World of Warcraft: Legion (7.3.5 edition)

Ok I’m back in, going to try to take a monk up from scratch. Sent a request for a guild invite. So fun to be back!

Medmey wrote:
mindset.threat wrote:

Are there any dungeons that give rep for The Wardens? I'm getting close to having the requirements for flying but Wardens rep is still like 7k down.

It is just grinding daily WQs and making sure you complete the Wardens and Kir Tor Emissary caches to get the bonus Warden rep token.

If there is a world quest for a dungeon it may be issued by the Wardens, however that is only about 75 rep.

By this point, folks have completely outgeared heroic content. Unless you have terrible luck, your group will plow through a heroic in about 10-15 mins. If you're DPS, you'll probably wait in the LFR lobby longer than it takes to do the actual run.

Thanks for that. I've run 3 different random dungeons. One with a cthulu and 20,000 Leagues hybrid boss fight and water slides and the others were just as cool but I was playing catch up too much of the time to notice anything specific about the encounters other than I was surprised to actually be doing credible damage spamming my aoe. The runs couldn't have taken more than 10 minutes.
So the next newb question is raids? Are they as easy to get into as the dungeons are? My item level is 867. Is that good enough? And what about mythic dungeons?

LFR can take a little time to wait out the queue if you're DPS. As a healer, it's about 5-10 mins on the weekends for me. No idea what DPS is other than longer.

Someone on Reddit put together a handy chart of the iLvl of the drops in various instances and raids. Based on that, your current iLvl is probably fine for LFR Emerald Nightmare, Trial of Valor and Nighthold.

Mythics will be a harder nut to track because you're essentially applying to a group (or trying to start your own), and everyone seems to want folks who are well over 900, even for regular Mythics. But try to join a group and see. You might get lucky.

If you'd rather grind out gear, keep your eyes open for WQs, and grind out shards in Argus for i910 gear. The more stuff you kill, the better the chance of getting i880 tokens. Getting your max two leggos will boost your iLvl, too. You can buy them now -- that's your reward for grinding out dungeons and raids.

Garrcia wrote:

If there is a world quest for a dungeon it may be issued by the Wardens, however that is only about 75 rep.

A lot of the Wardens WQs are in blue, which means they're worth 250 pts. DMF is this week, so that's +10% on top of that. And make sure you do the rep quests in your class order hall. With a little luck, you'll get the max level token, which are 1500 for most factions (750 for Nightfallen and the two Argus ones, I think).

Remember: It's World of Grinding. That element of gameplay has not changed.

Once per week you can do a greater invasion point on Argus. You have a chance at a 930 item (coinable) so theres a chance at a nice piece of gear there as well

Just zone in, find a group with the group finder. they are over in a blink of an eye .

Lol I ran the non-heroic water slide dungeon on my now 103 BE DH as the "tank". (leveling is so slow) . I had done that dungeon once before so I sort of knew what we were skipping. I did lag a little on some pulls as I figured it was better to err on the cautious side but we pretty much blew through all the fights. There was one close call but I can self heal pretty well and I can always metamorph and tag all of my defensive cool downs.

My BE DH also just reached honored with Highmountain Tauren. (whew only 30K rep to go and I don't even want to play one all that much)

My rogue also found a piece of gear with +500 leach on it and it makes things so much better.

My DH is now 106 and a third. I moved on to the "V" area faction with Malfurion. Ran into an imp invasion that seems endless and for an aoe guy like me it seems pretty fruitful for XP. I really wish I had more to do other than world quests for Highmountain since I have been stuck at honored for 1/2 a day. But I really want to get my DH to 110. So I am leveling and leveling and hey I did the Violet Hold or whatever and that was pretty fun. I queued as a dps but was specced as tank but I felt I was more of an off tank. There are a lot of aoe fights so I didn't feel like I was gimping the dps. It is a pretty neat idea for a dungeon and i wish they will do more structured like that where it is essentially waves in a "horde" mode.

So should leveling from 100-110 take less than 20 hours? I realize trying to level up 1-110 is just way to slow so I’m probably going to boost my warlock this weekend. I’m just trying to budget my time with other games like the Civ 6 expansion.

