Word of caution when boosting in WoD

[zedxrgal]

I am not sure this was mentioned anywhere and upon searching I didn't see anything.
Be warned when you boost a toon in WoD your toon is SUPER SQUISHY. As in you may be level 90 but you start out with pretty much level 1 spells etc. Since I have been home sick this week I decided I would finally get my mage to level 60 to boost her since after so many years of playing and leveling several other alts. I boosted her last night and waiting about 30 minutes before logging back into her. I get in and notice she has NOTHING. A level 90 with one spell. She couldn't fly in Azeroth. No ports. No ability to make mage foods. She had slower riding. And was even placed in Blasted Lands with no way to get to mail box.
Her frostbolt showed it only doing about 1,000 damage.
After a WTF moment I submitted a ticket and angrily logged into another toon.
This morning rolls around and I log back in and see my poor mage at level 90 w/level 1 talents but my ticket was answered.
THIS IS INTENDED!!!

Greetings!

This is Game Master K---------. I'll be the one to address your issue today.

I wanted to talk to you although it appears that we missed each other, I do thank you for your patience with this reply. I see that you had some questions about why your boosted character could not fly and are missing abilities.

I completely understand your confusion over not being able to fly or having all your abilities. With Patch 6.0.2 the Dev's made a change to how the Boosted characters get their abilities and skills. Instead of being given all at once, now when your character does the starter quests in Tanaan Jungle it will unlock your abilities and skills! This was done to help players learn how to play the class instead of just throwing everything at them with no guidance on how the skills work.

You can also queue for a Dungeon and it will unlock everything for you as well. I do apologize for any hindrance and confusion this has caused you. As well as wish you luck in getting your skills when facing the Iron Horde!

Hopefully my explanation has satisfied you while showing that I value and understand your problem. I assure you that my knowledge on this subject is accurate. May the spirits bless your journey and grant you their boons.

ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ ᶘᵒᴥᵒ ᶅ

So basically as you go through the WoD starting quest line you are basically level 1. I died SO MANY TIMES because I had one spell and was really really squishy. As you near the end of the starting part things get slightly better. Only slightly. Issues is. This system, while I understand it for a newbie, TO ME, makes the game horribly unbalanced and frustrating. I got pummeled multiple times because my poor little mage could only cast frostbolt. No buffs. Nothing.
What seemingly added insult to injury was that after she finally got everything I had to port to Silvermoon (because that was the ONLY ONE she had) and pay to relearn ports she had learned before. I had to pay to relearn inscription recipes she had already learned before even though her inscription was set to 600. I had to pay for top level riding which she was supposed to already know. I responded to my ticket with the above info. Waiting for that reply.
I mean. What's the point of shelling out money to boost a toon (which was a Christmas gift) from level 60 if I have to go back and pay to relearn the stuff till that point????? Sadly Blizzard may have lost me as a boosting customer and this point.

I could see giving 2 or three spells to start. But only one really cripples the player and TO ME ruins the joy of even playing it.

Sorry if this was already shared about. I just didn't see it so thought I'd toss it up there.

Side note: Oh and you CANNOT queue for a dungeon. I tried. I didn't meat the requirements for gear for some reason. I tried to get into a pandaland dungeon but the queue wouldn't pop. So I do not know if that would have automatically given the talents. If it does ................. seems like it defeats the purpose of this system. If it doesn't. Plan to be kicked from the group VERY quickly.

[Lisaara]

If you finished Tanaan jungle, you should have flying and everything else. Every quest you complete should give you new abilities. There was also a big change with inscription. A lot of glyphs got removed and several more were put in to learn. Are you 100% sure you weren't just learning the new stuff? Did you check to make sure of such?

[SylviaDragon]

Also for those who don't know, there is a bronze dragon disguised as a human female right next to the path leading into the zone from Swamp of Sarrows. If you ask her to let you see things before the iron invasion the horde and ally strongholds will be restored and you can once again use the mailbox there.

thanks for the warning. I have been saving my 90 boost. this is not going to be fun.

[zedxrgal]

Are you 100% sure you weren't just learning the new stuff? Did you check to make sure of such?

100% sure. Especially since I've boosted several toons and not one single toon had to relearn anything prior to level 60. This toon did. All my prior toons had max flying. This one didn't. I had to pay to learn that but she had all the other flying done. I had to pay to relearn all of my portals since after the boost all she had was Silvermoon.

