Quick grinding question

[Mern]

Is this really the fastest way for levelling? I mean, it's by far the most boring method ever imaginable but if it is, then one's gotta do what one's gotta do. But, how fast is it compared to instance running or questing? Does running an instance every weekend hamper your levelling progression(considering the time it takes to get a group formed)? It's probably the boredom factor but I feel it goes faster by questing. Anyway.. could anyone care to enlighten me?

Thanks

[Caesar]

grinding is by far the fastest way. I generally always skip delivery quests etc. Slay quests or collect xxx of yyy that drops from mobs are very good to grind with. always be in zones where the quests are geen/yellow and skip organge/red quests. at your level I would guess thousand needles and then shimmering flats would be the best area to grind. But hey, you play to have fun. No point in playing a style you dont like.

Doing instances is usually a severe gimp in the xp gain, but you can get items that makes you go level faster after.

Get flex bar as a mod and you can see your xp/hour gain.

[Exilliniara]

Caesar means Titan Bar.

[Mern]

Ok, I'll do that :) It is boring yes, but anyway, later on things will get brighter. So a sound plan would be something like grind till 40 then Scarlet Monastery and then on to 55 and L/UBRS and so on and so forth?

Kind of hard to just grind since I love instancing.. but time should pass fast. I hope :)


Thanks for insight.

D/Ling Titan Bar.

[Mern]

Hmm by Titan Bar you mean Titan panel right? Just so that I know i got the right thing :)

[Mern]

Nevermind. It's functional, and I have to say it's wicked :D

ps: no editing our posts here? ;)

[Caerniol]

I think Caesar is selling questing short. I got to lvl 60 in 23 days and I was questing the whole time. Barely killed a mob I didn't have a quest on. Also this gives you lots of rep with all sorts of factions so you have a huge headstart if you want to get exhalted somewhere. Also instances is a must in my book. Its where you get the good gear that helps you keep up a good tempo in you normal kills.
All this however is not the point. Grinding non stop is so excrusiatingly boring I would quest even if it takes double time, wich it doesn't by a longshot.

[Aldokar]

Questing is just as good exp if you know the quests. Sure there are many bad quests from an expview but most arent. Make Ebon do a /played and see if he beats me til 60? Doubt it... He did pure grinding with a heavydps build.

[Mern]

Yeah, i'm aiming the Ebon approach.. heavy feral cat build for grinding and frankly I've noticed as I will post in the other thread that questing seems right now (perhaps where I was .. anyway) quite slow since some mobs are tank-type mobs. It takes a lot more to get one down than caster types with a cat build. And I'm not into the whole balance thing. Also the 2000ish xp I gain (at my level) from questing doesn't seem to pay off as I could easily have grinded for those 3.5k (give or take due to killing those tank-type mobs) in a shorter span of time. Anyway, it seems to take longer.

Could a 60 druid shed some light on this? How long did it take? Pace? How many levels/day is expected while grinding? I'm getting a level/2 hours right now and frankly it doesn't seem all that efficient.

Thanks for the input ;)

[Ninesy]

I think Caesar is selling questing short. I got to lvl 60 in 23 days and I was questing the whole time.

Is this /played days or real time days? If it's the latter, well done, if it's the former it's a bit less inspiring.


Also instances is a must in my book. Its where you get the good gear that helps you keep up a good tempo in you normal kills.

Quite so. However, gear is not as big a factor as one would think. Keep in mind that one can simply go to the AH once every two levels or so and get rather passable gear (and BoE blues as well). Doing Deadmines five times as a rogue to get dual Cruel Barbs is not viable timewise since by the time you were done you'd be at a level where said weapons were useless had you spent the time on grinding. :)


All this however is not the point. Grinding non stop is so excrusiatingly boring I would quest even if it takes double time, wich it doesn't by a longshot.

I'd say it does, depending on your class. My warlock had about 11 days /played when it hit 60. A rogue friend of mine that grinded all the time had, oh, 6 days. I'm looking at 2 days 18 hours with Nines right now at level 40, which is rather good. Haven't quested at all.

Seriously, though, each to their own. Many find grinding extremely boring and there's nothing strange with that. If the only thing you're looking for is pure speed, though, it's the best alternative by far, especially for high damage classes with low downtime such as rogues and feral druids.

