The rewards from instance quests are far better than those from solo quests. As a matter of fact the xp per quest is about double and you can do quite a few that have blue gear as rewards. Throw in the extra gold from those quests as well as the enhanced loot from mobs and bosses in instances and you’ll be richer and far better geared when you hit 80.

That means you won’t be the dude starting heroics in quest greens doing pathetic DPS or struggling to keep people alive or hold threat. Most of your items will be blue at a minimum and the whole term “quest greens” will be far below you. You will go right from leveling straight into heroics and be able to hold your own while you rack up the 232 level epics and beyond.

Now, if you’re going to do instance leveling, you still need to do it the right way. And it’s not enough just to queue up the random dungeon finder and hit it that way. The ONLY way to use instance leveling is to combine the randoms with the dungeon quests as well. That’s where the real speed comes in. The problem is that those instance quests are scattered out all over the world of Azeroth and you could reasonably spend hours looking them up and chasing them down. But that’s where our test comes in.

Our good friend Dugi has developed the first instance leveling guide. If you’ve used our horde leveling guide before you know how much easier it makes everything. People tell us all the time they miss the guide being there to tell them every little step once they hit 80, that they almost feel lonely without it. Dugi’s dungeon leveling guide uses a version of the mod we used for Gavin’s guide, with a few neat perks of his own.

Dugi’s mod is highly refined with a slick UI. It makes moving between guide segments really easy, it’s quite a step above all of the other guide mods on the market. But once you get past the ease of use, you get to the real meat of Dugis dungeon leveling guide.

The guide will lead you all the way from 1-80 doing only instances and their quests. And trying to do it without a guide like this would be mind-boggling to say the least. Most instances will have quests from several different zones, or even continents, and the quest givers are typically in out of the way places and give you prerequisite quests that are hard to chain without a lot of time spent on Wowhead. Forget that, I have better things to do with my time, like level fast, and Dugi’s guide does all the heavy lifting for you.

And if you do happen to go ahead and do a RaF account and use Heirloom items, you can just move forward into the next dungeon segment if you find yourself doing dungeons several levels below you. So this is the one guide on the market that will work for anyone, at any level – it leaves no one out in the cold to fend for themselves.

So that’s where we’ve been the last few weeks, testing Dugi’s awesome dungeon leveling guide. At first, we were both a little skeptical to say the least. We’ve been leveling toons for years and Gavin broke the world record using our horde leveling guide, and we’ve both fiddled with powerleveling in dungeons. While powerleveling works like a charm, it’s also kind of a pain – not to mention a bit of a bore.

But after just a few dungeons we knew Dugi had hit the nail on the head and made our solo guide virtually obsolete. He’s even got some special bonuses in store for those of you who want to upgrade from Gavin’s Horde guide (which will no longer be available) to the new dungeon leveling system. It takes a lot to impress Gavin, but once you try dungeon leveling with all the dungeon quests built into a guide – there is just no way you’ll ever go back to solo hacking your way to 80.

Maybe the best part is really getting to know your new toon. Playing all the way to 80 as a healer and a tank has been a nice change of pace. Sure, some groups are a little lamer than others, but that’s to be expected. Some solo quests suck more than others too. None of this would be possible, of course, without the random finder. Just last year this would have been silly to even try. Putting together a group for Maraudon? Forget it, it aint happening – but the random dungeon finder can set it up.

I almost forgot another bonus. One of the reasons people don’t mess with the old world dungeons much is because they never did them and don’t know their way around. Dugi went above and beyond on this one. Dugi’s dungeon leveling guide includes a map for every single dungeon in the entire game. Plus, each map has very clear markers for boss locations and quest item mobs and pickups.

The maps alone are worth the price of admission for me. WC is a pain in the fiddle faddle even if you’ve done it several (hundred) times like I have. Throw in all those instance quests all over the world and make it easy for me to pick all those up, now we’ve got a winner.

Now I know what some of you are thinking: “I’m not going to spend money on some guide!”

And I used to be the same way, I know exactly how you feel – at least I used to. But then WoW became a real hobby. I have other hobbies, like golf, that cost me a TON just to get started. Then there are green fees ($50), a new putter ($150), some sweet shoes ($125), but shooting in the 70’s? Priceless.

I can’t directly attribute a better golf score to the shoes, but it certainly seems to help. Most hobbies are like that, you spend a lot of money because whatever it is you are buying increases your enjoyment in some way. I know this dude who plays paintball and he’s always getting some new gun or gear, but I have no idea if it makes him a more [deadly?] paintball player.

