Leveling an Iron Since Legion
Nov 28, 2016 21:33:17 GMT -5
panchiko, Crystalpall, and 1 more like this
Post by 'Ster on Nov 28, 2016 21:33:17 GMT -5
Figured it was my turn to post on what I’ve learned about taking a couple of iron rogues to 110 and a druid in the 90’s. Much has changed since both Legion and patch 7.1 releases. This is not an all-comprehensive guide, hopefully my fellow irons will add to this post with their leveling suggestions for the other classes.
As always, pick a toon that you’re comfortable with. If possible, pick Night Elf for the Shadow Meld, it can save your toon in bad situations. Also pick zones and quests that you’re familiar with, mostly so you’ll already know the hazards and rewards. An experienced iron can breeze thru zones and quests they’ve done before, picking and choosing quests to maximize points, minimize risks, and breeze thru levels.
Levels 1-59 are pretty much an equal playing field for everybody. The most difficult aspect for many new irons is learning to change their play-style from regular mains. I.e., staying alive is your primary mission, while you can skip other aspects, such as doing all quests, exploring all areas, or trying something silly like Loremaster. Instead, most of us will start a zone, pick and choose the quests for leveling while skipping many others, and moving on to the next zone when points start to drop. These “classic” early levels are enjoyable and gives you a chance to relive the beginning levels that you might have skipped on a regular toon. Be sure to get the Winterspring cub daily, and never turn it in – you can do that daily forever if you don’t turn it in after 20 cub whiskers. (And it scales in points as you level.)
What zones do I level thru as an Alliance Night Elf 1-59? Teldrassil 1-12, boat to Stormwind, do the balloon quest, grab the Loch Modan quest, Loch Modan 12-21, Wetlands for a couple of levels, Duskwood, Arathi, Hinterlands, WPL, EPL, Badlands, Burning Steppes, Felwood, Winterspring, Swamp of Sorrows, and Blasted Lands. I definitely don’t do all the quests, mostly picking the easier and less grind-focused ones. Stay out of Redridge, and the ending quest in Darkshore has claimed many irons. Other players hate WPL and EPL and will do zones like Felwood instead.
Outlands, levels 60-69 are perhaps the most difficult zones that you’ll face. Even after all these years, these zones are more packed, frequent patrols, and a slower pace to advance. Even skilled irons can still die today in Outlands just due to the nature of this expansion. These dreaded levels will test your patience, but stick with it, moving on to Northend is a nice reward. My personal strategy? When I hit 60, I will use flying to explore all of Outlands, that will pretty much get you to 61. From there, I will do the non-combat quests in Hellfire Peninsula and Zangarmarsh, such as picking up zeppelin parts, getting a soil sample and fungi, and the like. I prefer the entry quests in Zangarmarsh over HP. Stop over in Shattrath City, do those non-combat quests where you can buy feathers of Arakkoa or Marks of Kil'jaeden off the AH for fast points.
Northend, levels 70-79 is a sigh of relief compared to Outlands. You can actually go over to Northend via boat when you hit 68. The entry dailies in Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord (grabbing fisherman baskets or the bombing run) are a breeze for sneaky types like rogue and druid. By the time you hit 70, you can do most the combat entry quests. I hop around the Northend zones, doing quests in Boring Tundra and Howling Fjord, and when the points start to drop, head over to Dragon Blight. Remember to get the daily bring-seals-together on the Isle of Spears… that is another daily that lasts forever and scales as you do. When you hit 77 you can start opening up the Ice Crown area, but the final quests to open up the Ice Crown dailies is difficult until you’re 81. When you hit 81, you’ll one-shot everything and then the dailies will easily take you into the mid-80’s. Also at 77 you can work on the Storm Peak quests. I found most of the Storm Peak quest points did not get nerfed at 80, so you can continue to work on them instead of Cata zones if desired.
80-84 – As mentioned above, the Ice Crown dailies and Storm Peak will easily get you to 85. When you ding 85, the Cata zones/quest points are nerfed. You can almost skip all of Cata!
85-89 opens up Mists of Pandara which nerfs Cata points. What I do is go back to Mt. Hyjal and do the zone in fast order (you two-shot everything), which in turn opens up the Fireland dailies till 94. Twilight Highlands is also easy to do. Also Tol Barad opens up, and at 85 I do the non-combat quests. There is a Troll Incursion quest chain in STV that opens up at 85, which is very easy to do – at least up to the going into Zul’Gurub quest. Repeat until level 90. MoP areas are semi-doable, especially the non-combat quests and dailies, I had to wait till 89 to really be at ease with entry MoP quests. At 90 you get MoP flight which makes exploring easier.