I will have to check my /played time on my DH. For the DH 98-102 (the intro quests) was quick. Probably only a few hours. 102 to 106.5 has been more erratic based on the ability to double up quests with world quests and invasions. I would guess I'm at about 15 hours with maybe an hour wasted on indecision, mistakes and discovery. So it probably will be in the 20-25 range, or less if you have heirlooms/bonuses.
FWIW I find the grind goes away when I am able to quest and complete invasions. So even if it doesn't give that much of a time boost, it feels much faster. If I just quest or do world quests or invasions, then it really slogs to the point that class choice is the key to less frustration.
If you want you can try to follow my current scattered situation:
--------------
It is preferred to have a horde and an alliance to do grind rep for the allied races
I am playing my boosted rogue for NIghtborne and Void elf
I am playing my DH for fun and the ability to solo more content
I am playing my DH for HIghmountain rep
Rogue is not a character to boost to 110 unless you have stocked up gear (not prepared/geared for Argus)
Subtlety is the spec to use for less headaches. Healing on stealth and vanish helps with so many situations.
I'd wager the same goes for most melee dps specs
Arms warrior is more survivable than rogue but is nowhere near as sturdy as tank DH (get to 102 to try other specs)
I am curious about hunter survivability across the specs. How much will a tank pet help on a boosted character.
I am curious about the monk tank and dps specs. The melee dps has a strong self heal but everything not tank and not well geared gets chewed up in Argus.
I have seen a lot of shadow priests running around and doing well in Argus. I have no clue about other cloth wearers.
I have only played a prot pally to 25ish and I'd wager they will own on Argus.

fangblackbone wrote:

I am curious about hunter survivability across the specs. How much will a tank pet help on a boosted character.

I have only played a prot pally to 25ish and I'd wager they will own on Argus.

For hunters BM is hands down the easiest way to solo. Your pet does the best at keeping large packs off the hunter. The other 2 specs your pet has very low survive-ability so larger pack pulls can cause you more trouble.

For Prot Pally you kill slower but usually never an issue. Good aoe damage and self heals.

The last character I leveled to 110 from 100 took around 10-12 hours, was a shadow priest. Skipping a lot of the side quests and doing the main story and invasions should be fastest. Class and spec may make this number faster or slower. Also if you have any heirloom gear buffed to 110 that would speed it up some too, as would flying if you have it unlocked. If no flying then it might be closer to 20 hours.

@Medmey - Just curious if that was before 7.3.5 or after? To unlock flying it is just a gold sink right?
The funny thing is I am curious about druids too but I would feel so guilty playing another one with my abandoned old main @60. I also feel bad about my 67 DK, who I love but egads I can't play until the XP rate normalizes itself. (Blizz will have to do something once players start leveling allied races en masse or when they get bored with them)
I am not saying they need to go back to pre-7.3.5 levels but they really quintuple nerfed leveling speed: monsters harder to kill and more hit points - I love this
increased the xp needed to level - never a good idea because something has to be a constant that you can gauge everything else to
nerfed dungeon and quest xp - whether I like this or not, (I don't) doing 20 quests to get 1/3 of a level absolutely sucks and doing 20-30 dungeons to level sucks
dungeon power leveling - needed to be nerfed enough to be closer to questing but not so much that it stops
(side note: I am having a lot of fun obviously. I haven't been this hooked to anything in a long while)

I last played on Argus but before the Raid opened so that should be 7.3. Unlocking flying is a time sink. It requires rep, quest achievements and uncovering each zone achievements. Gated heavily behind Suramar rep and quest story. Legion Pathfinder 1 and 2 achievements..

Based on what you said then about current xp gains my experience no longer is valid.

fangblackbone wrote:

I am curious about the monk tank and dps specs. The melee dps has a strong self heal but everything not tank and not well geared gets chewed up in Argus.

The Healing Elixir talent is a pretty strong self-heal regardless of spec. The basic heal that DPS Monks get is a little light for in-combat use, but it's great for topping up between fights. Paralyses will CC anything that can be CC'd. Windwalkers also have Touch of Karma, which redirects incoming damage to the targeted enemy and with Artifact traits will also heal you for the amount redirected. It's a pretty potent survival cooldown that also helps end the fights quicker. All in all I'd say DPS Monks are pretty darn survivable once you know what you're doing.

