You don't have to be level 70 to get in on most of the fun for this year's Midsummer Fire Festival. Here is a guide to the minimum levels required (as stated by Kisirani) and recommended for each of the quests:
Torch Tossing and Torch Catching have no minimum level requirement. Because you complete these quests in the safety of a capital city, any level is appropriate.
Honoring the flames has no minimum level requirement. Unless you are 50+, however, the recommended level is the same as the level of the area you can comfortably hunt in.
Desecrating flames also has no minimum level requirement, but considering it flags you for PvP even on a PvE server, do so at your own risk if you are low level.
Unusual Activitiy requires level 16, but I wouldn't recommend lower than 20 given that you have to fight level 20 and 21 cultists and the area is rotten with level 20 Naga.
A Thief's Reward or stealing the flames in the other faction's capital cities required a minimum level of 50, but if the flame is at all defended, it's best to be level 70.
Lord Ahune requires a minimum level of 65. Slave Pens is where he resides, so any level above the minimum that you feel comfortable in that instance is recommended. Edited to add: Upon further review, the recommended level to complete this quest is 70 and it is easier if the 70s in your group are well-geared.
These quests give a lot of experience if you are below 70 and a lot of money if you aren't. Regardless of the rewards, however, these quests are a fresh infusion of fun during this period of pre-expansion blahs. So if you haven't tried them yet, what are you waiting for?
Leveling is getting a boost. Along with some new content in Dustwallow Marsh, patch 2.3 (going live tomorrow!) will bring across-the-board changes for characters between levels 20 and 60. The XP required for each level is being reduced by 20%, quest XP is getting buffed, and the so-called "leveling" dungeons are getting some major changes. Here is what the patch notes have to say at the moment:
Elite mobs outside of pre-Burning Crusade dungeons have been changed to non-elite.
The level ranges of pre-Burning Crusade dungeons have been adjusted to a narrower range.
Meeting stone level requirements, the Looking for Group system, and quests have been adjusted to match the new dungeon level ranges.
All old world dungeon bosses have had their loot revisited. Players will now find that the loot dropped inside instances will be of Superior (blue) quality.
Well, that's vague enough, isn't it? Level ranges adjusted to "a narrower range"? We can't have that. So I went through to all the old-world dungeons on my trusty 70 rogue and checked the level ranges of the mobs there. I'll also show you a sample of a new or improved item for each dungeon; new items are on the left, and old items on the right for comparison. That means a lot of pictures, so dial-up users beware, I guess. TL;DR version: minimum level stays the same, maximum level nerfed down to somewhere between 3 and 5 more than the minimum level. If you want all the fun details, let's get to it!
Are you in the midst of leveling a character between 20 and 60? Well right now is the time to stop everything, rush over to this forum post from Blizzard, and sing a happy song while you hurry up and wait! That's right, in answer to the crying pleas of casual alt-oholics everywhere, Blizzard is finally speeding up the tedious leveling curve for old world content in patch 2.3, adding in a bunch of new quests, nerfing a lot of the nastiest bad guys, and buffing a whole bunch of the items they drop.
Here's a summarized list of the changes, with the full post by Vaneras copied for you beyond the link below.
Amount of experience needed to level reduced by 15% per level between 20 and 60.
Experience gained from completing quests increased between levels 30 and 60.
Outdoor elite quests will now now be soloable, with the same (or better) rewards.
About 60 new quests and a new goblin town based in Dustwallow Marsh (levels 30 to 40)
Level ranges for old dungeons to be narrowed down a bit (so that if you are high enough to start them, you are high enough to finish them too)
Increased questing experience for dungeon quests.
Buffed up item drops from dungeon bosses.
As Vaneras says, "Though we've given you a few examples of the things to come, we think everyone will pleasantly surprised when they see the full extent of the changes discussed above." Keep reading to see all the juicy details.
Basically, using a newly tamed pet, a stopwatch, and a notepad, she determined that in order for a pet to go from loyalty level 1 (Rebellious) to level 2 (Unruly), the pet needs to gain 5% of the experience the Hunter needs for his next level. So a level 11 hunter needs 8800 experience to get to 12, which means a pet (of any level and family) needs to kill for 440 XP (5% of 8800) to go up a loyalty level with that Hunter.
Interesting. And the formula apparently works even when the pet isn't actually earning experience (ie when your pet is the same level as you are). However (and this is a big however), time is also playing a factor, and Mania's not exactly how it does-- she let her pet sit happy for a few hours, and then on the very next kill, the loyalty level went up. So it seems to be some combo of experience earned together and time (where more experience or more time can replace the other if necessary), but the exact numbers aren't there yet.
