Leveling in 7.3.5

[JohnGabriel]

In todays patch they removed the legacy buff from old raids.

I am not sure if that effects everyone or just max level toons, but it will be slowed down significantly.

[Tin]

Some very good info about boost/powerleveling:

https://www.reddit.com/r/woweconomy/...powerleveling/

[Sservis]

Some very good info about boost/powerleveling:

https://www.reddit.com/r/woweconomy/...powerleveling/

That poster doesn't understand efficiency. I say that mostly because it's posted in /r/woweconomy, but the earn rate at the suggested prices is atrocious. Even if we assume you do 10 runs in 30 minutes, at 500 per run, that's only 10,000 g/hr (which is quite a pitiful rate, hardly lucrative as described).

Although it did prompt the thought that they may have changed the group XP split formula. Specifically the character share portion of the formula due to scaling, although they might have adjusted more too. Data is scarce. The below is a digression on how things have historically worked.

Historically going for 2 to 3 equal level members is a 22.22% drop in XP and from 2 to 4 is a 35% drop. These are close to the suggested 25% and 40% rates.

However, the poster is wrong about going to 5, as that's only a 44% drop (from 2). It's not that big of an impact (versus -35% at 4). Total xp earned across all characters goes up though, so you're better off boosting with a full group than doing individual boosts. The table below summarizes the historical situation for equal level groups. It may no longer be the case. Also, adjusting for booster level makes the below only an approximation. It's roughly accurate and the general trend is a high level booster makes adding more have less of an impact than it does in an equal level group. (relative XP for all is down, but impact is more pronounced in smaller groups)

Size	Factor	Relative XP	Total XP	Relative value
1	1.000	100.0
2	1.000	50.0	50.0	44.6
3	1.166	38.9	77.7	69.4
4	1.300	32.5	97.5	87.1
5	1.400	28.0	112.0	100.0

Source: https://wow.gamepedia.com/Mob_experi...oup_Experience for the factors

Note: Yes, if charging people for this and they care about their time (not doing own accounts/Netflix and chill/account sharing/whatever where they don't care), then there is more value in doing only 1 boostee at a time. However 500g/dungeon is well off what should be charged as the opportunity cost for the booster is just too high.

Historically the split formula is also based on relative levels (character share being related to level / total party levels rather than 1 / party size). This should be changed with scaling (not sure if it has) since at level content should be 100%. A 60 and a 79 in a scaled instance are contributing equally, at least that's the theory.

[MiRai]

I now have first-hand experience, in dungeons, with a melee-heavy mixed-class team (PLD/SHM/WAR/WAR/PRI) from levels 15 through 90, since 7.3.5 was released. I began to run into issues with a few of the TBC dungeons in the 60-80 range, but most definitely hit a wall with the Cataclysm dungeons in the 80-90 range. The increased healthpools of elites in dungeons ensure that every trash encounter lasts between 20-40 seconds, and every boss fight lasts between 1-4 minutes. Times and are dependent on class composition, DPS output, and overall multiboxing skill, and therefore may vary greatly.

Non-Heroic Leveling Dungeon List (60-90):

• Hellfire Ramparts—Complete
• Blood Furnace—Complete
• Mana-Tombs—Complete (Video)
• Auchenai Crypts—Failed
  
  • ​Shirrak the Dead Watcher —highly unforgiving melee-range bite does a lot of damage.
  
  
• Sethekk Halls—Complete (Video Soon)
• The Steamvault—Complete
• Shattered Halls—Complete (Video Soon)
• Arcatraz—Failed
  
  • Zereketh the Unbound —pools on the ground ate me alive; did not give a second attempt.
  
  
• Magister's Terrace—Failed (Video)
  
  • Kael'thas Sunstrider —continuous unforgiving melee-range damage while fighting the Phoenix add (which has a ton of health), including the burst damage upon its death, but the Gravity Lapse ability does not properly cause your character to float, and will, sometimes repeatedly, drop you on the floor for additional fall damage (likely a bug).
  
  
• ​Utgarde Keep—Complete
  
  • ​Notes: Did not attempt any other Wrath dungeons, as I felt they are longer, and more spread out, than most other TBC dungeons.
  
  
• Blackrock Caverns—Failed
  
  • ​The trash hits incredibly hard, and I wiped to a four-caster pack of Twilight Zealots without killing a single one of them, but after failing on the second boss, twice (with Bloodlust), I decided that this place was no longer worth my time.
  
  
• Throne of the Tides—Go fuck yourself
  
  • I didn't actually attempt this dungeon, but I thought I'd share my feelings about it.
  
  
• Halls of Origination—Complete
  
  • Not worth the time required to simply move through the dungeon. It's gigantic, and has maybe ten total trash packs. The main objective bosses did not pose much of a problem, but the bonus bosses, the reason I thought this place might be attractive, are very, very difficult.
  
