What to do 68+.

[Slats]

Hi all,



Well I'm getting on to almost 19/20 days played now and I've just hit 68. I have a small section of Blades Edge Mountians left to do, leaving me Netherstorm and Shadowmoon Valley.
I am wondering if I am better off instance grinding out the last two levels? To save the zones for cash?

Any recommendations on an instance, I was thinking Sethek Halls.

My setup is Prot Pally and 4x Shadow Priests.



Any advise on where you all went at this level would be great. I have done Hellfire/Zanger/Terrokar/Nagrand/Blades Edge in their entirety minus a couple of chains and collection quests.

-Slats

[Silly Gooooose]

It really depends TBH. Do you want to farm when you get 70, or do you want to get to 70 a little faster. Though since you can do the instance all by yourself, id give instances a try. You will start your gear grind early, and save money for later.

I'm sure you've noticed but Shadow Priests are ridic. for farming, if you have spirit tap + spirit gear. So if you wanted to waste your time farming money, you could kill mobs and such easy. But meh, personally id rather farm gear and such.

I have not had my multi boxed guys to 70 yet, but as far as every alt I level to 70, I leave SMV and netherstorm so that I can get 2-3k from them when I hit 70. Then you just grind out the last 2k (easy with a farming prof. esp if your main has an epic flyer already. Should take about a week to get 2k, on 1 char anyway.)

[Boylston]

Any recommendations on an instance, I was thinking Sethek Halls.

Sethekk Halls is a really tough instance, in my opinion. The front half isn't all that bad, but there are nasty pulls near the end. There are the fearing Prophets that when killed, spawn ghosts that will work your team over (or at least require you to move all your DPSers. They come with packs of 5 elites.

Yuck Yuck.

I would run Mana Tombs as a nice warm-up at that level, and consider maybe running the first part of Shadow Labyrinth (or Auchenai Crypt) before the first bosses for XP/Lower City rep.

[Kicksome]

I remember when I was at that level - I just wanted to get to 70 ASAP. So I started the NS and SMV quests as soon as possible. It's really easy to farm gold with daily's at 70 AND there are still a TON of quests to do once you hit 70 anyway. The quickest exp is with the quests to get you to 70 and get your flying mount etc... I had 1000g+ on all my toons at 70 no problem. And that's while leveling tailoringx3, LW, enchanting, gems. Also - I farmed AV to get epic PvP gear - 4 pieces right after I hit 70 to make the instances easier.

I'm not sure what your setup is - but Mana Tombs was my first real instance that I completed. Shadow Labs is a BITCH for multi boxers - especially if you don't have 4x shamans - almost every boss fight requires you to reposition all your guys (1st boss fear, 2nd mass MC, 3rd does the summon, 4th you have to spread out and get sucked in). I'm running pally, 2xmage, priest, shaman.

[Stabface]

Sethekk is not hard if you know the pulls, I ran it over the weekend with 4x L65 elemental Shaman (dinged 66 just before last boss) and L70 protection Paladin (although the last boss was a real PITA). I also did it a long time ago in a (not-multiboxing) 5x Paladin group at L67ish. No reason it shouldn't be doable at L68 with your group. You can always just run it up to where it gets too hard, then run out and reset!

Stuff to worry about in Sethekk :

Controllers - undead, they have a mind control totem, so kill them fast or make a totem-stomp macro.

Oracles - cast chain lightning that also silences, use range or facing to keep it off your priests.

Prophets - Probably the hardest pull in here. They have a ~1s cast AoE fear, just keep your priests at range and avoid it, and you can silence / stun / fear ward it on your Paladin. On the double pulls I just burned one down at range then stun and burn the other down.

Shadowmages - undead, they have a very high dps chain nuke. Interrupt, shackle, or LOS these to get them in melee range and they are a lot easier.

Scryers - undead with a heal, not much of note really.

flying snakes - has a knockback that reduces
threat and cast some spells, tank with back to a wall and everyone else
out of range

dual wield mobs - come in pairs, enrage and hit pretty hard when you kill one so be ready for healing.

You have nice crowd control for this place, your Paladin can fear undead, your priests can shackle undead and mind control humanoids.

[Nixi]

Took me awhile, but I finally mastered Sethekk Halls.

Controllers - They do the MC, I stunned them after engaging in melee with my paladin and my DPS took them down before the Hammer of Justice wore off.

Oracles - same thing Stabface said, just keep them turned around or at a distance so the silencing chain lightning doesn't get your healer.

