Leveling faster to 85 with a gathering profession?

[Kilufas]

Has any one level to 80-85 on beta with a gathering profession, and know if its better faster then questing and doing instances without it?

More specifically someone that level to 85 with mining as their only gathering prof. I want to drop my mining(450) to Power level BS I got all the mats to get it to 450 already but i'm wondering if i should wait till i get level 85 first, So i can use mining to level faster.

I also got an alt with 450 mining. So keeping mining just so i can gather mats for 450-525 for Eng and BS is not an advantage for me i just want to level faster.(Trying for server first 85)

TL;DR: mining prof helps speed level 85 for server first?

[Maxatoria]

saronite gives about 5k a node and you will need to farm thousands of nodes just to reach 81 and last time i checked in the beta the new ore nodes didn't give xp at all

[berree]

the short answer to your question is NO

[Arinnaya]

This change doesn't mean you can skip quests completely, what it DOES mean is that you don't have to skip every node you see while levelling. Previously, in server first races, you basically had to skip any gathering nodes (including skinning) because it was all time wasted that could have been better spent getting XP. I levelled my Paladin from 72-74 (will finish it off later) purely by Herbalism (and any mobs that aggro'd while herbing) and it takes a long time.

[Prega]

for me, could be a real little help.
main reason: last time i checked, xp from gathering activities is shared when you re in grp with grp members.
this could be interesting if you re going to level in grp(for me it s default choice, i multiboxing x5).
having skin+herb+mine at same time could be a real small help.
expecially for who, like me, jump quests that start with "...collect 10x items" and similar, for keep mind sanity.

[Kilufas]

Sorry i got a little confuse by the replies.
So the new nodes don't give exp? I though i read somewhere they did. Anyone alse can confirm this?

Also i'm not going to farm the nodes just not skip them while questing or in instances using the mining helm and glove enchant. even if its a lil help any one trying to get server first 85 could use a lil bit of help =P

Thanks for the quick replies!! Really enjoying this forum.

[Deleted]

server first will surely only consist of bashing neutral mob in a small zone for 20h with a friend healer on your back; so no, gathering won't help a lot.

[mstieler]

I'd figure having a gathering prof could help a little. With the tracking that comes with it, if you happen across a Herb or Mine while questing, nab it for extra XP. It'll take you maybe 5 sec (travel time to the node, 1.5 to gather, and what, .5 for the looting?) to nab a chunk of XP. Yes, the Wrath numbers look small, but then, why the hell would you be farming Saronite/Lichbloom/Icethorn to level to 81 or beyond? There's Elementium/Obsidian/Pyrite and all sorts of new Cata herbs out there, and as they go up in ilvl, the XP goes up as well.

Here's a trial for those of you out there who aren't at max level and can mine or herb, try getting some XP values for assorted Wrath Herbs & Minerals. Pretty sure Titanium & Rich Saronite give more XP than Saronite, just as Icethorn & Lichbloom would give more than Talandra's Rose.

[Dedweight]

Sorry i got a little confuse by the replies.
So the new nodes don't give exp? I though i read somewhere they did. Anyone alse can confirm this?

I think they were implying the new nodes aren't giving experience gains because it hasn't been fully implemented for them(could be wrong). Would seem a bit odd to have Mining/Herbalism give experience all the way till you reach the 80+ zones.

Also simply questing or grinding would be significantly quicker for leveling, for the first few days you won't see many nodes due to the zones being heavily populated and if/when the nodes get the experience gains implemented it won't likely be a whole lot. As already mentioned northrend nodes are giving around 5k experience per, the new nodes might give a couple thousand more than that while the quests might end up giving double the node experience.

[Kaysha]

Here's a trial for those of you out there who aren't at max level and can mine or herb, try getting some XP values for assorted Wrath Herbs & Minerals. Pretty sure Titanium & Rich Saronite give more XP than Saronite, just as Icethorn & Lichbloom would give more than Talandra's Rose.

It's not much, really. I was harvesting Saronite and Titanium on my Human Death Knight at level 79 (so yes, he was using full Heirlooms) in IceCrown. Coupled with the Wintergrasp buff, a Saronite and Rich Saronite both yielded like 5250 exp, while Titanium was at 5500. So that difference is trivial.

[Rabian]

Another thing to take into account, the nodes are affected by rest, I have tested it on multiple characters and once you run out of rested xp, the value of nodes for xp is cut in half. Questing is definitely better.

[mstieler]

It's not much, really. I was harvesting Saronite and Titanium on my Human Death Knight at level 79 (so yes, he was using full Heirlooms) in IceCrown. Coupled with the Wintergrasp buff, a Saronite and Rich Saronite both yielded like 5250 exp, while Titanium was at 5500. So that difference is trivial.

But there's also going to be the "XP jump". I recently noticed this on my Hunter as I leveled him during Hallow's End. up through level 70, candy buckets were giving me ~6.6-7k XP. At 71, that nearly doubled to 12k. Same with the JC daily ramping up. I'll assume that Cata Herbs & Mines will give out significantly more XP than Wrath ones, simply due to the fact of the amount of XP needed to level. I wouldn't be surprised to see 15-20k XP off of a node in Cata.

[Tsudots]

I did 80-81 tonight on beta with nothing but archeology and my timer was at 3 hrs 10 minutes for it. I plan on doing that when the release happens to be able to get a little bit of a head start on everyone else fighting for quests in the 80-81 zones

Each time you pick up a piece it gives you 11k exp, so 33k per site. It actually goes pretty fast if you just fly directly from site to site