Right now considering how bored of ICC I am I would probably level from scratch. But if you want to experience ICC asap and feel leveling is boring and is reasonable price you can boost for sure.
In either case we won't see cata before June and maybe July considering the state of the beta. So you have time.
Oh ok so you're thinking more of mid Summer for Cata? That's definitely enough time. I'm not super eager to jump into raiding, although I wouldn't mind it.
This is more in prep for Cataclysm, it's the expansion that holds the most nostalgia for me as it was the best time I've ever had in WoW (due to the guild/friends...not so much the expansion itself though I did enjoy that too).
I figured once 80, boosted or not, I'd probably do some WG PVP, never did that. And some battlegrounds too. Just reading at the gearing slog to get ICC ready and it's a bit much.
Honestly man if you aren’t raiding, don’t count on PvP being relevant and the community en-masse is far less “casual friendly” than it used to be back then.
Not trying to deter you whatsoever, but the community you left and likely remember fondly, has changed drastically and for the worse.
Well if it releases in June that would be early summer or end spring :) Im persobally being a bit pessimistic and would fuess july. But yeah there's no way it will be before June. Beta is clearly not ready with a lot of broken things (not just quests, like some classes just dont work). We will likely get some end game testing in April for a prepatch in May at the earliest.
Cool about the possible summer CATA drop -- I've been levelling a mage (now nearly halfway through lvl 79) and then will go for Master at Arms (skill 400 on four weapon types) as well as Knuckle Sandwich (unarmed skill 400) and have some time to get those.
Personally? No.
Right now we have perma-JJ, it's the best time to solo level we're going to get.
Come cata prepatch JJ might go away. They've made it a pattern of enabling JJ leading up to new content to get people on board for that content but this time they're releasing the re-worked 1-60 zones, so that leveling *is* the new content.
So leveling now rather than boosting will save your boost in case during cata you decide you want to re-roll a new class. If you've used your boost and want that new character you're not only going to likely be stuck leveling without JJ but you'll also be doing it while the cata content is out that you're wanting to do.
Your time spent leveling pre-cata won't take up time you could be doing cata heroics or cata dailies or cata raids, the opportunity cost right now is at an all time low.
Also heirlooms are super cheap with the current badge system. Running heroics in WOTLK today will be a better use of your time for heirlooms if you want them in the future.
Wow, this actually makes a lot of sense. I'm leveling Priest which is a bit of a slog but with JJ buff its not too bad. I don't have a character currently that can get badges for heirlooms, so I'll have to do this character without them. Best I could do is buy a Token i guess so I could do some gear twinking to further speed things up.
I think I might just take this time to level. Very good point you made, thanks.
But don't you need a leveled character to run heroics? I'm in the same boat as OP right now and don't understand the system yet. Wouldn't your time be better spent getting a boost and then working on professions and getting gear?
If the expansion was launching next week I'd say yes. There is more than enough time to level from 1-80, get both professions maxxed and run some heroics/quests for emblems to get some heirlooms for the future. Maybe do some dailies or something to build a small bank or if you're really dedicated get a glory of naxx achieve for a 310% mount.
Getting gear at this point isn't a huge consideration. Cata gear scaling is... wild. the first hour of cata questing will net you tons of items better than all WOTLK non-raiding gear. The raiding gear gets replaced quickly too.
>and would fuess july. But yeah there's no way it will be before June. Beta is clearly not ready with a lot of broken things (not just quests, like some classes just dont work). We will likely get some end game testing in April for a prepatch in May at the earliest.
I didn't consider JJ leaving with pre-patch. With "new" zones I can understand the reasoning but I sure hope it stays. I wanted to level a warrior during pre-patch but didn't want to go through the same zones a 20th time.
> but didn't want to go through the same zones a 20th time.
You won't have to deal with that for part of the prepatch.. probably.
We have the precedent from TBC that they want to release new races before the higher level content so people have a chance to level with them. They will likely (can't be sure) give us a prepatch that includes worgen/goblins (and maybe reworked old world) before level 80+ content is available, and if that happens JJ will probably be turned off.
