I don't understand people who are racing head-long to level 70, ravenously devouring the content that we've been waiting for all this time. I get that many are anxious to raid but in a couple of months you'll be on your umptenth time in an instance. I guess those of you who love raiding will be happy with that situation. I for one will not.
When I called my son tonight to see how things are going back at home, he told me that he is almost level 70. I was shocked. Actually, I said "What the fuck?" He laughed and said, "Yep I'm 3/4 into level 69 so by the time you get back I'll be 70." And he proudly announced that he'd be buying the first tier flying mount tonight. Needless to say, my jaw dropped.
When I commented that with only 2 other 70s in his guild he'd have time to level his Paladin, he replied that he still had a lot to do at 70, like all the reputation for attunements. It seems that the instances will not produce much XP (so much for that lie), so you'll need to quest for maximum XP effeciency then head into the instances to grind your repuatation. In addition, he wanted to max the professions this time, since he'd been handed a toon with completed professions - he opted to level the Warlock I'd given him before his own 60s. Guess he's found that actually being able to supply yourself with something in the way of professions, is actually beneficial. Go figure.
Lastly, he wondered with some concern how he'd ever amass the money needed for the epic flying mount. He did confirm that accumulating gold was easier in TBC but he didn't know how so many players had forked over the thousands of gold needed this quickly for their mounts. According to him, many players are already cruising the skies in Outland.
Guess I'll fall back into the loser crowd as I have NO intention of racing through this content. The leveling to me was certainly more fun than the view at 60, so I'm going to savior my journey to 70. I might even take my level 44 Paladin to 70, after my Priest but before I even poke my head into any 25-man raids. And if I can convince my best friend to give the game a try - been working on a new angle, I might even try one of the new races.
In short, I'm finding that WOW is still the best thing in town for my preferences and although I have every intention of playing other games, I don't want to burn myself out on this one, until I'm certain I've found a new addiction. Vanguard as it sits at the moment isn't it. EQ2 will continue to see me but that's not it either. So in case 70 is the new raid or die 60, I'm in no hurry to get there. Still there is a part of my that sits in awe of these insane players that are barking at 70's door.
Yeah I too will be cautiously explore the upper level 60's (once I hit 60 haha) I dont know why so many people race through new content in a day or less then a week. I mean, the whole reason of waiting was to savor the art of leveling up again, not race through it and be like "what now? Oh, back to honor grinding again yay?" If honor rep grinding was not so much fun at 60, then why would someone race to 70 only to be in the same type of situation like 60?
Posted by: Excaliber | January 24, 2007 at 10:06 PM
I hear you. I got into TBC a week late, and am glad I did. I can actually quest in both Outlands and the new areas without fearing the mobs of players spawn camping everything. I'm bewildered why the people who were bored with it before insisted on rushing to 70. There I was last night, 2nd night in Hellfire (only played a couple hours there before returning to Kalimdor to farm copper and rough stones), and there's a guy on a bat asking "Anyone want to pvp?" Level 70. First I'd seen. Don't remember his name, never heard of him, or his guild, never heard of them. Nobody responded. Whatever. I have quests of my own to do, and friends to do them with. And I will relish each new area in it's own due time. Guild Wars has that option to skip all story and questing and jump right into PvP with level 20 characters. Why aren't these folks there?
Posted by: Kinless | January 25, 2007 at 07:05 AM
I've been questing and dungeon running since the day the expansion came out and I just got 65. I still have a few quests just in the second zone, Zangermarsh. The instances do grant good experience as long as you have a group of friends who know how to dungeon crawl. Most of the new instances can be done in about a hour if you have a good group of the same level as the end boss.
Posted by: Relmstein | January 25, 2007 at 10:44 AM
I agree with you Lauren...I have absolutely no idea why people want to get to 70 so fast. I just boggles my mind. We won't see an expansion for WoW for another 1-2 years and for some strange reason people feel the need to rush through content just for the right to say "I did it first".
I'm at level 62.8 and I have friends who are 66,67 and I just can't keep up with them. It's insane.
Posted by: darrenl | January 25, 2007 at 10:49 AM
Lauren, no way are you part of the loser crowd for wanting to soak it all in.
Whiffle is merely 50, and all he really cares about is getting Fizzlelicious. He'll have a blast in the Outland (as with some of my other toons), when he's ready. There's just too much to do, what with quests, and new alts to rush through it all.
Blizzard spent the better part of two years putting this stuff together for us. I, as with you and many others, aim to not miss a thing.
One thing I have come to understand about WoW'ing, is that the game doesn't pass you by. Oh sure you might have friends at higher levels, but the game stays right with you, no matter how long one plays his/her toon. The content is there, and there are always people to enjoy it with.
Safe travels ...
Posted by: Whiffle | January 25, 2007 at 01:29 PM
An hour? I love the sound of that time commitment. One of the things I LOVED about AC2 was the abiity to pop on for just a couple of hours and complete 2 or 3 instance runs depending on which you chose and the experience of the group. It would be very nice to instance for an hour or two, then wander off for my solo fix. The perfect mix would unfold if I could do that with success. Call me strange but I like piddling around with professions and the OCD-like parts of me really do prefer to max everything. Something only partially done somehow grates on me.
