Posted by Bastosa on Monday, September 29th, 2008 - 43 Comments
Tags: expansion, level 80, level cap, leveling, power leveling, wrath of the lich king
If you are anything like me, you want to get to level 80 as soon as possible. Sure I understand that some people would like to sit back, smell the roses, and enjoy all that Northrend has to offer. But for me, this game is all about the end game! I’ll save the roses for my rogue alt. I want to start raiding as soon as possible, so myself and my fellow guildies have spent some time recently discussing the fastest way possible to get into Naxx. I don’t want to do any stupid 48-hour marathon power-leveling or anything, but let’s just say I won’t be wasting any time.
There are a few options, but the one I think we have settled on is pure instance grinding. Being a tank, this would be ideal. First of all, it prevents me from having to respec Ret, which is the last thing I want to do. It will also allow us to learn all the new class skills and abilities in a group setting, which will be valuable down the road. I’m sure we will poke our heads out of the instance portals from time to time, grab a quest or two, and see what the countryside is about, but I think that the XP from the instances will get us where we want to go fast. Add on the quests that are in the instances themselves and we should be leveling in a hurry.
In order to get this dialed in, we are wanting to put together a team of 5 people that will basically level as a unit, make sure we stay close in level, and just hit the 5-mans over and over until the final ding. I imagine it will take more than a couple runs through each one before we are ready for the next, but its not like we haven’t run every heroic into the ground already. I doubt anyone will mind. I know there are others in the guild with the same plan, so hopefully it will be easy to hook up with one of the groups and go straight into the 10-man scene at 80.
Now this is certainly not the only way, just my way. I know people that are going to quest from sun up to sun down. I even know a few that plan on filling their quest logs with 25 completed quests in SMV beforehand and hope to get a level or two off the turn ins when Wrath goes live.
In the end I think it comes down to doing what you enjoy. I enjoy group play, so that is my route, what is yours?
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By Kyle on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
First one! and yeah i did do 25 quests
By Eugen on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
i’ll probably be leveling the good old fashioned way like i always did …. quests …
i love all the lore and seeing everything and going to places … not really interested in getting to the endgame fast cause .. .well cause i’ll get there eventually so no need to rush it 
By pctjuh on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
@eugen i think that way to why so fast lvl 80 why wanna be the first i just wanna see whole northrend and instances ofc why rushing it if you have all the time to get to lvl 80
By Eventime on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Even though I’m excited to get into the lvl 80 endgame content, I’ll probably spend a fair amount of leveling time by doing region quests. This will be my first expansion where I’ll start at the previous level cap with good gear (I really started WoW just after TBC came out), so for Burning Crusade I took my time to really see all I could and loved it. I wanna do the same with Lich King, and while I’m very excited to be starting endgame sooner than last time, I’m also excited to see all there is to offer.
By Kastegir on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
I totaly agree with Eugene. Quest and explore all the way. Im gonna stop and smell the roses every chanse i get
By Jake on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Tank here, the idea of instancing all the way to 80 seems a bit boring to me, think ill be specing a nice pve dps/prot spec, may be a bit of weird one but still, would allow me to instance like crazy while everyone is back from work/school and go and get my q’s done late or when im supposed to be studying
thats how im planning it, enjoying the expansion without the thousand other players in the area aggrovating me with there evil mob stealing ways
theres my rather long winded way of getting to level 80
By hytimo on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
I think i will just make my druid feral and do instances and questing while looking for a group just the same i did from 60-70. with my hunter i will focus on questing i realy hate dpsing in groups only tanking and healing i like.
sorry for bad english.
By Cloudbearer on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
I think the most effective way is going to be a mix of quests, grinding, and dungeons. I’m not sure how effective running 5 mans repeatedly will be, once rest XP runs out. I try to usually be doing quests in dungeons if I am doing them.
By Gene on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
I buckle down, hone in on quests and start going off. Its sort of tunnel vision in a way but I have a really good set of friends to jump in and out of leveling with as well so if the group questing bug itches I got a cure.
But with the 70’s I’d like to make 80… I have a rather uphill climb.
By Allenok on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
I think it would probably be faster to level by doing quests. Instances get you alot of XP, but Ive tried in TBC both ways and I have found that leveling from quests (with a few instances thrown in along the way) is much faster and sets you up with some good gear once you hit peak level. In TBC finsihing one quest can get you 12k exp points just for turning it in. I will be questing my way through Northrend and hitting up the dungeons when I have quests for them.
