Wouldn't it make sense to quest to 80, then heroic instances at 80?...
First normal guy!Also, do solo quests then do the heroic versions. That way you experience it but don't miss out on anything (much).
Same here.I hit level 75 after turning in my last quest in Howling Fjord today. Completed every quest in Borean Tundra last week.Yup, that means I'll be hitting Utgarde Keep for the first time at level 75. =/The WotLK content is awesome so far, it's just a little sad to level so quickly. Soloing "Suggested Players " quests? No problem.I kinda miss the feeling of entering Westfall at level 10 and finding it hard for the first 2-3 levels. Now, I could skip to Zul'Drak or Sholazar directly to spice things up -- the thing is I want to do the content in the order it was intended to be done :(</rant>
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I find myself with a similar problem at times, but I find a lot of instance quest rewards beat the quest items a bit, so I tend to explore a bit. I also know what you mean by being overwhelmed by a lot of the greatness that is Northrend content, although a lot of people complain about it. So far my only complaint is my poor birdy is just now getting some air time now that I've hit 77!My technique usually is just to focus on one chain at a time. Complete quests in one area first, instead of doing the ones you find whilst finishing another, in other words, quest in sections! Then, once all is said and done, start your engines up for some instance time!But, that is just what I usually do. :) Allows me to explore most the aspects and focus on what storyline is going on at that area, instead of mixing it with 20 other stories.
Answer: attempt a solo of the instances.
Level out of the instances, then do the instances anyway. I worked on the philosophy of completing an area totally, then doing any dungeon quests I picked up. I got to 80 almost entirely in 5 zones, only requiring a small number of quests in Sholazar to finish up.The "Doing absolutely everything in an area" thing has worked to my advantage, I've found. You're left with so many quests at 80 that you can complete 1) at your own pace, and 2) purely for cash, lore and achievements, without having to quest in level 71 areas for said achievements, is quite a good feeling. Besides which, the writing of these quests is superb, especially the Forsaken lines in search of the new Blight.If I hadn't gone for 100% completion of quest areas, I never would've discovered "The Lorehammer". That item made my day.
Do the instances appropriate for your level, regardless of the zone you are in. I did Howling Fjord - Dragonblight - Zul'Drak - Sholazar Basin - Icecrown. About half of the zones. Yet, I was doing both Utgard and Nexus while I was in the Fjord, both Drak'tharon Keep and Old Kingdom while in Zul'Drak. Yes, I didn't have the quests for some of those instances (although most are stand-alone), but I did the instances nonetheless. Now I am running Heroics, and finishing the zones I haven't done at all - feeling pretty excited about Storm Peaks.
Actually, I'm pretty much the same way. I like to complete a game fully when I play it. When I play an RPG with optional side-quests and secrets, I do all of them. The same goes for adventure games from the old point and click to newer FPS ones. I always played on the hardest difficulty in a game to beat it the best way possible. I am never content with a game until I've beat and unlocked everything, and this is something I inherited from playing RPGs, strategy games and most other 1990s games that allowed you to fully complete them.During the era of WoW, I've played a lot less games than I've liked to, and I've spent a lot more time ingame than I'd like to. I'm exalted everywhere, and achievement hunting is what keeps me going at the moment. I do enjoy it, but it might be a sort of bad addiction from another point of view.What I personally did during the 70-80 run was to just focus on doing all the quests. At 80, I'd still earn a lot of gold on the remaining quests (which I've done away with now). I jumped straight into heroics. The heroics aren't as hard as the ones that we had at 70. I'm not sure how I'll put this right, but I look at heroics as some sort of normal+ instances. They're the same, but the heroic ones have more, thus beating heroics means I beat the normal ones too.You should just give up the thought of doing everything, since you know that will never happen. Focus on doing everything that you feel is possible, like all the heroic achievements. It's not like you can ever get the 25-man achievements if you don't have time to play in a 25-man guild, I mean. You just have to take the game for what it is, an incredibly large MMORPG. Even those that aren't as large as WoW are almost impossible to complete.
