Altasticness

[Nomeni]

So, Noms is in the 50s. And I hates the 50s. So while I wait for Noms to get full levels of rest, I need something else to play. I have an alt of just about every class, and I do get enjoyment out of playing most of them. The two I don't really like questing with are warrior and paladin, so I'm throwing them out of this discussion. I'm also throwing out priest, rogue, and another druid. Reithan is a 63 shaodwpriest(who I still have no desire to play), my rogue is pretty much my Noms without as much awesome, and I don't want to level ANOTHER druid from 1-30. So, now to the POINT. I have a shaman, a hunter, a mage, and warlock that I'm looking at playing. I want to know what people think of these classes. Given that I STILL don't have a 70, both input from being at endgame and about leveling would be much appreciated. ^_^

[Evanthe]

Power through your fifties if you enjoy Nomeni (and it sounds like you do). You only have to get to 58 before you can hit the outlands (and the outlands are tons of fun).

As far as which alt to play? Well, that depends on what class you like. Personally, I really enjoy PvP on a mage but hate leveling one (which is why mine is stalled at 39). Leveling a hunter is easy and fun. I would say it's one of my favorite classes, but I haven't played it at end game. The warlock is a blast, and demons open up lots of RP possibilities. They are doing really well right now in terms of power but that doesn't mean they always will be. I haven't played a shaman past 20.

[Broxigan]

I have a bajillion alts. A few 70's and some over 60. I want to finally level a rogue, but, I am getting her to 20 then stalling until patch 2.3 comes out. Boosted experience will make it SOOOOOO much less painful.

I would just focus right now on what you like, the alt your eyes out in 2.3.


Edit: 2.3 will come out in 2008. XD

Edit2: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html;jsessionid=17DA9DD7347F9C7885934CE8A11 1B78F?topicId=2215496403&sid=1

Just found this. Interesting.

[Nomeni]

Yeah, I read those notes a little bit earlier today.

As far as just hammering out to 58, I know I probably should, I just need to get a better idea of where to quest. My problem lies with my inability to concentrate quests and get half a level in an area. I end up wasting a ton of time flying around because I can't seem to centralize any of my quests. I spend three to four hours online and get almost nothing done because I don't really know where to go for the 50s. >_< I blame instancing through on Reithan.

[Evanthe]

Ooo, thanks Brox. I hadn't seen anything official on the leveling changes aside from that they were speeding it up.

I think the instance changes are awesome. That always bugged me about a good chunk of them- gray mobs in the beginning if you want to complete the boss.

Also- changing Stromguard to non-elite? Thank goodness. I've only done that place once and the quest chain was ridiculous for the reward you got.

But what I'm most excited about is the addition of 60 (!!) new quests to Dustwallow marsh. This is very exciting news.

Here's the Blue Text for the people at work:


As many of you already know we've been working on changes designed to improve various aspects of leveling for those making their way to level 60. These improvements, available in patch 2.3 will come in many forms and should significantly contribute to a more fluid and enjoyable leveling experience .

The first notable change was to simply reduce the amount of experience needed each level by approximately 15&#37; between levels 20 and 60. Please note that when the patch is released, characters affected by this change will remain at their current level percentage. For example, if a character had exactly 50% of the current level's total experience before this change went into effect, the character would still have exactly 50% of the current level's total experience; only now fewer points would be needed to level.

Questing plays a very large role in World of Warcraft, especially while leveling and we felt that improvements to this front were necessary as well. Experience gained for completing quests (on average) between levels 30 and 60 is being increased. The increase becomes more substantial as you make your way towards 60. Additionally, many outdoor elite mobs will become non-elites, making many quests which were previously too difficult or required a group much easier and offer the same rewards (in some cases better!). A good example of this change would be Stromgarde Keep in Arathi Highlands, which will become a solo friendly environment when patch 2.3 goes live.