A guide for WoW is no different – or is it? The very first money I ever spent on WoW that didn’t go to Blizz went to Dugi. I had long since gotten over being cheap about my hobbies. And I used Dugi’s original guides for quite a while until I met Gavin. And I can say from personal experience that the fastest way from Nub to Pro starts with good information.

Without Dugi’s guides it would have taken me much longer to become Lawbringer. We surpassed some of that original advice, but frankly I never level without a guide of some kind running – which is why we built gavin’s guide in the first place. Gavin and I both wanted an in-game interface that reminded us what to do next. Even Gavin is human and you can’t memorize the entire leveling process – a guide helps even the best levelers stay on the right track.

So, if you really enjoy WoW, Dugi’s dungeon leveling guide can actually make leveling a lot more fun. You’ll level faster, get better gear and never be stuck wondering where to go and what to do next. You’ll have more fun leveling your toons, which is never something I look forward to all that much unless I’m vegging out, and leveling while brain dead is awesome with a guide.

So when you’re ready to Dominate leveling – there is no better or faster way than instance leveling. And Dugi’s dungeon leveling guide is the only one of its kind. It’s slick, easy to use and will have you going from 1-80 faster than ever before. It’s not easy to impress Gavin when it comes to WoW, but after using Dugi’s guide we are firm believers that there is no other guide out there that even comes close, not even ours.

And to sweeten the pot we’re going to throw in a couple of bonuses of our own. For a limited time we’re going to throw in a copy of Gavin’s Horde leveling guide for those times when you feel like going solo, or if you’re DPS waiting on a dungeon queue. We won’t be selling Gavin’s guide alone any more, so this is your last chance to get it.

But the big bonus is Gavin’s Auction House Mastery guide. That’s right, while you are dominating the leveling scene, you can also learn how to completely pwn the auction house, making more gold in less time than ever before. Hundreds of other players have used Gavin’s Auction House Mastery guide to blow the roof off their earnings – and you can do the same.

Here’s what you are getting when you order Dugi’s Dungeon Leveling Guide right now:

• Dugi’s Dungeon leveling Guide 1-80

• Gavins Horde Leveling Guide ($20 Value)

• Gavin’s Auction House Mastery guide ($30 Value)

That’s three completely Dominating guides for the price of one. No other offer for your favorite hobby even comes close to this kind of value. You’ll have more fun, level faster and make more gold. And it’s all just a click away. Use the link below for the Gavin Garrett bonuses when you order Dugi’s Dungeon Leveling guide right now.

14 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

How To Queue Like A Tank For Randoms As DPS

There is something very exciting coming for everyone at DYS in the next couple of weeks. We’re not going to let the cat out of the bag quite yet, but Gavin and Law are hard at work – and making some interesting discoveries to boot. For the last week, we’ve been chain running randoms as part of our research and we’ve discovered a nifty little work-around for those long Q’s for those of you who are DPS.

You know how it goes. Let’s say you’re like Law and have a couple of toons (or four) to do randoms with every day. Getting the invite if you are heals isn’t so bad, maybe a few minutes, while tanks will Q virtually instantly for the most part. Then you get on your DPS and sit there for 15 minutes while you wait around for the next tank. If all you have is DPS toons you have no idea how nice it is to queue up as a tank.

Typically, I will do my JC daily on my mage while I wait for the Q to pop. And then the cooking daily, perhaps fishing as well, and then – well, I get bored. Not much you can really do except sit there and watch for it. I guess I could farm, but I just don’t do that – especially on my raiding toons – at least not for herbs and ore. And killing elementals isn’t my idea of a good time.

So suffice it to say that I miss the queue from time to time. It’s not unusual to have at least one DPS miss most Q’s – they probably fell asleep waiting. And that just makes things worse. Go grab a drink, miss the Q and you’re back at the bottom of the list, another 15 minutes? Bah, there has to be a better way.

And there is. You COULD do what Gavin and I did and just swap out runs. We both have tanks and DPS toons, so we just switch around. The only problem with having a system like that is that sometimes we’re not on at the same time, plus, we have this big project to do together when we are playing

Beating The Dungeon Finder System

Gavin stumbled upon this little trick quite by accident. It’s unbelievably simple when you think about it, but it’s not very obvious. We’ve all been running randoms for months now, and until Gavin said something to someone else in a group, just out of the blue, I had never thought of it. Really, four toons with the “Patient” title and it never dawned on me.

We had been in a group with this shaman healer for three randoms in a row and he was begging Gavin not to leave the group – good tanks can be hard to find at level 30-ish. So Gavin said: “I tell you what, I really need to be moving along, but I WILL queue with you again and then drop so that you’ll be at the top of the list and get the very next tank.”