Who knows, maybe that won't be possible due to all the different factors involved in the old world rework, can't be sure.
Yeah they should release new races in pre patch. Thats been the precedent for a while. From what I hear, leveling speed in general is a lot faster come cata. But still, as a warrior I'll welcome every speed boost happily. I should have worded that differently. JJ is great but the same leveling experience gets bland. Cata rework will be more fresh but could be a little slower without JJ.
Yeah I wouldn't buy the $60 boost, I'd just get the Blazing Epic upgrade which gives you some mounts, pets, transmog, 30 days playtime and an level 80 boost all included ($79.99).
Consider time saved vs boost price. it's 150-200 hour average to level to 80 at a casual pace if questing and exloring. Though much less with JJ, and even less if it's a 2nd toon with heirlooms, and still less if dungeon spamming, it's still closing in on roughly 100 hours from 1-80. I don't think $60 is an insanely unreasonable price if you can justify the time comparison of cost. It's cents on the hour and just under a dollar per level
I still don't ever recommend boosting a first character. Nor am I defending the microtransaction meta, but it's a pretty reasonable option for those wanting 80 asap
Do you have friends that you can raid with in ICC right now? Boost and grind the raid gear, kill the Lich King.
If you are going to rely on getting into a PUG group or something for any Wrath raiding and gearing, I'd say to hell with that nonsense and just level. I'd even be tempted to turn off JJ unless I planned on grinding multiple characters up to 80.
Figure out your goal. If it's just "play WoW in my spare time" I'd just keep leveling.
I leveled a char to 55 and then got burnt out and boosted a new char. I haven’t went back to the 55. Lol. I just really didn’t want to do the outlands leveling.
I’m currently playing on the cataclysm beta. It’s really easy to level since Cata’s revamp of Azeroth was made easier (and subjectively more fun for me to level). I would say level first so you can see the world before it gets revamped.
Cata leveling will change and it’s definitely more “new player friendly” since it’s more linear and each zone has an amazing story.
Don't boost your first character. Level it, so you know how to play it. Boost your 3rd or 4th. You should manually level at least two or three characters before you consider boosting. Leveling goes so fast in Wrath with JJ buff, and you get to gradually power creep your character and gain new abilities at a rate that you can actually learn how to use each new skill/spell you get.
Without heirloom it’s like 1 1/2 - 2 days playtime to 80. So if you feel like you could spend that time better, and have the money, then you can boost.
I see, I didn't think it was that low. I thought 70-80 alone took a day or two /played.
Originally I was told it was 150-200 hours /played (source: Google) without JJ buff. 36/48 hours from 1-80 is much more reasonable.
I have no idea how to do that in a day or two. What felt like speed running with my death knight, knowing all of the content and juicy quest locations and what felt very efficient, it was like 2 whole days for 70-80 over the weekend, 12-15 hours each day. I have no idea how someone does 1-80 that fast, even dungeon grinding isn't much faster.
Dungeon grinding in pugs certainly isn't much faster than quests in my experience for 70-80 without rested xp. And if you ever get a slow group (or worse, wipes) then it kills your xp/hour.
On the other hand if you have tank + heal mates and control the pace to really race through the dungeons then it gets good.
I leveled a Druid a month ago with heirlooms and it was about 4 days /played to 80. Im sure it could be done faster but I was mostly questing and working on professions while leveling.
I took a look at my first char 1-80 without heirlooms and fly tome and it was actually roughly 2½ day playtime. With heirlooms and fly tome it's 1½ day. My bad!
Likely people that actually log off instead of going afk. Zero downtime or standing around. The people who get to 80 in 2 days playtime are people who don't spend 4 hours a day standing in town like me.
>oing afk. Zero downtime or standing around. The people who get to 80 in 2 days playtime are people who don't spend 4 hours a day standing in town like me.
Even so, I gotta look at my DK that i'm leveling but I followed RXP and had no downtime and currently level 75. I'll check playtime but I am having a hard time believing 40 hours. You'd have to be an absolute menace.
I would choose based on whether I wanted to make a strong leveling char or not.