By rayehino on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
im prabobly going to be overwhelmed to be honest…im going to want to do every quest every instance…mine every ore and do absolutely everything there is to do so ill prolly run around for days and get absolutely nothing accomplished…but i think i will end up taking my time and level up to 80 at a steady pace…and i say that now but when i hit 60 it was all day and all night questing till i hit 70 and once i hit 70 i realized i didnt focus any attention on anything else…tunnel vision i guess…so theres a 50/50 chance ill be really fast leveling or slow steady paced leveling
By Martyn on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I don’t want to put a downer on your post Bastosa or any1 else that is planning on having 25 complete quests sitting ready for LK ( i know im doing to do it) but the exp from turning them in is only really gna work out to be roughly 1/3 to 1/2 a level if actually think about the numbers.
By Mrjn'ad on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I can’t wait until the patch comes out, and i wont’ lie… i’ll probably grind feverishly until i feel i’m at a good enough level. Which is probably gonna be like 78 79 before i start to really look at the stuff around me. I mean, end game is gonna be there when i get there, it’s not going away, however, i don’t like the idea of others being higher level then me. Just the way I roll.
I’m highly competitive, haha, so me and a guy friend of mine are gonna compete to see who gets to 75 faster.
By Mikesmit on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
I’ll prolly be leveling as fast as I can, doing quests and as much instances as possible, love seeing lores and such, but instances do give better things, more exp and well, basicl justy awsome! but I still love seeing the loreso I will be doind as much quests as possible and also in each area, not just 1 side of the ilse of what ever and sticking to that, but I want to see everything!
greetz, Mike.
By Karmen on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Instance grinding is always going to be slower then questing. So if you’re going for speed, the fastest way (especially with you being a prot pally) is to get a friend or 2 and aoe grind quests.
Skip quests that aren’t “Kill x amount of mob” or “Kill mob, collect x amount of item.” So basically only do the grinding quests.
By just doing the grinding quests, you’ll get a little less xp than what you’d get killing a mob in a dungeon, but you’ll kill a considerable amount more when you turn in the appropriate quests. When you get all the quests that go with an instance, do a run and you’ll see alot of xp out of the instance then just killing the trash.
By Robert on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
My idea about a year ago when I had bought B/C..was all to get ready for Lich King…so right when I bought it…I stayed a protection pally all the way up..granted it was grinding mostly all the way did instances here and there….
So when I made Level 70…I really loved the stats of the retribution BG Armor set out of Champions Hall…
So I started getting everything that was Scaled armor…this is not what I suggest for anyone to do at all…but what it did was make a Prot Pally more capable with higher dps than usual way below a ret but more than normal Prot….I did this for normal gameplay and not for the instances…since all of it was Ret armor…there is one major plus to a prot pally…we can tank like 4-5 …maybe 6 npc’s all at a time…I have quested alone quite a bit…and getting into Lich King…that is sort of my goal…to quest and level as fast as I can…
I know that the Totally Rad Guild is out of Executus Realm..and that is a PVP Realm…you all focus on the PVE stuff…but since you are in a realm that is contradicting your main intent…I hope that there is a weekly episode to where the actual homies in your guild who totally love pvp to come out talk about Honor, Battlemarks, and Arena Points system for Lich King…
I do know that this is going to be sort of special…that after level 70…level 71-79 are all for Skirmishes…and then level 80..restarts a whole new Arena level of PVP..
when you hit level 71..I think you lose all your arena points that you have left over from level 70..so no carry over to use for level 80 gear…
My whole plan is to get to the Arenas ..earn arena points as early as possible….getting into the new 80 level gear is a must for me since…I really do love pvp…
Oh…I forgot to say…I do respec for Ret when folks truly need me in instances …for dps….been working on getting a decent tank set..but I abandoned that a while back…so I know my logic of all of this is off..it will throw off all kind of arguments and everything…but I do love playing a prot pally…with the Shield and Sword at my side…when I got the ret gear..I got ganked a whole lot less than ever…
Project Lore..great job on the shows and on the Forums..totally rad guild great job hope to see some monster raids in the next week….
By Ozzel's Cousin Fred on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Questing on offhours and or grinding rep (I’m not exalted with anytihng in Northrend yet
) Instancing when opprotunities are available.
