Powerleveling Cooking 1-450

This guide has survived four years and soon to be 3 expansions. It’s a combination of fishing and cooking together as we mentioned in our previous article: Cooking & Fishing, Leveling them together.

Now, to be completely honest, you don’t need to level fishing for cooking. You can go grind little bits of meat and parts off of mobs forever but getting the mats with fishing is so much easier and lets you get your fishing skill up to 450 as well. Besides that, it’s pretty nice to be able to make your own fish feasts from scratch.

1 – 50: Brilliant Smallfish = 80. Mats (1 Raw Brilliant Smallfish)

• 80 Raw Brilliant Smallfish
• Fishing Holes

51 – 100: Longjaw Mudsnapper = 80. Mats (1 Raw Longjaw Mudsnapper)

• 80 Raw Longjaw Mudsnapper
• Fishing Holes

101 – 175: Bristle Whisker Catfish = 120. Mats (1 Raw Bristle Whisker Catfish)

• 120 Raw Bristle Whisker Catfish
• Fishing Holes

175 – 225: Rockscale Cod = 80. Mats (1 Raw Rockscale Cod)

• 80 Raw Rockscale Cod
• Fishing Holes

226 – 275: Spotted Yellowtail = 80. Mats (1 Raw Spotted Yellowtail)

• 80 Raw Spotted Yellowtail
• Fishing Holes

276 – 325: Your Choice – or combination of the following = 80.

• Mightfish Steak. Mats (1 Large Raw Mightfish, 1 Hot Spices, 1 Soothing Spices)
• Mightfish Fishing Holes
• Baked Salmon. Mats (1 Raw Whitescale Salmon, 1 Soothing Spices)
• Salmon Fishing Holes

326 – 350: Golden Fish Sticks = 40. Mats (1 Golden Darter)

• 40 Golden Darter
• Fishing Holes

At this point the recipes come from the trainer directly or from purchases with Dalaran Cooking Awards from doing the cooking dailies.  As with any profession, it is much easier to do all of this at level 80.  You’ll have to do the cooking dailies regularly to complete the rest of this guide, but that’s not the fault of the guide, the game just requires it.

351 – 375: Baked Manta Ray = 60. Mats (1 Imperial Manta Ray)

• 60 Imperial Manta Ray
• Fishing Holes

Here’s where you’ll actually have to use some beast meat for a little while.  The mats are normally to be had on the AH, so you don’t have to go farm all of it yourself, but if you’re cheap you can look each one up and go get them yourself.

376 – 400: Great Feast = 40. Mats (1 Chunk o’ Mammoth, 1 Shoveltusk Flank, 1 Worm Meat, 2 Chilled Meat)

• 20 Chunk o’ Mammoth
• 20 Shoveltusk Flank
• 20 Worm Meat
• 40 Chilled Meat

401 – 420: Anything else, although Spicy Blue Nettlefish sells fairly well.

421 – 450: At level 420 you can cook all of the other recipes in the game except for fish feast.  We recommend Dragonfin Filet using Dragonfin Angelfish as we cover in this post: Fishing For Gold.  Dragonfin Filet and any of the other recipes you buy with the cooking awards will take you all the way to 450, where you can make the premier buff food in the game – Fish Feast.

It’s then that all your Dominating work will make you the most popular cook around.  Everyone loves a fish feast, and you can make serious coin cooking up any of the foods you grab the recipes for.  We highly recommend doing the cooking daily every day.  It will maximize your buffs, and your gold earnings – especially if you can dominate it with more than one toon.

Now, even though leveling fishing doesn’t require running all over the place any more, it’s still a pain in the tookus.  It might actually take longer.  It’s easier, but a larger time sink.  After about level 225 it’s 10 casts per skill-up and that means it will take you around 4-6 hours if you did nothing but fish.

We’ve also got a great little tip for how to get those last few skill points in cooking in the Leveling Cooking Tip post, as well as a nifty mod that makes getting all your recipes for cooking or any other skill a whole lot easier in the post Finding Recipes Made Easy.

This little guide should make the prospect of getting to those dailies on alts a bit less daunting.  So grab a pole and a pan and get to work!  Soon you’ll be cashing in, just like we do.

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.

