WoW Invasion Level Tally

WoW leveling tallies from the Invasion events so far: Mage from 73 to 87. Warlock from 50 to 60. Priest from 34 to 52. Druid from 23 to 32. My goal is to get the Priest and Druid to 60 before the end of the event. That will give me three choices from which to pick my two level boosts (one to 90 and one to 100). (My understanding is that if you boost from 60 it will also boost your professions too.)

(In truth it will almost certainly be Warlock and Priest, because I don’t like the Druid class that much. On paper it’s awesome but I don’t like the look of any of the shape-shifted forms.)

It seemed like the experience gains were about right to me over the weekend. However it’s definitely on a curve: The higher your character level, the less experience you get per Invasion, and thus the slower the leveling.

I got noticably more XP from participating instead of AFKing, with bigger mobs generally giving more experience than littler mobs. Also it seemed like all you had to do was tag a mob to get the full experience from it. Many times I came up late to groups killing the big skull-mobs, threw in a hit or two at the very end, and still got a bunch of experience from it. (I was never in a group so I don’t know if that affects XP gains.)

I’ve long since lost interest in opening any of those Legion chests. The chests fill up my inventory and when I run out of space I put them in the bank. My assumption is that if I wait until I get to level 100 to open them, they’ll have ilevel 700 gear in them. Maybe that’s wrong. I guess I’ll find out in the coming years if these characters ever get to 100. (Of course, I’m sure the first quests in Legion will also have ilevel 700 gear so it doesn’t matter either way.)

I have to admit to having a lot of fun with the whole Invasion process this past weekend. I spent more time playing than I intended to, and cancelled some boring chores because of it. It just seems like time disappears when you’re “into” WoW. One minute it’s morning, then the next minute it’s afternoon and raining and too late to mow.

Maybe “fun” isn’t the right word exactly. Maybe “comfort” is a better description for the feeling from playing WoW lately. These kinds of large-scale group events where you can participate anonymously are especially comforting to me in a way that dungeons aren’t. They are easy and predictable and I know exactly what to do. That’s really an attractive prospect at a time when everything in real life seems nerve-wracking and chaotic. (EG. My house is now covered with boxes and I have no idea where any of my possessions are, and the task of finding and organizing them is completely overwhelming.)

The problem that I’ve always had with WoW, though, is that it tends to become repetitious or unrewarding too quickly. It’s too easy to see behind the curtain, where it’s revealed that nothing fundamentally new awaits you no matter where you go or what you do. Let’s hope Legion will be different.

P.S. It’s amusing to participate in these events sub-level 60, and especially sub-level 40. Everyone else takes off to fly to the next boss, leaving you in the dust to hoof it on your roughly-turtle-speed ground mount, hoping to even reach the next boss before everybody else kills it. There’s always a few stragglers putt-putting away along the ground, having to go around obstacles instead of over them, straining and hoping to keep up with the cool kids, looking somehow vaguely embarrassed about their slowness.