How do you survive the grind from 60-80?

[nauren01]

I am still working on my second team to get my 10box to 80.

Boosting 1-60 was a breeze, prot pala mania, only limit is 5 inis/hr, /played: 23hr total, really enjoyed it

Then comes 60-65: RAF gone, no more pulls >20 mobs, rested xp becomes really relevant, xp/hr down to 2-3 hrs per level (ramparts, then utgarde).

I even started leveling fishing and cooking to 450 on my main to get distraction - even fishing seems more fun... I might even consider questing, that is how desparate I am now :)

How do you deal with the 60-80 grind after having brought your first team to 80 ? Some of the seniors here have 4-5 teams, any Über-Tips ?


------------------------------------------------------------
Edit and conclusion:

Here are my rates, all at least after 1h played (don't get fooled by the xp spikes....) and without rested xp:

# Method _____________Team ________________xp/hr @ 68 _____Gold________Feeling__________________________ _____________
1) Rhino Mania_________4 Shamy 4 Bostees______250.000 xp/hr___ low_________Rhino nightmares, need therapy, all the little calves...
2) Utgard ini boosting: ___1 pala 4 Boostes________200.000 xp/hr___medium _____Utgard phobia, see doctor soon
3) Questing: ___________4 Bostees_____________180.000 xp/hr___good________ok, at least a change from time to time
4) Raiding Kara: ________10box with 5 Boostees____59.000 xp/hr___great________exiting, this is WoW at its best

Seems well balanced againt the criteria, I guess that is how the blues intended it.

Thanks for the discussion!

[Siaea]

I'm currently leveling my 4th 5 box team (4 mages, 62, to catch up to my original vanilla mage, 80) and like you said, 0-60 a breeze (SFK, Cath, ZF, then BRD and Scholo). What I'm doing is questing until I get the dungeon quests, and doing the dungeons till I get sick of them. Did Ramps and BF all weekend, now I'm doing the quests to get UB quests unlocked. Prolly do that to 65, then go get rested up and go to UK. I'm not sure how my frost mage will do in UK yet, I did die a couple times in BF pulling too many packs (some of them do that knock back that really screws you up). For 70-80, I'll probably do all the major quest lines that I likes, and WG and Argent tournament as it's available.

Now that I know Dec 7 is the "due date", I can let them get some rested XP and still make my goal. That, and get them all transmute mastered like my other teams.

[ZooljinX]

I just do quests.. im one of those wierd people that really enjoy questing :) and the gold you get from it is nice too!

[Siaea]

Only problem with 70-80 is the suckage known as collection quests. That, and if you skip them, you potentially miss out on the larger chains. I really didn't like the way they designed the forward progression in LK, I hope Cat isn't like that.

Edit, should have quoted Zooljinx for what I was talking about.

[ZooljinX]

Well yea, thats true, i just suck it up and watch a episode of some gay show while grinding :P(i try and skip most of them, but as you said some are in chains and are nice if you get done) it comes down to how much you can/like to grind, if you have a Tank/heal in the team you could go instances but thats just as boring as collection quests.. after 2 clears or so hehe..

[Lyonheart]

I just mix it up, for one thing, most my alts teams are in BoAs, that helps a ton! I do all of HF for the gear and the two instances quests. Than i do all of Zang and the instance quests, I normally hit HF at 58 and que for AV and do quests while I wait. I get to 61 hella fast that way. After 61, unless your playing a healer class, I stop doing AV until about 64/65ish. I always hit 65-66 in Zang, then i skip Terokar and head to Nagrand, Ill do a few AVs and quest, and it seems 68 comes pretty fast, then i head to Northrend.

Short version. Have BoAs on alts.
Mix it up with BGs when your midway or at the higher end of each bracket.
Start Outlands at 58 and move to Northrend as soon as you hit 68. 58-60 FLYs and so does 68-70 due to the quests giving a lot more exp and loot bang for the buck compared to the previous content your leaving behind.


P.S. If your playing any of the healer capable classes ( priest,druid,paly,shaman ) You can play as multi-healer in AV even at entry level of each bracket. IF and only IF your team wins more than loses, you will FLY through levels. The servers I have done that on seem to have about 15 minute ques, which allow me to quest in between ques. I personally do not even go in AV at the lower end of the brackets and try to DPS. you get owned and it hurts your raid more than helps.

[zenga]

This is how I've leveled my ele shaman, 3 dk + disc priest to 80 and how I'm currently lvling 2 other teams.

