Monk 1-90 speed leveling at launch day

[Easy]

About RAF... we have to wait what some blue say...

[Schaden]

Pre-Release:

- Prepare and have four bags of the largest reasonable size and price (varies by server) ready to mail to your character
- Have the following hierlooms ready and enchanted!
- Helm
- Shoulders
- Chest
- Cloak
- Pants* (currently available in the beta from the guild vendor, which means guild rep reliant, but doesn't cost justice!)
- Weapons (Keep in mind that an agility staff has been data-mined and may be in game, and being a weapon, will cost 3500 justice points)
- Trinkets
- A Gnomish Army Knife (reasons why later on)
- Scrolls, Potions/Flasks, etc.
- Scrolls go from 1-15, 15-30, then in 10 level intervals to 80, then 85
- WARNING! 85+ Scroll of Agility IX are expensive and rare to find on the AH. You may want to bug a guildie for a few of them.

- Elixirs:
- [Elixir of Minor Agility] (Silverleaf x 1, Swiftthistle x1)- 4 AGI @ LVL2.
- [Elixir of Lesser Agility] (Wild Steelbloom x 1, Swiftthistle x1) - 8 AGI @LVL 18
- [Elixir of Agility] (Stranglekelp x 1, Goldthorn x1) - 15 AGI @LVL 27 (WARNING! Goldthorn is very expensive and RARE on a lot of realms)
- [Elixir of Greater Agility] (Sungrass x 1, Goldthorn x1) - 25 AGI @LVL 38 (See above warning about Goldthorn)
- [Elixir of the Mongoose] (Mountain Silversage x 2, Sorrowmoss x 2) - 25 AGI/+10 CRIT @LVL48 (Note: Sorrowmoss only grows in Swamp of Sorrows)
- [Onslaught Elixir] (Mountain Silversage x1, Felweed x1) - 60 AP @LVL 50
- [Elixir of Major Agility] (Terocone x 1, Felweed x 2) - 30 AGI/+15 CRIT @LVL 55
- [Elixir of Mighty Agility] (Goldclover x 2, Adders Tongue x 2) - 45 AGI @LVL 70
Note: From Major Agility to Mighty Agility is the biggest level gap in these elixirs. Stock up extra on the level 55 version

- Flasks (Available at Level 70:
- [Flask of Relentless Assault] (Fel Lotus x 1, Mana Thistle x3, Terocone x 3; creates two) - 120 AP @LVL 65
- [Flask of Endless Rage] (Lichbloom x 7, Goldclover x 3, Frost Lotus x 1; "Mixture of Endless Rage" creates 2) - 180 AP @LVL 75
- [Flask of the Winds] (Whiptail x 8, Azshara's Veil x 8, Volatile Life x 8) - 300 AGI @LVL 80
Note: If the gbank has extra Cata elixirs, flasks or food left over when Pandaria launches, see if you can buy or sweet talk your officers into letting you have them )

- Food: Most food really doesn't do much but give some modest stamina and spirit until Outlands, with the exception of [Grilled Squid] at level 35.
- [Warp Burger] (Warped Flesh x 1)/[Grilled Mudfish] - 20 AGI/SPR @LVL 55
- [Blackened Dragonfin] (Dragonfin Angelfish x 1, Northern Spice x 1) - 40 AGI/STM @LVL 70
- [Tender Baked Turtle] (Giant Turtle Tongue x 1) - 60 AGI @LVL 80
- [Skewered Eel] (Fathom Eel x 1) - 90 AGO @LVL 80

- Misc:
- [Elixir of Water Walking] (Ethereal Oil x 3) NOTE: Ethereal Oil is made from Glassfin Minnow fished up in Crystalsong Forest. The elixirs can also drop from fishing daily bags.
- [Swim Speed Potion] (Swiftthistle x 1, Blackmouth Oil x 1)
- [Potion of Treasure Finding] (Cinderbloom x 8, Heartblossom x 6, Stormvine x 4, Whiptail x 4) Not mandatory, but why the hell not?
- [Potion of Swiftness] (Swiftthistle x1, Briarthorn x 1) - A nice little boost for the pre-20 areas and areas where you cant mount like caves and buildings. (Thanks, JRule!)
Gold: Send your monk enough gold to purchase their various mounts, as well as Azeroth and Northrend flying, and epic flying.

