cataclysm-leveling
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Blizzard comments on Outland and Northrend leveling in Cataclysm
Community manager Nethaera commented recently on players' concerns that the new Cataclysm leveling experience from levels 1-60 now severely overshadows the relatively old Outlands and even Northrend content. The gist? Questing and leveling in Outlands and Northrend is leaps and bounds better than the original World of Warcraft, and updating the 60-80 leveling experience is not high on Blizzard's priority list.
The Light and How to Swing It: Cataclysm 101 for holy paladins
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Every Sunday, Chase Christian invites you to discuss the finer side of the paladin class: the holy specialization. Feel free to email me with any questions you want answered, like how awesome Exorcism is. Paladins have always been a flexible class. Our hybrid nature is one of our greatest strengths, and it gives us a variety of ways to solve any problem. We can use our raw might to crush our enemies, we can defend ourselves from our opponents' onslaught, and we can save our friends from certain death. The massive class changes in Cataclysm have brought us another role to fill -- that of the avenging cleric. We can now use our holy nature to cleanse Azeroth of evil (and the opposing faction). Holy paladins are lucky enough to have two different roles they can fill with the same set of gear, and this gives us a great opportunity to be flexible while leveling. You can easily queue for the new dungeons while also churning your way through quests, maximizing your experience gain. With the new Light of Dawn at our fingertips, healing groups in dungeons is nearly painless. A shockadin build also allows us to wreak havoc upon our enemies -- and quite efficiently, too. How can we utilize these two halves of the spec to create the best leveling experience?
Shifting Perspectives: Balance druid leveling in Cataclysm
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat , bear , restoration and balance druids. This week, I'm running myself ragged trying to level and getting no sleep, relying purely on the soothing sounds of Coheed and Cambria and Dragon Force to keep going. Remember, I could still use your leveling screen shots, so send them in! And the race is on! Cataclysm is finally here: new zones, new races, new quests, new dungeons, new raids -- everything new. By now, most of the hardcore types are probably already level 85. I remember the sadness of getting home from work at eight in the morning to see that half my guild was already level 83. Even this "late in the game," as it were, I would still like to bring up a bit about leveling specs. Not just leveling from 80 to 85, but starting fresh from level 1; alts do exist, you know, and some of us have more than one druid. (Guilty.) Before we begin on this little journey, I want to say one thing; everything listed here is merely a suggestion from my point of view after leveling during beta and on live. There are other ways to spec for leveling, there are multiple ways to spec even at level 85, and what is written here is not a gospel. OK, well, some of it is -- but for the most part, you are always free to make up your own mind. Without further ado, here we go!
All the World's a Stage: Roleplaying the climb to 85
All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. In World of Warcraft, that player is you! Each week, Anne Stickney brings you All the World's a Stage with helpful hints, tips and tricks on the art of roleplay in WoW. With Cataclysm's release a mere day or two away, some roleplayers may find themselves in a situation where they want to level as quickly as possible, yet they don't want to miss out on any roleplay opportunities along the way. This kind of conflict has been present with every expansion's release -- and even when there's no expansion to be had at all. The balance between roleplaying and wanting to do other things has always been a fine line to tread for most roleplayers. While some feel game time should be strictly dedicated to roleplay, others want to experience everything the game has to offer. What's the right tactic to take, and how do you avoid the drama? The answer? Whatever you're comfortable with doing, of course. Roleplaying is at heart about the social aspect of interacting with other players, but how much or how little you choose to interact is entirely up to you. There's nothing wrong with wanting to level quickly, and there's nothing wrong with wanting to experience the new content as quickly as possible. With that in mind, how do you keep roleplay happening when everyone you're roleplaying with is out there in that shiny new world? And how do you avoid the pitfalls of drama while you're doing it?
Lichborne: The basics of leveling your death knight from 80 to 85
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. Find out why playing World of Warcraft's first hero class is every bit as heroic as you might imagine. With the land now shattered and Deathwing looming large in the sky, we're rushing inevitably toward the Cataclysm, and with it, new content and new levels to surmount. I know that many of us are probably working on our troll druid and gnome priest alts for the moment, but I am also certain that most of us will be headed right back to our death knights on Dec. 7. With that in mind, this week we'll take a quick look at the basic stuff you'll need to know to make it through the leveling process.
