Wrath of the Lich King Release Day - How it went for me
Saturday, November 15, 2008
12:55 AM
Labels: Hunter , Leveling Guides , Personal , Wrath of the Lich King
Labels: Hunter , Leveling Guides , Personal , Wrath of the Lich King
So I went to the midnight opening of my city and got my two Wrath of the Lich King boxes, and then I... slept!
Yes, sadly I couldn't pull the allnighter every serious gamer would like to pull, because I simply had work to do the next morning and needed to be reasonable :P
I only started playing the next day close to noon. I started with one of my horde characters first, a hunter specced Beast Mastery. And off I went to Howling Fjord to follow my horde guide.
I'm sure most of you experienced the overcrowding and how much it can affect your XP rate. Well it sure did affect mine, as the hunter I played is on a very high pop server, we had some very long queues later that day and some areas had more players than mobs for sure.
However, the results were still very good, not nearly as good as what I got on beta, but still, I caught up very quickly with several guildmates who pulled the allnighter and were already well into level 71 when I started to play (obviously, they weren't following my guide, or I wouldn't have caught up like that :P)
I took screenshots at every important step, to check how fast I was leveling.
This screenshot was taken when I logged in, before I went to Howling Fjord:
Total time played: 117 days 3 hours 23 minutes 53 seconds
This screenshot was taken right when I hit Level 71:
Total time played: 117 days 6 hours 53 minutes 46 seconds
If you do the math, that means it took me exactly 3h 29min 53s to ding. This is a pretty good score, considering the whole level was done:
1. Without any rested bonus
2. With a lot of people fighting for quest mobs, I estimate that this slowed me down at least by a good 20 minutes
3. Without any consumables
So yes, it's actually great and says alot about how fast one could level with my guide once the release rush is over.
And then more problems started as I was on my way to level 72:
1. Captain Ellis was nowhere to be found. That means the quest chain including [71] The Lost Shield of the Aesirites was broken. I spent 15 minutes looking for Captain Ellis, checking wowhead and various boards to find out where he was, and then I gave up and moved on. This was really annoying because the follow ups of that chain are really quick and give about 100K xp in total. That was a big setback. But anyway, I finished the rest of Howling Fjord and then moved on to Borean Tundra.
2. As the day went on, the overcrowding became worse :P Mid afternoon it was already crazy, at least on my server, especially for all the quests close to Warsong Hold in Borean Tundra. I wasted a lot of time waiting on respawns, I estimate I lost another 20 minutes there.
In any case, this is the screenshot of when I dinged Level 72:
Total time played: 117 days 11 hours 14 minutes 38 seconds
That means it took me 4h 20 min 51s to go from 71 to 72.
That's dissapointing compared to what I know I'm supposed to get, but this was release day crazyness and it can't be helped. It's still pretty decent considering that whole level was done with:
1. No rested bonus
2. No consumables
3. A broken quest chain
4. A transition from Howling Fjord to Borean Tundra (that damn turtle really took a while to come to Kamagua)
5. Very heavy overcrowding
Then after that I took a break and I logged out outside of an inn, because I don't want any rested bonus while testing my guides. I'll resume leveling tomorrow and hit 74 and then I'll report my findings to you guys.
Overall, besides the broken quest chain, I'm quite happy with the release of WotLK and with how my guides performed so far. The overcrowding was really a factor, but it was predictable.
I was still able to progress fast through most quests and I know for sure that once the dust clears, people who follow my guide will come up with some really amazing /played from 70 to 80. I guarantee you that :)
Meanwhile here's a very simple tip which might help you perform better in crowded areas:
Tip: When you get to an area where you have to kill a rare mob or anything which might make you lose time if you have to wait on respawns, immediately offer other players in the area to group with you. There's nothing worse than fighting with 3 other players over the same spawns when you could all be completing the quests together 3 times faster. I recommend making a macro with this simple line "Hey, want to group up for this quest?" and use it whenever the situation warrants it. Because trust me, sometimes, while you're typing that line, the mob you need spawns and the other player kills it in front of your eyes before you even get the chance to ask him if he wants to group with you ^^.
I know this must sound really obvious, but trust me, the macro helps, and you won't have to type that same line a hundred times that way ;)
Yes, sadly I couldn't pull the allnighter every serious gamer would like to pull, because I simply had work to do the next morning and needed to be reasonable :P
I only started playing the next day close to noon. I started with one of my horde characters first, a hunter specced Beast Mastery. And off I went to Howling Fjord to follow my horde guide.
I'm sure most of you experienced the overcrowding and how much it can affect your XP rate. Well it sure did affect mine, as the hunter I played is on a very high pop server, we had some very long queues later that day and some areas had more players than mobs for sure.
However, the results were still very good, not nearly as good as what I got on beta, but still, I caught up very quickly with several guildmates who pulled the allnighter and were already well into level 71 when I started to play (obviously, they weren't following my guide, or I wouldn't have caught up like that :P)
I took screenshots at every important step, to check how fast I was leveling.
This screenshot was taken when I logged in, before I went to Howling Fjord:
Total time played: 117 days 3 hours 23 minutes 53 seconds
This screenshot was taken right when I hit Level 71:
Total time played: 117 days 6 hours 53 minutes 46 seconds
If you do the math, that means it took me exactly 3h 29min 53s to ding. This is a pretty good score, considering the whole level was done:
1. Without any rested bonus
2. With a lot of people fighting for quest mobs, I estimate that this slowed me down at least by a good 20 minutes
3. Without any consumables
So yes, it's actually great and says alot about how fast one could level with my guide once the release rush is over.
