Going to Northrend at level 68 - Is it a good idea?
I get that question a lot, everyday. So I will answer it here once and for all.
The answer is a clear no, going to Northrend at level 68 is a not a good idea, you are not doing yourself a favor. There are many reasons why it is so:
- Level requirements on quests in Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord. There are many quests with level 69+, 70+ and even 71+ already in Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord. If you go there at 68, many of them won't be up for you and you'll have to go back to those zones later, which is a waste of time. That means more running around to the same spots where you could have done everything in one run.
- Fighting mobs higher than you is not efficient. You'll have to fight level 71 mobs at level 68. Sure that's not a big deal, but fighting orange mobs isn't very efficient. They die slower and do more damage to you.
- Level requirements on quests in Dragonblight and further zones. There are already level 72+ and even a level 74+ requirement quest in Dragonblight. If you start Northrend at level 68, there's no way you'll hit 74 in Dragonblight, even if you complete both BT and HF. (unless you play with rested xp all the time and do instances I guess)
- You'll miss about 2K gold worth of quest. If you skip half of Outland and go straight to Northrend, here is what will happen once you hit level 80: all those Outland quests you skipped will be grey to you. That means no extra level cap gold if you go back to do them. Because if you're an achiever, you WILL go back to do them, for the reputation, the gold, the lore and the zone achievements, right? So why not do them while they are still giving you their full XP reward? If you do them before 70, while they are still yellow or green to you, you'll get the full exp reward from those quests, and you will ding 80 in Northrend much earlier, with several northrend zones left to do. And that means tons of gold from questing at level 80. (And I will release guides for each zone in Northrend). If you do it my way, you'll probably end up 2k or 3k gold richer once you're done with all the quests.
- Difficult group quests. There are some difficult group quests in Northrend, being two level ahead will make it much easier (you'll be able to solo or duo some of them, which you could never dream of accomplishing if you'd go there 2 levels lower). For example in Dragonblight, there are about 8 group quests which really are difficult. You can't solo them, and duo'ing them is also very difficult depending on your class mix. If you go there with 2 level 74/75, you'll probably pull it off. If you go there with 2 level 71/72, you'll probably fail and have to look for more.
- Gear upgrades don't make enough of a difference. The gear upgrades from Northrend quests are nice, but honestly, there isn't much of a gap between green quest rewards you get from Nagrand, Netherstorm and BEM and what you get in BT/HF. It's not enough of a difference to make it worthwhile going there so early and sacrificing all the above, really. I speak from experience, I have tried both methods.
- I went there at 68. I've tried going there with my level 68 Rogue in quest greens (horde side), and then I went there with my other rogue, level 70, in quest greens (alliance side). The difference was really noticeable. It was much easier and efficient with the level 70, not to mention it allowed me to include every quests in circuits, without having to go back and worry about level requirements.
- Overcrowding. Have I mentioned that Northrend is also quite overcrowded at the moment, which slows you down when questing? Try finishing Outland before Northrend, you'll love it. The outland zones are almost empty, you'll have no competition on the quest objectives and you'll have a great time.
There is a HUGE and WIDELY spread misconception among players:
They think that being higher level than the zone's average quest level is bad. They also think that doing green quests or killing green mobs is bad.
This couldn't be further from the truth. It's exactly the opposite! Green mobs die much faster, do much less damage to you and give about 90% as much XP as a yellow mob.
This is even more true for quests! Green quests give 100% as much XP as yellow quests, but are much easier to complete.
Do yourself a favor and listen to my advice: Do NOT skip zones unless you are so far above that the quests are grey to you. As long as it's green, it's great! Don't skip content!
Listen to me and you will level faster and easier. And once you hit level 80, you will be richer, have more reputation and achievements.
All it takes is a little self-discipline, resist the urge to go to Northrend asap, and in the end you'll reap the rewards.
Posts
Interesting.
Before Wrath came out, I worked my butt off levelling my druid, stopping at 68 because of time... and then of course I had no patience; I wanted to see Northrend NOW. :) I had a 70 warrior, so I was kinda bored with the Outlands -- and didn't want to play him.