Race:

As counter-intuitive as this seems, consider leveling as a race other than Pandaren. Mostly because:
- There are no mailboxes on the Wandering Isle, which means getting your heirlooms, bags, professions, etc later.
- Its going to be a madhouse in the starting zone. Lots of people means laggy areas, competition for quest objectives, and that damn edict.
- Pandaren racials aren't that good for leveling. If you intend to gun it to 90 ASAP, the rested xp racial isn't going to do much. Racials like Blood Fury and Berserking help chew through mobs faster.
- You're not going to have to waste time with potentially buggy "intro with the faction leader" quests, or issues with mounts (which will hopefully be fixed by retail, but you never know...). You want to be out and questing asap!
- You can race change later!

Professions:

A few people are probably scratching their heads right now, because...really? Leveling professions while leveling is just going to take up time, right?

Not if they're gathering professions, they wont! Herbalism and mining both give minor exp bonuses for each node gathered, which can really add up over time. Plus, you're either collecting mats for crafting professions for your Monk, or just earning extra gold in mats to sell to all of those pandas who are leveling professions of their own. This is why you want a Gnomish Army Knife, which is giving +10 in all gathering professions. In addition, most classic races have profession teachers very close to or in their starting areas, so you can get to working ASAP!

Add Ons

One of the biggest detriments to effective questing is downtime. Getting lost on your way to a quest objective, lingering in a zone too long, spending too much time in a hub repairing, vendoring, etc. There are lots of great add ons meant for questing and other quality of life automations that can cut down on you staring-at-the-repairman time as possible.

The biggest problem will be getting all your add ons updated and compatible with 5.0. Hopefully, within a few weeks before retail launch, Blizz will open the beta client to add on authors to work on updating. Keep your eyes open on the websites of your favorite add ons and see if you can expect a quick update or maybe seek out a new alternative. Now for the add ons themselves:

- Curse Client - Is one of the best tools to keep your add ons up to date and functional.

- Elv UI - A full add on suite thats easy to install and customize to your tastes. Includes options for automated selling of vendor trash and repairs.

- Carbonite || Quest Helper || WoW Pro (with TomTom): All questing add ons that give a far more in depth and intuitive quest aid experience than the standard WoW one. While Carbonite is the most feature-rich, its also a resource hog. Find the one that's right for you.

- Bagnon || OneBag3 || Scrap || Sell-o-Matic 2: Bag management add ons to keep your inventory organized so you dont have to go fishing for those bandages. :P

- Omni CC || Class Timer || Need to Know || Forte Xorcist: Various cool down trackers, because that pie-wheel cool down Blizz uses in the stock ui sucks and is not helpful at all.

- As of right now there are no monk specific add ons, but give it time and the community will provide

In addition to keeping your important add ons up to date, consider disabling some add ons as you level. Especially if the release proves laggy or problematic, or your server is just that populated. Not having recount isn't going to kill you while going through Wailing Caverns.

New Expansion Greens

To quote JRule:

Another thing that will help a lot is to build "next expansion greens" sets.
Each expansion's lowest level greens are 3 levels lower than the previous level cap(except MoP is looking to be 2 levels lower).

BC Greens: Requires Level 57. ilvl 81 = ~Black Wing Lair epics
Wrath Greens: Requires level 67. ilvl 130 = ~Serpent Shrine Cavern epics
Cata Greens: Requires level 77. ilvl 272 = ~Heroic ICC25 epics
MoP Greens: Requires level 83. ilvl 364 = ~normal BWD/BoT epics

If you can assemble a full set of gear (aside from heirlooms that provide +experience) for each expansion, you will turn into a killing machine.
A special note is to get a Berto's Staff. This thing useable at lvl 78 and will likely take you all the way until MoP greens at 83. It is ilvl 308 and to put that into perspective, Shadowmourne is only iLvl 284.

Day of Expansion!:

Happy Expansion Day! While your level 85 guildmates tromp over to the new continent, you got other things to do! Your monk is rolled and ready to start the long grind to 90. So what do you do?

You find a mailbox.

Hopefully you've been industrious in the long, uninteresting, absolutely boring few months before this day, and you have all the materials you need ready to go: your heirlooms, bags, gold, and pots/food/scrolls all ready in your bags, your add ons are updated and functional, now all you gotta do is get them to your own little newbie martial artist. But...that's a lot of stuff. How are you going to keep all this in your bags, or keep it in your bank without having to go back and forth to a capital city, and thus cutting in on your questing time. So you're gonna store everything in your mailbox. Its like your own little Jeeves!

What you do is separate your stash into level or expansion-similar groups. Cata stuff first, then Wrath, then BC, then maybe divvy up the Vanilla items into 10 level increments. Once sorted, you want to send them most recent expansion first. This means Cata first, then everything in reverse order, with the mail with your bags, looms, and gold being last. Now go get on your monk. Ta - da! All the good stuff is first in the mail box and everything else is there in descending order, ready for you to open as the levels come. Just be sure to label your mail so you can find what you need to find easy without opening everything over and over again.

