Peter's Blog

So what's the plan when you hit 70?

Right now I'm tempted to spend 68-70 rep grinding, then at 70 flying around, mopping up the remaining quests for the money and spending the proceeds on the epic flying mount.

The rep grinding would be farming mobs in particular areas for hours on end: it doesn't need a flying mount, just patience or good music to listen to.

Questing requires transport and a flying mount (even poxy basic model) has got to be better than ducking past random mobs.

This plan seems to make the most sense, the only possible problem being the boredom factor in rep grinding. Still, if I get bored I just knock off a few quests. I also need to see how lucrative questing at 70 is: I have heard the rewards are pure gold but is it more gold than at normal levels + vendoring quest rewards?

I can try it out by killing 456 Naga for Sporregar rep and the Primal Earth->Primal Water transmute. Should take 3.8 hours and give maybe 350,000 XP (BTW that's another plus, the rep grind giving xp is something else to motivate).

As I have mentioned before, I can't keep to a raiding schedule so I'm unlikely to be running kara. I'll wait till three expansions time, get to level 100 and then solo it.

I don't know what I'm going to do with my alts. Having only just run through Terokkah I don't want to do it again on Pooky for a bit and I'm think Maezyn is going to feel like a gimped Maevyn. I'll wait till I'm bored with Mae and see what irresistable plan comes up. I do admit to having a growing desire to try a blood elf... no twinking, start from scratch!

Peter

I tried a blood elf for a while, nice starting zone but unfortunately rolled a paladin so boredom set in before I reached 20 (when the new starting zones end and you're dumped into the 'old' content). I've also got an orc hunter, makes a nice change from alliance as the trade spamming is minimal (fewer kids arguing over nothing) and more people willing to help.

I've broken all emotional ties with Azeroth now, just using my hunter to get me high enough to enter outlands (my other six chars being 40-45, queueing up to hit 58!). Hunters really are levelling machines - minimal downtime with the gun and pet (Bellygrub, love the gore/charge - thanks for the tip :) ) ripping through mobs in seconds. I actually find it quite relaxing playing the hunter, I can easily grind/quest and follow what's happening on the telly.

I think with the promise of regular expansions I might just stick to levelling my army and do the same as yourself, wait til I'm high enough and solo the raids - no real point in going through the pains of raiding to get gear that'll be vendored within a few months. Mudflation was initially a problem; now it's a feature. I might try a few PUGs in Outlands but it'll purely be for the fun factor.

Anyways, onward and upward to Outlands :)

I understand the paladin boredom and I don't know how I stood it for 64 levels. To me it was all about self-healing and just staying alive. When you tried to dps you were oom before you knew it. I couldn't cope with a two hour session of kill-kill-mana break, kill-kill-mana break with a paladin (here I'm talking retribution: protection wasn't so bad but the fights were soooo long) which is why I can't face running pooky. If I was able to raid I would probably be more inclined to do it with Pook as a Healer or Tank, he would get better gear (which he sorely needs) and it would be more fun.

I would try a horde for the experience of starting from scratch. Ok I could send it money via a trusted third party but going from zero to 70 totally solo would be a nice achievement. And I wonder what Ogrimmar is like? Probably smelly.

You might remember that before I hit Outlands properly with Maevyn I did every last quest in Azeroth to get her as high a level as possible. I think this has paid off in that she has been a level or two high for her Outlands quests and things have been easy. By the time she hit Nagrand she could already easily kill (i.e. < 20 seconds, as low as 8 seconds with a crit against a caster) any non-elite mob there. She is 68 and is only half way through the seven Outlands regions. Don't be too keen to leave Azeroth, unless you want more of a challenge, in which case go straight to Netherstorm.

While in Nagrand a call went out for one more dps and I admit I was tempted to volunteer Mae as she was rocking at the time... maybe I shouldn't rule out the pugs?

Glad you are happy with the boar. If Tiddles could charge she would be beyond priceless. Please Blizz? Forget the stun, just dash rank 4 = 300% speed will do.

Peter

I can tell you what Orgrimmar is like - huge! It's split into areas similar to other cities but the paths in and between them twist and wind; it's very easy to get lost. If you roll an orc (and probably a couple of other classes) you can run straight there fairly easily. I use a guide for the orc (Joana's), mainly because decent levelling guides cover a lot of different areas and I would like to see all of Azeroth/Outlands/Northrend/wherever before I finally quit.

As for Outlands, I'm following Jame's levelling guides so I'll probably stick with them til 60 before entering the portal. Also, I think you should give the PUGs a try (I know I will), they're fun if nothing else, unless you hate wipes/repair costs, and you sometimes meet like-minded people that otherwise you may have never met.

A thought occurred to me last night - before TBC levelling to 60 wasn't so bad as there were a lot of 'active' instances/raids when the levelling got boring. The levelling now with TBC is more of a grind up to 58-60 as no-one bothers with the old stuff. But imagine what it will be like with the next expansion - any player of any level with the expansion can visit the new continent but the content is designed for levels 68 and up, which means 68 levels of pure questing/grinding (because no-one will bother with the 'old' TBC raids) to get to the new stuff! I'm not sure many new players will be attracted by that prospect.

Up until Nagrand (i.e. through Hellfire, Zangarmarsh and Terokkah (sp?) I've found Outlands pretty quiet, few other players about most of the time. I'm not sure how active the instances in those areas are. There don't seem to be many people around questing (much like Azeroth these days).

The Outlands lvl 70 instances will go the same way as the Azeroth ones unless Blizz do something to make them desirable (lvl 80 drops) but the people that have already been running them for months wouldn't be happy. They'll be wanting new content.

I had one or two good pug experiences but those were long ago. Most went into the two wipes and dissolve mode.

Peter