What happens when you gut the rest state...

[Shinrai]

Source

And Grinding wins.

Unfortunatelly. I don't want to say quest XP rewards are not good enough because leveling is already a bit fast which blizzard admits, but that's only when you do it grinding like, which many people do when they release it's the fastest.

With questing, you lose XP time when you're walking to/during/from quest and not killing anything. You don't get nowhere NEAR as much Skill Points when you quest as opposed to grind (this makes no sense to me, SP should be based on total XP earned, not XP from kills)

Sure you might say that with quests you get money and items but you get money by grinding kills too. You sell a lot of the loot and if you're a skinner, even better.

Items, you get drops from any mob. Kill enough (and it's not that much, and this is a good thing) and you'll get something as good if not better then quest reward.

So really, while questing is a nice diversion, grinding is still the fastest and most profitable. Not to mention when a lot of the quests start being the same (kill X amount of Y mob), people start to think that they might as well stay in one spot and grind and get more money, items, XP and SP that way. Also, there's less chance you'll have to wait for the boss / quest person to spawn if they're mobile or killable.

All that effort to set up a quest centric progression and then wimped out at the last, so sad. Without some actual *penalty* to offset the efficiency of grinding, and given how fixated most players are on level capping, a lot of quests are only going to be done by the roleplayers. Good work blizzard.

[Fulorian]

Your source is a level 20. Dumbfuck.

Its nothing like he describes. I never ground once on my way up, horde side, on my war. Even though they have half as many quests....

I've been playing a new alliance mage the past few days. He's level 29 now, has never been rested for more than 1/20th of a kill, and has never once ground. Never has had time, always questing. Every time I get a quest done, two more pop up. Its all I can do to keep a slot or two open in my quest log, which holds more than 20 quests. And thats just ACTIVE quests that I'm working on, not counting ones I'll do later. Skill points? Eh, those come. But nobody, and I mean NOBODY, grinds through this game. People do it full bore quests, and it works just perfectly. You'll get enough skill points to raise the level cap of tradeskills for your level for about two tradeskills and each's collection method skill, even questing.

[Murr]

Originally posted by Fulorian
Your source is a level 20. Dumbfuck.

Its nothing like he describes. I never ground once on my way up, horde side, on my war. Even though they have half as many quests....

I've been playing a new alliance mage the past few days. He's level 29 now, has never been rested for more than 1/20th of a kill, and has never once ground. Never has had time, always questing. Every time I get a quest done, two more pop up. Its all I can do to keep a slot or two open in my quest log, which holds more than 20 quests. And thats just ACTIVE quests that I'm working on, not counting ones I'll do later. Skill points? Eh, those come. But nobody, and I mean NOBODY, grinds through this game. People do it full bore quests, and it works just perfectly. You'll get enough skill points to raise the level cap of tradeskills for your level for about two tradeskills and each's collection method skill, even questing.

I did 41-47 on my rogue grinding whelps quite a bit faster than other people who were questing got through it. But it certainly isn't always an option, to be sure.

[emoo]

i kill everything worth killing all the way to and from a quest. it helps a ton on the SP issue, nets a huge increase in cash and exp. theres no good reason to ignore pefectly good exp on the way to a quest. quests are guaranteed exp, cash and items(cash) and theres no reason to ignore them either.

fastest leveling is a good combination of both grinding and questing but sitting in 1 location killing things with a book full of quests is retarded.

starting a grinding vs questing argument is pretty dumb. anyone sticking to one or the other is just slowing down their exp. you can grind and quest at the same time (see first sentence) they arent mutually exclusive.

bottom line is, youre gonna have to kill shit if youre grinding, so why not kill the quest monsters and top it all off with quest exp while youre at it.

[Iannis]

he's not at a level to make a statement like that.

My quests weren't even keeping up with my level. That guy sucks at computer games if he believes mindless grinding is the get-all best alternative to raking in the quest hits. They drop a fair amount (not fantastic, but good enough) of coins into my purse.

I imagine as the levels slow down, and the quest abundance drops off (or placement just becomes more annoying) grinding is something you need to do. But noway nohow does that hit you in those grueling teen levels! <-- note sarcasm

[Cybsled]

Grinding can be decent xp, but as was said, you do far better to grind while doing quests. For instance, Stromguarde in Arathi. There is something around 5-6 quests you get for that place. Getting over 15k quest xp + whatever you make from killing the mobs is nothing to scoff at.

[Kodylan]

There seem to be some levels where grinding is much better than questing, and some where questing is just as good or better. I think it all comes down to which levels are the most polished(i.e. have the most quests available in a certain level range). Obviously grinding will be the best route at higher levels because those levels were just added. Amazing to think that all the quests aren't finished for those levels yet - or maybe some quests can't even be finished yet because some areas aren't opened up(nethergarde supply quest last push, as an example).

