Leveling 80-85 methods

So I'm pretty much done with questing, one for reasons of which we are all painfully aware, and two because xrealm zones have made Cata leveling spots a warzone - expect to be ganked relentlessly and camped.

My three ideas were dungeon boosting, AV/IOC esp. during CTA, dungeon boosting with a 90 tank, or the deepholm AOE spot. I went with the last. My experience there was excellent and I don't know if there's a faster way:

Deepholm AOE
This spot is excellent assuming you can get it to yourself (1 or less other 90s grinding it, no gankers). With xrealm zones this is going to require off hours or just getting lucky. My initial concern with this was not having the 3k'ish gold per toon after questing but this spot yields several thousand gold per hour with potion of treasure finding so it works out anyway.

Since there's no HGWT and I have no warlocks, I just summoned the toons to Stonecore and flew there.

I was using a 90 guardian druid to boost four toons. Times were as follows:
80-81: 30-40 minutes (rested), with a few other 90s hogging my mobs
81-82: 1hr 15 minutes (half rested), again 90s hogging mobs and several ganks on my alts
82-83: 2 hours (non rested), first half of level I was ganked at least a dozen times and lots of 90s farming there, second half I had it to myself.

I expect 83-84 to take about 1.5 hours if I can get it to myself. XP per kill goes up each level since the gap is closing. I'm working on perfecting the pull; I'm having problems with mobs evading and tethering back in the middle of me actively hitting them. Right now I do kind of a figure eight around the whole thing and put the guild banner in the middle so as to not lose range (it disappears).

It appears makes zero difference whether the alts participate or do damage, xp was the same so I had them fly above.

Ganking is not nearly as bad as leveling, but it happens. I was air ganked constantly by shadow priests and mages floating down, no matter where I put the alts they would get to them.

If I recall correctly, questing was 2.5-4 hours per level Before xrealm zone mass ganking, as I did on my shaman.

So far this is the fastest way I have found to get 80-85, by a huge margin.

Anyone tried any other methods besides questing and had good results? I figure a lot of us will be doing this several times...

So 4 low levels being boosted by a 90 right? I am about to level a rog..priest, warrior and hunter, so this sounds great. One question I have is.. was the tank necessary? Could a 90 mage do it? Hes my only tailor.. so the extra cloth would be great ( for making 22 slot bags )

Don't forget, with CRZ, the highest level can pull the other toons to another server. Consider getting an 85-90 on a pve realm if you want to quest.

If they're equal level, and the party leader is on another (PvE) server...
Can they invite toons from a (PvP) server, and have everyone on quest in a PvE environment?
$25 (or so), each way... for gank free questing.
Which is still questing to level...



Since you were 90th at the location, and there were other 90's competing both for mobs and for ganking your toons...
This would likely not be a good spot for a team without a 90 booster.
Is that a correct assessment?



Instance leveling will be a decent option... even if its Stormstout trash farming... if you can use the dungeon finder.
But if your composition is 5x Shaman or a DK with 4x non-Healer spec DPS, you'll need to physically be there and will be subject to 5 instances an hour.



If you (or your composition) sucks at PvP, or without out-gearing the composition the 10-man battlegrounds are rough...
How is the experience from Random Battlegrounds, while losing.... (SotA, WSG, Gilneas, etc)?
How is the experience while winning half the games, for the larger battlegrounds like AV/IoC (Call to Arms, vs non-CtA)?
Did they implement the ability to never get two battlegrounds of your choice?

I suggest going pve realm, because on mine this area is camped 24/7 by farmers, of course from the opposite faction.

There are a LOT of places those troggs are on almost insta spawn than on that ledge where they get knocked down by the rock monsters. I always ground on the other side of the zone where they are attacking the stone dwarfs.

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Originally Posted by Lyonheart

So 4 low levels being boosted by a 90 right?One question I have is.. was the tank necessary?

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Yes. No, tank is not necessary - I saw UH DK, Fury Warriors, Warlocks, etc. As a tank you will stay topped off the whole time; I did notice other non-plate non-tank classes getting pretty beat up during big pulls, however they kill faster.

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Originally Posted by Ualaa

Since you were 90th at the location, and there were other 90's competing both for mobs and for ganking your toons...This would likely not be a good spot for a team without a 90 booster.
Is that a correct assessment?

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Well, people usually played nice with the booster, it was the afk alts they loved to gank. My 90 druid was killed maybe twice, my alts 12+ times probably. You can definitely do the pull with much less than a 90, it's a little slower. However the times I shared the farming spot with alliance, they mostly left me alone, I'm not sure they would do that if it were a <90. They love the easy kill.

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Originally Posted by Ualaa

If you (or your composition) sucks at PvP, or without out-gearing the composition the 10-man battlegrounds are rough...
How is the experience from Random Battlegrounds, while losing.... (SotA, WSG, Gilneas, etc)?
How is the experience while winning half the games, for the larger battlegrounds like AV/IoC (Call to Arms, vs non-CtA)?

