Random Cataclysm discussion

[Norellicus]

I don't believe you see the extra xp ever, even on mob kills. It shows how much you would normally get, and the heirlooms just funnel an extra percentage into your total silently.

I say this because I seem to recall finding it odd that I was getting fairly round numbers on XP popups when I was leveling a DK with heirlooms.

[The Stig]

When I first got my heirloom I tested by equipping it and then accepting a quest, and then unequipping and then accepting the same quest again after abandoning, and can confirm if I remember correctly, the boosted (20%) EXP is shown as the reward with my stuff equipped.

Can confirm again tonight.

[Dantrag]

Weird because quest says 300, get 300, look at exp with C open so i can see numbers and it adds 300... D;

When I first got my heirloom I tested by equipping it and then accepting a quest, and then unequipping and then accepting the same quest again after abandoning, and can confirm if I remember correctly, the boosted (20%) EXP is shown as the reward with my stuff equipped.

Can confirm again tonight.

Sounds like the best way to test, I'll check that out later... thanks!

[Eaglestrike]

Accept a quest, look at exp reward. Remove heirlooms, look at exp reward. It changed.

Mace for anything but the druid is kinda meh, 2.9 weapon speed makes it quite a bit weaker than the axe for pally/warrior. Kinda surprised no one mentioned that.

[The Stig]

I can test when I get home, in about 5 hours. Otherwise, on the topic of heirlooms I planned to get 2 daggers 2 swords and the Rogue Body/Shoulder. I grinded my reps for the alliance and earned my crusader title, with 400 seals to boot.

EDIT: Will get body/shoulder first, weapons maybe later

[Kurp]

Is Ret really that bad? I was going to level up a paladin to run through new zones and have something new to play. Are Holy or Prot decent, or should I not bother at all?

Nice tip about the Brutal gear. I haven't played since they added XP to battlegrounds. How fast can you level that way vs questing/instance. I'm mostly wondering around the 60-70+ range, because I'm not excited to level through Outland again. If it's a decent pace, I might just do most or all of it in BGs.

[Dantrag]

On my hunter w/ shoulders I was getting 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 levels per instance with quests.

[Moosey]

Is Ret really that bad? I was going to level up a paladin to run through new zones and have something new to play. Are Holy or Prot decent, or should I not bother at all?

Nice tip about the Brutal gear. I haven't played since they added XP to battlegrounds. How fast can you level that way vs questing/instance. I'm mostly wondering around the 60-70+ range, because I'm not excited to level through Outland again. If it's a decent pace, I might just do most or all of it in BGs.

Obviously depending on the groups you get, running a dungeon will generally give a bit more exp than a BG. I got at least around a level's worth of exp in a winning WSG, and about the same in a dungeon with 1 quest. The updated dungeons are fun, but one can only mindlessly grind so much trash.

I like to alternate with BGs and dungeons every once and a while on my warrior, and going pretty casually I still level way too fast.

[Correction]

How fast can you level that way vs questing/instance. I'm mostly wondering around the 60-70+ range, because I'm not excited to level through Outland again. If it's a decent pace, I might just do most or all of it in BGs.

A win in a BG on its weekend is generally as good as it gets.
Instances with a lot of trash (read: most TBC instances) are fantastic exp.
Instances with not much trash (read: many LK instances) are not that great exp without rested/heirlooms, and you'll get more exp just doing quests.

[aurik]

I believe mace is only really good for druids. Axe is the way to go for dk/war/pally.

Not a huge fan of instancing through outlands. Unlike the classic instances, most don't have front-loaded quests, so either you're questing in the zone anyway to unlock the dungeon zones (at which point you should be doing all the quests in the local area), or passing on 40k~ xp. Also if you get a failure group, that will kill your leveling rate. Aside from that, yes, TBC instances are a touch faster than questing.

