Since cataclysm launched WoW has become even more casual friendly than before. Not everyone can find the opportunity to play for hours at a time, but it is more than possible to level to maximum level while just playing in 30 minute periods. Not only can you reach maximum level but by spending some time on the auction house each day it is possible to have a nice amount of gold.
Of course if you can never play for more than half an hour a lot of content while remain out of reach, however it probably is possible for most people to find longer periods of time occasionally.
To this end I created a new character on a realm where I have no other characters and I am levelling just playing 30 minutes each day. I hope to post each week my daily progress.
Day 1
I waited until a realm I had no characters on became one designated for ‘New Players’, so fate selected Terokkar EU as my home. I selected alliance as my faction and because I will be making use of the daily quests which are in Stormwind I created a Human character. The other alliance races can also reach Stormwind quite easily. Because this is going to be my only character on this realm I picked a class that had good survivability and was reasonably fun to play. So I created a Paladin, they have good self healing from quite a low level and can fight multiple mobs when it is required.
An experienced player can go from level 1 to 5 in under 30 minutes simply by doing the quests in the start zone. I still had enough time to run to Goldshire and visit the profession trainer there. To speed my journey to level 10 I selected two gathering professions that give xp, Herbalism and Mining. These professions also improve survivability although I planned to drop mining for inscription at level 10.
Day 2
I picked up all the quests available in Goldshire (which I also made my home) and sorted them by difficulty, most quests are nearby at this point and I want to get XP quickly. By the end of my first hour I was at level 7. With my bags filling up I started put a few things into the bank in Stormwind. Later on I will sell the ore I have gathered on the auction house while keeping the herbs to level inscription to 75.
Day 3
I reached level 8 and was well on my way to level 9.
Day 4
I didn’t quite make it to level 10 but should be able to do my first cooking and fishing dailies the next day.
Day 5
I reached level 10 and made Stormwind my home. I learned cooking and fishing and bought a fishing pole and a shiny bauble for use in my first fishing quest. It is worth getting your fishing skill to at least 25 the first time around. I noticed that the horde seem to have better luck with fishing in the capital as I collected a lot of grey items fishing which never happened on my Horde characters. I finished up by selling Ore and a couple of green items on the auction house.
Day 6
After doing my dailies I spent the rest of my time levelling inscription. After selling things on the auction house I had just over 15 gold and I had to buy some extra herbs to get to 75 inscription. I made Enchanting vellums and Moonglow Inks to level. At level 75 Minor Inscription Research and I use this every day to unlock extra glyphs. I had to buy the herbs to make midnight ink and this used up most of my gold, the herbs used to make midnight ink are selling for 35-50 silver each which means a stack is 7-10 gold so cashflow is an issue. In hindsight maybe I should have kept mining for a few more levels.
The first glyph I learned was Fading so I made one and put it on the auction house, the current price was 29 gold.
Day 7
Competition for my one glyph was pretty tough and demand low so it would be 6 days before I sold my glyph(for 15 gold) and the price of herbs stopped me from being able to buy stacks but just a few here and there. It is probably a better idea to keep two gathering professions until you have enough gold to buy a few stacks of herbs to make a number of glyphs rather than just one.
After doing my dailies I still had around 15 minutes left for questing and during this I collected some more herbs to help raise a little extra gold. I reached level 11, things will get easier from here on in Goldshire. I don’t intend to leave this zone until I have completed most of the quests as the mobs will still give XP up to around level 15. Once I leave Goldshire travel time will start to become a factor. I found that I used up most of my rested XP in around 15 minutes of questing/gathering
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
Levelling Alts using the new daily quests
I had some technical problems over the holiday period, so no internet (or phone) and no WoW.
When I did get back online I discovered the cooking and fishing daily quests in Orgrimmar and Stormwind. These are a really good way of levelling alt characters, they are available from level 10 and offer XP that scales with level. The cooking quests do not require any cooking although you will need level 1 in the skill, some of the fishing quests do require fishing and it is best to use a lure to get up to level 25. Doing both of them usually takes me 10-15 minutes which means I can run them on a lot of characters, in fact it is possible to level a character just doing these quests.
