Two weeks into this expansion, I have my druid to 85, my shadow priest to 83, tailoring maxed out on Horde and Alliance sides, and my druid’s cooking, enchanting, fishing and skinning maxed out as well. This is how I can say with complete certainty that it is the professions that motivate me to level.
I already knew that was true for lowbies. Because nothing can push me through 5 levels in a sitting on a low level alt like knowing I can skill up a crafting profession at the end of it. But it is funny to see that’s true of the primary characters as well.
If I think back to the launch of Wrath of the Lich King, I think I had two 80s before I did a big professions push. But this time, it was simultaneous. Yes the new phased linear questing and all the new things to see and do kept me out there and racking up the XP. But truth be told I got just as excited at making it out to Twilight Highlands and buying my first pattern (for the enchanting rod. second purchase? the lamp pet recipe.)
This has made it easy to see that the next character I need to level Alliance side is my wee shaman. Why? Because we really need a leatherworker…
😉
It’s my guild that is motivating me, I’m a tank and I started a new goblin warrior, I have an 80 Pallie on the back burner cause I wanted to go back to the old school of warrior tanking. (That’s where I started my WoW career)
So I created a guild of rerollers, and they are leveling machines, and they inspire me to grind them out myself.
Professions are a really big deal for me too. I don’t think I’d go so far as to say they’re #1 on my list of reasons why I level, but they’re definitely one of the top priorities.
The biggest motivation for me is probably the leveling itself, seeing my character evolve. Every time I level I’m rewarded with new spells, higher stats, new content opening up to me, new perks such as mounts or dual spec, new profession recipes and gear options.
Leveling is full of new perks and rewards which make it the most rewarding experience in the game for me because there’s always something new. That’s why getting level capped actually turns me off more than getting me excited, because there’s no more room for me to grow. I can have fun with raiding and finding new gear, but all of the other joys I had while leveling come to a sudden stop.
Professions are probably #2. I can’t think of anything that really steps up to knock them out of that slot, so they take second place for sure.
The #3 slot has to go with simply experiencing the other classes to see how they play, typically due to patches or expansions. I’ll often roll an alt of nearly every class when there are significant changes to classes, which puts me in a big leveling mood, but many of those often end up deleted before they hit level 20 unless the experience really is different in which case they may very well get to level cap. And then get deleted.
I’m motivated by lots of things. Seeing the new content first and foremost, getting to play with DPS spec as I level because I tank for the raid team and that’s not so much fun leveling in tank spec, reading all the new lore in the quests, skilling professions and also seeing so many of my guildies now at 85 and I’ve got to be there with them! Final push is tonight. Then I’ll try to work on Inscription which will probably cost a chunk of gold and then it’ll be gearing time baby!
Pre-grats on the final push to 85! I am also loving all the new stories and the new content. It’s a whole new game, after 5 years of playing. And that rocks.
Having fun people who are excited about leveling is definitely a good motivator. Lively guild chat and people to run instances with also rate high on the motivation scale for me.
You’re right– watching my character evolve — to gain that crazy huge health and mana pool, getting prettier clothes, becoming more powerful — that all keeps me marching ahead as well.
And then there’s the vanity pets…you know I walk to the ends of Azeroth for vanity pets…
🙂
i based my leveling order on what we need for Classy 😀 goblin priest is next because we don’t have one!
professions are also up there, though. she’s our guild’s backup JC, and she’s also a tailor – but i’m not going to level her tailoring. i’m going to use her cloth gathering for my main’s tailoring. i can’t believe you did that on two characters >.<
I would not have been able to level the evil and expensive tailoring if I had not saved up a ton of gold, and had my SO and some guildies Alliance side who donated some cloth to the cause. Also fishing up volatile water helped too. But in retrospect it was totally crazy to do, but I wanted to be able to make my shadow priests epic pants once they hit 85 and had their dream cloths ready…
🙂
How far along are you guys on classy?
I am very competitive. What motivated me back then? End game, get to max level so I could farm instances and heroics and get into the new raids of the expansion.
Also to learn a new type of gameplay. That’s what pushed me into leveling my disc priest after my mage and my prot pally after my priest.
I don’t think anything ever “motivated” me to level. I just liked exploring new places, new quests, new dungeons – the leveling was a side effect of all that! 🙂
In expansions past, wanting to raid has driven my leveling too. But not so much this go round. That works out well, mind you, since work is super busy.
I do like professions as well, but I have to admit that mine are leveling a lot slower than I’d like at the moment. I’m just not willing to spend 150g on a stack of 20 cloth or several hundred gold on some gems for JC.
I guess I could spend more time on my mining alt to get ores for JC, but I’ve not had the time (hopefully soon!). Cloth seem to drop less than in Wrath cause I swear I got no more than a stack or two from each zone when leveling! (Either that or I’m extremely unlucky *lol*)
What motivates me to level though? Hmm.. I guess wanting to raid and be at the level cap – while I do enjoy playing around with professions and things as well.
we have a little spreadsheet we’re using to determine what we need. we’re missing:
DK: Undead, Tauren, Troll
Druid: Troll, Tauren (no love for druids this expansion, everyone switched mains 🙁 )
Hunter: Tauren, Blood Elf, Undead
Mage: Orc, Goblin
Priest: Tauren, Goblin
Rogue: Orc, Troll, Goblin
Shaman: Tauren, Goblin
Warlock: Troll
Warrior: Undead, Troll, Blood Elf, Goblin
There are a LOT of holes but we have not started with alts quite yet. 😛 We have a lot of these at 80.