Post by Lyssan on Jan 2, 2013 12:07:50 GMT -5
I know most of you are not at that point yet and by the time you get to 85 you will most likely know most of this stuff anyway but since I promised an 85-90 guide and there seems to be at least one person asking for it (thanks Tanee , here it is.
First, let's get something out of the way. Pandaria questing will account for at most 20% of the experience needed to get from 85 to 90. Unless you are a hunter (or maybe warlock?) don't expect to be able to kill anything there until you are 89 or 90. The largest chunk of experience required will come from Cataclysm questing and dailies so make sure you get to 85 without doing a lot of Cata content.
So, if you can't kill much (if anything) in Pandaria, What can you do to gain experience there? You can:
- do any quests that you can get to that don't require killing (e.g part of the Tian Monastery chain in Jade Forest, the introductory farming quests in Halfhill etc)
- explore. Lyssan explored the entire continent except parts of Dread Wastes which were too dangerous for a land mount
- go treasure hunting. This is actually the most lucrative aspect: each Pandaria treasure you open will give a good chunk of experience (between 300k and 800k, rested). Of course, not all
are accessible and some require some luck, but the time spent looking for them is time well spent.
(As a side note, to test how an Ironman hunter would fare in Pandaria, I took my 86 regular hunter to Valley of the Four Winds, stripped her of all gear except the blue bow and I aggroed a level 86 crane. The result? Crane died but also did my pet and I was left with under 50% HP. So, it's doable but hard.)
Let's start level by level (most of my advice here is based on personal experience with Lyssan, so feel free to ignore it .
85-86.
- You should have most of Mount Hyjal and Vashj'ir available. Start doing the content there but pace yourself.
- Start (or continue) doing the Argent Tournament dailies which even at 86 give good experience. Also, since 5.0.4, the mobs in Northrend give full experience when killed so you will have the paradox of having level 80 mobs in Northrend giving three times more experience than level 80 mobs in Hyjal which have 3 times more HP.
- don't do anything in Pandaria except the introductory quests to give you access to the portal
- if needed, get extra experience by hunting rares and treasure chests in Northrend
86-87
- finish Hyjal and Vashj'ir (they are both completely doable at this level - Vashj'ir is slightly easier).
- continue doing the AT dailies
- if needed go to Pandaria and do some exploration and treasure hunting in Jade Forest and Valley of the Four Winds. Farming quests in Halfhill can be also done now.
87-88
- start questing in Deepholm. After completing about half of the zone, the Therazane dailies become available and they are a good source of accesible dailies. Do them every day.
- at this point, Northrend dailies and mobs stop giving meaningful experience so you can stop doing them. Of course, since there is no limit to the number of dailies you can still do them if you want.
- unlock the Firelands dailies (the surface ones) in Mt Hyjal and start doing them. Some of these dailes are easy (no killing required), some, like the portal bosses or the elites in Seethria's Roost are hard and you most likely won't be able to do them unless there are other players doing them in the same time. If you feel adventurous(Lyssan didn't), you can try to enter the portal and unlock the dailies there for an extra healthy set of available dailies - just be aware that the elemental boss you need to kill to gain entry can prove a bit too much for your fragile Ironman.
- 3 Tol Barad dailies can be done with very little risk, without the need to kill anything("Bombs Away", "Boosting the Morale" and "Magnets, what are they for.." ). You can start doing them as early as 85 but the risk to aggro some mob by mistake is lower at higher level.
88-89
- Start Uldum questing. Unfortunately, you will be able to do only about 2/3 of the quests in the zone because of a couple of blocking quests which are very hard if not impossible for us ("The Defiler's Ritual" and "Neferset Prison" - both are fights involving elite mobs with multiple adds - no thanks).
- More dailies(Firelands, Tol Barad, Therazane)
- Continue exploring Pandaria (Kun-Lai and Townlong Steppes are accessible now) and keep an eye out for experience treasures.
89-90
- Start Twilight Highlands quests but be careful as an 85 mob there can easily drop you even at 89. (be aware of the Twilight Backbreakers(or Bonebreakers?) in the northern Twilight camp which hit Lyssan for over 7.5k on cloth - a couple of those mobs hitting on you and you're dead before you know it)
- Even more dailies(Firelands, Tol Barad, Therazane - although you can skip Therazane dailies as their experience may not be enough to justify the time invested).
- Pandaria exploration and treasure hunting (Dread Wastes)
Special note: there are exactly 3(THREE) daily quests that give experience that increases with your level so doing one of these is the same as completing a quest at your level in Pandaria
- The Wintersaber cub daily
- The Plants and Zombies daily in Hillsbrad Foothills
- "The way to His Heart" daily in Howling Fjord - this one is probably a bug
Dangerous quests and mobs:
- Therazane daily "Beneath the Surface" requires you to kill a giant worm in the worm cave. The problem is even if the worm doesn't move at all, the worm casted spike follows you around and can hit you multiple times in a row. It hit Lyssan for over 40k damage in one cast before melding so I skipped the quest after that. I suggest you do the same.
- Uldum quest "Shroud of the Makers" requires stealthing between level 84 elites to sabotage some kegs. Very dangerous and prone to failure. Skip, unless feeling lucky.
- Twilight Bonebreaker mobs in Twilight Highlands - extremely high damage for Cata mobs. Avoid them.
- Twilight Highlands quest " Dropping the Hammer" requires fighting an elite boss on a platform high in the air. Very risky, with nowhere to run. However it is a required quest in order to advance in the zone, so you may want to risk it (Lyssan skipped it)
- Twilight Highlands quest "The Maw of Iso'rath" requires you to allow yourself to be thrown down from your gryphon by Iso'rath's tentacles. The problem is they are bugged and most likely the fall will kill you. Lyssan skipped it even having Levitate available - I was too close to 90 to risk dying from a bug.