You already know this, although it may not be on a conscious level, but WoW is actually several games rolled into one platform of graphics and interface. No matter what you like best, WoW gives you ways to do it. Achievements, the Auction House, PvP, Battlegrounds, Raids, gathering, dailies – there’s always something you can be doing no matter what part of the game you enjoy most. But one thing is certain: each of these aspects of the game is very different.

Although I fought the concept for quite a while, if you are good at PvP you are probably also good at anything else in the game that requires killing something. PvP requires such a high degree of awareness and quick response times that PvE in raids is pretty boring and tame in comparison. The real difference is that in PvP you’re only trying to coordinate the actions of up to five people, while in a raid you have at least twice that many and up to 25. If you think it’s tough to find just one other good PvPer to do 2’s with, it’s also harder to find 24 other excellent players to raid with.

And no matter how good you are at killing bosses and toons, that still doesn’t mean you know jack about making gold. We’re still shocked when we see otherwise excellent players relying on dailies and farming to make their gold. But to each – their own. Making gold on the AH is something that’s fun for me, while PvP = not so much. The truth is that very, very few players are good at EVERYTHING in the game. We all have a hole or two, and that’s because there are only so many hours in the day.

But one thing is for certain, there is a rather large divide between those who are ready to raid or begin serious PvP, and those who are not.

Typically the “not” class gets lumped into the “nub” category and they either give up on raiding or get better. Although I know a few who just have naturally thick skins and raid even though everyone knows they are a nub and will always be a nub, the vast majority of nubs just tend to stay that way and never get measurably better without a lot of intervention.

One of the keys to not being a nub is to make up your mind that you want to play well. Do what everyone else did to get better – research, adjust, take advice, ask questions. The difference between those who can and those who can’t can be boiled down to one thing: internal analysis. Constantly looking at what you are doing and wondering if there is a better way of doing it.

There is always room for improvement – even if you are the Fonze. As a matter of fact, the Fonze himself spends several hours each week trying to find out if anyone else is doing it better than he is, just so he never falls behind by even a step or two. It’s that constant improvement and struggle to win even more that separates the very best players from everyone else.

Which brings me, finally, to the point. We find ourselves at DYS in a situation where someone has done something a little better than we have, and in that something is a way for you to ensure that you reach a far greater level of mastery of killing things than ever before. We’re not going to let the cat out of the bag on the first bit until tomorrow, but today you need to know one thing that can make all the difference for both the nub and the pro.

Auction house aside (and don’t ask for farming routess either – you’re on your own there) there are two major things you can do once you get to level 80:

• dungeons and raids
• PvP.

That’s it – sure you can do a whole bunch of the solo achievements, but I don’t see a lot of that going on. Raids and PvP is where the vast bulk of the game lies. The endgame, and getting there is less than half the battle.

I used to tell my mom that when she first began to play. There is more game PAST 80 than there is before 80. She didn’t believe me until she got there. After that she was pretty boggled by the complexity and competition. So today we’re going to give all of you some advice that will help you hit 80 ready to go into almost any dungeon or raid environment and do well, even if you’ve never raided a lick in your life.

The key is leveling to 80 using instances. The benefits are too numerous to mention here, so check back tomorrow for a more complete accounting, but the one thing you need to know right now is that it will absolutely force you to play well or perish.

This is especially true for tanks and healers. Probably the worst thing you can do when you get the itch to try tanking or healing is to level that toon as DPS and then try to start tanking and healing after you hit 80. You’ll have 15 new spells to use and no idea what the heck to do with them, and four people yelling at you to do it right.

But, if you tank and heal from level 16 on, you’ll get the chance to use each new spell fifteen or twenty times in live fire situations before you get a new one. By the time you get to 80 you will have mastered all of them and the only thing left will be better gear. Now, you’ll still need to work on refining your style and spec (if I see another tree spamming Nourish I’m going to tear my face off), since some of the things you might have to rely on as you level up just aren’t as good at level 80 and in raids, but at least you’ll know where they all are and how they work.

It won’t make you a pro by any means, but you will be a much better tank or healer if you level up using instances primarily. Oh, and it’s faster too. That’s right, you can do only instances and the related quests and get to 80 faster than leveling solo. For the casual player it’s even better, since your toon will more than likely be in rest the whole way.

And this whole thing makes sense for DPS toons as well.

