Pushing the Limits: Tips on Attaining Server First Level 85

[Proph]

I'm one of the fortunate people to get a beta key for Cataclysm testing. Perhaps I can give some insight to those who dont have a beta key and are thinking of buying one, or thinking of doing this.

I leveled my ele shamy from 80-85 in roughly 22 hours of solid questing. I'm not including time i spent playing around with inscription, or checking out the new things in the world. 22 hours is with no practice time, just doing the quests and learning them as I went along.

There are 2 starting areas, much like WoTLK. These are Mount Hiyjal and Vashj'ir. Mount Hiyjal will be faster for questers, quest hubs keep you close to where they were given to you at, and are fairly straight forward in what they want you to do. Vashj'ir is a bit more spread out and is actually 3 seperate zones under 1 name. Next comes the mid level zone, Deepholm. This is a 82-84 level zone with ample quests but pretty spread out as far as where things are. Lastly, the 2 end level zone, Uldum and Twilight Highlands. Both have good quest hubs, and are generally good places to grind out that last level or 2 depending on the route you went with first.

When Cata goes live, if you've speant the time and research to be trying for server first with this method you should realistically be able tohit level 85 in about 20 hours of playtime. The reason I am saying this is even though I did it in 22 hours, there was 0 competition for mobs, items, ect. I literally saw 4 people the entire 80-85 questing gring. If somehow you manage to get questing with no crouds and can have everything perfect you can probably see it happen in 17-18 hours.

Mount Hiyjal will more than likely be the most popular leveling area with the speed at which you can go through it, maybe 6 hours of total time if you can be constantly questing un-interupted. Vashj'ir will be less crowed in my opinion, and you can get that complete in probably 7 hours.

IF YOU'RE IN A GUILD OF DECENT SIZE! Remember that you gain guild rep and levels as everyone is questing. You may be able to pick up the BoA helm and Cloak around level 82, barring your guild has nobody on to level it. The helm gives you 10% bonus experience from mobs and quests, and 5% from the cloak. So 15% extra experience from mobs and quests will be the difference between you getting server first or not by 2 hours. You should be going to a capital city, Org, or Stormwind, at level 82 to train new talents to last you to 85 anyways. This will generally be between going from Mount Hiyjal or Vashj'ir to your next area, since that's what gives you the starting quest for the next area anyways.

DEEPHOLM: Very pretty zone, lots of fun if you weren't rushign quests to read the story lines and such, but we can do that with alts later correct. This zone will push you from 82 to 84 if you want, or just 82-83 if it starts to get crowded. Quests aren't bad, fairly easy to manage. Take in mind as you level your 277 raid gear will be crap in this zone, along with Uldum and Twilight Highlands,,, and by crap I seriously mean crap. Mobs are 65-85k health, and hit for 4-5k. Having someone else there to heal you would be great, and make your downtime a lot less. In all reality you can get this zone done in 6 hours, 8 if you want to push to 84.

This leaves you with one of the last two zones. Uldum and Twilight Highlands....

ULDUM: Currently there is a bug preventing the full completion of some quest liens, but overall it's a good zone, quest hubs keep you clsoe to where you need to go, and it's not an overly hard zone. You can grind out the last level and a half here in about 5 hours.
TWILIGHT HIGHLANDS: Very good quest hubs that keep you close to where you need to be for the most part, and quests aren't that difficult. Again, 5 hours for the last level and a half if you chose here.

I will not be going for server or class first, my job prevents that and I like to sleep. However, I more than likely will still be in the top 15 to 20 on my server to hit 85. The zones that I will personally be going through will be Mount Hiyjal, Deepholm, Uldum. 80-82 in MH, 82-83 in Deepholm (will only run a little more than half of these quests to beat crown to Uldum), and 83-85 in Uldum.

One thing people aren't taking into consideration that I've noticed yet. 5-man Instances. If you think you will be server first by doing this you are greatly mistaken. 1; you need to find the instance entrances to be able to go into them. 2; there are gear level requirements on all but the starting 2. You need an average item level of 311 to run the mid level and upper level instances, leaving the Vashj'ir dungeon, and the the Blackrock dungeon the only 2 you can enter to start with.

Hopefully this helps out people considering running for a place among the top levelers on their given server. Good Luck!

---------- Post added at 01:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:02 PM ----------

Nice job. Some of these have been added to my list. They will surely help me out.

