Leveling Naked

Well, not exactly leveling naked and not exactly something I am doing but it sure does seem that way lately.  It can be done and is really not all that hard.  I had a friend who leveled a Priest completely naked with the exception of weapons, rings, trinkets and necks I believe, just no clothing.  I was always amazed by that and in a way I still am but now I understand it better.

After leveling a Disc Priest I learned that a priest doesn't really need to wear anything because they never get hit.  Your stats will be lower which means that you will need to adjust what you are killing but over all it is not hard to do.  I was downing level 80 elites on my Priest when I was level 78 without much issue.  Sure I had gear but it was nothing special.  I can see how a Priest even wearing nothing can level easy enough if they went for mobs an average of 3 levels lower then them.  Doing those quests would make it easier for go without gear.  I was completely amazed at the shields ability and that is what it is all about.

Now with me, I do not have a shield, well I do, but not one like that.  On the Warrior and Paladin I am leveling I am sharing BoA heirloom gear which means mailing them back and forth.  However I seem to keep forgetting to either mail them or get them out of the mail.  So I am going out leveling without any chest and shoulders.  Not exactly naked but also not exactly ideal.  Even more so for a warrior.  Warriors, as I always hear, are amazing gear dependent, more so then any other class.  I am having a hard time believing that.

Just recently I went out with my refer a friend leveling partner with my warrior and his mage.  I had no head (being I had not found a good drop yet), no trinkets, no rings and of course, no chest and no shoulders because I forgot to send them to myself.  We were going merrily along our way and I was grabbing 2 or 3 mobs and he was AoEing them down.  That is the concept for these two leveling.

I was barely ever taking a lick of damage.  I never once needed to bandage or sit to eat, we just kept mowing through things.  I was sitting at level 42 and him 40 at the time I think when I went and grabbed up about 7 level 39 and 40 spiders and he AoEed them down.  I never lost aggro and while doing these huge pulls one after another I only needed to use a bandage after the 4th pull like that.

That begins to make me wonder if any class really needs to worry about armor all that much while leveling.  I was clearly not geared enough to be doing what I was doing, heck I was barely geared at all, yet I had no problems with aggro or taking too much damage.

Same went for my Level 24 Pally when I went out with her and forgot that I did not have my heirloom gear on.  Ran into a pack of angry gnolls, 2 casters and 3 melee.  It took everything I had but I got through them all in time.  They were all level 25s and 26s.  It goes to show you that at low levels gear is not all that important.  Sure, heirlooms make it a bit easier but they are not all the be all and end all if you are under level 40.

Makes me think back to an old article for some tips for leveling a hunter and I notice it really fits all classes.  Maybe I should rewrite it.  You can check it out here.  Tips and Tricks: Gearing a low level Hunter.

One of the reasons I started leveling other characters was to see the game from the other end so to speak.  I am a Hunter and that is where my heart is but to be a better Hunter it helps to know what everyone around me is doing or is capable of doing.  I also think it makes me a better raid leader when I know what everyone can do.  While I started alts for progressions it morphed into that and then what it is now, a complete obsession with getting all classes to 80.  I am always amazed at the ways I keep finding to enjoy characters in a different way.  I wonder what I am going to do when I am all done with all the classes.

Maybe I will actually level one completely naked from 1 to 85 in Cataclysm. The way it looks like gear is going to scale after 80 I think it would be nearly impossible.  So I'll have to do it as a Disc Priest.  One thing for sure that I have learned so far is that a Disc Priest has the best survivability in the game against a single target that can't silence you.  Who would have ever thought that a healer, in a healing spec, would be the best class to take damage.  Heck, I never even need to heal myself when I quest on my healer because it never takes any damage.  Yeap, that is my quest for Cataclysm.  Level my Disc Priest from 80 to 85 naked.

Leveling Naked is Fun.