It went over my head for about two seconds and then hit me like a brick. I was practically yelling at Gavin over Skype. HOLY CRAP MAN! THAT’S IT! That’s what, he asked. That’s the secret right there! “I was just saying that,” he says, “I don’t know if it really works, lol.” Well, it turns out, it DOES work, and it’s an awesome work-around for all your DPS toon wait times.

OK, you’re still going to need a tank that will Q with you, but they don’t have to make the run. All they have to do is join your group, accept the Q and then bail. You’ll sit in the instance for maybe another minute, at the longest, while the dungeon finder grabs your group another tank.

This works best if you have two accounts. Just use your own tank (if you have such a beast) to queue yourself to the front and then bail him out and run on your DPS toon. No more wait times. Well, next to none. My average time to queue on Fenris as a tank is about 10 seconds, while on DPS it’s more like 10 minutes. By using my tank to Q my dps toons I get the tank time plus about 30 seconds standing in the dungeon waiting for another tank.

If you run two DPS toons every day through one random each, this little trick can save you between 10 and 15 HOURS a month. Bet you never though about how much time twenty minutes a day actually was huh? Instant queue’s for randoms on your DPS toons – it’s pretty simple, and quite Dominating.

28 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

First Aid Leveling Tips

Yes, I know what the ‘pros’ will say, that a First Aid guide for WoW is silly.  But maybe they don’t know everything about everything.  And yes, leveling first aid isn’t really on the level of brain activity that might be required for brain surgery or calculus – but if you would rather NOT have to think about it any more than necessary, it’s nice to have it all listed out for you neat and clean.

At the very minimum it will save you a couple of trips back and forth between the AH and the trainers.  Really, if you could just go to the AH and buy every single scrap of cloth you needed (and you already knew exactly how much you would be needing) and could just stand at the trainer and hit the ‘create all’ button and come back every few minutes – that’s not something a total nub would do.  Just a little Dominating.

But even in first aid in wow there is a little trick we can let you in on that will save you s tidy bit of gold through the middle of leveling first aid.  And you wish you had thought of it – really.

Remember back in the day having to go all the way out to Theramore or Hammerfall for your artisan First Aid quest?  Triage is not required any more, but those of you who skip it are missing out on a couple of things.  Blizz giveth, and Blizz replaceth that way.  Not exactly biblical, I know, but . . .

Anyway, when Blizz removed the requirement for the Triage quest, they added an incentive in the form of a XP bonus that doesn’t seem to have a level cap.  In other words, you can still go grab the first aid quests at any point on your way to 80 and get XP based on your level.  Not bad to snag 10,000 to 20,000 experience out of a foofoo quest eh?

And if that’s not enough for you, just go out there during your first aid powerleveling work to save yourself a tidy bit of gold.  Enough for a decent repair of your mains T10 gear after a few wipes – seriously.  You see, the good doctors will train you for Heavy Mageweave, Runecloth and Heavy Runecloth Bandages absolutely free if you complete the quest.

All of those first aid recipes will set you back 37 gold 50 silver if you buy them anywhere else.  Excuse me, but I can turn that 37 gold into about 50 in a couple day’s work – throwing it to some trainer is not my idea of a good time.  Getting to Theramore may be a pain (hush Horde, Hammerfall is easy), but not enough of a pain to blow almost 40g.

So there you have it, a decent couple of tips out of something you thought was completely worthless.  You really shouldn’t judge before you read.  If you already knew about this little trick, you’re not a nub.  If you thought you were REALLY pro and didn’t know it – tsk.  If you’re glad to know it, stick around, we find this kind of thing all the time.  It’s why we (and you) can Dominate.

8 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

Well, Not Exactly A Bubblehearth, But It’s Close

If you know Lawbringer at all (especially from the Dominate guilds) you know that I absolutely loath pvp.  Yes, I know it makes me weak and inferior to Fonze and the Dudes and all that yadda-yadda.  Whatever, I can live with the big fat monster gaping empty hole in my game.  It’s just not gonna happen.  I have no desire and certainly not enough time to learn all the nuances of that part of the game.  I’ll just stick with making a ton of gold and being a go-to healer for everything else.

Since I do dislike PvP so adamantly it pained me to level my last two characters on a pvp server.  Nothing breaks the flow of a good leveling session than being ganked 5 times in Stranglethorn because some lvl 80 is running around getting his kicks knocking off all the level 40’s.  Seriously, go arena or whateveritis you folks do.  It’s an even bigger waste of time to try to “teach them a lesson” and go get your 80 to spank them as this normally becomes an all-out zone war.

