A while back when I was leveling my first few toons on a PVP server, I got into leveling via instance grinding. At first, it was pretty fun because you just had to learn the instance and “go with it.” Sometimes, you met horrible players and other times you met great players. But the thing for me was that I could avoid PVP and just sit around Orgrimmar most of the day while waiting for the instance to queue up.
Later on, when I switched to a PVE server, I decided to start a hunter from scratch just to re-learn how to play after the massive changes to the class. In starting over, I just went questing all the way up to level 60. I found that I leveled somewhat faster than just instance grinding because of the way the quests now were structured. Also, I could avoid asshole players and not have to deal with the waits and wipes of pugs.
But the thing I learned while leveling my hunter and my other toons was that I could learn how to play my class at my own pace. Now, soloing differs greatly compared to raiding and instancing. But sometimes, you can learn just what each little ability is, where it belongs and more importantly when to use it.
Sometime though, a friend and I started to do the Refer-A-Friend thing. Most of the time, we just instance grinded. Because of the experience bonus, we leveled incredibly fast. I had BoAs and received a 5% bonus to experience on top of that from the guild. However, I found that I would skip some abilities and lose out on drops. Sometimes, I would have a crappy piece of gear that was 10 levels old. More than that I missed many opportunities to really learn all the new abilities for my class.
In the case of my shaman, that wasn’t a huge deal in gaining a few levels here and there. I leveled a shaman before and didn’t find it that much different. But for my warlock, it was a huge deal. I haven’t leveled him for a while but am missing quite a bit of gear from the enormous gap from getting free levels from RAF. Also, I feel somewhat off in terms of picking up where I left off. I’m certain that it’ll be a little challenging picking up the class again.
That lead me to realize that just power leveling and instancing grinding potentially are detriments to leveling. Power leveling for certain because you end up not really learning how to play your class and you end up taking things for granted. I had a friend who just wanted me to power level him for SEVERAL levels in a row. He’s not really a great player to begin with and incredibly lazy. But just having me power level him makes him lazier and a worse player.
Then the whole instance grinding thing really isn’t that fun in the end. It feels really repetitive and you end up missing out on a lot of content if that’s all you do in trying to rush to hit 85. I think starting with WOTLK, instance grinding became tougher because the developers want people to quest to experience the world. And it’s been stated for a while that questing really is the best way to level. Coming up in the next 4.3 patch, questing pretty much will be the best way to level hands down with regards to Outlands and Northrend since the experience is being nerfed and that many group quests are being retooled for soloing.
Coming from a PVP realm, I can tell that instance grinding is fine for avoiding world PVP. But I think people end up getting into bad habits and not really mixing things up.
So where does instance grinding and power leveling come into play? I think instances are great for the occasional level and gear upgrades. Maybe if you’re on the border of a level, like 3-4 bars, sticking yourself in an instance would give you that little bonus. Also, it’s good to mix things up since questing too can become monotonous (I’ve leveled 5 toons to 85 thus far).
Power leveling pretty much is similar in this regards except that you’re essentially asking someone to give you a quick boost. If you have a friend who has a higher level toon, then power leveling isn’t so bad once in a while just for a slight, quick edge. Or perhaps you can do power leveling for others to meet people and maybe help build out your guild a little.
Either way, there’s more ways to play the game. But these are just some points to keep in mind, especially if you’re a beginner.