I Love This Bar
Deathrokk has hit 100 (that’s Number Nine on the “Ding 100!” list).
Yes, I’ll wait for you to get over the shock.
I’ll touch on this briefly. I leveled Deathrokk like so: enter zone, do quests until zone outpost is selected, do all bonus missions and grab some treasures along the way. Maybe, maybe a dungeon in there (all, what, one or two of them?). Rinse repeat. I feel like this one went quicker, but it was definitely a plus to level as Blood. I didn’t get a War Mill (barely got Garrison Level Two), and since I wasn’t really doing any questing anyway my main upgrades were the heirloom items. Ghetto gear FTW!
I focused a little on picking up some of the followers in the zone (as long as it didn’t involve running a long questline to unlock). That meant my follower roster was on the lower side once Deathrokk hit 100. I decided to pick up the Inn and buff that bad boy to lv 2. Treasure Hunter trait! MOAR MUNNIES!
Now that I had the Inn, I thought to myself “Self, you wanted an excuse to run dungeons. Do the Inn daily quests.”
But the queues?
“Yeah yeah. Let’s look at some of the perks though. If you do ten of the quests, you’ll unlock the Level Three Inn and get Treasure Hunter missions. You’ll also get some practice running tougher content, and maybe step up into raiding. LFR at least.”
Still…
“There’s also some pretty sweet upgrades and toys that could spice things up.”
Spice things up? What kind of toys are you talking about? Nipple clamps and feathers?
“Never mind. Now come on. What’s the worst thing that can happen?”
Sometimes waiting around at the Inn isn’t the worst thing. What you do there, is.
Well okay. I pulled a couple of the quests hopped into the queue.
What the F….
Sigh.
I popped into Skyreach. I ran the instance, killed the end boss… but where the Hell was this Sky Crystal I was supposed to pick up? Wowhead claimed the crystal was sitting on the table just after the first boss. Strange. I read a bit further and Ta Daaaaa!
ONLY AVAILABLE IN HEROIC MODE! AS WERE MOST OF THE OTHER QUESTS! WHO RUNS HEROIC QUESTS ANYMORE!?
Okay, okay. Deathrokk hopped into the Proving Grounds and got Silver. Should be fine for Heroics.
Damn fine, I must say.
Now it was just a matter of picking the right dungeons to –
WHAT THE F-
SIGH
Well I was almost there. I could just queue up for a regular dungeon, maybe get a gear upgrade and some experience running the dungeons before I stepped into Heroics. I’d just queue up and…
FUUUUUUUUU
I understand now why all of this is associated with the Inn. I need a drink.
Not So Serious Leveling
Smile! We’re leveling again!
Oops I did it again. I started leveling another character. Another Death Knight, no less.
And I’m thoroughly enjoying myself so far.
I decided to take a few different approaches this time. First, I wasn’t going to do anything with his garrison. By that I mean I wasn’t going to maximize it, optimize it, or do any -izing of that nature. No, let the chips fall where they may. Even though I “accidentally” leveled it up to Garrison Rank 2, I put down a Blacksmithing hut (to get the recipes without having to quest for it) and a Storage hut (so I could though all the things in my bank). No medium huts, nothing else. This time around, the garrison would exist only to provide me with garrison resources so I could buy XP potions.
Second, and this idea came to me “accidentally” as well (I’m beginning to question the validity of your accidents — Editor), was leveling without engaging in the storyline (re: questing). I figured since Blizzard wasn’t that interested in engaging in their current content, why should I?
Well then, you might think to yourself, how does one advance without questing? Impossible, yes?
To that I say nay.
Technically I guess I did follow the questline – to a point. Once I was level-appropriate, I’d get the quest from my garrison to visit the new zone. I’d then follow the two or three quests to unlock my stronghold in that zone. After that, I’d stop with the storyline questing and start with alternate XP gathering.
So what would I do?
Blizzard’s infatuation with their treasures and the placing of them, was something I took advantage of. They were scattered all over the zone, and at 20-30k XP a pop they were worth more than a quest turnin. Snatching up these freebies also forced me to cover more of the zone than I had previously when I was focused on speed leveling.
Bonus objectives became a thing, and I was all over them. As a Blood DK, I could complete the bonus objectives faster than I could finish many of the quests, and I’d get a decent chunk of change in the process. I’d also get a much decenter slab of XP (110k worth of tasty XP) in the process. Oh, and achievement points.
It’s like giving XP away!
My plan wasn’t to do much with the garrison. Partly out of protest, but mostly to prove a point to myself. Still, out in the wilds of Draenor there were garrison followers with short quests attached to them. They weren’t storyline related, so I figured it’d be worth using them to pad my XP bar as well. Some of these recruiting quests were quite simple.
Doesn’t get much easier than that.
So far, things are going just as quickly as they were when I was focused on speed leveling. My DK is already at 96, and is about to journey to Spires of Arak. There are definite drawbacks to leveling this way – lack of gear upgrades via quest rewards being a big one – but so far, the process has been painless. It has much more of a casual feel to it. There’s no big worrying about keeping up with garrison stuff, or making sure I don’t miss any steps in the questline.
Will this work all the way to 100? After all, there are only so many XP alternatives available per zone, and the leveling requirements keep increasing. I may eventually have to cave, or get creative, but I’m planning to ride this hobbled pony as far as I can. Make your own fun, is what I say.
Why So Serious?
Rokk Talk 