The race to 70: Why the rush?
by Mark Crump 
Oct 16th 2007 at 1:00PM
In the responses to my post about people selling guides, a frequent comment was the desire to get to level 70 in the shortest time possible. Now, that realization did not dawn on me with those comments – when Moses came off the Mount saying, "I bring unto you these levels for you to gain and enjoy" someone likely said, "Yeah, yeah, what's the shortest way to get them?" Before we traipse merrily down this yellow brick road, given the reputation I've quickly earned as a rabble-rouser, let me say I'm playing this one perfectly straight -- I have an honest desire to learn why some people treat levels 1-70 as a pre-season of sorts.
I'm pondering undertaking a fast leveling of my own. I've hit a not-to-uncommon issue: I met a group of people in real-life who not only play on a different server, they had the unforgivable gall to play a different side -- I'm Alliance; they're Horde. I'm very much a "the journey is a destination unto itself" kinda guy. Hitting max level for me is somewhat of a let down. I enjoy dinging, getting new abilities, etc. That side of me is combating with the desire to quickly get to max level so I can play the game with them. I definitely feel playing the game with real-life friends is the way to go. This is one of the reasons I'm looking forward to Patch 2.3. I can get my lowbie to 20 before the patch hits and then enjoy the Horde content and level quickly as well.
So, to you those who can't get to level 70 fast enough, why? And does the potential to miss out on some lower-level content as you blast past it bother you?
Filed under: Odds and ends, Blizzard, Leveling, Guides
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
jaxson_bateman Oct 16th 2007 1:11PM
Very simple, IMO. To start with, I'm one of these people that wants to get to 70 as fast as possible.
The long and short of it is that, from lv 1 through to the end of 69, you can always be gaining experience. So if you want to do anything aside from that, you have to think "hang on, I could be getting experience instead of doing this event, or hanging out, or whatever". It's always there. If you spend an afternoon mining so that you can level your profession, you could be getting experience instead. If you spend a morning exploring some region, you could be getting experience instead.
But once you hit 70, you're free of the burden. It's no longer a case of "I could be getting experience instead of doing this random act I enjoy". Because at 70, you couldn't be getting experience instead.
So I'll keep getting to level 70 as fast as possible. If I miss any content prior to that that I really would like to see, I'll go back and see it when I don't have the weight of experience needs on my shoulders anymore.
Omegi Oct 16th 2007 1:10PM
The first time through any side should be enjoyed. Until you hit those quest chains that are the same for both factions. I see no point in re-learning what you should already know. The majority of the journey was done the first time you got to 70.
After you get to 70 and start on the next 70 you will do it for a specific desire or need. Chances are it's not to re-experience old content. It will most likely be so you can play a class that interests you, need a raiding filler, or want a twink. None of those require experiencing a slow and grind filled journey as part of the enjoyment of the class.
Besides, anyone that delves into raiding can tell you the game doesn't start till you reach the end level.
Andrew Oct 16th 2007 1:16PM
I've got 2 level 70s and a 69 (which was my pre-BC main).
My two newer 70s I leveled in about 2 months overall time and about 6-7 days game time. It is slower than some of the leveling guides, but decently quick for someone who doesn't use guides and can waste a lot of time (and who likes to instance a lot).
My reason for getting to 70 as fast as I can: Pre-BC content is boring. The gear is terrible (unless you incessantly farm for it or spend the gold) and the levels take waaaay too long to get through. All I want to do whenever I play an alt is get to the Outlands where Blizzard has finally created gear that lets me truly enjoy my spec.
Case in point: my latest 70 is a shadow priest. Prior to BC I had two choices: obscene mana pool or about 100 spell dmg. I chose the mana pool because it still let me heal effectively and I didn't care about the pitiful spell damage when I was losing out on the stats. It was still boring not being able to fully realize my potential until the last 10 levels.
On top of that, I was in my 50s still wearing some gear from SFK and the lavishly jeweled ring (or whatever its called) from VC just because I hadn't come across better.
Once you finally hit the Outlands, the content gets really bland until you can hit 70 and run the top instances and work your way into raids, arenas, daily's, etc...
So that is why I level as fast as I can... it just isn't fun in between after I've already done it once.
adamj Oct 16th 2007 1:12PM
For me, I've done that grind from 1-60 and beyond too many times for it to be fun to sit back and go through it slowly for enjoyment. I've been playing since opening day and have brought a lot of characters though the lowbie levels. The content is just old without much reward. Especially once you get into outland and the quality of gear just dwarfs anything you can reasonably find elsewhere.
Thannatos Oct 16th 2007 1:13PM
I have two level 70 characters already (priest & hunter), both on the horde side. Before BC, as I'm sure you know, these were two of the best classes to have for both end-game PVE and PVP fun. After BC... well, they are arguably the most terrible classes in the game. (Patch 2.3 might be the return of the hunter, but that's another topic).