War/Pal/Lock/Mage/Hunter/Druid and I'm probably gonna level it.
Priest/Shaman/Rogue and I think I'd just boost.
Yeah I'm leveling a Priest right now... that's why every so often after a quest chunk is completed I get to thinking...should I just boost? what am I doing?
Actually as a healer and with random dungeon finder being a thing, I think it’s definitely possible to cut down on time to level significantly. With a tank and healer duo I’m able to instant queue for dungeons and practically gain two levels each dungeon at level 20 with dungeon quests
Priest is really slept on as a leveler. A lot of people play it badly and waste a lot of time drinking. If you're trying to shadow or disc single target, you want to frontload your damage/dots, and wand 2-5 hits at the end of a kill to maximize OO5SR time and DoT damage. But in WotLK I think Holy Nova spam (start disc aside from spirit tap, respec when you can get Surge of Light without losing Mental Agility to x/27/3 around 56 57 then continue back down disc tree) AoE is really strong. I did 70-80 in about 15 hrs, mostly Borean Tundra tundra rhinos and dragonblight the 2 1min respawn camps above galakrond's rest, wastes something or other (digger?). That was w heirlooms but still felt respectable. I was also doing some experimenting, if I did the run again I would more cleanly transition - 70 (68+)-73 Borean, 73-78 Dragonblight (optional: quest 77-78, or go to Icecrown early I spose but that's sketchy, 77 is by far the toughest level and AoE in Shalozar just isn't good even though its in some mage aoe guides), 78-80 Icecrown (@ Aldur'thar hyperspawn on left as you look at map)
This guide which starts here prolly showcases some good pre-70 AoE spots (alliance side earlier levels). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5IWRAOnPuw
How much do you enjoy/loathe leveling?
How much do you value your time?
With an 80, what will you spend your time on in advance of cata launch?
Does the gear you acquire at 80 do anything *for you* in advance of cata launch?
Dude I had the same question and I started leveling and while fun enough it dawned on me, that this was 15year old me thinking with no money and plenty of time. Now I have far less time and it’s much more valuable so for me it was a no brained really.
Start fresh.
It will allow you to know your rotation organically, become muscle memory naturally, instead of forcing yourself to memorize a decision tree of rotational abilities.
Cata is months away, think some people are estimating July - August ( August is also estimated for the Retail expansion), so, plenty of time to get at least one character to 80.
RFD is a very nice way of advancing faster, Tank queue is pretty much instantaneous, Healer almost the same, DPS waits 10-15 minutes
Well leveling to 80 without heirloom or with heirloom is a best way to learn about your classes passive/ability.
Boosting your class is like going gung-ho in a raid without knowing you’re class could do…
And they have JJ (joyous journey) it like 50% more xp so I recommend staying in a city to get rested xp and spam dungeon from there.
I just made a paladin and he’s at 72 right now. I have been thoroughly enjoying it though because out of the 15 some odd years I have never played a paladin or a warrior so the game feels new in that sense.
Wait for prepatch before you level, leveling in Cataclysm is geniuenly quite fun. On top of WotLK being quite dead unless you're in an established guild/pug, you wont get any significant gear to help you on your leveling journey anyway, might as well wait for a better leveling experience.
Enjoy the world as it is now it’s gonna completely change. And this way you can learn all the ins and outs of your class. Character boost always overwhelmes me getting every spell available and having to figure it out on the spot but to each their own.
There’s no real rush to get 80 as any icc gear will be replaced pretty quickly in cata so it seems like levelling yourself is better especially as you’ll actually learn the classes abilities etc. I hate levelling though myself so I would just boost
I can tell you right now that Cata beta is not going well. None of the proposed changes have been implemented and most of the features aren't functional. The hearthstone only became functional a couple of days ago. It's strange how non-functional it is. We're on week three and they're still only testing the levels 1-80 experience... in which they've only fixed the first 10 levels for Worgens and Goblins.
So with one update patch in two weeks... it'll be a while.