I've honestly had no trouble at all handling the mobs in Borean Tundra (my druid only just dinged 70; I'm a fairly slow and lazy leveller, I admit!), but your comments about money and rep and, well, efficiency do make sense, and while my druid's not planning to /leave/ Northrend anytime soon, my next character will wait.
I'm amazed at the work you put into those guides 'n all (even though I'm usually too disorganized to do more than check 'em for ideas). Major kudos. :D
I made a similar mistake, I took my 58 DK straight to Outland *gasp*. Terrible decision, did a few quests and got to 59, but out of order, which will result in a lot of running around later. I'm marching him back to the Plaguelands until he hits 60 before heading to HFP again.
with my DK, not only did i go to hellfire at 58 (and got to 61.5 in 8 hours from when i named my DK), i also went to howling fjord at 68.
I followed your guide for both outlands and northrend.
The two main differences:
1. There was 1 circuit i had to do in hellfire out of order from yours, but besides that everything went perfectly.
2. I started in howling fjord instead of borean tundra, then went to borean tundra @ 71 and had 0 problems with any quests (using your guide)
If money is not important and time to hit 80 is, i would recommend going as early as possible if you are a class that is equipped to handle mobs with a slight level gap.
Quests in borean tundra reward 20k xp, generally, whereas the outlands ones at 68 reward around the 12k mark.
My DK is now 74 in dragonblight (following your guide) with no problems
Honestly, I was sooooo done with Outland when I ding'd 69 with my DK, I went to Borean Tundra and used your guides. It honestly made that last level to 70 far more bearable and I was surprised at how fast I was able to get there.
Once I was in Northrend the only questline that wasn't available till I hit 70 were the DEHTA ones, which I came back to. I supplemented it further, by waiting till 71 to do both Nexus and Utgarde Keep multiple times both to learn them and gain some of the gear and ding'd 72 ahead of your guide.
I will caveat that I don't think I could have done that with my Druid, DK's just have the right combination of spells, armor, self-heals, and brute strength to handle some of the quests at 69.
Oh, I never said you'd have "troubles" killing normal mobs in Northrend at level 68. I just said you'd kill them slower than if you were level 70 or higher.
And believe it or not, 12K per quests in Outland, without the overcrowding and fighting easier mobs which are green to you ends up being just as fast as 20K per quest in Northrend, fighting for spawns, dealing with PvP ganking and fighting mobs above your level which die slower.
Alright, I'll give you that: if you can play at crazy times where you don't have many people against you, then yea I guess going to Northrend at 68 will make you level faster than staying in Outland till 70.
However, everything else still is true. It will be harder, you'll have less gold, rep, achievements and certain quests won't be immediately accessible to you, which is just annoying.
Honestly I think the right level to go to Northerend is 69.
The starting areas ar not so overcrowded anymore.
Everybody (well almost) is bored about Outlands.
The xp needed for 69->70 is really low compared to xp needed for next levels, and in a few quests you'll be 70.
Quest rewards for melee ARE a huge buff: the first green weapons are very good and a 3-men quest in Borean Tundra gives amazing weapon rewards.
Right now I'm levelling my Druid (level 75 and still have several quests to do in Dragonblight).
My Dk is 66 but I'm almost sure I'll go to BT as soon as I ding 69.
Then I have a Warrior (71), Paladin (70) and Shaman (70).
Damn, too many toons and not enough time to level all :(
I'll stick to those I enjoy more (druid and dk right now).
Thanks for your great guides Jame ^_^
Thanks for the thoughts. I think if I just played by myself I would follow this advice. I don't raid, so I'm not in a big hurry to get to 80. But I used this expansion to switch mains from Shaman to DK. But all my friends are already 72. I have to get to Northrend ASAP just so that i don't fall too far behind.
Hello.
Honestly, if you are leveling your DK and try to do it quickly, you most probably do NOT have end-game outlands gear.
I found the starting Northrend gear is absolutely worth going there at 68 for.
I personally think the most _efficient_ thing would be to get the Northrend starting gear, then go back to finish the Outlands stuff.
I also think that the most _fun_ thing to do would be to just enjoy Northrend, which is why I am taking my time and leveling the rest there :)
Don't forget: an epic flying mount (if you can afford one) in Outlands allows very quick movement from one quest to another.
