Move to Northrend at 68?

I asked the same question of this community six weeks ago and hit Northrend as freshly minted 68's (four of me that is, my "main" was halfway through 70).

I've done almost enough quests in BT to get the achievement and have about half that many quests done in Howling Fjord. My team is 72.5 now (main is 74.5). I have yet to do a quest in Northrend other than those two starting zones. I've done a little bit of the two initial instances, but just recently.

I think I skipped one or two collection quests only because they didn't lead to anything. So far I have been AMAZED at how UNPAINFUL the collection quests have been as a five boxer. Mobs spawn fast, generally drop whatever the quest item is and if its a ground item collection, the items seem to be plentiful. This may change as I move beyond the starting zones, but so far its been much better than waiting and doing Outlands. To be honest, the ratio of hard collection quest seem to be on par or even a bit EASIER than what I recall of level 68 - 70 zones in Outlands.

YMMV

It really stays like that. Yes, collection quests x5 still suck, but honestly they're far less painful than collection quests in BC were - the drop rate is definitely better and theres not usually a large distance between mobs.

Some collection quests are ok some really suck. There are just A LOT of them. HF and BT weren't that bad. Personally, I think some of the worst ones are in later zones. I am currently doing the quests in Zul'Drak....some of the collection quests (which is many of the quests available) have been the worst yet for me. I just spent 2 hours doing only a handful of quests since the drop rates were so bleh. Goes with the territory I guess.

The quests where you complete the quest on all five toons makes up for some of the pain.

I have skipped a TON of collection quests and just finished HF and BT at 72+ on all characters. Now I started at 69 and have done 2 instances from start to finish (nexus and UK), but it seems to have not screwed me up. The only collection quests I am not skipping are the Wrathgate ones, since the story is so epic and you get the achievement =)

I'm gonna mix it up. First team i jumped there the second after dinging 68, and leveled to 70 quickly. I had a paladin waiting at 70 so i ditched a mage, and started with my new 5 man team. My second team is going to go at 70, just so I can skip a feq early collection quests and get to the next zone quicker. I like doing it differently, makes it less monotonous. I did the same in outland, from 60-70 on a couple teams, one hitting instances hard to skip some content i didnt want to do that I did on the other team just previously. I might even keep my druid team in outland (farming cenarion rep for Earthwarden) until I hit 71-72, just 'cause.

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Originally Posted by 'heffner',index.php?page=Thread&postID=172429#post 172429

Some collection quests are ok some really suck. There are just A LOT of them. HF and BT weren't that bad. Personally, I think some of the worst ones are in later zones. I am currently doing the quests in Zul'Drak....some of the collection quests (which is many of the quests available) have been the worst yet for me. I just spent 2 hours doing only a handful of quests since the drop rates were so bleh. Goes with the territory I guess.

The quests where you complete the quest on all five toons makes up for some of the pain.

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Zul'Drak is the main reason I waited until 70 to hit Northrend on this group, unless you want to do a couple of the more painful collection quests in the expac you will miss a few quest chains in this zone. Zul'Drak slowed me down quite a bit on my first 5 man team.

I just finished the second starting zone 3 quests short of dinging 74, took me about 2 minutes once I arrived in Dragonsblight. Dinged, got the FP, set hearth and all that before going to train so it was real smooth. I have a half level of rest xp at this point as well. I should be able to be extremely picky about which quests I do the rest of the way ;)

I discovered that if I drink, Zul'drak isn't that bad. Finally made it through. Finished all the quests. The zone is fairly easy overall, but there were so many collection quests. I actually think almost every single quest was a collection quest, at least in the "second half". I highly recommended drinking if you plan on hitting Zul'Drek :P