2681

Outlands is so fast now. On recent leveling I skipped half of the first zone, did zangermarsh and part of nagrand and was ready for Northrend.

2682

That’s good to know, because I hate the Hellfire Peninsula. So huge and brown and boring. If they had made Zangarmarsh the first zone, Outland wouldn’t seem so depressing.

2683

Ya, ditto for me sofar too. On both my toons, i did hellfire, and one other zone(zangar or nagrand) to get me to 67ish (started at 58) - there was a fair amount of rested xp though(but no heirlooms or other xp incentives for me)

2684

I’ve been using the seven free days Blizzard put on my account and it’s looking like the sneaky gits may be successful in luring me back, at least for the short term.

I am one of those (rare?) players who doesn’t really enjoy the endgame dungeons, apart from maybe playing each a few times when they’re new and no one knows what to expect, so for me the enjoyment comes in the leveling process. I haven’t played since a few months after Lich King shipped so there’s been a lot of changes (talents, UI, etc.) but after creating a new warrior, I was stunned at how different the experience was to the last time I had played through.

From 1-20 I never had to eat. All of my food was sold. Healing potions? Never used. Running both solo and in a duo, my character was a dervish of destruction. The pace was brisk. Instead of feeling weak and fragile and approaching battles with the constant worry of ‘adds’, I simply charged in and cut through things.

I doubt that same dynamic translates through later levels in quite the same way but the experience was such a welcome change to the olde days of slogging a lowbie through, it’s nearly convinced me to come back full-time, at least for the period following the launch of Cataclysm.

2685

That’s funny because Hellfire Peninsula was my favorite zone besides Zangarmarsh in Outland. Stepping through the portal and seeing the gorgeous sky and war being waged by those monstrous demons was almost a breathtaking sight. It had interesting locations like the Pools of Aggonar and Den of Haal’esh and the Felreaver roaming around one-shotting the unwary added to the tension. I think it did a great job of setting the stage for what was going on in the Outlands. I played through it once when BC came out and once a few months ago and had a blast each time.

And Creole, the same thing happened to me a few months ago when Blizzard gave me 7 free days on my long expired account. Got me re-addicted to a game I thought I was done with. Damn Cataclysm.

2686

If you stay in Vanilla until 60 you barely have to do any HFP at all before you can move on to Zangermarsh.

2687

Heirlooms are also decent gear items that you won’t have to replace while you’re leveling. If you really didn’t want the extra xp you could take them off when you turn in quests when you turn them in, since you get the most bonus from quests.

2688

It’s 20k gold i think. (If you want to transfer more, turn into in mats to sell on the AH, of course that now most are pretty useless)

When you’re 85, Heirlooms will be easy to get again since you get more JP from dungeons, i think. Alternatively, you can still do the Argent Tournament dailies and use the seals to get heirlooms.

2689

There are also new heirlooms coming with the guild leveling system, helms and cloaks if I remember correctly.

2690

It pretty much does.

2691

I don’t know if it’s heirlooms or the way they changed character progression and stats without the reworked world, but heirloom groups (which is most of them) while I’ve been leveling just decimate everything in its path. It seems more than decent.

After lucking into level appropriate quest in the beginning which reminded me why I like soloing with rogues, the game has left me unimpressed. I’m really hoping that Cata brings some challenge back to the old world dungeons. I don’t think I’ve had a boss take more than 30 seconds, if that.

Another big thing I think is missing is context. If you do deadmines for instance, you miss the entrance into the mines and the wonderful exit over the cliff. If dungeon finder is going to be the primary way blizzard wants players to experience that content, they should rework dungeon finder mode to be like the caverns of time. For instance, if I were to change the deadmines to fit this new mode, the group would approach from an instanced version of westfall, and then I’d add a boss on the cliff that appears only when all the bosses inside are dead, so players exit through the back.

I’d also consider, vote skip-able intros similar to the race ones when you start the game, to set the tone.

Yeah, my rogue of all things frequently takes 4-5 mobs at once as long as I don’t screw up using my abilities. It feels wrong.

2692

My rogue dominates. That healing thing they get as a finishing move means that he just plows through multiple mobs now. He used to be one of my weaker characters for soloing, but now he is almost too good.

2693

That’s great news! I have a level 72 rogue stranded in Hellfire simply because I couldn’t bear levelling her anymore and having to sit down and eat on every pull and barely surviving against more than one enemy; then again, I leveled 3 DK’s to 80, I’ve yet to play a class so good at soloing stuff as a blood DK.

2694

Can anybody briefly explain heirlooms to me? In the process of leveling up my old characters to 80 now and I wouldn’t mind grabbing some from the brief descriptions I have run into (level scaling, xp bonus, etc). Caveats: I don’t want to group outside of me (warrior) and a priest. Still realistic or is this strictly a group thing?

2695

Heirloom items are “Bind on Account” items that can be equipped by any level character and scale the stats to the level. The shoulder and chest pieces each grant +10% XP from kills and quests, so are the most popular ones.

You pay for them using Justice Points which you get from dungeons.

2696

Heirlooms will become far more useful once we can send them across servers.

2697

You can purchase at least some of the heirloom items by doing the Argent Tournament dailies in Icecrown. This does not require any grouping, but requires quite a bit of dedication to get to the point where you can even access the vendor. There is also a separate set of heirlooms that can be gotten by PvP, which is kind of like grouping, but is a little more anonymous so you may feel less bashful about it. The main thing to remember with heirlooms is that the biggest benefit is the XP bonus, so you’ll want to pick up shoulders and the chest first. Also, for at least most of your leveling time, the cloth gear can work for any caster.

2698

You can also buy them with Champion Seals, which do not require grouping up for.

Bah, too late!

2699

Is there a good resource explaining how the specialization for talents works now? For example, what special ability each class gets for each specialization? I haven’t had much luck finding things on the official page or on WoWWiki.

I’m trying hard not to get back in, but Cataclysm is enticing. At least the cost of catching up on expansions and getting everything for my wife is holding me back.

2700

Check the talent calculator on www.wowhead.com - it’ll show the specialties for each tree.