So now what?

Its go time! Start your leveling! But how?

There's two main ways to go about this: questing and dungeoning. Both have their advantages and are dependent on what spec you are leveling as, and just how good your patience is. Dungeoning offers great exp gain along with blues to fill in the spaces between your heirlooms and lots of cloth if you fancy leveling First Aid. Problem is, its people dependent, and if you're leveling as a Windwalker, the queues will be long and you'll likely be up against other monks who are leveling. Questing is a solo game where you can go at your own pace, but the grind can get exhausting, and if its a pvp realm, you're subject to ganking. So its up to you! People who are really experienced with leveling might take a mixed approach, but that comes with the problem of rapidly outleveling your questing zone. The key is to just, as others have said, move on when you're not getting the maximum benefit from the area.

Also, dont forget your hearthstone! With the automated learning of skills and talents, there's no longer a real need to return to your capital cities more than once or twice to train your riding skills, level professions, and maybe learn your dual spec. Set your hearth at every new quest hub, and go out and quest. Once you've furthest quest available, hearth back! Guild perks give you a fifteen minute cool down, abuse it!

Other Tips:

- Try to keep on the same continent. Nothing ruins a good leveling momentum by having to wait for a boat/airship or really long flight paths. Try to end your lvl 60 quest grind in Blasted Lands, so that you can jump through the Dark Portal when you can.

- Get some sleep the night before the expansion. A solid 10 hours is good and should see you through a lot of leveling

- Going from one zone to another? Get up and stretch a little. Keep yourself a little active.

- If you gotta sleep, sleep. Pushing an extra two hours of leveling while you're giving yourself a waffle print face isn't effective. Hard pushes for leveling lead to hard crashes. While those extra two hours might mean you get an extra level, you'll probably sack out for a good six to eight hours when stopping earlier would've just ended up with a two hour nap before getting back in the saddle.

- Try to get on the beta and get familiar with the class before retail.

- And just have fun!

[Vayra]

One thing i noticed on beta is that you can't DW till you pick Windwalker at level 10. Which means if you are using a 1H planning on DWing, you won't benefit from the harder hitting auto attacks =( It might be worth it to get a BOA 2h for 1-10......

[r3d3mpt10n]

Which would be the Agi Staff not yet implemented... i do hope they bring it out before we actually get MoP release though, as that would be a big help for any Monk levelling up as a Brewmaster at the least..

Basically Schadens post there, is what everyone should be looking at i imagine... ive already got all my BoA items ready for the launch, minus the weapon ofcourse.

And i hope they add a mailbox in the pandaren starting zone cause apparently there isnt any yet

[JRule]

I agree with most things that Schaden has stated, but I think it can be expanded. Swiftness Potions will help a lot pre-20, and even until 90 in non-mountable places like caves and buildings. I plan on making A LOT of these before MoP.

Another thing that will help a lot is to build "next expansion greens" sets.
Each expansion's lowest level greens are 3 levels lower than the previous level cap(except MoP is looking to be 2 levels lower).

BC Greens: Requires Level 57. ilvl 81 = ~Black Wing Lair epics
Wrath Greens: Requires level 67. ilvl 130 = ~Serpent Shrine Cavern epics
Cata Greens: Requires level 77. ilvl 272 = ~Heroic ICC25 epics
MoP Greens: Requires level 83. ilvl 364 = ~normal BWD/BoT epics

If you can assemble a full set of gear (aside from heirlooms that provide +experience) for each expansion, you will turn into a killing machine.
A special note is to get a Berto's Staff. This thing useable at lvl 78 and will likely take you all the way until MoP greens at 83. It is ilvl 308 and to put that into perspective, Shadowmourne is only iLvl 284.



The new Agi staff would be nice, but it's not NEEDED to level a Brewmaster. BMs can DW and not notice a difference (at least so far on Beta) in DPS. On the monks I've played on beta I use the INT staff until level 10 and then switch to DW since the Agi staff isn't available yet.



As far as Pandas go... You will be at a huge disadvantage if you start as a Panda. They will NEVER put a mailbox or allow you to join a guild on the island because it would open up the ability to transfer gold and items freely between Horde and Alliance. So don't get your hopes up that they just haven't added a mailbox "yet."
1. No Guild Perks until 12
2. No Heirlooms until 12
3. Pandas will be packed into that starting zone so tightly, you probably won't be able to anything quickly.
4. It's a pretty slow starting zone compared to some of the other races.