By using your spells just a few at a time and against bosses in real fight situations, you will have a better grasp at just where your DPS comes from than you ever could killing non elite mobs. Elites and bosses will give you a much better picture of how to actually kill something and work with other team members.

Which brings me to my last point. Leveling solo develops a LOT of bad habits that are just not kosher in instances and raids. Such as DPS pulling mobs. Such as tanks pulling entire rooms like they do on their level 80 with ICC gear. Being a low level toon in the right instances means you have to play properly most of the time. It’s actually a challenge. Steamvaults is still no joke at level 68. You might just learn to CC a bit here and there along the way.

So in the end what we’re saying is that if you really want to play the game as it is at level 80, you might as well get to 80 doing the same sorts of things you’ll be doing at 80. I’ve seen far too many people level their first toon solo and never do a single instance – they have no clue what in the heck to do when they attempt their first heroic.

So figure out how to heal, learn to tank and get a grip on how to do some real DPS in instances so that you can dominate once you hit 80. Oh, and you’ll get to 80 faster, with more gold and a lot better gear along the way as well. And check back tomorrow when we will reveal exactly how to take maximum advantage of instance leveling.

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.

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>

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>

I want to introduce you all to an extreme form of Altoholism called Multi-boxing.  In the past this was typically called Dual-Boxing, but has in general changed to Multi-Boxing.  Seriously, once you have 2 toons running, why stop there! ?

Some of you that have been playing the game for a while have probably had exposure to Multi-boxing already.  Those that have experienced it on a pvp server arena, or battlegrounds most likely shudder just at the mention of Multi boxing.  This is because you are one of the thousands of victims of this cruel form of Darwinism, a true “Peace thru superior firepower” solution to pve and pvp.  For those unfamiliar with it let me paint you a picture before we go any farther.

Imagine being on a pvp server and innocently running out of Booty bay to go kill some Pirates.  You look around to make sure nobody is close to gank you, all is clear so you begin casting on a mob but suddenly about the time your spell hit it’s target POOF you are dead.  Wait, what just happened?  You spin the camera around a there stands 5 shamys all waving at you simultaneously.  You rub your eyes thinking your seeing things, they all move in one motion, maybe it’s a glitch because your pc is overheating…  While you sit there wondering what happened you whatch them all mount up and run off.

No you were not imagining it, You just got Multi Boxed!  Don’t despair, even the best player can’t overcome the sheer firepower that can be thrown out by a master Dual boxer.

Basic Set-up

There are various ways to set-up your computer(s) for what is called Multi-boxing.  That is, running 2 or more sessions of WOW at the same time. These will typically fall into one of four basic formats.

1. running multiple computers manualy
2. running multiple computers using keystroke clone software
3. running wow multiple times on one PC manually
4. running wow multiple times on one PC using keystroke clone software

Multi-boxing is a subject that can and does fill entire websites.  The set-up, macroing and software variations are far beyond what can be covered here.  For real detailed information, help and up-to-date set-ups I highly recommend visiting http://www.dual-boxing.com and http://www.multiboxing.com they have everything you need to know about how to get set-up to dual box like a pro.

• I have always in the past  used the 1st option listed.  It can be cumbersome to control and may not maximize output like the story example above, but it offers the benefits of tackling quests that require more than one character without having to look for someone to party with.
• For the last month I used option 3 with two WOW windows and I click back and forth.  Not very efficient and tedious to use, but I was up and running within seconds of logging on both toons.  There really is no “set-up” other than tiling your wow sessions like shown.
  
• Just this week I have begun the trial of using keyclone software, and while it has taken time to get going, now that I am figuring it out, it is the best way to go by far and worth a few days of research and set-up.  Having all your toons locked together and casting/healing/targeting with one keypress is jus thte best way to go.

Character pairings

The combinations and ways of pairing your Dual boxing toons are about limitless, and vary greatly based on the player’s desires and playstyle.  Usually dual boxers fall into one of two styles.

