Advice For Level 53+ While Leveling?

[Spinach]

WARNING: frustrated post.

Team:
Warr prot
3x Mage frost
Pala holy

I had great fun in SM AoE'ing like a champ, got to zf. Demo shout was nerfed. I cried.
But it was still okayish, slow but ok.

Now after 50 its too slow, I feel like giving up. 52-53 I had 12-13 hours played, alot afk time and profession leveling etc, but still.
3 hours played 25% into level 53.
BRD is ok, but I can't AoE anymore at all. Single target is slow. Also tank feels super squishy, even with oil of immolation etc. to try to build AoE threat I then struggle with survivability so I can't really do any big pulls due to survivability even if I did have the threat.

I've been farming arena for now to atleast get some loot, and trying to push further and wiping.
Questing is also kinda shit;
I feel like I only get 2-3 quests in felwood, then the rest is too high level (or hardcore loot 100 things quests).
Same thing in WPL/EPL, I get a couple of bars and then have to look for a new zone.

Any advice GREATLY appreciated.

I've adjusted the title of the thread so that it isn't huge and doesn't get cut off.
Please keep the titles of threads concise and to the point.

-MiRai

[Fuzzyboy]

Try and do some XP tracking for a couple of hours and see what you get - post it here and you can compare against other boxers and that way you'll find out if you're doing something wrong if you just have to get used to the pace of classic :-)

While the nerf does such, some comps have gotten to 60 with 4 mages and priest, so warrior is not a precondition. I'm only doing RFK at the moment so can't really comment on higher level instances, but I've had no issues just spamming battle shout and ae'ing. Eventually my mages will pull aggro, but not until the mobs are around 40% and it can be healed through. So maybe just do smaller pulls? Usually I just stick to pulls of around 6-9 mobs depending on the special abilities of the mobs.

[The Crowd]

Try and do some XP tracking for a couple of hours and see what you get - post it here and you can compare against other boxers and that way you'll find out if you're doing something wrong if you just have to get used to the pace of classic :-)

That is literally the last thing I would do in his shoes, because let’s be honest here guys, half the people to be claiming to Zerg the last levels are lying. We all know it. Now 100% some guys did get the XP/hour they claim but when it comes to the dick measuring contest of who can level fastest people will lie to make themselves feel better... if your going to compare yourself to that your only going to get frustrated... not everyone operates the same. It would be like a bronze overwatch player frustrated he’s loosing to golds while watching grandmasters stop the same golds and think he should be able to do the same.

id take a step back and look at it. Your in BRD right? I’m pretty sure some of your preraid BIS Drop in the there... I would take my time, concentrate on getting that. Go single pulls and work on your timing/mechanics. It might take your three or four full runs to get your drops in which case you’re probably already a level higher... consider BRD the start of your endgame. You’re there. You’ve done it. Now just start gearing up. Set more attainable short term goals. It’s a game not a race!

You could also take a step back questing.. ungoro is around lvl 51 isn’t it? I think I remember a good few kill quests in there(it’s been about 14 years since I was there!!!), it’s not optimal, but at least it keeps it moving in the right direction.

[Andreauk]

Or take a small break and work on something else for a bit.

[Vipeax]

I finished my grind.

This was me on the 8th of September, so I guess I can post here? At that level you should just do the '8' loop in BRD if we're talking purely XP.



I did this until level 56. I then went to The Barrens to use the Swarmer scorpids to up the defense skill of all my mages (most were 20-30 below the maximum of their levels) and then I farmed the first part of LBRS as shown by the white line here:


For BRD a 2-3 hour session would result in about 50K xp/hr. Closer to 60K xp/hr if you would not take breaks and really try to speed it up. For LBRS I was substaining a consistent 75K xp/hr, and by tryharding I guess 85 up to 90K/hr should be doable.

If you want to farm gear while leveling than none of this applies. Including bosses (except for the 3 tank-and-spank ones that are part of the 8-shape BRD route since they are super easy to kill) will have impact on your XP rates so including those in the leveling process is a decision you have to make for yourself. I do have my question marks about the 'squishy' and 'cannot AOE' parts of your post though. At that level your defense level of the warrior should be ample to farm the initial mobs with no issues.