The gear you acquire from Northrend helps you in Northrend (high level mobs, with higher damage output and health requires higher scaling of gear). The gear you have in Outlands is tweaked for Outlands mobs. Gear is a moot point.
I stayed in Outlands until 71.5 (after finishing the guide to Netherstorm) and then went over to Northrend. I followed the guide again and I was able to -easily- get to 78 by the time I finished Dragonblight. I finished off my grind in Icecrown for a couple of blue items/events. If I ever wanted to go back and get the achievements, all of the remaining zones have level 75+ quests which will award bonus gold.
I go to Outlands at 58 or 59 as Healer, but nothing else. I guess Ill wait on Northrend, this is sound advice
Re:Dar
I fail to see how upgrading your _starting_ gear to what essentially is Outland end-game comparable gear is a moot point.
More health + more armor = more unholy AOE goodness non-stop. :P
I've been able to use WOTLK to swap from my old raiding Character, a 70 Shaman with some Mag/Gruul Gear, and not much else to a Death Knight. I went to Outlands at 58, and went to Northrend at 68. Now i've been leveling with a friend so we are both death knights and within a level of each other. But that being said, we upgraded 3 peices right off the back when we got to Northrend, we play alliance, so we did Enemy of the light, got the chest peice upgrade, then we did the follow ups to that, the last quest in that chain had a helmet upgrade as well. After we ding'd to 69 we did a quest over in death strand that takes you into the temple to kill x,y,z. That quest had a awesome axe < Axe of Frozen Death>
http://www.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=38237
This by it's self was a massive upgrade.
A massive DPS increase for a MH weapon does not justify the move to Northrend. Why? The monsters you are now killing have 9k health. Back in Outlands, they had 6k health. Sure, you may see bigger numbers and feel cooler that you have better gear, but the fights will be longer and you'll be taking more damage than you would back in Outlands.
Pestilence, UB, DnD, they all scale as required. In Outlands, I could round up 6-7 mobs my level and easily put them down with the gear tuned for that area. In Northrend, the same is not possible.
Anyways, no more preaching for me. Play the way you want to play. My way worked well for me (I was always the highest level DK when WotLK was released), and I figured I'd share it with people who really wanted to be efficient.
alrighty Jame, that cleared all my doubts and I shall not skip Outland even tho I dinged 70 while still at the lvl 68 part of your guide =.= ...
i kept my pally parked at the ah while leveling my dk. as soon as he started getting 67-68ish i would hop onto the pally every once in a while to check for northrend greens. i managed to find a mace to replace my blade of misfortune that was a huge upgrade for about 9g, and it only took about 10 minutes to keep checking and eventually mail it.
another note about gear upgrades, is anyone finding them absolutely nessesary? because of how capable the dk class is, i think all of outlands could be down without much trouble in the starting set of blues. the huge numbers will come at 80, for now i just want to get there as efficiently, and with as much gold/rep/achievements as possible :)
Aw man, where were you two days ago when I was trying to decide whether to stay in Nagrand or go to Borean Tundra on my Death Knight?
Alot of the BOE greens that drop in Northrend would be decent upgrade for a Death Knight. But you are completely correct death knights gear lasts well into 70 if not further, however you start getting better gear in Northrend then what you have.
Although a side note. Maces typically do not lend them selves well to our class when compared to Axes or Swords. The reason I say this is because most of our attacks look like the below:
Does x% weapon damage + 49.5 damage per disease on the target.
Also, side note in regards to the health differences between targets in Northrend vs similar level targets in SMV.
Location SMV
Name: Blackwind Sabercat
Level: 70 - 71
Health: 9,082 - 9,335
Location Tundra
Name: Oil-Stained Wolf
Level: 70 - 71
Health: 8,982 - 9,291
I don't see a vast difference between creatures in SMV compared to that of creatures in the Tundra. I don't see the level/health difference where the gear upgrades from BT/HF don't make sense.
It's good to see that everyone has different opinions on this. And in the end, they are just that - Opinions.
If you really can't stomach staying in Outland two extra levels, for whatever reason, then by all means just go to Northrend at 68. In the end you'll be fine.
