Healing instead of questing - a feasible alternative?Follow

Hi all,

I have been playing off and on for a number of years and have recently come back and started playing as a Holy Priest.

When I got to level 15 I clicked on the dungeon finder tool and proceeded to heal my first instance, then another, then another and then another, one after the other, without pause as the group I was with changed but I stayed constant. After the final instance, and back outside, I looked about the area I was in and saw all mobs were greyed. I then realised I had gone up 5 levels and most of my equipment slots had blue items.

Since then, I have struggled to find the motivation to quest outside of instances and have just reached level 30 rather quickly. I also think I'm addicted to healing: that rush of saving an idiot dps or tank on auto pilot is hard to beat.

My questions are:

Is healing my way through levels a viable way of levelling?

Will I reach a point where doing so becomes a lot slower?

Has anyone else done this?

I don't mind questing, but I am interested in other holy priests opinions. I also know Holy is not the quickest way to level but I really want to heal well even in lower level dungeons.

Once you get to level 60 or so it'll become slower. The reason for this is there are fewer dungeons you can spam, and also because most of the dungeon quests have pre-requisites. The fastest way to level is to do dungeons with dungeon quests. However, if you prefer to level via dungeoning, then do that.

Edit: So at that point you'll want to quest while you wait in the queue. More once you hit Northrend as you want the rep then as well.

Sounds like a good plan.

You should also do a little planning for the Cataclysm part of your leveling experience. Problem is that you'll most likely want to start doing the Firelands dailies the moment you hit 85, for the nice gear pieces that'll help you catch up with everybody else. But to get access to those quests, you'll have to have almost all the quests in Hyal completed.

Add the minimum gear requirement even for normal dungeons. You're getting the gear from doing the quests in the zones those dungeons are in. If you don't switch zones when you're supposed to, quests and mobs will turn green. Having to run Blackrock or Throne of the Tides at 83 just because you still don't make the gear cap for Stonecore or Vortex Pinnacle is anything but efficient, as is being limited to the latter rather than doing Grim Batol, Lost City, or Halls of Origination at 84.

There is just a ton of content packed into only 5 Cataclysm levels rather than the 10 it were for the previous expansions.

80-82 Hyal/Vash'ir
82-83 Deepholme
83-84 Uldum
84-85 Twilight Highlands

Try to stay in the appropriate zone for the quests in between dungeons, no matter what.

For a healer I'd recommend doing Hyjal until Deepholm opens up. Then doing Deepholm til its done then going TH. Purely for rep and gear based reasons. As you want Hyjal for rep but Deepholm as well but shoulder chants are exalted so crushing the zone makes more sense as Revered is easier to hit for the head chant. Then TH when Deepholm is done purely for the better gear.

You should mostly finish TH as some good loot is near the end and the story is good. Then either go back to Hyjal for rep or Uldum for gear + the quest line.

I'd say Uldum as randoms + tabard will handle rep as from finishing Deepholm you can get the weaker shoulder chant so pushing tabard rep with GoH should be fast to get revered. Then you can deal with Therazane and TH faction rep at your leisure.

Then push Therazane with dailies as you want your TH faction and Hyjal at exalted for gear. Deal with Vash and ER last as they net you the lowest benefit in gear, fun quests and cool lore.

Uldum and by extension the Ramkahen only offer leveling gear and fun quests for healing priets.