Serious [Realm First!] Discussion Thread

[Purge]

I've seen some talk of people who are serious about shooting for some of those illustrious [Realm First!] FOS, so I thought it could be quite a nice idea to have somewhere where we can throw down a few game-plans and advice for others, be it in-game or perhaps even to do with sleeping, nutrition and exercise while making that push for 85.

I, for example, am thinking about at least seeing if I can go for Warrior, and I'm sure there are other folks on here with a similar idea, perhaps even just with the intention of making it to 85 fast rather than attaining a [Realm First!].

So, for people who would be curious about this sort of thing, a good start would be having a look at UnholyShaman's Guide (many thanks for that) as well as some YouTube content, such as The Yogscast which should give a flavour of what to anticipate.

Whilst I realise that people might frown upon this sort of thing, I do think that it's a rather useful thing to be able to discuss with fellow folks from WoW, and if this catches on throughout the week, I'll see if I can start compiling a list of ideas, routes, essential consumables and all that sort of thing. UnholyShaman has made an absolutely fantastic post which goes over a lot of the core ideas of being able to pull off this sort of thing, so reading that would be the first thing I would recommend.

After that, feel free to come and throw some ideas around in here if you're interested in making a serious push for a [Realm First!] and perhaps some of us will be able to take some of that feedback on board, and, of course, good luck in advance folks.

[User51]

Hi,
The 'pushing the limits'-post is a bit far fetched. You certainly do not need every damn buff in the game, nor do you need warlocks and mages all over the place or five man supporting you. On a sidenote, the content of that post is a 100% identical to a certain blog, so I don't know who copied who. Anyway as a reference of my experience in getting lvl firsts: I got realmfirst DK 80 with wrath on a high level population server and I will explain how I did it:
- 55, character created and rushed trough the starter quests
- 57, go to wpl there are a lot of easy and fast quests with the caulderons
- 57.99, stop and use + 3 RAF levelups (yes you had to level up a 60 with a friend as preperation)
- 60.99, welcome to outland, rush trough the first zone to get a full set of outland gear
- till 65 do zandarmarsh, only quests that involve dense spawning zones, such as the naga quests.
- 65 ring of blood, with the help of 2 guildies.
- till 71, ae-grind the bloodelfs on top of black temple, with the help of an outside group healer (70).
- 71 go borean tundra, it's pretty flat, which makes it easy to travel.
- 73 dragonblight + ae-grind on the scarlet crusade packs with the help of an outside group healer (70).
- 77 the troll zone, granted this was a very slow zone and probably a bad call
- 79 icecrown till ding
Now things to consider for this expansion:
- No RAF/Heirloom/etc bonus
- No outside group help, due to everything being phased as you progress with your quests
- No boost for the new ring of blood equivalent
- Can depend on previously ilvl 270 gear to start with (lasts till ~83)
- I played beta and there is only one zone thats allows decent ae-grind so far and thats in deepholm. Since you need to be lvl 81, there's no way you can smuggle a healer inside.
- The instances are harder and quite CC dependant (=no AEing), even when being overgeared I don't think putting up a premade 5 man will increase your xp rate
This leads to the following conclusions and tips for the cataclysm serverfirst:
- Best option is to quest
- Zones are phasing as you quest, you can't skip parts and everything is linear. So staying ahead of mass to prevent spawncamping is a must. Therefor I recommend NOT to prepare 25 dailies to turn in, but just go into the new zone ASAP.
- Flasks help, buffs as well, but killing something in 6 or 7 hits is not going to make much diffrence. Being in range to your next target to avoid running time is much better. It's all about possitioning.
- Waiting for something to respawn? Grind something else nearby!
- Never hestitate when picking a quest reward, just go for it! +17sta, -3crit rate, +5str, -18 haste. I wouldn't care less, it's not going to matter. Again 6 or 7 hits to kill a mob, whats the diffrence?
- To mount hyjal or to vashir (or whatever the water zone is called). If you are a non-druid, go for hyjal. The water slows you down too much, even if there is less competition on mobs there.
- Set a /DND message 'Yes I have no life, thx for asking. My current spec is unholy, and I recommend to start Hyjal.' That should cover about 98% of the questions you will get, and you will get a lot!
- Have a backup player, a backup internet, a backup computer,... just in case scenario. You can't do this alone, you need to be with two. More is overkill, you only need 8h's sleep / day.
- Do your groceries in advance, shower in advance, turn off your mobile, lets your friends know NOT to come over during 7,8th of dec.
- Trouble understanding a quest? Grind while you reread it or search for an item in your backpack.
- Get 310% flying speed, bind your mount on your mouse, you'll be using it to cover everything that requires to run more than 12 yards (14y with speedbuffs).

[Purge]

Here are a few thoughts of mine regarding how I plan to approach this.