I wish I could take a couple of days off to play. Not to catch up so much as drink my fill of what I've been missing. As it is, a career change is going to be eating into some of my personal time - aka game time. :-(
Posted by: Saylah | January 25, 2007 at 05:15 PM
I hope your son showered a time or two, and didn't hit his head on his keyboard when he fell asleep ;)
I've been avoiding Outlands, and taking advantage of the minimal competition for mining, etc, for my 40s Warrior alt. I don't like high competition, too many people want to interact with me when I just wanna solo and wind down from work, etc.
GREAT BLOG! I'll be back to read more, pardon me as I comment on older topics, I tend to be chatty like that...
Valdesta, 61 Troll Hunter on Zul'jin
http://worldofwarcraft.blogsome.com - my player blog
http://wowgrrl.runescapequizzes.com - Before 60: WoW tips and tricks for newbies
Posted by: Valdesta | January 25, 2007 at 05:50 PM
I couldn't agree more. My main is 62 and has just now completed the Hellfire quests ( there's alot of them)
I did take a quick trip to Shattrah city just to set my new bind point... but I am in no hurry to hit 70. I'm also levelling up a draenei, a blood elf, and several other 60 alts... so yea, I'm in no rush. I don't care much for raiding anyway, at least not after my first few times through the zone.
Posted by: Theadrick | January 26, 2007 at 10:08 AM
At the rate I'm going, it will be another week or so before Gitr hits 61 and around that same time, I should get Deadr to 58 to start him on his way to 61 doing stuff in Hellfire Penninsula.
Your son is a trip...playing it like he's on Jolt. I would like to do that, but it wouldn't be responsible for me to do that. Darn.
Posted by: Gitr | January 26, 2007 at 10:44 AM
Circumstances beyond my control-cough cough WIFE!- kept me from logging into BC until day 4, and I almost fell over when I saw a toon by the name sloneasy at level 65. I did a /who on good ol sloneasy last night and sure enough, he is level 70.
With the amount of time that I have on my hands at work-my boss allows me to play WOW in my downtime- I would have been able to hit 70 quickly, just like I hit 60 quickly. But this time around I made a pact with one of my RL friends to not experience one bit of BC action without him, and we have been having a blast! I'm 3/4 of the way through 60 and not in a hurry one bit. When he is unable to log, I find myself enjoying leveling my now 40 human mage. WOW life is good.
I personally don't care about how fast someone levels just as long as I don't see them bitching on the forums about how Blizzard doesn't care about them.
Posted by: wolfgangdoom | January 26, 2007 at 10:47 AM
I had 4 60's when BC came out, now i have a 63, 62 and two 61's...I'm loving it, and I find it funny all the people just burning through the content, racing to 70. Most of the high level players in my guild came out of retirement to race to lvl 70...why? I have no clue...
Oh well, to each his own, I'm trying to tackle every quest in each zone...the only thing that is screwing me up is the bonus rest exp...overall though, thats a good problem to have most times.
Posted by: Seamus | January 26, 2007 at 11:04 AM
I rushed to get BC on launch day (tho not at any kind of midnight event, I was busy sleeping thx very much); I of course ran through Hellfire the first evening with thousands of others on my server, struggled to get any quest done due to over-populated area and camped spawns. For the record, without rushing, my rogue is now lv63 and my priest is only lv61. Yeah, I'm gonna level both at the same time for different purposes, and still, no rushing ahead.
I checked last Sunday evening how many online players were already 70s after the first weekend, and while it wasn't more than 20-25 (online), it's still astounding how some people are steamrolling through new content.
I don't have that kind of time, the couple I spoke to are college kids and can afford to dedicate this amount of time to the game while their semester is just starting and there are no big obligations to deal with yet. Am I envious? Well, I love this game and I'd love to play 12+ hours a day every day, but even if I did I'm not sure I'd be lv70 already.
I've caught myself just staring at the new scenery, testing out new talents/spells, checking out the new rep to gather and what I could get out of it, etc. I'm sure the lv70s are having fun too, it must be part of their conception of fun to rush ahead and raid again.
Posted by: crsh | January 27, 2007 at 01:42 PM
@ Crsh - Wow, you're going to go for leveling two toons? My hat's off. That's an ambitious plan. There's a part of that wants to be 70. It's been a long time since I've been without a main that's all grown up. *Smile* And with my ever competitive son staring over my shoulder, it's hard to resist the urge. If I find that doing instances is more appealing to me than it has been in the past, I might press forward a little. I have a Paladin waiting in the wings. But pressing forward for me will still be at a laggart's pace to some of these other players. I will probably stall back tracking on my Priest's professions other than gathering herbs. I can have a whole week sucked down the tubes when I catch the crafting flu.
And I made the mistake of creating a Draenie. Supposedly just to see the starter area, but now I'm thinking about deleting that one and putting a "real" one on a RPPVP server, to join the masses of fools who are thinking they'll roll a D Shaman. So many options and so little time.
Posted by: Saylah | January 28, 2007 at 02:43 PM