Breakfast Topic: Is 68 too low for Northrend?
by Adam Holisky 
Jan 26th 2009 at 8:00AM
My Shaman and I have been becoming best friends lately. I've been doing about a level every other day with her, and as I said in the WRUP last Friday, my goal was to get her into Northrend to have some fun. To do that I needed to bring her to 68 and head over to my preferred starting zone, the Howling Fjord.But when I got there I was in for a bit of a shock.
Everything wasn't dying as fast as it was in Outlands. At 67 my Shaman was plowing through mobs left and right, outfitted in mainly greens and a few quest reward blues. With Shamanistic Rage, and my two ghost wolves I could pop out at a regular interval, I had nearly no downtime.
Enter Northrend, and enter the difference.
Things took half my health and mana to kill, I couldn't really do two mobs at once without taking some health or mana potion, and my miss rate almost doubled. This is the fourth time I've brought a toon to Northrend and leveled, but the first time that I did it at 68. I was expecting a transition much like when you go to Outlands at 58. However this was quite a bit rougher.
After questing for about an hour I got a couple weapons and increased my total HP by about a thousand. This definitely helped, but it still felt a little odd. Maybe they need to buff Shamans?
I'm interested to hear what you all think of the step from Outland to Northrend at 68. Too hard or too easy?
Filed under: Shaman, Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics, Leveling
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 8)
dylan Jan 26th 2009 8:04AM
Actually, with my hunter and even my deathknight. I went to northrend at 78 and i found it no problem, my hunter may of had some problems but my deathknight plowed through all the mobs. And without much time i was 80 :P
Yvels Jan 26th 2009 8:06AM
78 ??? lol
Jon Jan 26th 2009 8:07AM
What made you decide to wait until level *78* to go to Northrend? Just curious
Thijz Jan 26th 2009 8:46AM
Oh come on you guys, it's obvious he just made a typo... >.<
Honostly, Outland at 58 is not very easy either. Especially the orcs at Grom'gol or whatever it's called in Hellfire pose quite a challenge.
LostOne Jan 26th 2009 10:00AM
I think this is normal entering a new expansion 2 levels below. I had this problem in BC and Wrath both when bringing in a character at 58 and 68 respectively. Until you get a few quests under your belt that gives you massive gear upgrades. It's the sudden jump in gear that makes the difference.
McRaider Jan 26th 2009 11:12AM
I know it's possible to grind to 80 in outland, in fact. After that the mobs are too low lvl, so if he grinded mobs till 78 and then went to northrend :O
Duck Knight Jan 26th 2009 1:34PM
@McRaider:
To quote a member of the anonymous community, *ahem*, "PICS OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN."
Antonia Jan 26th 2009 3:27PM
LOL @ Pics or it didnt happen..
while it may not have been something this guy did i know for sure at least back in BC that there was at least 1 guy, who i think WoWinsider did an article on, who grinded in the plaguelands and where ever else he could in the old world to level himself to 70 just so he can come to outland and do all the quests for the extra gold JUST so he could give it all to his little brother who was worried about never getting a flying mount..
hard to think that some one would do that given the time it would take (cause you know we're all just rushing to end game, in our own eyes as well as blizzards) or that someone would even be that nice to his brother but it did and could happen.. if THAT could happen in BC it could happen in Wrath..
you know, when i took my main to 80 i did all the shattered sun dailies and any other i could do every day cause the free QUICK xp, i would score at least 20% of a level in little time, and it was well worth the time when every one and their mother was fighting for spawns in northrend. I got to 75 easy with the help of those dailies and they were a nice break from being in northrend with all that insanity going down. only reason i stopped is because i was bored out of my mind doing them every day but i could have very well made it to 78 at least doing them it just would have taken maybe another week to hit 80.
Krick Jan 26th 2009 4:38PM
Call me crazy, but I just stepped into Northrend with my level 77 hunter. My goal was to finish every quest chain I had left in Outland, and with the exception of quests requiring raids or heroics, I was successful. Doing these quests took me to 77. Note that I did much the same thing in the old world and didn't hit Outand until level 64.
I did pop into Northrend at level 70 to train my mining and herbalism, both of which I ended up maxing out to 450 IN OUTAND. However I still haven't done any Northrend quests, instances, or mob grinding.
It's kinda cool to be starting in Northrend with epic flight. It should make the questing a lot faster.