90 is where MoP is more doable by most irons, but still be careful. This also opens up WoD, which is too early for most. Keep doing MoP content to get to the mid-90’s before taking chances in WoD. There are several dailies in MoP land, such as Halfhill and the Arboretum which pays decently. A garrison is a must for points now and later as you approach 100 and beyond. Still the 90’s is a kindof slow period, tough it out. When I hit 93, I could start doing entry quests in WoD, searching for chests, exploring, and the like. Always be careful with named NPCs, they often hit harder. A scout is a good way to go to test things out first. 94-100 is where most can do WoD content. As a rogue and druid, I took the “back route” to WoD… go over to Timeless isle – there’s plenty of Youtubes on how this works. Timeless isle is full of 90-91 elites, so be careful! Otherwise, as I progressed in the 90’s, I’d do more and more WoD area quests, exploring, and treasure chests. Maximize your garrison for doable quests, like the ones spawned by having a Stables building. Oh - if you haven't loaded the Add-On "HandyNotes", you might want to go get it. There are data modules for MoP, WoD, and Legion, and now and then for holidays like Halloween's Candy Buckets. It will show on your map where chests/treasures/rares/bosses are located and keeps track if you have looted them. Easier than staring at maps on wowhead or locating via coordinates.
Okay, let’s talk about 100-110 in Legion. As for an artifact weapon, it is not needed and illegal for an iron to acquire/use. Plenty of quests in Legion, even without going thru the artifact quest chain. And thanks to other players who have made it to 110, we now know there are several strategies for gaining points, depending on your class. I’ll throw out the perspective of sneaky types, i.e., rogues and druids with stealth which will level differently than non-stealthies. Those that can fight and kill Legion NPCs will be at an advantage over the poor rogue who couldn’t kill anything in Legion – even the neutral critters like frogs and owls could overpower the rogue stuck with level 70 daggers. (Remember, hostiles in Legion also level as you do, so waiting till 106 doesn’t do you any good.)
First things first, get over to Legion. Using a non-iron account toon, get over to Legion following the entry quest chains in Stormwind. Now when your iron goes to the quest giver in SW, you can skip the battle and challenges and go straight to Legion Dalaran. Follow the quests to pick your artifact weapon, but stop when it gets too difficult you don’t need to complete the artifact quest chain. For rogue, going into the 2nd floor tavern to kill a named boss was it for rogue – no way to kill it. Next, get down to Legion, such as Azsuna. I did this by leaping off the Dalaran wall, and using a goblin parachute (glider). You could also just land in the water and swim over if you don’t like goblin engineering items. I flew over to Shackle’s Den, grabbed the flight point, and started exploring. As with most Legion zones, be wary of those areas that have pockets of 110 NPCs. Can’t hurt to scout first if you’re not familiar with Legion areas.
Strategy-wise, you can use a combination of techniques to level in legion, as has been posted by others like Lyssan and Margothon... Adding stealthing around for rogues and druids, the techniques are:
- Continue to milk WoD of all exploration and treasure chests.
- Grind at low-level creatures in Legion…. Owls, frogs, etc. (if you can, rogue couldn’t)
- Exploration and treasure chests. Seems like in patch 7.1 Blizzard updated drop rates of XP from chests – before it was hardly ever, now it seems more like 1 of 3 chests drops XP. This was the main technique I used as rogue, would sneak around exploring and chest hunting.
- Some of the Bonus Objective quests are low-risk, especially in the druid zone Val’sharah, which involves freeing prisoners or clicking totems. Grove of Cenarius and Temple of Elune are decent spots.
- Locations where World Quests are taking place generally have a larger number of players present. If you attack a NPC, good chance another player will kill it for you, and you’ll get XP. Rogue couldn’t use this multi-tap technique due to the risk… without the ability to kill these NPCs, I’d either watch health go down waiting for other players to come along or I’d burn SM/Vanish… Too risky in my book. I prefer sneaking around and clicking totems for Bonus Objectives.
That’s about it. Depending on timing (holiday events), running around doing dailies, doing non-combat quests until fighting quests are safe, exploring, treasure chests, that’s how I got two rogues to 110 and slowly getting a druid up there.
