Tuesday, January 27, 2009

68 Ready for Northrend?

So here we are, 3 characters in northrend and a 4th slowly crawling to that magical number of level 68 and now the time has come to determine whether or not it's worthwhile to bring number 4 - 10 to northrend at 68 or to put off till later (level 70+).

I am not going to say one way is better than the other, that varies per person (yes it does). What I can do however is list the facts and let you come to your own conclusions.

And thus, I present to you the pros and cons of going to northrend at level 68:

Pros

1. Higher XP/gold gains for quests and kills
2. Higher valued quest rewards
3. Higher grouping potential

Cons

1. Higher risk
2. Reduced max gold potential from questing at 80
3. More competition
4. Outland loremaster quests won't give XP


That's essentially it. What it comes down to is a choice between northrend's higher xp rewards, more valuable quest rewards and more grouping options vs outland's low risk environment, lower competition for mobs and the ability to squeeze the maximum amount of gold out of northrend quests later on (the more you quest in outland the more quests you can turn to gold at 80 in northrend).

Is one better than the other? That is a matter of personal preference and I am sure you will find people on both sides of the fence.

As I have pointed out in a previous post however is that ideally you'd want to ding 80 after completing Borean tundra, howling fjord, dragonblight and grizzly hills in order to get the maximum amount of gold out of northrend at level 80 for the remaining quests.

If you're interested in that and still want to go to northrend at level 68 consider taking a little break from questing and focussing on dailies for a while.
They give decent XP, decent gold and are finished quite quickly but can provide enough of a buffer to get you to ding 80 earlier than you normally would by just straight up questing through northrend.

Incidentally if you have any intention of becoming a loremaster then you'd be well advised to finish outland while there's still XP to be had from the quests.

The choice is yours... and while it's probably not interesting for your main to ponder there's always alts. Yes, that off-gray pile of dust on your character screen may in fact be a long lost tauren just waiting for you to take him/her to northrend... You're not just going to leave it there are you?

5 comments:

Dorgol said...

My druid hit 70 after WotLK released, but before I purchased the game itself. I had considered completing all the zone quests for cash, but decided (instead) to do Achievements on my main.

It will be interesting to see how far I can level him with Nagrand, BEM, Netherstorm, and Shadowmoon Valley all untouched.

Anonymous said...

I was a purist who never went to Outlands until 60 on my first two toons. Now *insert random QQ about easy mode* I just head to Outlands at 58 and Northrend at 68.

If your leveling for the end game do go ASAP. If you think you want to do achievements still do that and come back and complete the Outlands quests when your 80. You still get the gold and its even easier.

Gobble gobble.

Anonymous said...

I tried having 4 characters and found it too much but i still like playing them all.

My mage was my main alt at 70 but i havent played him since the expansion.

My paladin i played for a bit and he is just into 67 but lately ive made my rogue my only alt i play.

Anonymous said...

I say stay in the Outland and I will even suggest you do the first round of dailies on the Sunwell Isle.

Thats right, I said it! When the xpan came out, the very first thing I did was roll over to the Isle for my round of dailies. They give very good money and now, exp!

But like one of your commentors already wrote, if you are leveling the alt for the end game, get to Northrend asap

btw, the word verification word for me is "nutism"

I chuckled a little =P

Captain The First said...

@Dorgol: I am thinking 4-5 levels for those zones. Odds are one zone will gray out if you're not very strict in your order of things.

@Bobturkey: Last I checked you didn't get any xp->gold conversion for gray quests so going to 80 and then backtracking will probably be somewhat inefficient.

@Esdras: Oh I don't really play them all. On some I do dailies, others are collecting dust. 10 characters is a lot to play in total but it's nice to have the option to just pick up whatever character appeals to you the most.
Incidentally I just burn off rested xp once in a while and over the year or so that I've played this resulted in me having no characters below lvl 30 anymore.

@Thedoctor: Yeah I am a fan of the sunwell dailies too... my hunter is still over there because I can't find the time to play him for longer than 30-60 minutes every now and then and the dailies are perfect for that. Plus sunwell is completely dead now :P

Nutism... fitting :P