Let me see if I can give you some information that may help out:
Q: Should we bother with archeology while we level to 85?
A: The answer I would tell you is NO. Wait until you've hit 85 and then work the skill. Most of the items from Archeology are for fun and not necessarily for leveling.
Q: Would it be best to start questing from Mt Hyjal or Vashj'ir?
Q: Is it best to level solo or in a group? (Wife and I are thinking about leveling our primaries with each other since we get more XP for the quest then from the grinding)
Q: How often should we do the dungeons? is it a good grind for rep or is it only good for the few quest inside and then stay out and do the regular quest?
A:
Average time it takes to reach level 85: 22-50 hours of solid questing, depending on your schedule. (Blizzard has stated that the leveling time will be eqv. to leveling from level 70-80 in WoTLK)
There are two main starting areas, much like WoTLK. These are Mount Hiyjal and Vashj'ir. Mount Hiyjal will be faster for most questers, as the quest hubs keeps you close to where they were given to you. Plus they are fairly straight forward in what they want you to do. Vashj'ir is a bit more spread out and is actually 3 separate zones under 1 name. Mount Hiyjal will more than likely be the most popular leveling area with the speed at which you can go through it, maybe 6 hours of total time if you can be constantly questing uninterrupted. Vashj'ir will be less crowed in my opinion, and you can get that complete in probably 7 hours.
Please Note: Your ICC ilvl 277 gear will most likely be outdated by level 83, as some of the new quest rewards (greens and instanced blues) from the level 82-83 quests/instances will be replacing the gear. So in short - Yes, there may be quest items that are better than your 277 raid gear from quests in Mount Hiyjal and Vashj'ir. The last quest chains in Mount Hiyjal and Vashj'ir are considered to be for the level 82 items (ilvl 280), and have better itemized stats for you. Your raid gear isn't itemized for Cataclysm unfortunately. The amount of stat contribution from hit, haste, crit on caster gear takes a significant decrease as you level. 1582 haste at level 85 is 9%, where it was 45% in WoTLK. Likewise your 289 hit rating the most casters have for raiding atm will also be a problem. You'll be able to at least hit mobs your level though, but boss mobs, and mobs that are higher level than you may pose a problem if you don't update your gear. Crit also gets crapped on. At level 83 I had 12% crit in my old raid gear that used to net 43%.
Next comes Deepholm. This is a 82-84 level zone with ample quests but pretty spread out as far as where things are and requires running around to get things done. Deepholm is a very pretty zone and lots of fun if you weren't rushing quests to read the story lines and such (but we can do that with alts later correct?). This zone will push you from 82 to 84 if you want, or just 82-83 if it starts to get crowded. Quests aren't bad, fairly easy to manage. Keep in mind that as you level your remaining i277 raid gear will continue to depreciated in this zone (Uldum and Twilight Highlands zones as well). The average mobs are between 65-85k health, and hit for 4-5k. Having someone else there to heal you would be great, and make your downtime a lot less. In all reality you can get this zone done in 6 hours, 8 if you want to push to 84.
This leaves you with one of the last two zones: Uldum and Twilight Highlands. Both have good quest hubs, and are generally good places to grind out that last level or two depending on the route you went with first.
ULDUM: Currently there is a bug preventing the full completion of some quest lines, but overall it's a good zone, quest hubs keep you close to where you need to go, and it's not an overly hard zone. You can grind out the last level and a half here in about 5 hours.
TWILIGHT HIGHLANDS: Very good quest hubs that keep you close to where you need to be for the most part, and quests aren't that difficult. Again, 5 hours for the last level and a half if you choose here.
THINGS OF NOTE
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YOU'RE IN A GUILD OF DECENT SIZE! Remember that you gain guild rep and levels as everyone is questing. You may be able to pick up the BoA helm and Cloak around level 82. The helm gives you 10% bonus experience from mobs and quests, and you gain 5% from the cloak. So 15% extra experience from mobs and quests will make a big difference in helping get you leveled up. You should be going to a capital city, Org, or Stormwind, at level 82 to train new talents to last you to 85 anyways. This will generally be between going from Mount Hiyjal or Vashj'ir to your next area, since that's what gives you the starting quest for the next area anyways.
5 MAN INSTANCES
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One thing people keep mentioning is that they plan to level via the 5-man Instances. If you think you will be able to level fast by doing this you are greatly mistaken. The WoTLK instances will award you experience and depreciate rather quickly as you level up. You might be able to squeeze out two levels, but at 83, it just isn't worth the efforts. As for the Cataclysm 5 Man instances:
1.) You need to find the instance entrances to be able to go into them.
