Reputation Gains when Leveling in Dungeons

Hey all,

I'm planning 5box a party and level almost exclusively in dungeons on classic release. Dungeons have always been my favorite content, and I see it as the most efficient way to get the 3-4 classes I want for end-game, and to support my end-game farming and non-raiding/PVP goals.

I plan to do almost-all dungeon-quests and run dungeons repeatedly. But I'd consider the alternatives of doing each dungeon only once or twice, or the other extreme of skipping dungeons quests with any pre-requisite quests.

For those who have leveled primarily in dungeons before, what's your experience with factors other than leveling speed?
1. Did you find it a pain to hit honored faction rep for discount on mount purchase and repairs?
2. Did you find you fell behind on gathering professions?
3. Did travel to dungeons and for gathering dungeon quests get you a robust network of flight-paths or did catching up on that take additional effort?

Are there any other 'secondary' considerations to make sure to consider when making this choice?
What are some recommended ways to overcome these secondary downsides?

In the end, do you recommend a mix of dungeons and quests (i.e. quests beyond pre-reqs for dungeon quests), dungeons only, or something else?

Thanks!

The worthwhile dungeon quests back in vanilla usually required a long quest chain within the outer zone to be done before getting the main dungeon quests.

As far as i remember, the only rep you could get from dungeons in vanilla was from the quests, few and far between, so it wasnt farmable. Yoou're gonna get to know your cloth quartermaster pretty well in classic.

1. getting honored is easy since the starter zone quests give a lot of rep to get you started. Even if you start as say troll, it is so worth going to the orc starter area later and doing all the quests for the rep.

2. there's a lot of gathering to be done in dungeons, much better quality if not quantity.

3. quest hubs generally lead you to new hubs and flightpaths, so i dont think either leveling path will have an advantage over the other in terms of flightpaths. You may be exposed in enemy territory more often than a quester though.

My opinion is that dungeon grinding is much slower than questing, but it has it's benefits. You'll be much better geared. You'll make much much more gold. It's better suited for a boxer and the repetitious grinding can be more comfortable. You're mostly safe from griefers.. Lastly, barring the lockout timers, it's not so slow that it's not worth it.

you realize that in classic you have to walk to each dungeon and that the mobs don’t scale, so a dungeon starts “too hard” and then you out level it and get little xp per pack once it becomes easier ? so all in all not a likely fast leveling?

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Originally Posted by Moorea

you realize that in classic you have to walk to each dungeon and that the mobs don’t scale, so a dungeon starts “too hard” and then you out level it and get little xp per pack once it becomes easier ? so all in all not a likely fast leveling?

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This is not true at all.

XP/Hour grinding is faster than questing as a boxer since many quests can take hours to complete on 5 characters.

Gathering the important quests (the ones that reward worthwhile gear upgrades for you) for a dungeon then grinding that dungeon until you're high enough for the next (or you have all the upgrades you want) is probably the most efficient way to level as a boxer in vanilla, outside of boosting with a high level alt. It's fast, it keeps your characters very well geared and it earns you a lot more gold than questing.

A level 26 dungeon quest awards 2650XP. A level 26 elite mob awards 110XP in a party of 5 level 26 characters. That means it takes roughly 25 mobs to grind the same amount of XP as a dungeon quest, which award more XP than standard quests. Being very conservative, if we assume mobs in groups of 3, 9 pulls and roughly 120 seconds to kill each group, that's less than 20 minutes of grinding. I guarantee you won't be able to consistently complete a quest every 20 minutes in the open world. Especially with competition from other players, being ganked and having to wait for object respawns, etc.

You do more/take less damage from green mobs so it becomes significantly faster XP/hour which offsets the slight reduction individual XP per mob. The higher level your team gets and the more skills/gear you have access to, the faster you can cleave through trash.

I will admit it can be boring just grinding dungeons non-stop though. Then again, so can being ganked by higher level characters or spending 2 hours trying to collect 75 bunny claws individually on 5 characters.

I plan on doing 90% dungeons once I hit 19 or so (horde side) to 60. But this is only when the servers are fresh (1-4 months). I assume that the servers will be jam packed with people farming single mobs so it may be a smoother time just to do dungeons if you are not leading everyone in levels.

The only time I plan on doing quests after 19 and outside of dungeons is if its 'right there' and easily farmable...for example, quests that are geared for groups will more than likely be less populated.

Gathering to me is a 'ill get it when I get it' kind of rule when grinding. Even though you can get 300 herb/mining while leveling, I find it very beneficial to just level as it takes too much effort until you get a mount. Sure, its great to gather things while you level IF its nearby, but I certainly wont go out of my way to collect something when the XP is flying.

Is there an elite grinding route/guide out there for Classic? I recall looking for this awhile back to supplement group leveling but didn't find much.

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Originally Posted by Morganti

Is there an elite grinding route/guide out there for Classic? I recall looking for this awhile back to supplement group leveling but didn't find much.

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Not really. I just go wherever drops the best loot and is an appropriate level for my characters.

I only bother collecting quests for a dungeon if it rewards an item I want or if the quest is easy to get. A lot of them have huge quest chains that involve running around to multiple continents and then running/flying back to the quest giver again to turn the quest in. It's just not worth the time. If it takes you half an hour to run somewhere and get a quest, you could have grinded mobs for another 30 minutes and earned more XP anyway.

It's a very good idea to have a look at preraid BiS lists before you start grinding so you have an idea where you want to go at what level. For warriors, there are some items that are BiS from 40-50 dungeons like Thrash Blade and Blackstone Ring from Maraudon or Ironfoe and Hand of Justice from the emperor in BRD. Since you'll want these items anyway, you might as well start farming them while you're gaining XP and kill two birds with one stone.

https://vanilla-wow.fandom.com/wiki/Instances_by_level

why 19 for horde? in classic what level is rfc?

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Originally Posted by Moorea

why 19 for horde? in classic what level is rfc?

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I think the lowest you could walk in was level 8 or 10. The mobs average around level 15. You could form a raid and clear it in vanilla but i dont know if that will still be in classic. I wouldnt stay in RFC beyond level 17, since the other dungeons are available at that level.