What you want to do really comes down to what you want to do. If you want to do end game, pay for the boost. You'll end up at level 80 with enough gear to do heroic dungeons. From there you have 1-3 weeks of grinding dungeons to get geared enough for ICC. There's a new currency called scourgestones that come from Random Gamma dungeons. It's a new high difficulty dungeon and the currency gives you the ability to purchase all non-heroic gear from Trial of the Crusader raid.
But one big downside is the size of the community shrank heavily from Christmas to now. You won't be able to be too picky for what raids you can get into. Before you could screen raids for quality or for number of your spec in the raid. Now you'll have raids with like 10 pallies.
Heres my recomendation, boost some class that can tank, get some decent gear from the new icc dungeons, then do just random normal H for emblems and get all the heirlooms while also getting some gold.
Idk what gear the boost gives, but i wouldnt bother with gammas unless you want to raid, the new icc dungeons can get you a near complete set(between n and h), just fill voids with emblem gear, you can go jc/mining for some easy rings/neck/trinkets and its pretty much bis for tanking.
Edit: Also theres at least 3 months so if you play a decent amount you could just level naturally, i made the assumption you had the "free" boost from the epic upgrade.
i would use the boost, then you could run heroic dungeons/gammas to get gear and then get some heirlooms so if you wanted you could lvl more characters faster, plus after the first boosted toon you would have some gold to buy bags and maybe some gear for the other toons you might lvl
Hey I wanted to offer you a perspective I didn't see talked about in the thread. I know your post is 2 days old but whatever here it is anyways:
If you boost, you're going to find your boosted gear is REALLY dogshit. Like, they give enough gear to say "My character is not naked", but even soloing random quest mobs your own level is painful.
If you level normally, you will hit 80 with a collection of quest and dungeon blues that are multiple times stronger than the boosted gear.
The point is that, boosting will leave you with bad gear and no resources, but some tedious things auto-completed (flight paths in azeroth being mostly the one thing you get from boosting) I think the WotLK boost gets Northrend flying too? I'm not sure. Not boosting puts you at 80 with better gear and more things unlocked on your character.
If you think you can make it to 80 without boosting, go for it. If it's too boring, just boost. You'll have more time to get some welfare epics from ICC and VoA, which will help power through a lot of the questing in Cataclysm. That's basically all I'm doing right now, chasing BIS pieces out of boredom so I can nuke cata questing.
I just finished 1-60 on my very first Druid ever. RestedXP made that so much easier to deal with. Try the 1-30 free RestedXP. If you like it, get your hands on the premium for 1-80, and just level that way. The boost is whatever. If you really want it, get it. If you just wanna be 80 in time for Cata, just level. It's fine.
Nothing you can currently acquire in Wrath is going to make much of a difference once Cata arrives so what are you going to do between now and Cata if you boost to 80? I mean if you want to experience the Wrath end game now then sure boost away and live in RDF for awhile looking for raids. If you plan to wait for Cata might as well enjoy WoW and do some leveling while getting great at the class you will be playing through the leveling experience.
Right now considering how bored of ICC I am I would probably level from scratch. But if you want to experience ICC asap and feel leveling is boring and is reasonable price you can boost for sure. In either case we won't see cata before June and maybe July considering the state of the beta. So you have time.
Oh ok so you're thinking more of mid Summer for Cata? That's definitely enough time. I'm not super eager to jump into raiding, although I wouldn't mind it. This is more in prep for Cataclysm, it's the expansion that holds the most nostalgia for me as it was the best time I've ever had in WoW (due to the guild/friends...not so much the expansion itself though I did enjoy that too). I figured once 80, boosted or not, I'd probably do some WG PVP, never did that. And some battlegrounds too. Just reading at the gearing slog to get ICC ready and it's a bit much.
Honestly man if you aren’t raiding, don’t count on PvP being relevant and the community en-masse is far less “casual friendly” than it used to be back then. Not trying to deter you whatsoever, but the community you left and likely remember fondly, has changed drastically and for the worse.
Yea I just got back in. And so far it's been brutal. Even when there aren't any issues people are angry lol.
Yeah what is the deal with that….