• Pure firepower
  This is a group like the one I mentioned earlier. Typically they are caster classes and rely on sheer dps to knock down anything in their way in one cast cycle, or 2 if the target is much bigger or elite.  Some people will mix caster classes like mages, priests, shaman, and warlocks, others will stick to one class.
• Balanced group
  These players will stick with two maybe 3 classes in their little party.  The group will typically have a melee toon and play more like a classic group meleeing mobs down, healing etc.  Shaman are a very common toon in these as they offer offensive casting, totems and healing in one class while still retaining some armor for defense, druids and paladins are also a great choice.  My preference is to run a Retribution Paladin lead with shaman in tow.  Plate armor and solid dps backed up by heals and caster dps plus totems..

Since I was a manual Multi-boxer in the past, I typically ran a Balanced group format.  My favorite pair by far has been pali lead and shamy follow.  The pali as we all know is a very strong solo class, add to that the shammy with totems, heal and offensive spells make a nice strong team.  Once they get up in levels they get reallt strong.  Consecrate, Chain lightning and Magma totem make a Brutal AOE grinding package from an early level.  I have run a shamy & Priest pair lately, and while strong, it does not compare to the Pali/Shamy

Now that I have a keyclone package working, I am experementing with the multi caster format and have a mage/priest pair up to lvl 6.  I know it is not much, but I have never leveled a mage past 20 so it is a start!  Talk about power though, it is something that cannot be appreciated until you try it!!  Now I am debating on making another pair of toons to try 4boxing for the 1st time.  However that requires additional accounts, and I will be covered in another article!

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

Wicked of Dominate
<Fenris>

In Game tips

Remember back when you created your first character and it seemed like everything you do would make that little box with a question mark pop up at the bottom of your screen and demand your attention? Well, Blizzard has decided that their in-game tips are not quite as helpful as they should be. How could new players know that converting their small and innocent party into a raid would stop them from gaining quest credit? Or how would they learn that elite monsters and quests usually require more than one person to overcome? So they pretty much tripled (rough estimation) the number of tips they have – and made them prettier too.

what about fire

Wrath Reputation  Increase (from patch notes)

• Commendation Badges which award reputation with various Wrath of the Lich King factions can be purchased with Emblems of Triumph in Dalaran. Each badge costs 1 Emblem of Triumph.
• Gaining reputation with the Ashen Verdict in Icecrown Citadel will grant players access to upgradeable rings from Ormus the Penitent. Players can switch between the type of ring (melee/caster/tank/healer) at any point in the upgrade path for 200g.
• The following reputations have been sped up by roughly 30%:
  • Argent Crusade
  • Alliance Vanguard
  • Horde Expedition
  • Kirin Tor
  • Knights of the Ebon Blade
  • Sons of Hodir
  • Wyrmrest Accord
• Sons of Hodir quests now give more reputation overall.
• Top-level helm and shoulder faction-related enchants are now available as Bind-on-Account items that do not require any faction to use once purchased (they still require the appropriate faction level to purchase).

The 30% more rep in Heroics is a great move by Blizzard now you can get a lot of rep and emblems to gear your new 80’s faster. We all hate grinding rep for the Sons of Hodir for the 56th time this rep increase will make a lot easier and less like a chore. But the thing I really like is the BoA Shoulder and Head enchant. This simply means that you’re getting Raid-level enchants as soon as you hit 80 (assuming you can afford them) as long as you’ve done it at least once on any of your other 80s. Add to that a new upgradeable ring (like the old violet eye one in BC) will make every trash mob rep in Icerown as rewarding as the trash drops themselves.

New fishing event: Kalu’ak  fishing derby

Tired of getting ganked in Stranglethorn Vale for the weekly fishing contest? Well worry no more as our favourite walking walruses, the Kalu’ak, are hosting their own fishing tournament in Northrend every Wednesday. Elder Clearwater is going to hang out in Dalaran for exactly one hour and wait for a Blacktip Shark that you have to catch and return to him. The event starts at 8:00 PM on Wednesday. During the contest all fishing in Northrend is free of trash. Don’t worry though as even if you don’t end up being the champion angler,
you’ll still receive a reward just for turning the shark in. On an achievement related note, the master of strangle achievement has been changed to Master Angler of Azeroth. Winning the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza or the Kalu’ak Fishing Derby will be enough to meet the requirements for the achievement. Also winners can win a rare heirloom(BoA) ring or a pair of boots that warps you to Booty Bay every 30 minutes (Yet another hearth-type product).