1) Boost BCDE through hellfire rampart with my prot paladin (account A).
2) Boost A through hellfire ramparts with my best geared elemental shaman (goes about as fast as with the tank).
3) When I I have the appropriate level, go to new zone (zang, forest, nagrand) ... go to a quest hub and pick up all quests. See which ones I can do as a team, and over the course of an hour I get a shitload of xp.
4) Keep repeating step 1/2.
5) Hit nagrand, it's boxers paradise.
At 68 i start to boost my team in UK with my tank. Account A i boost with 2 elemental shamans.

-> 6) After hitting northrend, I quest with my main, team on follow. Whenever I have to do a collection quest or something annoying to box, I only do it with the main (A). The alts get xp for killing and let me quest way faster. I haven't done a single collection quest for them.
-> 7) Keeping the 4 alts up with the main is easy once you can boost them in Drak T keep. I love that place to box.
Rinse and repeat.
8) At 73 I do the grizzly hills pvp dailies, thats about 200k+ xp per day. If you don't feel like playing them, just do those, takes 20 minutes and you gain a level per week (+ nice gold).
At 77 i don't do icecrown, but stick with stormpeaks. With some bg's you can do the 77-80 in no time.
9) sometimes I do half an hour of aoe boosting in northrend, on the (fallen?) heroes in the valley. but that's sometimes not working due to the phasing

[valkry]

Mix it up, wait for the BG weekends and do some lvling in there. Wins are awesome xp.

But yea, I also do all the quest hubs and just skip the collection quests. Instances to fill in the rest of the xp.

[ferretb]

How fast is boosting? I find with questing I make a level every couple hours from 60-70 and then in Northrend it slows down dramatically (a level every 6 hours or so). What's the levelling speed with boosting?

[zenga]

I believe it took me 6/7 runs through drakton keep to gain a level (rested + heirlooms). It's a very short instance, with easy trash packs. I'd say about 1,5-2 realistic hours per level. I did it with a full T10 geared paladin that didn't need any healing, my slaves where 3 dk's actively dpsing with IWT & simple blood castsequence and my priest was occasionally spamming his groupheal + holy nova.

[Kalyse]

Nice contributions so far.

I currently have 3 teams of 60 that I need to level and anticipate I will have 8x 5 groups of 60 that I need leveling up. I would really appreciate some indepth guides on the best ways to go about speed leveling them.

I can rotate them if possible to maximise rested efficiency... or I can do BCDE then A boost... I just dont know the best ways.

Zenga's post has been the most useful. Paths and zones to stay in and avoid would also be very helpful.

Thanks.

[suicidesspyder]

Yea collection quests do suck but you know what. I still do them why cause i can one shot nething so its not a problem. By the time a solo person kills 1 ive killed 4. So to me im getting more exp faster as it is. Say im rested all the way to 80 atm.

I kille 4 thats 2k-2500 exp just killing they get 800 solo. So per time im making off with over a 1k exp more then them, So its not really a grind to me yea it gets redundent but meh.

Just suck it up grin and bear it and think yea it doesnt seem like much but your making more gold and exp in the long run, Plus at 78 mix in pvp and deff wg at least once a week for the dailies a nice extra 150k exp is nice.

[nauren01]

thanks for the replies - I guess I will try the quest hubbing thing, just bought flying mounts for all...

burning crusade quests have not many optional routes, so I will have to watch TV on the side, but I didn't do any questing in northend yet (only leveled through inis), so that might actually be fun again

and like suggested: I will just take it easy and mix it up a bit - that might actually be the best survivial trick :)

[blast3r]

Well yea, thats true, i just suck it up and watch a episode of some gay show while grinding :P(i try and skip most of them, but as you said some are in chains and are nice if you get done) it comes down to how much you can/like to grind, if you have a Tank/heal in the team you could go instances but thats just as boring as collection quests.. after 2 clears or so hehe..

You like to watch 'gay shows'? Which 'gay shows'?

[zenga]

You like to watch 'gay shows'? Which 'gay shows'?

This reminds me to a few years ago, when I got myself a digital TV decoder. It comes with all kind of paid services (channels), but the first 4 weeks you get everything for free, as a teaser, like 300 channels. Upon installation you get to scan/initialize all the channels, happens auto but takes ages. After waiting 10 minutes I went upstairs to do some work. Forgot about the decoder and 2 hours later I return downstairs to check. Now it was dark outside, and my curtains where still open, so everyone that walked by had a pretty view into my livingroom and my tv.

It turns out that the scan was finished, and paused at the last channel it discovered: some heavy (at least in my book) gay porn paid channel. So everyone who walked by for about 1,5 hour could enjoy that show. Nothing against gay people, it's just that I have a gf. Then again, I wasn't too worried about ppl that walked by ... if the grandmother of my girlfriend back then wasn't living across the street and has a pretty view into my living room. Got a couple of strange looks the next day from neighbors when I was walking with my gf on the street....