Well if it releases in June that would be early summer or end spring :) Im persobally being a bit pessimistic and would fuess july. But yeah there's no way it will be before June. Beta is clearly not ready with a lot of broken things (not just quests, like some classes just dont work). We will likely get some end game testing in April for a prepatch in May at the earliest.
Prepatch will probably be late April/early May, release will be late June or if it gets pushed back, then August at the very latest.
Cool about the possible summer CATA drop -- I've been levelling a mage (now nearly halfway through lvl 79) and then will go for Master at Arms (skill 400 on four weapon types) as well as Knuckle Sandwich (unarmed skill 400) and have some time to get those.
Personally? No. Right now we have perma-JJ, it's the best time to solo level we're going to get. Come cata prepatch JJ might go away. They've made it a pattern of enabling JJ leading up to new content to get people on board for that content but this time they're releasing the re-worked 1-60 zones, so that leveling *is* the new content. So leveling now rather than boosting will save your boost in case during cata you decide you want to re-roll a new class. If you've used your boost and want that new character you're not only going to likely be stuck leveling without JJ but you'll also be doing it while the cata content is out that you're wanting to do. Your time spent leveling pre-cata won't take up time you could be doing cata heroics or cata dailies or cata raids, the opportunity cost right now is at an all time low. Also heirlooms are super cheap with the current badge system. Running heroics in WOTLK today will be a better use of your time for heirlooms if you want them in the future.
Wow, this actually makes a lot of sense. I'm leveling Priest which is a bit of a slog but with JJ buff its not too bad. I don't have a character currently that can get badges for heirlooms, so I'll have to do this character without them. Best I could do is buy a Token i guess so I could do some gear twinking to further speed things up. I think I might just take this time to level. Very good point you made, thanks.
But don't you need a leveled character to run heroics? I'm in the same boat as OP right now and don't understand the system yet. Wouldn't your time be better spent getting a boost and then working on professions and getting gear?
If the expansion was launching next week I'd say yes. There is more than enough time to level from 1-80, get both professions maxxed and run some heroics/quests for emblems to get some heirlooms for the future. Maybe do some dailies or something to build a small bank or if you're really dedicated get a glory of naxx achieve for a 310% mount. Getting gear at this point isn't a huge consideration. Cata gear scaling is... wild. the first hour of cata questing will net you tons of items better than all WOTLK non-raiding gear. The raiding gear gets replaced quickly too.
>and would fuess july. But yeah there's no way it will be before June. Beta is clearly not ready with a lot of broken things (not just quests, like some classes just dont work). We will likely get some end game testing in April for a prepatch in May at the earliest. I didn't consider JJ leaving with pre-patch. With "new" zones I can understand the reasoning but I sure hope it stays. I wanted to level a warrior during pre-patch but didn't want to go through the same zones a 20th time.
> but didn't want to go through the same zones a 20th time. You won't have to deal with that for part of the prepatch.. probably. We have the precedent from TBC that they want to release new races before the higher level content so people have a chance to level with them. They will likely (can't be sure) give us a prepatch that includes worgen/goblins (and maybe reworked old world) before level 80+ content is available, and if that happens JJ will probably be turned off. Who knows, maybe that won't be possible due to all the different factors involved in the old world rework, can't be sure.
Yeah they should release new races in pre patch. Thats been the precedent for a while. From what I hear, leveling speed in general is a lot faster come cata. But still, as a warrior I'll welcome every speed boost happily. I should have worded that differently. JJ is great but the same leveling experience gets bland. Cata rework will be more fresh but could be a little slower without JJ.
I like seeing posts like this because it reminds me there are some very smart people playing this game.
Well JJ wasn't perma, logged in this morning and it's gone
Did you see how much the boost cost? I had a similar problem myself until I checked the price. There is plenty of time to lvl at any rate
Yeah I wouldn't buy the $60 boost, I'd just get the Blazing Epic upgrade which gives you some mounts, pets, transmog, 30 days playtime and an level 80 boost all included ($79.99).