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The experience is awful. It's maybe 0.25-.5 bars for a loss, 1-2.5 bars for a win depending on the size of the BG.
Larger BGs during CTA are about 1 bar a loss, 3-4 bars a win. So it's slower than molasses. Could take 6-10 hours per level even in the 80s. AV/IOC week would be a bit faster, but you've gotta wait for that (next one is in December I think). Whereas, the troggs or dungeons are always there. I don't like having to wait for a CTA to level/gear up/etc.

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Originally Posted by Multibocks

I suggest going pve realm, because on mine this area is camped 24/7 by farmers, of course from the opposite faction.

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I guess if you really want to level through the 80s fast, and especially if you're doing multiple teams - could definitely be worth putting a 90ish booster on a PVE realm temporarily.

What is this xrealm ganking you speak of? I have not played wow since cata.

They implemented something called CRZ's (Cross Realm Zones).

Similar to when you're in a battlegrounds, where someone's name has an asterisk next to it indicating they're from another server.
Basically, everywhere except the main cities (or maybe there too, not positive on that), if a zone is not populated enough you get players from more than one server.

The idea being, none of the zones are dead.
And in the case of a PvP server, the sides will be roughly equal in numbers at least.

You're in a zone with people from the same region type: PvP, PvE or Roleplaying servers.

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Originally Posted by Ualaa

If they're equal level, and the party leader is on another (PvE) server...
Can they invite toons from a (PvP) server, and have everyone on quest in a PvE environment?

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I am on a pve server, and my friend is on a pvp server. She was slow to level in pandaland and had me invite her to a group so she could quest on my pve realm as she was getting constantly ganked in the Jade Forest.

Note the toon I invited her with had to be online, as soon as I went offline she got booted back to Frostmorne and a bunch of waiting gankers:(

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Originally Posted by Mickthathick

I am on a pve server, and my friend is on a pvp server. She was slow to level in pandaland and had me invite her to a group so she could quest on my pve realm as she was getting constantly ganked in the Jade Forest.

Note the toon I invited her with had to be online, as soon as I went offline she got booted back to Frostmorne and a bunch of waiting gankers:(

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It was my understanding CRZs don't work in Pandaria yet

It's not automatic like low level zones, but you can still get into CRZ by invite in Pandaria.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/6759325907

I finished it up last night. That area worked out extremely well - unrested 84-85 took me about 2 hours 15 minutes. I found a spot in a rock where the alts could hide pretty well (no air ganking, no los from anywhere unless you land in the spot and just aoe). When there was competition I just kept pulling, trying to tag mobs faster and I noticed people would just start leaving. Others would sit in one place and just farm there (the troggs spawn in about 9 locations that you can loop around) and you could just ignore them.

I also took care of a few 85 and 90 bots by zoning in an 85 alliance paladin CRZ and spamming denounce on them during big pulls, their little bot script doesn't account for that and they just die and take forever to come back.

I wasn't good about clearing my bags and spent half the grind with full bags but overall it was several thousand gold w/ loot and greys. Then about 100 stacks of embersilk cloth and two bank tabs full of BOE greens I can D/E. I don't consider it a huge money maker, at least not in boxing terms, but that gold with make up for what I didn't get questing. Frankly even if it yielded zero gold I'm still happy being able to do 80-85 mindlessly in about 8 hours.

Questing also takes about 8 hours. I think i did it in 7 with rested for 1 level.

Yeah... no I just did it, and it took >10 hours. That was Before cross realm zones, with zero ganking. The cata questing areas are warzones now, you can barely zone in or pick up a quest without being gibbed by multiple 90s. I know because I also participate in some of this ganking and no one can even so much as pick up a quest or fly out of the sanctuary in deepholm without exploding.

I know you always leveled faster, got higher rating, made more gold, got the power up and won the game... but not all of us can get those kind of scores, if you know what I mean. I'm talking real world, average questing, it's not 8 hours.

The deepholm area can be done in 6-8 hours pressing 2 buttons, so I think it's a viable way to level, if only for a few levels if questing is just not your thing or the ganking is too bad.

If I was just terribly slow at questing I offer this not as a faster way but a mindless button mash to 85 if you just don't want to quest every one of your alt teams to 85.

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Originally Posted by heyaz

Yeah... no I just did it, and it took >10 hours. That was Before cross realm zones, with zero ganking. The cata questing areas are warzones now, you can barely zone in or pick up a quest without being gibbed by multiple 90s. I know because I also participate in some of this ganking and no one can even so much as pick up a quest or fly out of the sanctuary in deepholm without exploding.

I know you always leveled faster, got higher rating, made more gold, got the power up and won the game... but not all of us can get those kind of scores, if you know what I mean. I'm talking real world, average questing, it's not 8 hours.

The deepholm area can be done in 6-8 hours pressing 2 buttons, so I think it's a viable way to level, if only for a few levels if questing is just not your thing or the ganking is too bad.

If I was just terribly slow at questing I offer this not as a faster way but a mindless button mash to 85 if you just don't want to quest every one of your alt teams to 85.