For general questing with mediocre gear the DPS spec felt more survivable than the Tank spec when I was doing it. DPS has good defensive cooldowns and can usually end the fight before they really run out. When I'd try soloing in Brewmaster fights would take long enough that the Staggered damage would catch up to me. They have since rebalaced the spec though, so I'm not sure how things play now. Stagger now clears itself when combat ends, so that'll help a good bit. Other than that, all I know is my raid-geared butt doesn't really die. Ever once in a while I'll pull a weekly world boss and just tank it until people come along to DPS it down.

Well what I'm finding with melee dps on Argus right now is problems with attrition. You can kill the first monster and the second and might squeak out the third but eventually if you have no escape, your dead. The monster density is very high, the monster paths are intersecting and the respawn rates are pretty quick.
The only real places to rest and wait for cooldowns are outposts. (that also are embattled quite frequently)

Yeah, you really have to be careful how you engage on Argus. When the developers were asked about it their response was "this is the final end-game area. It's supposed to be challenging."

Which makes me wonder why they're funneling newly boosted characters there, but I guess that's just a side-effect of the way they had to lead the existing players to the new content. Once BFA drops and they put in a proper tutorial/intro for boosted 110 characters things should work better. Not that that helps anyone now.

Agreed. And again don't get me wrong. I really like Argus (and most of Broken Isles) even on my rogue now that I've meshed with a spec and have some moderate improvements to gear.

Some numbers from my DH who is now 108.8

@105 or 106 the xp to level was 693K
The next level was 699K to level so the curve is flat.
Quest XP rewards top out at 15.9K
Dungeon quest reward was 100-120K (one time only)
Invasion quest rewards 64K
Time to level with no rest XP or heirlooms is 2 hours (so about 20 hours 100-110)
Invasion quests you can complete all in an hour and will net you a level
My gear score is ~760 at 108.8, there is no way I am going to have 870 gear by 110 which is the stock stuff boosted characters get.
I get the feeling the gear ramp up will be quicker and easier with my DH though.

Vargen wrote:

Yeah, you really have to be careful how you engage on Argus. When the developers were asked about it their response was "this is the final end-game area. It's supposed to be challenging."

Which makes me wonder why they're funneling newly boosted characters there, but I guess that's just a side-effect of the way they had to lead the existing players to the new content. Once BFA drops and they put in a proper tutorial/intro for boosted 110 characters things should work better. Not that that helps anyone now.

If you've played a spec for 5 mins and decide to pull half of a zone, you deserve the corpse walk and the repair bill. That's how it should be.

Even at close to 940 on my ret pal I have to pick my way through some of the areas where there are multiple 110+s running lurking around. It's easy to get overrun. Bubble/hearth FTW

Woot! Finally 110 with my DH. I was given the Suramar quest line and Argus quest line intros right as I dinged. I have putzed around for 20 minutes in Suramar so taking that into account I dinged from 98-110 in 19h 30m.
The Suramar intro cinematic is tragic and pretty awesome! It makes me wonder why the WoW movie fell so flat and lacked setup when Blizzard seems really good at narrated origin stories.
I have yet to equip/use some gifts for hitting 110 but right now my gear score is 790-800, nowhere close to the 870 stuff on boosted characters.
I do have to get my elven butt to Argus to get those sweet 6 billion artifact power drops

Blizzard is great at doing short cinematics that hint at a larger world, give some good character beats, and inspire the audience's imagination. That kind of skill doesn't necessarily transfer to a full-length movie where you have to tell an entire story. Then again, I haven't seen the Warcraft movie yet so I'm just speculating here.

Do the Suramar quest line if you like stories. It's a pretty good one.

If you want your class armor set, you'll have to get exalted with the Nightfallen, and the quest line will get you there.

Lots of AP on the journey, too.

Loving the DH. Lovin the Suramar questing.
Saved up to get a Fel relic from the vendor for my Rogue, makes a big difference
My DH is lower gear score (slightly over 800) but my weapon item level is higher and close to 900 (rogue is now 860+ thankfully)
I'm using my Rogue to get Argussian Reach and Army of Light
I'm using my DH for Nightfallen and Highmountain (stalled)
I'm tempted to buy some heirlooms but then again I don't want to be tempted to play lowb alts before I unlock an allied race or two.