So for the most part I just go do something else and let the pvp goobers duke it out while I do something resembling constructive.  This is all tongue-in-cheek of course.  I have nothing against you if you love pvp, it’s just not my cup of tea.  So anything that keeps me from having to deal with it is a very nice cup of tea that I enjoy greatly.  Which brings us to the following tip.

It’s one of those teeny tiny little bits that’s not going to change the way you play wow, and most of you will be relatively unimpressed.  But it’s a cool little loophole that might save you an hour or two while leveling on a pvp server, or any time after that for that matter.  It’s cheap, convenient and gives you an almost paladin-like bubble hearth that is pretty effective.

It’s not QUITE as good as a bubble, since you can’t just stand there with folks hammering away at your invulnerablness while you get your hearth cast off.  So technically NOT a true bubblehearth, but it’s as close as you’re going to get without being a paladin.

We’ll call it the HideNhearth, and it will only work if you are out of combat.  So it’s not going to save you from being one shot if you’ve already been targeted by that level 80, but it will certainly completely eliminate the chain ganking corpse camping scenario.  You don’t even have to have blazing fast timing or reflexes, just a short stack of potions and your hearthstone on a hot key somewhere.

Here’s how it works:

• Pop a Potion of Lesser Invisibility
• Hearth
• Get on with your day

Couldn’t be easier.  You see, the lesser invisibility potion is not broken by the hearthstone cast, such as mage invisibility, Night elf Shadowmeld, or Rogue Vanish and Stealth.  There is no other “hide and hearth while you are hiding” skill in the game.  All you can do under other forms of stealth is – hide, and maybe run around a bit.  Shadowmeld doesn’t even allow you to do that.

All the above skills WILL drop you out of combat, and that is important here.  You can’t go under the effects of Lesser Invis potion in combat, so if you’re already targetted you’re left with the “run like a sissy” option and hope they just leave you alone.  But if you are already dead, you can just hit the potion as you rez and hearth and leave your potential corpse camper sitting around or a while waiting on something that aint gonna happen.  Which I like – you waste my time, I waste yours.

The really funny thing about this tip is that I took my banking toon – Auctionear – out to try to get a decent screenshot for this, but unfortunately being under the effects of invis make for a sorry screenshot.  I was going to run over to a Horde hot spot and try to show this in action, and while I was on my way to Thrallmar in Hellfire Peninsula some level 80 guy named “Uwilldie” (undead rogue) flew over and dismounted right next to me.  Level 68 DK vs T9/10 rogue, no way.  I’m trying to MAKE gold on this guy not going for repair bills.  So I pop a potion and hearth – doesn’t get more real and in-game relevant than that.  I had to chuckle about how much I might have used it leveling my mage.  You’ll forgive me for not having a crummy screenie.

The potions should be pretty cheap, and you probably won’t use this technique too often, which makes it an inexpensive way to buy back some time and less frustration.  It’s not exactly what you might call Dominating, but it is a useful tip and thanks to Beastarro for sending it to us at editor@dominateyourserver.com   At the very least it’s worth one slot in your bags and a “where the heck did so-and-so go” every now and then when you’re bored.

22 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

How To Meet All Your Meta Gem Requirements With One Stone

For the min/max guy this is going to just make you mad so you can go read something else. But if you’re a normal person and sometimes wonder exactly what gem to put in every single slot you have you may just appreciate this tip.  It’s a neat trick because it’s a pretty cheap way of getting your meta gem activated without having to put something goofy in a yellow socket just because you need something yellow.

For almost every class, you are going to end up with a piece of gear with a strange socket color.  And that means you have to start doing all the math over again or maybe you’ve just given up (like Fury warriors and some Shaman healers) and just chosen the best gem and it goes in every single slot no matter what – socket bonuses be danged.  Or maybe you just go cross-eyed wondering where in the heck you’re going to get a blue gem to activate your Meta gem in your helm when you’ve got zero blue sockets in sight. (don’t forget about Eternal Belt Buckles by the way).

Only problem with saying bye-bye to your socket bonuses is that you probably don’t have all of the right color gems in place to activate your meta gem.  We’re not going to go into picking meta gems for class and spec, that’s an argument waiting to happen (and it can happen somewhere else).

But there is one little gem that should be easy to get your hands on no matter what server you’re on that will activate any meta gem no matter what the requirements are with a single socket.  That gem is the Nightmare Tear.