I was in real ID with a couple of friend who their mains are mages. They all were like ":o Are you serious?"

This is the one screen shot I grabbed while doing the starter quests in Tanaan jungle.

WoWScrnShot_010915_104600.jpg (315.58 KiB) Viewed 3065 times

The gain on the new talents, TO ME, is very slow and as I said you're extremely squishy since you have one spell to start. It was so frustrating try to survive against a level 90 iron horde with just frostbolt. I don't think I got the next level of spells till I was at least half way through that line. Regardless. Blizzard is throwing a player to the wolves with that.

My whole beef was a $60 that should have included everything seemingly did not because I spent ALL of her gold and some from another toons to make up for what was missing from before level 60.[/color]

[Lisaara]

Hm...That's troubling and I don't think that is intended. Keep going til you talk to someone.

[AdamSavage]

This is pretty much normal. The only difference is, you have to go through the starting zone vs doing it in Blasted Lands. The system treats all boosted Toons, as if they they started out at lvl 1 and boosted to 90. They really should change this, specially if you where lvl 60 before hand. I went through this same thing on my DK And Lock..Very annoying...

Pre-WOD, you unlocked your abilities in the lvl 90 version of Blasted Lands.

[Kalhoun]

I boosted my pally before WoD and had to regain his abilities by doing the lvl 90 Blasted Land quests. I died A LOT. I had to sit and wait for other people to start attacking one of the quest mobs because I couldn't kill him on my own! It was very hard and took a long time to get through.

I boosted my mage after WoD launch and found the experience slightly improved. I think having the NPCs there with you helps. I think I died only once during the whole ordeal, but I was still pretty darn squishy. I had to be a lot more careful than I usually am. At the end I didn't have any of my portal training either, but I wasn't sure if that was because I had boosted a lvl 1 or not (now I know).

[Iowawolf]

Not sure who knows this or not but there is a way around having to do the quests to get them back all you have to do is go back to your class trainer and relearn your specs and bingo you get your talents back, flying back, glyph spots back everything. That or queue for a dungeon and leave it also gives you everything back without doing those quests until you are ready for them. I have been boosting for some time and this does work just last night I boosted another hunter and they never went to Draenor just back to Stormwind and the hunter trainer now they are where they need to be.

[zedxrgal]

I boosted before the Iron Horde blasted lands started. And this was never an issue. I boosted other toons After the iron horde pre quest line started ................ never had this issue. The other thing I noticed was before WoD launched all my boosted toons started in either faction shrine. Now you're in the Blasted Lands. This is the first (and probably only toon) I've boosted after WoD launch and this is what I got. A level 90 with level 1 talents etc. $60 Christmas gift was a waste in my opinion. Had I known I wouldn't have wasted time getting her to level 60 (she was 61 when boosted) for the perks of having everything else leveled when I have to shell out the gold to relearn it all anyway.

Now that there's a sort of work around to the talents is cool. But my mine gripe with this system is Blizzard throws a newb to the wolves to "help learn the class" with this system. Hell. TO ME, they're throwing every player to the wolves or into a vat of frustration and possible nerd raging if they do not know that there's a work around to getting your talents /spells before heading into Tanaan jungle.

I can image what a new player would think of this system when you're supposed to be a pretty badass 90 and you're getting destroyed just trying to play.

So there you have it ladies and gents. Not sure, FOR ME, boosting is going to to be worth it anymore.

[Stephen]

When you boost your character it tells you exactly what is happening and what to do. It tells you that you are now entering a tutorial mode for Warlords. You then progress through the little tutorial quickly learning all your spells. By the time the tutorial is finished you are more than able to start Warlords.

There's no reason anyone should feel discouraged to boost a character; it's extremely easy and obvious. I think the OP probably had some kind of UI problem blocking the tutorial, but it is a very simple process.

[Shinryu Masaki]

I haven't tested it, but I've read another way is to go back to a starting area, like say Elwynn Forest or Durotar, and do the level 1 to 10 quests there, and that the unlock system works with those too. Might be something to try out.

[AdamSavage]

When you boost your character it tells you exactly what is happening and what to do. It tells you that you are now entering a tutorial mode for Warlords. You then progress through the little tutorial quickly learning all your spells. By the time the tutorial is finished you are more than able to start Warlords.

