The Follow-up: Who & How Are You Getting To 80?
Many moons ago, Bastosa and I discussed how and who we planned on getting to 80. Back then I figured I would simply keep healing my way up to level 80, pushing my priest as my main toon. While things started out that way initially, Solidsamm has returned to the forefront. After Mutilate's “from behind” requirement was removed, I jumped at the chance to try the new dagger spec that would not force me to be behind my target at all times. The freshness that came with the conversion is exactly the reason I returned my angry Gnome to main status.
There are two reasons why I knew I was going to be hooked on World of Warcraft when it was released in late 2004. First off, I have loved the WarCraft universe since I first entered it via WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness. Secondly, and probably most important, was Blizzard's reputation. The company should just make their tagline “We don't make bad video games.” While a game can have the best story ever, it'll still suck if the gameplay isn't there to back it up, enter Wrath of the Lich King.
I had a pipedream that I would level mostly through instances, but without a close friend who's main is a healer, that is pretty hard to accomplish these days. Lucky for me the quests in Wrath of the Lich King have diverse goals, interesting lore, and an attachment to the zones that keeps me interested. While grinding via quests may not be the best XP/hour (that still goes to good old fashioned grinding), it is incredibly less mind-numbing. I will save that process for leveling my fishing.
Now that many of you are well on your way, or already 80, who and how did you get there? Did you roll that Death Knight and start from level 55 or abandon that idea and go with one of your level 70s? While I have done some instances, I generally haven't gone back to them after finishing their quests. How about you?
Reader Comments (47)
Got my DK up to 75 but am now thinking about going back to my 70 rogue. I like the rogue playstyle more but really hate seeing my kneecaps all the time! (undead rogue v. BE DK)
My friend just got WoW so I've been lvling an alt with him. I do, in my off-time, level my druid though. He's parked at 74. Hopefully my friend and I leveling a Warrior(me) and a Paladin(him) will make some good time. The idea when we get to higher content is to instance through, him as healer me as tank because it's what I was born to do. We should be seeing Northrend, well him, in the next month-ish.
I started playing WoW in late September and hit 58 mere hours before WOTLK came online. I am currently 72 and very much enjoying Northrend. I'm really interested in getting to 80 and raiding as I haven't had the chance to take part in that because it's been grinding up until now. Fortunately I have some good friends in my guild who have made my grinding slightly less agonizing. :)
The quests and quest lines in Northrend are much more invovling and I have at times found myself laughing out loud at the screen (example feeding the fish to the Reef Bull to get them to mate with the Reef Cows in HF).
I've done only one instance (UK) and am working on the others, although I am finding quest grinding to be the most profitable source of XP and gold.
I'm saving my cash for my epic flying skill and mount, my gear will come soon enough as the raiding will be my primary focus after dinging 80.
I haven't started a DK yet and probably won't for a while as I'm in love with caster classes. I must say though, that WoW is a really good game, possibly one of the best ever.
Helmarn, Orc Warlock
Bloodforged
The Venture Co. (US)
I switched mains for wotlk my shammy will hit 77 next time I log on. I'm hoping to heal for raid progression. My old main, a hunter is probably going to sit for a while until I can get a tanking class into northrend.
Death Knight FTW!! hes still 72 but im enjoying the lore behind the zones.
I level by questing i got an 80 lock in about a week and a half with school and other things in my life. Iknow questing isnt the fastest way but it works for me.
I didn't get a Wrath until a week after it came out so during that time i started a Prot Pally. Once i got Wrath i rolled a DK and he is now my highest lvl at 73. Im working here and there on my main (Prot Warrior) but questing is way too slow on him so i think im gonna lvl the pally first. For those of you who think im an idoit for doing that id like to let you know that hes 45 atm. Im not exactly sure what spec i should go through Northrend on him though. I know that ret kills quicker but with Prot i can aoe pull and kill more faster. (any feedback would be nice). ill work on my warrior after that or maybe my shaman that i started a little while back.
My Fury Warrior is level 80... been awhile now.. I think I turned 80 like two days ago. :P
My shaman was 61 when WotLK came out, so I had a quite way to got. I rumbled through outlands as fast as I could and entered Northrend. I dinged 80 last friday and I'm somewhat about that. Did that mostly by questing and few instances. I do still have my old 70 lvl gnome rogue that I should get to 80, but first I must get some epax on ma' shaman.
Still running around waiting to get WotLK. Yes... it's disappointing but I find it nice to know that when I get the game I'll already have exalted with a few factions, thus increasing my reputation with Northrend will be easy and I will be able to save some gold while going back to those exalted areas (currently working on Ex. with TB and Org, less than 10k rep away).
Just looking at people who've crossed into Northrend I can tell it's going to be fun, and Project Lore has let the mystery still kind of remain secret up until just recently with the Soloing videos.