Not terribly long ago this was a JC only gem, but patch 3.2 made it available to everyone as a unique equipped item.  That means you can only use one of them, but at least you don’t have to be a Jewelcrafter any more.  The price on some servers may be a little higher than you would like, since making one requires a Dragon’s eye, but you should be able to peg the price for getting this cut from the price of Dragon’s eyes on your AH (if there are any).  The only other mats required are 5 infinite dust, and there is probably more of that on most servers now than there is real dust in your house.

The cool thing about the nightmare tear is that since it will fit any socket color it also acts for some odd reason as every socket color once you put it in.  So for frustrating Meta gems like the Relentless Earthseige Diamond which requires three different gem colors to activate, you can throw a Nightmare Tear in your helm with this and get on with your day.

Granted, for some classes, like mages, this isn’t the greatest choice.  And for the mage there are plenty of good gem choices that make the use of the Nightmare Tear to activate a Meta completely unnecessary.  But even for Mages if you just want to throw a meta in a level 219 hood or something while you are gearing up and don’t feel like spending another few hundred gold activating it, a single nightmare tear isn’t a bad idea.

It’s a hassle free way to get around not having to use a Yellow gem if you really don’t want to waste another socket on a Yellow gem when there aren’t any decent yellow gems for your class or spec; or any other color for that matter.  It’s a pretty easy way to activate any meta gem no matter what the requirements might be.  It’s not even lazy, but it is easy – and Dominating.

17 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

Highest Mage DPS Using Best In Slot Gear From T9

Using BiS gear, excluding new content from patch 3.3, this is the  highest single target DPS there is (or was). With new Tier 10 becoming available since 3.3 hit the realms, there will be new information available soon, but since the BiS for T10 may not be available for some time now, this is as good a place as any to start.  Arcane Mages have ruled the DPS charts for some time now, and we don’t expect that to change any time soon.  Mages were designed to be the all DPS all the time channel, and this build will get you tuned in to Dominate.

Gear

http://www.wowhead.com/?profile=14306468

With best in slot gear the theoretical max for this build is higher than any other class or build in the game at 10,587 DPS.  The link above will show you a character paper doll screen at wowhead where you can take a peek at the gear you are looking for. This figure(DPS) is calculated based on a 300 seconds encounter on a single target, level 83 mob.

Talent Build

http://www.wowhead.com/?profile=14306468#talents

Glyphs

• Arcane Blast
• Arcane Missiles
• Molten Armor
• Slow Fall
• Arcane Intellect
• Fire Ward

Of course, the minor glyphs are completely up to you, but the major glyphs are a must have for maximum DPS.

Priorities

Ironically enough, this has got to be one of the simplest rotations in the game …

• Molten Armor
• Icy Veins
• Arcane Missiles
• Arcane Blast
• Trinket (On Use Items)
• Mirror Image
• Arcane Barrage (if Moving and Blast Has 4 Stack or no Missile proc)

It’s basically 2 buttons, that’s it, Arcane Blast and Arcane Missiles.  Lather, rinse, repeat, throw in a Mirror Image and an Icy Veins from time to time, top the charts, mash more buttons, yawn, Dominate. As counter-intuitive as this may sound, No, you don’t use Arcane Barrage, it’s just not as cost effective. Build up with Arcane Blast and then lay down the Arcane Missiles and do it over and over.  The rest of the things in the list just increase the output of your two main spells.  You can throw in a Barrage if you are on the run and dont want to waste a 4 stack of Blast, but if you can stand still – missiles is the only way to go.

10,587 DPS Arcane Mage Single target damage spread

Like we said, pretty simple.  Hit Icy veins every time it’s up, pop your trinkets as soon as they are off cool down and the rest of the list in order.  It’s pretty much just Blast and Missiles. Use Mirror image to multiply your damage output , but keep in mind it is last on the list and should be timed properly.  You should be able to easily get them all in, however.

Pawn Scale

( Pawn: v1: “Arcane”: HitRating=3.7733, HasteRating=2.1107, SpellDamage=1.8406, Spirit=1.2953, CritRating=1.1455, Intellect=1.0797 )

As you can see Hit rating is THE biggest priority, more then Haste and SP combined! Every spell you miss is damage you’re not doing and a cool down you just wasted. If you’re already hit capped and know how to juggle when to get more hit and when to skip it for Haste, you can use the next scale:

( Pawn: v1: “Arcane”: HitRating=0.0000, HasteRating=2.1107, SpellDamage=1.8406, Spirit=1.2953, CritRating=1.1455, Intellect=1.0797 )

There is quite a bit of information for you on this page, and this write up doesn’t account for mana management, but this is something you should be fairly familiar with by now. Stay tuned for more builds in different specs for every class over the next month or so. If you liked this you’ll LOVE what’s coming next.

