Leveling in WOTLK through instances only?

[gaardsholt]

i think im just going to quest as always.. its much more fast and u get to see all the zone... and then u can focus on gear when u come to 74-76... and i wont be doing any instance unless the quest tells me to. so i say keep up the good work with questing..(and its more fun ;D)

[DruidFTW]

I wonder what will happen if a group of 5 people stay in the "old world" (=BC content) and do the lvl 70 dungeons till lvl 73 or so. Expect the fact this way of leveling must be really annoying, what would you say: is it faster or not? (I won't level like this )

Im curious as to this as well. How much xp does a lvl 70 dungeon give, and is it more so on heroic? A heroic shat halls run in 40 minutes has to give a ton of xp I would think, and you can farm that and heroic coilfang all day for an easy level or two.

[Vektor]

Some people seem to forget that the more ppl in 1 spot the faster the spawn rate is so it will be no problem waiting 1 min while killing the mobs next you your "quest mob" which also grant you a quest. The way blizzard made the quests in wotlk (i've been in the beta up to 78 - ended up in Zul'drak with a DK with doing both starting zones). Most of the mobs are relatively close to the quest npc - there are a couple of exceptions ofc. And most of the instances had really low amount of trash mobs which grant ~700-800 xp and that's the same amount the mobs outside the instances that give you. So do the math you clear 1 instance for like 15-20 mins and for the same time you can do 3 quests which will result of 60k xp + the mobs you have killed and the instance will be only the mobs you killed + the 1k - 1.3k from the bosses. So please more ppl go lvl with instances so that smart people can get the quests done easier and get to 80 before you.

[ice]

In wrath i will lvl my hunter. Seeing as i will have an easy time soloing i will do alot of questing but due to the fact that i play on a server with ALOT of people (1000+ queue 2 weeks after 3.0) i will try to do instances as much as i can. I'll try to do instances with people i know so i don't get groups that fail or slow me down to much.

In regards to the whole idea of lvling only trough instances, i don't really this is a good idea because of that you will get more downtime in a instance than soloing (might help with a predetermind group as was talking about) this due to the fact that with more people to look after the downtime will increase.

[Qik]

I tested this in beta to some extent because it's also my plan to level this way. Utgarde keep will give you 150k xp(without rested xp) for a full clear at level 70 and takes about 20-25 minutes to clear once you know the instance well. Clear it 10 times and you will level. The xp does not degrade dramatically when you level. I'd say at 71 you would get 145k xp for a full clear compared to 150k and the amount to level is roughly the same. You should be able to level once every 4-5 hours in UK and get to either 73 or 74 by staying there.

Then you should probably move to Drak'Tharon. I don't have numbers on this zone like I do for UK but this seemed like a well populated zone for trash and should give you about 10% of a level like UK was. I would probably stay there until 77 or 78. I'm not sure which instance I would go to after that. CoT is too short for sure and the only other 80 instance I tried was Halls of Lightning and that didn't seem like a good place to grind.

Hope this answers your question.

[RationalThought]

hrm...

Are the majority of people responding here on pve servers?

At least the ones laughing at the thought of instance leveling, it's not so unthinkable when you add in some tasty detail such as, oh...I don't know... everyone on both Horde/Alliance fighting over all the starting quests.

Yes you have 2 zones to pick from, but unless your server is dead, it'll be very crowded, very pvp intense - and just a over-all pain if you plain to solo quest.(Oh my, not to mention those on broken servers with a 4 to 1 ratio, that's always a fun wake up call when everyone rushes to the new fun zones : )



Doing Instances pits you in your own zone(instance) with your 4 buddies(or strangers) and will become easy as you complete/gain knowledge of each instance. This also gives you an advantage come heroics because you'll understand the basics of each run, and only need to adjust to the heroic mode tweeks.

And atlas, people chuckling at the very thought to level through instances apparently don't play a healing style, else they might see it as a bit more understanding to put your heals to use while letting those that kill/tank do just that for your/everyone's convenience.