Some additions you may want to add to your guide:

General:
- You should NOT visit your trainer. The abilities learnable are not worth the time you will lose for doing so. At least what I have seen by now, can't say this for all classes, but in general it is not worth the effort.

For those without access to the beta:
- If you are ICC25+ geared, don't even look at the quest rewards in Hyjal and Vashj'ir. You are not going to need them. The only exceptions are the 2 or 3 boss quests which will get you blue 28x items. These are worth checking.
- Use your map! The built in quest markers will do the job in 95% of the cases.

I just wanted to comment on this post. First thing about visiting the trainer. You will be going from a starting zone back to a main city to go to the next zone. This will be at level 82, when a new skill will be trainable that is worth getting so take the extra 2 minutes while you're there to go to your trainer. You should be going back at level 82 to also get the BoA helm and cloak that give you 10% and 5% respectively to experience gained from killing mobs and turning in quests. That 5 minutes you speant in your capital city at level 82 just shaved 2-3 hours off the top of what it would have taken you without them, so again, why not take 2 minutes to get that extra skill that will probably help you?

Second: Your ICC ilvl 277 gear will be outdated and crap by level 82, and quest reward greens from level 82-83 quests are going to be better, and any quest or instance blue. The ammount of stat contribution from hit, haste, crit on caster gear takes a significant decrease as you level. 1582 haste at level 85 is 9%, where it was 45% in WoTLK. Likewise your 289 hit rating the most casters have for raiding atm will also be crap. You'll be able to at least hit mobs your level though, but boss mobs, and mobs that are higher level than you may pose a problem if you dont update your gear. Crit also gets crapped on. At level 83 I had 12% crit in my old raid gear that used to net 43%. So Yes, there will be quest items that are better than your 277 raid gear from quests in Mount Hiyjal and Vashj'ir. The last quests in MH and Vashj'ir are considered to be level 82 items, ilvl 280, and have better itemized stats for you. Your raid gear isn't itemized for Cataclysm unfortunately.

Last: The built in Bliz quest tracker has been good with every zone I've quested in on Beta, in case you dont have another Addon for that. If you're wondering about a quest, look at the map, click the little box at the bottom that says 'show quest objectives' and that will show you the area you need to be in. You can also ask in general, since when things go live you should probably have hunderds of people in the zone questing, maybe someoen knows the answer that was in the beta and can answer it for you. Obviously that wont work if you're in Uldum 15 hours hours after release and nobody else is there.

---------- Post added at 01:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:17 PM ----------

Half of this is not even needed. I got server first in 3 days. If your at all decent at the game and can stay awake 3 days without sleep ... I actually slept for 3 hours on the 2nd day. It's very easy... just stay awake.. don't need all these extra people.

You should see a server first in the for 20-22 hours of the expansion once it goes live if they do this. If you're soloing this and intend on not sleeping for 3 days go for it. But 3 days you wont even see class first the way it is right now.

---------- Post added at 01:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:19 PM ----------

Great guide.

I've been in beta since F&F alpha, and me and my friends are going to race to 85. We are playing horde on a rather crowded server (listed as 'High' in realm list), with the horde:alliance ratio of about 7:1.

We have a five man group consisting of the following:
Tank Warrior
Healer Paladin
Caster DPS+Offhealer Shaman
Caster DPS Warlock
Melee DPS Rogue


What we're going to do at launch:
1. Park characters in dalaran/orgrimmar
2. Log in, put talent points in
3. Train new spells/skills+The flying mount skill that lets you fly in Azeroth
4. Train profession skills
5. Use one of our Direbrew's Remotes to teleport to BRD
6. Run Blackrock Caverns (five man normal dungeon, like the Nexus in wotlk) to level 82 (this takes around 10-12 hours if our calculations are correct)
7. Start questing, skipping Vashir and Hyjal (wich will be incredibly crowded).

IF YOU ARE GOING TO LEVEL JEWELCRAFTING AS HORDE.....!!!!! The only trainer is in Silvermoon. Log off there the night before release. All others are main city. Can't speak for alliance on JC.

Paly's are still better at tanking in Cata ATMm, Warriors or DKs will also do, Druid not so much until 85 heroics and raids. Priests are seriously OP'd for instance healing, followed by druid/shamy which I consider equal from what I've seen, and then Paly,, yeah, paly's are the worst instance healers in Cata but still good in raids. Obviously if you're from a high end raiding guild and have skilled healers, tanks, and dps you can go instance with anything really. Just in case anyone was wondering about those other classes to bring. Ele Shamy are good jonny on the spot healers, I've healed for a group as elemental in ele gear on a boss when a healer dropped, so hard 5 man content you'll be able to heal easier with a ele shamy. Rogues are actually good in Cata for DPS, they suck at raid dps in WoTLK live right now. Mages and locks are always be good choices with pets, cooldowns, and agro wipes. Warrior dps is average and DKs a little above average. But like I said, if you're from a good raiding guild and have skilled dps of any kind they're generally going to be better than average.

