How Are You Getting To 80?
Posted by 
Bastosa on Monday, September 29, 2008 - 43 Comments Tags: expansion, level 80, level cap, leveling, power leveling, wrath of the lich king
Bastosa on Monday, September 29, 2008 - 43 Comments Tags: expansion, level 80, level cap, leveling, power leveling, wrath of the lich king 
If you are anything like me, you want to get to level 80 as soon as possible. Sure I understand that some people would like to sit back, smell the roses, and enjoy all that Northrend has to offer. But for me, this game is all about the end game! I'll save the roses for my rogue alt. I want to start raiding as soon as possible, so myself and my fellow guildies have spent some time recently discussing the fastest way possible to get into Naxx. I don't want to do any stupid 48-hour marathon power-leveling or anything, but let's just say I won't be wasting any time.There are a few options, but the one I think we have settled on is pure instance grinding. Being a tank, this would be ideal. First of all, it prevents me from having to respec Ret, which is the last thing I want to do. It will also allow us to learn all the new class skills and abilities in a group setting, which will be valuable down the road. I'm sure we will poke our heads out of the instance portals from time to time, grab a quest or two, and see what the countryside is about, but I think that the XP from the instances will get us where we want to go fast. Add on the quests that are in the instances themselves and we should be leveling in a hurry.
In order to get this dialed in, we are wanting to put together a team of 5 people that will basically level as a unit, make sure we stay close in level, and just hit the 5-mans over and over until the final ding. I imagine it will take more than a couple runs through each one before we are ready for the next, but its not like we haven't run every heroic into the ground already. I doubt anyone will mind. I know there are others in the guild with the same plan, so hopefully it will be easy to hook up with one of the groups and go straight into the 10-man scene at 80.
Now this is certainly not the only way, just my way. I know people that are going to quest from sun up to sun down. I even know a few that plan on filling their quest logs with 25 completed quests in SMV beforehand and hope to get a level or two off the turn ins when Wrath goes live.
In the end I think it comes down to doing what you enjoy. I enjoy group play, so that is my route, what is yours?
Reader Comments (43)
In my eyes, if you're not questing you're missing a HUGE aspect of the game. And I think the best way to get to 80 is to quest.
God I hate pally tanks, especially two named McTucker and Steve Bastosa.
I'm definately going to quest for most of it, and gather the instance quests along the way, then when I get 4 or 5 for a instance, thats when I'll run it with my guildies that have been thinking the same way.
I think you can level as fast with quests then you do with instances. Just need to it the right way ^_^
What you guys aren't considering is just how many people are going to be trying to level when Wrath comes out. There will be about 10 players per quest mob, you'll be desperately trying to tag mobs, there will be queues of people waiting to kill those single spawns.
Under normal circumstances questing is quicker than instance grinding, but the days post-release won't be normal circumstances. Lag will be a nightmare and everywhere will be hugely busy. Finding yourself a nice instance group ready to speed run Utgarde Keep in ~30 mins (and that's slow for a full epic group) 10 ish times will get you to 71 way quicker than trying to quest near Warsong Hold or Vengeance Landing.
Our guild, a smaller one, has devided us up in 2 groups doing the same thing. Only thing is we are going to do the quests of every instance. Somebody - me - is goin to look up every quest in an instance and everybody in the group has a few days the time to make sure they have all the quests so that we in the weekend can do a few instances a couple of times...
Ok first of all I want to get to 80 as fast as I can without out burning my HUD into the back of my eyes, But I think you have missed a few factors in your power levelling instance grinding plan.
1.The average time of a good run through an instance is about 2hrs if not more (think of how many quests you can do in that time).
2. Learning what you need to do in the instance will slow you down.
3. Allow more time for wipes as no group will always do it perfectly (and ypu may have to clear mob again, also run low on gold paying for repairs).
4. You will always run out of double XP fast (double XP is your best friend while instancing).
5. You may have to roll for gear and may not win or you have to grind for your item to drop.
6. Waiting for people to come online (all our lives are very different and yes RL does get in the way some times).
7. If you have to PuG it (not in all cases as I know some don‘t). I have not had the best of times PuGing it, all you need is the 9 year old kid joining that just wants to bash shit and will no doubt get you wiped in no time at all or just the people that aren’t really all that good that get you wiped, you know the score with PuG’s.