Was the first 70 in my guild, everyone figures I’ll be the first 80 too
But this time I have to level 2 toons >.<
By Alayea on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
I haven’t really come up with a plan for WotLK, to be honest. Let me set this up:
I’ve been very busy trying to get my hunter alt — Lithala, if you’re curious — up to lvl. 70 before the next expansion comes out. And if I’m not leveling her, then I’m busy trying to complete as many dailies as possible with my main. (I’m basically the only breadwinner on the WoW account that I share with my twin @_@ ). I haven’t bothered with leveling my other alts because I’m not going to delude myself into thinking that I can get them to lvl. 70 in time.
So trying to look ahead… I will get Lithala to lvl. 70 (probably won’t have much epic PvE gear, much less PvP), which’ll free me to re-spec my main from enhance to resto if I so choose. Why would that be good? Although I do solo leveling, it’s only because I have a very hard time finding groups to do any instance with. Now that I’ll have a character(s) at the cap level already , I hope to be able to catch the initial rush (unlike the last time, when TBC was released).
But if all that doesn’t work out, I guess I’ll be stuck doing solo leveling again.
By Alayea on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
[quote]By Martyn on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I don’t want to put a downer on your post Bastosa or any1 else that is planning on having 25 complete quests sitting ready for LK ( i know im doing to do it) but the exp from turning them in is only really gna work out to be roughly 1/3 to 1/2 a level if actually think about the numbers.[/quote]
I agree. Assuming that each of those 25 SMV quests would be worth roughly 12k experience upon turn-in, the most a player would get is about 300k. That’s definitely less than half the experience that’s required to reach level 70.
By Bhuggy on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
I think I’ll probably go at my own pace catch abit of northrend from time to time maybe level a DK alt or hell maybe switch them to my main if he’s epic enough
By Fallor on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
I recommend you to save up 100 Oshu’gun Power Crystals. They give you xp as well when you turn them in. It even gives you xp when you’re max lvl now. Maybe that’ll help as well.
By Elarson on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
You’ll find me and my guild leveling in 5 mans to get to Nax asap.
By brett on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
It’s gonna depend on the rest of the guild, but I’ll be leveling with 2-3 people at the minimum. Already have the week after release off (as do the others). Ideally, I’d like to be in Naxx within 1-2 weeks of release.
By Chacka on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
right now I gotta get to 70 XP
anyway, I’m in beta and trust me, some of the quest chain introduce some awesome cinematics and plot twists, and even a version of a city-raid *coughundercitycough*
By Chacka on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
plus some of the massive battles for quests really put the WAR in warcraft
By Naasuk on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
In my eyes, if you’re not questing you’re missing a HUGE aspect of the game. And I think the best way to get to 80 is to quest.
By Feralface on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
God I hate pally tanks, especially two named McTucker and Steve Bastosa.
By Andarcin on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
I’m definately going to quest for most of it, and gather the instance quests along the way, then when I get 4 or 5 for a instance, thats when I’ll run it with my guildies that have been thinking the same way.
By Xzanti - Lightbringer on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 1:11 am
I think you can level as fast with quests then you do with instances. Just need to it the right way ^_^
By Silkath on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 1:43 am
What you guys aren’t considering is just how many people are going to be trying to level when Wrath comes out. There will be about 10 players per quest mob, you’ll be desperately trying to tag mobs, there will be queues of people waiting to kill those single spawns.
Under normal circumstances questing is quicker than instance grinding, but the days post-release won’t be normal circumstances. Lag will be a nightmare and everywhere will be hugely busy. Finding yourself a nice instance group ready to speed run Utgarde Keep in ~30 mins (and that’s slow for a full epic group) 10 ish times will get you to 71 way quicker than trying to quest near Warsong Hold or Vengeance Landing.
By Nlin on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 3:16 am
Our guild, a smaller one, has devided us up in 2 groups doing the same thing. Only thing is we are going to do the quests of every instance. Somebody - me - is goin to look up every quest in an instance and everybody in the group has a few days the time to make sure they have all the quests so that we in the weekend can do a few instances a couple of times…
By Antox on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 5:20 am
Ok first of all I want to get to 80 as fast as I can without out burning my HUD into the back of my eyes, But I think you have missed a few factors in your power levelling instance grinding plan.
1.The average time of a good run through an instance is about 2hrs if not more (think of how many quests you can do in that time).
2. Learning what you need to do in the instance will slow you down.
3. Allow more time for wipes as no group will always do it perfectly (and ypu may have to clear mob again, also run low on gold paying for repairs).