[Blizzhaxer]

The Heirloom items are at level 10(cloak) and 20(head) of the guild I don't think guild's will be leveling that fast to get you the items in time for a server first.

[spooner12]

On launch day I was thinking of leveling up to 82 by chain-running WotLK heroics with a couple of friends, in order to skip the masses that will be flooding the starting zones.
I'm DPS and we have a Tank and Healer, so we should get instant queues.

Do you guys think this is a viable way to quickly get to level 82?

[Omnia]

This is exactly what i was looking for, except i plan to do it solo with good old fashion no sleep.

+rep

[Proph]

If anyone forgot or didn't read the memo. Bliz will go live with Cata at 3AM eastern time with this expansion instead of 12 PM.. (East Coast was able to buy the midnight release before the rest of the country). If you are on the east coast and expecting to level 'without sleep'. Instead of not sleeping, go to bed early monday, and set an alarm for 2:30 AM tuesday. That way you'll be more fresh than the west coasters who will have to pull an all nighter against east coasters who can just go to sleep early the night before and at least have some sleep.

---------- Post added at 11:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:53 PM ----------

On launch day I was thinking of leveling up to 82 by chain-running WotLK heroics with a couple of friends, in order to skip the masses that will be flooding the starting zones.
I'm DPS and we have a Tank and Healer, so we should get instant queues.

Do you guys think this is a viable way to quickly get to level 82?

I would just do an entry level Cata dungeon instead. You will be able to pick up level 81 and 82 blues that you will need in order to get the average item level requirements for upper level dungeaons and heroics.

---------- Post added at 11:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:55 PM ----------

The Heirloom items are at level 10(cloak) and 20(head) of the guild I don't think guild's will be leveling that fast to get you the items in time for a server first.

If you have a good sized guild that's decent sized you'll have a good chance at hitting at least level 10 by the time you're level 82. Obviously if you have a non active guild, or one where people dont log on to level fast you'll probably have a problem. Even if you can't get the cloak until level 83 it's still worth getting.

[Livewire]

Very nicly written guide, will be applying the health section to myself and the team I'm lvling with :P

One thing you should add to the guide tho is that Survivor - Eye of the Tiger should be playing 100% of the time to keep you on the edge! :P

[Bazra]

I'd never even thought about going for server first until I read the bit about green tea. I drink 5-6 cups of it a day, and been doing so for a number of years now - so basically, it's in the bag.

+Rep for the great guide, and respect to you UnholyShaman from a fellow Saffer here (CPT as well)

[Unholyshaman]

from a fellow Saffer here (CPT as well)

Hehe cool, not many of us here.

[yamidante]

Cool guide +rep, im not going for realm first but there are still nice prepping tips just for normal leveling, ill definately be using the learn all spells macro and auto hand in and auto accept quest macro.

OT now.

Don't get drunk / high - It's pretty obvious but I'm saying it for the sake of saying it, don't drink alcohol, don't smoke weed, don't take drugs (EVER - ok well moderate alcohol is fine for every day life ^.^ but yeah especially during this leveling session stay away from that stuff.)[/color]

I dont understand how something that gives you liver cancer is okay to moderately take rather than something that prevents cancer.

[Unholyshaman]

I dont understand how something that gives you liver cancer is okay to moderately take rather than something that prevents cancer.

Healthblog | People who drink moderate amounts of alcohol and are physically active have a lesser risk of heart disease

Science Oxford Online » Blog Archive » *The secret to a long life:* Staying active and drinking moderately

Light and moderate physical activity reduces the risk of early death, study finds

Alcohol + Exercise Improves Heart Health - Heartzine - the Heart Magazine

People who drink moderate amounts of alcohol and are physically active have a lower risk of death from heart disease and other causes than people who don’t drink at all, according to new research. People who neither drink alcohol nor exercise have a 30-49 per cent higher risk of heart disease than those who either drink, exercise or both.

The research, which was published in the European Heart Journal [1] today (Wednesday 9 January), is the first to look at the combined influence of leisure-time physical activity and weekly alcohol intake on the risk of fatal ischaemic heart disease (a form of heart disease characterised by a reduced blood supply to the heart) and deaths from all causes.