Which brings me to…
GROUP QUESTING AND INSTANCING
The benefits;
1. If you group quest you will all have a chance to get items upon handing it in (gearing up together will make easier instancing).
2. You will finish the quests faster therefore gain XP faster.
3. Killing mobs together will give you less XP, this is not a bad thing in away as you will get the quests done faster therefore pushing your double XP over and not using so much of it on quest mobs and saving it for instancing.
4. Gaining rep faster don’t get me wrong though I’m sure we will get rep from doing them but it gets to a point were you only get it from the bosses if not at all. So doing both is better.
5. Levelling trade skills faster, it seems from what project lore has shown us that there are added benefits to having them which may come in handy (and inside an instance is not the best place to level them).
6. You will get to see all of the game as I’m sure this time around blizzard have gone to a lot of trouble and hard work to bring us a better game.
7. And last of all….GOLD! we all need it, we all want it, your fooling yourself if you say you don’t.
So to sum it up group quest and save double XP for instancing is the way forward and makes for faster levelling.
And rule number 1 have fun! it’s a game at the end of the day, some of us have hectic and fast lives as it is so why rush everything.
Antox- Order of the Steel Fist - Argent dawn -EU.
I had the same idea and just level in instances.
I think that I will start to lvl up my feral druid. It's easy to quest and you can easily get a group as tank.
For me it's important lvl up fast but I also want to enjoy the game. I got 2 lvl 70 alts so I can enjoy the hole lvling thing later but for now I think I want to lvl up fast.
"25 completed quests in SMV beforehand and hope to get a level or two off the turn ins when Wrath goes live."
ftw
To be clear, I wasn't suggesting that saving up 25 quests for turn ins is a good strat... just saying I know some people that are doing it. Martyn is probably right, it's likely closer to a half level worth of XP.
You guys are starting to convince me I should consider mixing in questing just a bit more. With a pre-built 5-man group, I imagine it would be fairly easy to take an hour here and there are do some massive group questing to mix things up. Rest XP will definitely be a factor.
I'm going to have to save the lore for my alts because my guild is shooting for about 5 days after WOTLK comes out to start Naxx.
Puts the pressure on me, the poor holy priest lol. I think the instance grind might be a good idea so I wouldn't have to go shadow, but I did grab a lot of shadow gear for questing so it's sad to see that go to waste.
Well I guess it will never go to waste because I can DE it to level enchanting.
seeing as though i am only lvl 44 and just got back into WoW a while ago... i dont think ill make it to 70 by WotLK. However i am a very casual player so ill probably be leveling by questing and running instances, at a moderate pace.
I'm going to be pulling my hair out over this. I have a level 70 of every class except warrior, and I have been planning to get a Death Knight since I heard they were the new class. What I'm planning on doing is focussing on 1 character a day, then parking them in an Inn (for Rested) and moving onto the next character. Granted, it'll take a while, but theres only 1 character I need to get to 80 straight away (damn progression guilds) but I'll just do that character every 2nd day, and to hell with the rested on him.
Right now i might be thinking of getting to 80 as fast as possible, by mowing through the quests, and grinding instances, but i'll probably be doing the same thing as with Outlands... Reading the text to every single quest i do, slowing lvling by hours, but enjoying the lore :)
just for the people that are saying that questing to level won't work quite so well due to all the people.... they are implementing a "phasing" system so that you are technically in a different place then those people who haven't done as much as you.... for example a building could be on fire that you can see because you completed some quests but your level 71 buddy can't see it. Personally though im more excited to see all the instances before all the lore... enough alts for the lore.
Leveling with guild is my plan. Simple and easy.
I shall be levelling through a mix of quests and 5 man instances, most of my questing buddies have moved over to other games so friends in the guild have gladly offered to q with me up to 80. Im most looking forward to the instances and seeing cool loot and exciting boss fights.