Emblems in 3.3

Bosses in Naxxramas, Obsidian Sanctum, Eye of Eternity, Ulduar, Trial of the Crusader, and all Heroics will drop Emblems of Triumph. Bosses in the Icecrown Citadel 10- and 25-player dungeons will drop the new Emblems of Frost. Choosing the Random Heroic Dungeon option via the Dungeon Finder (new in content update 3.3) and completing whatever dungeon is selected for you, will award you with two Emblems of Frost the first time you do it (this is in place of the daily Heroic dungeon quests which are being replaced with weekly raid dungeon quests).

Continuing to use the Random Heroic Dungeon option within that same day to complete dungeons will award you with two Emblems of Triumph each time in addition to those dropped in the instances. The random option can also select Heroic dungeons to which you may already be saved, so you can technically do every Heroic dungeon more than once in a day by continuing to use this option.

New Weekly Raid Quests(Npc who did heroic daily quests)

New weekly raid quests have been added to the game! These quests will give you a good reason to run the old raid instances for 5 emblems of Frost and 5 emblems of Triumph each week. Here’s the list for the bosses tnat have a weekly quest kill. One is picked each week for the quest.

• The Obsidian Sanctum/Eye of the Eternity-Sartharion and Malygos
• Naxxramas: Anub’rekhan, Noth the Plaguebringer, Instructor Razuvious and Patchwork.
• Ulduar: Flame Leviathan,Ignis the Furnace Master,Razorscale,and XT-002 Deconstructor
• Crusaders’ Coliseum/Trial of the Crusader: Lord Jaraxxus
• Icecrown Citadel: Lord Marrowgar

New Armor Sets in Icecrown Citadel:  Tier 10

The next tier comes out in 3.3 and to earn them is no simple task.

• The first set of T-10 (251)  is bought with Frost emblems costing 405 Emblems for the whole set: 60 frost  emblems each for gloves and shoulders, 95 Frost emblems for head piece, chest plate and leggings.
• The next set is 10.5 Sanctified (263) which you need the first set piece and a Conqueror’s Mark of Sanctification to upgrade the 10 piece into the 10.5Sanctified piece.
• Same goes for 10 Sanctified heroic(271).The gear is in the ardent verdict camp in the raid.

The sets are modeled after Lich Kings troops , the Ashen Verdict and Faction Heroes.

• Warrior – Ymirjar Lord’s – Elder Saurfang/Muradin Bronzebeard(link)
• Death Knight – Scourgelord – Highlord Darion Mograine(Link)
• Paladin – Lightsworn – Highlord Tirion Fordring(link)
• Shamans – Frost Witch -Vrykul(link)
• Hunters – Ahn’Kahar Blood Hunter – Nerubian Cryptlord(link)
• Rogues – Shadowblade -Geist(link)
• Druids – Freya Lasherweave(there none in Scorge or Verdict)(link)
• Mages – Blood Mage -San’layn Blood Princes(link)
• Warlocks – Dark Coven -Lichs(link)
• Priest – Crimson Acolyte’s -Cultist High Priest (link)

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Well with 3.3 coming out in next week or two Bizzard has pulled all the stops to make it the biggest patch ever.With raids and dungeons for the PvE crowd and a new arena season 8 with Wrathful gear for the PvP crowd. Add to that impoved leveling with quest helper and new in-game tips for those who need to make new toons every day (Alt-a-holics). So whether you do PvE or PvP this patch can provide lots of entertanment for many weeks/months ahead. Wherever you go in the world of Azeroth always remember to Dominate whatever bizzard throws at you.

-Gustava

Everyone is looking for things that will make playing the game simpler.  Unfortunately, simple isn’t always better.  But every now and then you run across something that really changes the way you play.  We don’t always do simple (because the pros gripe at us), but it’s a pretty good bet that not everyone knows about this little gem.

If you’re a healer, you already know about this one, although you might not even know it.  Anyone who uses Clique, Healbot or Vuhdo use it all the time, it’s just built into those mods.  But recently I ran across a situation where I needed to extend the capability of clicking on something to cast a spell.

Every time we do a post about gear we get hecklers.  When we do product reviews it really is because we like the thing, not because we’re paid to talk about them.  The Razer Naga mouse is a great example, the G13 from Logitech is another.  Yes, you can do well with a two dollar mouse and the keyboard, but the G13 and the Naga really make the game easier to play at a much faster pace.