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First off the personal jab was unwarranted.

I'm not trying to discount this as a means to leveling. It is a great means to do so ESPECIALLY with the 3x exp potion since its BOA (thats how i leveled my last group, this area). It is also the single best means to make gold while leveling your alts so in the future this is where i will be leveling anyway.

Ganking is rampant but its still not THAT bad. Personally the worst I've had it is about 30 mins wasted from being ganked, if i'm constantly getting ganked i just go do something else with my time and come back (this isn't leveling time). Deepholm is probably the worst place for ganking though from my experience.

I'm not putting myself on some pedestal by saying that normally it takes about 7ish hours to quest to 85 from 80, if you aren't ganked non stop then it should take about that long. A lot of people hate leveling (myself included) and this is a great means to do so... but you can get ganked here just as much like you said even if you fly in the air, or your main gets ganked.

Also you can block the IP to CRZ server and only interact with people on your server in those areas if your router allows that sort of thing (i don't do this personally but i know people who do when farming) if ganking is THAT bad for you from other servers.

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Originally Posted by Shodokan

Also you can block the IP to CRZ server and only interact with people on your server in those areas if your router allows that sort of thing (i don't do this personally but i know people who do when farming) if ganking is THAT bad for you from other servers.

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Awesome trick... I'll have to check that out. There are a lot of areas I'd love to not be in CRZ, that one especially.

Yeah, questing in Hyjal and Deepholm at the least has to be brutal. I know because I was on the other end of it on both alliance and horde just blowing people up. I'm ok with questing 85-90 at least one more time, but 80-85 is out so I'm using this method until I find something better.

ganking in 80-85 area's is insane. I got camped so many times it was retarded. Questing took way more than 7-10 hours from 80-85. On future teams...I dunno...

How does instance grinding with a 90 soloing the 80-85 dungeons compare to questing/this. It would avoid the ganking issue.

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Originally Posted by Ishar

ganking in 80-85 area's is insane. I got camped so many times it was retarded. Questing took way more than 7-10 hours from 80-85. On future teams...I dunno...

How does instance grinding with a 90 soloing the 80-85 dungeons compare to questing/this. It would avoid the ganking issue.

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So, a 90 tank does not simply "solo" cata dungeons, like wrath dungeons, as it were. The mechanics are irritating as hell and it only takes like 3 packs of mobs to kick the crap out of my 90 guardian druid (ilvl 460ish), so big pulls and mowing them all down for big xp and a reset is out of the question... unless your tank can do something mine can't.

Just running through it at a regular pace wasn't very good xp for me, at least not in snorecore. The alts contributed very little and usually just died, so I left them way back but all the crap flying around just kept wiping them no matter where I put them. Those are cata dungeons for you.

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Originally Posted by Shodokan

but you can get ganked here just as much like you said even if you fly in the air, or your main gets ganked.

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The ganking there was nothing like when questing and with what was going on in the rest of the zone. It cost me maybe 1-2 hours total but I eventually figured a few things out: hide the alts in the rocks, don't fly them above, and leave your booster there and log in and check the zone regularly because it varies. My biggest issue was other horde hogging the mobs, not gankers. I frequently shared the area with alliance and as long as we kept to our respective sides, no one engaged. My druid was only ganked I think 4 times total and he was never camped, I just went right back and continued. But your mileage may vary.

So, time lost to ganking here was very minimal.

When I did WOTLK, my tank was only 81; so I couldn't just grab the whole instance and AE it down. I pretty much had my DKs follow my pally around and killed stuff more-or-less legitimately. They died sometimes due to annoying mechanics, but it wasn't a constant thing. [i.e. I usually had to solo the boss fights with them sitting pretty far away]. I found the XP/Hour to not be amazing, but far higher than straight questing. I figured I could do the same thing in Cata if my tank were bigger, but maybe not from what your saying.

Still, its the other major option, since BGs are definitely crappy...

I'd think, if you have the option of a legitimate dungeon finder team.
Five toons, one who can tank and one who can spec to be a healer, even if you don't run them that way... as long as you have enough heals and a tank...
You take those five and use Dungeons to level to 90th.
Even if you do trash and then reset and use dungeon finder to avoid the limits on instances per hour.

Once you have a 90th booster...
You can park the alts somewhere and boost... such as Deepholm.

You could also borrow your tank and/or healer...
And level additional toons through instances.

Plus you could park your level 90 team nearby.
And quest or boost other toons.
If you're camped, log on the level 90 team and see how they like that.

Boosting has greatly improved this expansion. Both dungeon boosting and mob-grind boosting are easier.

A couple that come to mind.
AOE looting is simply amazing. Make tons of gold selling cloth drops or save tons of gold leveling tailors.

They fixed the lower level aggro thing. At level 85 sometimes I would have to sit on a group of mobs for a second or two before they aggroed, but now at 90 I dont even have to get that close and can aggro them on a run. It feels so much smoother and quicker.