is it viable to level as a group

[danker]

group will be warrior, heals and a dps, with the way quest drops and what not work will it be viable to level in a grouping like this? Should we mainly grind and try and do kill quests rather than get x boar bits quests?> I don't usually level in groups like this and prefer to do my own thing but wanted some thoughts

[Serico]

I once multiboxed with 5 different characters on some low populated private server. My master was a tank, my four slaves were 1 healer and 3 ranged dps.

Leveling as a group works - but NEVER do any quests where you have to collect something. Focus on kill quests and escort quests. Besides from that, do dungeons. In a larger group the downtime between fights will be very short. Maybe you should consider fighting multiple enemies at once with AoE dmg.

[Moozer]

It is, of course drop quests will require you kill triple the amount to make sure everyone has it, but you're 3/5's of a group.

Elite quests will be much easier, gathering a dungeon group is a simple case of grabbing two people. It's good to go.

[Negatron]

Not only is it viable, frankly I would recommend it. Leveling as warrior is a pain -- leveling as a healer is downright insane. The group will move slower, but gains more static exp from kills just needing to kill for all questing members.
You'll be fighting a bloated server for timed quest spawns. More party members not only increases your odds of tagging timed spawn mobs, completing it with more people at once benifits those waiting as well.
If this was retail, you could get away with leveling to max and never so much as speaking to someone. This is vanilla, I would highly recommend leveling partners.

[BoxerBriefly]

Sure it's viable, the only problem is that collection quests will take longer. The upside is, it's a hell of a lot more fun than soloing, plus, if you run with five friends, you've always got a dungeon group at the ready

[Thatoneguy]

Since everybody is telling you to do it, I'm willing to share a side as to why you should not do it. It still ends up being your choice and you can use this to gain some insight from an experienced group and solo leveler.

- It's slower with gathering professions, they don't even have to be the same. When you have 1 gatherer in the group that pesron will always 'break' the group formation by going left and right to train the gathering profession. This results into all the other people being slowed down.

- Since you gain 50%, 33%, 25% or even 20% of the total amount of EXP depending on the group size, you will gain a lot less 'total EXP' for a kill quest. When 1 person kills 10 boars that person will get 100% of the experience + quest EXP. When 5 people kill 10 boars together they will end up with 20% of the total EXP + Quest EXP. To make up for this the group of 5 people will need to kill 40 other mobs that give the same amount of EXP to 'catch up' with the solo player.

- Continuing with the point above, gathering quests are slower, yes. I do recommand doing them as they urge you to keep grinding/farming and get a ton of kills together. As counter intiuitive as it sounds, gather quests are very good for groups as it motives a team to stay in place and keep doing what earns a lot of EXP, killing mobs.

- You're there together and you have to play together. You can't just do half a level if your friends aren't on. The questing together is structured and you have to adjust yourself to the slowest player in the group. If you're a player who enjoys fast and efficient gameplay it can get very irritating to partner up with people who are slower than (insert insult here) under the pretense of 'it's not fun to be fast and efficient'.

- Dungeon EXP is low compared to solo questing, this is unlike how Retail handles dungeons where spamming instances with a good group gets you fast EXP.

- You're not very open to meeting new people. You already have a group and you can handle the environment very well together. The game will not give you a reason to actively socialize and make friends because the core pieces are already there. When you're solo you get to meet a lot of different people, every solo player is forced to be friendly at least on some level to some players because this game is done together. Not having a pre-set group creates a lot of oppertunities for meeting new people, instead of sticking multiple days of gametime with the same people.

If speed and time in the 1 to 60 road is a concern, I would not level in a group. You will notice the time difference not in minutes or hours but in days /played. Having said that, play however you want to play. Games are made for entertainment and the best advice that I can give you is play however you want as long as it doesn't ruin the experience of other players.

[scorpderp]

@Thatoneguy
Very good post, +1.

I want to emphasize that the real downside of leveling as a group is that all of you must play at the same time, and be on the same "mindset" level. From my experience one of the player might decide to play some more hours after the session or another one has to work/study and the questing will be totally de-synced. Sure if you are IRL friends and know that you will play together 99% of the time, go for it.

A much better idea (in my opinion) is to go for solo questing, even while hanging out on voicecom, but gather up to do the elite quests and dungeons. You will also meet a lot of new players this way, instead of above mentioned, only your specific group. You will expand your "in game friend base" and be able to find those people who actually match you levelwise.

And of course, in the end its a Game. It is supposed to be fun, so it's up to you. Is it viable? sure. Is it as fast as solo questing? Not by miles.


I'm so hyped for the PvE realm release on Saturday, going to hardcore level my toon!
FOR THE HORDE!

[Serico]

- Since you gain 50%, 33%, 25% or even 20% of the total amount of EXP depending on the group size

While I appreciate the effort you put into your post of valid arguments, there is still a minor mistake.
The experience gained from a killed mob is divided by the number of players the group consists of, but it is also multiplied by a modifier, which depends on the group size. You get a small amount of bonus XP for killing a mob in a group.

Source

So, according to the example given in the source above, you gain 50%, 39%, 33% or down to 28% of the max obtainable experience, depending on the group size. While the advantages of shorter downtimes and faster kills still apply, grinding for XP as a group is still limited by respawn times and movement speed. Thus, a group of 5 probably won't kill 5 times more mobs in a set time compared to a loner.

[Thatoneguy]

Thanks for the adition Serico. I wasn't aware that a group gained a small bonus in EXP for killing mobs. I did know that EXP was also distributed differently based on the level each member was at, but took it as 'too complicated' for a quick message I wanted to write late at night :p