I of course am going to run my 70 Warrior who runs DPS with Fury specs. Hoping he'll fair well in the new world of Northrend, and then once I hit 80 I'm gonna tackle the Death Knight.
So yeah... I'm very excited to get this ball rolling.
First, I got my 70 hunter onto a boat and got him to the Borean Tundra. I did the initial quests and thought I would roll a DK for a change of pace. 20 levels later on the DK and my hunter has barely moved in the Borean Tundra. Something about 5k crits in mainly quest greens as a level 75 just seems fun.
"While grinding via quests may not be the best XP/hour (that still goes to good old fashioned grinding)"
Wrong. The fastest way to level up is through planned quest circuits where you complete and turn in several quests at the time.
well i rolled a dk, 71 as of last week...boring to level to be honest... but my prot warrior i leveled from 70 to 75 as prot just switched arms and buzzed through 2 1/2 levels in a week... really nice dps and dmg output. But sadly my fire mage isn't getting much love from me... haven't played him in about 2 weeks now...not sure why but really just boring to level...
guess that's because blizz made mages a little less OP, and more PO... leveling not as bad as seeing trade chat blaze up when people want tanks, and then when i go to tank for them on my warrior... they want a damn tankadin... QQ
When Wrath came out, I was overjoyed at actually questing again with my main, Orc Warrior. I got him to 80 in a little over a week, questing like mad. On my server I have a full list of toons to play (I like diversity), most of which were 70 well before the WotLK release. But no matter how many 80s I'll have in six months, my main has always been, and always will be, my Orc Warrior. Lok'Tar!
I hit the instance's and quest's hard wen WOTLK came out with my healer and dps friend im a TanKadIN so we only need to dps after that we lvled up solo doing quests and we hit the instances to get gear and xp we have hit every instance in LK and got the achivement for it aswell we have just started raiding naxx now in our guild, the lvling was great was good to see the xp bar once again it wasnt as long as i thought it was going to be wen i sore the 1.5 mill to lvl, now im on the naxx/h.c line again so im feelign happy that im not so far away from where i was b4 the x-pan, wont be long nwo untill i can take a few hours out now and again to lvl my frost DK yes im going TanK again, I like DPS but i just dnt like to play DPS so i will lvl that guy up to 80 and get him to the end game stuff all in good time but from wat i have seen so far of the DK tanks there pritty good but they will never be a TanKadIN, weset the standard for all other TanK'sand we will carry on doing, and its good to hear every1 ealse is enjoying LK as much as i am :D
I have brought my NE Rogue to lvl 80, did it almost only through quests. I would be doing maybe six quests at one time and then turning them in all at one time. That way it felt like I was accomplishing something rather then run here do one, turn in, run there do another, turn in. >> All that running back and forth is a waste of time imo.
Now I just run Heroics and dailies so I can get the rep and the gear.
I've got a level 77 priest as my main. Looking forward to him hitting 80 soon. Just got my epic flying skill and now leveling through questing is so much faster.
After I get him to 80, I'll work on my DK. He's level 64. I want to have a tank and a healer at level 80 in a couple of months. I know that's slow but RL takes priority over WoW and RL is busy right now...
I love playing both the priest and the DK. They are both a lot of fun for me. Can't decide which will be my main. guess I'll figure that out after I hit 80 with both and raid a little bit.
I have started lvling my 4th alt to 80 should be fun lol woot :P
I am currently 78 on my pally. i recently switched bak to holy after finding it hard to get a healer (there is only 4 on our server on ally) well as soon as it got out into my guild that id gone holy i got into oculus at 75 we wiped once and now ppl are all over me lvling by instance has to be the way to go yeh mayb it dusnt quite go as fast as questin but its sure as hell a lot more fun to do specially if u rape everythin in the place.
Bullrog (holy pally)
Karazhan EU
Tho I'm only 74,Fury War, Ive done about 3/1 questing over instance. There's plenty of XP to be had instancing, but groups are hard to come by when I get off work at 12:30am...
To that note, after dieing on Ingvar about 5 times, we finally downed him with a mage still standing with about 200HP left. I laughed until I got my repair bill...
im 80 right now and just workin on getting geared before i bring my healer up, im already geared to main tank all of the 10 mans except eye of eternity
I hit 80 on my shaman main in about 15 days after Wrath came out, and pushed my hunter alt from 78 to 80 just yersterday. I did roll a Blood Elf DK, but she's been sitting at 61 for quite awhile now due to my focus on"Alayea" and "Lithala".
I was orinally going to do a lot of instancing in my sprint to 80, but... it simply didn't pan out. Instead, I did almost nothing but solo-questing by doing all the quests in Borean Tundra, Howling Fjord, Dragonblight, and The Storm Peaks.
Now that Lithala is at 80, I can go back to my main to start doing all the quests in the other zones that I skipped. Reputation dailies = FTW. :P