Breakfast Topic: Leveling specs
by Eliah Hecht 
Dec 13th 2006 at 8:00AM
I've been playing WoW for quite some time now, and have had a chance to level quite a few characters (thanks, altaholism!). It's simply a fact that some classes and some specs are easier and/or funner to level than others: on one side of the spectrum, you've got your Holy Priests, Prot Warriors, and (any spec) Paladins; on the other side, there's Shadow Priests, Rogues, Hunters, etc. I think I'd have to say that overall, my most painless leveling experience has been my Priest, whom I leveled Shadow (until 1.10 came out, when I switched to a lolsmite build just for kicks), followed by my Rogues, Combat both.I'm a big believer in having a separate leveling spec from your endgame spec. For me, it just makes the whole process much easier to maximize efficiency. Some players, though, advocate playing your endgame spec throughout, or at least from level 40 or so, in order to "get a feel" for it. What do you think, faithful readers? Leveling specs: the quick road to 60, or the quick road to being a 60 who has no idea what the heck they're doing? What was your best/worst leveling experience?
One final question: I'll be rolling a Draenei warrior in the expansion. How should I spec him for leveling (PvP not a real concern)? I'm thinking Fury, but I don't have a ton of warrior experience.
Filed under: Odds and ends, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
DÖT Dec 13th 2006 8:18AM
As far as spec-ing goes I could really carless how players spec or how i spec...all i did was read through the warlock talents, found some I liked and spec'd Afflicition so I could get them...sure, i found Afflicition to be easier to kill mobs than demonology was (i am not the kind of player that sits back and lets my pets fight) so i am sitting with it until i run out of cool talents or hit 60 (which ever comes first). I will never spec Destruction...+crit shadow bolt is nice but mine crits for 300 almost everytime I use it with Nightfall(no cast time) will my DoTs are dropping the mobs 300+ in the mean time...I will probably switch back to Demonology once I hit 60 to try out the felguard but it won't be easy to let go of 360+ DoTs x4 plus Nightfall and many others.
Tigraine Dec 13th 2006 8:28AM
There is only one way to do the 1-60, as fast as possible.
Leveling is a pain, has always been and will always be a pain.
At least in the current game, you've seen those areas a hundred thousand times (with your main) and you freakin know what a Priests role is in endgame. You know you will smash faces when you are able to reach talent xy combined with talent qz..
I always hated the leveling process, especially on casters, drinking mana is like a waste of precious time.
So, my three 60ies are Priest, Rogue, Warlock.
Leveling a Priest:
Definately Shadow. There's no other way, either Shadow Spec or choose a group to pull you through.
Either way, shadow, holy or disc have on great opportunity. Priest are always oom while leveling. All basic Damage Spells are very very expensive so you basically end up Dotting the mobs and wanding them to death, bringing your killspeed to almost zero.
I prefer going after the highest available water as possible, while leveling alchemy and drinking as many mana pots as possible.
Rogue:
One way or the highway. Combat is (was) the spec you want to go. Great kill-speed, 8 second downtime for a bandage, very efficient.
BUt: Fuckin uninteresting. Leveling a Combat rogue means: Sitting for xy hours in front of a Computer pressing only two buttons: SS and Evi. You really get sick of that. But it's the fastest way.
Now with the new talent trees I guess you can also spec mutilate with some decent daggers for the way from 60 to 70. Damage is very good, and you can really keep up a pretty good stunlock on your mobs.
Warlock.
You can level him as you like, the warlock is a real no-brainer. Always funny, still weak.
Being Destro specced will give you great kill speed, awful downtimes due to mana.
Demo with Sacrificing your Void gives you a decent buff so downtimes are reduced, but you are really slow due to the lack of DrainTanking in the early levels.