Between 1981-1983 Danish researchers obtained information on various health-related issues (including exercise and alcohol intake) from 11,914 Danish men and women aged 20 or older, who were taking part in the larger, Copenhagen City Heart Study.

During approximately 20 years of follow-up there were 1,242 cases of fatal ischaemic heart disease (IHD) and 5,901 deaths from all causes among the study participants.

Professor Morten Grønbæk, Director of Research of the National Institute of Public Health at the University of Southern Denmark in Copenhagen, and Professor Berit Heitmann, Director for Research of the Institute of Preventive Medicine at Copenhagen University Hospitals, supervised the research. Prof Grønbæk said: “Our study shows that being both physically active and drinking a moderate amount of alcohol is important for lowering the risk of both fatal IHD and death from all causes. For both men and women, being physically active was associated with a significantly lower risk for both fatal IHD and all-cause mortality than being physically inactive; and drinking alcohol was associated with a lower risk of fatal IHD than abstaining. A weekly moderate alcohol intake reduced the risk of all-cause mortality among both men and women, whereas the risk among heavy drinkers was similar to non-drinkers.”

The lead author of the study, Jane Østergaard Pedersen, a research assistant at the National Institute of Public Health, said: “An important finding from our research for people who have reasons for alcohol abstention such as religious beliefs, previous alcoholism or pregnancy, is that physical activity can reverse some of the adverse health effects associated with alcohol abstention. People who did not drink but whose physical activity was moderate or high, had a lower risk of IHD than the inactive non-drinkers.”

Physical activity was divided into three categories:

1. physically inactive (less than two hours of light physical activity a week such as reading, watching television, going to the cinema);

2. low level of activity – light physical activity for two to four hours a week (walking, cycling, light gardening, light physical exercise);

3. moderate to high level of physical activity – light physical activity for more than four hours a week or more vigorous activity for two to four hours a week (brisk walking, fast cycling, heavy gardening, sports that cause perspiration or exhaustion), or vigorous physical activity for more than four hours a week, regular heavy exercise, or competitive sports
several times a week.

Alcohol intake was classified according to people’s reported total weekly intake, with one drink corresponding to one bottle of beer, one glass of wine and one unit of spirits. Non-drinkers consumed less than one drink a week, moderate drinkers had between 1-14 drinks a week, and heavy drinkers drank 15 or more a week.

Within each level of physical activity, non-drinkers had a 30-31 per cent higher risk of IHD compared to moderate drinkers. However, non-drinkers who had a moderate or high level of physical activity had a reduced risk of IHD of 31 and 33 per cent respectively compared to physically inactive non-drinkers. People who drank at least one drink a week and were physically active had a 44-50 per cent lower risk of IHD compared to physically inactive non-drinkers.

When looking at deaths from all causes (including IHD) the researchers found that within each category of weekly alcohol intake, the physically inactive had the highest risk of death and within each level of physical activity the moderate drinkers had the lowest risk of death from all causes.

Compared with physically inactive non-drinkers, being physically active as associated with a 23 per lower risk of deaths from all causes, and being physically active and drinking at least one drink a week was associated with 12-33 per cent lower risk of death.
Ms Østergaard Pedersen said: “The lowest risk of death from all causes was observed among the physically active moderate drinkers and the highest risk among the physically inactive non- and heavy drinkers.”
She concluded: “Neither physical activity alone nor alcohol intake can completely reverse the increased risk associated with alcohol abstention and lack of physical activity. Thus, both moderate to high levels of physical activity and a moderate alcohol intake are important for lowering the risk of fatal IHD and deaths from all causes.”

Sup?

Either way, glad you guys enjoyed the guide. Unfortunately I have not had time to update the original post as promised yet.

[Taylor123123]

What do you recommend if we haven't had access to beta?

[Luyk3n]

Nice I liked the macros and the tips

[Blizzhaxer]

The Sell all grey items Macro doesn't work for me.

[Unholyshaman]

The Sell all grey items Macro doesn't work for me.

There are plenty of addons out there that replace the sell all grey items macro. Just do a quick search on Google and you will find them

[Titan33]

Another little tip if doing this solo.

Take a 1-2 day break just before cata launch. Make sure everything is prepared. Then log out and don't log in until launch this will leave you feeling refreshed and ready togo. Nothing worse than lvling a char when you are feeling drained.