The fish caught while doing the fishing quests can be used to level cooking as well, the recipes are available from Thunder Bluff (for the Horde) or Stormwind (Alliance) except the Longjaw Mudskipper which you can get from Ironforge
Brilliant Smallfish (up to 85)
Longjaw Mudskipper (50 to 130)
Bristle Whisker Catfish (100 to 180)
To get the best out of these dailies and rested XP I have been doing just the dailies and doing quests once I have enough rested XP to reach the next level. As a result I am currently levelling no less than 15 characters at the same time, although I don’t mange to do dailies on them all each day. I have a couple of hours available in the mornings and this allows me to do dailies on around 7 characters. The XP from these quests increases as you level although not proportionately so.
Level 10 = 13% of a level or 26% for both quests (XP is also earned from any mobs killed)
Level 15= 10% of a level or 20% for both quests (by this point little or no XP come from the mobs)
Level 20= 9.5% of a level or 19% for both quests
Level 30= 8% of a level or 16% for both quests
And so on, by level 80 the quests only offer 1.5% of a level each. However by this point there are other daily quests available.
Currently I am levelling characters between levels 10-39 using this approach and I am looking out for any other daily quests as I go. This seems to be the only one (for the Horde but there is an Alliance alternative) at Krom’gar Fortress which is available from level 24 to 30. This quest offers another 15%-10% and takes around 10 minutes including travel time from Orgrimmar.
So using daily quests and rested (usually takes no more than 30 minutes) I can expect to level up;
10-23 every 4 days
24-30 every 3 days
I don’t have data for the levels above this but indications are it will be 5 days above level 30. Also guild level increases the quest XP (all the above have no bonuses).
I would recommend taking Archaeology at level 20 and using it whenever a dig site is nearby
When I did get back online I discovered the cooking and fishing daily quests in Orgrimmar and Stormwind. These are a really good way of levelling alt characters, they are available from level 10 and offer XP that scales with level. The cooking quests do not require any cooking although you will need level 1 in the skill, some of the fishing quests do require fishing and it is best to use a lure to get up to level 25. Doing both of them usually takes me 10-15 minutes which means I can run them on a lot of characters, in fact it is possible to level a character just doing these quests.
The fish caught while doing the fishing quests can be used to level cooking as well, the recipes are available from Thunder Bluff (for the Horde) or Stormwind (Alliance) except the Longjaw Mudskipper which you can get from Ironforge
Brilliant Smallfish (up to 85)
Longjaw Mudskipper (50 to 130)
Bristle Whisker Catfish (100 to 180)
To get the best out of these dailies and rested XP I have been doing just the dailies and doing quests once I have enough rested XP to reach the next level. As a result I am currently levelling no less than 15 characters at the same time, although I don’t mange to do dailies on them all each day. I have a couple of hours available in the mornings and this allows me to do dailies on around 7 characters. The XP from these quests increases as you level although not proportionately so.
Level 10 = 13% of a level or 26% for both quests (XP is also earned from any mobs killed)
Level 15= 10% of a level or 20% for both quests (by this point little or no XP come from the mobs)
Level 20= 9.5% of a level or 19% for both quests
Level 30= 8% of a level or 16% for both quests
And so on, by level 80 the quests only offer 1.5% of a level each. However by this point there are other daily quests available.
Currently I am levelling characters between levels 10-39 using this approach and I am looking out for any other daily quests as I go. This seems to be the only one (for the Horde but there is an Alliance alternative) at Krom’gar Fortress which is available from level 24 to 30. This quest offers another 15%-10% and takes around 10 minutes including travel time from Orgrimmar.
So using daily quests and rested (usually takes no more than 30 minutes) I can expect to level up;
10-23 every 4 days
24-30 every 3 days
I don’t have data for the levels above this but indications are it will be 5 days above level 30. Also guild level increases the quest XP (all the above have no bonuses).
I would recommend taking Archaeology at level 20 and using it whenever a dig site is nearby
Wednesday, 22 December 2010
Inscription - 5k gold in 3 weeks
I have had a bit of a rough week and even now am suffering from ‘Man Flu’. On my second box of paper tissues now. I have managed to spend a little time developing my scribes on Magtheridon and Mazrigos (EU).
Mazrigos (EU)
Yesterday I got my retribution paladin to level 35 and immediately jumped to 247 inscription, my highest level in this profession. I am only making profitable items at the moment rather than power levelling, it did expand my range of glyphs made from Celestial Inks though. Currently the Lion Ink Glyphs seem most profitable and I am adjusting my strategy to focusing on my most profitable glyphs using data gathered over the last 3 weeks.
