*unsure why the forums wont let me log onto my mage to post - but okay
Anyways, just wondering - i know that AoE groups in dungeons really took off, and so did the AoE farming for levels in open world, i am about at the rite level to start giving it an honest shot ( finally have cone of cold ) - im just wondering, is it comparable exp to questing or, is it far more exp than questing if your efficient at it?
any tips?
thanks fellas,
/cast slow fall before you leap!
*just had to relog to get on my main
So don’t follow Jokerd’s example really. He was a speed runner that used Layering Exploits (yes exploits, they since then fixed them), to get large uncontested mobs to AoE down.
AoE farming works for me if I do it during odd times, early in the morning or really late at night, otherwise the spots that are good for AoE farming are usually full of either mages trying the same thing, or people just grinding.
Group AoE farming can get you the most xp/hour I would say, but don’t expect to have a lot of gold doing that. Solo AoE, when you can, gets a lot of XP and vendorable items. Its awesome to do it when you can but just know it’s not as easy as he made it out to be.
It’s slower than questing with a single target build, but faster than questing and travelling around the world hunting quests… if only slightly. I started doing it at 34 (sacrificing my single target talents for the AoE ones), and after maybe 3 hours of it I’m 36.
The real pain as you reach the mid 30’s is simply finding an easily accessible zone that has a decent number of quests. You end up travelling for hours doing next to nothing running messages and the like, only to get to a zone that has a whopping 2 quests at your level and 5 more 10 levels above you. The AoE build just sorta says screw all that and takes a different path.
I wouldn’t say it’s all that much better, just different. It is extremely dependent on having a location with lots of melee only mobs that are clumped together, preferably without many players around.
One benefit though is that you can focus on farming things like cloth or leather while leveling however, provided you’re able to find a location with the right mobs at the right level.
outstanding,
does it make sense to do it with another mage - and how gear dependant is this, or is it really more about the talent selections more than gear?
Just solo mage killing. No need for you to even have a pocket healer. Just always be farming mobs a level or two lower then yourself. Resist can really screw up a pack of 8 mobs, when 1 hits you.
Bring consumables though, its not fun to die w/ 8 mobs at 5% hp either. Make mana gems too cause that happens.
I’ve been referencing icy veins for my grind spots as I’m still low in the 30s my go to spot is the worgens in duskwood because they spawn in large groups which is what you’re looking for rather than respawn rate, the spots for bulk (20-30) units is openly known information so pick your level appropriate spot and optimize your talents for those juicy gold and xp gains
It’s better than questing if you get spots to yourself.
It’s easier on weekdays, impossible on weekends.
It’s a fun playstyle though, good luck.
I doubt it. You’d just cut your xp gain in half for no real gain.
Blizzard doesn’t seem to scale with spellpower worth a damn. I added like 20 spellpower to my mage last night and my blizzard went from hitting for 50 dmg to hitting for 50 damage. So long as you can gather the mobs without dying and then cast blizzard 3-4 times (and a frost nova+ cone of cold to be safe) then your gear is probably fine.
It scales better at the final rank, but spell power is mostly better for AE, FS and cone.
You know what’s fun though. Attacking a mage while they’re AOE’ing.
Or training mobs into their AoE w/o the mages slow. That’s funny too…
You know what’s even more fun? Corpse farming you for half an hour for doing that.
That would be interesting. Never had that happen in 15yrs. It’s rather hard to corpse camp someone, I don’t know why ppl complain about it.
I’d be careful with that. Intentionally getting mobs to kill another player (thus causing them a repair bill) is one of the few bannable offenses when it comes to PvP.
Yup gotta do it during off times. I’ve given up on outdoor AoE farming after having people in my own faction drag things into my AoE to steal the spot.
Class acts.
O no. I said attacking the player.
Thus screwing up their pull, and causing the mobs to trample them? Yup. We got that.
Eh, I got nothing. I do think it’s funny.
But I’m also too nice to do that. I’d love to, but I’m just not that evil. I never start PvP unless someone attacks me.
Aoe farming has already been the fastest leveling method for years by now for vanilla. This was well known already on private servers, where anybody and there mom leveled aoe wise forwards.
Jokerd was just doing what everybody did on those servers aoe farm. There is even a faster way to level however but it requires two accounts and a high level to boot so can’t be done at start of servers.
That’s also the reason why most people in private servers had multiple accounts and would always level a mage at start for multiple reasons.
Questing is only good if you heavily optimize your route have good luck with not being ganked, and play at times everybody sleeps or are on dead servers, or are infront of the pack while u are at it.
The problem with questing is the walking that kills exp gain a hour.
Jokerd didn’t really abuse layerhopping as there was no reason to do so for him, as mobs where easily available for him throughout his leveilng experience. His time was basically normal for what people went for on private servers.