[outdrsyguy1]

that's hilarious zenga :P

[riffraff]

I'm finishing up team 5. 1st team was shamans which let me do 60-68 on each of the other teams using the totem-pet technique on the rhinos.

So 60-68 Rhinos in northrend, seperating into 2 teams (1 team of 2, 1 team of 3)
68-80 Questing.

I don't do any dungeons but Drak Keep sounds like a good idea actually.
I don't like BG's but they work well from what I hear.

The collection quests while questing are brutal, I try to avoid them if possible of course.
68-72 - Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord, avoiding some quest lines.
72-74 - Dragonblight almost all the quests here.
74-76 - Grizzly Hills and part of Zul Drak (OMG Pa'Troll)
76-77 - Sholazar Basin (as soon as you hit 76 .. come here. You will hit 77 before you are done with zone)
77-80 - Storm Peaks / Icecrown.

I want all of my guys in the same phases in Storm Peaks and Icecrown so I do pretty much every quest in these zones to clean them out.

This is probably not the absolute best way to level but so far it's worked for me. 74-76 is the worst stretch IMHO.

[Kalyse]

I'm finishing up team 5. 1st team was shamans which let me do 60-68 on each of the other teams using the totem-pet technique on the rhinos.

.

What is the totem pet-technique?

[Ualaa]

Basically you need those who are boosted to be in a group, solo does not work. When I did this, I used two toons being boosted by three toons doing the boosting.

The boosters have to be pet classes or shamans (as totems count as pets).

If pets deal all of your damage, then you take no experience from a group. However, if your pet does 95% of the damage with a solo character doing the damage first, the solo only gets 5% of the experience.

So the process is like this:
a) Group your boosting toons together, slave following leader.
b) Group your boosters together, all following the leader.
c) Round up a lot of rhinos, with the lead booster (AoE class works great).
d) Have the pet classes kill the mobs with their pets only.
e) Receive exp on anything you managed to hit, with the boosting classes.

I had all three shammies drop Magma Totems, with the Stoneclaw (Taunt + Stun) totem on round-robin. So press 1, was Stoneclaw (A) and 3x Magma. And press 2, was Stoneclaw (B) and 3x Magma.

It helps to take your AoE (being boosted) toon to the Auction House, and buy every +Stamina piece you can find.

[riffraff]

Yep.. Ualaa's technique here works very well. The rhino meat was a good bonus as it sells well (not so much now that the expansion is almost here) I have about 400 stacks of rhino meat right now lol.

These toons I used for the initial AoE damage:
Paladin - Concecration
Druid - Hurricane
Hunter - Explosive trap (damage cannot "miss")
Priest - Holy Nova
Mage - Arcane Nova

Also, I would not do very big pulls. The rhinos come in packs of 5 with the odd aggressive grey one. I'd try to get these 5 or 6, then drop the stoneclaw, then use my aoe damage. The idea was to not take so much damage on the toons doing the aoe.

[nauren01]

I just realized I was trapped in 5box thinking - there are more options for a 10box !

The pet methods becomes 5 boosters + 5 being boosted, not 2+3 :)

this makes me wonder if a low level 10man raid is a good option, e.g. Kara - the 5box 80 team kills, the rest just sits and watches...

that would be good for 10box training on the side as well - ui, I am getting exited now, need to try out quickly

[Kalyse]

What level are you boostees 60-68 right? And the boosters are 80?

[nauren01]

What level are you boostees 60-68 right? And the boosters are 80?

exaclty - it is the team in my sig, will post results tonight

[Ualaa]

While a 10-box will work wonders, I'm sure, a raid is not the best place as experience is very much reduced in a raid.

[d0z3rr]

I am still working on my second team to get my 10box to 80.

Boosting 1-60 was a breeze, prot pala mania, only limit is 5 inis/hr, /played: 23hr total, really enjoyed it

Then comes 60-65: RAF gone, no more pulls >20 mobs, rested xp becomes really relevant, xp/hr down to 2-3 hrs per level (ramparts, then utgarde).

I even started leveling fishing and cooking to 450 on my main to get distraction - even fishing seems more fun... I might even consider questing, that is how desparate I am now :)

How do you deal with the 60-80 grind after having brought your first team to 80 ? Some of the seniors here have 4-5 teams, any Über-Tips ?

60-70 is actually very quick, and you make ok gold too. I remember one team I got from 60-70 in exactly one week, all I did was quest, and you can completely skip every collection quest. But 70-80....oy ve.