I'm just speaking from experience, and I know that doing it my way you end up richer by 2 or 3k gold.
It's also much easier, fighting green mobs really makes things fun, because they die so easily. Green mobs also don't have such a big aggro range on you, which means you can easily get to quest objectives without having to clear as much as you would normally.
Anyway, I only ask one thing: if you go to Northrend at 68 and follow my guide, please do not blame me if you can't access certain quests when I say you should get them! :P
Very True Jame! Anyways I very much appreciate your guides. Keep up the great work
Jame -
When can we expect the next set of guides? Both of my toons just finished your last section and are eagerly awaiting the release of your next guides.
I'll make an announcement tomorrow about that ;)
typically i would be sticking with swords (not axes, my dk is human) however if you compare these two:
granite maul of the soldier
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=36501
to the blade of misfortune
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=31134
or even the horned voidaxe from the ring of blood quests
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25762
its pretty apparent that the mace is a significant upgrade, especially for a human :)
like i said earlier, its not nessesary given the quality of the starting gear, but it does make things go a little quicker.
>> I'll make an announcement tomorrow about that ;)
Glad to hear about that!! However I have to ask will you also later create guides for all the Azeroth/Outland zones?
Hmm, do you mean zone specific quest circuits?
For Outland I've pretty much already done that with my leveling guides. All I need to do is finish Netherstorm and do Shadowmoon Valley.
For Azeroth it's more complicated, many quests take you through different zones, so I don't know if I'll make a guide for each zone seperately.
It's definitely something I'll keep in mind though.
You said that I would be missing out on gold, so if you can add all the circuits for Netherstorm and Shadowmoon Valley. Kind of like you are doing for Northrend. Just to make sure Im not missing out on gold :$
I just want to know the quickest way to complete those remaining quests. Outland is actually the only ones I'm interested in for money.
If I am correct you have to complete 700 quests on each of the continents for an achievement. That is why I want the circuits for Azeroth. It will also be nice to get the explore achievements while in a zone.
Please note this is suggestions for the future! Once you are done with the leveling guides. These are just 'nice to have'.
In Response to daemun
Check out the Halaa Claymore
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=30597
But yeah, for a human that mace would be a very nice upgrade. The Halaa claymore is alot easier to get. Wait for your faction to have Halaa and wahla
quote:
typically i would be sticking with swords (not axes, my dk is human) however if you compare these two:
granite maul of the soldier
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=36501
to the blade of misfortune
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=31134
or even the horned voidaxe from the ring of blood quests
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25762
its pretty apparent that the mace is a significant upgrade, especially for a human :)
like i said earlier, its not nessesary given the quality of the starting gear, but it does make things go a little quicker.
Well, I was decided to finish the outland guide until BEM. I have just started Nagrand (68 ATM) and I could not resist the urge to go and see a bit of Northrend, train my profesions to keep getting skillups (first aid, cooking, mining) and get the Axe of Frozen Death.
That litle bit took care of my urge, I had my fun sidetrek and then went back to outlands.
This is off-topic, but maybe we could get a preview of the Grizzly Hills guide? Please?
First, thanks for your excellent guides. I'll miss them as I head into Grizzly Hills.
However, just wanted to clarify one thing: I went into Northrend at 68 as a DK in part because I was bored with Outland (already had 4 70s and 2 more characters above 60.) Chalk me up as playing how I want to play.
Yes, I had to leave Howling Fjord to go to Borean Tundra part way through 69. Yes, I finished BT and went back to Howling Fjord at 72.
I did get a chunk of rested xp everyday, but I'll be leaving Dragonblight at 76. Thanks again for the guide!
I was the first alliance DK (and second overall) to ding 80 on my realm. I went to outland at 59 (did all the turn in quests but not the full WPL/EPL lines) and northreand at 68. Perhaps it's because I outleveled my colleagues, perhaps it's because I leveraged my buffs and consumables. I dunno. But I would say a DK is an exception at this point. I killed things so quickly that waiting until 70 would not possibly have been an advantage, and getting the better gear from northrend at 68 made me vastly more powerful than two levels of wimpy outland stuff. One example is my first UK run at 68 I got Ingvar's axe and quickly dumped the singing crystal axe I had waiting for me in my bank since it was way better!
