How do you survive the grind from 60-80?

[nauren01]

I am still working on my second team to get my 10box to 80.

Boosting 1-60 was a breeze, prot pala mania, only limit is 5 inis/hr, /played: 23hr total, really enjoyed it

Then comes 60-65: RAF gone, no more pulls >20 mobs, rested xp becomes really relevant, xp/hr down to 2-3 hrs per level (ramparts, then utgarde).

I even started leveling fishing and cooking to 450 on my main to get distraction - even fishing seems more fun... I might even consider questing, that is how desparate I am now

How do you deal with the 60-80 grind after having brought your first team to 80 ? Some of the seniors here have 4-5 teams, any Über-Tips ?


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Edit and conclusion:

Here are my rates, all at least after 1h played (don't get fooled by the xp spikes....) and without rested xp:

# Method _____________Team ________________xp/hr @ 68 _____Gold________Feeling__________________________ _____________
1) Rhino Mania_________4 Shamy 4 Bostees______250.000 xp/hr___ low_________Rhino nightmares, need therapy, all the little calves...
2) Utgard ini boosting: ___1 pala 4 Boostes________200.000 xp/hr___medium _____Utgard phobia, see doctor soon
3) Questing: ___________4 Bostees_____________180.000 xp/hr___good________ok, at least a change from time to time
4) Raiding Kara: ________10box with 5 Boostees____59.000 xp/hr___great________exiting, this is WoW at its best

Seems well balanced againt the criteria, I guess that is how the blues intended it.

Thanks for the discussion!

[Siaea]

I'm currently leveling my 4th 5 box team (4 mages, 62, to catch up to my original vanilla mage, 80) and like you said, 0-60 a breeze (SFK, Cath, ZF, then BRD and Scholo). What I'm doing is questing until I get the dungeon quests, and doing the dungeons till I get sick of them. Did Ramps and BF all weekend, now I'm doing the quests to get UB quests unlocked. Prolly do that to 65, then go get rested up and go to UK. I'm not sure how my frost mage will do in UK yet, I did die a couple times in BF pulling too many packs (some of them do that knock back that really screws you up). For 70-80, I'll probably do all the major quest lines that I likes, and WG and Argent tournament as it's available.

Now that I know Dec 7 is the "due date", I can let them get some rested XP and still make my goal. That, and get them all transmute mastered like my other teams.

[ZooljinX]

I just do quests.. im one of those wierd people that really enjoy questing and the gold you get from it is nice too!

[Siaea]

Only problem with 70-80 is the suckage known as collection quests. That, and if you skip them, you potentially miss out on the larger chains. I really didn't like the way they designed the forward progression in LK, I hope Cat isn't like that.

Edit, should have quoted Zooljinx for what I was talking about.

[ZooljinX]

Well yea, thats true, i just suck it up and watch a episode of some gay show while grinding :P(i try and skip most of them, but as you said some are in chains and are nice if you get done) it comes down to how much you can/like to grind, if you have a Tank/heal in the team you could go instances but thats just as boring as collection quests.. after 2 clears or so hehe..

[Lyonheart]

I just mix it up, for one thing, most my alts teams are in BoAs, that helps a ton! I do all of HF for the gear and the two instances quests. Than i do all of Zang and the instance quests, I normally hit HF at 58 and que for AV and do quests while I wait. I get to 61 hella fast that way. After 61, unless your playing a healer class, I stop doing AV until about 64/65ish. I always hit 65-66 in Zang, then i skip Terokar and head to Nagrand, Ill do a few AVs and quest, and it seems 68 comes pretty fast, then i head to Northrend.

Short version. Have BoAs on alts.
Mix it up with BGs when your midway or at the higher end of each bracket.
Start Outlands at 58 and move to Northrend as soon as you hit 68. 58-60 FLYs and so does 68-70 due to the quests giving a lot more exp and loot bang for the buck compared to the previous content your leaving behind.


P.S. If your playing any of the healer capable classes ( priest,druid,paly,shaman ) You can play as multi-healer in AV even at entry level of each bracket. IF and only IF your team wins more than loses, you will FLY through levels. The servers I have done that on seem to have about 15 minute ques, which allow me to quest in between ques. I personally do not even go in AV at the lower end of the brackets and try to DPS. you get owned and it hurts your raid more than helps.

[zenga]

This is how I've leveled my ele shaman, 3 dk + disc priest to 80 and how I'm currently lvling 2 other teams.

1) Boost BCDE through hellfire rampart with my prot paladin (account A).
2) Boost A through hellfire ramparts with my best geared elemental shaman (goes about as fast as with the tank).
3) When I I have the appropriate level, go to new zone (zang, forest, nagrand) ... go to a quest hub and pick up all quests. See which ones I can do as a team, and over the course of an hour I get a shitload of xp.
4) Keep repeating step 1/2.
5) Hit nagrand, it's boxers paradise.
At 68 i start to boost my team in UK with my tank. Account A i boost with 2 elemental shamans.

-> 6) After hitting northrend, I quest with my main, team on follow. Whenever I have to do a collection quest or something annoying to box, I only do it with the main (A). The alts get xp for killing and let me quest way faster. I haven't done a single collection quest for them.
-> 7) Keeping the 4 alts up with the main is easy once you can boost them in Drak T keep. I love that place to box.
Rinse and repeat.
8) At 73 I do the grizzly hills pvp dailies, thats about 200k+ xp per day. If you don't feel like playing them, just do those, takes 20 minutes and you gain a level per week (+ nice gold).
At 77 i don't do icecrown, but stick with stormpeaks. With some bg's you can do the 77-80 in no time.
9) sometimes I do half an hour of aoe boosting in northrend, on the (fallen?) heroes in the valley. but that's sometimes not working due to the phasing

[valkry]

Mix it up, wait for the BG weekends and do some lvling in there. Wins are awesome xp.

But yea, I also do all the quest hubs and just skip the collection quests. Instances to fill in the rest of the xp.

[ferretb]

How fast is boosting? I find with questing I make a level every couple hours from 60-70 and then in Northrend it slows down dramatically (a level every 6 hours or so). What's the levelling speed with boosting?

[zenga]

I believe it took me 6/7 runs through drakton keep to gain a level (rested + heirlooms). It's a very short instance, with easy trash packs. I'd say about 1,5-2 realistic hours per level. I did it with a full T10 geared paladin that didn't need any healing, my slaves where 3 dk's actively dpsing with IWT & simple blood castsequence and my priest was occasionally spamming his groupheal + holy nova.