Some levelling questions.. This time in the right place. :)

[gbremset]

so.. I started my first 5 man team yesterday, after dual boxing in a few different ways for the last year or so.

However, I found the starting quests to be a pain, with all the gathering and looting etc.. Is this something that will improve as I move along?

Is there a guide somewhere to quests that doesn't require me to loot 20 million items from a certain type of mobs? I must have killed 200 boars in Elwynn Forest yesterday to get all my meat for the pie. :P (I am currently running with 3 trials, so I couldn't loot with one and trade)

Any suggestions to what areas have the most "doable" quests?

--Gizmo--

[OzPhoenix]

Ok - well, first up, your starting zone. I level predominantly Horde so that's what I'll talk about it.

Some zones are better than others, I've found Undead is best, Tauren is worst. Where ever you start, I'd suggest for the first 10 levels you just suck it up and do the collection quests anyway - I levelled Tauren and they were terrible - but the upside is it won't take that long.

As you level higher and higher, you can become much more selective about collection quests. From level 30 onwards you should have at least one other zone to choose from for questing as Blizzard has up'd the XP rate for 1-60 (and probably will again after WotLK). By the time I was level 30..35, I was skipping all collection quests unless there was a good reason to do them.

I'd suggest having Wowhead or some other resource close to hand. If you get a quest, look it up, check for follow-on quests, good quest rewards, good xp or high drop rates, or anything else that might tempt you into a collection quest. If you don't find that, and your quest log has the room, leave it there, you might find you half complete it anyway while slicing through the kill quests like a knife through butter.

By the time you're level 40, things are just sweet - there are multiple zones just bursting with virtually all kill quests - all of them easily multiboxed too - and you'll find you'll speed right along from 40 to 60.

Also - jump into Outlands @ 58. Don't wait till 60, it's way faster in Outlands even just grinding mobs (as you may want to do for rep).

Beyond that, personally, I'm doing EVERY Outland quest. Most are kill quests anyway, and those that aren't I do because I want to hit 70 with as many quests/zones left over to do as possible in order to save up for my 5 x Epic Flyers (all mine for just 26,000gold...lol).

Hope this helps.

[Hokusai]

There seem to be a few schools of thought to this, some believe in questing and grinding as you would do normally, but skipping collection quests (some may be necessary for a particular item or quest chain however), the other spends all their time in instances grinding away, the advantage is you get to see how your characters work in an instance and you get some decent gear along the way. It may also be easier to level your chars up a bit individually at first then group them up, but I am not sure it makes a huge difference one way or another.

The best place to look for more info would be in the wiki though.

[gbremset]

Epic reply.. Thanks.. :)

I play alliance, but I guess it's the same.. When I did the starter quests in Elwynn forest yesterday, I got a little discouraged, hence the reason for the thread. :P
First I was asked to gather 5 wolf mean (ok.. so that was cool), then came 12 bandanas (Not so cool), this was then followed by another gathering quest, and then as soon as I hit goldshire, I got 2 more. :P

But as you say, I'll just bite the pain for now, and see what happens when I get somewhere else.. :)

[OzPhoenix]

Epic reply.. Thanks.. :)

I play alliance, but I guess it's the same.. When I did the starter quests in Elwynn forest yesterday, I got a little discouraged, hence the reason for the thread. :P
First I was asked to gather 5 wolf mean (ok.. so that was cool), then came 12 bandanas (Not so cool), this was then followed by another gathering quest, and then as soon as I hit goldshire, I got 2 more. :P

But as you say, I'll just bite the pain for now, and see what happens when I get somewhere else.. :)

I've levelled 3 Alliance characters (solo, not boxed) and I can safely say it does get better. The basic jist is the higher you go, the more options you have, allowing you to make the choice, rather than a lack of options make it for you.

Also as Hokusai points out, mine is just one school of thought, and as they also mention, you'll want to pay attention to dungeons, and not only from a levelling perspective but it's easier to get used to boxing in Deadmines than it would be in Ramparts.

[Drizzit]

You also have the option of powerleveling them with a high toon if you have one. That is what i have been doing with my toons, just powerleveling them with my rogue.
+ side:
+ You don't have to worry about marco past lvl 10 (just basic ones like follow and fire you main attack like shadow bolt or lighting bolt)
+ Don't have to worry about all the basic stuff for dual boxing
+ Level pretty quickly
+ Nice drops
+ Your basically playing one toon (park your boxing team out of mob range and attack mobs with lvl 70, when dead bring team closer and repeat)

- side:
- You can only get to about lvl 60 (Depending on who is the lvl 70 and how geared)
- You get almost no rep (not that many instance quests)
- Don't get as much money as quests
- You have to program all your macro at once instead of a little of a time
- Will have to learn how to box against mobs that hit harder

This is my first set of teams and i know that i should be questing with at least one team to learn how to box, but i am on sort of a time limit (only get to play like 2 shifts of like 1.5 hours a day, 1.5 before the wife comes home from work and 1.5 after she goes to bed). I find it easier for me to just run ZF 4 times. Don't have to worry about what quest i am on or what i have to get or do. I just park the guys right outside the instance and log in group up and fight. So outlands is going to be a huge eye opener for me lol.