- At 00:00, I will be logging in at Storm Peaks, and following a route of hand-ins through Icecrown, netting 600,000 XP in what I timed to be 00:07:30 (taking into account the time it takes to stop for a hand-in, and the time taken to HS to Orgrimmar). I'll need to know whether this is wasting time or not.
- Once in Orgrimmar, I will hand in the Onyxia Head for a further 33K, and then grab a Flight Master's License.
- At this point, I will go straight to MH.
- I will be using a Flying Broom as much as possible, although I have no Traveller's Tundra Mammoth.
- I have some Tuskarr's Vitality on hand in case I ever get new Boots, though subtle, the increase could prove significant.
- In order to save time, I will not be looting, unless it is required.
- I will ensure to be in constant movement, and skip all cut-scenes.
- I have a number of vital consumables on hand, including Swiftness and Swim Speed Potions.
- I was not on the Beta, meaning I'll be going into this somewhat blind, which I'm worried about.
- I will unfortunately be doing this alone, and will not be sleeping or leaving the game until I'm 85. I plan to do it in one fell swoop.
- I've been working out the absolute most efficient way to kill things and Quest recently, so I think I've got that sorted.

Well, those are a few little things anyway. The one thing I was wondering was progression. I plan to go 80-82 in MH, 82-83 in Deepholm, 83-84 in Uldum and 84-85 in Twilight Highlands. I've been wondering what's most efficient here, I've been thinking of going to Deepholm as soon as I reach 82 (and Uldum as soon as I reach 83 and so on), to firstly be one of the first there and secondly for the greater XP reward. I was wondering whether I should actually finish these areas or not before leaving for the next to maximise the XP gain from each, and also whether Uldum can cover 83-85 (as I've read in some places) rather than wasting time and going to Twilight Highlands.

I'd appreciate any feedback. Like I said, this is a useful thread to have.

[klokje]

Do you need to relog to get exp? Anyone know?

[Purge]

Do you need to relog to get exp? Anyone know?

Yes. Your account must be upgraded to Cataclysm.

[lyset]

I was wondering whether I should actually finish these areas or not before leaving for the next to maximise the XP gain from each, and also whether Uldum can cover 83-85 (as I've read in some places) rather than wasting time and going to Twilight Highlands.

I'd appreciate any feedback. Like I said, this is a useful thread to have.

I saved this to my guilds lvling thread, came from a discussion in EJ irc earlier this week.

<somedude> no, but apparently you pretty much will finish uldum/TH before 85, especially now that they increased the exp required for the last level by 40%
<otherdude> somedude did the 40% increase change happen long time or go or after beta went down?
<otherdude> first time I've heared about the 40% extra on last lvl
<lastdude> Right before beta went down they posted about it
<lastdude> and it only effects 84-85
<lastdude> Furor said that if you do nothing but questing, and you hit TH at 84, you'll complete about 95% of the zone before you ding 85
<otherdude> was that a blue or just something he said nonofficially?
<lastdude> Unofficially, in FoH IRC

[Purge]

I saved this to my guilds lvling thread, came from a discussion in EJ irc earlier this week.

<somedude> no, but apparently you pretty much will finish uldum/TH before 85, especially now that they increased the exp required for the last level by 40%
<otherdude> somedude did the 40% increase change happen long time or go or after beta went down?
<otherdude> first time I've heared about the 40% extra on last lvl
<lastdude> Right before beta went down they posted about it
<lastdude> and it only effects 84-85
<lastdude> Furor said that if you do nothing but questing, and you hit TH at 84, you'll complete about 95% of the zone before you ding 85
<otherdude> was that a blue or just something he said nonofficially?
<lastdude> Unofficially, in FoH IRC

So, is it recommended to finish Uldum before heading to Twilight Highlands or is the XP increase too drastic to pass up on that front?

[kennyo7]

So, is it recommended to finish Uldum before heading to Twilight Highlands or is the XP increase too drastic to pass up on that front?

I want to know the answer to that question too, finish the zones or just go to the next one as soon as you hit the appropiate levels (82 for Deepholm, 83 for Uldum and 84 for TH)?

[Koalemos]

I had a simple question. Is the release at 12:00 server time or PST?

[c0rrupt10n]

i had a simple question. Is the release at 12:00 server time or pst?

12:00 est.

[SacredSpenny]

12:00 est.

Its not eastern. Its PST

[Purge]

I want to know the answer to that question too, finish the zones or just go to the next one as soon as you hit the appropiate levels (82 for Deepholm, 83 for Uldum and 84 for TH)?

As it's getting close to that time now, I've decided that I will go to Deepholm as soon as I get to 82, if only to get away from the inevitable crowd who will still be swarming around MH. The others I won't control as much, I'll probably spend a few more minutes in Deepholm at 83, and the same for Uldum at 84. I've read that you need to pretty much do everything there is to do in Twilight Highlands to go 84-85, and getting lost and looking for things to do really isn't part of my agenda, so I'll probably finish Uldum first.