Take It To The Limit

Recently I have taken to listening to Podcasts whilst playing WoW. I have in the past listened to The Hunting Party Podcast, The Instance, and Hypothetical Help. The Instance is the must listen to show of the week due to it's lighthearted, comedic touch, which allows the transferal of information at the same time as having a bit of a chuckle. Unfortunately the show has not been as regular as normal, so to fill the void I listened to the back catalogue of Hypothetical Help backwards. As usual the site shows the recordings most recent first, but with no button to go to the first episode I just listened to them from end of season/series 5 down to the first episode. It certainly makes for interesting continuity.

2 points stuck into my brain from the two shows, one is definitely from the Instance, and the other could be from either show (it's the same people in both podcasts, and I was multi-tasking at the time). The first point was the Blizzard announcement to reduce the current XP required to level in Pandaria, and the second was what to do at max level. (apparently they are both included in this week's edition of the Instance)

It took a while to find the information but this is on the PTR patch notes for 5.3.

"Experience needed to increase from level 85 to level 90 has been reduced by 33%"

This is an unusual step for Blizzard to take on current content and they have never done this before. The assumption is that Blizzard have the figures and there are probably a lot of Alts stuck at level 85-86. The reasons are obvious to everybody why this is the case:

1. Mists of Pandaria started off, not being very Alt friendly
2. There is too much to do on one character, never mind an army of Alts
3. Reputation grinds made it prohibitive to have 2 Raid ready characters, especially if one of them requires 2 sets of gear.

The question is will it make a difference? I believe that it is going to make a huge difference, and with the changes to Reputation grinds it is going to be possible to level all the characters to a position were they can LFR to the Siege of Orgrimmar or whatever Blizzard are going to call it.

I currently have 5 max level characters, 3 of which are lacking in the Epic gear that you might expect to be dropping off a mid expansion 5 man Heroic. I have however been slowly pushing them all to a position were they can start to make huge leaps in gear.

The starting point for a newly levelled level 90 character is to follow a well trodden path.

Gear

1. Purchase a complete set of PvP gear from the Auction House, they are not expensive and are now available with an iLevel of 458, some 450 PvP gear may be available, but I would aim for 458.
2. Rings and Necklace are available from Jewelcrafters.
3. Scribes can make Staves
4. Scenario "Arena of Annihilation" awards a 450 weapon
5. Scribes can make a Darkmoon Trinket

Reputation

1. Own Sunsong Ranch, at level 90 all crops harvested award reputation with the Tillers. Do a few days of Dailies with the Tillers and the Ranch will be yours, provided you picked up the commendation with your main character. The farm is useful for farming raw materials, food and later you can do the Orders for reputation.
2. Reputation, my recommendation is to first cap the Tillers and then move to Operation: Shieldwall and the Kirin Tor Offensive (or the Horde equivalent). This will give you something to spend your Valor points on, and gives the most bang for your bucks.
3. Accumulate Valor by capping Valor on your main, and then chain running Scenarios or Heroic 5 Mans
4. LFR opens up at iLevel 460 and will give you something to spend that huge supply of Elder Charms of Good Fortune that drop from the Island of Thunder.

Once on the LFR merry-go-round you can swear and curse like the rest of us