Timeless Isle 87-90 Leveling

[anon5123]

So I just hit 87 and did a bit of AoE grinding on Timeless Isle. While it *DOES* work, and seems to net me ~2% exp per pack (no exp bonuses at all), it's rather difficult to do, and I'm always just barely surviving each pack, even with one of the shrine buffs.

Is there an optimal way to do this? Normally I just use Long Arm of the Law, judge then run in for a quick HotR and back out again, do that a couple times for Inquisition/HP, then run in and spam DS/HotR until they're all dead, but often times I just barely survive. Even though their attack appears to be Poison, Divine Protection doesn't seem to reduce its damage at all.

Better yet, is this even the best way to level? All I hear is how good it is and faster than questing and such...I don't have any EXP boosts, though. (no guild, no heirlooms, etc)

[Raugnaut]

I tested it myself, and it is VERY inefficient. It would be more efficient to just run around rare-hunting for XP. Stick to lvling, or monkey runs.

[Deleted]

I did it on my hunter from 85 (joined rep farm groups/friends) and while it was slower by about factor 2, it gained me full timeless gear and the instant 535 token from being honoured the moment I dinged 90. Not to forget the myriads of coins which I used to open chests to get even more tokens.

Also, there are no heirlooms that work after 86 and you could just join a levelling guild for the perks.

As for the difficulty, its what made it way more fun than doing the quests for the I-forgot-how-manieth time.

[AutomaticBadger]

What are you specifically farming? I'd think the best way to do this would be to hit the rares as the pop and farm the birds?

[anon5123]

I tested it myself, and it is VERY inefficient.

Well, even at 88, I'm getting ~1% exp per group, and it takes less than around 20 seconds to kill each group. Most of my time is spent waiting around for them to respawn, TBH. In about half an hour I can get 20-25% EXP.

Stick to lvling, or monkey runs.

Tired of questing, and aren't monkey runs nerfed?

it was slower by about factor 2

Slower than what, exactly?

What are you specifically farming? I'd think the best way to do this would be to hit the rares as the pop and farm the birds?

The groups of Swamers that have 80k hp each. You know, the groups of little worm things around Pi'iju. They only have 80k hp each, but give normal exp. All the Timeless 85-90 guides are based around AoE grinding them.

[stonewall02]

What are these monkey runs you speak of?

[foxHeart]

I tested it myself, and it is VERY inefficient. It would be more efficient to just run around rare-hunting for XP. Stick to lvling, or monkey runs.

Depends on the class. With practice, I was doing a level every 70 minutes on my warrior. That's ridiculous XP and nothing else can touch it. If your class has mechanics that just don't mesh with being able to aoe things down, don't try it. If you're a hunter or a tank and you can aoe down packs, then grabs packs of cranes in between caterpillars and have at it. It's crazy what you can do once you get the strat down.

Also: rare hunting is awful experience. It grants you experience from like a quest and a half, if that.

[Deleted]

What are these monkey runs you speak of?

that are runs throught the brewing instance with a premade group to the first boss and killing ALL the monkeys.
aoeing all of them in the last room where the boss spawns gives quiet a good amount of xp.
and with oqueue its not too hard to find a group.

the best method i found was farming the elite-yongol on the tonlong border to kunlai.
you need a lvl 90 char to help you but it gives insane amount of xp.

you pull all the mobs and the 90 kills them, without being in a party with you. that way you get from 85-90 in 5 to 6 hours

[Gracin]

I haven't needed to try it on a pally. I've tested it as all specs on my druid, boomkin works best mushrooms in a line leading to you and then hurricane ftw. I tested a short time on my spriest, which was a horrid experience without a way to slow the bugs down. I was able to easily level my hunter from 87-90 on farming them as survival with tanking pet. Just gotta keep MD and mend pet up.

I honestly can't see farming them as melee being efficient at all because of the damage. But anyone who say that farming out there solo isn't the fastest way to level isn't doing it right. I'll admit I wish the bug spawns were faster so there wasn't a small amount of downtime, but I cranked a level and a half of rested experience out on my hunter in 90 minutes or so. Even monkey runs, which I did on my DK for a single level weren't that fast.

[anon5123]

I tested a short time on my spriest, which was a horrid experience without a way to slow the bugs down.

They already move pretty slowly without any kind of movespeed debuff...I'd imagine Mind Searing them down would be pretty straight-forward. Use a feather or Body&Soul if you really need to run away.

I honestly can't see farming them as melee being efficient at all because of the damage.