Prophets - These guys would constantly wipe me and make it soo hard. I ended up just killing them last because their dmg is laughable. I'd just pull to a big open area, put tremor totem down and go all out DPS on the other mobs. I'd just let my paladin get feared and run all over. Just keep the prophets away from your core group so they don't get feared. The fear the prophets use is unit based, so you can actually get out of it's range if you're moving. I didn't try to get outta it's range with my tank, i just kept it outta the range of my dps/healer. Once all the other mobs were dead and the prophets were the last ones standing, I'd dps it down to about half life, stun it, then run away with my tank while the DPS'ers toasted him. The ghost that comes out won't chase anyone if no one is standing next to it. (watch your totems). If there were 2 left, I'd kill one to the far left and out front of my DPs and then the other to the far right. You can't let them die next to your tank or your DPS/healers because they will auto agro. When they agro on your tank, they wil chase your healer as soon as a heal lands. Make sure the prophets die far enough away that the ghosts will disappear before making it to your healers! They one shot my priest over and over (only level 64/65 when i started the dungeon) until i learned to control the ghosts by positioning the death of the prophet.



There was one mob that summoned a void walker. I killed those first, followed by the mages, then the melee guys and the prophets last.

The hardest part for me was keeping my tank alive on the trash or my priest alive when things went wrong. I was 67 when I started the instance and my healer was 65. Once I finally learned to just spam heals like no tomorrow I was okay. After my guys dinged and I learned everything it became an easy instance.

Oh, the last boss wiped me constantly also. I think my first couple runs were around 2 hours each just learning everything.

The last boss has a couple of abilities that make him very difficult. The AOE arcane volley, the BIG Acane explosion with the agro dump afterwards, and the Poly. My priest was only 65 when i started this place and she kept dying because her health pool was so much lower than my other toons. After the big explosion where he teleports then retargets (seemingly randomly, i didn't use DOT's or HOT's) I'd lose my priest every time. I learned to taunt him as soon as he picks a new target after the arcane explosion. I tied my taunt key to the same button as fade, worked like a charm. Make sure your tank rebuilds agro right after teh taunt, he's building threat from 0 again.

Having two dispellers to get rid of poly is nice, so isn't having a priest for AOE healing. As far as positioning is concerned, stay close to the column, spam dispel when a guy gets sheeped and mash the follow Main button when he blinks for the explosion while running outta LOS on the other side of the column.

I tried shadow labs for the first time last night. Was maybe 2 hours or so before i killed the first boss. My toons are 68 and my healer is 66. Learning the pulls and the mobs special abilities is the hardest part. Once you get it down then it becomes a cakewalk. I think it'll take me a few more shots clearing the big demon guys with the ritualists before i learn how to seperate the pulls. There was one demon that wouldn't patrol very far away from a clumb of 3 cabalists. I can't remember having so many problems pulling it before with my old warrior (months ago), but I had issues using my pally and avengers shield. The avenger's shield slowed the ritualists and the demon would path close and agro. I ended up pulling with my mage. Lost her because of it, but oh well. I finally seperated them. I need more practice here.

[Nixi]

On topic. I'm also at 68ish and I was having the same debate. I've leveled by instancing since 35, and I was thinking about shaking things up and actually questing; doing NS for consortium rep. (5 bags of gems every month!) However, I think I'll stick to dungeon crawling. At 68 you can start doing Shadow Labs, Sethekk Halls, Shattered Halls and Steamvaults. These will all take you to exalted in their respective repuation, plus there is a shot at getting primal nethers, and pre-raid equipment.

If you're running with rested exp, at this point, just level in dungeons. If you quest you won't really capitalize on having the rested exp as much as grinding on mobs. Most quests can be done with less characters, so I do quests while i'm bored at work since my setup at work isn't able to tackle 5 copies of wow. Questing gives decent gold at 70. Questing before your rep is appropriately topped off (aka consortium rep before honored) is not as efficient as questing once you've capped rep with dungeon runs. So if you're consortium rep isn't honored from running mana tombs, then I wouldn't do Netherstorm.

[Nepida]

At 68.5 I farmed crypts for the Vitality enchant. I was 1 run away from 70 when it dropped I think -_-. I'm just glad I farmed when I was getting XP :)

[thinus]

NVM

[Toned]

I remember when I was at that level - I just wanted to get to 70 ASAP. So I started the NS and SMV quests as soon as possible. It's really easy to farm gold with daily's at 70 AND there are still a TON of quests to do once you hit 70 anyway. The quickest exp is with the quests to get you to 70 and get your flying mount etc... I had 1000g+ on all my toons at 70 no problem. And that's while leveling tailoringx3, LW, enchanting, gems. Also - I farmed AV to get epic PvP gear - 4 pieces right after I hit 70 to make the instances easier.

I'm not sure what your setup is - but Mana Tombs was my first real instance that I completed. Shadow Labs is a BITCH for multi boxers - especially if you don't have 4x shamans - almost every boss fight requires you to reposition all your guys (1st boss fear, 2nd mass MC, 3rd does the summon, 4th you have to spread out and get sucked in). I'm running pally, 2xmage, priest, shaman.

You don't even really have to heal on last boss if you do it right... burst him down and move behind the pillar. Fight close to a pillar and just kite him around it inbetween his aoe's. You may have to heal a little bit after he aoes because of the aoe arcane bolts. I grinded 66-70 in sethekk halls and then finished off exalted for the hammers in shadow labs soon as I hit 70.