Don’t be Great, Dominate!

43 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post

Recruit your best friend …  YOURSELF!

In the 1st article we outlined the basics of the RAF program.  In this article we will explore the ways to exploit the program for maximum DOMINATION.  Some of these setups may be beyond you and/or your computer’s abilities.  It is up to you to choose the one that best fits you and enjoy the free extra xp.

Let’s start with the basic Acct setup as this is the same regardless of how you use the program.  You will end up having 2 accounts with this program, the Veteran account and the Recruit account.  The veteran account is your main account that you want a new alt on.  The recruit account is a free account you are just using to gain extra XP with.  Now lets get down to business.

1. The 1st step is to send YOURSELF a recruit a friend email using the warcraft website.  Just log into the veteran account (via the Blizzard web site) and send a RAF invite to your email address.
2. When you receive the trial offer email follow the email instructions and in no time you have a free 10day trial that is tied to your main account.  This is what can be called a disposable account. After the 10day trial, you may never use it again. Now the fun begins.

Log onto your veteran account and roll up your desired new alt.  Please keep in mind that the trial account is Vanilla WOW, so no Draenei or Blood elf quest zones are available for questing with the trial account.  You can make one of those on your main account if you wish, but the pair will not be able to use those starting areas.

Character pairing tips.

• If you make a melee based toon, I highly recommend a Shaman for the trial account if possible, but honestly any healer class will do quite well. I like the shaman because they can just drop a few totems which will buff your primary toon, then sit there ready to heal if needed. Again, maximizing benefit for least amount of work.
• If you make a caster toon, then you will probably want a melee class for the trial account. If you’re not planning to dual box, then any old toon works on the trial account as it is just going to pop up when needed.

Now that your accounts are set-up and you have rolled your toons lets discuss working the pair.  We covered Multi boxing in a previous Casual Corner article.  Make sure you read it, it covers the basics of the Multi boxing style of leveling, and nothing changes when using it for RAF.  Well nothing other than getting THREE TIMES the XP per kill and quest!

It is realy just that simple. In no time at all your new alt will be level 20 and into the fun levels, or better yet all the way to lvl 60 and ready to hammer outlands into submission!

Now I know your all asking, well what about the toons on the trial account? You have options for those toons.

• If you really want those toons, you can always pay to move them to your main account.
• Or if you want to push and get maximum boost you could turn the trial account into a full blown account, which buys you a full month of bonus XP mayhem and opens the door to RAF your way on to lvl 60 on both accounts.  An added bonus of the recruit account being a full account is that now you can trade between toons to make sure they are both geared! Plus after those 60 levels you then have 30 free levels on the trial account to hand out to another toon on the veteran account WOOT!

One last tasty RAF leveling tip;

Leap-frogging Levels:  When dual boxing try to keep the recruit toon’s lvl slightly ahead of the veteran account toon. This can let you leap-frog the veteran toon a level at the last minute before hitting 20. When the recruit toon dings to 20 and the veteran is just a hair short of 20 the recruit can gift the veteran toon a level! BAM your lvl 19 that was 99% to 20 is now 99% to 21 YEEHAA! Then turn in that last quest on the veteran and catapult into 21 in style! This also applies to lvl60 if you decide to convert the trial account into a full blown vanilla WOW account.  Get the Veteran account to lvl59.99 and then gift it a free level!

You can do similar when your gifting levels to your other alts.  Before you start gifting levels, get the verteran account alt as close as possible to going Ding THEN grant the levels.  That way you are working for cheaper lower level XP and buying your way higher into the gifted levels.

I am not a power leveler by any means.  But this system really makes power leveling possible for even the most casual WOW player, and you could soon find yourself with a fleet of 60’s ready to sprint thru outlands. At one Point in a single month I ended up with a total of six lvl 60 toons, two pairs I ran up and then a pair of toons on the veteran account that were already lvl 30 and were granted free levels to 60!

Something to  watch for

Blizzard recently did a sale on vanilla wow, it was $5.00 for the full base game, including the free 1^st month.  For $5.00 you had yourself a power leveling tool good all the way to 60! Sadly, this was a 2-day sale and is over, but keep your eyes open, you never know when they will do it again, and pricing for the base game should only drop as they release Cataclysm.

Alts are cool, chicks dig scars, DOMINATING is eternal.

Wicked of Dominate
<Fenris>

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Leveling the Hardcore Casual way

In the last few years Blizzard has made numerous changes to the “low level” game to help get players into Northrend as quickly as possible.  XP is lower per level and quest rewards are increased, leveling a toon has never been faster.  Add to that the Recruit-a-friend (RAF) program they implemented back in June 2008 to help push players into TBC content and we have an Altoholics paradise!