There's no reason anyone should feel discouraged to boost a character; it's extremely easy and obvious. I think the OP probably had some kind of UI problem blocking the tutorial, but it is a very simple process.

I don't recall seeing a tutorial. The only option given to you, is to do the quest line to unlock everything. I even looked it up on You Tube, and it's the same thing. You have to quest to unlock. I didn't know about going to visit the trainer, to gain everything back. I wonder if they fixed that ?

[Iowawolf]

A few days ago I boosted another hunter to 90 and the first thing I did was go to my trainer and relearned beast mastery which in turn gave my all the abilities, talents, glyph spots even flying so yes this trick is still working and we don't have to deal with the quests until we are ready.

[zedxrgal]

When you boost your character it tells you exactly what is happening and what to do. It tells you that you are now entering a tutorial mode for Warlords. You then progress through the little tutorial quickly learning all your spells. By the time the tutorial is finished you are more than able to start Warlords.

There's no reason anyone should feel discouraged to boost a character; it's extremely easy and obvious. I think the OP probably had some kind of UI problem blocking the tutorial, but it is a very simple process.

I think you may have missed in all my posts where I said FOR ME or TO ME because I can only speak for myself and my experiences. This was posted as the title says, a word of caution. If my experience causes someone to not boost then that is THEIR choice. They've read the facts listed here and made the decision of their own accord. Its not to discouraged or anything the like. But I've been playing WoW a long time (since 04) and have boosted ............ eight or nine toons (don't judge me! ) and this is the very first time this has happened. And even the direct quote from a GM seems to indicate this is a recent change. There was no tutorial. Not the first time I boosted and not this time.

There was ZERO indication that I would start with only one spell. I just looked at my transaction history and I've boosted 6 toons. Add four on top of that because two were from pre-purchasing WoD and two were from a recompense when my server died and had lost several of my toons and hundreds of others and it took weeks to get them all back. I have two accounts FYI. In all of these boosts not one had a tutorial. Not the first one or this most recent. All were given everything they were supposed too except this one.

I don't recall seeing a tutorial. The only option given to you, is to do the quest line to unlock everything. I even looked it up on You Tube, and it's the same thing. You have to quest to unlock. I didn't know about going to visit the trainer, to gain everything back. I wonder if they fixed that ?

Thank you for looking into this.

A few days ago I boosted another hunter to 90 and the first thing I did was go to my trainer and relearned beast mastery which in turn gave my all the abilities, talents, glyph spots even flying so yes this trick is still working and we don't have to deal with the quests until we are ready.

Thank you for letting us know. Good to know that that is a little work around.

Regardless of where you start out and with only one talent the main reason is that I worked to get the mage to 60 for the perks of the professions and max flying. She had to pay to relearn everything from level 1 to 60 and she had to pay for max flying. To the tune of 5000g because she had no rep. I had to take money from another toon just to pay for her to relearn the things she should have had. Which was the main point to this post. I could easily deal with spending 50 or even 100g to relearn talents (yes I know it's not that high) if all the stuff I learned before 60 was still there. But to throw down the gold to relearn all the ports she already paid to learn, professions and max flying is very discouraging TO ME. I should just boost at level one and let my garrison deal with any professions. Otherwise. For me. This is probably my last boost.

[ejpaints]

Keep in mind there's all those 496 tokens from timeless isle. Nice boost from what blizz gives you.

[Ana]

If you reset your talent you get it all back.. Blizzard said i might screw up a questlinie or two but i agree with you.. its a pain in the butt.

I complained and hope to get money back because it felt like blizzard kinda screw me for my money...

[Mystrinixx]

Gotta kind of agree that it seems a bit unfair. I boosted a hunter to 90 last week and freaked out when I ended up in Blasted Lands in front of the Dark Portal with one attack option and no freakin' pet (or access to my stable!). Nothing worse as a hunter than not having my faithful pet by my side!!! I think I spent at least 45 mins searching around online to find out if this was normal or if the boost didn't work. Once I realized it was intentional, I went ahead and did the quests.

Having been away from WoW for the last three years, I actually appreciated the quest line since it gave me an opportunity to "re-learn" how to play LOL! But I definitely agree there should be other options for people who are boosting higher-level toons!

[Lisaara]

Just boosted my paladin that was level 20. Still have riding. They took away my class mount, but I still have all my basic skills. Didn't have to relearn anything that the quests didn't give me.

EDIT: After getting my garrison, I have everything. Mounts included.