Please add to this post, let’s make it a guide to leveling to 110. We may need to post Areas to Avoid in Legion. Certainly the Dream Grove in Val’sharah, the 110 pockets in Azsuna, most of Suramar, the PvP spots scattered around, etc.
As always, pick a toon that you’re comfortable with. If possible, pick Night Elf for the Shadow Meld, it can save your toon in bad situations. Also pick zones and quests that you’re familiar with, mostly so you’ll already know the hazards and rewards. An experienced iron can breeze thru zones and quests they’ve done before, picking and choosing quests to maximize points, minimize risks, and breeze thru levels.
Levels 1-59 are pretty much an equal playing field for everybody. The most difficult aspect for many new irons is learning to change their play-style from regular mains. I.e., staying alive is your primary mission, while you can skip other aspects, such as doing all quests, exploring all areas, or trying something silly like Loremaster. Instead, most of us will start a zone, pick and choose the quests for leveling while skipping many others, and moving on to the next zone when points start to drop. These “classic” early levels are enjoyable and gives you a chance to relive the beginning levels that you might have skipped on a regular toon. Be sure to get the Winterspring cub daily, and never turn it in – you can do that daily forever if you don’t turn it in after 20 cub whiskers. (And it scales in points as you level.)
What zones do I level thru as an Alliance Night Elf 1-59? Teldrassil 1-12, boat to Stormwind, do the balloon quest, grab the Loch Modan quest, Loch Modan 12-21, Wetlands for a couple of levels, Duskwood, Arathi, Hinterlands, WPL, EPL, Badlands, Burning Steppes, Felwood, Winterspring, Swamp of Sorrows, and Blasted Lands. I definitely don’t do all the quests, mostly picking the easier and less grind-focused ones. Stay out of Redridge, and the ending quest in Darkshore has claimed many irons. Other players hate WPL and EPL and will do zones like Felwood instead.
Outlands, levels 60-69 are perhaps the most difficult zones that you’ll face. Even after all these years, these zones are more packed, frequent patrols, and a slower pace to advance. Even skilled irons can still die today in Outlands just due to the nature of this expansion. These dreaded levels will test your patience, but stick with it, moving on to Northend is a nice reward. My personal strategy? When I hit 60, I will use flying to explore all of Outlands, that will pretty much get you to 61. From there, I will do the non-combat quests in Hellfire Peninsula and Zangarmarsh, such as picking up zeppelin parts, getting a soil sample and fungi, and the like. I prefer the entry quests in Zangarmarsh over HP. Stop over in Shattrath City, do those non-combat quests where you can buy feathers of Arakkoa or Marks of Kil'jaeden off the AH for fast points.
Northend, levels 70-79 is a sigh of relief compared to Outlands. You can actually go over to Northend via boat when you hit 68. The entry dailies in Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord (grabbing fisherman baskets or the bombing run) are a breeze for sneaky types like rogue and druid. By the time you hit 70, you can do most the combat entry quests. I hop around the Northend zones, doing quests in Boring Tundra and Howling Fjord, and when the points start to drop, head over to Dragon Blight. Remember to get the daily bring-seals-together on the Isle of Spears… that is another daily that lasts forever and scales as you do. When you hit 77 you can start opening up the Ice Crown area, but the final quests to open up the Ice Crown dailies is difficult until you’re 81. When you hit 81, you’ll one-shot everything and then the dailies will easily take you into the mid-80’s. Also at 77 you can work on the Storm Peak quests. I found most of the Storm Peak quest points did not get nerfed at 80, so you can continue to work on them instead of Cata zones if desired.
80-84 – As mentioned above, the Ice Crown dailies and Storm Peak will easily get you to 85. When you ding 85, the Cata zones/quest points are nerfed. You can almost skip all of Cata!
85-89 opens up Mists of Pandara which nerfs Cata points. What I do is go back to Mt. Hyjal and do the zone in fast order (you two-shot everything), which in turn opens up the Fireland dailies till 94. Twilight Highlands is also easy to do. Also Tol Barad opens up, and at 85 I do the non-combat quests. There is a Troll Incursion quest chain in STV that opens up at 85, which is very easy to do – at least up to the going into Zul’Gurub quest. Repeat until level 90. MoP areas are semi-doable, especially the non-combat quests and dailies, I had to wait till 89 to really be at ease with entry MoP quests. At 90 you get MoP flight which makes exploring easier.