I am going to share a little set-up I have found quite useful for getting toons past the often tiresome lvl 1-mid 20’s, FAST.  I am talking 1-20 in a single day of relaxed playing, or a single evening after work if you use Gavin’s guide or know the start zones well.  The best part it is FREE! This article will focus on the lvl 1-20 program.  It can be adapted to help all the way to lvl 60 as well, but more on that later.

Many players do not truly understand or appreciate the RAF program.  They do not realize it can be a leveling tool; they don’t have any friends to recruit, so why pay attention right?  A few of us Milk it for every level it is worth! To begin lets cover a few key points about RAF:

• The RAF invitation includes a FREE 10day trial account for the “new player”

• Once the offer is accepted the accounts are linked for 90-days, well past the 10-day free trial (more on this later).

• This trial account is a Std trial account; it can’t trade, buy in AH, and is quite limited due to past abuses.

• The trial account is Vanilla WOW, with no access to Blood Elf or Draenei starting areas.

• When the linked accounts are partied together they both get TRIPLE XP for EVERYTHING that is not grey to them. That means mobs AND quests, but they must be partied to get the bonus.

• Each toon can summon a toon from the other account once per hour.

• For every 2 levels gained by the recruited account they can gift a free level to a lower level toon on the veterans account.

• ALL bonuses stop at lvl 60.

• After 1^st paid month on recruit acct, the veteran acct gets a free month.

• After 3 paid months the recruit account can gift one Zhevra mount to any single toon on the veteran’s account.

As you can see the benefits are quite large, and well worth exploiting.  Now that I have outlined the base program for all of you I will throw some teasers and tips out to you to get you thinking about the next article.

• Holidays;  Blizzard is now giving xp for the holiday quests, the RAF program triples this too, so take advantage and get some easy triple xp! The recent Pilgrim holiday was a a perfect example and I actually double dipped. Those that follow DYS read about how easy it was to get 1-300 cooking skill for a few gold, but each quest kicked out 3x XP using RAF!! As a toon in my teens I was seeing 3500xp per quest!

• Traveling: The free hourly summon ability is extremely handy. It works not only with the new alts, but all toons on both accounts.  What I found worked well was having the toons hearthed to different places.  Like one in Org and one in UC. Need to travel to TB or Org for a quest turn in, hearth the toon there and summon the other toon.  Need to head back to UC for training your undead priest, hearth him home, train and then summon him back.  Need to run to the next FP or quest point?  Log onto a bigger toon , fly there, then summon the other toon to you.  Log off the big toon, onto the new alt and use the trail to summon him.  Bam, in minutes you safely made the journey. I actually used that to get both toons every FP in both continents when they were only lvl 20 over the course of a week.

That’s all for now, see what trouble you can cause and as always DOMINATE.

Alts are cool, chicks dig scars, DOMINATING is eternal.

Wicked of Dominate
<Fenris>

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We’ve told you before to level cooking alongside of Fishing. You’ve heard us say over and over that cooking can get you some gold and how every class in the game can benefit something from cooking. You’ve also heard us tell you how big of a pain in the @$$ it is. Then THIS IS YOUR CHANCE. We’ll show you how to get cooking to 350 in an hour.  There are complete guides to the actual festival itself out there but this article will focus exclusively on the cooking aspect of it.

It all has to do with Pilgrim Festival. This will require you to run from Undercity(Stormwind) to Orgrimar(IronForge) and ThunderBluff(Darnassus) but will net you a bit of gold and those precious cooking levels that are such a pain to get. Assuming you’ve got no skill in cooking you’ll want to get to Undercity and train up cooking at the Pilgrim Festival Cooking trainer.  Buy the Bountiful cookbook from the vendor and open it up to pick up the 5 Festival recipes and learn the first one right away: Spice Bread Stuffing

Undercity/Stormwind

Buy:

• 60x Simple Flour
• 60x Mild Spices
• Create 60x Spice Bread

The recipe will go gray on you at 40 but you’ll get to use the extra you buy to make the last few points.  Once you’ve got 60x Spice Bread, combine it with 60xAutomnal Herbs (from Pilgrim Vendor) to make 60xSpice Bread Stuffing and get to 100 cooking (or a little more).  Don’t forget to train up cooking before you get to 75 cooking skill or you’ll have to re-cook the bread. Learn Pumpkin pie recipe (at 100)

Buy

• 70x Ripe Tirisfal(Elwynn Pumpkin)
• 70x Honey
• Create 70x Pumpkin Pie

Again remember to train up cooking when you get to 125 (but before 150).  Once you hit 160 cooking, learn the Cranberry Chutney recipe and travel to your next destination (Orgrimar/Ironforge).