Here are the headline figures;
Week 1 glyphs sold 76, 500 gold plus stock (estimated 600+ gold)
Week 2 glyphs sold 103, 1500 gold
Week 3 glyphs sold 210, 4500 gold
What follows is a breakdown of my process, I have made a few tweaks here and there over the last few weeks.
I use just two addons, AuctionLite and recently MailOpener, both can be found on Curse. I also made use of a spreadsheet to keep track of the current selling price always adjusting downwards and number of sales of each glyph though I have read of an addon that will do the same thing.
Buying the materials;
at the start I had 30-40 gold to buy herbs but I have repeated the process on another realm just using farming. Of course a smater auctioneer will probably buy out cheap herbs and can then list their own at a higher price. Generally I go through each group of herbs for a particular ink and buy any below the threshold (for Midnight Ink this is 50s) unless I have more than a weeks worth of ink stock. It depends on how much storage space you have to be honest.
Based on this price I have a cost to make of each glyph, currently glyphs made from Midnight Ink cost me around 7.5 gold to make. I will then list one of each glyph (two if someone has listed them for more than my maximum price). AuctionLite allows you to remember the buyout price so this isn’t as time consuming as you might expect. If my buyout is lower than the current minimum bid price I will often adjust upwards. I continue to adjust my price downwards as long as I make an acceptable profit as determined on the spreadsheet. Intially I set this at 5g per glyph but with such a large range available now I have increased my minimum profit.
As I sell glyphs I re-craft and re-list. Remember each realms economy differs, for example on Magtheridon EU I only sold 40 glyphs but made more gold.
I research one glyph each day and if profitable I craft and auction it. From day to day some glyphs may drop below the cost price but will often be worth selling a day or so later
Over the 3 weeks I found some glyphs earned me more gold than others allowing me to focus on those more if I had limited time. 10 glyphs account for two-thirds of gold made from midnight ink glyphs for example. If I have time I also post other glyphs though.
I found it useful to have Herbalism on my scribe due to the XP boost it gives while levelling and just in case there is a sudden lack of supply of a herb group. I am currently unable to gather the Celestial Ink herbs but that should change very soon which stops anyone from trying to force me out of the market by controlling the availability of materials.
Don’t forget to list the non-glyph items, they are essential free to make so any gold they make is extra.
Mazrigos (EU)
Yesterday I got my retribution paladin to level 35 and immediately jumped to 247 inscription, my highest level in this profession. I am only making profitable items at the moment rather than power levelling, it did expand my range of glyphs made from Celestial Inks though. Currently the Lion Ink Glyphs seem most profitable and I am adjusting my strategy to focusing on my most profitable glyphs using data gathered over the last 3 weeks.
Here are the headline figures;
Week 1 glyphs sold 76, 500 gold plus stock (estimated 600+ gold)
Week 2 glyphs sold 103, 1500 gold
Week 3 glyphs sold 210, 4500 gold
What follows is a breakdown of my process, I have made a few tweaks here and there over the last few weeks.
I use just two addons, AuctionLite and recently MailOpener, both can be found on Curse. I also made use of a spreadsheet to keep track of the current selling price always adjusting downwards and number of sales of each glyph though I have read of an addon that will do the same thing.
Buying the materials;
at the start I had 30-40 gold to buy herbs but I have repeated the process on another realm just using farming. Of course a smater auctioneer will probably buy out cheap herbs and can then list their own at a higher price. Generally I go through each group of herbs for a particular ink and buy any below the threshold (for Midnight Ink this is 50s) unless I have more than a weeks worth of ink stock. It depends on how much storage space you have to be honest.
Based on this price I have a cost to make of each glyph, currently glyphs made from Midnight Ink cost me around 7.5 gold to make. I will then list one of each glyph (two if someone has listed them for more than my maximum price). AuctionLite allows you to remember the buyout price so this isn’t as time consuming as you might expect. If my buyout is lower than the current minimum bid price I will often adjust upwards. I continue to adjust my price downwards as long as I make an acceptable profit as determined on the spreadsheet. Intially I set this at 5g per glyph but with such a large range available now I have increased my minimum profit.
As I sell glyphs I re-craft and re-list. Remember each realms economy differs, for example on Magtheridon EU I only sold 40 glyphs but made more gold.