90 is where MoP is more doable by most irons, but still be careful. This also opens up WoD, which is too early for most. Keep doing MoP content to get to the mid-90’s before taking chances in WoD. There are several dailies in MoP land, such as Halfhill and the Arboretum which pays decently. A garrison is a must for points now and later as you approach 100 and beyond. Still the 90’s is a kindof slow period, tough it out. When I hit 93, I could start doing entry quests in WoD, searching for chests, exploring, and the like. Always be careful with named NPCs, they often hit harder. A scout is a good way to go to test things out first. 94-100 is where most can do WoD content. As a rogue and druid, I took the “back route” to WoD… go over to Timeless isle – there’s plenty of Youtubes on how this works. Timeless isle is full of 90-91 elites, so be careful! Otherwise, as I progressed in the 90’s, I’d do more and more WoD area quests, exploring, and treasure chests. Maximize your garrison for doable quests, like the ones spawned by having a Stables building. Oh - if you haven't loaded the Add-On "HandyNotes", you might want to go get it. There are data modules for MoP, WoD, and Legion, and now and then for holidays like Halloween's Candy Buckets. It will show on your map where chests/treasures/rares/bosses are located and keeps track if you have looted them. Easier than staring at maps on wowhead or locating via coordinates.
Okay, let’s talk about 100-110 in Legion. As for an artifact weapon, it is not needed and illegal for an iron to acquire/use. Plenty of quests in Legion, even without going thru the artifact quest chain. And thanks to other players who have made it to 110, we now know there are several strategies for gaining points, depending on your class. I’ll throw out the perspective of sneaky types, i.e., rogues and druids with stealth which will level differently than non-stealthies. Those that can fight and kill Legion NPCs will be at an advantage over the poor rogue who couldn’t kill anything in Legion – even the neutral critters like frogs and owls could overpower the rogue stuck with level 70 daggers. (Remember, hostiles in Legion also level as you do, so waiting till 106 doesn’t do you any good.)
First things first, get over to Legion. Using a non-iron account toon, get over to Legion following the entry quest chains in Stormwind. Now when your iron goes to the quest giver in SW, you can skip the battle and challenges and go straight to Legion Dalaran. Follow the quests to pick your artifact weapon, but stop when it gets too difficult you don’t need to complete the artifact quest chain. For rogue, going into the 2nd floor tavern to kill a named boss was it for rogue – no way to kill it. Next, get down to Legion, such as Azsuna. I did this by leaping off the Dalaran wall, and using a goblin parachute (glider). You could also just land in the water and swim over if you don’t like goblin engineering items. I flew over to Shackle’s Den, grabbed the flight point, and started exploring. As with most Legion zones, be wary of those areas that have pockets of 110 NPCs. Can’t hurt to scout first if you’re not familiar with Legion areas.
Strategy-wise, you can use a combination of techniques to level in legion, as has been posted by others like Lyssan and Margothon... Adding stealthing around for rogues and druids, the techniques are:
- Continue to milk WoD of all exploration and treasure chests.
- Grind at low-level creatures in Legion…. Owls, frogs, etc. (if you can, rogue couldn’t)
- Exploration and treasure chests. Seems like in patch 7.1 Blizzard updated drop rates of XP from chests – before it was hardly ever, now it seems more like 1 of 3 chests drops XP. This was the main technique I used as rogue, would sneak around exploring and chest hunting.
- Some of the Bonus Objective quests are low-risk, especially in the druid zone Val’sharah, which involves freeing prisoners or clicking totems. Grove of Cenarius and Temple of Elune are decent spots.
- Locations where World Quests are taking place generally have a larger number of players present. If you attack a NPC, good chance another player will kill it for you, and you’ll get XP. Rogue couldn’t use this multi-tap technique due to the risk… without the ability to kill these NPCs, I’d either watch health go down waiting for other players to come along or I’d burn SM/Vanish… Too risky in my book. I prefer sneaking around and clicking totems for Bonus Objectives.
That’s about it. Depending on timing (holiday events), running around doing dailies, doing non-combat quests until fighting quests are safe, exploring, treasure chests, that’s how I got two rogues to 110 and slowly getting a druid up there.
Please add to this post, let’s make it a guide to leveling to 110. We may need to post Areas to Avoid in Legion. Certainly the Dream Grove in Val’sharah, the 110 pockets in Azsuna, most of Suramar, the PvP spots scattered around, etc.