I hope this would prove helpful to someone. If not, I hope it was an interesting read, at least
First, let's get something out of the way. Pandaria questing will account for at most 20% of the experience needed to get from 85 to 90. Unless you are a hunter (or maybe warlock?) don't expect to be able to kill anything there until you are 89 or 90. The largest chunk of experience required will come from Cataclysm questing and dailies so make sure you get to 85 without doing a lot of Cata content.
So, if you can't kill much (if anything) in Pandaria, What can you do to gain experience there? You can:
- do any quests that you can get to that don't require killing (e.g part of the Tian Monastery chain in Jade Forest, the introductory farming quests in Halfhill etc)
- explore. Lyssan explored the entire continent except parts of Dread Wastes which were too dangerous for a land mount
- go treasure hunting. This is actually the most lucrative aspect: each Pandaria treasure you open will give a good chunk of experience (between 300k and 800k, rested). Of course, not all
are accessible and some require some luck, but the time spent looking for them is time well spent.
(As a side note, to test how an Ironman hunter would fare in Pandaria, I took my 86 regular hunter to Valley of the Four Winds, stripped her of all gear except the blue bow and I aggroed a level 86 crane. The result? Crane died but also did my pet and I was left with under 50% HP. So, it's doable but hard.)
Let's start level by level (most of my advice here is based on personal experience with Lyssan, so feel free to ignore it .
85-86.
- You should have most of Mount Hyjal and Vashj'ir available. Start doing the content there but pace yourself.
- Start (or continue) doing the Argent Tournament dailies which even at 86 give good experience. Also, since 5.0.4, the mobs in Northrend give full experience when killed so you will have the paradox of having level 80 mobs in Northrend giving three times more experience than level 80 mobs in Hyjal which have 3 times more HP.
- don't do anything in Pandaria except the introductory quests to give you access to the portal
- if needed, get extra experience by hunting rares and treasure chests in Northrend
86-87
- finish Hyjal and Vashj'ir (they are both completely doable at this level - Vashj'ir is slightly easier).
- continue doing the AT dailies
- if needed go to Pandaria and do some exploration and treasure hunting in Jade Forest and Valley of the Four Winds. Farming quests in Halfhill can be also done now.
87-88
- start questing in Deepholm. After completing about half of the zone, the Therazane dailies become available and they are a good source of accesible dailies. Do them every day.
- at this point, Northrend dailies and mobs stop giving meaningful experience so you can stop doing them. Of course, since there is no limit to the number of dailies you can still do them if you want.
- unlock the Firelands dailies (the surface ones) in Mt Hyjal and start doing them. Some of these dailes are easy (no killing required), some, like the portal bosses or the elites in Seethria's Roost are hard and you most likely won't be able to do them unless there are other players doing them in the same time. If you feel adventurous(Lyssan didn't), you can try to enter the portal and unlock the dailies there for an extra healthy set of available dailies - just be aware that the elemental boss you need to kill to gain entry can prove a bit too much for your fragile Ironman.
- 3 Tol Barad dailies can be done with very little risk, without the need to kill anything("Bombs Away", "Boosting the Morale" and "Magnets, what are they for.." ). You can start doing them as early as 85 but the risk to aggro some mob by mistake is lower at higher level.
88-89
- Start Uldum questing. Unfortunately, you will be able to do only about 2/3 of the quests in the zone because of a couple of blocking quests which are very hard if not impossible for us ("The Defiler's Ritual" and "Neferset Prison" - both are fights involving elite mobs with multiple adds - no thanks).
- More dailies(Firelands, Tol Barad, Therazane)
- Continue exploring Pandaria (Kun-Lai and Townlong Steppes are accessible now) and keep an eye out for experience treasures.
89-90
- Start Twilight Highlands quests but be careful as an 85 mob there can easily drop you even at 89. (be aware of the Twilight Backbreakers(or Bonebreakers?) in the northern Twilight camp which hit Lyssan for over 7.5k on cloth - a couple of those mobs hitting on you and you're dead before you know it)
- Even more dailies(Firelands, Tol Barad, Therazane - although you can skip Therazane dailies as their experience may not be enough to justify the time invested).
- Pandaria exploration and treasure hunting (Dread Wastes)
Special note: there are exactly 3(THREE) daily quests that give experience that increases with your level so doing one of these is the same as completing a quest at your level in Pandaria
- The Wintersaber cub daily
- The Plants and Zombies daily in Hillsbrad Foothills
- "The way to His Heart" daily in Howling Fjord - this one is probably a bug
Dangerous quests and mobs:
- Therazane daily "Beneath the Surface" requires you to kill a giant worm in the worm cave. The problem is even if the worm doesn't move at all, the worm casted spike follows you around and can hit you multiple times in a row. It hit Lyssan for over 40k damage in one cast before melding so I skipped the quest after that. I suggest you do the same.
- Uldum quest "Shroud of the Makers" requires stealthing between level 84 elites to sabotage some kegs. Very dangerous and prone to failure. Skip, unless feeling lucky.
- Twilight Bonebreaker mobs in Twilight Highlands - extremely high damage for Cata mobs. Avoid them.
- Twilight Highlands quest " Dropping the Hammer" requires fighting an elite boss on a platform high in the air. Very risky, with nowhere to run. However it is a required quest in order to advance in the zone, so you may want to risk it (Lyssan skipped it)
- Twilight Highlands quest "The Maw of Iso'rath" requires you to allow yourself to be thrown down from your gryphon by Iso'rath's tentacles. The problem is they are bugged and most likely the fall will kill you. Lyssan skipped it even having Levitate available - I was too close to 90 to risk dying from a bug.
I hope this would prove helpful to someone. If not, I hope it was an interesting read, at least