SwagVault MMO Blog

My Powerlevling Guide

November 13, 2008 – 3:47 am
Posted by: ferdinand

Well, when you see this title, most of you may think, “Heh, bet it’s in all caps and recommends you quest the whole time”.

The answer is: NO, not really. (*^__^*) 

This guide is going to primarily look at instance running as a source of exp and revenue while trying to hit 60. I’ll also provide a few sections on specifics and advice, as what classes are superior runners, what levels match what instances, and other such.

I plan on covering:

-Basics, like what to do and how this scales up in the long run
-Towing, by level / what instance
-What class provides the best runners
-Common mistakes while running
-Quest-Grinding
-Utilizing the Recruit-A-Friend system
Part I: Basics

Towing, is basically when you get a higher level to run your lower level through instances without much of your effort to gain experience.

Towing is both good in bad,
It is good because…
-Not much effort for you, once your being run
-Free Gear
-Can run multiple people at once

However, the downsides are…
-Don’t experience content
-No reputation from quests, which can cost more when your repairing armor
-Don’t learn how to play your class (Do you want to be that one guy who has no idea what he’s doing?)
-Costly if you don’t get free runs

If the good outweighs the bad in your opinion, then please, continue to the next-next page.

Grinding, is a hybrid term, of sorts. It can both refer to Quest Grinding, which is where you do as many quests as possible and avoid doing anything else to get exp quickly; or Mob Grinding is the process of killing monsters and such to gain exp, and disregard quests.

Its generally accepted that the only classes that can Mob Grind effectively are classes with AOE abilities, such as mages. This is up for debate, but I’ll leave that to someone else, and at another time.

Part II: Quest Grinding

If you are starting your first character, or you’ve ever leveled all the way to 70, you more likely than not did this. In a nutshell, you find a zone that has quests your level and you do them all. Although you lose out on some of the gear you get in instances, and exp comes in bursts whenever you do quests, its generally fastest, unless you’re being towed. You can find these sorts of quests on the internet, just go search them.

TIPS:

- Turn on music or something to keep you entertained, so the boredom doesn’t eat you alive and you go do something else. Grinding isn’t really grinding if it’s slow and has lapses in itself.
- Get a quest add-on to help you track objectives. Generally, it’s accepted that the two sites you get these from are CURSE gaming and WOWACE. I generally use the first one.
- Stock up on supplies, in bulk, whenever you head to town. I use 2 stacks of food and water at any given time. Some people buy potions and use bandages, from First Aid, but I’ve never really used either, especially with the potion-nerf.
- Avoid TVs and give a big chunk of time to quest. If you spend more time turning around to watch the TV, or taking out garbage for your parents, its not very productive.

Towing Specifics

Thanks to WoWWiki for reminding me of which instances match up with which level.

To start off, do quests till you hit around 10. You can’t enter an instance unless you’re a certain level.

At 10, Go to Either Deadmines or Shadowfang Keep. Do as many times as you feel necessary or until you hit somewhere around 22, or whenever mobs are more than 3 levels below you.

Next, hit Razorfen Kraul or Stormwind Stockades until you’re around 26.

Next, do Scarlet Monastery. This is the single easiest instance to grind at, it’s just perfect. Four instances right next to each other, and they’re all short! I recommend doing Library once for the key at the end, then do Cathedral as many times as possible, until around 35.

At roughly 35 do Zul’Farrak. At this point, running starts to get a little harder on the runner, since mobs are starting to hit a little more reliably and harder, so I pray your runner is decently geared. Work on this until around 40 ish.

Move onto Sunken Temple. This one’s a bit tricky, it’s kind of hard on the runner, since its only 20 levels below him. Make sure he’s a good runner and he’s well suited for running. Work on this until 50.

Now the running starts to get hard. Some people do Stratholme now, some do Blackrock Depths and others do Dire Maul West/North. Honestly, it doesn’t really matter, but you might need two runners.

You should be around 60, and at this point, running is starting to be pointless. You might want to do quests to 70/80. More on the running cap once I hit 80 in WOTLK.

Little Snipits about Towing

The obvious:

-Runner should be SIGNIFICANTLY higher than the dungeon
-Runner should know the layout. He should also have decent gear

The intuitive:

-Runner should have AOE. This is especially pertinent in higher level instance runs.
-Runner should have pots at the ready, in case he’s in a bit over his head
-The Power-leveled person should be giving something to the runner. Whether its return runs or gold, it doesn’t matter. Just don’t trade real money, for the love of god. If both you and the runner have 70’s, you might want to trade runs. I’ve done it in the past, it works out pretty well. Just make sure you have both 70’s, and both the lowbies parked ( Logging out somewhere, to come back to it later, specifically for the location you logged out at) at the instance.

The not-well-know and debated

-Some say that runs give more EXP with more people in the group, I’ve never checked, more on that later.
-Classes that can AOE, heal, and do damage are helpful. Taunts also help.
-Ret Paladins are great runners:
This is what I mean by debated. The advantage of the paladin is that he can heal, aoe, and damage at the same time. Sheath, Art of War, and Judgements of the Wise are all big helps for this job. This writes itself.
-Boomkins are good too
- Remember that when you’re looking for a runner…
AOE > Healing > Plate > DPS > Taunts

Part III: Recruit-A-Friend
Recruit-A-Friend is a system where a person links his account to someone else’s, whereas that someone else has not played before. This is a big advancement in powerleveling, so much as to the point where I have know people achieving northwards of 40 levels in one night.

The benefit of this is:

-300% EXP when in the linked accounts group. That means that you’re effectively cutting run time in half. That alone would be enough to convince me to make a second account and link it to my current one. Dual-boxing may be covered in the future.
-Free levels: When that linked person gains two levels, he gets a free level to transfer to the first character’s account. This is amazing, and it still stuns me that Blizzard implements this. This very useful, it could be upwards of two less runs through anything.

Part IV: FAQ:

This part will be filled in a later date.

Unfortunately, since I’ve never really gotten too far with Alliance (Level 30 warrior ftw!), this will probably liberally lean towards Horde power leveling. If I get some good support posts from Alliance power-levelers, I’ll try to make it more neutral and helpful for both sides of the faction fence. Good Luck!