BC levelling - some tips, specs and answers

Lately I've seen a lot of people asking which build is the best for BC levelling and other BC related questions so I was hoping we could gather the questions and answers in one thread - what with BC knocking on the door, there will be more of these.

Here's a short FAQ:

What level do I have to be to enter the Outlands and when should I go there?

You need to be level 58 to enter the Outlands and should (IMO) go there pretty much as soon as possible. If you find mobs too difficult at 58, get to 60 in Azeroth before moving on.

How hard are the BC mobs?

The mobs you'll encounter in the first zone, Hellfire Peninsula, are as hard as any lvl 60 mob in Azeroth. I've heard of people stacking up on healing potions - you won't need that. But you should try to bring some food/bandages since you'll see some downtime.

Thunderclap and demo shout are very useful here - a good idea would be to get imp. thunderclap if you're arms-specced.

As you level up, you'll start fighting mobs with more hp, armor and dps. Some of them also have pretty nasty special abilities, so always have a finger on the pummel/shield bash key. Well, maybe not always, but you get the idea.

How long will my current items last?

I'd say the magic number is level 65. At that point you might start seeing blue items of quality equal to or better than rank 14 weapons and similar gear. The rank 12-13 gear will last quite a while, mostly because it has high stamina which is a good thing, what with most upgrades in BC being stamina-related and all.

Some of your gear (tier 3 in particular) will last a bit into level 70 but you will obtain some very nice tank gear prior to that (legs with 60+ stamina, for instance). AQ-gear will last quite a long time as well - tier 2 less so, then tier 1 and least of all level 60 blue and green items. Scroll down a bit and you can see the kind of gear you can expect to get at lvl 60-62.

Can I grind XP or do I have to quest?

You can indeed grind XP but there are many reasons not to, especially if you're a fresh 60. I will cover these a bit later. In short, there are three ways of getting XP:

Grinding
Questing
Instance grinding

How much XP do I need and how much do I get?

Assuming you have rested XP - you will start with no rested XP in BC but will aquire it normally from there on - you get roughly 1000 XP per mob (of equal level to yours) and 8000-12000 XP for most quests. To get a level up you will need several hundred thousand XP; I needed 680k from 64 to 65 and 710k from 65 to 66.

Grinding?

Grinding is a valid alternative to questing as long as you have rested XP, but I would really not recommend *only* grinding since you'll lose out on a lot of items (and eventually, gold) this way. It gets boring fast and will not be very easy during the first week after release.

Why quest when you can grind?

First of all, there are many items worth acquiring through questing. Here's a list of some of the items you can expect to obtain via quests in Hellfire Peninsula:

Armor

Protectorate Breastplate - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29944
Magistrate's Greaves - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29945
Invader's Greathelm - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29946
Sunstrider's Gauntlets - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25481
Broken Choker - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25914
Jade Warrior Pauldrons - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25715
Perfectly Balanced Cape - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25712
Segmented Breastplate - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25781

Melee weapons

Grunt's Waraxe - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25823 (horde reputation based)
Footman's Longsword - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25825 (alliance reputation based)
Blade of the Unyielding - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29108
Dreadtusk's Fury - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25986
Foe Reaver - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29913
Helboar Carving Blade - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25987
Hellfire Skiver - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29914
Rage Reaver - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29908
Screaming Dagger - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29909

Ranged

Mag'har Bow - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25496
Ironstar Repeater - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29916
Expedition Repeater - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28062
Balanced Stone Dirk - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29212

Again, these are quested/rep items from just the first zone.

Is instance grinding OK?

Instance grinding is pretty rewarding, especially if you have rested XP. Even if you don't, you get a good amount of XP per run. This will be one of the more popular ways of levelling up, especially for those with instance builds (prot, holy, resto etc), but also because the "beginner" zones will be overcrowded during the first few weeks, so questing might be a bit rough at times.

I will not list all the items you can get in instances but rest assured, there are a few nice things in the first two instances, Ramparts and Blood Furnace (plus all the instances in the other zones, obviously).

From what I've seen, most instances should take 1h 30 min to complete, longer if it's your first run, shorter if it's a farm run with a good group. This makes instance grinding an even better choice for many people.

Reputation in BC, what's that?

A second reason not to grind is that you'll lose out on a LOT of reputation and reputation is a must if you want to obtain keys to heroic mode instances and eventually Karazhan and beyond. Reputation in BC is easier to farm than in live WoW, partly because you get more rep from quests but also because most instances are associated with one or two factions, giving you a decent amount of rep per run - much like Zandalar rep when doing ZG, or Cenarion Hold when doing AQ20.

There are many factions to gain rep with in BC which doesn't make things easier, but the good thing is that many of them are optional in the sense that they're not required for endgame instances, so you can often choose which faction you want to gain rep with. Some factions have better warrior items than others.

Brief diagram explaining how to get attuned with Hyjal and which factions are necessary to obtain rep with:

http://www.worldofraids.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2698

List of factions that you can gain rep with:

http://www.worldofraids.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2560

Gold in BC, is it easy to get?

A third reason to avoid *only* grinding is all the gold you gain from questing. From lvl 60 to 65, I had gotten roughly 600g from mainly questing. Repair costs were not that huge for my warrior but depending on how many epics you have and how often you die, it might get pretty expensive for obvious reasons. I didn't use the AH at all (aside from buying two stacks of runecloth for 30 gold... yikes) so depending on how lucky you are, you might get even more gold. Or less, if you like to buy stuff off the AH.

Professions in BC - how do I prepare myself?

I would recommend stocking up on reagents for some of the high-level things you can make to speed up the training of your professions. That is, save a few stacks of runecloth so you can learn to make netherweave bandages faster, sandworm meat from Silithus to train your cooking and so on.

By the way, to be able to level up your professions you need to learn the next, "master" level. The trainers should be located in the first camp for respective faction, but to learn master First Aid you'll need to embark on a short journey. The Horde trainer can be found in Falcon Watch and I assume that the Alliance trainer is somewhere in Temple of Telhamat. You might want to go there as soon as possible and buy the book, since as a warrior you'll be making a lot of bandages while levelling up.