Anon Jan 28th 2009 5:25PM
@Duck Knight
You sir are dangerously close to breaking rules #1 and #2... watch it
Jon Jan 26th 2009 8:04AM
Depends on your gear. In full dungeon blues it would probably be rather easy at 68. But with quest greens it's not going to be easy. Wait till 70, or bring a friend - that's my advice!
Balmer Jan 26th 2009 8:34AM
Why rush into Northrend at lvl 68? Think about this for a second, Blizzard changed the XP gains of Outland to be about %30 higher than when we went there for BC. so staying in Outland for 2 2 more levels is goning to take you less time to complete than if you run straight to Northrend. If not just for the XP then also for the ease of kills in Outland.
As I leveled my Death Knight through I decided to stay in Outland untill level 70, and even then I still had two more zones of quests that were available. So I did quests in Outland untill I had saved enough Gold to buy my DK Flying Mount and the flying skill to go along with it. I was lvl 72 before I got to Northrend.
Jon Jan 26th 2009 8:41AM
That's not a bad idea at all. You'll find that areas like SMV and Netherstorm are quite empty and ripe for the picking. A couple of guildies did this and were able to gain a couple of levels very quickly through this method.
belligerent Jan 26th 2009 9:08AM
@Balmer:
You are incorrect.
While they did increase the amount of experience that Outland mobs--and quests-- above what you would have received before patch 3.0x, Northrend mobs and quests give significantly more experience than their Outland counterparts.
That being said, gains in experience aren't the only reasons to skip ahead to the next expansion "early". At 58, and then 68, you now have access to the quest rewards, which are usually way better than what an alt previously had.
While Northrend's quest rewards were not head and shoulders above Outland epics, they are still substantial upgrades to green rewards.
My suggestion for any hordie is this: even if you decide to stay in outland until 70ish, go to Borean Tundra @ 68 so that you can complete the quest chain to get the new blue weapon.
I'm sure that would help tremendously. Then, @ 75. Drop everything and run to Zul'Drak to get the Amp of Anguish blue weapon, which should take you to 80.
Brandon Tilley Jan 26th 2009 9:48AM
The same thing happens when you try to go to Outland at level 58. Depending on your class and gear, it can be really, really hard at first (Zeth'Gor, I'm looking at you).
In response to the "more XP in Outland" comment--I could be wrong, but I thought they only lessened the amount of XP you *NEED* to level from 60-70, not increase the actual amount of XP that mobs/quests gave (this is different from the level 20-60 nerf, where they actually did increase the XP gains).
Mark Jan 26th 2009 11:21AM
The problem with waiting is that I have found the quests in northrend more fun than outland. Perhaps its different in Shadowmoon Valley (which I never even went to) but I had such a blast in HJ with my first toon that I can't wait to get to BT.
Ilnara Jan 26th 2009 12:19PM
Balmer ; how do you figure? Outlands quests reward around 10-12k per turn in, and you'll net about 6-700xp per kill.
Northrend, you'll get 21-25k per turn in, and should be getting well over 1000xp per kill.
You can haz math. Or at least a calculator.
Molly Jan 26th 2009 3:37PM
When WotLK hit I had two 70's, each poised and ready to level. My main was a druid who'd completed all the quests in Outland for the gold and the lore, so I took her to Northrend right away. She was epic'ed out, it was easy.
My shaman had just reached 70, had a few epics but not anything to brag about, and hadn't gone beyond Nagrand in zone progression. I finished off Blade's Edge, Netherstorm and SMV before I took her to Northrend.. and she was 73 by the time I got there. Everything seemed a lot easier then it had on my druid, and the /played time that each took to get to 80 was roughly equal. My shaman hit 80 in Dragonblight, so I have so many quests and potential gold rewards left over! IMO, there's a great advantage to waiting to go to Northrend.
qoa Jan 26th 2009 4:13PM
@Balmer
Can you go from 68 to 69 unrested in an hour in Outland? I did it two days ago in Northrend.
Eisengel Jan 26th 2009 5:13PM
I'd say it's definitely gear/class dependent. My Spriest moved into Northrend at level 70 and had no trouble tearing things up, but she was outfitted in BC badge, arena, and low raid gear. I don't think I replaced any of her gear until she hit level 76 or 77. My Death Knight however sauntered into Northrend at 68 with little more than BC quest rewards and Fel Iron plate, and still regarded most mobs as speed bumps. It could just be the scaling jump on Shamen is a little front-loaded on the initial Northy levels.