So, I'd say your guideline is good usually, but not always. I've always given the advice to quest and grind on green mobs, but DKs are simply an exception.
I have to say that I disagree with the not gong to Northrend at 68. I did on my DK and was much happier.
One DK = OP lol. All of the quests were a joke. Two I don't think you miss out on any quests at 68. I went to the Tundra first which is what I just did with my 70 rogue and don't see any more quests than I did at 68 on the DK. Now this could be cause I might not have paid close enough attention but even so. I really think that the double experience you get (10k for quests in Outlands vs 20k in Northrend) out weighs the decision.
Sorry to come on here and post something rather negative. I really do love your guides and they have helped me a lot but I find that when I do follow them I outlevel then pretty fast. I.e. when you say to do something at 45 I am usually 47 or 48 heh. Now that doesn't mean I don't do them and they aren't good xp. Just a comment.
Either way you take my comment please keep up the good work!
No offense taken, I appreciate your comment.
I don't expect people to agree with everything I say ;)
But believe me, you surely missed a few quests from Borean Tundra if you went there at 68.
I know it's not a big deal, but I find it a waste of time, having to go back there at level 80 to do some grey quests you missed.
Also, don't misunderstand me, I never said it would be difficult to go there at 68. I know it's easy, especially for a DK.
But easy or not, it's still not the most efficient way to do it.
You might hit level 80 a little faster if you go to Northrend at 68, granted. But paradoxally, you'll still waste time and gold in the long run.
Time: Because you'll have to go back for zone achievements.
Gold: Because when you go back, those quests will be grey.
Reaching level 80 as early as possible in Northrend is even more important than it was to reach level 70 early in Outland.
Why? Because the average XP reward you get from the last zones of Northrend is 22,000 XP!
At level 80, this XP is converted into 13gold 23silver for being level capped!
Now imagine if you follow all my advice and play with some rested XP, you'll hit level 80 with Scholazar Bazin, Storm Peaks and Icecrown untouched (at least).
Try to imagine how much gold that means at level 80 :P
Obviously, priorities are part of the issue. I don't mind going back if and when I feel like getting an achievement.
My priority at LK release was to level quickly enough to raid N10 the first week with my guildies. Being first ally DK on my server was cake, but the meal was getting a Demise 5 days after LK release!
Leveling to 80 fast was my priority, and I accomplished it. Your guide, however was still valuable for me in terms of prep for the DK and in terms of quest hubs and order. So, kudos!
A quick observation re the green/yellow quests giving 100% XP.
The XP received from quests in different zones changes - I found that my char was high enough level to move comfortably to the next zone (I forget which) where each quest was worth 30,000 xp vs. staying in the zone that I was in, where the quests were worth 20,000 xp. "Difficulty of killing" didn't really come into it - as a druid I think I die about once a week on average and Stuff Dies Fast ;-)
So - maybe if reaching 80 insanely fast was the goal then "skipping" might be an option? 30k xp/quest means faster levelling than 20k xp/quest - as long as you don't run out of quests at level 79.5 of course!
But of course as you've pointed out elsewhere that messes up your gold farming, achievements, and so on, so it's not necessarily the best idea.
I dinged L70 during the L68 portion of the Outlands walkthrough. I can't play much because I have a very young child, so I had a lot of rested bonus. I had to skip many quests along the way because my stats and equipment sucked, and I can't group (due the needy young child again).
So the lure of better equipment in Northrend was too much for me. I went to Northrend, got my equipment upgrades. Now I'm returning to Outlands at L71 to continue where I left off.
Best of both worlds. I get the shiny new equipment, AND I get to do all the Outlands quests with their xp.
Now I should be able to do the Outlands quests easier.
@Duncan There's no such zone where every quest gives 30k xp :P
The amount of average XP given per quest increases very slowly from one zone to the next.
So no, skipping still isn't worth it. Generally, when you start on a zone, the best part is the end of it, once you finally finish all those quest lines at the same time and turn in a large amount of quests together.
That's why skipping halfway through a zone is actually going to slow you down.