  
• Lost City of the Tol'vir—Complete
  
  • ​This dungeon becomes available at level 84, and it is the sole dungeon I run repeatedly from 84-90. The trash isn't all that difficult, the bosses aren't all that difficult, and you can mount.

Now, anywhere that I failed, a ranged team could've probably succeeded, simply because when my melee team was taking massive damage there was just no way that I could heal through it. I also found that doing TBC heroics from levels 72-75 proved to be amazing for filling in the blanks when LFD chose to give me a shitty dungeon. After level 72/73, the heirlooms I was wearing scaled nicely, and allowed me to cut through heroics at a nice quick pace—it felt just like pre-7.3.5 dungeons because they don't scale. Unfortunately, you can only do each heroic once, per day.

Since the scaling update that 7.3.5 brought, every dungeon in the 60-90 range, feels, at the very minimum, like a heroic, if not harder than their heroic counterparts when the dungeons were actually relevant. Needless to say, several dungeons in this level range required that I was paying 140% attention to mechanics or I would wipe, but that wasn't always the case. Some boss mechanics did little to no damage, where as others would do immense amounts of damage, and sometimes trash was more dangerous than a boss—there was no rhyme or reason to this, just frustration.

For anyone simply looking to level, the dungeons beyond level 60 are now very difficult. If you want the challenge, then it's certainly present, but if you're just looking to get to the top level so that you can begin the grind for the expansion you've paid to play, then dungeons are not going to get you there quickly... not by a long shot.

Personally, I did enjoy some of the challenges that these changes brought, but the reward for doing them, even after the latest buff to dungeon experience, is still practically non-existent—unless the only reward you're looking for is self gratitude for doing something difficult. Although, to be fair, I'm sure Mythic+ dungeons are going to present a very similar challenge, provide a very similar dopamine rush for completing them, and, at the same time, give you the chance to be rewarded with something both useful and relevant.

[Ritley]

Lost City should be available at level 83 if you head to it directly. 84 if you are using the LFD tool.

[luxlunae]

Thanks for your thoughts mirai. I'm surprised there wasn't more sethekk rage. I can never remember which are the fear bomb jerks and always wipe in there. I was also amused by the go fuck yourself for throne of tides. Felt that way when it came out, feel that way now!

[SDBoxer]

I would really like to know why Blizzard thought it was a good idea to make obsolete (to most people) dungeons so difficult that many people can't even finish them. I don't have heirlooms; I have the gear that drops for me. It is really hard for me to imagine lots of pickup groups doing these now, or there would be more people complaining about the difficulty. Do you think these 60+ dungeons are even doable for a group in greens and quest blues? Or are they tuned for the assumption that everyone is running twinks in full heirlooms? Or did they just do this so people can't level in dungeons anymore, and are tempted to buy the level boosts?

I cannot fathom why they thought it made sense to make this game so unforgiving for a new player - or, like me, one returning after a 10-year absence.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

I would really like to know why Blizzard thought it was a good idea to make obsolete (to most people) dungeons so difficult that many people can't even finish them. I don't have heirlooms; I have the gear that drops for me. It is really hard for me to imagine lots of pickup groups doing these now, or there would be more people complaining about the difficulty. Do you think these 60+ dungeons are even doable for a group in greens and quest blues? Or are they tuned for the assumption that everyone is running twinks in full heirlooms? Or did they just do this so people can't level in dungeons anymore, and are tempted to buy the level boosts?

I cannot fathom why they thought it made sense to make this game so unforgiving for a new player - or, like me, one returning after a 10-year absence.

I'm sure they thought it was a good idea at the time.

[Jabberie]

Because a large part of the player base were in tears over how easy it was and had become an absolute joke tbf.

I'm holding off leveling lower teams right now with the hope there is another pass to come that will reduce the time to kill. I'd be happy to see a 30% reduction in that and I think they would be just right.

Their initial fix for the boosting problem is not so bad though. The end bonus from random LFD is a good chunk but doesn't make up for the time required (when boxing).

I've ran a couple 2 mans last week and they go pretty well as long as the tank doesn't go ape and the healer knows what a heal is. My 5 man box was just creaking under the weight of the trash in most instances.

Timewalking data will help them as well as the same affect is happening there.

[Peri Helion]

Does anyone have any good suggestions for quest leveling 60-80? i currently have two RAFd accounts - grandfathered bonus, with 5 more weeks to go. I have run 4 teams of 2 up to 60 relatively easily through questing (but I would not have wanted to do it without old-RAF).

My goal is to ding 90 on these four duos - grant the levels to make a "5th" for each, and then when/if I pull the trigger on 3 other accounts just transfer them over to get a couple of 5 man teams for LFD from 90-110.

Thanks in advance.