Scattered Shots: Gear for Cataclysm leveling
Welcome to Scattered Shots, written by Frostheim of Warcraft Hunters Union and the Hunting Party Podcast. Each week, Frostheim uses logic and science (mixed with a few mugs of dwarven stout) to look deep into the hunter class. Got hunter questions? Feel free to email Frostheim. I'm getting an increasing number of requests to know what kind of gear we should be hoarding for leveling up to 85 in Cataclysm. A lot of hunters are still grinding through ICC and want to know if they should bother with four-piece tier 10, or if making that final push to armor penetration gemming is going to be worthwhile since those ArP gems will change to something else. And what will those gems change to, anyway? What stat are we going to want to stack in Cataclysm? Well first of all, let me say this: We don't even have a release date for Cataclysm yet. We don't know when it's coming out, but we do know it's not going to be any time real soon. I had originally planned on waiting until Cataclysm was a bit closer before hitting this, but if the amount of emails I'm getting is any indication, people want to know now. So join me after the cut to learn what you should be paying attention to now and how best to plan for your Cataclysm hunter leveling experience.
Arcane Brilliance: The early levels for Cataclysm mages
It's time again for Arcane Brilliance, the weekly mage column that loves warlocks. Arcane Brilliance loves warlocks so much. It loves them right in the face. With a Pyroblast. Can you feel the love? Does it feel like your heart is melting? And like your brain is running down the side of your face? Because it totally is. And ... I think that used to be an ear. Oh, warlocks. So much love! If you still had anything resembling a face, Arcane Brilliance would totally kiss you. Let me get this out of the way: I love my goblin mage. I love him as much as it is possible to love a short, ugly, green man who values profit above anything else. When I'm playing my main, trying out new talents and abilities, I can't stop wishing I was spending time with my irredeemable little goblin, attaching rockets to chickens and riding robotic laser-sharks. It's not healthy, but I just can't quit the tiny little monster. So my beta testing this week has been pretty focused on the low-level stuff in Cataclysm, rather than clicking Fire Orb and hoping that this time it actually works. I figure this is okay, since Cataclysm itself is an expansion focused not just on the endgame stuff, but also on overhauling the leveling process. So today, put down your spreadsheets and your nerdrage; we're going to have a brief conversation about leveling.
WoW Rookie: Cataclysm changes to early and middle levels
New around here? WoW Rookie has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. If you're not a leveling player -- and sorry, but that does not include you wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am types zipping up your latest alts -- then as I tell my family when they're hovering around me when I'm trying to write, "I love you; now go away." Today's WoW Rookie is all about stuff that matters to players who focus on WoW's leveling game. If you've got the whole leveling thing down pat ... if leveling is just a chore to get to the end game, where "the game begins at 80" ... if your pre-80 character is just one among your entire stable of toons ... then move along, big guy. Your secret handshake didn't pass muster at this clubhouse. For those of us gleefully picking our way through the levels, we're going to take another look this week at what's ahead for us in the expansion. First, I've got a lead to share on a friendly place to tuck into for companionable leveling. Then we'll round up a whole collection of facts and developments on how Cataclysm will change the game for players in the 1-60ish range. If you're an assiduous reader of The Queue, none of this will be new news; we've cherry-picked some recent goodies that apply to players in the early to middle levels.
WoW Rookie: What's new for leveling players in Cataclysm
New around here? We've got your back! See all our collected tips, tricks and how-to's for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. This week's WoW Rookie is all about leveling in Cataclysm. There's a completely overhauled talent point system that creates a more focused leveling experience. There's a new feature that blasts players with the full flavor of their chosen spec right at level 10. There are new zone and instance level ranges for all the old content you're already working your way through. Want still more? We've even got full walk-throughs of selected revamped zones. If you wish to remain completely spoiler-free, we'll see you next week; everyone else, gather 'round and let's buzz about what's coming out of the Cataclysm beta that will be affecting new and leveling players. The biggest buzz, of course, is how different your character's development will feel now that players will be funneling down a single talent tree for all but the last 15 levels. Blizzard's complete overhaul of the talent system, which will debut to beta testers during the next round or two of beta builds, locks players into a single talent tree all the way until level 70. Join us after the break for everything we know at this point.
