Breakfast Topic: The rush to 70
by Mike Schramm 
Jan 26th 2007 at 8:06AM
Well, the rush to 70 is just reaching its stride. On my server, I did a quick "/who 70," and during prime time I saw about 17 people on (one of them in my guild). Another guildie is at 69, and a few more are at 67, which means a good ten or fifteen will be 70 within the weekend, most likely, and there will only be more after that.And yet frankly, I'm not all that concerned with getting there. Sure, you might say it's a copout (I haven't won the race to 70, so I'm quitting), but even though I played for quite a bit after the expansion first released, my leveling pace has pretty much dropped back down to normal-- not too fast, not real slow. Enough to make the quests fun, but enough to keep it moving on the rewards end. And even though I'd be getting more XP in the other zones, I haven't even left Hellfire Peninsula yet-- partly because I want to see all the great lore and scenery, but partly because, like Mystic Worlds, I'm really in no rush to 70.
Because while all the "good" raiding is at 70-- the exclusive 25-man endgame stuff-- that's also when I stop earning XP. And unless I'm headed for a specific item or attunement, it seems to me that playing solo without XP is a waste of time. The game ends at 70, and I'm in no hurry to end it. So what about you-- are you making (or have you already made) the mad dash to 70, or are you stopping to smell the mushrooms in Zangarmarsh?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics, Expansions, Leveling
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Orin Jan 26th 2007 8:23AM
I suppose it depends on what sort of guild you are in. in my guild, we all do the most together when we raid large dungeons. When leveling, it usually ends up being everyone solo or in pairs to maximize speed for questing.
Quaddw Jan 26th 2007 8:25AM
I'm not really in a rush. I just finished the quests in Hellfire last night as I reached Level 63. Im trying to get to 70 within a certain time frame, but i'm not trying to rush it. I think the new feral gear is what is making me want to get there faster :D
Dayglow Jan 26th 2007 8:34AM
My g/f has sort of given up on playing (right after we got TBC) so I am just working on my Draenei. No hurry here...it's not like WoW will die tomorrow.
Guest Jan 26th 2007 9:10AM
I can't decide which character to play. All of my characters are level 61, it's nuts.
altan Jan 26th 2007 4:49PM
I have to agree about taking one's time; my style of playing means it will be at least weeks, if not months, before I hit 70. Real life committments like work and family come first, and while I love the game, it's just a hobby. I'll keep plugging away and taking in the gameworld until I hit 70 - then it's onto raids and levelling up an alt :D
Fair play to those people who have already hit 70, it's obviously the way they enjoy the game and wish to play it. Finding your fun in this world, just like real life, is very much down to the individual tastes.
See you all at 70 :)
Tolrye Jan 26th 2007 8:37AM
Not in any hurry at all, in fact I went from 63-64 doing almost no quests, just killing for fun (and rep)in the marsh. I may just continue down this road and save all the questing for lvl 70, when xp turns to cash. I can't imagine burning myself out to get to 70 just to be stuck in a dungeon taking orders 4 hours a night till the next expansion comes out.
Zuuler Jan 26th 2007 8:39AM
I never planned to rush to 70. When i first bought the game, I started a warlock and rushed to 60. I skipped a lot of content, and in the end, had to grind from 58 to 60, as I had done most of the soloable quests (and didn't want to go to silithus). This made grinding gold for my epic mount quest dificult. Thing is once i had my epic mount, I didn't really want to do anything else. I did some pvp, but that got old fast. I ended up starating a hunter until the expansion came out.
Now that the expansion is out I am back to my warlock. I am already at 62 and I haven't left Hellfire Peninsula other than to go to Shattrath. I want to take my time and enjoy the new content. And once I do hit 70, I should have enough soloable quests left over to make getting my flying mount much easier.
utope Jan 26th 2007 8:48AM
My friends and I are taking our time. My mage is 63, warrior 61, and pally 40% until 61. I'm enjoying playing all of them and liking the short instances. None of us are in a rush to hit 70 right now.
Twinny Jan 26th 2007 8:50AM
why does everyone feel the need to justify not rushing to 70?
personally im in the same boat as dayglow, my gf seems to have lost a lot of interest post expansion and her lvl 61 mage is getting lonely, not to mention my warlock.
i'm questing when i get time to myself, but not to the extent i was before the expansion. so much so that alot of my RL friends have left our current guild to power level to 70 and start raiding again. this is sad to see IMO and has ruined the friendship in the guild. ultimately our guild will be gone by the weekend, its the farmiliar /g silence and a /gquit every 3-4 hours...
Ben Jan 26th 2007 8:53AM
With all the new rep grinds I expect there will be plenty to do solo at 70.
