Oh yea, the leveling goes fast as hell through the old world. Honestly, some people are saying it goes too fast because it’s pretty easy to out level the awesome questing content if you do a couple instances.
The best part about leveling now is not only is it fast, it’s also a hell of a lot more fun. Grinding is non-existant, and pretty much every zone has an awesome storyline to go with it. In addition to the main questlines you’ll find tons of one-off camps filled amusing diversions and unique things you’ve never seen Blizzard do before (make sure to go to the west side of the scar in the badlands and do the quests there, awesome stuff).
Cataclysm isn’t even out yet and it’s already my favorite WoW expansion by leaps and bounds.
JZigish
2982
I just started a new troll, and the new troll area is really not that awesome. I hit several crippling bugs where I was stick in combat until I force quit the application, and various pathing problems with my imp (warlock, cause it’s new!). Even past that I’m having a lot of problems waiting for stuff to respawn and people stealing my mobs, I gather that blizzard wants you to team with people, but they should SAY that instead of just setting the repspawn timers high. Doing early game content solo on a high population server is still lame.
Granted I didn’t play a warlock, but I had no problem with any mobs getting camped. What were you trying to kill that wasn’t respawning fast enough? Personally, I loved the troll starting level, with the group-but-not-a-group mechanic.
Razgon
2984
I’m on a 7 day “come back and play with us” trial right now - I tried out a Battleground as well, which gave me about 1 full level of xp - is that normal? Also, everyone was one-shotting me, I assume thats because people still twink the heck out of the 10-19 lvl ranges?
Andrew
2985
Yes, a BG victory will give you about 75% of a level if you win, and it is the Call to Arms for that BG. Are you at the low end of the bracket? That will be a problem. I’ve also read complaints that damage at low levels is pretty screwy now, post-4.0, so it could be that.
JZigish
2986
The boss at the end where you get the help had a group ahead of me that had just started, so I had to wait about 5 minutes. then as I was fighting it another group came up and were constantly jumping in front of me spamming “hurry up” in chat. Yey! In some ways I think the quest mechanics of WoW (ie all escort quests where you can’t join halfway in) encourage people to be jerks.
Razgon
2987
well ,yes, was lvl 11, so I was kinda expecting to be hurting - just not that much ;-)
Aha! The “Hero Boards” in Stormwind and Ironforge (and presumably elsewhere) are breadcrumb delivery systems designed to send you questing in level-appropriate zones. Very useful if you do a few instances and all your quests have turned gray. Also good for picking up questlines in alternate zones – the gnomes usually go to Loch Modan but the hero board offered a breadcrumb quest to Westfall. Not sure yet if the content on each board is the same, but that seems to be their purpose.
Mordrak
2989
That’s weird. The hero’s board in Ironforge never (to my knowledge) gave me the direction to go to STV. However, when I checked the Stormwind board to compare, STV is listed. I wonder what the rules are they are using for where it decides to send you. It’s obviously not just level (from my experience).
Also, I just had a bug end my questing in desolace. I can’t complete the centaur storyline which has left me with a section of desolace unused and an aprupt stop to the burning blade and demonic influence story.
I noticed that new pets that I have just tamed (level 77) gain about 1.5 levels per random instance run. I also noticed that reputation goes up pretty fast (I’m halfway through Honoured with the Worgens after four instance runs).
The Hero Boards are definitely different in different cities; it usually sends you to the zone or two that’s closest to that particular city. When my mage finishes in one zone and I want an idea of where to go next, I’ve taken to teleporting to Darnassus, Ironforge, and Stormwind to see what’s on offer. Different cities give my fledgeling mage different suggestions.
The Alliance needs to get its shit together and prioritize trouble spots. With adventurers going all over the world willy-nilly, it’s inevitable that some important demon infestation will go unchecked.
Cataclysm is probably Blizzard’s most ambitious expansion. The amount of new contents are mind-boggling. The quality of the new quests are also head and shoulder above the old ones, as this can be attested by my friend who absolutely loathed leveling. However, with that said, the polishness of the contents in general also suffers, probably due to sheer amount of it. This playthrough is the buggiest experience I have in WoW and I have been there since the stress test. None of them are gamebreaking, but they are everywhere and are usually not something you expect from a Blizzard product.
The quality of the zones also varies in huge magnitudes. Some of them are pure boredom (e.g. Crossroad), and some are absolutely a blast (e.g. Southern Barren). Combined with the fact that the game’s pacing, which is skewed toward too easy/fast, I think Blizzard should straight up remove the inferior quests from the game. Sometimes, less is more.
The phasing technique also leaves much more to be desired in terms of refinement. There are multiple occasions that a npc appears beside me straight after he was killed in another phase. It really kills the atmosphere that the game tries so hard to build up.
Another nitpick is the sound system, with the upgraded farclip setting, there are many awkward moments which I could see something happening but cannot hear it. (e.g. shooting a cannon from the top of a tower, I can see but not hear the explosion.)
Last not but least is the readability. With the fact that now the quest descriptions are actually worth reading, I find the quest frame really hard on the eyes. The size, font, margin and spacing, everything is simply wrong with it. I wish Blizzard would not overlook this after all the hardworks they have put into the contents.
Lorini
2993
You guys think it’s possible now to level as a healing priest? And if so, which spec, Disc or Holy? Thanks in advance for any help.
DT1
2994
Can’t help but notice all the people getting exalted with the goblins to buy the Trike mount. Pretty soon they’ll be everywhere but that’s a nifty little mount.
Skorin
2995
I’m leveling as a Disc priest and it’s actually faster and more efficient solo than my Shadow spec. Healing groups is a breeze, and if the tank’s really twinked out, I can just keep a shield on him and smite the mobs to heal him (a disc talent lets you heal by smiting).
Shoot Snowmobile on Moonrunner a tell if you have any questions.
Yeah, discipline spec is pretty much Mage + Healing, although it could use a couple of extra tweaks here and there. You can get a halfway decent Smite-based build out of holy, but it’s pretty half-assed.
Holy paladins, on the other hand, can do surprising amounts of damage with Holy Shock and Exorcism.
Lorini
2997
Noob question (on my sixth anniversary of playing) How do you become exalted with the goblins? I gotta have that trike!!
Thanks snowmobile!
I don’t have a Horde character, but my Alliance main is nearly honored already with Gilneas just from doing the new quests (I’ve completed Westfall, Redridge, and Duskwood so far). Completing quests gives faction with all Alliance races now; I presume it works the same for the Horde.
I haven’t tried it yet, but I hear you can also buy the Goblin/Worgen tabard and wear it while completing dungeons for rep. I couldn’t tell you where they’re sold though.
[Edit]
Actually, I just checked in-game and it looks like Gilneas rep caps at 5999/6000 from doing quests. So it would appear that wearing the tabard is the only way to get beyond that for now.
DT1
2999
You go buy the tabard from this guy and then you just run dungeons until you’re exalted. Then you can buy it in the Goblin Slums section of Org.
I leveled to 60 as holy back in Vanilla. Pretty sure it can be done now. ;)