If you're Affli specced you will suck the mana of your succi while doing drain tanking and leveling. Quite fast, almost no downtimes but.. you need to watch out what you kill, if your mobs do too mutch damage you will be sitting around bandaging all the time.
greetings Tigraine
Ephor Dec 13th 2006 8:30AM
I'm really just too impatient to have a leveling spec. I don't even make a character if I don't have an interesting and original spec to work towards and I love seeing the spec unfold once I get a couple of the 'key' talents in it.
Then again, I've never gone for a pure tank/healer/support spec, so the compromise to overall leveling is minimal (survivability is as key to leveling as dps on a pvp server). However, even with Ret spec, leveling a paladin pre-2.0 is incredibly arduous.
Jenet Dec 13th 2006 8:58AM
I'm leveling my lock out of the gate, and I have to disagree with the previous poster's lock apathy. Affliction is the way to go. I've been in the beta for a while, and nothing beats kiting around 4 mobs in various levels of death, cause you're running away from them and no look dotting the three insta casts. Standing and taking hits as any other spec is just useless. and if you time some good drain souls and chuck the shards, you can get back most of your mana if you drain your imp while you run. Once they're dead, life tap while you loot to full mana and restart. the siphon lives will top you off in health, and you can kite some more. Heck, I killed 3 elite +1 level giants at the same time with some fancy fearing footwork. (it was initially 1, but it feared into another, and he grabbed a third. A pally who watched the whole thing whispered me "nerf locks lol")
plus, for pvp I have yet to be outdamaged, cause I just run into battle and stack dots three high. if priests start dispelling, I do unstable afflictions first until they stop bothering. Once they get hit by it once, they don't demagic the rest of the battleground. my three dots are just about strong enough to drop a tier 1 warrior if he doesn't get healed.
Orin Dec 13th 2006 8:58AM
I too am one of those people who want to level ASAP to 60, then get into end-game.
First time around was a Shaman. It was slow and painful since I was new to the game.
Second time around was my current Alliance Druid. It was a little faster since I had been through the game, but the faction change slowed me down. I knew at the beginning I wanted to play a "needed" class in end-game raiding. So going Resto at 60 was no problem. Feral all the way up to that though. When TBC comes out, I will go back to a hybrid feral/resto build to be able to both solo efficiently and also heal in groups effectively.
I am currently leveling a hunter alt for fun. It is super fast as a BM spec, especially since I know all the Alliance quests I want to do. I'm hoping to get to 60 by the time TBC comes out. I'll be bypassing as much of the current instance content as possible to speed up my leveling. I'm almost 50 now... I will likely stay BM spec until level 70 when I *may* use him in the new raids.
Stanlee of Destromath Dec 13th 2006 9:11AM
As it has been said by many, Leveling is a pain. In order to alleviate this pain I suggest heavy drinking and playing with others, preferably at the same time.
In all seriousness, you need to blow through the levels as quick as possible. I've played every class except for Mage and Shaman. Combat Rogues, Aff Warlocks, and Marksman Hunters kill stuff quickly.
For your warrior, I suggest going fury if you want to power through things quickly. I play an arms warrior with my brother (a shadow priest) and we have no problems killing things, but I imagine a fury warr would do well with DPSing things to death. I like my arms warr because I love seeing the big numbers when I crit things.
Geo Dec 13th 2006 9:19AM
Whit the expansion coming out and folks being able to hit level 70. isn't the concept of "End Game" for a while at least, outmoded?
I wonder how many priests who are stuck as heal bots are going to happily re spec back to shadow so they can grind through the out lands.
To answer the authors' warrior question - I PVE and I find a heavy fury with some in arms spec quite useful.
Sylythn Dec 13th 2006 10:01AM
The worst thing you can do for yourself is change a lot. What I advocate is picking whatever is going to seem like the most fun to play (as you'll be playing a lot of hours 1-60). Then when you're up in the 50-60 range, consider respeccing to how your play style has developed.