-=-=-
Closing statement, Instances should be used to escape a over crowded zones; questing hub(s). A mix of both is recommended, but unless your waiting out the first week of the expansion, you're going to encounter a cluster@#$ of people on both sides...I foreshadow much general chat bickering.

[dawilord]

While questing you can reach 500k/h unrested, in instances maybe 100k-150k/h. But this is ofcourse without ganking.

[drwdarkangel]

sounds really dull to me :

[Mofoe]

Here is the deal if you want to level at the fastest speed possible you need to quest. However if you are more in it for the rep or a greater amount of gold for quests at lvl 80 from various places and don't mind leveling to 80 at a slower speed instances would be a great way to do this. Instance leveling isn't a bad idea but it will take alot longer to level than a person who is questing. If you are instance leveling people will need breaks there will be wipes and you will lose ppl and have to do the lfg thing impossible to keep up with someone questing.

[Amgyn]

While questing you can reach 500k/h unrested, in instances maybe 100k-150k/h. But this is ofcourse without ganking.

instance is more like 250k/hr if you can do it for a good 2-3 hours with no stopping, it drops if you wait around for LFG and AFK'rs.. not to mention wipes.

Questing will always give you more exp. there is no doubt about that. but that can get dull too.

A healthy balance will give you the most exp/enjoyment... thats why some grinding quests lead you into the instances

[McQn]

In BC I found that almost all factions' reputations were best gained by instancing till honoured and only then questing once the regular instances gave no more rep. Think Honor Hold/Thrallmar. Then quests would get you halfway through honoured, at 68-70 regular Shattered Halls or equivalent instance would get you to revered and open heroics (remember back then of course you had to be revered to do heroics). I suspect that a similar situation will arise in Wrath but so far can't find much information to show how rep grinds will work.

I'm sure there'll be a balancing act here between maxing XP/leveling speed, maxing rep gain speed, maxing profession gain speed and finishing off quests/lore/achievements.

Ultimately it depends on how you like to play the game and what you want to achieve, and no-one else can tell you that.

[Kuismar]

i have since deleted my beta because wotlk is coming out this week, but what i wish i would have tried was tbc questing areas. each alt i leveled had to do less and less quests, i think my second alt ended in nagrand and my third and forth in bone wastes. i know they might not net as much xp from mobs, but the quests would still be good and faster because you can fly around to the mobs, quest points etc, and the mobs are lower level hence easier to kill. anyone with beta access still and a level 70 want to try this out let me know what you find with quests from blades edge, netherstorm, and shadowmoon.

[Tankette]

I'm planning to get 50%-75% of my exp from instance runs. Pretty much all the raiders in my guild are planning the same so there wont be any trouble getting a group. I'll sneak in some quests here and there between runs.

I never did many 5 mans in TBC. Most of the times I tanked one everyone expected me to mark mobs and know every pull. There were only a few heroics I did enough times to feel comfortable tanking despite having T5 and badge gear.

So in WoTLK I plan to learn every dungeon well so heroics will be a breeze when I'm 80. Unlike the many people here that are T6/SWP geared, I'll be needing gear out of heroics before hitting Naxx.

One question I have is about badges. I saw that the 10 mans will drop a certain kind of badge and the 25 mans will drop another kind. Will heroics drop a third kind or the same as the 10 mans?

[Omatre]

I'm almost positive that heroics and 10 man drop same tokens, but 25 man drop their own. This will probably not coincide with T8 badges / tokens though, as there won't be enough lvl 80 5 man content to continue that trend, as it's all consumed in favor of T7 content.

Regardless, I liked the badge gear as its original intention, gear filler. It should not be the basis for all of your gear though. In the beginning, it wasn't, then they added more, and then with SWP they added even more, resulting in guys getting T5.5-T6 level gear, for basically doing nothing but the same tired 5 man / Kara they had been doing for ages.