I research one glyph each day and if profitable I craft and auction it. From day to day some glyphs may drop below the cost price but will often be worth selling a day or so later
Over the 3 weeks I found some glyphs earned me more gold than others allowing me to focus on those more if I had limited time. 10 glyphs account for two-thirds of gold made from midnight ink glyphs for example. If I have time I also post other glyphs though.
I found it useful to have Herbalism on my scribe due to the XP boost it gives while levelling and just in case there is a sudden lack of supply of a herb group. I am currently unable to gather the Celestial Ink herbs but that should change very soon which stops anyone from trying to force me out of the market by controlling the availability of materials.
Don’t forget to list the non-glyph items, they are essential free to make so any gold they make is extra.
Wednesday, 15 December 2010
My First week of Cataclysm
So cataclysm has been out for just over a week and in this time quite a few people have gotten to the new level cap. WoW Census has not been updated to cover levels above 80 yet but I am guessing most people with level 80 characters are either at or well on their way to 85.
In the first few days I stuck to my plan of just doing daily quest on my level 80s. Blizzard decided to reduce the XP received for killing mobs if you were above a certain level though;
Level 60+ only 10% XP for killing classic content mobs
Level 70+ only 10% XP for killing Outland mobs
Level 80+ only 10% XP for killing Northrend mobs
I haven’t been on my level 80s in the last few days, instead I have been spending time on making gold at low level using inscription. I wrote before about levelling inscription on Mazrigos EU because I couldn’t afford any glyphs. Well after two weeks and spending around an hour a day on this I have over 2k gold on my level 20 Paladin. I decided to try and see if this would work on a realm that was for ‘New Players’, and rolled a couple of characters on Magtheridon EU.
The economy on Magtheridon is crazy, some midnight ink glyphs are selling for 65-70+ gold each and the herbs are in the 1.1 – 1.5 gold range. In other words you can make over 100 gold by just selling a couple of glyphs. On the other hand other glyphs are selling for less than the value of the mats. It took me a little while to get started, I levelled a Troll Druid as my gatherer. In hindsight it would have been better to level my inscription character first with Herbalism as the other profession. My characters here are currently a level 16 Druid and a level 10 Hunter. At times it has been difficult to buy enough herbs to make even midnight ink. However last night I did get to 250 gold most of which I re-invested in a lot of low price herbs that had just appeared on the market, I also bought a couple of netherweave bags as on character storage was becoming difficult. I can make 56 different glyphs and have sold 21 glyphs so far, almost at level 150 inscription I will need to level my hunter again soon.
So not much love for my main realm, my Warlock is 5% away from level 81, but my Hunter on Hellfire EU has put on a few levels to level 57 and my Paladin on the same realm reached level 66. These will be the character hitting the new content at level 80.
Winter Veil starts today so I will be stepping up my Small Egg farming to make some quick and easy gold, if last year was anything to go by. Unfortunately I will miss the first 7 hours of the event but I am predicting small eggs will sell for 5-10 gold each. Just as well my holiday break starts tomorrow.
In the first few days I stuck to my plan of just doing daily quest on my level 80s. Blizzard decided to reduce the XP received for killing mobs if you were above a certain level though;
Level 60+ only 10% XP for killing classic content mobs
Level 70+ only 10% XP for killing Outland mobs
Level 80+ only 10% XP for killing Northrend mobs
I haven’t been on my level 80s in the last few days, instead I have been spending time on making gold at low level using inscription. I wrote before about levelling inscription on Mazrigos EU because I couldn’t afford any glyphs. Well after two weeks and spending around an hour a day on this I have over 2k gold on my level 20 Paladin. I decided to try and see if this would work on a realm that was for ‘New Players’, and rolled a couple of characters on Magtheridon EU.
The economy on Magtheridon is crazy, some midnight ink glyphs are selling for 65-70+ gold each and the herbs are in the 1.1 – 1.5 gold range. In other words you can make over 100 gold by just selling a couple of glyphs. On the other hand other glyphs are selling for less than the value of the mats. It took me a little while to get started, I levelled a Troll Druid as my gatherer. In hindsight it would have been better to level my inscription character first with Herbalism as the other profession. My characters here are currently a level 16 Druid and a level 10 Hunter. At times it has been difficult to buy enough herbs to make even midnight ink. However last night I did get to 250 gold most of which I re-invested in a lot of low price herbs that had just appeared on the market, I also bought a couple of netherweave bags as on character storage was becoming difficult. I can make 56 different glyphs and have sold 21 glyphs so far, almost at level 150 inscription I will need to level my hunter again soon.