And then more problems started as I was on my way to level 72:
1. Captain Ellis was nowhere to be found. That means the quest chain including [71] The Lost Shield of the Aesirites was broken. I spent 15 minutes looking for Captain Ellis, checking wowhead and various boards to find out where he was, and then I gave up and moved on. This was really annoying because the follow ups of that chain are really quick and give about 100K xp in total. That was a big setback. But anyway, I finished the rest of Howling Fjord and then moved on to Borean Tundra.
2. As the day went on, the overcrowding became worse :P Mid afternoon it was already crazy, at least on my server, especially for all the quests close to Warsong Hold in Borean Tundra. I wasted a lot of time waiting on respawns, I estimate I lost another 20 minutes there.
In any case, this is the screenshot of when I dinged Level 72:
Total time played: 117 days 11 hours 14 minutes 38 seconds
That means it took me 4h 20 min 51s to go from 71 to 72.
That's dissapointing compared to what I know I'm supposed to get, but this was release day crazyness and it can't be helped. It's still pretty decent considering that whole level was done with:
1. No rested bonus
2. No consumables
3. A broken quest chain
4. A transition from Howling Fjord to Borean Tundra (that damn turtle really took a while to come to Kamagua)
5. Very heavy overcrowding
Then after that I took a break and I logged out outside of an inn, because I don't want any rested bonus while testing my guides. I'll resume leveling tomorrow and hit 74 and then I'll report my findings to you guys.
Overall, besides the broken quest chain, I'm quite happy with the release of WotLK and with how my guides performed so far. The overcrowding was really a factor, but it was predictable.
I was still able to progress fast through most quests and I know for sure that once the dust clears, people who follow my guide will come up with some really amazing /played from 70 to 80. I guarantee you that :)
Meanwhile here's a very simple tip which might help you perform better in crowded areas:
Tip: When you get to an area where you have to kill a rare mob or anything which might make you lose time if you have to wait on respawns, immediately offer other players in the area to group with you. There's nothing worse than fighting with 3 other players over the same spawns when you could all be completing the quests together 3 times faster. I recommend making a macro with this simple line "Hey, want to group up for this quest?" and use it whenever the situation warrants it. Because trust me, sometimes, while you're typing that line, the mob you need spawns and the other player kills it in front of your eyes before you even get the chance to ask him if he wants to group with you ^^.
I know this must sound really obvious, but trust me, the macro helps, and you won't have to type that same line a hundred times that way ;)
Posts
Hey Jame, nice to read you again.
Believe me or not, after reading your post I created an orc Hunter :D The way you have written is very very good and it makes me want to re-read again. Nice played time, I haven't got my copy yet because the preorders were all sold-out, I'll get it in the middle of next week. But on my servers (Aerie Peak, Aggramar and Ajol-Nerub) there were several queues from 30 to 90 minutes.
A question about your pet: where do you tame it? I see loads of hunters with that 3 headed dog (meh...I'm not sure it's a god) and the buff it's awesome, but I cannot find where to tame it.
Keep on the good work as always, bye! :)
I meant "i'm not sure it's a DOG"... :P
You can find it in Shadowmoon Valley.
Does Wow-Pro showing an error screen have anything to do w/ overload too?
Yeah, I'm getting the same thing...what's up with WoW-Pro?
Fatal error: Call to undefined function user_roles() in /home/wowpro/public_html/sites/all/modules/OpenX/openx.module on line 313
Don't know where else to post/mail ya Jame!
Time to go level my other char's that I have the guides printed out for! Thanks Jame!
Fatal error: Call to undefined function user_roles() in /home/wowpro/public_html/sites/all/modules/OpenX/openx.module on line 313
please fix the site! <3
site is down :( :( :(O
It's back up, no worries :P
Actually it wasn't down by the way. There was just a bug with internet explorer, it was still working with Firefox.
Anyway, it works for IE too again now :)
Awesome work on the guides so far, I'm halfway through your dragonblight guide and can't imagine continuing on without them.
Any ETA on the rest of the guides?
Really loving your guide so far. I was going to go with Questhelper, but after giving your guide a try I just ditched it.
Looking forward to the rest of your 70-80 guide, hope you finish it soon :) Levelling without it just feels awkward now!
:)
Pro Tip: By using Carbonite in combination with this guide helps you find the areas or locations you have to go to faster. activate the quest of interest and head towards it, it also highlights the zone of interest for that quest. A few times it's a little hard to understand which quest the guide indicates, but normally it's ok, once you head in the direction, it tends to be the first (and closest) quest in the carbonite quest log.
71.5 going on 73 today :)
Hey guys, thanks for all the comments.
I'll be posting more news about my leveling times with my hunter and also about my DK leveling times :)
PS: the US thread could use some bumping, so if any of you used my guide and found it useful, feel free to go there and post about it:
US Forums Thread
I just used your guide to finish the HF. It was GREAT!
Because of work commitments, I've only been able to spend half the time in game as the more active members of my guild, but I'm already the closest to 72 (one bar away) and they marvelled at my completion of the quest and exploration achievements for HF. And this includes levelling fishing as well.
Thanks so much for the guides!!!
Jame -
Excellent guide. Thank you so much for taking the time to write this.
Quick question: I have never followed guides before and am trying yours for the first time. I feel like I am going at a good pace, but it has taken me about 5 hours from 70-71 and 71-72. I am a T6 Shadowpriest so gear is not an issue. My server is not that crowded when I play either and I am not spending any time doing other things (i.e. I am ONLY questing).
Do you have any tips for a first timer to get a better time on your guide? I use a bunch of addons and am very familiar with the game. Maybe it's just that you're really familiar with WOTLK and I am going through it all for the first time?
Thanks.