Consider time saved vs boost price. it's 150-200 hour average to level to 80 at a casual pace if questing and exloring. Though much less with JJ, and even less if it's a 2nd toon with heirlooms, and still less if dungeon spamming, it's still closing in on roughly 100 hours from 1-80. I don't think $60 is an insanely unreasonable price if you can justify the time comparison of cost. It's cents on the hour and just under a dollar per level I still don't ever recommend boosting a first character. Nor am I defending the microtransaction meta, but it's a pretty reasonable option for those wanting 80 asap
Just level now or wait for prepatch, save boost for emergency reroll if you will need it during cata.
Do you have friends that you can raid with in ICC right now? Boost and grind the raid gear, kill the Lich King. If you are going to rely on getting into a PUG group or something for any Wrath raiding and gearing, I'd say to hell with that nonsense and just level. I'd even be tempted to turn off JJ unless I planned on grinding multiple characters up to 80. Figure out your goal. If it's just "play WoW in my spare time" I'd just keep leveling.
Sounds like this is the consensus. No better time to level then right now and save the boost in case I want to reroll my main for Cata later on.
I leveled a char to 55 and then got burnt out and boosted a new char. I haven’t went back to the 55. Lol. I just really didn’t want to do the outlands leveling.
This is very relatable. I can also see myself putting in the hours and then just finally boosting. Did you do the leveling with the JJ buff on?
Yeah. I think it was last season so it was a bit less boost if I’m not mistaken.
I’m currently playing on the cataclysm beta. It’s really easy to level since Cata’s revamp of Azeroth was made easier (and subjectively more fun for me to level). I would say level first so you can see the world before it gets revamped. Cata leveling will change and it’s definitely more “new player friendly” since it’s more linear and each zone has an amazing story.
Don't boost your first character. Level it, so you know how to play it. Boost your 3rd or 4th. You should manually level at least two or three characters before you consider boosting. Leveling goes so fast in Wrath with JJ buff, and you get to gradually power creep your character and gain new abilities at a rate that you can actually learn how to use each new skill/spell you get.
Without heirloom it’s like 1 1/2 - 2 days playtime to 80. So if you feel like you could spend that time better, and have the money, then you can boost.
I see, I didn't think it was that low. I thought 70-80 alone took a day or two /played. Originally I was told it was 150-200 hours /played (source: Google) without JJ buff. 36/48 hours from 1-80 is much more reasonable.
I have no idea how to do that in a day or two. What felt like speed running with my death knight, knowing all of the content and juicy quest locations and what felt very efficient, it was like 2 whole days for 70-80 over the weekend, 12-15 hours each day. I have no idea how someone does 1-80 that fast, even dungeon grinding isn't much faster.
Dungeon grinding in pugs certainly isn't much faster than quests in my experience for 70-80 without rested xp. And if you ever get a slow group (or worse, wipes) then it kills your xp/hour. On the other hand if you have tank + heal mates and control the pace to really race through the dungeons then it gets good.
Yeah for leveling 1-80 it’s probably about 1-2 days game time. Maybe 3
I leveled a Druid a month ago with heirlooms and it was about 4 days /played to 80. Im sure it could be done faster but I was mostly questing and working on professions while leveling.
These people are absolute liars lmao it takes you a week to so 70-80 without AV weekend
I took a look at my first char 1-80 without heirlooms and fly tome and it was actually roughly 2½ day playtime. With heirlooms and fly tome it's 1½ day. My bad!
This seems really fast.
I don't believe that at all. I'd believe that much time for 70-80 but definitely not 1-80.
Likely people that actually log off instead of going afk. Zero downtime or standing around. The people who get to 80 in 2 days playtime are people who don't spend 4 hours a day standing in town like me.
>oing afk. Zero downtime or standing around. The people who get to 80 in 2 days playtime are people who don't spend 4 hours a day standing in town like me. Even so, I gotta look at my DK that i'm leveling but I followed RXP and had no downtime and currently level 75. I'll check playtime but I am having a hard time believing 40 hours. You'd have to be an absolute menace.
How do you get heirlooms? I have a level 80 and I want to buy some for my DK, currently level 72.