So not much love for my main realm, my Warlock is 5% away from level 81, but my Hunter on Hellfire EU has put on a few levels to level 57 and my Paladin on the same realm reached level 66. These will be the character hitting the new content at level 80.
Winter Veil starts today so I will be stepping up my Small Egg farming to make some quick and easy gold, if last year was anything to go by. Unfortunately I will miss the first 7 hours of the event but I am predicting small eggs will sell for 5-10 gold each. Just as well my holiday break starts tomorrow.
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
Use it or Lose it
Just a week away from the launch of Cataclysm and one thing that will happen is that all rested xp will be reset to zero. In other words any character below level 80 that you intend playing in before December 17th you should reduce their rested xp to zero before the reset. I have plans to be active on 4 characters that fit into the category which means using up that xp. This is in addition to levelling my 2 level 80’s.
My main focus now is on my Hunter, currently level 50 with at least a level of rested, once I have used up the rested I will attack the rested on a level 46 Druid and level 65 Death Knight.
One minor distraction has been trying to get a handle on the Herb market on Hellfire EU, I have a high level herbalist and I am still working out what things are worth and since patch 4.0.3a where herbs can be found. At least 2 herbs changed their names as well. I’m mainly going to be trying to exploit shortages in the market, though this did lead to an ill tempered exchange with someone who wanted to buy my goldthorn but wouldn’t pay the higher value I placed on it. Instead they decided that I should sell it for the lowest price I had seen it on the AH all week. In the end they decided I was a noob who hadn’t been playing WoW very long. My bank character was at the time sitting on over 4k gold but I couldn’t discuss it further as they put me on ignore. Fortunately I have a low level Scribe/Alchemist on the same realm who can make use of the herbs if the price drops. Still not everyone understands supply and demand.
My main focus now is on my Hunter, currently level 50 with at least a level of rested, once I have used up the rested I will attack the rested on a level 46 Druid and level 65 Death Knight.
One minor distraction has been trying to get a handle on the Herb market on Hellfire EU, I have a high level herbalist and I am still working out what things are worth and since patch 4.0.3a where herbs can be found. At least 2 herbs changed their names as well. I’m mainly going to be trying to exploit shortages in the market, though this did lead to an ill tempered exchange with someone who wanted to buy my goldthorn but wouldn’t pay the higher value I placed on it. Instead they decided that I should sell it for the lowest price I had seen it on the AH all week. In the end they decided I was a noob who hadn’t been playing WoW very long. My bank character was at the time sitting on over 4k gold but I couldn’t discuss it further as they put me on ignore. Fortunately I have a low level Scribe/Alchemist on the same realm who can make use of the herbs if the price drops. Still not everyone understands supply and demand.
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
State of play on Cataclysm's eve
So Cataclysm starts here...
The zones for levels 1-60 are released and I expect over the next couple of weeks they will see a lot of activity, hopefully this will result in a lot of gathering data appearing on the internet. I have a level 80 on two different realms and while one is focused on crafting the other is a gatherer.
Status Report
Darkspear;
Warlock (Tailor/Enchanter) level 80 – doing dailies for gold, working on Silver Covenent and Wormrest Accord.
Death Knight (Blacksmith/Jewelcrafter) level 65 – currently inactive
Druid (Miner/Herbalist) level 46 – currently inactive
Hellfire;
Death Knight (Herbalist/Skinner) level 80 – levelling herbalism/skinning/fishing/cooking (all around 300)
Paladin (Mining/Blacksmith) level 64 – aiming to reach level 68 by December 6th
Hunter (Skinner/Engineer) level 49 – working on venomous ravarsaur mount, aiming to reach level 58 by December 6th
Druid (Miner/Herbalist) level 14 – bank alt
There is a lot of hype about realm firsts, there is no way I will get one of those and to be honest I have no interest in them. I am content to get to max level a few weeks later than the first wave, I do however want to take advantage of those that do. So my level 80 herb gatherer/skinner will be keeping a close eye on the AH. I have already started recording the price of herbs twice a day at times I am likely to post, this should help identify gaps in supply and the best herbs to gather for gold per hour. When I get back into the new zones I’ll be spending an hour in each to see what I can farm and recording the information. I’ll get a clearer picture of what sells once I start listing on the auction house. Something for a future post.