At any rate, good stuff, and Mania is being really thorough with it. If you're a Hunter who changes pets often, it's worth a read.
While I think it's pretty certain that the next game expansion will add additional levels to the game, there's a reasonably sized petition making the rounds on the forums asking Blizzard not to add more levels. The argument, of course, is that we could see a repeat of the Burning Crusade -- all raid content is abandoned as the first quest rewards from new zones equal it while the reputations you spent so much time grinding up now only offers useless, low level rewards. But though I understand the concerns of players railing against new levels, I think they're going to come, anyway -- Blizzard has to give the players who have already burned through Burning Crusade content something new and interesting to do. However, perhaps they've learned a bit from the last expansion... only time will tell.
But what do you think? Does the game need new levels, or does that just destroy the things we've worked so hard to achieve?
Nikol of WoW Ladies posts about something I shouldn't get so worked up about, but often do anyway-- higher level characters farming mobs that lower levels need for quests or rep.
Now, Nikol is actually on the opposite side of the equation from the one I remember being on more. She was wondering if there is a certain etiquette when she goes to farm Timbermaw rep (as a level 68) and starts competing for mobs with level 58s. Which is actually very nice of her, because usually I'm in the other situation: I'm playing a lowbie alt and I have to go kill 50 pigs to get their spleens. Suddenly, a level 70 mage roars through the area, AoEing every pig he sees, rounding them all up in a pile so he can level up his skinning. A few seconds later, I'm left with nothing to farm, and he's standing over a pile of piggies, skinning away and humming to himself. For some reason, that makes me just see red. There are lots of other places he can farm skinning, so why does he feel the need to gank my quest mobs? It makes me seethe just thinking about it!
Unfortunately, as Nikol finds out, there is no set etiquette-- outside of a group, it literally is a free-for-all. If you're in my place, your only real option is to just find another quest to work on while all the mobs respawn, or poke around to see if he missed any. And to tell the truth, I shouldn't get so angry anyway-- it could be that the mage didn't realize I needed those pigs, and in fact, there is probably a whole other cache of pigs just over the hill that I haven't found yet.
But for some reason it just drives me nuts. Have you been on either side of this situation? And how have you handled it?
Here's an interesting tidbit that may or may not mean much at all. A player asks on the forums how to report someone under level 58 in Outlands, since there is a level restriction on the Dark Portal that means you have to be level 58 before you pass through it. Of course, other players respond (correctly) that it's not against the ToS to be in Outlands before level 58-- you are free to be summoned there whenever you want.
Drysc then shows up in the thread and affirms that Blizzard isn't worried about lower levels being in Outland, and then says the reason for this was to keep lowbies from rushing the new content during the Burning Crusade launch (as happened on many servers during the AQ gate opening. A player then asks the kicker: since the launch is long over, and any lowbies are welcome to explore their curiosity at any time (for the price of a simple summon), when will the level restriction on the Dark Portal be lifted? Drysc, caught speechless (at least, in my imagination he is), says simply, "I'm not sure."
So it's conceivable that Blizzard could, at some point, lift the level 58 restriction on going to Outland. The only problem is: who cares? While there are a few level 58-60 mobs in Hellfire Peninsula, anyone lower than that is going to get mauled everywhere else. I suppose that with an escort, lowbies might want to go out there to work on their profession skills, but for most skills, 300-375 require at least level 50. I'm not sure if First Aid has the same restrictions-- I guess that players might be able to go to Outland, get the First Aid books, and then go into sub-58 battlegrounds with better bandages than others at that level. And setting your hearth to Shat early doesn't hurt-- it gives you access to every big city in the game. Are there any reasons at all lowbies might want to get into Outland early?
The race to level 70 has come and gone -- the first 70 in the world, the first 70 in the US, first 70 on my realm, your realm, and everyone else's realm. Not there yet? That's okay -- having a penchant for reading quest text and other such silliness, I'm not there either. But before I ask you, I suppose I need to 'fess up myself and admit to my own levels: a priest at 63, a rogue at 61, and a paladin at 29 (this last taking up the majority of my time lately). And now it's your turn -- what levels have you reached since the expansion release?
The Midsummer Fire Festival is upon us! Check out WoW Insider's complete quest guide to collect those Burning Blossoms as well as our guide on how to spend them. Also, don't forget to eyeball our screenshot gallery of Midsummer events. Finally, find out how to kill Lord Ahune, and check out our break down of his loot table.
Mania's Arcania continues its 
Nikol of WoW Ladies posts about something I shouldn't get so worked up about, but often do anyway-- 
Here's an interesting tidbit that may or may not mean much at all. 
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