I hate leveling only a bit less than fishing.

Working on Phoradendron, I realize again how much I hate leveling any character. Ah, well, it gives me more posts…

My first few times through leveling, I enjoyed the stories being told. I intentionally ignored some fast points to chase a story I’d gotten hold of. And I ran across the good stories that die – the ‘next quest’ isn’t there, and so the conclusion (or that part of it) remains untold. Still, it took me a LONG time to level my first few characters even given the few hours I could spend and the pleasures of being a solo priest on a PVP server.

(That last, by the way, is the reason I now play on PVE. I am paying to have fun, not to spend ten hours of playtime getting my level 20-something freekill, I mean Priest, from one zone to the adjacent one. I suspect this is why there are fewer priests on PVP servers, too, but can’t prove it. However, I digress – again.)

All that said, after a while the stories are OLD. And very, very few of them are as good in the retelling (a few exceptions, but…) At that point all I want to do is get to the desired level – be it x9 for twinked BGs or 70 for endgame / arenas, or… the journey isn’t any of the fun, it’s just the destination.

Now Blizzard is going to be helping this in 2.3, but that’s the future. What I want to do is discuss what you can do NOW.

First, I’ve played with several guides. If you don’t have a plan of your own, I don’t hesitate to recommend Jame’s guides (alliance and horde) at http://www.wow-pro.com . They require you to get to level 30 or 20 (respectively) but after that it attempts to route you through quests and grinds in such fashion as to get the most XP per hour of play. Is it the best? Since I’ve not used all of them out there, I can’t say – but I like and use it as my baseline regardless of race. Oh – they’re free. There are some pay-guides that have outstanding reputations, but I’ve not used them.

Second, here is the ugly truth. Playing solo, it will take you a minimum of 60 hour of play – and more likely closer to 80 or 90 – to get to level 60. Not 70, 60.

If you insist on grinding, same level mobs, with absolutely zero quests, and you kill mobs at an average one every 16 seconds, then according to the theorycraft numbers you will need approximately 76 hours of play to get from 1 to 60. (source wowwiki, elitistjerks). News Flash – as a priest, even a shadowpriest, you will not kill one mob every 16 seconds – even if you exclude travel time.

I highly recommend grabbing quests in an intelligent fashion both to alleviate the boredom AND to get extra points. Intelligent fashion takes research so you complete several ‘on the way’. That’s actually what a lot of these guides are telling you – where to go to get the most kills in the shortest fashion, and what quests you can grab that give you the most points for the least time.

The other action I do recommend is running with someone – whether paired for the grind, or repetitive instances. Yes, you still have to kill as many mobs per person as before. But… first, it’s just more fun to play with others. And second, as a group you can effectively kill mobs that are of higher level more quickly than you can solo mobs of your level. On the other hand there’s the small difficulty of getting parties together for repetitive runs of anything — and then paying for repairs and all of that.

I would like to give you magnificent specific advice – go here, do that – that results in making leveling your character swift, painless, and… fun. I can only offer philosophy: If you’re tired of the journey and only interested in the destination, the journey will take longer in your mind. So remember where I said the stories are getting old and tired?

sigh. Long journey.

My trick – there are areas I have not explored, and NPCs and Quests I have not encountered. While doing research, I take the time to note them and intentionally pursue them, despite the fact they’re less efficient – that I will take longer to level. Because quite frankly, the time goes by FASTER when I do this. But it’s my trick and it may not work for you – I present it in case it does.

Remember, folks, this is a game. It’s supposed to be fun. I know that when my alts get to certain points they’re going to be fun (again) so I’m willing to pay the price. But if it’s not fun for you, and you see no hope of it being fun for you – take a break. There’s more to life than WoW.

Rule one: Have fun, or do something else.

~ by Kirk on October 16, 2007.