[Schaden]

I agree with most things that Schaden has stated, but I think it can be expanded. Swiftness Potions will help a lot pre-20, and even until 90 in non-mountable places like caves and buildings. I plan on making A LOT of these before MoP.

Another thing that will help a lot is to build "next expansion greens" sets.
Each expansion's lowest level greens are 3 levels lower than the previous level cap(except MoP is looking to be 2 levels lower).

BC Greens: Requires Level 57. ilvl 81 = ~Black Wing Lair epics
Wrath Greens: Requires level 67. ilvl 130 = ~Serpent Shrine Cavern epics
Cata Greens: Requires level 77. ilvl 272 = ~Heroic ICC25 epics
MoP Greens: Requires level 83. ilvl 364 = ~normal BWD/BoT epics

If you can assemble a full set of gear (aside from heirlooms that provide +experience) for each expansion, you will turn into a killing machine.
A special note is to get a Berto's Staff. This thing useable at lvl 78 and will likely take you all the way until MoP greens at 83. It is ilvl 308 and to put that into perspective, Shadowmourne is only iLvl 284.



The new Agi staff would be nice, but it's not NEEDED to level a Brewmaster. BMs can DW and not notice a difference (at least so far on Beta) in DPS. On the monks I've played on beta I use the INT staff until level 10 and then switch to DW since the Agi staff isn't available yet.



As far as Pandas go... You will be at a huge disadvantage if you start as a Panda. They will NEVER put a mailbox or allow you to join a guild on the island because it would open up the ability to transfer gold and items freely between Horde and Alliance. So don't get your hopes up that they just haven't added a mailbox "yet."
1. No Guild Perks until 12
2. No Heirlooms until 12
3. Pandas will be packed into that starting zone so tightly, you probably won't be able to anything quickly.
4. It's a pretty slow starting zone compared to some of the other races.

Added the stuff about Swiftness Potions (I knew I forgot something...) and getting sets of greens for each new expansion. Thanks!

[Nodata]

Also, at 87 you get Transcendance, which apparently doesnt not have a range, so you can do great things like leaving your body at the quest hub, go quest, teleport back to debrief and pick some more, then teleport BACK to where you were bashing monsters before, etc.

[420rogue]

Also, at 87 you get Transcendance, which apparently doesnt not have a range, so you can do great things like leaving your body at the quest hub, go quest, teleport back to debrief and pick some more, then teleport BACK to where you were bashing monsters before, etc.

You can 100% guarantee that will be nerfed to 30-40 yard range by time it goes live. This thread has given a lot of tips on the topic and I am sure there are more so keep them coming! It would be nice if we could get some quest zone orders for both sides. I'm not that experienced with that so I can't but if someone else is, please share!

[Mammoon]

I, like many here, don't care at all about server firsts, but I do care about not holding my guild back for a week or two if they need me (or anyone else) to reroll monk.

For that reason alone, I really hope you can RAF to 80, or else you will see very, very few monks in Tier 14.

[Mionelol]

RAF totally worked on DKs and I used it on mine (edit: to get it instantly to 61 when out of the starting zone, aka its cap at the time). I expect it to work on Monks as well and it would pretty disappointing if it didn't - no way I'm leveling a Monk if it doesn't =(

[r3d3mpt10n]

RAF totally worked on DKs and I used it on mine (edit: to get it instantly to 61 when out of the starting zone, aka its cap at the time). I expect it to work on Monks as well and it would pretty disappointing if it didn't - no way I'm leveling a Monk if it doesn't =(

In all honesty, if they did that, you'd likely have a realm first monk within a day or two, which i think would take the fun out of having the realm first achievements, unless they got them exempt from it.

[Spazzeh]

In all honesty, if they did that, you'd likely have a realm first monk within a day or two, which i think would take the fun out of having the realm first achievements, unless they got them exempt from it.

There's 3 possible scenarios:

1. RAF working, and working with Realm First! 90 Monk
2. RAF working, but not working with Realm First! 90 Monk
3. RAF disabled, or disabled for Monks

Since #2 is the scenario that Blizzard specifically mentioned as something they're likely to do, I'm betting my money on that. Keeps all the "hard-core Monk re-rollers" interested and able, but gives the people who want to push for the achievement the "legit" way something as well.

Need there be much more discussion on the matter?

[420rogue]

Well, ignoring RaF, anyone else have ideas to speed up leveling process?

[Boredpanda]

I, like many here, don't care at all about server firsts, but I do care about not holding my guild back for a week or two if they need me (or anyone else) to reroll monk.

For that reason alone, I really hope you can RAF to 80, or else you will see very, very few monks in Tier 14.