[Mendicant]

IMO for Alliance, Azuremyst and Bloodmyst isles are the best place to level 1-19/20. I almost all of the collection quests there, some took forever, but my leveling time was usually about 1h20m per level in the late teens. I would highly recommend leveling there.

1. No horde
2. Centralized quest-givers
3. No quests telling you to go someplace 3 zones away.



Everyone does things a different way. I got myself boosted 20-40 in SM cath. By the end I was SO SICK of Cath, but it was definitely MUCH faster than questing, so to me it was worth it. I will say thing: horde WILL gank you. Many 70s will camp you if they meet you. More than average if you were soloing. So instances, whether you are being boosted or running them yourself, will be nice in that aspect-- no ganking.

[OzPhoenix]

but i am on sort of a time limit (only get to play like 2 shits of like 1.5 hours a day, 1.5 before the wife comes home from work and 1.5 after she goes to bed.

I'm going to take a big leap here and assume you meant to say two shiFts a day - otherwise I could only say, if you try not to hold it in so long, it probably wont take so long comin' out. 8o

[Gadaí]

Absolutely agree with Mendicant, I also found the Draenei start area more fun, better exp, better quest rewards, etc then any of the other Alliance starting areas. I will say however, that despite the fact that I play Alliance predominantly (uhm..think 13 lvl 70's on Alliance once I finish levelling my current team - Emeriss EU) the best newbie area bar none is the blood elf - great backstory, great quests, scary elites, great surroundings.

[blast3r]

I finally made level 12 myself and hate the slowness up to that point! I only do the collection quests if the reward is good equipment for my team or I may take it for just my main to get just a bit ahead on XP of my team (holding aggro, etc). One thing I found out during the last couple of days is if I go to new areas (even if they are a bit higher level) there is usually one or two quests on a bulleting board thingy where you have to kill some high level MOB and the XP is good and the equipment is WAY better than what your level usually should be able to use. If the quest is available to you then you can equip the rewards!

So, I basically move to as many different locations as I can. Right now I can't wait to get a couple of more levels so I can start doing instances.

[Drizzit]

I'm going to take a big leap here and assume you meant to say two shiFts a day - otherwise I could only say, if you try not to hold it in so long, it probably wont take so long comin' out.

That is why they have laptops lol :P

[blast3r]

Absolutely agree with Mendicant, I also found the Draenei start area more fun, better exp, better quest rewards, etc then any of the other Alliance starting areas. I will say however, that despite the fact that I play Alliance predominantly (uhm..think 13 lvl 70's on Alliance once I finish levelling my current team - Emeriss EU) the best newbie area bar none is the blood elf - great backstory, great quests, scary elites, great surroundings.I ran into a couple of 17 elites in blood elf territory that were unbelieveably easy to kill. I was like level 9 and dropped them without too much trouble. Kind of weird, actually.

[Old Dirty Bathtub]

IMO for Alliance, Azuremyst and Bloodmyst isles are the best place to level 1-19/20. I almost all of the collection quests there, some took forever, but my leveling time was usually about 1h20m per level in the late teens. I would highly recommend leveling there.Another vote for Azuremyst/Bloodmyst. I level all of my toons there; the density and layout of the quests is infinitely better than any of the other Alliance starting areas. These zones also seem to me to have a lot more mining & herbing nodes thn the other areas. Your first 40-50 points in cooking are also essentially given to you when you level here.

If you are boxing or getting boosted there may be a little gap between finishing up the Azuremyst quest lines and being able to start the Bloodmyst queats, but this is usually only about half a level or so.

[-silencer-]

Your first 40-50 points in cooking are also essentially given to you when you level here.

This is true anywhere. Train cooking. Buy 40 flour & 40 mild spices. Make 40 spiced bread. Cost is around 2s and cooking will be right around 40 for 1 minute of work.

[Sarduci]

I was lvl 20 before I left Bloodmyst. Easiest starting area by far.

[Coltimar]

My $.02 about outland. What I did with my last 2 70's (I leveled 8 before I tried this) is skipped all of the outlands quests to start with. At 58 I went straight to Ramparts until 60 then I started Blood Furnace till 62. Why? I hit honored with Honor Hold without doing any quests (I did do the ones for the instances I think), and I had all of the gear I wanted from the instances, and was level 62 when I started the quests. Then I only did the easy quests, the ones I could do without a lot of running around.

Then I went to Zang and did the same thing. In doing this, I was able to skip 90% of Blades Edge (I'm getting to why), and 90% of Terrokar. I went to Nagrand at 64 and did all of those quests and started MT and AC. From Nagrand I went to Netherstorm, did 6 quests in town and all of the ones in the south (the undead area) then went to SMV to go from 69 to 70.

Once I hit 70 I bought a flying mount and went back to Hellfire. I did all of the quests I skipped in very little time. I kill everything quicker, I got more gold for the quests, I didn't need the gear they gave (both were enchanters and DE'd it all) and I could fly from one to the next. I did this in Zang, Blades Edge and Terrokar. I made about 800g in 2 days just doing those old quests. It took me a bit longer, I think, but it was more satisfying.

My point is, experiment. Don't marry convention, she is a bitch anyway.