Reasonable discussion about Northrend Leveling

[OzPhoenix]

I made the mistake of raising this in the Suggestions Forums of WoW, thinking that perhaps being outside of General would help. Alas, as much as I wrote in a constructive way, it turned into the usual wow forums flame wars.

The question I'd like to ask is, how is everyone else going with Northrend leveling and all the collection quests out there?

I must admit, I've been really disappointed with it myself, as it seems so strange that in an MMO, so many of the quests should penalise groups. The fix seems so obvious to, simply converting collection quests from player to group drops.

My Shamans have hit 80 now, so I'm not writing this post from a QQ-point-of-view since I'm over the hurdle. That said, I can't see myself ever leveling the other groups I go to 60-70 with using RAF, because I just can't see myself ever doing Northrend as a group level again (I'm solo leveling a pally to join my Shammies and enjoying it much more).

So, how'd you do? Did you skip collection quests (if so, just what quests did you do??), grind instances? Or like me, just sucked it up and plodded through it?

PS: I compared with a guildie of mine. He singled boxed a Hunter, 70 to 80 with roughly 60 hours play time. My Shamans took just over twice that.

[Bigfish]

At the moment, I'm plodding through it because I'm a story guy and I want to run all the quests I can. When I run my alts through though, instances, inctances, and more instances.

[OzPhoenix]

At the moment, I'm plodding through it because I'm a story guy and I want to run all the quests I can. When I run my alts through though, instances, inctances, and more instances.

Problem I found with instances in Northrend was without a dedicated tank, the Shammies just weren't up to it, at least not the bosses anyway. Instancing would be good, as I'd like to someday level my other teams, but no way could I do it ever via questing again..lol

[hardcoded]

Questing was really painful. Next time I'll quest enough to unlock dailies, but that is it. I was dissapointed as well that my shammies couldn't handle the instances, but I largely chalked it up to my lousy gear

pirate bombing and the plane shooting quest initially then grizzly hills initially made for a lot of easy xp (enough to level to 77 f patient) and then instance till my eyes bleed if I want to level faster.

[OzPhoenix]

Questing was really painful. Next time I'll quest enough to unlock dailies, but that is it. I was dissapointed as well that my shammies couldn't handle the instances, but I largely chalked it up to my lousy gear

pirate bombing and the plane shooting quest initially then grizzly hills initially made for a lot of easy xp (enough to level to 77 f patient) and then instance till my eyes bleed if I want to level faster.

I actually don't mind that 5 x Shamans was less than spectactularly successful in Northrend instances, the challenge of (finally getting off my butt to do it) leveling in the Paladin and using a proper tank has been fun. Hard = ok, but tedious and boring = not ok, which is what I found the Northrend group leveling to be. Solo it's been wayyyy more enjoyable.

[suprafro]

I only play ~2-3 hours a night so leveling up with the daily quests worked great for me, I probably gained 2-3 levels entirely from daily quest exp alone (ive already completed more daily quests then normal quests at 80) I was doing 7 of the grizzly hills dailies 73-80 (140k quest exp in 20 min) and then added hodir dailies to the mix after doing the huge questchain at 78. The hodir daily quests were mostly fail but you chain killed enough mobs to make it semi-decent..I never did aldor/scryer so i wanted the honored enchant for shoulders.oh and the 3x wintergrasp daily quests if i was online when it reset hehe (70k exp and great honor/marks) anyway really just did daily quests and then hit dungeons with the remaining time. i play a 5x shaman group so while the instances could be cleared very fast, some of the last bosses were just really hard for me or didnt feel worth wiping on to master, I was only able to full clear a few dungeons and the rest I just cleared to the last boss

[Redbeard]

I guess the problem with making collection quests quicker is that they have graphs and charts and spreadsheets and formulae about how much XP an hour they want people getting... theyd have to rework a lot of things (probably make the quests worth less reward / XP ? ) if they made them quicker like this. The other alternative would be to make the drops 100% (for each group member) but increase the drops required for quest completion. This has its own level of annoyance, as then you have to wait for things to respawn etc.

I dont know what the solution is =\ I havent had too bad of a time but im only 75 and have not boxed northrend yet.

[Bigfish]

Well, a change from collection to bounty status on these quests wouldn't affect the solo player, as they still have to kill X mobs to get their drops. What it would do is penalize group questing a little less, which would be nice for those of us with a 100% grouping percentage, but isn't particularly vital in the grand scheme of things, outside of those of us collecting 150 piles of Bat Guano for the chance at awesome story elements.

[Hachoo]

Doing large collection quests does suck but look at it this way. In the grand scheme of things its going to add what, 8 hours total to your leveling time to 80, and after that you won't have to worry about it again. Once you hit 80 you can just burn through any quests you want to do to make money and then most of what you do after that will have nothing to do with collecting things.

All in all I do find most of the northrend collection quests to be easier/more fun than the BC collection quests. The drop rates are generally higher and northrend seems to be a bit more fun.

[Xinxo]

I've been getting alts to 70 with my shaman team of 4. Running them through chain Instances actually is not a bad way a leveling up. SL and SH gave about 1500-1650 exp per kill on the 70's. I got a 5th shaman to 70 this week and doing so I got two levels on my other 4 ( now 72 ) I plan only to level them when they have rested. Leveling one to 80 ( my warlock ) was bad enough with collection quests, 5x would just turn me off to wow completely.