Anyways, now I'm leveling a warlock so that I can actually have some fun PvPing and maybe get invited to some PVE groups again. I have two horde characters and I feel like I've seen all of the content I want to. It's more or less impossible to get a group for an instance at any level other than 70 on my server, so nostalgic runs of SM Cath aren't really an option.
My goal is simply to get to lvl 70 as quickly as possible so I can PvP / PvE with my friends on my new toon. :-)
Philo Oct 16th 2007 1:13PM
I tell you; there's no joy to be had in going through STV for a third time.
At some point during the 1-60 run, you hit the 45-55 zone, and then levelling becomes a pain in the ass, IMO. What keeps you going is the thought of entering Outland and enjoying levelling that bracket, and then getting to end game where the coolest stuff is.
I'm really happy they're speeding up 1-60. That's just a chore to get through. Why the rush? Because it's inferior to questing in Outland, or doing end-level content. Content like Desolace is unfun.
For me, levelling 1-60 starts out great (thanks to Ghostland, what a great zone!) then gradually becomes a pain as you approach level 50... At 58, I jump to Outland and have fun again. But that 20-50 lull is just something I wish I could fast-forward.
Sigma Oct 16th 2007 1:19PM
I quit WoW last January so I could focus on schoolwork. Then summer came around, and I felt it calling once again (my friend who was pressuring me to reactivate didn't help). I ended up rerolling a pally on his server.
So here it is May, and I've got three solid months to play the game before I have to worry about classes starting up again. My goal? Get to 70 as fast as possible so I can experience BC raiding content (I hadn't yet since I quit in January), and enjoy it as much as possible before school begins in the fall. I hit 70 in 10.5 days of /played time, in about 6 weeks of RL time. It's not impressive for speed leveling, but keep in mind I was playing a pally. It could have been faster, but I had a job over the summer as well. Oh, and I hit 70 on the 4th of July - how patriotic is that!
Here it is, 3 months later, and I'm in a solid raiding guild that fits well with my schedule. I think I made a wise decision. It's just too bad that the friend that originally convinced me to come back has now quit the game - now it's me doing the convincing this time.
Zoidfarb Oct 16th 2007 1:26PM
I took my sweet time and was pretty much the last person in my guild to hit 70 on my first toon. So when I made my others I wanted to get them as high of a level as possible as quick as possible for a few reasons.
1. I had already done it all before and experienced nearly all of it I wasn't going to miss anything by rushing along.
2. I find Outland to be a lot more fun than Azeroth most of the time plus I don't have to travel 20 minutes just to be able to do this or that.
3. I want diversity. If my guild needs a healer I can hop on my druid, we need DPS I'll hop on my shaman or priest, tank I will hop on my warrior eventually.
That's just me tho. Plus seeing all the cool gear everyone has and saying "Man I wish I were decked out like that" never helps lol
Lenina Oct 16th 2007 3:59PM
I basically agree with poster #1. When I played my hunter, I took my time and enjoyed it (15 days /played to 60 lol). Same going from 60-70, and although it went quicker because I had more experienced, knew how to chain together quests, etc, it was still fun.
Then I learned that Hunters weren't really in high demand. As everyone knows, it's always healers and tanks that are in short supply. I had a priest alt that I just screwed around with before, but decided to level it to 70 so I could start raiding, etc.
I enjoyed leveling my priest and learning how to play the class, but I wasn't trying to re-experience the old content. I wanted to do it efficiently. I personally found the race fun, it's just like people who try to solve a Rubix Cube faster an faster.
Paul Oct 16th 2007 1:20PM
My highest level char is 62. I'll admit, i was in a rush once BC came out to get to level 58, so that I could get to outlands and experience all the new content. At level 46, my mage respecced to frost and I AOE grinded my way to 58 in a short amount of time.
But now that I'm in Outlands, I'm taking my time- after all, i rushed to get there so i could enjoy it, not rush to get past it.
But I recently found another class I really enjoy playing, which is a pally, and I'm taking my time leveling with him, because I'm in no rush anymore.
I have heard what Omegi said lots of times- that the game doesn't start until level 70. Having never actually been to 70, I'm not completely sure about this, but I don't know how that could really be true, as the game from 1-62 has been pretty frickin fun so far.
Maybe a better way to put it would be that the game completely changes once you hit level 70 and start raiding.
Runstadrey Oct 16th 2007 1:23PM
In an earlier article WI had a poll and asked about participation in Brewfest. I didn't spend a single second on it. I just started playing and am trying to get my first L70.
I'm racing to 70 so that I can participate in all the other activities Blizz offers.
