Hey all, I just started playing the game last week on the Starter edition of the game and reached lvl 20. I decided to buy the game or subscription for a month so that I could continue playing on my character past 20. I have yet to do any dungeons, and I have played 1 PVP game where I was playing capture the flag, and besides that I got a mount and continuing my quests. I don’t know if I really want to level my character all the way to 110 now that I’m experiencing how long it takes to level by doing just quests, takes me about 6-7 to level up one time currently. I feel like I’m playing the game incorrectly or just not efficiently as I’m supposed to. I feel like I might just be autopilotting by doing quest after quest and not branching out into other things. Can dungeons and pvp games give me as much xp? Could it be faster?
Typically, going in the queue for a dungeon while questing is the fastest way to level. Each dungeon also has quests that reward good gear and quite bit of XP. Good gear makes a difference to leveling speed.
Typically, leveling the first character takes more time than any other character as you are learning the various mechanics of the game, how to get from point A to point B, and which types of NPC’s to talk to and which ones you can ignore.
A starter account can also level up to 50 characters. People generally find they level faster on one class or another depending on how smooth they feel the gameplay of a given class/spec feels to them.
You can also get xp buffs by various means. Heirloom gear is the most popular way. Most heirloom items give a 10% increase to XP and a couple give 5%. Heirlooms initially can be used from 1-60 and their stats scale up as you level up. They can be upgraded to 61-90, 91-100, and 101-110.
Even a starter account can get a couple of pieces per character when the darkmoon faire is in town. It starts the first Sunday of the month and runs through the following Saturday.
At the faire you can catch 100 Darkmoon Daggermaw fish and turn them in for a short treasure map quest.
The treasure map quest awards 100 Darkmoon tickets. There is a vendor at the fire that sells 1-60 heirloom armor pieces for 50 tickets each.
Each chracter can only do the quest once but multiple characters can do it and get armor for whatever your main toon is.
The faire also has a carousel. Riding the carousel gives you a 10% XP buff for an hour. People complete a bunch of quests, but don’t turn them in until after riding the carousel for the buff.
If its taking 6/7 hours a level, yeah, that would be pretty frustrating. Part of that I imaging is you being new and just getting familiar with the game, learning the zones, and still getting use to quest mechanics…
My suggestions for spending it up…
- pick up all the quests you can in any one quest hub… all of the yellow ! marks - do all the quests before going back to turn them in. If you run across other quest givers while doing quests pick those up too. Clear as many quest objectives as you can and when they are all marked complete then go turn them in.
- Take advantage of rested experience. If you log out in a city (and maybe inns) you build up rested xp gains giving you boosted growth for a period of time.
- on your mini-map turn on “trivial quests” by clicking on the little magnifying glass and making sure that is checked. This will make sure you are seeing all the available quests, not just the main ones. This should give you more xp per quest hub
- ALWAYS BE QUEUED - either dungeons or random battleground. While you are questing keep the random queue going. It will breakthings up a bit, and you’ll get xp from the runs - bgs only on wins though… and you’ll get better gear which will speed things up.
- looks up a class guide, or ask in the class forum, to make sure you are using your damaging spells effectively. Make sure all your spells are on your bar. Try to use key binds rather than click. All these will help.
- if your a hunter, use a damage type pet when survivability isn’t an issue - makes killing things faster.
- pick up herbing or mining (or both). You get xp from picking nodes. Don’t go out of your way, but pick up everything you come across for extra xp. When you get stacks of 20 sell them on the auction house for the going price - you’ll make decent gold that way.
- make sure you are equipping better gear. I use the add-on Pawn, which shows me which gear is better with a little green arrow. Better gear does more damage (if you are DPS).
I think it’s important to point out that you don’t have to be efficient. It’s okay to explore and mess around and try different things. It’s about what you are finding fun. (And I recognize that some people find being as efficient as possible fun.)
As long as you are being considerate of the players you interact with, you can’t really play the game wrong.
To expand a bit on Djarro’s comment about hunter lets.
Hunter lets are currently in a strange spot right now due to family skills and ferocity pets that have an armor buff as an ability tend to be better tanks than most tenacity pets unless the tenCity pet has an extra family ability to generate threat.
A scale hide pet like the one you have is one example of a ferocity let that makes a better tank than most tenacity pets. It is a good choice for any hunter spec under level 65.
At level 65, BM Hunter’s learn exotic pets when core-hounds and clefthoof/rhinos become better than scale hides. Clefthoof/Rhino tend to be better fo 1-3 mobs at a time and Corehounds for more than 3 mobs but I usually just use a corehound.
For battlegrounds, a cunning pet than can slow or snare an enemy helps.
For dungeons and raids, Hunter’s usually take a group of pets corresponding to the boss mechanics they want to counter. At a minimum, take a ferocity pet that supplies a haste buff to your group. At level 65, most BM NeterstalkerNetherstalker also acquire a Spirit Beast for running group content for the heal they have.
I don’t know much about hunter pets, but you’re saying that my scalehide is more of a tank than a DPS ferocity type pet? What pet should I look into for high damage at this level? How do I keep more than 2 pets at a time? I don’t want to lose my boar tbh
Some prefer a tenacity pet for leveling and a ferocity pet for dungeons. The scale hide, and later on the corehounds and clefthoof/rhino families do both jobs quite well. My lower level Hunter’s are running with scale hides as they do good damage and are tough to kill.
Next to inns out in the world, and hunter trainers in the cities, are Stable Masters. You can stash up to 25 pets at a stable master.
As you level, you will also get callpet-1/2/3/4/5 abilities. You currently have callpet-1 and callpet-2, you will learn the other three as you level up.
Call pet slots are used for pets you keep “in your pocket”. At any time you can dismiss your current pet and call out a different pet from your pocket. Your dismissed pet will still be in your pocket unless you stable it.
Wow-petopia.com is the goto site for Hunter pet info.