I think the hope was that they'd get more people to get in tune with a raiding environment, but I think a lot of people just preferrerd to do their dailys, farm badges in easy crap, and get it that way.

[Amandil]

Leveling thru quest has been proven to be quicker. Plus you do get more gear thru questing then depending on drops etc. You also have to think about reputation gained to get the reputation items, enchants etc.

If your actually only leveling through dungeons, your gear will be better that way than questing. Realize that if your only getting xp in 5mans, your doing dozens of runs and in all likelyhood would get any piece of gear you wanted.

I think speed would come down to the group you are with. If you had 5 people with the same dedication, I think instance grinding could compete with questing. But this is drastically different than leveling only in 5mans by getting groups in the LFG system. I still wouldn't suggest only doing 5mans, I just think it has a shot at being pretty decent xp.

[Belloc]

Just in case the point hasn't been gotten yet: Leveling in instances is going to be SLOW and BORING.

Having played in the beta, I can tell you with experience that you'll get a LOT more XP just by questing. Hell, you'd probably get more XP by killing non-elites outside of instances. Seriously.

I had rested XP for most of the beta and instances still weren't giving me much XP. From memory, I'd say that questing gives 3-4 times more XP than instance grinding.

Don't do it. Even with lag, server crashes, and PvP, questing is faster and a LOT more fun.

[seraph1337]

There are a few groups in my guild (lead raid guild on my server) that are planning on 5-manning their way to 80 with a fixed group (resto/bal druid, prot warr, ret pally, feral druid, hunter), AOEing their way through dungeons. These guys are all T6/Sunwell geared, and with the combination of ret healing/replen, swipe and LotP heals, shockwave, volley, and hurricane, I doubt they'll have much trouble blowing through dungeons. I fully expect them to be realm first 80s and I doubt that in this situation questing could be faster.

[Belloc]

There are a few groups in my guild (lead raid guild on my server) that are planning on 5-manning their way to 80 with a fixed group (resto/bal druid, prot warr, ret pally, feral druid, hunter), AOEing their way through dungeons. These guys are all T6/Sunwell geared, and with the combination of ret healing/replen, swipe and LotP heals, shockwave, volley, and hurricane, I doubt they'll have much trouble blowing through dungeons. I fully expect them to be realm first 80s and I doubt that in this situation questing could be faster.

I really hate to tell you this, but you're wrong. Instance XP was nerfed in Northrend. Seriously, by the time they are 74, you'll have level 80s from questing alone.

Yes, I AOE'd instances on the beta as well. The XP sucks. There are a lot of people thinking that they're really clever and that they'll be the first to hit 80 this way. They're wrong.

[Deleted]

I really hate to tell you this, but you're wrong. Instance XP was nerfed in Northrend. Seriously, by the time they are 74, you'll have level 80s from questing alone.

Yes, I AOE'd instances on the beta as well. The XP sucks. There are a lot of people thinking that they're really clever and that they'll be the first to hit 80 this way. They're wrong.

Haha, I loled, are you just sad you didnt get a instance group yourself or why do say BS like this. The xp in northrend is NOT nerfed, HAVEN'T been and WON'T be eod.

Questing isnt THAT much behind in a perfect world, but the fact that you wont have to compete with alliance / your own faction for quest mobs and getting ganked 100 times will just make the gap even bigger tomorrow when the realms go live.

[Byronyk]

Questing isnt THAT much behind in a perfect world, but the fact that you wont have to compete with alliance / your own faction for quest mobs and getting ganked 100 times will just make the gap even bigger tomorrow when the realms go live.

I completely agree. Its quite possible that questing is faster, but imho, not with a hard core metal group of geared mother fuckers with no lives who will stay up for 3 days in instances without stopping, getting ganked, or competing for quest items.

I'm doing that, so no, i'm not calling you guys nerds >.<

/equip flame resistent cloak