Personally I'm not in a huge rush...I'm level 65 currently, which puts me toward the high end of the curve for my guild, but not way ahead of the pack. I'm basically just playing the game to experience as much content as I can. That means doing lots of quests (which includes reading all the quest text) to really get a feel for all the different zones/factions/NPCs and how they relate to each other and to Azeroth. I also do level appropriate instance runs with my guild, but I try to do them when they fit in logically with my exploration (i.e., when I have quests inside or when the lore leads me to discover a new dungeon).
The one thing I'm *not* doing is freaking out over gear. I've gotten some really good upgrades and I'm happy with them, but I'm not grinding instances or paying exorbitant AH prices for that one perfect piece. The way I see it, there are 2 different games: the leveling game from 60-70 and the itemization game at 70. There's absolutely no point in worrying about gear before max level unless your stuff is severely underpowered (and if you're taking the quest rewards in the new zones it's not). Whether it's at level 61 or level 70 that stuff *will* be replaced, and I highly doubt a few extra points of agility or spell power will have a dramatic impact on your ability to get there.
Heyasuki Jan 26th 2007 9:02AM
I'm already level 66 and I consider that a good rate; My wife and I have been really enjoying TBC and were dying to play all the new raids/5man Heroics.
Zuuler the 225 Flying mount is only around 900G (everyone keeps talking about the Epic flying(300 skill) which is around 5K); which is too easy to gain, I have made around 800G already and my wife 1.6k it's not hard.
It is sad to DE a Epic for a green but I look at the stats and drool :)
Kerni Jan 26th 2007 6:59PM
The game hardly "ends at 70".
Axela Jan 26th 2007 9:19AM
Originally I wanted to have a plan to rush to 70 because I thought it would take a relly long time. But the speed with which I've been gaining xp has changed my direction. When I thought it would take about two months to get to 70 I can see it'll only take me about 2 and a half to 3 weeks. So I'm just enjoying the content and leveling all my skills and professions as I gain xp.
Heyasuki Jan 26th 2007 9:25AM
@ Ben; I'm about the same I've been enjoying the content but I'm not a slacker sitting at 61 either. I'm playing the same amount of time I'd play at night with my wife and were just having a blast. I just finished that "Ring" quest in Nagrand and as a guild we had fun with that one.
loom001 Jan 26th 2007 9:30AM
I am in no rush, just like I was not in a rush to get to 60. The game really ends for me, because on my server it is very hard to get into a guild that does the end raiding.
So when I hit 70 it really is over. Then I sit and wait for Blizzard to think of something else for me to do.
Heyasuki Jan 26th 2007 9:37AM
@ Loom001: That's really sad /cry For me it begain at 60 and now it will begin at 70. You should have a lot more to do now that there are a lot more 5 mans' even a few Heroic!
Kabira-Fenris Jan 26th 2007 9:41AM
I'm taking my time to the point where I am actually much slower at levelling than normal. I'm partly a little disgruntled about missing some content and partly annoyed that my small, close-friends semicasual raiding guild is so spread out right now instead of grouping for quests and instances as normal. I started a gnome lock alt and, inspired by your little blurb on the druid that's lvling naked, I decided to try lvling him with all white/grey gear, then if I can handle that my next toon will go nakie too. It sounds like just the sort of challenge I'm into.
Mike Jan 26th 2007 4:26PM
Personally I'm taking the same approach as I did when I started playing WoW. Just going to play as much as I sensibly can without detracting from my RL.
I was keen to hit higher levels because I had never raided at 60 and so I wanted to get some better gear, however the gear I got questing from 60-61 has quelled that panic and I'm pretty happy, as many others have noted, to enjoy the quests and read the lore - it's the only thing that puts sense to the grind in my mind.
I'm a little disappointed in the XP just from questing. I've almost exhausted the Hellfire Peninsula quests (not ventured further afield yet), and I'm still 20% off of level 62. Will the remaining quests get me to 63 ready for Zangarmarsh?...
At any rate I'm enjoying the new content, it's what the game needed. If it were up to me Blizz would add a new zone every 3 months - rather than a new instance only the elite players can make use of.
BaboonNL Jan 26th 2007 9:55AM
Last time I did /who 70 2 days ago, there were >49 (the maximum the /who screen can show).
I guess The Maelstrom EU is just hardcore like that. >_>
Tigraine Jan 26th 2007 9:59AM
Heck, what server do you play on?
We have currently 200 lvl 70 players.
The first one dinged 70 on friday after release (one of my guildmates).
Currently my whole guild is at lvl 67-69 except for 4 70s.
And yes, I love questing, but I will always do it as fast as possible. I prefer to run the instances on my level over going around solo to do the quests.