The problem is that not every product interfaces well with the game UI and all your mods.  In other words, getting the G13 and the Naga to do everything I wanted them to do wasn’t just a matter of plugging them in.  The G13 really needs bartender and the Naga . . . is a story all it’s own.  The Naga has a product specific in-game mod, but it overrides Bartender, so I had to find another way to get those 12 extra buttons to work.

The issue there was that I wanted to be able to use those buttons by clicking on the Vuhdo bars.  That turned out to be tricky.  But the neat thing is that once I found the solution it made a LOT of things easier on all my toons – and not just for healing.  The solution is also so easy that even a complete newbie can figure out ways to use it without having to know everything about the game or being a master at making macros.  And you will even find plenty of ways to use it even if you don’t use stuff like the G13 and Naga.

Let me introduce you to the mouseover macro

The mouseover macro lets you cast any spell you like on any target without having to target them first.  OK, that sounds wierd, so let’s go at it another way.  There are several ways to “target” a friendly player or mob.  One way is to click on their toon, lots of folks target this way, clicking on the boss or mob directly instead of tab targeting.  Tab targeting is another way to do this.  The only problem is that tabbing may or may not select the mob you want to actually target, so you’re looking for the red aura around their feet to see what you are nuking.  Another method is to click on a character portrait.  You can click on a bar in your group or raid in any UI to target a friendly player.  There are other ways to target with hot keys, but we won’t review them all.

As you can see, each method has certain drawbacks.  If you tab target you can’t target friendly players and don’t have complete control and may have to tab several times to get the right target.  If you are trying to target friendly units, you have to click a portrait or the player’s toon directly.  There isn’t really one targeting method that does everything – but the mouseover macro fixes all of that.

All you have to do is open the macro screen and type this:

/cast [target=mouseover] Spellname

Now, the spell name needs to be whatever spell you want to cast exactly as it appears in the tooltip.  For instance, if you want a macro for something you rarely use but need to cast quickly in an emergency, such as Lay On Hands, you would make the macro read like this:

/cast [target=mouseover] Lay on Hands

Notice that the words ‘Lay’ and ‘Hands’ have a capital letter, but ‘on’ does not.  You have to type the spell name in exactly the way it appears in the tooltip.

It comes in handy for a lot of spells for every class.  And what it does is reduce your reaction times by a click or two.  Instead of having to target something with a tab or a click, all you have to do is hover your mouse over the toon, the portrait, or any other bar on your UI and hit the button for the macro.  You don’t have to hit a button to target and then hit the one for the macro.

Warriors can use it for things like intervene, intercept and interrupts.  Paladins might want lay on hands and divine intervention.  Mages might like it for something like slow fall and priests for levitate.  I use it on my druid for innervate.  Anything you want to cast where it’s just easier to hover your mouse and hit a single button that helps you play faster is fair game.

So for my Naga mouse, I have up to six mouseover skills on the bar assigned to the mouse, and then Vuhdo for the standard stuff on left and right click and the scroll wheel.  This little macro has opened up a whole new level of versatility and I just didn’t know about it until I needed to find a solution.  It’s nothing new, but it just might help you Dominate like never before.