Case in point, I was a demonology lock from 10-52. Soul Link, DS, and that ultra fast swapping of pets was great for adapting to different mobs when I was leveling. But I found that my playing style was leaning towards affliction. I got all my DoTs up, felt like my drain spells were being underused, and almost never used destruction spells. I was always on the shadow side of things, and I didn't take enough advantage of swapping pets in and out (even though it was cool) for the max effectivness.
I'll be doing a pally come TBC, and that'll be ret for 1-60. If we've gotten enough regular healers and tanks in our guild by then, I'll stay that way - otherwise I might try holy or prot to help the guild out.
Yz (Echo Isles) Dec 13th 2006 9:55AM
Spec for what your goals are.
I like levelling specs because I want to play endgame with my characters. That means getting there as quickly as possible.
For folks who want to stop and smeel the flowers, find the spec of your choice and take your meery time. More power to ya!
Levelling warriors should level with Fury. Now, the funny part is that at least through 40ish, while levelling fury, you'll want to be using a two hander. Arms really outshines Fury when you can get your crit rate up (like 25%+). But, most folks can swing that til endgame gear with +crit.
Levelling Hunters - I used to say BM is the way to go. Post patch, the pets were buffed a lot, so you might actually be able to level effectively as a MM hunter without pulling aggro off the pet. Also, my pet of choice for levelling - any of the flying pets that you can put the screech talent on. Turn screech on, turn claw off, and your pet will hold aggro like glue. No other pet even comes close for holding aggro.
Remember, levelling fast is all about DPS.
Theramon Dec 13th 2006 9:58AM
For me, the best leveling spec is a frost mage. especially once you hit 40 and have all your points in the frost tree. It takes a little getting used to but once you have the pattern down you can AOE 5-10 mobs at once with improved cone of cold, frost nova and improved blizzard, repeat once more and throw in a few arcane explosions for good measure. You can just fly through the 40s and 50s on your way to 60 with the right AOE mob spots.
Thundergust Dec 13th 2006 10:18AM
My 3 60s were the following:
Rogue - Random, stupid specs cus he was my first character and I was a noob. I was dagger specced but using swords for most of my levels until I got educated and actually figured out what I was doing.
Paladin - Really quick. Specced Ret/Holy, had no downtime (judgement of wisdom and seal of wisdom ftw tbh). Only levels that dragged were the 30-50 ones, but thats mainly cus they suck :D)
Warrior - Mega quick up to 40, slowed right down till 55ish, then quick from 55 to 60. Was fury up until 40, then went arms...made levelling a bit of a pain from 40-48ish when i got some decent fury bits back.
I'm rolling a Draenei Shaman next...should be 60 within a few months. It gets faster every time you do it!
Matt Park Dec 13th 2006 10:33AM
Shamans really only have Enhancement as a levelling spec - its pretty good though. If you just space out your shocks and get a good 1h + shield going, you pretty much never need to drink.
Belthasar Dec 13th 2006 5:22PM
I specced for whatever set of talents would be best for that bracket in PvP. Sometimes it would be all talents on one tree, sometimes it would be split. Yes, I respecced about 5 times before I hit 60.
I also hit rank 12 before I hit 60, and never spent more than a few days at any level. You'll know your class better than anyone else if you don't rush to 60, but instead play with all 3 trees, a lot of different builds, and learn to utilize the full strengths and weaknesses of all skills/talents.
Guernia Dec 13th 2006 11:33AM
@2
I don't know what your Shadow spec was, but it must have sucked. As a Shadow priest leveling to 58 before switching to holy, I was rarely out of mana, to the point where I only had to stop to drink every dozen fights or so, if that.
Shadow priest leveling spec FTW!
Donner Dec 13th 2006 12:14PM
About you roling a warrior and making him/her fury I wouldnt, for lvling arms is ALOT better Im not kinding its easier to you dont have to worry about finding two nice weapons and just one slower but good weapon. Also really I was fury for a while but if you really want to be great in pvp youll want to be arms too.
someguy Dec 13th 2006 12:41PM
Tigraine's wrong about the priest thing.
