Ding 41 x 4 - The Zolo Trick makes it so fast at these levels - Sustaining well over 100k xp/h over 2 hours even with running to repair and going afk for 10 minutes.
The Zolo Trick involves the mini boss
Zolo in the Sunken Temple - All the information here are from the
dual-boxing forums.
NOTE: This 'trick' is nerfed as of 29/30th of July so this text is no longer valid - Just kept here for historical reasons.A general tip is to make sure you are familiar with the Sunken Temple before you drag level 35s in there, as it is quite deadly to drag them around in there while you are looking for the way.
1) This work to get characters experience from level 35 to around 58 (although the last few levels will be quite slow, so most seem to stop around 52).
2) Get a 70 paladin on a separate account from the characters you intend to level. The trick works with numerous other classes, but a paladin is easiest and what I used and will be describing here.
Remember that account sharing is against the policy, so if you don't have a appropriate boosting character, you need to find a friend willing to do it for you or level one yourself.3) Now, this trick is not at all depending on gear - Go to the auction house and stock up on green plate armor in the 65-70 range - This is to reduce repair costs.
Also, make sure you have a bunch of green / white shields as you will be going through them fast.
Not brining 4+ shields will severely increase how often you need to go repair. I bought myself 4
Crested Heater Shield in Stonard, costs around 4 g, lasts a good long while and are cheap to repair.
The only other gear that is suggested to bring is any kind of item that will help you self heal with no cast time - Such as
Figurine of the Colossus. I use a
Spyglass of the Hidden Fleet, and it does help some to. But the trick is doable without any such items.
4) The paladin needs to be protection spec, having the talents Spiritual Focus and Improved Concentration Aura (either get both, or don't bother with any, unless you want it for other reasons than the trick) helps, but is not mandatory.
5) Get your paladin + your team or the characters you are going to boost to the entrance of the Sunken Temple (this can be a bit of a challenge with level 35s, so be careful).
6) Zone in the paladin and track undead and check the troll miniboss spawn points that appear in a cricle around the zone - If you do not find Zolo in the "1 o'clock" or "11 o'clock" position, go out and reset until you do.
Clearing to any other position will take to long, only do this if you hit the instance / hour limit.
7) Clear the 2 groups (and the stair patrol if you want to be safe), and march your team to the hallway just outside Zolo - Take care that the lowbies are not positioned so that the stair patrol or Zolo will aggro them.
From this point, all the team being boosted will do is not time out due to AFK, they must not get aggro in any fashion.
7b) Optional. One of the limits to how quickly you gain xp and how long you can keep going for is how long Zolo is kept alive - The method I'll describe below involves resetting him and running back, which I find simpler - But if you plan to keep going for a really long session and have repair bots handy - It might be worth finding another troll mini boss:
Mijan.
Clear from Zolo to Mijan and pull him over to Zolo before you attack Zolo (take care he don't get aggro on the team) - He will keep Zolo healed.
8) Engage Zolo. Put your back to the wall and wait for the skeletons to start spawning.
At this point you want to do damage to the skeletons (don't need to kill them, just a little damage - they will despawn and give xp), but as little damage as possible to Zolo (as when he dies, the fun is over).
As a paladin this means: No retribution aura, no holy shield, no shield spike - Just use Blessing of Sanctuary for the damage. I tend to drop a rank 1 Concentration sometimes to assure that all are damaged - This is not necessary, but will make a small difference as it will tag mobs that completely fail to hit you.
To keep yourself up, use Seal of Light and any healing trinkets etc you might have - If things get rough, you can either bubble and heal - Or if you got the Improved Concentration Aura and Spiritual Focus you can channel heals.
Having Reckoning in your build will help the Seal of Light healing - I find that in most fights I stay at max health with just the Seal of Light.
Do not melee Zolo, as this will reduce the length of the fight.
9) Once Zolo's hp is getting low (under 10% or so, I keep him targeted on my team to always be able to see his hp), ensure your health is high, and jump off the platform where you aggroed Zolo - Down to the dragons. Take care not to aggro them (you can probably easily kill them, but it takes time) - This is easily done.
Run back up (northern tunnel out), you will need to kill 1 group of mobs on the way.
If you pulled the healer to Zolo, you should never have to do this unless you need to heart to repair.
Do NOT kill Zolo until you are done for the session.10) As your shields break, replace them (you will see a spike in the damage you take :P) - Once you are out of shields or your other gear breaks, use a repair bot or go repair. I run to Stonard, but will probably set my heart to there to make it a bit quicker.
Just leave the team in the instance, they are safe outside Zolos room.
This is a insanely fast way of getting experience through 35-50ish, but there are quite a few drawbacks, such as
- It's boring
- It costs lots of cash in repairs, while generating absolutely no loot
- Melee classes will be severely under skilled for their level after a boost through here
- The characters being boosted will have gotten no gear upgrades
So, depending on your goals, it might not be the thing for you - But for me it's a great help at this point - And I haven't done it so much yet as I'm bored - I'm more fascinated with seeing the experience bars move quickly.
A more detailed description of the trick can be found
here. Despite the name of that site, the general opinion (and some have even asked GMs about it) is that the 'Zolo Trick' is not any form of exploit.
