Quote Originally Posted by Christaphonz View Post
First, thanks for your well written post lots of great insight in it.

But why skip WC? How is it not efficient with basically loops where you end at the beginning, it is highly efficient. Just don't do the escort quest at the end. Each side has a different completion speed but choose one that works will and stick to repeating that side. With ~18k experience an hour at level 20.

The gear is great for casters, it has 6 herb nodes and 2 ore, Deviate hides is easy to complete with hand in at the dungeon entrance with no chain required before it. Yes I agree having RFC in Org helps a lot, but by that higher level wont you already be skipping loot? WC at least until 21 or so seems so worth it, then going to SFK early as clear times will be much faster. I would like to be convinced otherwise.

Below level 20 I would shy from open world kill quests I have only found a few that work well with my current dungeon route. Most have different types of mobs too spread out. Others the quest giver is in a very odd place or requires a chain but like others said some slots like rings are hard to fill unless you do a quest chain as I will be before dungeons.
I skip WC primarily because I didn't find it very efficient. That said, it might be worth while to dip into WC for a few levels to bridge into SFK. It's always a question of efficiency when you start hitting the tippy top levels of any instance you are grinding. Do you move on to the next big instance you plan to grind, a level or two early where you might greatly struggle, or do you slog through the last few levels where you might time lock yourself?

RFC WILL take you to SFK, the question is, are the last couple levels in RFC going to be too grindy/slow due to lockouts. For me, the only real reason to go to WC, would be you're bored of RFC. This all depends on your group build/how effective it is. You could go into SFK at 18, and do ok, or you could go into SFK at 18 and struggle badly. One of the reasons why I like SFK, is that it's very efficient. You don't HAVE to clear the entire instance, and in fact, for a lot of your time there, you won't/shouldn't. You clear up to the final time locked sections, and then bail out of the instance by jumping off of the ramparts.

For Alliance, yes, I would recommend Stockades. It's a much better instance than RFC. RFC isn't great, and, if people don't like RFC, jumping into WC as quickly as possible is an option. Once you are into SFK however, you should be able to go SFK->SM->BRD and be done. I also made a mistake, I said UBRS as an option to finish off 58-60, I meant LBRS.

As to why I don't think WC is efficient. There is a lot of back tracking. Each time you complete a wing, you have to run over ground you've already cleared. The mob density isn't really great either. It's not terrible, but, it's just a big instance with a lot of running. Don't get me wrong. WC will work fine if you choose to use WC. I just have always preferred to do RFC till level 18-20, and then go to SFK. Remember that RFC pre-cata is quite different. There are A LOT more mobs. The dungeon is very densely packed. There are two trog areas which have a lot of mobs, plus there is the upper level before the final boss which was removed/not used in Cata. If memory serves correctly, the majority of the monsters after the initial ramp down into the instance are all 16-18. Which is quite ideal to power through to 18-19.

The thing to remember is, you don't necessarily have to clear the instances the moment you move to them. SFK for example, you don't need to finish off the last couple bosses, and you probably shouldn't if you're going for speed, since its slower going due to the event stuff that happens, and there are barely any monsters after Fenrus. So if you go into SFK at 19, it's going to be a struggle to finish the end of the instance, but you don't have to. There is a lot of stuff to farm before Fenrus.

Likewise with Scarlet Monastery. Some of the SM instances, you can just clear the first couple sections, and then go to another instance and clear the first couple sections etc. Like in Cathedral, it's often better to just clear the lower courtyard, the upper courtyard, and then leave and reset. Only when you start to get to the end of your time in SM, does it become really worthwhile to clear inside the chapel, because that initial pull inside the chapel CAN get messy if you're slightly under leveled.