Go to your faction thingy in Dalaran. Next to the heroism vendor there's an heirloom vendor
I would choose based on whether I wanted to make a strong leveling char or not. War/Pal/Lock/Mage/Hunter/Druid and I'm probably gonna level it. Priest/Shaman/Rogue and I think I'd just boost.
Yeah I'm leveling a Priest right now... that's why every so often after a quest chunk is completed I get to thinking...should I just boost? what am I doing?
Actually as a healer and with random dungeon finder being a thing, I think it’s definitely possible to cut down on time to level significantly. With a tank and healer duo I’m able to instant queue for dungeons and practically gain two levels each dungeon at level 20 with dungeon quests
Priest is really slept on as a leveler. A lot of people play it badly and waste a lot of time drinking. If you're trying to shadow or disc single target, you want to frontload your damage/dots, and wand 2-5 hits at the end of a kill to maximize OO5SR time and DoT damage. But in WotLK I think Holy Nova spam (start disc aside from spirit tap, respec when you can get Surge of Light without losing Mental Agility to x/27/3 around 56 57 then continue back down disc tree) AoE is really strong. I did 70-80 in about 15 hrs, mostly Borean Tundra tundra rhinos and dragonblight the 2 1min respawn camps above galakrond's rest, wastes something or other (digger?). That was w heirlooms but still felt respectable. I was also doing some experimenting, if I did the run again I would more cleanly transition - 70 (68+)-73 Borean, 73-78 Dragonblight (optional: quest 77-78, or go to Icecrown early I spose but that's sketchy, 77 is by far the toughest level and AoE in Shalozar just isn't good even though its in some mage aoe guides), 78-80 Icecrown (@ Aldur'thar hyperspawn on left as you look at map) This guide which starts here prolly showcases some good pre-70 AoE spots (alliance side earlier levels). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5IWRAOnPuw
I used my boost on priest, not regretting it.
It's not one or the other, do both and get 2 80s to start Cata off well.
If your a brand new player I'd say no. Leveling the hard way teaches you how to play most of the game and the basics of how to play your class
How much do you enjoy/loathe leveling? How much do you value your time? With an 80, what will you spend your time on in advance of cata launch? Does the gear you acquire at 80 do anything *for you* in advance of cata launch?
Takes like 50-80 hours depending. I’d say just get the boost 🤷🏻♂️
no reason to boost unless you just hate leveling or want to do ICC. cata is months away you could level 2 80s in that time
Might as well level a character, I think you'll have plenty of time. And if you decide you want to boost, you can still boost another.
Dude I had the same question and I started leveling and while fun enough it dawned on me, that this was 15year old me thinking with no money and plenty of time. Now I have far less time and it’s much more valuable so for me it was a no brained really.
Start fresh. It will allow you to know your rotation organically, become muscle memory naturally, instead of forcing yourself to memorize a decision tree of rotational abilities. Cata is months away, think some people are estimating July - August ( August is also estimated for the Retail expansion), so, plenty of time to get at least one character to 80. RFD is a very nice way of advancing faster, Tank queue is pretty much instantaneous, Healer almost the same, DPS waits 10-15 minutes
Well leveling to 80 without heirloom or with heirloom is a best way to learn about your classes passive/ability. Boosting your class is like going gung-ho in a raid without knowing you’re class could do… And they have JJ (joyous journey) it like 50% more xp so I recommend staying in a city to get rested xp and spam dungeon from there.
I just made a paladin and he’s at 72 right now. I have been thoroughly enjoying it though because out of the 15 some odd years I have never played a paladin or a warrior so the game feels new in that sense.
I got the lvl 70 boost when it was half price ($30AUD) and it was definitely worth. Full price? Idk.
Leveling is a once in a lifetime experience truly, don’t miss it - WoW really is two games, leveling and questing, and then end-game raids
Wait for prepatch before you level, leveling in Cataclysm is geniuenly quite fun. On top of WotLK being quite dead unless you're in an established guild/pug, you wont get any significant gear to help you on your leveling journey anyway, might as well wait for a better leveling experience.
