I say that, but in truth, this trip through outlands has been novel in some ways. The combination of early flight and heirloom items have rewritten the book on outland leveling. Gaining the ability to fly at 60 is simply a sea change in the way these levels are played. There is so much that flight offers in accessibility, pace, and safety while questing that it really does very often simply feel like cheating.
And the levels are just flying by. I managed to gain a whole level last night in about three hours, and that was playing at a casual pace without a lot of thought into efficiency. The grind is just not what it used to be.
But along the way, as I was flying past all of those mobs that used to be between the quest giver and the objective, all those critters you used to have to kill on the way there, and their experience points you will never get, I began to wonder - does flying make you level slower?
Now, I will admit, even if the answer was yes, I would still take flying. The quality of the experience of flying early makes the process of getting through these parts of the game you have already 'paid your dues' in so much more pleasant - you can cut to the chase, pick your battles, and all sorts of other idiotic cliches which, in the end, all boil down to this - it's just a better game to play.
But then, there's the heirlooms.
I have the heirlooms chest and shoulders for my druid. Actually, I have two sets of heirloom shirts and shoulders for my druid - the rogue leather for feralizing and the caster cloth for adventures in healing which never seem to come up. Together these items give me a boost of 20% to my experience gains - not quite as gaudy as refer-a-friend, but tangible.
But the question is, do the heirlooms compensate for the lost trash mob experience points that flight costs you?
I happen to have an excellent case for comparison - my death knight.
When I came back to WoW a few months into the LK run I initially rolled a death knight to try the new class and surgically reestablish relationships at my own pace. I played the corpse through outlands, but upon reaching 70, and having jumped in with a guild and gained aspirations, goals, and an appreciation for how over-run this game is with feckless death knights, I chose to return to my hunter roots and settled back into the comfort of my trusty main.
What this means, however, is that thanks to achievements and timing I can now compare the journey from 58 to 68 with some degree of relevance with and without flight and heirlooms, as well as relate these back to the original experience of the first trip through Burning Crusade.
What we find, when viewing the number of quests completed per zone according to achievement tracking is this:
| Hunter | DK | Druid | |
|---|---|---|---|
| HFP | 73 | 77 | 78 |
| ZM | 54 | 54 | 48 |
| TF | 48 | 7 | 2 |
| Nag | 61 | 52 | 19 |
| BEM | 25 | 5 | 1 |
| NS | 32 | 0 | 0 |
| SMV | 11 | 1 | 0 |
It turns out that the heirlooms do in fact make up for those extra trash kills almost exactly. When Caterwaul hits 68, she will have only slightly fewer total quests and only slightly fewer quests per zone than my death knight - so you can have your cake and eat it to. You can have the improved quality of life that flight brings and not have to make up the difference in experience points on the other side.
I'm looking forward to seeing if this trend holds up in Northrend.
Mostly, I'm just looking forward to Northrend.
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