Last updated: 08/30/09.
I’ve started leveling a horde alt in the same server I got my alliance characters. Since it’s my first character in the Horde, he doesn’t have access to any heirloom item (such as the experience shoulders or chest).
This is where leveling in AV becomes really nice. The interesting thing is the ability of being able to quest while being queue’d, going inside when the chance comes up, and then go back to questing (or just standing in Dalaran and doing other stuff while waiting for the queue to come up).
To tell the truth I never looked into leveling in battlegrounds (after one of the latest patch, you gain experience per objectives when you do battlegrounds), but I started looking for it and found some articles of people with people saying that they got an exaggerated amount of experience, which seemed sort of odd (they would always put the amount of experience they get, which is not the correct thing; keep reading).
Anyway, I thought about writing about it, here’s all the information I’ve gotten so far by myself, which will probably help anyone else that is interested:
First and most of all, the experience that you gain in Alterac Valley scales with your level, meaning that you don’t get the same amount per level; it’s more like a percent:
- If you kill Balinda / Galv: +1%
- If you burn down a tower: +1% (4 towers = +4%)
- If you win: +4%
- If you lose: +2%
These results can have a margin of error of 1%~2%, that’s because during the game you can get random experience (I guess over time?). Assuming that you win a game and you take down all your enemies’ towers, you would probably be getting around 10% experience (remember the margin of error, so it could oscillate between 9~12%).
To make this actually viable, I’d say that your character has to be 71 or higher, to be able to get into the 71-80 bracket. The whole point of this is so games take between 10~20 min.
That being said, you really don’t want to end up in turtles, 30~40 min games or higher are really terrible.
You can also:
- Get AV mount and tabard (to get rid of AV mark excess)
- Get a lot of honor (I was capped @ level 74 or 75?)
- Get exalted with AV faction
- Get exalted with Orgrimmar / Ironforge
There are probably other stuff also. I turned in reputation stuff whenever I had a chance.
80’s won’t really mind, but you want to make sure that towers burn down (as in defend if possible). At 71 you won’t be able to do much, tho, being the lowest level of the bracket.
Other interesting things that you might not know:
- Rested experience is not consumed
- I’ve heard people in the games saying that if you are dead as something caps you still get the experience
- I’ve been told that heirloom items that boost xp (shoulders and chest) don’t work (can’t confirm by myself because my DK doesn’t have)
- You can queue while flying (lets say you are flying from flight path to flight path) and you can go into the battleground while flying as well.
Leveling in Alterac Valley is probably not as appealing to someone that has both heirloom shoulders and chest, simply because they get more experience when they are questing than someone that doesn’t have them. Still, it’s probably a good change of pace alternating questing with AV, but this always ends up in how fast the games end, tho. You should also keep in mind that the closer you get to 80, the more quests you have to do; and while a epic flying mount might help, it won’t if you don’t have the money to buy it. And, just think about it, could you even level this fast by questing with heirloom items and an epic flying mount?
This was originally posted as an entry, any comments please write it over there.
Revision
- 082909: Original post.
- 083009: A couple of edits and added a little bit more of information.
Gahlok
Frostbolt.com
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