Is it better to Quest or Grind while multiboxing?

[Stealthy]

RAF - Grind
Rested xp - Grind
no rested - quest

This isn't quite true...RAF gives 3 x the exp from quests as well as grinding, so if you're saying you should be questing if you have no RAF or rested bonus, then you should also be saying you should be questing when you have RAF.

E.g. lets say you get 50K exp per hour from non-rested, non-RAF grinding and 80K exp per hour from questing, a difference of 30K per hour - making questing better.

Apply rested exp bonus and it becomes 100K exp per hour from grinding, and 80K exp per hour from questing, a difference of 20K per hour - making grinding better.

Apply RAF, and it becomes 150K per hour grinding and 240K per hour from questing - the differnce is now 90K per hour - once again making questing better.


The formula for grinding:

The amount of experience you will get for a solo kill on a mob whose level is equal to your level is:
XP = (Char Level * 5) + 45, where Char Level = Mob Level, for mobs in Azeroth
XP = (Char Level * 5) + 235, where Char Level = Mob Level, for mobs in Outland
XP = (Char Level * 5) + 580, where Char Level = Mob Level, for mobs in Northrend
Mobs that are flagged as elite will give twice the amount of experience as a normal mob for the same level.

The amount of experience you will get for a solo kill on a mob whose level is higher than your level is:
XP = (Base XP) * (1 + 0.05 * (Mob Level - Char Level)
Note - this is capped at 4 levels difference, in other words:
1 level difference = 1.05 x Base XP
2 levels difference = 1.1 x Base XP
3 levels difference = 1.15 x Base XP
4+ levels difference = 1.2 x Base XP

Group Experience - the group bonus is based on modifiers and the fomula below:
XP = Mob XP/numberOfMembers * modifier.
Modifiers:
1 person group = 1.0
2 person group = 1.0
3 person group = 1.166
4 person group = 1.3
5 person group = 1.4

E.g.: the experience per person for a group of 5 level 60 players killing level 60 mobs in Eastern Plaguelands is ((60*5)+45)/5)*1.4 or (345/5)*1.4 or 97 (rounded up) exp per person per kill.
The same group of 5 level 60 players killing level 60 mobs in Hellfire Peninsula would be earning ((60*5)+235)/5)*1.4 or (535/5)*1.4 or 150 (rounded up) exp per person per kill.

Now to put this in context - the average quest in EPL rewards about 9,000 exp - which means you would need to kill 93 mobs to get the eqivalent exp in a group of 5. The average quest in HFP rewards about 10,500 exp - which equates to 70 mobs for same amount of exp in a group of 5.

Bottom line - without rested exp, you need to burn through mobs very quickly to make grinding a better option than questing.

Things to consider:
1. Using a good levelling guide and questing addons can significantly increase the number of quest turnins per hour, and thus boost exp.
2. Becuase of the number of mobs to kill via grinding, taking time to loot will affect the exp per hour gained. So will respawn rates.
3. Boosting with a high level toon in instances can make grinding a better option if you can overcome the exp nerf from having a high level toon in the party - SM Cath seems to be the sweet spot for this.
4. Many quests involve killing mobs, so you effectively double dip - get the exp from killing mobs and get the quest exp at the end. Milage will vary with each quest though...

Hope this helps...

Cheers,
S.

[glo]

Grinding is mind numbingly boring and you will start developing repetitive strain injury relatively quick ;)
Questing will get you gear, rep, gold, flight paths and a tour of the virtual world you play in.

If I were to start on a new server I don't see how anything except questing would work. I wouldn't start looting until level 50ish, you will have plenty of money from quests to get mounts(with raf you will be late getting mounts but that is a problem no matter how you level) and no reason to hit the auction hall ever. I wouldn't bother with any professions at all until the level cap. This will get you a basic set of level 80 characters in no time which will give you a large amount of gold doing dailies so you can quickly power level any professions you want.

If I were to start boxing on a server I have a good boosting class at 80 I would probably instance boost to 60. If you are doing 5 or more new characters the answer is still questing.

[glo]

RAF - Grind
Rested xp - Grind
no rested - quest

If I said the same thing there would be 5 pages of people saying how stupid I am.

Taking leveling advice from you is akin to turning my investment portfolio over to the next homeless guy that asks me for spare change. You have some theories but never having leveled a character you haven't had the ability to actually try any of them out.

