Ask WoW Insider: Ding before Outland?
by Mark Crump 
Jun 30th 2008 at 2:00PM
Welcome to today's edition of Ask WoW Insider, in which we publish your questions for dissection by the peanut gallery -- now with extra snark and commentary by one of our writers. This week Houldlum writes in:
I'm wondering if it's possible to hit level 70 before ever heading out to Outland. I've been working through every zone trying to hit every quest, even if it's grey (they do give a bit of XP). So far I've only skipped the dungeon quests and any group quest I can't solo. My goal is to hit 70 before Outland so I can maximize the gold return from those quests... and to see if I can do it.
I have managed to get to 63 on my Alliance Rogue before I hit Outland, but I skipped several Zones.
What are your thoughts?
Thanks,
Houldlum (Falsehould, Fatherhould)
It was a light week on questions, so I'm going to dig down and use this one. Short answer: I'm pretty sure you can't. Long answser: Why the heck would you want to? Even if you got xp from anything in the Azeroth, even Cartman would think that grind was nuts.
So, anything out there -- at all -- that will give him or her xp until 70.
Got questions? Don't wait! Send them to us at ask AT wowinsider DOT com and your query could be up in lights here next week.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Ask WoW Insider, Leveling
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Aaron Jun 30th 2008 2:04PM
I would do the level 60-63 outland quests at least, otherwise you'll find it hard to find questgivers if you were to go back to hellfire at 70 since their exclaimation marks don't appear on the minimap.
Dotixi Jun 30th 2008 2:06PM
I don't want to encourage this kind of behavior.
jrb Jun 30th 2008 2:40PM
meh. why not?
do all the olde world quests you can, and then stick to daily battlegrounds, and any other dailys you can muster up. low level lvl60 instances should keep you ticking over up until 65-67.
Senthium Jun 30th 2008 2:08PM
I leveled an alt to 70 without doing a single quest in outlands, but I used a different method. The alt was a pally so at 60 I specced Holy. I would just watch LFG and when I saw a group looking for a healer for a dungeon of the correct level, I would switch characters and heal it. This was my 4th 70 so I was in no hurry to hit the max level, but when I did I specced Ret and went back and did all the quests. Mass amounts of gold.
shiplore Jun 30th 2008 2:09PM
You can grind the mobs out side of Karazhan...have fun with that.
grimmlock Jun 30th 2008 2:12PM
there was a post on here around a year ago about a man who leveled all the way to 70 without stepping foot in outland just so because of the extra gold he would get doing quests at max level. i am pretty sure it was about buying his sister her epic mount. if i remember correctly, he did a lot of grinding, finishing it out with the mobs outside kara.
Nosophoros Jun 30th 2008 2:13PM
Yeah, that's the exact same thing I was thinking of. He indeed grinded up around Kara so he could do all the quests and get loads of gold for his little sister's epic flyer.
Aurdon Jun 30th 2008 2:34PM
Yeah I remember that post too...surprised Mark just shot this down as a "No". Can't be expected to know every thing that has been posted before but still should be knowledgeable enough to know you still get xp for things atleast 9 lvls below you and that includes quests.
It'd be pulling teeth but you can do it and Kara does have mobs to grind on as well.
Super Guest Man 9000 Jun 30th 2008 2:35PM
I believe he did CoT a ton too. It was nice he did that for his sister but it would of been faster and probably would of made just as much money if he did 3 outland zones and instanced the rest.
grimmlock Jun 30th 2008 2:40PM
quick search, found the post:
http://www.wowinsider.com/2007/07/13/warrior-hits-70-without-going-to-outlands/
Mark Crump Jun 30th 2008 3:02PM
@Aurdon in the "no defense" category, that post pre-dates me on on WoW I, and I totally spaced on the mobs outside of Kara.
That said, I absolutely couldn't fathom doing this.
Matt Jun 30th 2008 2:13PM
I guess you're pretty much going to be running around in Azeroth, going to all the former endgame zones, and seeing what quests you can get in. As you noted, getting groups together for many of them will probably be tough, since the only reason people are going to Eastern Plaguelands, Winterspring, and Silithus is to get that one last level in before heading to Outland, or to get mats to level up crafting skills.
Keep an ear out for paladins and warlocks looking to get their level 60 class mounts, and running the instances for those should net you some XP.
At level 66, you can go to Caverns of Time in Tanaris, and start running the Old Hillsbrad and Black Morass instances. You may have to end up grinding the non-elite mobs in Black Morass for the last couple levels, as I'd guess all of the other quests and mobs in the old content will be grey.
Eternalpayn Jun 30th 2008 2:16PM
I was farming Rugged Leather on my level 65 rogue, and I still got xp from mobs that were level 56. By that logic, you could get the level 58 mobs even at level 67, at which point you would switch over to Kara mobs. Completely inefficient, and you would be better off doing the quests for XP, then grinding money at level 70.
Bulgur3 Jun 30th 2008 2:17PM
Eh... saving quests just for gold is complete madness.
Ever heard of dailies?
New quests spawn every day, at least 20 of them, most of which are faster and easier to complete than the levelling quests.
Even more crazy is to grind mobs for XP instead of doing quests, as I know some people do, just so they can do the quests at 70 for gold: If you don't mind mindlessly grinding mobs, do the quests first and level up from them, THEN do the mindless mob grinding at 70, and you will make much more gold from primals than with the other method.
William Jun 30th 2008 2:18PM
Yeah, i think he's nuts. If he makes it to 70 grinding quests meant for max 60 I'll be surprised. If he runs some instances in Outland and just saves the quests, that'll be a LITTLE bit more reasonable, but still well within the bounds of insanity.
h8rain Jun 30th 2008 2:19PM
Would you consider Caverns of Time as Outlands? That is about like 65ish.
Badger Jun 30th 2008 4:06PM
To my knowledge, doesn't it also require Burning Crusade to access?
h8rain Jun 30th 2008 6:36PM
You have to have BC to go past 60 anyways.
Milktub Jun 30th 2008 2:22PM
Possible? Yes. You get XP even at level 70 off of level 61 mobs, so even at level 69 you'd be getting XP off the level 60 mobs around Azeroth.
But my guess is you'd get about 200xp per mob ... and that's A LOT of grinding.
Greenman Jun 30th 2008 2:36PM
No need to guess. At level 69, old world mobs of level 61 would give you 307 xp/kill. Level 60 or lower give ZERO experience, as they are gray-con. ref... http://mosa.unity.ncsu.edu/WoW/library/xpgrid.html
I can't think of any level 61 mobs in the old world, except perhaps a few in the old raid dungeons. Getting that last level would be quite a trick.