I just finished leveling my priest to 60, and I could ground 30-40 mobs before I had to drink.
As long as you follow the spirit > all rule, and have spirit tap, a simple mindblast, swp, mind flay, fear, mind flay, wand combo will have you back up to full mana once your spirit taps runs is course.
And by the time your spirit taps over, your fear should be back up, or close to being back up and ready for the next pull.
The only time you lose out on mana is when you get resists on your spells, or have to shift out of shadow to to cure disease.
My priest was my 4th 60, and it was actually easier to level than my 60 hunter, and my 60 rogue.
Moonbat Dec 13th 2006 3:41PM
I gotta say, a BM hunter was my easiest leveling yet.
Second easiest was Shadow priest.
Third was a balance druid.
Most horrible was an enhancement shammy, but that's mostly because it was my first char and I had no clue.
Currently working on a frost mage.
Druid dude Dec 13th 2006 2:01PM
Druid: Conventional wisdom is going Feral to level fast as possible. I went Balance. Kills stuff just as fast, but was more fun for me. If you work it right, you have almost no downtime.
Warrior: DW Fury is godly for leveling a warrior. There are a few times where leveling that your talents will make you severely overpowered versus mobs your around your level. Zero downtime grinding.
Hunter: Most people like BM for leveling. I loved MM. Some will definitely disagree with this, but MM will put out more damage per minute, per hour, if you do it right. You become a mini raid group; your pet is your tank, you are DPS. Get a Boar at level 10, love it to death the rest of the way to 60. He can tank shockingly well. Spec to have your main source of damage coming out of your ranged weapon; if you get in to melee combat you have screwed up. Gear-wise, any stat that increases your Ranged Attack Power is what you want. Ignore all else, you are a dmage monster!
Like this, you be able to absolutelt destroy mobs several levels higher than you. You will find yourself doing a lot of quests that are red with ease.
I was able to kill level 52 elite Dragonkin in Azshara. Granted, I died about 1/3 of the pulls, but really a level FOURTY SIX? Killing FIFTY TWO elites? That shouldn't even be possible.
Lies you say? Hehe... Here ya go:
www.somedude.com/wow/HuntersAreHax.wmv
Yeah, pet died on that one. He died on a bunch of them actually. This was just one of those things I was doing to see if it could be done. And it was freaking fun LOL!
Reached 60 in about 6 days /played, and spent a fair amount of timme farting around.
Kyriakos Dec 13th 2006 2:06PM
I leveled up my priest as shadow until 60, at which point I respecced to disc/holy, 21/30. As far as re-learning a new spec, it's really not bad at all for priests. Casting-wise, you lose vampiric embrace and silence, and basically gain holy nova plus the divine spirit buff...
IMHO, silence should really just be a core priest ability, or possibly in the disc tree...
Hide-Eitrigg Dec 13th 2006 2:37PM
Pally: Ret for the fast kills and least downtime -- and a Ret pally is definitely a DPS class now. Duel one sometime...
Hunter: BM, and it's not even close. BM hunter with the new tree is arguably THE FASTEST way to level, any class, outside of situational mage AOE kiting, which only works for very limited level ranges.
Rogue: Combat daggers. 5/5 in Off Hand is essential.
Priest: 5 in Shadow for the regen, 5 in Disc for Wanding, the rest doesn't matter.
Druid: Feral cat. Absolutely zero downtime, and the best survivability.
Shaman: Enhancement. The other trees have the worst mana efficiency in the entire game, any class.
Warrior: Dual wielding Fury, unquestionably. 5/5 in Off Hand is essential.
Warlock: Affliction with Voidwalker. Zero downtime and the best survivability.
Mage: This is the tricky one. Start as Fire -- fastest kills. You can 2-3 shot even con mobs, dropping them even before they get into melee range, drink free water, repeat. Once you're well into the 40's, you can respec to Frost and AOE grind.