[Stealthy]

At level 60 I get 5,000 exp per pull X 4 (raf) with about 2,000 exp for non rested non raf leader, at the seige engineers in epl. So 22,000 total exp for under 1 minute, tag boosting. Mobs repop in like 7 or so mintues but by the time you loot and drink it goes fast. I maintain between 60-70Kexp/hour without any problems.

But it does come down to what you really like, if questing is like a job then why do it, if grinding is like a job why do it?

I like killing mobs lol.

Bear in mind that under RAF, with 3 times the exp on quest turnins, you would be getting 27K (on average) per quest turnin. Since it takes you 1 minute to clear the mobs, and 7 minutes to wait for respawns / looting, you're getting 5K exp for every 8 minutes - in other words it's taking you approx 43 minutes (8 minutes x 5.4) to earn the same amount of exp as you would turning in a quest. I understand that you like killing mobs, but I think you could easily be earning 3 times the exp, maybe more, from questing.

Cheers,
S.

[glo]

At level 60 I get 5,000 exp per pull X 4 (raf) with about 2,000 exp for non rested non raf leader, at the seige engineers in epl. So 22,000 total exp for under 1 minute, tag boosting. Mobs repop in like 7 or so mintues but by the time you loot and drink it goes fast. I maintain between 60-70Kexp/hour without any problems.

But it does come down to what you really like, if questing is like a job then why do it, if grinding is like a job why do it?

I like killing mobs lol.

Bear in mind that under RAF, with 3 times the exp on quest turnins, you would be getting 27K (on average) per quest turnin. Since it takes you 1 minute to clear the mobs, and 7 minutes to wait for respawns / looting, you're getting 5K exp for every 8 minutes - in other words it's taking you approx 43 minutes (8 minutes x 5.4) to earn the same amount of exp as you would turning in a quest. I understand that you like killing mobs, but I think you could easily be earning 3 times the exp, maybe more, from questing.

Cheers,
S.

The other thing about his math is the fact only one group is getting xp at a time, questing all of his army would get a nice xp rate. The thing is the guy has no idea how to play so running around in a small area spamming his aoe abilities works for him. You have to see him in game to realize how bad he really is.

[Zub]

RAF - Grind
Rested xp - Grind
no rested - quest

If I said the same thing there would be 5 pages of people saying how stupid I am.

Taking leveling advice from you is akin to turning my investment portfolio over to the next homeless guy that asks me for spare change. You have some theories but never having leveled a character you haven't had the ability to actually try any of them out.

i would have to agree with Mr Deathwk on this one though ... but please lets not Samjack this thread.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Bottom line - without rested exp, you need to burn through mobs very quickly to make grinding a better option than questing.

This has been my experience.

Put a different way, let me just say this about collection quests versus grinding in terms of monotony: you're grinding either way. Both are toward a specific goal but one will get you bonus loot and XP at the end. Certain grinds are occasionally worth it (like grinding materials for a crafting profession) but for leveling, I've tried both and aside from having a 70/80 AOE the crap out of TONS of mobs in seconds, grinding just isn't worth the pain or money loss, IMO.

[edit] To give you a frame of reference, my druids were at 60 after RAF leveling with 2.6 days /played. When they hit 80 last week, I was a bit over 9 days played, including me screwing around going AFK in Dalaran while helping my mother get started multiboxing her two hunters, and helping two friends in my guild do elite quests and instance runs. I think, for a fairly casual player, that's a respectable time to 80. I also had 5x epic flight form about 1/3 of the way through the Icecrown quests. Questing adds up faster than you think.

[X-Ifist]

When i was lvling my prot pally and 4x druids i found it was faster to grind in instance than to quest, but at that time i wasent using Jamba:P
Speced all 4 druids resto and did huge pulls while the druids just kept 4x rejuv up, it was boring as hell but was def faster

[Ken]

[snip]

[puppychow]

no reason not to do both, unless you have leveled a lot of chars questing is fun to see the lore and rewards and "flavor", but sometimes you get bored of questing and just want to kill a bunch of bears/pigs but even that gets boring (to me) after 30 minutes so its back to questing...

so many people try to rush to level 80 and then find there isn't much there that they actually enjoy (raiding, arenas, bgs, etc). sometimes leveling itself can just be a lot of fun.