[Caesar]

It was 23 rl days nine. although I would say playing 23 /played days on a rogue on this server and just reaching 60 would be more impressive as it would mean playing lots of hours every days and never level :)

Caesar got 60 in 30 rl days, but then there was no playing for about 10 days over christmas. (56-60 was in one day!)

as said. some quests are worth it, slay quests always are but many many quests are not xp efficent. But to know that you propably would have done the quest once before. There are different times for different classes too, hunters & rogues are very fast to level compared to some other classes.

[Kiirin]

If you are going to grind, you'll probably want to go through thott for some zones in and and above your level range and put together some quest packs for yourself, that you can do easily or in synergy with one another.
Basicly you'll want to combine grinding with doing quests that alliviate or boost grinding. It makes the time you spend grinding seem less ineffective if you are doing something else that will help you out later on or spending time grinding mobs you enjoy killing or in a zone you like.

[Mern]

Yeah, that's precisely what I'm doing now. I'm going for the humanoids. I'm thinking desolace will be cool for until level 38 or so.. then Stranglethorn Valley. The problem is, I've already done all those quests with another character.. but only once, since this is my second actually played character, so I don't really remember all of them. But thottbot really helps with that :) thanks folks.

Now 1-60 in 23 days seems REALLY fast.. I feel ashamed with my grinding speed. How many hours did you actually play per day? I've seen Ceasar and the others online for a looong time on weekends and it's fine, what I'm asking is: During the week... for how many hours do you guys play per day to get to 60 this fast? And do you have some sort of routine for combining play time with work/school? I'm looking at maximizing my "second job" hourly experience here ;) Any clues would be much appreciated.

[Illich]

I have followed two guides for powergrinding, combines both questing and grinding... I'm at 47 now and have played 4d17h, was aiming for 6d but I think that is out of the question (due to the fact i tried to do some elite quests that took way too much time - keep to the kills quests and stay out of the low level instances (if you can't get a group goin immediatly))

I have also stayed away from gearing up (bying gear - got a pair of arena bands - http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?witem=18711 cheap and grinded the mats for Dragonscale Gauntlets http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?witem=8347 (thnx Vadok)), which has also resulted in some nice gold instead (counting on being able to buy epic mount when I ding 60). Also helps if you pick two gathering proffessions and then respec when you have reached 60...

http://www.rtscentral.com/wowleveling.asp
http://www.wowguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10610

also check this one out - holds both of the above stated links
http://www.google.se/search?q=grind+levels+1+to+60&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:sv-SE:official

Happy Grinding

[Mern]

Thanks mate :) nice guides. Let's see what I can do with that.

[Mogareshnu]

For reference, Mern, i got to 60 in 8 days 6 hours /played (feral build until 58 or so) by strictly questing, so you keep grinding to 60 and we'll have an estimate of the difference. I for one wouldn't consider grinding no matter what because it's insufferably boring, but if you consider life to start at 60 and have a high lvl char to supply you with gear it might be a viable option. We'll see.

[Caerniol]

I had nothing els to do when I lvled my char. I was unemployed and played around 10 h a day on weekdays and at least that much on weekends. Also I had help from Aldo and Mog powerlvling lowlvl instances for gear. I also atarted out with around 25g from an older char.
Also...
Zulakkar is my 4th lvl 60 with countless lower alts, all fairly well distributed between the sides, so I know almost all areas and quests by heart.
I didn't check my /played but it should be around the same as Mogs.

[Mern]

Hmmm ok, thanks for the guidelines.. my played time is currently 3 days. I think 1 of these days was easily wasted to lingering around the barrens doing nothing with a couple of friends of mine who do nothing but roleplay and who got me in this game. BUT, if the secret and therefore "not told" aim here is to reach 60 in around 30 days.. I could always roll whatever class you need and get him up in 30 days. Otherwise if my initial slouch can be forgotten, I shall continue grinding and overcome the challenges of excrutiatingly mindless boring work :)

Row row row your boat..

Oh: And sadly I have no help whatsoever for running low-level instances since my only high level friend in this server is only 6 levels above me. Sad isn't it? :) Could any of those pimp priests back in page 1 hook me up with a friend? I'll invite them for dinner at chez Cenarius if they get me a real good one ;)