(source)
New Dungeon Finder System In the upcoming content patch there are many new additions and improvements. Perhaps one of the largest changes is the introduction of the new dungeon finder system. This new system will be available for all dungeons. A “Dungeons” button will replace the Looking For Group feature currently available in-game, and provides additional benefits to those who use it.
Join as a Group or Solo
Much like the current Looking For Group system, players will be able to join the dungeon system and choose the role they would like to fill within groups: Healing, DPS, or Tank. In addition, once roles have been identified, they will be applied to all dungeons chosen. Players will now be able to choose multiple dungeons and will no longer be limited to three. The system has also improved group creation and matchmaking capabilities and will create more balanced groups when assessing the selected roles of players. The LFG channel has been disconnected from the dungeon tool and can be used by anyone in a major city,much like the trade channel currently available.
Cross Realm Instances
When joining the dungeon system as a solo player or with a partial group, additional random players can be found within the same Battlegroup via cross-realm instancing. While the new system offers the ability to group with player from other realms within your Battlegroup, you won’t be able to use this to manually invite specific players to groups.
Instance Teleporting
When you use the dungeon tool to find a dungeon, you’ll get ported to the inside of the dungeon, much like the current Battleground system. When you leave the instance, you will be returned to your previous location. If you need to leave temporarily, such asfor repairs or to purchase reagents, you can teleport back to the dungeon again. This feature can be used both by groups looking for other players and by premade groups of five who use the dungeon tool.
Smarter Group Matching
The new system will now work to match at least one experienced player for the assigned dungeon with less experienced players in the group. It will more carefully match class types, and will more consistently match players of equal levels for the dungeon chosen. The interface will also allow players to see how many players are looking for groups as well as the average wait time of groups that the tool has formed.
Daily Random Dungeons
Players or groups can choose specific dungeons or they can instead take their chances with a random Heroic or random normal dungeon. Picking randomly conveys some additional benefits. If you defeat the final boss in a dungeon, you receive 2 Emblems of Frost for Heroic dungeons and 2 Emblems of Triumph for normal dungeons. In addition, after players have received 2 Emblems of Frost for the first Heroic dungeon they do in a day, they will earn 2 Emblems of Triumph for each additional random Heroic
dungeons in that day. These random rewards replace the current daily dungeon and daily Heroic dungeon quests. The current NPCs who offer those quests will offer weekly repeatable raid quests instead. You can also earn level-appropriate rewards for running random pre-Wrath of the Lich King dungeons while you are leveling up.
Lovin’ the PUG
Players who take part in groups with one or more members who have been matched with them randomly from within the dungeon system will receive extra rewards, including the coveted Perky Pug non-combat pet. The more random players you group with, the faster you could get your new pet!
Vote Kick
Players who use the system to find additional random members for their party will be afforded a couple of extra conveniences to help them perform well. The loot option is fixed to the updated Need Before Greed option (and unalterable by any member) and players can vote to remove another party member from the group. It will take four votes in order to remove someone, however, so consider this newfound power carefully.
Looking for Raid
There will be a new option available to players that can be accessed via the raid information screen in the interface or by typing /lfr. Players will also be able to take part in raid-specific weekly quests and will be able to browse the system manually for any other players looking for a raid dungeon group.
Need Before Greed Updated
Need Before Greed will now recognize gear appropriate for a class in three ways: the class must be able to equip the item, pure melee will be unable to roll on spellpower items, and classes are limited to their dominant armor type (for example, plate for paladins). All items will still be available via greed rolls should no member be able to use the item as well as the new disenchant option will be available for all parties.

_________________________________________________________

This move is yet another great idea from Blizzard to update the LFG option.

To try this out, I leveled a toon to level 23 and I wanted to run Shadowfang Keep. Even today, if I wanted to find a group to do that, I would probably still be in the queue  for days. With this new system, I can queue a group for it. This system will pool all the players from your server’s whole battlegroup, much like the current BGs.This would theoretically allow you to find a group to do Occulus at 3 am … if you were so inclined for whatever reason. When your group is complete, you will be prompted to enter the instance, exactly the same way that BGs work now.

The Looking for Raid interface is just as Good as the LFG interface, only better for guilds who don’t have enough to run their  own full 10-man raid or need a few more to fill a 25 man raid. This is also good for people who run VoA, or OS, or Onyxia since most pug it anyway. It works almost the same as LFG works now but with a little more detail. And I am sure it will be a big help with many smaller guilds that don’t raid often at all.

If nothing else it will entice the newer player to actually experience end-game content. This can lead to other issues such as groups ending up with well-geared “n00bs” that don’t know the fights and cause wipes. This is inevitable and WILL occur, hopefully those who are motivated enough to get geared will also learn the fights.

Now, there will be no more daily heroic quests. I’ve seen many people forget to get the quest or loot the boss after we finsh the dungeon. When 3.3 goes live, if you kill the final boss you automatically get your two Frost Emblems and gold, no muss no fuss. I also like how the new Need Before Greed works so ninjas will not be able to loot-steal gear that’s not their armor type or spec type. Blizzard does it again taking a system no-one really uses now and making it better. I have tried it on the PTR and I am quite impressed by how well it works and I think you will too.

Bottom line: we will ALL be using this new and improved LFG/LFR a lot in the near future and we’ll all Dominate even more because of it.