Rudi Oct 16th 2007 1:30PM
It depends on what you enjoy. I enjoy raiding so leveling is simply a grind for me and I hates it so. The quicker it's done with the better since it's mostly solo stuff and if I wanted to play by myself I wouldn't play a MMOG. ;)
Zumwalah Oct 16th 2007 1:35PM
i cant even believe this is a serious article... plain and simple the game doesnt even start until lvl 70.. the rest is just raining and preparation. you lvl, get a new spell, learn to use it, lvl learn a new spell.. etc this way at 70 theoretically you under how to play your class, have found a spec you like, and are ready to begin playing for real.raiding, arenas, heroics, dailies, balanced PVP(no lvl gaps). this is whats fun about wow, this is why people play.. lvling is just a chore
shoots18 Oct 16th 2007 1:35PM
I did my first as a race against my friends, they already had level 50's so my goal was to beat them to 70. My newest toon is a tank that my guild desperately needs so I'm trying to get him to 70 asap so that we have another option for raiding.
rafe.brox Oct 16th 2007 1:42PM
Omegi, AJ & JB summed up most of the salient points I was going to cover - doing the early and mid-game content for the Nth time is tedious (not rewarding), the endgame (or at least BC) content is much more mature and well-implemented (this is coming from someone who has not even *played* a BC race past level 10).
The *first* time is a journey.
The *fifth* time is a commute.
Shiro Oct 16th 2007 1:46PM
Yeah, I rush it now.
I loved the leveling on my first character to 60. Took my time, leveled a lot of alts as well, did professions, PvPed, all that stuff. It took me months to get to 60.
Then I realized that I really didn't like my level 60 character... :(
Started a new one, and did the same thing, took my time, enjoyed things, etc, etc.
I've currently got 4 characters at 70, 2 more in the upper 60s, and a lot down in the lower ranges. There are still some areas that I enjoy. I love the alliance starting areas, and really, really love Ghostlands. On the alliance side, I love the 20-30 areas, especially Duskwood so I take my time through there.
Where I get bored/fustrated is with the 20-58 questing areas on the Horde side and the 30-58 areas on the alliance side. Aside from a few areas that I really get a kick out of (Hinterlands, Tanaris) there are a lot of quests that are FedEx, and a bunch that just don't float my boat.
So a leveling guide helps out a bit and allows me to streamline those levels a bit. What I find I enjoy is learning how to play a new class, or learning how to play a class I've already got "differently". Many of my characters right now are just a faction change. I'm making horde versions of the Alliance characters that I currently play.
The level 70 content isn't the end-all, be-all, but it's always going to be the end-goal for most people. Thus, the faster you get to it, the better. For me though, it's just about getting there quickly because I've already seen/done the stuff at lower levels that I'm doing at this moment. Without some sort of guide to keep me focused, I tend to drift off course and I spend way too long leveling.
Philo Oct 16th 2007 1:47PM
@#5: Wait, you're saying that you have a Priest and don't get any PvE invites?! You must be doing something wrong... Priests get invited a LOT more to instances than a Warlock (I'm a Warlock, I know.) Unless you're Shadow and refuse to heal.
Snailking Oct 16th 2007 1:49PM
So let's say you want to heal. You're not going to level a priest as holy (unless your retarded). So you spec shadow so you can kill things. You don't like shadow, you want to heal, but you gotta level. So best bet is to push through 1-69 as fast as possible to minimize the shit you don't wanna do, and get to the stuff you do want to do quickly. Then you can spec how you want, and play your char how you want.
Fai Oct 16th 2007 1:51PM
Let me start of by staying that i'm a bit of an altoholic myself - i have seven level 70 chars and a few more making their merry way.
I leveled these chars because I like seeing what different classes are capable of doing and how they interact. Knowing what your tank or your healer is doing can make you a better dps char.
That being said, for me the joy of playing is instances - and to a lesser extent raids (because raiding kind of forces you to pick your one and only main).
Take for instance my warrior - I leveled it 1-70 pretty much solo'ing (getting groups for not-level 70 instances is quite a challenge on my server). Did that teach me what I wanted to know? No.
I wanted to learn how to tank, what they're doing; how I can help a group by being a better tank. Leveling that char from 1-70 I learned very little - if anything at all. So yeah 1-70 for me was a chore.
Healers and tanks are the extreme examples here; but even for dps classes that holds up - you're not doing the same things in a group you would do when you're on your own. So yeah, the leveling process gets.. tedious.
nozedive13 Oct 16th 2007 1:52PM
i just recently competed in a race to 70 with some co-workers. but aside from there being a competition aspect to the race, how about that on a PvP server your best chance of getting genked is at lower levels? or how about that if you've just started playing, all your friends are a higher level and to hang out with the cool kids you gotta get your level on? is there's something pleasing about pre-70 that I'm missing? This is like asking someone why they don't hang out on world 1 level 2 of super mario.