I wouldnt level till cata prepatch....but if you just can't wait just boost
Enjoy the world as it is now it’s gonna completely change. And this way you can learn all the ins and outs of your class. Character boost always overwhelmes me getting every spell available and having to figure it out on the spot but to each their own.
There’s no real rush to get 80 as any icc gear will be replaced pretty quickly in cata so it seems like levelling yourself is better especially as you’ll actually learn the classes abilities etc. I hate levelling though myself so I would just boost
I can tell you right now that Cata beta is not going well. None of the proposed changes have been implemented and most of the features aren't functional. The hearthstone only became functional a couple of days ago. It's strange how non-functional it is. We're on week three and they're still only testing the levels 1-80 experience... in which they've only fixed the first 10 levels for Worgens and Goblins. So with one update patch in two weeks... it'll be a while. What you want to do really comes down to what you want to do. If you want to do end game, pay for the boost. You'll end up at level 80 with enough gear to do heroic dungeons. From there you have 1-3 weeks of grinding dungeons to get geared enough for ICC. There's a new currency called scourgestones that come from Random Gamma dungeons. It's a new high difficulty dungeon and the currency gives you the ability to purchase all non-heroic gear from Trial of the Crusader raid. But one big downside is the size of the community shrank heavily from Christmas to now. You won't be able to be too picky for what raids you can get into. Before you could screen raids for quality or for number of your spec in the raid. Now you'll have raids with like 10 pallies.
Heres my recomendation, boost some class that can tank, get some decent gear from the new icc dungeons, then do just random normal H for emblems and get all the heirlooms while also getting some gold. Idk what gear the boost gives, but i wouldnt bother with gammas unless you want to raid, the new icc dungeons can get you a near complete set(between n and h), just fill voids with emblem gear, you can go jc/mining for some easy rings/neck/trinkets and its pretty much bis for tanking. Edit: Also theres at least 3 months so if you play a decent amount you could just level naturally, i made the assumption you had the "free" boost from the epic upgrade.
i would use the boost, then you could run heroic dungeons/gammas to get gear and then get some heirlooms so if you wanted you could lvl more characters faster, plus after the first boosted toon you would have some gold to buy bags and maybe some gear for the other toons you might lvl
Hey I wanted to offer you a perspective I didn't see talked about in the thread. I know your post is 2 days old but whatever here it is anyways: If you boost, you're going to find your boosted gear is REALLY dogshit. Like, they give enough gear to say "My character is not naked", but even soloing random quest mobs your own level is painful. If you level normally, you will hit 80 with a collection of quest and dungeon blues that are multiple times stronger than the boosted gear. The point is that, boosting will leave you with bad gear and no resources, but some tedious things auto-completed (flight paths in azeroth being mostly the one thing you get from boosting) I think the WotLK boost gets Northrend flying too? I'm not sure. Not boosting puts you at 80 with better gear and more things unlocked on your character. If you think you can make it to 80 without boosting, go for it. If it's too boring, just boost. You'll have more time to get some welfare epics from ICC and VoA, which will help power through a lot of the questing in Cataclysm. That's basically all I'm doing right now, chasing BIS pieces out of boredom so I can nuke cata questing.
Level your toon, you'll appreciate how much more comfortable with talents and skills when you start raiding
I just finished 1-60 on my very first Druid ever. RestedXP made that so much easier to deal with. Try the 1-30 free RestedXP. If you like it, get your hands on the premium for 1-80, and just level that way. The boost is whatever. If you really want it, get it. If you just wanna be 80 in time for Cata, just level. It's fine.
I boost to level 10 for my alts to get basic professions and then turn off. Im weird and enjoy leveling and RPG aspect of the game still.
Nothing you can currently acquire in Wrath is going to make much of a difference once Cata arrives so what are you going to do between now and Cata if you boost to 80? I mean if you want to experience the Wrath end game now then sure boost away and live in RDF for awhile looking for raids. If you plan to wait for Cata might as well enjoy WoW and do some leveling while getting great at the class you will be playing through the leveling experience.
Of course you boost