I was thinking about this other day and came up with something that I thought would be an interesting solution from blizzards perspective. Last time they introduced a new class obviously you started at level 55 with the cap being 80 giving a much smaller level difference between start and max level. I'm not asking for anything similar I actually prefer the start from level 1 idea. But the problem I feel is that when the expansion is released people who want to play monk will be exactly that, at level 1. Friends and guildies will be at 85 and looking to level and then get into heroics/raids asap and monks will be behind the curve. Obviously 1-85 these days isnt horrible but still its time spent there instead of being up with everyone.

I was thinking what if blizzard would do some kind of monk pre release for everyone that had preordered or has MoP attached to their battle.net account. This could happen in the 5.0 timing window which is meant to be only a few weeks before the release of the expansion. From a development stand point everything should be finished here. This would give people 2-3 weeks to go through the older content and be in a position to get to 85 and then level with friends, gulidies and not feel like you are forced to powerlevel or be keeping people waiting because you have chosen to reroll.

This doesnt really detract anything from the levelling experience its no easymode lolding straight to 80 through RaF, people would still have to level their monks etc the normal way but it closes the gap for people at launch and hopefully makes life for the monk rerollers slightly easier. It might also give people time to boost their friends monks etc in dungeon runs for guilds to get someone who is rerolling up to a good stage. I would imagine there is less incentive to do that when everyone is off levelling 85+ and busy exploring new content for themselves.

[Schaden]

I, like many here, don't care at all about server firsts, but I do care about not holding my guild back for a week or two if they need me (or anyone else) to reroll monk.

For that reason alone, I really hope you can RAF to 80, or else you will see very, very few monks in Tier 14.

I leveled my rogue from 1-85 in less than 4 days of played time. If people want to get from 1-90 ASAP, they'll get there quickly enough. The gear up curve from 90 to raid ready will give them time.

[greenn]

Not if they're gathering professions, they wont! Herbalism and mining both give minor exp bonuses for each node gathered, which can really add up over time. Plus, you're either collecting mats for crafting professions for your Monk, or just earning extra gold in mats to sell to all of those pandas who are leveling professions of their own. This is why you want a Gnomish Army Knife, which is giving +10 in all gathering professions. In addition, most classic races have profession teachers very close to or in their starting areas, so you can get to working ASAP!

not even worth it for the gold/hour

you also have to go out of your way to keep mining/herbalism which is a waste of time

[Schaden]

not even worth it for the gold/hour

you also have to go out of your way to keep mining/herbalism which is a waste of time

You might not be doing it for the gold in the first place, and the gold/hour ratio is highly dependent on individual server economy. My home realm sells copper bars for 45g a stack at times and the prices have been rising since the start of beta. And I dont know about you, but I didn't have to go out of my way to level those professions at all. Just normal questing gives you enough.

[Yorgl]

Thanks for the post above Schaden.
But are you sure there won't be mailboxes in the Wandering Isles ? I can't login to check right now, but I'm pretty sure there are right now.
However, it only allows heirlooms, obviously and everything else you say about the time lost as a Pandaren remains true. But as far as I'm concerned, I'm willing to lose 20 minutes (I really doubt it means more) and avoid paying 20€.

Also, something that just came up is the cross realm zones, and more specifically the "splitting" of zones :

Q. What about zones that are already overpopulated, like new race starting zones?
With this technology, we can also flag zones to allow for more than one copy of that zone per realm. Players on that realm will be split among those copies in order to alleviate problems due to overpopulation. Players won’t normally see or interact with those on a different instance of their zone, although joining a party will relocate all party members to a single instance of that zone.

[Schaden]

Thanks for the post above Schaden.
But are you sure there won't be mailboxes in the Wandering Isles ? I can't login to check right now, but I'm pretty sure there are right now.
However, it only allows heirlooms, obviously and everything else you say about the time lost as a Pandaren remains true. But as far as I'm concerned, I'm willing to lose 20 minutes (I really doubt it means more) and avoid paying 20€.

Also, something that just came up is the cross realm zones, and more specifically the "splitting" of zones :

TMK, there were mailboxes there but they were removed when Blizz realized that it could be a really convenient way to trade between factions without the neutral AH. So I doubt there will be any on TWI.

[r3d3mpt10n]

I think in all fairness they should allow only heirlooms to be traded via those mailboxes. atleast this way it wouldn't discourage a few lazy people (me, im not rolling a panda if i cant give it heirlooms) the incentive to level a Pandaren...


It would be nice to be in the Beta, as that way you could figure out the better route for levelling via EK or Kalimdor, and also in the new zones too... Shame i don't have that luxury