I intend to avoid getting frustrated by over populated zones while levelling my characters and my plan is to level my 80s initially in Northrend. My Death Knight has not done any quests in Icecrown or Storm Peaks and if my experience in the beta is correct just doing dailies can net around 25-35% of a level per day. The reduction of xp required for level 70-80 will leave my Paladin (mining/blacksmithing) in a strong position to reach level 80 quickly as well. Because all rested xp is to be reset to zero when cataclysm launches it is actually best to level a lower level character first so I may be spending some time on levelling my (currently) level 14 druid (mining/herbalism) however my weekday time will probably be largely used up just running dailies on my level 80. The advantage of delaying is that when I finally hit the new zones most of the bugs should have been fixed and the number of players competing for mobs should be much lower. The first few weeks in the beta were pretty frustrating with quest choke points so levelling my Paladin through Northrend and Hunter through Outland should be very time efficient.
Something that will take me away from that is keeping up with my girlfriend who rolled a druid on another realm, we plan to 2 man as many instances as possible. I created a Hunter but seem to be constantly a couple of levels behind here which makes holding aggro an issue (she heals my pet tanks). It also gave me an opportunity to see how much I have learned when it comes to rolling on a new realm, gold is a slight issue. I struggled at levels 5-15 due to little gold and no bag rewards, because she had Herbalism/Skinning I picked skinning and leatherworking. I found training costs kept me broke for much of the time and often I couldn’t train new skills until I was halfway through the level. All of this wasn’t made easy by the lack of a pet until level 10, fortunately I know how to kite. A stack of light leather sells for about 2 gold so eventually I was able to buy some better bags, as a rule I have around 20 slots available at level 21. I am just around even on gold at the moment. On the other hand she has over 100 gold from farming herbs! To try and catch up I have been running pick up groups without her and these do make for quicker levelling and of course there is good gear to be had. The only instance we have 2 manned so far is Ragefire Chasm (RFC) at level 18/20 but this was before patch 4.0.3a and many spells are going to be nerfed so it will be interesting to see when we can complete Wailing Caverns.
The zones for levels 1-60 are released and I expect over the next couple of weeks they will see a lot of activity, hopefully this will result in a lot of gathering data appearing on the internet. I have a level 80 on two different realms and while one is focused on crafting the other is a gatherer.
Status Report
Darkspear;
Warlock (Tailor/Enchanter) level 80 – doing dailies for gold, working on Silver Covenent and Wormrest Accord.
Death Knight (Blacksmith/Jewelcrafter) level 65 – currently inactive
Druid (Miner/Herbalist) level 46 – currently inactive
Hellfire;
Death Knight (Herbalist/Skinner) level 80 – levelling herbalism/skinning/fishing/cooking (all around 300)
Paladin (Mining/Blacksmith) level 64 – aiming to reach level 68 by December 6th
Hunter (Skinner/Engineer) level 49 – working on venomous ravarsaur mount, aiming to reach level 58 by December 6th
Druid (Miner/Herbalist) level 14 – bank alt
There is a lot of hype about realm firsts, there is no way I will get one of those and to be honest I have no interest in them. I am content to get to max level a few weeks later than the first wave, I do however want to take advantage of those that do. So my level 80 herb gatherer/skinner will be keeping a close eye on the AH. I have already started recording the price of herbs twice a day at times I am likely to post, this should help identify gaps in supply and the best herbs to gather for gold per hour. When I get back into the new zones I’ll be spending an hour in each to see what I can farm and recording the information. I’ll get a clearer picture of what sells once I start listing on the auction house. Something for a future post.
I intend to avoid getting frustrated by over populated zones while levelling my characters and my plan is to level my 80s initially in Northrend. My Death Knight has not done any quests in Icecrown or Storm Peaks and if my experience in the beta is correct just doing dailies can net around 25-35% of a level per day. The reduction of xp required for level 70-80 will leave my Paladin (mining/blacksmithing) in a strong position to reach level 80 quickly as well. Because all rested xp is to be reset to zero when cataclysm launches it is actually best to level a lower level character first so I may be spending some time on levelling my (currently) level 14 druid (mining/herbalism) however my weekday time will probably be largely used up just running dailies on my level 80. The advantage of delaying is that when I finally hit the new zones most of the bugs should have been fixed and the number of players competing for mobs should be much lower. The first few weeks in the beta were pretty frustrating with quest choke points so levelling my Paladin through Northrend and Hunter through Outland should be very time efficient.
