Boosting in World of Warcraft

[Zab]

Ever since the earliest days of vanilla, when players were still putting together groups for BRD and Molten Core, every so often they’d bring along a few of their undergeared friends or guildies and guide them through even the toughest end game content. As the game grew in size and its players in skill, they’d start bringing more people along in their raids, for a price. Then, that grew into gold bidding on items, then Dungeon carries, then Arena boosting.

And now, nearly 20 years later, the WoW Boosting scene has become much more than just a way to earn some quick gold - it is an industry all on its own. With dozens of dedicated sites, hundreds of boosters doing thousands of orders every single day, suffice it to say, the industry has evolved beyond buying Deadmines runs.

But what is World of Warcraft Boosting?

In the simplest terms, boosting is when you carry someone through a specific activity. This can mean anything from:

• Running HC, Mythic or Mythic+ Dungeons with them in your party
• Bringing them along during Raids
• Getting them to a specific Arena or Mythic+ Rating
• Spamming BGs with them in your team
• Helping them complete Achievements
• Dealing in Gold at better prices that WoW Tokens

And pretty much everything else you can think of! World of Warcraft is a huge game - Retail alone has thousands of hours worth of content that you can do - and when you add stuff like Cata Classic or the odd event, like Plunderstorm, into the mix, what you’re left with is a game that can take you years to complete. Mount collecting, achievement farming, alts, gear, transmog, professions - the list goes on and on.

The trouble is that nowadays, people just don’t have the time to grind anymore.

Author’s Note: Do you guys remember the good old days? I don’t know how many people are left that played all the way back in Vanilla, or even BC or Wrath, but man, the game just had a shine to it back then. Seeing Chris(t) Metzen back up on stage during the War Within announcement was a crazy nostalgia trip. For the first time since Legion, it felt like WoW was back on the right track, in the hands of the guy that made it so great to begin with. Still, nowadays, a bulk of WoW’s population is made up of people who have jobs, lives and families. Imagine grinding for Insane in the Membrane after an 8 hour shift, with your wife screaming about unpaid bills in the background. Yikes!

Now imagine doing the same for Keystone Master & Hero, Cutting Edge or Gladiator. All of these take a lot of grinding, a lot of skill, and a whole hell of a lot of time to get done. Weeks of spamming Mythics, rated Arenas or doing Normal and HC Raids, just to miss your last tier piece again.

So what is one to do when they don’t have the time or energy to spend on their favorite game?

They ask for a bit of help.

How popular is World of Warcraft boosting?

While there’s no exact data on how big the boosting industry is, as these sorts of service providers tend to be pretty hush hush with their data, in short: it's BIG. As World of Warcraft is still both the biggest MMO by far, with the founder of Warcraft Logs tweeting just a couple days ago that:




Which, again, makes it clear that the king of MMOs is still uncontested, it is also one of the most disgustingly grindy games in existence. There’s no shortage of time sinks to stumble on in WoW. Boosts can make slogs like leveling, grinding reps or spamming the same content over and over go by much faster and much easier.

Which, in turn, creates a huge market of people looking to get their troubles shortened. And of course, where there’s a demand, there’s people willing to supply it. And sites like BlazingBoost exist for that very reason - they help in supplying that demand.

A small team of boosters might be able to get a few customers every now and then if they go at it alone, but with the help of a massive middleman, they can quickly connect with more customers than they could ever dream of getting by spamming trade chat. These sites often have massive throughputs - thousands of orders every day - which, of course, boosters pick up and complete as much as they can. In short, they expedite the boosting process by connecting customers with boosting teams, all while keeping both parties safe by avoiding communication channels moderated by Blizzard.

And now that WoW is back on top, more players means both more demand, and more supply, both of which result in a business that won’t be going away for a long, long time.

But why is World of Warcraft boosting so popular?

World of Warcraft Boosting is a sword with two sides. On one hand, it can help busy gamers save precious time by renting out a team that’ll carry them through tough content. Take Mythic+ for example. Getting Keystone Hero or Keystone Master can easily take more than just one week’s worth of +11s per affix, especially with the horrible state of LFG. Imagine not playing a meta class and getting ignored for hours, then picked up for a run, only for the healer to leave after one (1) poorly timed interrupt goes through. That’s hours of time wasted for nothing, especially if you’re trying to run your own keystone.

Now imagine that same scenario, but instead of loitering in the group finder, you can immediately hop into a decked out team that’s run thousands of dungeons throughout their career, and just blazing through a dozen of them in the time it would take for you to time just one. Plus, more often than not, they’d be willing to trade you a gear piece or two, as a little bonus.

Or maybe you’re already an absolute beast, but just don’t have the team to reach Cutting Edge or Glad, no matter how many meters you top. That’s where boosting comes in, and in fact, you don’t even have to call it boosting, but a way for you to find experienced teammates without having to join the annoying, elitist top 1000 Reddit circlejerk most regions’ best players are a part of.

Speaking of which, boosting isn’t just great for the buyer, but the booster as well.

Because of sites like Overgear or G2G, high tier players who can easily clear the content most people find extremely difficult now have a way of monetizing their skill. Be it by Leveling their toons or helping them get Keystone Master every season, boosters can make a pretty penny by renting out their talent to others - and not just for pocket change, mind you, as many boosters are able to make a living just by playing the game they love.

Author’s Note: I don’t think I’m the only one who’s had those childhood dreams of playing my favorite games as a job. Imagine being able to hop on, grind out some mythics with your buddies (and a couple of customers), maybe a raid or two while you’re at it, and call that a day’s work done. Sounds great, doesn't it?

Well with the boosting industry constantly looking for more people to fill the growing demand, for hundreds of players worldwide, that dream is now a reality.

How does WoW Boosting work?

Boosting generally has two ways it's done:

• Playing with the Booster(s)
• Account Sharing

The first one is fairly self explanatory - the customer gets invited to his rented team’s party, and they go about clearing his desired content together.

Account Sharing, on the other hand, has a booster log right into the customer’s account to do whatever deeds he bought.

While the former generally sounds more enticing at a glance, and indeed, most people prefer to play with their team when Raiding or doing Dungeons and whatnot, account sharing is usually the mode of choice when you consider some of the more annoying aspects of gameplay, like grinding rep, old currencies, low drop rate mounts and so on.

While you might not be willing to do 200 runs trying to get the Ashes of Al’ar, I can almost promise there’s someone out there who is.



Whether you’re looking to get a helping hand or offering your own, the now massive WoW boosting industry offers you a way to both save time, have fun, and make a respectable wage while doing it. It's a place that lets both buyers and sellers alike make the most out of their time in the World of Warcraft, just like in the good old days. Because isn’t that what we all want in the end? To have fun playing the game we love?

Thanks for reading!