i think the ruin of the game are not bad player (which can be reaaaaally annoying) but the hardcore player.the deserve all of their life to wow, and play nonstop. there is no challenge against them.once realized it, you can play for FUN. play relaxed, its a game. an awesome game. i like the quests and the new zones, istances are totally fun. yeah, its a little easier, but if i can play with friends, its all right. im chasing loremaster title now, and its very fun to do heroics and 10-man raids. also in my servers there are "obsidian slayers" and "conquerors of naxxramas" but i treat them like they deserve. as posers.im not saying that they are bad players, but i dont need to feel inferior to them just because of a title. and for diablo 2....i played it like 8 years^^ that one was obsessive^^i had at 99 every class. and i was pround of everyone^^
I feel the same way! I just want to do everything there is... and there's obviously lots to do. So I just keep telling myself "there's time" as I sneakily complete an achievement here and there along the way :)As for instances, I wasn't bothered much by skipping them on normal, as there are more than enough quests to get to 80 and then some! Besides, I'm farming the life out of the heroics at the moment... so I can't really say I'm missing out on anything.
I quest all the time and avoid instances, just remember this:Quests give gold.Instances cost gold.I worked out that if you quest your way from 70 to 80 you will receive nigh on 4k gold for your efforts.I will attempt to do ALL quests in a zone, simply because it gives me the most XP for the next zone/level. That way i don't get to level 79 and find out ive done all the zones...plus the achievements are nice :)
Since you want to do every quest available, like me, then I'll say this. Aim for the Northrend Loremaster Achievement (or something like that). Then just go back and do the instances at Heroic, that will still give you a challenge.In fact, it is better to do it that way because once you hit 80, there are additional instance quests that will unlock for you (which I only discovered yesterday). In other words, do it in Heroic and you finish a lot of instance quests and get achievements as well. Of course, there are 80-instance quests that won't be available until you finish the pre-requisites, just do those in Heroic as well.Besides, better drop in Heroic ;) If looking for a group takes longer (to the point that it's a waste of time already) then do normal. Those who are still new to Northrend will very much appreciate your 80'ish presence ;) This time, you earn friends.Best way, all factors and benefits considered - get the Lore achievement for Northrend which will make you 80 for sure, then do the Instances, one-by-one. Win-win.
Well... personally, I started in the Howling Fjord, doing the solo quests normally until they led me to the Utgarde Keep quests. Then I continued my soloing until at least one of those turned green. That's when I did the instance. I repeated the process for the other instances. I think it gave me a good feel of when the instance was becoming too easy for enjoyment, yet gave me enough of a warning that I have time to continue soloing a bit while I find a group. I ended up dinging 80 in Zul'Drak, having never set foot in the higher-level zones, completing most of the quests in all the others, and experiencing the instances too.All in all, I'd say I managed to keep my perfectionist tendencies satisfied throughout Wrath. Plus, I now have plenty of quests to make money out of in the leftover zones.
I don't really consider it a problem, because i'm not that particular about doing the content at the level it is planned for. Be it only because entering the first zone (wether Tundra or Fjord) as a previously raiding character with T5-T6 content items or better makes it all trivial anyway. I will do it all, i will try to do as much logically (ie when it is right to be there) but i know that some of the content i'll do when it's trivial for me. That's how the game is designed so no point for me to be irritated about it.What I'll do is start a zone and then continue the progression logically (ie finish all the quest of that zone and then go on to the next zone the quests bring me too) and do instance when i have quests for them (or a group i'm in is going there, for example i did Nexus and the group decided to do Utgarde Keep afterwards). Starting with Tundra (i finished all quests yesterday), i will then go on to Dragonblight and Zul'Drak and so on, and I'll simply go back to Fjord and Hills after being 80 (to do all quests, explore, and so on). However i'm going to have to pass on instances that nobody wants to do. I'll jump on opportunities but i don't intend to stay for hours in the lfg channel just to do that instance at that level. In the worst case i'll see it in heroic mode at lvl 80 anyway.Doing Fjord at 80 is much less of a bother anyway than doing all the Azeroth quests i'll still need to do for the Loremaster achievement (something like 200 for Azeroth and 400 for kalimdor, gah :/).
What I have noticed, and I learned this the hard way, is that Blizzard intended for players to level in a linearly progressive fashion. I realized this when I started to gather dungeon quests for Drak'Tharon Keep. One of the most intriguing quest lines involved going undercover against a special troll, an undead troll serving the Lich King himself.Little did I know there was a whole other quest line involving the troll before he was a servant of the Lich King. Combined, the two quest lines actually form an achievement. The trick is that while the second quest line is done in Zul'drak, the precursor is started in Grizzly Hills—a place I skipped because I completed all of the Borean Tundra & half of the Fjord bringing me to 74 early on.