Something that will take me away from that is keeping up with my girlfriend who rolled a druid on another realm, we plan to 2 man as many instances as possible. I created a Hunter but seem to be constantly a couple of levels behind here which makes holding aggro an issue (she heals my pet tanks). It also gave me an opportunity to see how much I have learned when it comes to rolling on a new realm, gold is a slight issue. I struggled at levels 5-15 due to little gold and no bag rewards, because she had Herbalism/Skinning I picked skinning and leatherworking. I found training costs kept me broke for much of the time and often I couldn’t train new skills until I was halfway through the level. All of this wasn’t made easy by the lack of a pet until level 10, fortunately I know how to kite. A stack of light leather sells for about 2 gold so eventually I was able to buy some better bags, as a rule I have around 20 slots available at level 21. I am just around even on gold at the moment. On the other hand she has over 100 gold from farming herbs! To try and catch up I have been running pick up groups without her and these do make for quicker levelling and of course there is good gear to be had. The only instance we have 2 manned so far is Ragefire Chasm (RFC) at level 18/20 but this was before patch 4.0.3a and many spells are going to be nerfed so it will be interesting to see when we can complete Wailing Caverns.
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
My Death Knight got to within 5% of level 80 without doing any quests in Storm Peaks or Icecrown so it is looking like it will be possible to reach level 82 without even leaving Northrend. I got to L72 before leaving Outland, and still had a lot of quests to do there. Next time through I will start Northrend in Howling Fjord to get the Kalu'ak daily then switch to Borean Tundra because I want to make the dailies a big part of my levelling.
I tested levelling from 80 with dailies on the beta realm, although xp could be adjusted (gold rewards from dailies already have been reduced), it is an option if the new zones are overpopulated. This happened a number of times in early beta.
Running dailies on my L80 Warlock gained a good level percentage just from my normal morning run (22 daily quests) starting at level 80.94 I got to 81.24. 8 of those quests are 'PvP' however I have yet to encounter any other faction players while doing these quests and I doubt this will change when cataclysm launches.
Having a litle bit of gold on these characters I hope to buy a few nice uncommon (green) items on the auction house, though my Warlock shouldn't need them before hitting the first level 81 zone. I have 3 crafted raid epics from patterns I bought on the auction house and I haven't even bothered to gem or enchant them yet.
Because it seems that it will be difficult to max out some professions without getting to at least level 84, dailies in Northrend are going to be significant for those with crafting alts. However it looks like it might only take a week playing around 90 mins per alt to get to level 82.
My focus in live has now switched to my Hunter, people are raving about how overpowered Mages are but my level 44 Hunter is able to take on multiple mobs 4-5 levels higher with relative ease. I'm not brilliantly skilled so most players should be able to do this. I want to get to level 48 to unlock the Venomous Ravasaur mount quest at which point I'll be aiming to get my Paladin to at least level 68. Currently he is 10/20 on the ravasaur quest and L55.5, but with mining can level quite quickly.
I tested levelling from 80 with dailies on the beta realm, although xp could be adjusted (gold rewards from dailies already have been reduced), it is an option if the new zones are overpopulated. This happened a number of times in early beta.
Running dailies on my L80 Warlock gained a good level percentage just from my normal morning run (22 daily quests) starting at level 80.94 I got to 81.24. 8 of those quests are 'PvP' however I have yet to encounter any other faction players while doing these quests and I doubt this will change when cataclysm launches.
Having a litle bit of gold on these characters I hope to buy a few nice uncommon (green) items on the auction house, though my Warlock shouldn't need them before hitting the first level 81 zone. I have 3 crafted raid epics from patterns I bought on the auction house and I haven't even bothered to gem or enchant them yet.
Because it seems that it will be difficult to max out some professions without getting to at least level 84, dailies in Northrend are going to be significant for those with crafting alts. However it looks like it might only take a week playing around 90 mins per alt to get to level 82.
My focus in live has now switched to my Hunter, people are raving about how overpowered Mages are but my level 44 Hunter is able to take on multiple mobs 4-5 levels higher with relative ease. I'm not brilliantly skilled so most players should be able to do this. I want to get to level 48 to unlock the Venomous Ravasaur mount quest at which point I'll be aiming to get my Paladin to at least level 68. Currently he is 10/20 on the ravasaur quest and L55.5, but with mining can level quite quickly.
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