Discussion: Racing to 80
I’m going to replace a post every two weeks with a discussion. I want to see what the community has to say. About gold, about wow, about economics. This week a general WoW discussion
Goddamn the man!
Me and a good buddy of mine are racing to 80, which means I’m actually spending a fair amount of time on WoW.
The score right now:
lvl60: He was first
lvl70: I was first
lvl80: aren’t done yet
Me: 75 Afflock
Buddy: 73 Furry Warrior
Now we aren’t comparing time. Since I lvled in BG’s once AV was available(untill lvl58 then from 62 to 68 again), and he went LFD-nuts.
That’s why my lock has Engi-Tailoring as his professions. Tailoring is cheap & fast. And it helps my recently switched 380enchanter lvl up which in turn brings profit.
Engineering, is just for PvP, i love stunning 10 people at the same time. Although I’m throwing goldpieces at them, it’s quite fun. (What else to do with 100K?) Engineering is a pain to lvl but once you can make arrows/bullets it becomes profitable again. Not that I would recommend it but at least it’s manageable (also the squirrel’s sell well!)
Well I’m posting this totally useless piece of info, to get info from you guys.
If you have the chance: look at Damiän on the Ravenholdt-EU realm.
I’m using an Affli-lvling built, that stresses my health, HP5, and periodic dps.
I’m pulling in 8 guys, pop my shield and SoC everyone (lightshow ftw). Then it’s haunt and corr for health.
I have about 2h a day I can play, he plays 4-5h a day. (he’s really keen on defeating me -_-)
So.. I’m questing and do the LFD once a day, and do a quick AV when possible. (does anyone actually paly IoC?)
The Question here is: How would you do it? I would love to see your input and how YOU and the other readers think abou this. Would you still take money making professions? Would you BG/LFD… would you cheat? (use a tank/healer for the instant-lfd’s) etc.
Your friend has the advantage of being a warrior and being able to get LFD’s in tankspec quickly.
Im a warrior too, just lvl80 a month or so. How i did it was quest a zone, LFD when i got the quest for it. NOT when i got ALL the quests for it first! That way i went in alot, got more gear, more exp.
Recap on what i did:
70% quest
30% LFD
Zones i been to: howling to 72, borean to 75, dragonsblight to 79, stormpeaks to 80.
As soon as i hit 80 i parked in dala and never rly left
Ive yet to see grizzlyhills and shalozar. Thats with 2 characters now.
Im no a big fan of BGs to lvl, it just takes longer time wise. However if your into gold you can easily make alot from buyings gems with honor.
As soon as you hit 76, grab the quest in dalaran and head to Sholazar Basin. Do both the main chains and you will be to 78 in no time.
Quests! I’ll second the recommendation of Sholazar. The LFD is nice and all, except that as a DPSer, you are going to have obscene wait times. In the time it takes you to get into and through one completely, your friend (if he were to tank) can get in and have 2-3 finished. (I’ve waited over half an hour to get into a run that took entirely too long.)
I find that I will go back to zones that are just AT my level, where I can take all the quests possible and simply -wreck- the zone. This has benefited me for lower leveling, too. When I first hit Northrend, I was challenged to deal with some of the mobs on a priest. So, I went back to Outland. I was getting 9k and some change in XP per quest in Borean Tundra. In Shadowmoon Valley, I could handle the mobs much more easily, and was getting 10-12k XP per quest! It was a much better investment for me. I could accomplish SO much more on the lower mobs and still be netting what I feel was a better rate of XP/time. (I did this until 73-74, then went back to Borean Tundra and was better prepared to mop the floor with the stuff there – knocked it out in a handful of hours, moved on.)
Oh! Forgot to mention: If it is a matter of time, I probably wouldn’t bother with my professions until I was “done”. Typically this is not how I do things (I am almost always capped with my crafting skill several levels before I can train again)… but you are pressed for “time”. Questing will net you a lot of cash, especially in Northrend. As you shouldn’t necessarily be spending much (except for repairs, really), you should see an overall net gain simply from doing that.
Here’s my leveling strategy:
Install Tourguide, TomTom and Jame’s Alliance/Horde Leveling guide. (I believe you can find everything linked from http://www.wow-pro.com.
The guide works best when you start a new zone. It’s basically a guide to optimize your questing. Trust the guide. Sometimes it feels like it’s taking you in the wrong direction… it’s not. Everything is done to maximize productivity.
For your sanity you could queue up for a dungeon here and there. With the guide you can plow through without the fear of getting lost/sidetracked when you return from the dungeon.
Hope this helps!
CK
I have always found solo questing/grinding much faster, and better. I love not having to share my xp, or loot with anyone.
@jenna
While going to higher level BC quest may seem faster. Your missing out on aquiring gear that generally is 2-3 times better than the gear gathered from BC quest by waiting to enter northrend. MY advice would have been to try and stick it out finish a few quest for gear that would imprve your stats then you may have been able to handle northrend.