Orgrimar/Ironforge

Buy:

• 70x Tangy Southfury Cranberries(TangyWetland Cranberries)
• 70x Honey
• Create 70x Cranberry Chutney

Again remember to train up cooking when your skill reaches 200 and before it hits 225. Learn the Candied Sweet Potato recipe at 220 cooking and move on to your next destination: ThunderBluff/Darnassus

Thunder Bluff/Darnasuss

Buy:

• 70x Mulgore Sweet Potato (Teldrasil Sweet Potato)
• 70x Honey
• Create 70x Candied Sweet Potato

Train cooking between 275 and 300 and return to Undercity/ Stormwind for the last part of this adventure.  This part will require you run around like a turkey after … well … Wild Turkeys

Go outside Undercity/Darnassus and kill Wild Turkeys and remember to loot them, you’ll need quite a few so don’t be shy they are scattered all over the start area and spawn rather quickly.

Back to Undercity/Stormwind

Buy:

• 140x Honey
• 70x Automnal Herbs
• kill 70x Wild Turkeys
• Create 70x SlowRoasted Turkeys

Voila! Your cooking skill should be at 350 or a little above (355?) In the process you’ve managed to accomplish all the seasonal cooking quests and have enough for 3 days’ worth of dailies. All of which should buy you more then enough Turkey Shooters to turn all the rogues you need for the achievement (assuming you don’t miss too often)

This is BY FAR the cheapest and most effective way to level cooking you’ll ever get. The recipes don’t go yellow until you’re 10 pts away from the next one (which is whyI make you buy 70 instead of the minimum 60 you really need). To be honest I didn’t do the math on this and it’s so cheap that I’m not even going to bother. 5-10 gold ? … the amount is infinitesimal, ridiculous even.

Regardless whether you do the seasonal events or not this is a DOMINATING way to level cooking and it only comes around once/year so better take advantage of it now or you’ll regret it come Christmas when you need to get your MerryMaker title. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

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Welcome back to the second installment of the DK series.  Today, we’ll cover Glyphs and Rotation.

Glyphs are pretty straight forwards; you saw them in the link to the build on Yesterday’s article. The only argument I see is for Glyph of Icy Touch instead of Glyph of Disease. And after field testing it in multiple scenarios, based on my play style and rotation I just prefer the Glyph of Disease because of the instant refresh of all diseases. After all the less time I spend refreshing a DoT, the more time I can spend DPSing.

Glyph of Death Strike- Major
Glyph of Dancing Rune Weapon-Major
Glyph of Disease- Major
Glyph of Horn of Winter-Minor
Glyph of Pestilence-Minor
Glyph of Raise Dead- Minor

When it comes to rotation, some classes have a fixed rotation (Prot Paladins) while other classes have a priority-based rotation (Feral Druids). Death Knights can, ironically put out more damage with the simplest of rotations. It’s probably why we’re accused of “Face Rolling”, but every DK knows that’s just plain Jealousy, even if no other class will admit it!

Step1: Put up your Diseases

Plague Strike(Puts: Blood Plague) and  Icy Touch (to put Frost Fever on your target)

Once those are up you can forget about them for the rest of the fight and as long as you remember to keep them up with Pestilence, you’re golden. Remember, Pestilence is a top priority before your diseases run out, It’s far less “expensive” to keep them up than it is to renew them if they fall off.

Step 2: Do your thing!

Death Strike, Heart Strike (x2), Death Coil (Runic Power Dump),

Death Strike, Heart Strike (x3), Dancing Rune Weapon

Rince and repeat.

It’s preferable to wait for the second time through your rotation to ensure that you have all 4 Blood Worms up before you call your DRW, but if you already have 4 Blood Worms, you can go ahead and pop DRW on that first pass. With the glyph, your DRW is up for 17 seconds and will spend the next 73 seconds on cool down. During that time Death Strike and Heart Strike are pretty much all you need, as long as you remember to keep up Pestilence before your diseases run out.

Now this may sound a little simplistic and too good to be true, but on the PTR I’ve personally done 8.4K DPS and after enchanting and gemming up the gear, I brought that up to a staggering 10,200 DPS. (Ok, it’s in full T9 and 245 Epics, but still …)
This just proves that a rotation doesn’t have to be complicated to generate results and that some times, the simplest way is the best way.

Next time we’ll cover Gemming and Enchanting as well as some base stats and their importance to a DK.

… To Be Continued

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