leveling offspec and artifact

[kooz]

hello

I haven't had access to beta and I'm not sure I completely understand the leveling process for resto I play

I don't really want to quest level as resto, but if I level as a dps spec, would I be able to max my artifact points for resto? Or it's less efficient?

....Also kind of offtopic, I have alch/lw however it feels like by legion design it might be better to have one gathering and one crafting profession?

[Gracin]

You could always just not use the artifact power items you're rewarded on your dps artifact, and use them once you unlock your resto weapon. I mean, you'll be a little weaker while questing as dps, but you won't be "wasting" artifact power.


From what I've read the revs are trying to balance it out to where 1 gathering 1 crafting isn't always a must, and give crafting professions more of a shot at bloods. I don't think it's meant to as efficient as 1 gather 1 craft, but not impossible.

[Raynre Valence]

Questing as a healer is a bit easier. You do higher damage versus mobs than previous expansions. You could save those artifact items for later, but you're going to be collecting so much that you might as well use them as you find them.

Gathering/Crafting will be the preferred method to gather bloods, but those with 2 crafters will have ways of getting them as well, namely dungeons and world quests. You're just not going to accumulate them as fast, and you'll have twice as much to use them on. Prepare to grind dungeons.

[Gemini Soul]

hello

I haven't had access to beta and I'm not sure I completely understand the leveling process for resto I play

I don't really want to quest level as resto, but if I level as a dps spec, would I be able to max my artifact points for resto? Or it's less efficient?

....Also kind of offtopic, I have alch/lw however it feels like by legion design it might be better to have one gathering and one crafting profession?

Definitely lvl as Resto, it goes fast and each time you rank up your artifact you get a 1% dmg increase.

[Mollify]

I'm levelling as Balance and keeping my AP items/swapping to Resto for turn-in as needed. Resto is apparently not much slower, but there's also zero AoE and the toolkit is limited (read: boring).

[Skagasm]

The way the cost of artifact traits scales currently it will probably be fine to level with whatever you think is fastest/most fun while placing up to 13 traits in to that weapon -- at which point, you can switch to upgrading your main/raiding spec weapon.

With numbers... there are 78,250 AP available from quests (not including dailies, dungeons, and misc items).
13 traits total cost: 6,500
19 traits total cost: 66,470
20 traits total cost: 90,470

If you're diligent about earning AP the 13 traits for an offspec/leveling weapon should be easily affordable and is unlikely to have a meaningful effect on when you're able to upgrade your weapon by the time raids release.

(insert beta/subject to change warning)

[Hypasonic]

I'll just be lvling as balance, I'm not gonna gimp myself and take xx more time to level as a dull healer. 1-13 in balance then rest in resto at max level.

[theburned]

hello

I haven't had access to beta and I'm not sure I completely understand the leveling process for resto I play

I don't really want to quest level as resto, but if I level as a dps spec, would I be able to max my artifact points for resto? Or it's less efficient?

....Also kind of offtopic, I have alch/lw however it feels like by legion design it might be better to have one gathering and one crafting profession?

No reason to level as resto, with hfc gear you have several reasons not to lvl as resto, the amount of AP gained while levelling is quite negligible, you can decide to save them for your resto artifact, but there is no real reason to do so. Any time saved by levelling in a dps specc can be put towards getting more AP for your resto artifact, and should make up for it.

There is definitely possible to run double crafting, though you will need to find a way to get both herbs and leather, the bloods can be gathered from world quests and dungeons.

[dexx]

Resto is apparently not much slower

How fast is levelling as Guardian rather than Moonkin or Feral?

[Nevcairiel]

How fast is levelling as Guardian rather than Moonkin or Feral?

While I don't have any direct comparisons, Guardian is fine if you get into the spirit of a tank and just pull everything you see for AoE action.
I leveled in beta as Guardian without the benefit of raid gear (ie. with a template character), and it went fine, imho.

[Deleted]

How fast is levelling as Guardian rather than Moonkin or Feral?

Tanks can easily AoE a ton of mobs, healers have 0 down time and DPS kill mobs faster.

It's honestly somewhat well balanced. You can actually level as anything.

That said, leveling as healer is a little boring since you're usually limited to spamming 1 or 2 spells.

[Zoibert the Bear]

How fast is levelling as Guardian rather than Moonkin or Feral?

I asked this question a little while ago. I've since then gotten access to Beta and levelled to 110 as both Guardian and Feral.

Feral kills things MUCH faster, as long as you're dealing with 1/2 mobs. Rares and boss-type quest mobs die very fast, but pull too many and you'll be destroyed in no time.

Guardian on the other hand, has lower single target DPS, but you can easily pull 7+ mobs and AoE them down SO FAST with the proper talents. You won't be as resilient as in WoD (self-healing is lower than it used o be) but you'll still feel like a tank for sure. Moonfire pulling is also great for quick taps.