Not to mention, you'll have to go back there once you're 80 if you want the quest achievements anyway, so that's another waste of time right there :P
You know that right now as of DEC 16 i have seen three people in Borean training so no its not over crowded and ive gotten 2 lvls in 6 hours so train in northrend guys
The overcrowding was just one reason, all the other reasons still are true.
But hey as I said, it's just my advice, you don't have to follow it.
-Jame
First off, I have to thank you for all the hard work you've put into all your guides, been following them off the bat with my DK. I'm currently level 68 still in Nagrad. Have an itch to go to northrend but I'm gonna keep going with the guide :)
Thanks again
Hmm, this is how i see it.
I did like this, i went to outlands at lvl 58 as a DK, managed to get lvl 63 in hellfire, 63-65 in zangarmarsh, 65-67 and like 4-5 bars to lvl 68, which i got from doing the kill 30 mobs quests in nagrand, so i only did like 2-3% of the quests in nagrand, and i moved on to howling fjord at lvl 68, I am currently lvl 70 and still in howling, and im probably gonna reach 71, then i go to borean for 71-72, and then i move on to another place not sure which yet. :)
Jame -
Just dinged level 69 at the very beginning of Nagrand (I only play as rested). If I finish all of Outland, I may not hit Northrend until level 72-74 (?)…just guessing. Is there too high of a level to start in Northrend? Is there a danger of getting gray quests in Northrend before the level 80 cap?
Thanks and keep up the great work!
There isn't really, well, unless you go to Northrend at level 78 or something, which is not realistic :)
Funny you should mention that Jame.
I started leveling my hunter through Azeroth and tried to bounce around and do every green quest possible. I managed to hit 64 before going to Outland. I did the same thing in Outland and managed to ding 77 last night while finishing up the Netherwing quests. I only popped into Northrend at 70 to train the top level of mining and herbalism. Amazingly, I hit 450 skill in both shortly before hitting 77, mostly from the ore and herbs on Netherwing Ledge.
After I finished up my Netherwing quests, I had a friend port me to Dalaran so I can buy cold weather flying. Tomorrow, I'll start questing in Howling Fjord with my epic flying mount.
Wow, now that's extreme. I'm curious to know how it works out for you in the end, so please let me know ;)
Keen:
I agree that there's not really a realistic way to be "too high level" for Northrend, but I will caution you that, at least in my personal experience in 3.0.3, green quests start giving less EXP once you're six levels above the quest level. I started Northrend just after I dinged 73, and there was a brief period in Howling Fjord where I was only getting 80% on the level 71 quests because I'd just hit 77. However, I found it very convenient to have access to Dalaran while still working the starting zones, and to get Cold Weather Flying before going to Dragonblight; that alone probably saved me quite a bit of time.
Did it make a big difference? No; I still hit 80 about 1/3 of the way through Grizzly Hills. But if you plan to level in Outland until 75+, you may find yourself completing level 71 quests at 78-79, which only gives 40-25% EXP.
I'd been idly musing about whether one could reach level 68 without ever setting foot in Outland. I think you just answered that for me, Krick; I'd have to supplement quests with looooots of grinding and instancing, so it'd take a really long time. Still, if somebody went to the trouble of leveling a naked troll...
No way, dude. I took my DK to outland at 58 and blew through those levels in a day. When I hit 68, took him to Northrend and got to 70 in a day which would have taken so much longer in Outland. Unless you're prot anything, it's retarded not to go.
I totally disagree with you, I leveled all 3 chars in Outlands and Northrend from the 58/68, and:
"If you go there at 68, many of them won't be up for you and you'll have to go back to those zones later, which is a waste of time."
Not truth. There will be enough quests for you to level up and therefore unlock higher quests.
Doing all quests in Vengance Landing an New Agammand (plus the quests at the elevators and the other scattered around like from treant) will make you ding 70 without any problems. PLUS you still got whole Borean Tundra !
"You'll have to fight level 71 mobs at level 68."
Not truth (partially). 90% of the mobs you will need to kill will be 68-70, Even if quests will be 71.
"If you start Northrend at level 68, there's no way you'll hit 74 in Dragonblight, even if you complete both BT and HF."
Not trutht (partially). Atm Im leveling my Mage, he is lvl 74 and I didnt finished up at least dozen of quests both in BT and HF. Not much of rested, but did few instance runs indeed.
