In leveling a couple of different toons lately I keep smashing into this brick wall that frustrates me.
Less xp when in party.
Why? Why? Why? I understand that you don't want to give the same xp as a person would get solo. Then everyone would group and level super fast just by grinding. But as it is? I honestly abhor grouping when I want xp. I don't care if it helps me get this quest done faster. It slows my leveling down to such a degree that it isn't worth it. EVER. I'd rather respec at 70 and learn to play then. Like everyone else does.
Group to complete a quest/instance... sure(as long as my primary goal isn't leveling).
Yet I still party.
This is because ideally partying is fun*. I pay a monthly fee to play with others. Thats it. So even though I KNOW it will slow me down, I party with my wife and brother. Why? Because it makes wow more enjoyable. Even though it gives me the feeling I'll never reach 70.
Besides if I just soloed the likelyhood is that I would quit before 70 anyways.
Why am I griping about this?
Ah don' know. I sort of miss the FFXI forced party system(where you were effectivly forced to party if you wanted to level this century. But I don't really. I like soloing on occasion, and I like that it is worthwhile to do so. I just wish partying was somwhere CLOSE to leveling in terms of xp gain. As it is you only get about 20xp in party if you would have gained 100xp solo.
/sigh
Well fortunately we're going to start focusing on doing instances for gear that we'll throw away 4 levels later ;P. But we'll enjoy the feeling of conquering the instance. At levels appropriate for it.
Ie: 3 level 13's taking on Ragefire Chasm.
*When your dammerung warlock alt isn't being an absolute idiot.
5 comments:
partying can also be a fairly good way to level. depending on how you do it, it can be fairly fast. with the new "miracle" patch, quests are worth a ton. the more quests you turn in, the faster you will get to that next level. now i will admit, questing in a party really isn't too effective until you're past 20, and maybe even 30. the more quests you can get the better. in the lower levels, you are more limited to what areas you can quest in. the older you get the more places you can quest. now the key when partying to completing the quest quickly. if you have to kill 20 murlocs, split up if you think each of you can solo. take more than one at a time. also, complete several quests before turning them all in. its a waste to complete a quest, go turn in, complete a quest, go turn in. you lose a lot of time in travel. i love to solo too, but i always follow the do several quests, then turn in. so leveling in a group is not the very fastest at all times, but you can do it fairly fast as well.
Klaki is exactly right. Grouping is about completing quests, not getting exp per kill. But I would disagree that it doesn't work at low levels; it works at any level if your group quests efficiently.
And actually, whether you are solo or in a group, quest exp is faster/better than kill/grind exp. There are a number of leveling guides available these days, and they all focus on efficient questing, not grinding. Quests=fast, grind=slow.
As a result, grouping for the purpose of questing is hugely efficient, unless your group dinks around and doesn't get anything done. However, there are two key concepts that must be followed:
1. Get sets of quests that are related or are in the same area. (This rule also applies to soloing.) Nothing cuts down on exp per hour more than running around. Obviously, getting all the quests for an instance and running it is one example. Or get all the outdoor quests for a given area and do them all at one time. For example, if you are in Thousand Needles, get ALL the quests for the Shimmering Flats, then make a big loop around the basin. Everything you come across will be connected to one of the quests.
2. Try to get sets of quests that are yellow or orange. If you are in a group (even just two players) you will easily complete orange quests. That means you are getting the most possible exp for the time you are investing.
Now in order to follow these two rules, you must either be familiar with an area and the quests that are available, or you must do your homework on your favorite internet WoW database. Half an hour researching a set of quests will enable you to run for an evening and get huge exp.
Something dear Dammypoo failed to mention is that last night-because he didn't feel he got enough xp by partying and he was 3 lvls below us-I followed him around for an hour as my vixen priestie healing him, out of party, no xp gains for myself, not allowed to attack mobs. Can anyone say boring? But I did it out of the goodness of my orcish heart. I just wanted everybody to know how awesome 'Wulfa is :)
Yes she did. She is great like that.
@Goeben and Klaki The majority of quest I run accross give about 10-20x the xp of the mobs you are required to kill. For example if you are killing rats for rat tails and each rat gives 100xp then the quest gives something between 1-2k xp if you do it while its yellow(which I almost always do).
Now most of the time I have to kill about 10-20 of the mobs. So about half of my xp comes from the mobs I am killing.
So for a quest where I would gain 2000 xp from the quest, and where I have to kill 20 of the mobs for 100 xp each: if i'm in a party I get 2400xp and outside of one I get 4k xp total. It is worse if I'm on blue bar as the numbers go to 2.4k and 6k respectively.
Granted if the quest simply says kill me 20 murlocs... I get it done in 1/4 of the time I would solo. But if the quest says get me 20 murloc eyes..... It takes longer than I would take solo.
So I believe that even when just questing you get less xp in a group for the time spent than you get solo. Because the xp gained from the mobs you kill for the quest make such a large impact on the total xp gained while questing.
I COMPLETELY agree about questing vs. grinding. Grinding for xp is bleh slow. I thought it was better earlier but after 2.3's boosts to quest... grinding sucks.
Parties do make escort quests trivial instead of frustrating.
It sucks when you party to play with people and gimp your own levelling sometimes, but I'd prefer partying to levelling alone. Boring. :(
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