4. You will always run out of double XP fast (double XP is your best friend while instancing).
5. You may have to roll for gear and may not win or you have to grind for your item to drop.
6. Waiting for people to come online (all our lives are very different and yes RL does get in the way some times).
7. If you have to PuG it (not in all cases as I know some don‘t). I have not had the best of times PuGing it, all you need is the 9 year old kid joining that just wants to bash shit and will no doubt get you wiped in no time at all or just the people that aren’t really all that good that get you wiped, you know the score with PuG’s.
Which brings me to…
GROUP QUESTING AND INSTANCING
The benefits;
1. If you group quest you will all have a chance to get items upon handing it in (gearing up together will make easier instancing).
2. You will finish the quests faster therefore gain XP faster.
3. Killing mobs together will give you less XP, this is not a bad thing in away as you will get the quests done faster therefore pushing your double XP over and not using so much of it on quest mobs and saving it for instancing.
4. Gaining rep faster don’t get me wrong though I’m sure we will get rep from doing them but it gets to a point were you only get it from the bosses if not at all. So doing both is better.
5. Levelling trade skills faster, it seems from what project lore has shown us that there are added benefits to having them which may come in handy (and inside an instance is not the best place to level them).
6. You will get to see all of the game as I’m sure this time around blizzard have gone to a lot of trouble and hard work to bring us a better game.
7. And last of all….GOLD! we all need it, we all want it, your fooling yourself if you say you don’t.
So to sum it up group quest and save double XP for instancing is the way forward and makes for faster levelling.
And rule number 1 have fun! it’s a game at the end of the day, some of us have hectic and fast lives as it is so why rush everything.
Antox- Order of the Steel Fist - Argent dawn -EU.
By Kevin on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 5:54 am
I had the same idea and just level in instances.
By Duridios on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 7:40 am
I think that I will start to lvl up my feral druid. It’s easy to quest and you can easily get a group as tank.
For me it’s important lvl up fast but I also want to enjoy the game. I got 2 lvl 70 alts so I can enjoy the hole lvling thing later but for now I think I want to lvl up fast.
By Devonn on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 9:01 am
“25 completed quests in SMV beforehand and hope to get a level or two off the turn ins when Wrath goes live.”
ftw
By Bastosa on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 9:05 am
To be clear, I wasn’t suggesting that saving up 25 quests for turn ins is a good strat… just saying I know some people that are doing it. Martyn is probably right, it’s likely closer to a half level worth of XP.
You guys are starting to convince me I should consider mixing in questing just a bit more. With a pre-built 5-man group, I imagine it would be fairly easy to take an hour here and there are do some massive group questing to mix things up. Rest XP will definitely be a factor.
By Kathy on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 10:28 am
I’m going to have to save the lore for my alts because my guild is shooting for about 5 days after WOTLK comes out to start Naxx.
Puts the pressure on me, the poor holy priest lol. I think the instance grind might be a good idea so I wouldn’t have to go shadow, but I did grab a lot of shadow gear for questing so it’s sad to see that go to waste.
Well I guess it will never go to waste because I can DE it to level enchanting.
By David on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 10:50 am
seeing as though i am only lvl 44 and just got back into WoW a while ago… i dont think ill make it to 70 by WotLK. However i am a very casual player so ill probably be leveling by questing and running instances, at a moderate pace.
By Ben on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 11:26 am
I’m going to be pulling my hair out over this. I have a level 70 of every class except warrior, and I have been planning to get a Death Knight since I heard they were the new class. What I’m planning on doing is focussing on 1 character a day, then parking them in an Inn (for Rested) and moving onto the next character. Granted, it’ll take a while, but theres only 1 character I need to get to 80 straight away (damn progression guilds) but I’ll just do that character every 2nd day, and to hell with the rested on him.
By Gerandor on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Right now i might be thinking of getting to 80 as fast as possible, by mowing through the quests, and grinding instances, but i’ll probably be doing the same thing as with Outlands… Reading the text to every single quest i do, slowing lvling by hours, but enjoying the lore
By Kelith on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
just for the people that are saying that questing to level won’t work quite so well due to all the people…. they are implementing a “phasing” system so that you are technically in a different place then those people who haven’t done as much as you…. for example a building could be on fire that you can see because you completed some quests but your level 71 buddy can’t see it. Personally though im more excited to see all the instances before all the lore… enough alts for the lore.
By Dan on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Leveling with guild is my plan. Simple and easy.
By Manse on Saturday, October 4th, 2008 at 3:30 am
I shall be levelling through a mix of quests and 5 man instances, most of my questing buddies have moved over to other games so friends in the guild have gladly offered to q with me up to 80. Im most looking forward to the instances and seeing cool loot and exciting boss fights.