Gevlon has a post today about staying ahead of the leveling curve in Cataclysm. His reasoning is that you don’t want to be surrounded by lolkids, (lets face it, who does), and by pre-packing your quest log with 25 completed level 80 quests, (an idea orginally championed by Randy Jordan from The Instance podcast in the last expansion), you can turn in a cool 500,000xp in a couple of hours and place yourself ahead of the jibbering horde of morons who will be fighting for every quest giving mob there is, as well as trying to slice your face off if you are on a pvp server like I am.
The problem with this is that these same kids will be relentlessly leveling in the first few days. So to stay ahead of the curve you’re going to have to play at the same insane pace. Which leaves me in a bit of a quandary. I like to take my time levelling new content, to see the world and smell the roses. And after the last year of being very bored with the content, I have no great desire to roll through it at 100 miles per hour just to stay in front of the morons. I’m more than content to let the morons blow past me and then to cruise along behind them, (ganking problems notwithstanding). So this should be quite a simple choice then, right?
Not so fast. As I am no doubt you’re all well aware, the 5 mans in Cataclysm are a different breed. Crowd control has come back to the fore, trash mobs are tricky and require thought. In short, you do not want to be pugging these. On top of that, I love Gevlon’s guild, The PUG. The quality of player is outstanding and the noise level is very low. It’s always a distinct pleasure to play with these guys and gals, ( I did a wintergrasp match with them on the weekend, and it was the best lead and followed run in that pvp hellhole that I have ever seen), so for me I very much want to do the 5 mans with them while I am levelling up. But to do that I will most probably need to stay in front of the curve.
It’s a very tough call. Do I rush through the content to keep up with my guildies, or do I go at my own pace and risk having to PuG the 5 mans? Even if I could talk some guildies into taking it easy, we most probably would not stay at the same level to be able to run instances together. I suspect that I will have to stay in front of the curve and roll an alt later to enjoy all the new content. It makes me sad though, as I really hate having to rush through stuff.
November 8, 2010 at 6:24 pm
hmm the lol kids or gevlon …… Its actually a tough choice on who Id rather level with. The fact gevlon is a big alliance carebear makes it an easier choice I suppose…..
November 8, 2010 at 6:49 pm
ill be doing the same for quest log filling, i also have various extra quests such as the poison vial in case that remains and gives me something, plus i have a personal healer lined up to take me through questing. muahaha
November 8, 2010 at 6:55 pm
Why would you compromise your fun of leveling just to keep up with people who don’t want to level with you? You might as well join a social raiding guild and spend a few hours every night wiping for all the good it would do you.
November 8, 2010 at 8:23 pm
The first many quests in Cataclysm are very streamlined and part of a larger chain. Even with a heap of extra xp to begin with you still have to play through the exact same quests in order to progress. I doubt the bonus xp would change much.
I have agree with Klepsacovic here. Do this at your own pace Adam. No reason to burn yourself out by playing more or faster than you want to. Besides there might be some in the guild that feels like you and will take a slower pace.
However if you are adamant about levelling at the same pace as your guildies through the mess of Cataclysm release, then it might be an idea to form levelling groups. It will have the benefit of you staying at somewhat the same pace, easier to form dungeon groups with fellow guildies and it will be a easier to complete quests in the huge competitive, pvp brawl you’ll be going through. Not sure if this is an viable solution in Gevlons guild though.
November 9, 2010 at 2:33 am
I’m sorry, but the only thing I can think of is comic strip
http://www.darklegacycomics.com/260.html
that said, I’d go with leveling at comfortable/enjoyable for you speed.
personally, I’ll probably be rushing through leveling on my main, most likely spamming instances with guildies and take time to enjoy the quest chains on alts.
November 9, 2010 at 12:42 pm
hey Adam, im not going to rush my ass off to play super fast either, so you have my shield when the occasion arrives!
November 9, 2010 at 3:12 pm
Hi Adam.
You dont need to rush for the purpose of not pugging any dungeon, there are only 5 levels keeping you away from the cap and at level 80 with an average 264 gear you’ll be able to join at least lvl83 dungeons and still pull youre weight, so if you level at a 2 levels diference from the main group you’ll be able to get into the dungeons with them ( and while in there you’ll also get some experience helping keeping the lvl distance). Im taking the slow way, heck, im even considering level an alt at day 1 i just dont see myself in the middle of all that rushing and “hell craziness”.
November 10, 2010 at 8:06 pm
You can join dungeon groups, even with 2 levels higher players. They will definitely prefer a lvl 81 you than lvl 83 arthasdklol
November 12, 2010 at 5:27 pm
You’ll be running the dungeons on heroic seven zillion times, so running them multiple times on normal is probably worthwhile just to practice mechanics and positioning. I plan on hitting them repeatedly on normal before going to heroic for just that reason; I don’t see why other guildies wouldn’t be swayed by the same logic.
November 12, 2010 at 11:10 pm
I’m sure there’ll be plenty of people in The PuG, who won’t be rushing it. I know I won’t, so you can have my heals along with Fubuar’s shield.
November 13, 2010 at 8:24 am
Ok, you, Fubuar and I. We are the team!
November 16, 2010 at 5:23 pm
It is a toughie because playing with friends is a lot more fun than pugging but I don’t see the point in sprinting through the content either. The expansion is going to have to last us until 2013 so what’s the rush?
I guess I plan on taking my time through it and leveling a new alt at the same time. It’s a tough call though.