Yeah, their damage is ridiculous. One shot from all ten of them at once is easily ~45% of my health, so I have to kite them; using the movespeed buff from Long Arm of the Law to run in, hit one AoE ability then run back out. I can kill a pack in under 20 seconds, though.

I timed myself, and in 20 minutes, I went from 25% to 45%. (before an 89 hunter showed up and started killing all the mobs) So 60% exp per hour just mindlessly AoEing down mobs? Seems pretty damn fast to me. And this is with 0 EXP bonuses. No rested, no heirloom, no guild, nothing.

[Krekko]

It's not worth it.

I've tried leveling as both Prot and Ret on Timeless Isle, as well as a Hunter (BM and Survival) and I found it to be hilariously inefficient.

If you switch zones with each level and do all the dungeon quests you'll level A LOT faster. You can hit 87-90 in no time just plain skipping the Timeless Isle.

What did I find good about it though? Since I was there I got an Ordos and Celestials kill before even hitting 90 (but you can just fly out there and do that anyway) also the Timeless coins I had gotten were quite nice to buy a trinket immediately, but even then I'd venture to say the time invested would better be applied elsewhere.

[Deleted]

It's worth it only if you're a class with amazing burst aoe and ideally you want to be ranged as well.

On my elemental shaman, which I believe is the best class for it, I did 88-89 in 40 minutes without rested. (89-90 took an hour as I was slacking some).

As an elemental shaman with the chi-ji buff (and at some point if you're lucky all the other buffs too) I was sitting on 80%+ mastery and 50%+ crit/haste with the echo of the elements talent and that meant I could pop a single chain lightning and it would bounce so much that there'd be only two mobs left - and even if it didn't if I just cast a second chain lightning they would all certainly be dead.

It was so fast that I had to wait on respawns on both the servers I had access to (I had an afk friend with invite addon that could just invite me instantly whenever I had killed all the mobs on my own realm).

[anon5123]

I found it to be hilariously inefficient.

I'm not really seeing how it's "hilariously inefficient". In 20 seconds or less, I can kill a group of mobs that gives 177k exp, which is even more than a quest gives. And I don't have to travel or even think very much, just mindlessly AoE things down.

[Terridon]

Or get a friend to help you. Helped one doing it a couple of days ago. Wasn't grouped, bound a HoT to the one i boosted, and killed them after she tagged them.

[Crunkosaurus]

For my last 4 90's i've dinged from around 88-90 just killing the elite scorpions in southern Dread Wastes, it's phenomenal xp (especially with rested) and they are easily soloable for any class (Most can take 2-3 at a time, depending on player density and respawn rates for your server) I recently leveled my blood DK this way, it took me about 45 minutes to an hour to get from just 89-90.

[anon5123]

For my last 4 90's i've dinged from around 88-90 just killing the elite scorpions in southern Dread Wastes, it's phenomenal xp (especially with rested) and they are easily soloable for any class (Most can take 2-3 at a time, depending on player density and respawn rates for your server) I recently leveled my blood DK this way, it took me about 45 minutes to an hour to get from just 89-90.

"Easily soloable" ? Those things are hitting me for ~10% of my health every hit. I can barely kill them while using HoJ and healing myself a bunch. They take longer to kill than the Swarmers, and only give half the exp. =/

[Deleted]

It is rediculously fast if there is no one else in the area killing the swarmers. I have done 86-90 with death knight, hunter, shaman, warrior, druid and mage. I play on one of the most populated servers and when the spawns were most contested I would get about 1 level per hour while being rested. On my hunter I did 86-89 in about an hour by abusing crossrealm, I doubt anything is faster if you are on a low to medium pop server. It might be very hard as paladin though, DK and warrior were very hard at lvl 86.

[Bremmon]

I've leveled 4 toons from 85 to 90 just killing the little packs of caterpillars and once in awhile a pack of non elite cranes... It takes 2-3 hours depending on if anyone else is killing them. In between spawns I ran in for Karkanos, brew boss and gander kills... Each pack of caterpillars gives you about 580k exp on average(rested), they have about 80k hp each. The only toon I had any trouble killing them on was my feral druid... I ended up just going bear and killing them just as fast without worrying about dying.. If you can manage to score a potion of ancient knowledge it makes 85-90 trivial. Make sure you get a ordos shrine buff and eat an apple... If you kill a few elites you can get some of the other dps/healing buffs too.

[Lackluster]

If you can manage to score a potion of ancient knowledge it makes 85-90 trivial.

Elixir of Ancient Knowledge doesn't work above level 84.

[Vathius]

Id rather learn my class and level the old fashion way.

Besides, some quests are kinda fun in MoP as well