Duskwood and low to mid 20s is a good example of an area where questing owns. There are a sick amount of quests in Duskwood.

[Kildace]

50 rogue, never ever grinded besides skill points grinding that I do now.

[Coraniz]

I'm tired of these retards making dramatic posts about how the game is fundamentally flawed. How many times do devs have to state that exp gain is still being tweaked? This guy is acting like the game is fucked and the only way to fix it is to start over.

All that effort to set up a quest centric progression and then wimped out at the last, so sad. Without some actual *penalty* to offset the efficiency of grinding, and given how fixated most players are on level capping, a lot of quests are only going to be done by the roleplayers. Good work blizzard.

You have no idea what the hell you are talking about. If Blizzard were to lower exp gained from mobs by 20% or something similar, this wouldn't even be an issue. Arguably quests still are the best way to exp, if you pick and choose wisely. And if anyone finds a quest that doesn't offer an appropriate award for the difficulty they should be /suggesting it anyway.

[Shinrai]

One of the posters commented that the higher level zones also exhibit higher con mobs at much higher densities. Which are an impediment to questing but fodder for grinding.

Clearly the smarter player will try and get quests and grinding to cross over. However this will be a subset of quests, quite small possibly?

The poster who I quoted is not the only person who has expressed this, and none of the 400+ people who read the thread felt it worthwhile to disagree with his comment. It doesn't even actually matter if its entirely true should it become a generally held belief.

[Lenardo]

i'm only 37th, i never grind exp.

i pick a quest, do said quest, if another quest is in the same area, do THAT quest..if another is in a close by area do THAT quest...once i do ALL the quests in a particular area, then and only then do i move back to town do the turnins(if needed) and viola quests done, cash made, new quests gained, loot sold.

win win...

however, there are Certain spawn that are really good for grindage...ie easy kills for decent exp.

i have a system for gaining exp- so far it has worked out well, i have dropped into "normal" exp only once since the last patch. basically the system is....not to play every night & make sure you camp in an inn- heh heh heh...

patch came i was level 31 i believe, i was at fully rested at patch day. it took 24hr from patch day til i was able to play the game(ie took 24hr to dl and run) played for a few hrs- took the next day off - so 48hrs passed til i logged in again - played for 2 days straight(4hrs each day), took a day off, etc

using this system i went from 31-35th without hitting normal exp once. granted this is not the way powergamers play, but this playstyle is more indicative to a "normal" life person. i work 9hrs a day, got a wife 3yrold son -almost newborn twins (they are being born monday the 16th most likely

level 31-32 - never saw transition bar to normal exp
32-33- never saw transition bar
33-34 - saw transition bar- was at 80% to 34th, 5 quests later it got booted to 35th level

35 went to normal exp-

took a day off...transition bar a ways back now, come close to reaching it,
unintentially take a day off (irl stuff) transition bar no longer visible

level to 36...level to 37, still no transition bar visible...

[The Bog]

Funk grinding.
I've grinded probably once, when I really wanted to reach the end of a level and had rested exp. It's not fun. It's boring. I prefer questing.

And why, why are you listening to a level 20.

PS:
I am 41.

[Fendryl]

50 Rogue, no real grinding at all, closest would be whelp farming to catch skinning up.

49 Mage, only grinding 49-50 now because I finished most of the quests early & the ones left are elites & I'm reluctant to do pickup groups because they're so hit & miss for being good groups.

Whelps are a pretty specific case especially for rogues (and to a degree druids & paladins) - they're elite mobs, relatively low hp, and do most of their damage from spell casting. If you've got a good counter (rogue stuns/interrupts, druid & pally resists) they're a real good source of high xp. Since they're adjusting higher level elites next push, I'd expect these to change to some degree.

If you're even remotely smart about planning your quests out, quest xp destroys grinding xp. You can often be working 2, 3, or more quests at a time in the same area.

[Khalikryst]

Actually, if his argument is that power grinding can beat someone else through a level compared to somone that is questing that's probably actually true. Especially if said "grinding" was actually being part of a group that's repeatedly blowing through an elite instance like the sunken temple which is pretty damn fast rolling xp.

But it's not THAT much faster. And, at least as things stand now, it's not in any way required. As others here have said, at least for now you can get to 50 and still have quests left over.

Personally, if what he's saying is that "hey you can get to 60 a little faster by jamming this four foot rusty rocket up your ass" and I still have the option of getting to 60 without having to drop my britches then I say "more power to ya".

[Andorion]

I wouldn't have a problem with mob XP being halved, and quest XP being double/tripled. Or, at the very least, adjust it somewhat in that direction... they keep over-correcting, not just in xp gain speed but in player/monster balance too.