We've also added approximately 60 new quests in Dustwallow Marsh. This should help players who find themselves lacking quests in the 30-40 range. The Steamwheedle Cartel is building the new town of Mudsprocket in south-west Dustwallow Marsh, so you'll have to wait until construction is complete to learn more about these changes.

We're making other improvements to pre-bc leveling dungeons that players will likely find most agreeable. The level range for most every dungeon is being adjusted so that there is a much smaller range between the level of mobs found early in the dungeon to those found towards the end. For example, Shadowfang Keep is currently designed for levels 18-25 which means that right now, players who are towards the bottom of that range (18) will find it nearly impossible to complete the dungeon, while players towards the top of the range (25) will find most of the dungeon trivial. Using our new model (similar to what you'll notice with Burning Crusade leveling dungeons), Shadowfang Keep is being retuned for levels 18-21.

We also want to make running a leveling up dungeon more worth while. In addition to increasing quest experience for dungeon quests, we're also upgrading all pre-bc dungeon boss drops to blue quality items. Some examples are listed below:

Ragefire Chasm

Robe of Evocation old: +3 Stamina, + 4 Intelligence

Robe of Evocation new: +4 Stamina, +5 Intelligence, and +5 Spell Critical Strike Rating

Deadmines

Smite's Reaver old: +2 Strength, +1 Stamina, +1 Spirit, 11.1 dps

Smite's Reaver new: +2 Strength, +3 Stamina, +2 Hit Rating, 14.5 dps

Shadowfang Keep

Robes of Arugal old: +3 Agility, +5 Stamina, +9 Intelligence, +10 Spirit

Robes of Arugal new: +3 Spirit, +5 Stamina, +9 Intelligence, +12 Spell Damage


As you can see there is much in-store for the next major content patch, particularly a number of changes designed to benefit players who are leveling a character. Though we've given you a few examples of the things to come, we think everyone will be pleasantly surprised when they see the full extent of the changes discussed above.

[Malakim]

Holy shit are they finally admitting Agi has no freaking place on cloth robes of old?

[Solenev]

Wait? I love my agility and strength cloth!! I'm the strongest shadow priest out there!

[Nomeni]

2.3 is going to be a HUGE patch overall, I'm wondering how much else they'll be changing to the classes as things go along. Seems like more and more changes are coming out every week. Given JUST the leveling changes, I'm not surprised at how long its going to take. It'll be awesome once it hits though.

[Malakim]

And full of all kinds of hilarious glitches I am sure.

[Kaebora]

I would recommend leveling a hunter. For some reason, everything from 1-40 seems to have taken me 1.5x less time than on any of my other alts. It probably has something to do w/ my pet being pure pwnsauce... But not sure. =P

[Malakim]

actually whenever you level another character it can seem to go faster seeing as you know which quests are good where to go for them and what instances to do when. I leveled my pally faster then a I leveled my hunter.

[l3rokken4ngel]

I can not WAIT for this patch! zomg! I'll finally be able to have a high lvl toon of every class! And the gear won't suck! *is so excited!* *SQUEE!*

[Xaraphyne]

Hunters are generally said to be the easiest to level. They are soloing monsters and great end-game... once you get past the 30 other hunters competing for a spot, anyway. Warlocks are very similar but in my opinion they're also PvP monsters, and are often required to get down a raid boss without tearing your hair out (or being overgeared). Shamans meanwhile tend to get relegated to healers end-game. There are some good ele and enh shamans out there, but generally it's too difficult for them to compete with other DPS classes. They can be slow and painful to level as well. And mages? Beats me, don't have one nor do I know well anyone who has one.

[Qabian]

Mages are glass cannons. Some people hate them for soloing because they have this little drinking problem and no real way to cope with it. But the way I levelled, I never had any real issues. Anything I quested after died before it got close enough to hit me, so it was never anything I'd call difficult. They don't have quite the overpopulation of hunters or rogues either, but they are Yet Another DPS, but DPS with sexy crowd control and sweet kamikaze AoE abilities. PvP I generally had it easy with melee and rough with other casters. *shrug*