I ended up spec switching quite a bit (takes just a few secs). I would go Feral for high HP mobs and Guardian for everything else.

[Deleted]

Guardian has fairly poor (but not awful) single target, but if you're not massively ahead or behind the leveling curve this will sparsely matter - there'll always be people showing up to help you DPS down rares/named quest mobs in the days post-launch. Even if you spend more time killing high HP single target guys, I still think this shortcoming is utterly eclipsed by how fast you can mop up regular "kill 12 of x [to collect y]" quests compared to DPS specs. You can safely tag every single mob in an area with your instant, no CD, 40-45y moonfire and kill them about 70% of the speed it takes a DPSer to kill one target. Alternatively, those DPSers help you AoE down your pack even faster with the new faction-tag mechanic. Given that about 80% of quests are of this type, you'll see a ton of benefit to leveling as guardian. I also considered it way more fun than resto, which is mechanically a moron's balance.

I'm currently on a leveling run where I only spend the 100AP that you get by default, and kept all AP tokens I got in my bags. I am using the relics I get from quests (I assume they don't switch to your other artifact when you respec), but they're not epic rolls or anything so nothing special. I breeze through content with complete ease in premade gear, get the benefit of being able to solo all the group quests trivially (although it takes a while, will be faster on live when others join in) and fast dungeon queues for your end-of-zone quest. If I had gear from live (like blademaster's), stuff would be even that much easier and faster. I also think the correct choice in term of AP spending is to buy a couple nodes in your OS - the first nodes are incredibly cheap and give a great return on damage, but filling towards the higher cost nodes will pretty much undoubtedly not be worth it if you don't plan to play the spec at 110.

All-in-all I would rate guardian > balance > resto > feral for leveling, and that's even pretty biased towards the non-guardian specs since guardian is the only one I played without spending AP.

[Hypasonic]

Quick question: As a resto main, do I need to choose the resto artifact first to "ensure" that that is locked down as my "main spec", or can I choose the balance artifact first with no meaningful disadvantage other than having slightly less AP once I reach 110?

I watched the Q+A recently, they talk about alt specs and such, maybe I'm just over thinking/confused but would be grateful for some clarity.

[Nevcairiel]

Quick question: As a resto main, do I need to choose the resto artifact first to "ensure" that that is locked down as my "main spec", or can I choose the balance artifact first with no meaningful disadvantage other than having slightly less AP once I reach 110?

It makes no difference which artifact you choose at what time. All specs are equal, its up to you which weapon you then feed with artifact power and relics.

[Deleted]

leveled 2 druids on beta, with pure resto ( balance affinity ) it took me around 18-20hours, not calculating downtime from server/flying etc, and 2nd druid as guardian took around 17h. So it doesnt really matter what u choose. unless you really need to get 110 in like 12-15h window for some reason.

For me, picking resto with balance was a means of learning the playstyle aswell, for dpsing and healing in dungeons/raids when necessary. Only problem with leveling is resto is u have no aoe like mentioned, so instead you are forced to spam dots on everything, but this doesnt matter since u can facetank like theres no tomorrow, put 3 hots on yourself, go boomkin, massdot = win

[theburned]

leveled 2 druids on beta, with pure resto ( balance affinity ) it took me around 18-20hours, not calculating downtime from server/flying etc, and 2nd druid as guardian took around 17h. So it doesnt really matter what u choose. unless you really need to get 110 in like 12-15h window for some reason.

For me, picking resto with balance was a means of learning the playstyle aswell, for dpsing and healing in dungeons/raids when necessary. Only problem with leveling is resto is u have no aoe like mentioned, so instead you are forced to spam dots on everything, but this doesnt matter since u can facetank like theres no tomorrow, put 3 hots on yourself, go boomkin, massdot = win

There is no reason to pick boomkin affinity over guardian or feral affinity though, sunfire and moonfire being baseline means you can multidot, then thrash/swipe spam, and end up with much higher dps, ofc cat is a bit more squishy, but a lot more damage while bear is roughly the same, but a lot more tanky.

[Deleted]

depends what u want, i had no trouble with balance affinity so i'll stick to that when live

[dexx]

Questing as a healer is a bit easier. You do higher damage versus mobs than previous expansions.

With the latest build - how is resto DPS looking for leveling?

[theburned]

With the latest build - how is resto DPS looking for leveling?

Feral levelling got shafted, I guess its still doable to moonfire pull, sunfire once all are close, rake/swipe depending on hp left on targets. But it is severely nerfed, they have said that they will look further into feral affinity though, Im not sure if balance affinity is intended to be useless or not, ofc you can do the same with guardian affinity, but a bit slower.