2.) There are gear level requirements on all Cataclysm instances but the starting two instances - Vashj'ir dungeon and the Blackrock dungeon. You need an average item level of i311 to run the lvl 83-85 instances, leaving the Vashj'ir dungeon and the the Blackrock dungeon the only two you can enter to start with.
Following the list of required ilvl per dungeon(Patch 13117) as well as the ilvl of items that drop in them
Instance name |ilvl required |ilvl drops
Blackrock Caverns |xxx |279
Throne of the Tides |xxx |279
The Stonecore |272 |316
Vortex Pinnacle |272 |316
Grim Batol |305 |333
Halls of Origination |305 |333
Lost City of the Tol'Vir |305 |333
Heroic Instances |329 |346
QUESTING HELP (SPOILERS ALERT)
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During the beta several people put together guides of the questing in the zones during Beta. You can find a printer friendly versions of Arixan's Beta Guides listed below.
If you have trouble with the site, I took the time to print the guides to PDF files and upload them where you could get to them at. These links are also included below.
Arixan's Alliance Leveling Guide - Vashj'ir (80-82)[BETA]
http://www.wow-pro.com/book/export/html/2951Alrcari Printed PDF Version location:
http://www.mith.com/pdf/arixanvashjir.pdfArixan's Alliance Leveling Guide - Mt. Hyjal (80-82) [BETA]
http://www.wow-pro.com/book/export/html/2948Alrcari Printed PDF Version location:
http://www.mith.com/pdf/arixanhyjal.pdfArixan's Alliance Leveling Guide - Deepholm (82-83) [BETA]
http://www.wow-pro.com/book/export/html/3008Alrcari Printed PDF Version location:
http://www.mith.com/pdf/arixandeepholm.pdfRemember to use your new map! The built in quest markers will do the job in 95% of the cases.
The built in Blizzard quest tracker has also been good with every zone I've quested in on Beta, in case you dont have another Addon for that. If you're wondering about a quest, look at the map, click the little box at the bottom that says 'show quest objectives' and that will show you the area you need to be in. You can also ask in general, since when things go live you should probably have hundreds of people in the zone questing, maybe someone knows the answer that was in the beta and can answer it for you. Obviously that wont work if you're in Uldum 15 hours after release and nobody else is there.
INSTANCES/PVP ZONE AND LEVELS
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You can find most of the instance information listed at:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Portal:CataclysmTo assist you further, here is a breakdown by zone, level requirements, and the link directly to that zone (which usually includes instance videos:
Video Compiling all of the Cata Dungeon Instance Locations:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByZUWPI4xmkPVE INFORMATION
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* Abyssal Maw
Throne of the Tides (80-81)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Throne_of_the_Tides * Blackrock Mountain
Blackrock Caverns (80-81)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Blackrock_Caverns Blackwing Descent (10/25 raid)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Blackwing_Descent * The Skywall
Vortex Pinnacle (82-84)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Vortex_Pinnacle Throne of the Four Winds (10/25 raid)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Throne_of_the_Four_Winds * Deepholm
Stonecore (82-84)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Stonecore * Uldum
Lost City of Tol'vir (85)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Lost_City_of_Tol%27vir Halls of Origination (85)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Halls_of_Origination * Grim Batol
Grim Batol (85)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Grim_Batol_%28instance%29 Bastion of Twilight (10/25 raid)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Bastion_of_Twilight * The Firelands (10/25 raid)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Firelands * Caverns of Time
War of the Ancients (10/25 raid)
* Old-world dungeons gaining new 5-player Heroic mode
Deadmines (85)
Shadowfang Keep (85)
PvP INFORMATION
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* Battle for Gilneas
http://www.wowwiki.com/Battle_for_Gilneas * Tol Barad (World PvP)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Tol_Barad * Twin Peaks
http://www.wowwiki.com/Twin_PeaksQ: What mats should we stock up on before the release date?
A:
AS FOR MATERIALS
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This is hotly debated on the forums as to what you should or shouldn't save onto. I looked at all of my recipes for my professions. Determined which ones were yellow and orange and started stockpiling the items I needed to level up with. This way when Cata goes live, I can start gaining skill points and push me further into the skill levels for Cata.
I hope that helps -
-AL