Introduction
For the past few days, I’ve noticed an increasing number of posts about hitting level 85 and gearing up. I’ve been playing the game since the Burning Crusade expansion (common referred to on the forums as BC) and have been constantly trying to level up since then. BC is often regarded by some players as “the best expansion in World of Warcraft”, but I wouldn’t know; I spent most of BC begging my guildees for runs through dungeons and gold for the lvl 18 white gear sold by the NPCs. My best friend was keeping me updated on Heroics and how awesome it was and told me to keep at it. I eventually gave up when I bought an Xbox 360 and was consumed by the wide array of FPS games that required little to no dedication. I eventually came back to WoW when I discovered another one of my friends was into it. By this time, Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK) was released and I was able to level to 80, but this was also when leveling from 1-70 was made pretty easy. I logged on more often than I did when I played during BC; logged on to find my buddy constantly cheering me on was a huge help, and eventually I finally hit 80. I was excited and sent my friend a whisper asking “Want to raid?” Much to my chagrin, it wasn’t that easy. This was also before dungeon finder, so I had to either ask a guildee or pug them. I also only had a chance to run them once a week. So gearing up took a lot longer than it took me to gear up in Cata. After all this I finally was able to raid, running all the 10 mans I could to get enough to raid Trial of the Crusader 10 man. Then it happened, the patch that let you kill the Lich King was released, and with it Dungeon Finder. Dungeon Finder introduced a whole new type of attitude to Heroics, with the ability to return to your server without consequence, came the ability to be a jerk. Old school Heroics were a bit more respectful since you ran the risk of ruining your reputation on the server, now that risk was gone and it showed. Bad attitudes aside, Dungeon Finder made the gearing up process so much faster, but you were only rewarded a frost badge, WothLK’s equivalent of Valor, a day. Fast forward to the release of Cataclysm, I was on hiatus for a while and rejoined up during the Trolls patch. I had to level from 80 to 85 and regear all over again, so to say I know a little bit about gearing up is an understatement. I don’t, however, consider my self a super top tier player. I completed DS 10 8/8 only last week and I suck at Arena. I’m a great tank and I think I’ve played enough, and talked with enough player to dole out the advice I’m about to give. I don’t expect everyone to agree and I don’t believe this may be the fastest way. I do, however, believe that gearing up this way will give you a better experience in the game and will keep you from getting discouraged.
Finally 85, what’s next?
You did it! You hit level 85 and you have reached what is commonly referred to as the endgame. You’ve read about heroics and raids, and you’ve gotten increasingly more excited as this day drew closer, but where do you start?Well the first thing you should do is go to Stormwind, take the portal to Hyjal and start on the quest line that will lead to the Fireland dailies. The Hyjal quest line leads up to the Fireland raid, you also get an awesome cloak from Thrall that will probably last you a while. The Fireland dailies are awesome because they are all in one place and are a great way to make money. The sooner you get the quest line leading up to this, the sooner you get to earning roughly three hundred gold a day. If you’re reading this before you hit 85, head over to Hyjal around level 83.
You may also want to consider hitting the level cap with your professions at this time too, you’re going to make gearing up a bit easier if you can craft your own gear.
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