"You'll miss about 2K gold worth of quest."
While I doubt you can get so much gold, its not really an issue.
"Difficult group quests."
Here I can agree, group quests will be difficult to do (for certain classes) at 2 levels lower.
But as I said, you can ding 74 before even reaching Dragonblight.
"there isn't much of a gap between green quest rewards you get from Nagrand, Netherstorm and BEM and what you get in BT/HF."
Yes there is. Browse the wowhead database, put some filters for different regions and see for yourself.
"It was much easier and efficient with the level 70"
Yes it is. But I still prefer to go there since 68.
"Overcrowding."
Yes and no. Overcrowding may be an issue on pvp server, but not on pve. And it helps you with dreaded group quests and find groups to do instances to boost xp.
"Listen to me and you will level faster and easier."
Easier, maybe. Faster, how faster ?
Funnier ? Yes, If you not leveled in outlands before. I leveled my 2nd character (when Wotlk) came to 70 first and then thru northrend. And after that, one from 68 and I know I wont be leveling 60/70 again to enter outlands/nortrend.
I'm not going to bother answering that again. It's already been discussed times and times again. Every single person who tried it my way came back with very positive results.
The leveling speed I've shown in my other posts also prove that my way not only faster, but easier, more gold. You can't arguee against numbers.
Following my guides and doing it my way, I took a level every 3h30, during peak times, during the week after launch.
What else do I need to prove.
/sigh
First of all I just want to say that Jame your guides are amazing. I've followed your DK guide and all the ones after to the letter and now im level 71 and haven't even finished BEM, haven't even got to netherstorm or shadowmoon. What do you recomend here? Carry on and finish the outland guide or skip NS and SMV and go to northrend?
Again great guides and keep it up.
Unlike the pre-Wrath menagerie of classes, DK's I think are made for Northrend. From 58-68 I hardly found a single respectable gear upgrade in Outlands aside from the axe that drops in the Ring of Blood. DKs in Outlands is too easy mode. I never fell below 50% health unless I was soloing an elite and mobs died so quickly it wasn't even funny. I would personally recommend going to Northrend at 68 rather than wasting time in Outlands.
Going to Northrend at 68 isnt just a good idea its nessisary. If your a Melee class get the 'Frozen Axe of Death' as fast as you can. Northrend has great gear upgrades for every class you can get at 68....why wait? The small amount of gold you miss in quests wont matter when your 80, because you'll make much more doing dailys.
I would agree with those that say going to Northrend at 68 isn't a bad idea. This game as with most things in life is pure preference and while Jame makes a great case of why not to do it, there are those of use who DO do it and still find the rewards. I leveled three toons to 80, while having only my main enter Northrend at 70 and I have a rogue on the cusp of 68 and he's going to Northrend to work both starting zones. I certainly do respect Jame/Jame's opinion but would respectfully disagree that not going is ideal for everyone, its just not the case and everyone plays the game VASTLY different and on their own terms.
I was also divided in about this question.
Actually I thought that there is truth in both explanations of the parties.
But then as I was coming around the middle of the post I Remembered something...
If you are doing a new char, you will only get the cold flying at 77.
And for me having a flying mount save lots of time while questing. And since we now have earlier access to the flying mount in Outlands (when in the past you had to be a lvl 70) I decided to get my char back from the North were I arrived yesterday.
Why?
Well taking in account that its my first char on that server (meaning I don't get to buy that cool heirloom book)and that in Outlands I get easy but xp rewarding quests and that I do in no time flying (especially in blade's edge)and taking in account what James said about difficult quests and not being able to access all the quests head start, It better to do the quests in Outlands and then go as a 70 to the north. It's 2 lvls of walking around I save.
This will work better for me. In the end its all about the how you quest. There isn't a right or wrong way to go here.
Just gather the facts and chose what way it works better in your case.
I think you have some valid points, but lets be honest, if you do nexus and Uk as many times as you need to to get the gear you will easily gain the lvls you missed in outlands in half the time, and the money from the dungeons, depends on your luck. I for one don't care about the supposed money im losing, i rather trade it in for the extra CRAZY amount of exp gain from killing mobs(double that of outlands.