HFP questing is terrible for leveling, just went through there yesterday. A lot of the mobs there are warrior types, and are just a huge sack of HP. Make sure you abandon any quest that isn't convenient; you shouldn't have to do more than the better half the quests in HFP before you move on, especially if you hit 60 in classic (which you should now).

Zangar is actually much faster than HFP, for several reasons. Often, you are killing various casters and other squishy types that go down much easier, the zone is smaller, and the quest clusters are better localized. The elite notorious monster quests are way easier as well, most classes should be able to solo them by the top-end of the zone level range, 64-65, whereas the HFP elites can't really be soloed by most classes until beyond 63.

Of course, the easiest way to do outlands is just to abuse the new strength of classic leveling. If you do Swamp of Sorrows, Winterspring, Ungoro fully, should land you at about 58. Then do Blasted Lands and you should get to about 61. Finally, queue for any classic dungeons (I think UBRS and Strat will still be available. BRD UC was still available at 60 for me, but the xp there was mediocre because most of the trash was grey. The quests, however, were 20k apiece) to squeeze the last little bit of xp out of classic.

You should be about 62 without even touching outlands. Because of this, you can do the quests when they're green, instead of when they are yellow/orange--this makes those quests much much faster. Also, after hitting 60, your rest bonus accumulates much faster, since the accumulation rate is based on the max xp for your current level. Starting at 62 with a full rest bar, you should be able to get 65 in HFP (including the instance quests) in about 3-4 hours, and 66 in Zangar in another ~2. Now you can just do terrokar or nagrand (whichever you like better) until 68, and hop a ship to northrend: in and out of outlands in under 10 hours.

[Dantrag]

The Axe is better overall for WAR/DK/PAL but I got it because I planned on doing Druid as well, so I wanted the wep that would cover all the bases instead of having to get another one.

[aurik]

I'd get the weapon best for the class you're leveling now. By the time you level another one, you'll probably have the points for another weapon.

[Noobta]

We are applying a hotfix today to all level 1-60 dungeon quests for Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms dungeons which will significantly reduce the amount of experience they award.

NooOoOoO

[Moosey]

NooOoOoO

yay :D

[aurik]

Dungeons were already only slightly faster than questing if you knew what to do.

Also they really need to go back and touch up the dungeon quests for outland/northrend now. So terrible

[vrumpt]

hoped this would happen, thank god. Was pretty insane how much xp they gave. Very anxious for the 7th now, really wanna get in there and start working on my main.

[Siniroth]

Haha, I'm already over 60, neener neener neener

[Correction]

NooOoOoO

This was a LONG time coming. One run through Scholomance + quests was a guaranteed full level up, mostly from the quests. That's a bit extreme considering something like Slave Pens at 62 only grants 30% of your exp bar, with quests.

[aurik]

Well that's partially because at 62, you need like 250k xp to level up. When you're at the level for scholomance, you only need like 100k.

Given that I made a level every 25-30 minutes questing solo in remade classic zones, I don't know why I should do scholomance if I don't see better returns, seeing as I have to contend with 4 potential mouthbreathers to do scholomance.

[Plow]

Is Ret really that bad? I was going to level up a paladin to run through new zones and have something new to play. Are Holy or Prot decent, or should I not bother at all?

Ret is not bad, in fact it's quite strong, until you're competing with good players. I.E. you shouldn't have any problems with it unless you're talking high end arenas, pretty much.

Holy and Prot are both flat out amazing atm.

Nice tip about the Brutal gear. I haven't played since they added XP to battlegrounds. How fast can you level that way vs questing/instance. I'm mostly wondering around the 60-70+ range, because I'm not excited to level through Outland again. If it's a decent pace, I might just do most or all of it in BGs.

Winning random bg's is slightly behind running dungeons for exp. There's also some quests for av if you make the run to pick them up.

This coming weekend is AV weekend... during that, grinding in the harpy cave is flat out the best exp in the game, period. It's ridiculous, easy ass kills on green caster mobs for near 1k per, along with absurd exp from objectives.