1. Keep in mind I don't think Blizzard actually had full creative control of that movie.

2. Leveling from 100-110 can be sped up pretty dramatically by Legion invasions if you have flying unlocked. Those 6 (or 7, I can't remember for certain) WQs, usually half of which are just rare elites, are usually a full level's worth of experience for about 20-30 minutes of work.

Yep. So far I have lvled 5 alts purely by doing legion invasions from time to time. And before that they were lvled by doing the legion pre-event invasions. They truly owe everything to the Legion.

Shadout wrote:

Yep. So far I have lvled 5 alts purely by doing legion invasions from time to time. And before that they were lvled by doing the legion pre-event invasions. They truly owe everything to the Legion.

Huh. I need to look into that. I've got a bunch of alts I'd like to get to 110 before the expansion drops.

I never thought to do them before because you don't get nethershards (for Legionfall rep and class mounts) if you're not 110. Recalculating ...

Enix wrote:
Shadout wrote:

Yep. So far I have lvled 5 alts purely by doing legion invasions from time to time. And before that they were lvled by doing the legion pre-event invasions. They truly owe everything to the Legion.

Huh. I need to look into that. I've got a bunch of alts I'd like to get to 110 before the expansion drops.

I never thought to do them before because you don't get nethershards (for Legionfall rep and class mounts) if you're not 110. Recalculating ...

If you have a bunch of rested alts, it usually is about a level per full invasion worth of WQs. It's how I got a few my less played classes to 110 so I could start prepping for Mage Towers.

So I stocked up on my Heirlooms. I got a lot of classes covered and they are upgraded to level 90. I was so nervous that Blizzard was going to make us upgrade each individual item once created rather than letting us upgrade the unlock in the collections. (thank you Blizzard for not being dicks)
I've unlocked:
1h sword for DK (or warrior)
Staff for hunter (druid?)
Staff for casters
Shield for prot pally (or warrior)
Cloth shoulder, chest
Leather shoulder, chest
Mail shoulder, chest
Plate shoulder, chest

So the benefit of Guild heirlooms is that they are the only available helm, cloak, and pants?
Also I thought nethershards could be traded in to Kirin Tor Emissaries for something that provides rep?

there is an Heirloom hunter spear you can get from Highmountain tied to the weekly archeology quest picked up in Dalaran in building next to forge. random when the quest is available.

This heirloom weapon is rewarded from a weekly Archaeology quest given by Dariness the Learned, "History of Highmountain", leading to "Surveying Student" and "Misdirected".

What level do I have to be to get Assault on Aszuna invasion quest? I just did 4 invasion WQs and realized I didn't have the quest and can't progress any further. Level 108 shaman if that means anything.

Edit: nevermind, the quest is 110.

The Suramar quest line is really very good. I have completed Good Suramaritan and am pleased that there are more quests to get my so close to Exalted. I'm about 17K rep away from newb vampelf.
A couple of things bum me out though:
I wish they would put the same effort into areas that grant XP.
The gear I am getting is vendor trash.
As above the only progression is gold for heirlooms and rep for Allied Race.
Just questing in Suramar nets 6K gold in a couple of hours.
Rep gain is still slow but faster and less frustrating from questing.
Use a DH if you've never done Suramar. The gliding is invaluable for getting around and away.
My rogue is a beast now... 1.1 million finishers never get old.
My DH is beastier. The later tier tank talent (spirit bomb?) hits for 600k to a group.

Ugh, so close to newb vampelves!
I'm only about 2.5K rep away from exalted and I can hardly contain myself. I really wanted to be a void elf but the rep gain is way too slow and my DH is way better at completing WQ's than my rogue. (I know I'm beating a dead horse).
It is crazy that it seems like the Good Suramaritan Achievement is maybe a little more than half the Nightborne quest line. I am sitting on another 10K in gold now too. The problem is that my guilded character is on a different server and faction. So I can't funnel the money for sweet guild heirlooms.
It would be sweet if they decided to have a Suramar invasion today or tomorrow
The Guldan fight was visual chaos all over the place.