[kate]

Well yea, thats true, i just suck it up and watch a episode of some gay show while grinding :P(

Queer as Folk was dumber, but more entertaining than The L Word, IMO, and I guess technically Project Runway would qualify, but usually I don't try to figure out the orientation of my television - I wouldn't even know what criteria to use, really! But to each their own, and it's cool that you feel free being out and proud like that!, and while your orientation isn't really relevant to the content of the site, I sincerely hope that you find this to be a safe space.

To the topic: My way to survive, really, is to have entertaining people in my guild and to chat with them while I blow stuff up in game. Also, I really do watch science shows etc. - the one with Morgan Freeman narrating got me through most of Outlands. Ripping through the entire final season of LOST got me halfway from 70 to 80, etc.

If you just want to mix it up in game, do regular quests, maybe mix in some collection quests as grinding sessions, etc. Or level two teams at once letting one team gain rest xp while you work on the other, etc.

[Holmeser]

I assume ZooljinX meant to use it in a derogatory way, as in gay meaning crap tv?
Just my thoughts

[kate]

Edit: I couldn't say anything nice, so I'm not saying anything.

[nauren01]

For the records: I tested the pet method with 4x 80 shamy and 4x65 mixed group.

The shamies burn down the rhinos in two ticks of their totem, you have to be fast to do damage on the lowbies. Just one needs to succeed, but having all try increases the chance a lot. The only limiting factor seems to be how fast you can get to the next rhino group or get respawns.

I ended up with about 50% more xp/h compared to ini boosting with a 80 pala. So yes, much faster, but it still depends on rested xp (without rested xp, questing is faster) and you start dreaming of rhinos at night.

so to summarize: as suggested by many - mixing all methods is more fun and best xp :)

[Kalyse]

Thanks nauren01.
So if I was to do it with level 80 Shamans, I would do:

2 Shamans, 3 Boostees
3 Shamans, 2 boostees.

It probably seems better then, just to stick with instances on 5 characters, since the time it takes to do this process twice, would exceed the lower Xp of just instance questing.

[kate]

What about doing the whole "camp out by Freya in Sholazar and slaughter the instantly respawning undead" option? I'm sure that there's a way to turn that to an advantage for boxers, and it also makes it easy because there'd be no real competition, since those things come back immediately.

[Kalyse]

Are they summoned? You no longer get XP from summoned mobs any more. I don't know who Freya is... so I may be wrong that they are summoned.

[zenga]

if that is the quest where you have to go up on the mountain in some sort of vehicle/giant ... those mobs don't yield xp if you kill them the normal way

[Buetzel]

i think kate meant the mobs around freya a little southwest to the avalanche with the giant-riding-quest.
directly around freya a lot of undeads spawn. but I'm at a loss if those yield xp....
afair those mobs are not summoned (at least there is no npc summoning them) - they just crawl out of the ground real fast to attack freya.... if that worked it would be the perfect continuation of valgarde keep (for alliance)... hm. gotta try that when my third team hits that level range...

[kate]

Yes, the ones right by Freya. I know they yield xp because I sat there for 2 hours with my DK grinding my last level on them.

[Ualaa]

When I did the Rhino slaying, I used a Mage/Druid and 3x Shamans. The Mage would run around and Arcane Explosion for quite a while, I think one of the shammies did Earth Shield on the mage too.

Then have the totems slaughter a lot of the rhinos at once.

Was not much of an issue in having the lowbies need to hit mobs quickly, as the killing totems were not dropped until I had gathered a bunch of the mobs up.

Incidentally, it was the quickest I've ever burnt through full rested with toons, 1.5 levels of rested in just under 20 minutes. I initially gathered a lot of the rhino meat, and had my auction toon (via Quick Auctions) keep 5 stacks of meat (whatever number the cooking daily requires) up at all times. I sold the meat for 1g each, and it took several months to sell it all.

[nauren01]

Final report

Here are my rates, all at least after 1h played (don't get fooled by the xp spikes....) and without rested xp:

# Method _____________Team ________________xp/hr @ 68 _____Gold________Feeling__________________________ _____________
1) Rhino Mania_________4 Shamy 4 Bostees______250.000 xp/hr___ low_________Rhino nightmares, need therapy, all the little calves...
2) Utgard ini boosting: ___1 pala 4 Boostes________200.000 xp/hr___medium _____Utgard phobia, see doctor soon
3) Questing: ___________4 Bostees_____________180.000 xp/hr___good________ok, at least a change from time to time
4) Raiding Kara: ________10box with 5 Boostees____59.000 xp/hr___great________exiting, this is WoW at its best

Seems well balanced againt the criteria, I guess that is how the blues intended it.

PS: Kara was like therapy - highly recommended if your past exposure was PuGs back in the BC times...

Edit: need to learn html.... spacing is for pros :)