[Mercbeast]

BRD isn't really that good, especially after the demo shout nerf. I'm a little surprised you're having issues with mages in it, but it was a train wreck for my warrior group initially, so much so that I had to go to sunken temple where I was able to actually pound out the upper ring with the 6 bosses (I didn't do the bosses), until level 55 at around 40-45k an hour.

I went back to BRD at 55, and I was able to do the prison/arena and the Bael'Gar area with my 4 warriors "ok". It wasn't as fast as ST. Since your DPS is coming from mages, your issue really must be your tank, and mage efficiency drops way off if you're not doing bigger pulls with the way that arcane explosion is, and at 52-53, you're simply not going to be able to aoe grind that area of the prison beyond 3-4 elite mobs at a time, and that isn't going to lend itself to much efficiency for mage aoe imo.

Vipeax is different because he didn't use a tank, he finessed it with 4 mages which probably gave him the wiggle room on his aoe dps to kill stuff fast enough, in large enough groups, to stay efficient. I don't know if 3 mages can do what he did with a warrior slotting in that 4th spot, that's a pretty significant chunk of damage lost.

My advice might be to go check out ST for a couple of levels. I was clearing the upper loop in about 13-15 minutes, doing 40-45k an hour with reset, which was literally double what I could manage in BRD initially. I might not be the same for you due to mana vs rage, but, it's worth a try. I'm talking about the undread troll warriors, corpse eaters, and witch doctors, with the little imps. Packs of 4-6 or 7 mobs, with 2-4 elites.

[Spinach]

I can pull like 4-6 mobs on the warrior and tank it for a while. But if I aoe with mages I either have to spend like 10 seconds+ with only warrior building threat before dealing damage at all or the mages will pull aggro and they die in less than 5 seconds if they pull aggro sometimes.
I also have a pala, so no instant shield to save the mage, flash of light is usually too little healing if the warrior has more than 2 mobs on it or if a mage gets aggro. So I have to holy light spam.

So if I try to AoE its not super effective because 1) warrior has to spend alot of time building threat 2) healer might go oom if warrior takes too heavy dmg over too long time 3) if mages get aggro its best case 1 ress after pull, worst case a wipe.
If I sheep as many as I can while frostbolting 1 by 1 target it works okay, but its quite slow. each mob dies after ~4 (x3) frostbolts. so its 10 seconds per mob, instead of like 10 seconds per 4-6 mobs or more if AoE'ing.

It feels like if I had a prot pala instead of prot warr life would be alot easier. Or if I had your setup with more aoe dmg and healing, since that has obviously worked very well for you.
It seems I have done the mistake of landing somewhere in between 2 decent setups. I am unable to use my mages aoe effeciently because the warrior is holding me back, and I am also not optimized for killing stuff 1 by 1 like a warrior cleave because the mages need to drink alot.

In SM I could pull 10-13 mobs at a time and tank them all with demo shout spam, so the current situation is really alot of steps back.

[nodoze]

A few levels can make a world of difference...

I would try Merc's recommendation to go to Sunken Temple through 55 and head back to BRD at ~56 and do Vipeax's figure 8 until you feel like that is easy and then branch out.

Please report back what you decide to do and how it goes as it will help others...

Also try to look on the bright side...

You are in the home stretch and some of us are still in the 20s, 30s, & 40s...

[Purpleflavor]

I can pull like 4-6 mobs on the warrior and tank it for a while. But if I aoe with mages I either have to spend like 10 seconds+ with only warrior building threat before dealing damage at all or the mages will pull aggro and they die in less than 5 seconds if they pull aggro sometimes.

Spec your tank Arms with 2 hander and grab initial aggro on packs by charging in, sweeping strikes, whirlwinding, and then stance dance back to protection with a sword and board weapon swap, shout, sunder ect. Your mages shouldnt be able to pull aggro and can aoe them all down right away. You'll find after stance dancing back to sword and board you are just as tanky as Arms, as you were spec'ed prot and the only difference is the first few seconds of locking down initial threat.

[MTSkibum]

Get on some alts for a few days to get that rested experience?

Then go back into BRD and hit up the first couple spots again with slow, single pulls. At least then you will get rested experience.