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Probably most of the players have started to level in WotLK on the live servers by now, we thought it might be interesting to share our leveling experiences, so people can get clues on quests that are absolutely worth doing, some dungeon loot or quest rewards that shouldn't be missed, lovely little details and annoying quest bottlenecks that people might want to be aware of.
This thread should be specifically devoted to the leveling part of WotLK and concerned with the end-game implications of the expansion.
For our part, leveling in the Howling Fjord zone is very difficult. The zone is quite beautiful and right at the beginning of your adventure the first quests in Vengance Landing give you a feeling of being in a Forsaken beachhead on a foreign land, under constant threat of it's native inhabitants the Vyrkul, which are obviously allied with the Scourge, as well as from the competing Alliance expedition. Indeed most of the initial quests in Vengance Landing deal with the war against the Alliance more than with the dangers native to Northrend. When you leave Vengance Landing the focus shifts more to the Vyrkul and other threats, and you only slowly begin to unravel the mysteries behind this new land.
We do rather suspect it's a gear-level thing, and not restricted just to folks with Sunwell Gear - a guild group in ZA/Badge/Kara gear did the Nexus last night and apart from a couple of silly wipes at the beginning we pretty much steamrollered the place (the final boss, the Dragon was particularly easy, albeit rather amusing). We are glad to see an early introduction of a mechanic to keep people to their toes. Makes what is otherwise a boring tank-and-spank fight a bit more interesting. Incidentally, we note the health of the bosses in normal mode is of an order of magnitude similar to those of a heroic level 70 dungeon.
However, the wipes were indicative of perhaps a malaise that has crept over too many level 70 World of Warcraft players recently - complacency and the fact that most of us now know the level 70 instances like the backs of our hand. The first wipe, on the first boss was due to our tank pulling the group before her by simply running into them and another wipe was accidentally pulling multiple groups. Once we had that sorted, as mentioned above, we didn't have any problems.
Blizzard has done a very good job with the Northrend. The quests may have some annoying drop-rates at times, but we're not having Northrend's version of the Hillsbrad lions. The quest text and NPC interaction is very good, some of it priceless...especially the Apothecaries. The landscape and atmosphere are very well done as well.
Starting as level 70 Mage in a mix of gear from crafted epics up through T5 trash and badge gear, epic gems, and decent enchants, I'm just shy of 71 having done all the Howling Fjord quests that lead up to the Taunka camp and Dragonblight. We plan on sweeping through Northrend one zone at a time, making sure to do dailies of course, and slamming all the quests...and absolutely taking the time to read! The Death Knight is very well done with few things to stall you even during prime (mostly the mount quest), and conveys the mood and drama perfectly.
Initially, the wow gold costs of becoming Grand Master everything and the recipes is a pain, but selling drops and quest items will easily pay for the whole before you level up so this isn't really an issue.
This thread should be specifically devoted to the leveling part of WotLK and concerned with the end-game implications of the expansion.
For our part, leveling in the Howling Fjord zone is very difficult. The zone is quite beautiful and right at the beginning of your adventure the first quests in Vengance Landing give you a feeling of being in a Forsaken beachhead on a foreign land, under constant threat of it's native inhabitants the Vyrkul, which are obviously allied with the Scourge, as well as from the competing Alliance expedition. Indeed most of the initial quests in Vengance Landing deal with the war against the Alliance more than with the dangers native to Northrend. When you leave Vengance Landing the focus shifts more to the Vyrkul and other threats, and you only slowly begin to unravel the mysteries behind this new land.
We do rather suspect it's a gear-level thing, and not restricted just to folks with Sunwell Gear - a guild group in ZA/Badge/Kara gear did the Nexus last night and apart from a couple of silly wipes at the beginning we pretty much steamrollered the place (the final boss, the Dragon was particularly easy, albeit rather amusing). We are glad to see an early introduction of a mechanic to keep people to their toes. Makes what is otherwise a boring tank-and-spank fight a bit more interesting. Incidentally, we note the health of the bosses in normal mode is of an order of magnitude similar to those of a heroic level 70 dungeon.
However, the wipes were indicative of perhaps a malaise that has crept over too many level 70 World of Warcraft players recently - complacency and the fact that most of us now know the level 70 instances like the backs of our hand. The first wipe, on the first boss was due to our tank pulling the group before her by simply running into them and another wipe was accidentally pulling multiple groups. Once we had that sorted, as mentioned above, we didn't have any problems.
Blizzard has done a very good job with the Northrend. The quests may have some annoying drop-rates at times, but we're not having Northrend's version of the Hillsbrad lions. The quest text and NPC interaction is very good, some of it priceless...especially the Apothecaries. The landscape and atmosphere are very well done as well.
Starting as level 70 Mage in a mix of gear from crafted epics up through T5 trash and badge gear, epic gems, and decent enchants, I'm just shy of 71 having done all the Howling Fjord quests that lead up to the Taunka camp and Dragonblight. We plan on sweeping through Northrend one zone at a time, making sure to do dailies of course, and slamming all the quests...and absolutely taking the time to read! The Death Knight is very well done with few things to stall you even during prime (mostly the mount quest), and conveys the mood and drama perfectly.
Initially, the wow gold costs of becoming Grand Master everything and the recipes is a pain, but selling drops and quest items will easily pay for the whole before you level up so this isn't really an issue.
