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The premise of Warcraft “back in the day” was “grind mob, get XP, take loot, sell loot, level up – repeat”. So off you go. Hoping for a “Green” or “Blue” to drop to boost your hourly gold rate. Perhaps you have researched on the web, and know what “uncommon” items are possible in your area. Doing this you can have a good idea of your hourly XP and gold rate.

What other factors determine your gold and XP throughput? Are you aware of the factors that can seriously affect your performance? Are you, in fact, handicapping yourself by over-reaching?

Blizzard add “gold sinks” to the game to counter inflation. (Yes inflation would occur in Warcraft, and to some extent does) At level 10 re-equipping ammunition, repairing items and buying food, drink and potions costs a minimal amount. Compare that to coming back from an end game instance. Repair alone is sometimes 20g, and potions can be several gold pieces each (and you need a lot)

The push to progress is ever present in Warcraft. Like anything though, this can lead you to bad habits, and seriously slow you down in the long run. Imagine getting to level 10 and thinking;

“I’ll really push on and level up in an area with mobs 2 levels higher than me”

So off you go, ten minutes and five kills later you’re dead.

The psychology of the game drives you to do this. It says “You want to be better; you need to advance quickly, test yourself”

The truth is you over-reached. Ideally you should level against mobs one or two levels below you. That way, when you get cornered by two or three of them, you prevail, gain XP – loot and move on.

If you add it up you will see that grinding mobs up to four levels below your current level is ideal. They will give you almost the same XP as mobs your own level, and you can run through them killing several at once. That way you get more experience and more loot per hour.

Try and level against mobs between 1 and 4 levels below your own. More than 4 and the equation starts to work against you. So at level 60 consider levelling in areas where most mobs are 56-60. The fastest will be those at about 57 and 58

“But higher level mobs drop more valuable loot”…then think again. While they do have “slightly” better loot, the same rough calculation for gold applies as it does for XP.

Kill more mobs (more mobs = more loot) you will actually make more gold killing mobs a couple of levels below you.

It’s great to show off, but levelling above yourself will eventually lead to more deaths, less XP and more expenditure. On the other hand if you want bragging rights on your new gear now and again…

Paul has compiled a set of free downloadable Warcraft guides – professionally produced Free Warcraft Guides. Or just comment on our blog and resource pages Warcraft Gold Blog