Blink from 1-60

OK so I'm not sure if you've noticed or not but it seems that some people have more trouble leveling than others. After having run through the leveling process a hand full of times now, I think I can safely say that I'm a decent leveler. The purpose of this post is to share some of the basic leveling tips (some of which you should already know) as well as some of the things I personally find aid me in speeding things up. It may or may not be useful to you so if you think you can already do a much better job then that's all good and you can just ignore most of this stuff .

Well first things first. I'm sure most of us, gifted as we are, will be aware that the class we choose can influence our leveling pattern and speed. Yes as incredible as it seems some classes are just more suited to speed leveling than others. The hardest classes to level are the Warrior, Paladin and the priest (note that this is a general statement, taking into account things like what spec you choose obviously helps, after all a shadow priest will level faster than a holy spec priest). In the middle tier we have the Rouge, Druid, Shaman and the Mage. This leaves the Warlock and the Hunter as the fastest and easiest classes to level.

Speed leveling takes into account a number of things, the first and most important factor is the ability to play solo. Yes solo play is the most important factor, this doesn't mean you must never party up, I'm just saying it's much faster to level alone. This is also the reason Hunters and Locks are the easiest to level. As one of these two classes you will find that there isn't much you can't do by yourself, whether it be taking on an elite a few levels higher than you or dispatching multiple mobs all at once. This makes questing much more simple since you don't have to go looking for a party every time you get a tough quest.

Going hand in hand with solo play is survivability. Quite simple really, dieing less is an obvious bonus. You'll notice that all of the faster leveling classes have some sort of ability to help them survive (Feign Death for a hunter, Stealth/Vanish for rogue/druid etc.). You may be thinking that a Warrior with it's tanking ability has great survivability, well this sadly isn't the case. Sure he can tank a ton of stuff but when it comes down to it he lacks the dps and the healing capabilities to go it alone.

OK next is the style in which you level. By this I mean your choice to Quest, Grind or Instance your way through the game. Now don't question me on this because I strongly believe that questing is the fastest and easiest (not to mention enjoyable) way to level. Ok now this may shock some people but have a think why we go through instances (especially if this isn't your first playthrough). We go to find gear correct? Well I'll tell you, not only is running instances the slowest (save for the few exceptions such as SM and ZF) way to level, it's also not worth the gear you pull out of it. Going out of your way to collect gear at lower levels is 100% useless. This includes wasting honor points/marks for gear not at level 70. You should be leveling much too fast for any of this gear to make even the slightest bit of difference. This being said there are some quest rewards that are worth collecting, http://www.wowhead.com/?item=6900 and http://www.wowhead.com/?item=6802 to name a few.

You'll notice I only said from 1-60. The reason for this is of course because of the recent patch upgrades made to wow. It is currently much easier to level from 1-60 than ever before. 60-70 is in a different ballpark so I won't include that here. Each level from around 15-60 should take you roughly the same amount of time. No I'm not joking, it really should. On average it should take about 1-2 hours to level in your 20s and about 1.5-3 in your 50s. If you find yourself on the same level for 5+ hours and you've been trying to level the whole time then you're doing something wrong. No level should take you longer than this if you are trying properly (eg. you're not sitting around the AH for an hour). I have tested this myself.

OK so now just a few general tips directed mainly at those of us who are on there first playthrough. First up is Professions. As a general rule on your first playthrough you should not take up any of the big money drainers such as Engineering/Enchanting (points at dis ). This is mainly because you usually lack the experience and/or funds to support it very far. You should instead go for some of the gathering profs Mining/Skinning/Herbalism. They make you the gold and are the easiest to progress in. Next a big thing I may have overlooked in the above sections is the locations in which you choose to level. This mainly concerns things like locations with a plentiful amount of simple quests, however it also takes into consideration the ally presence in the area. As an example lets use say Un'goro. Whilst the quests in this area are fantastic the chance of you getting ganked is extremely high. The same goes for Hillsbrad and Arathi. It will take too long to cover this section fully so if you have managed to read your way down to the bottom here feel free to ask me anytime for decent leveling spots.

On a side note try to get yourself some decent 14/16 slot bags right from the start. Oh and NEVER buy gear from the AH (unless you're trying to make a profit off it. which is going slightly off topic).

OK I think that's about it cya all hope this is of use.

I had a big ole response all typed out and then my work computer wigged out on me. Ergh. I guess I'll spare you the wall of text and give it to you in brief.

If you play: Shaman, Hunter, or Druid go for the tallented speed boosts first. You get some good dps boosts on the way and running around faster is always a good thing. For all classes spec for maximum dps with mana efficiency if you can get it. Dps is generally more important, but you dont want to be drinking after each fight if you can help it.

If you want to level really fast but miss out on some quests then use a leveling guide. I only recently tried using one and I got my druid from lvl 40 to 59 really fast. Leveling guides are set to minimize grinding, optimize quest turn ins, and get xp in big chunks. Ive been using the leveling guides here: http://wow-pro.com/leveling_guides

I can't recomend 2 gathering proffs enough. I normaly do Mining and Herbalism because you make big money easy, but it can be a pain to juggle 2 tracking skills. I don't like skinning because it fills your bags really fast and doesn't sell as well (my opinion here), but you can get tons of skins easy and dont have to juggle tracking stuff. Some classes benefit a bit from crafting proffesions, but generally its more work and money than its worth at low level. A good example is 'Barbaric Iron Collar'. Its a level 25 item but requires mats that are difficult to get until past lvl 30. This means you are either spending money in AH for mats or making stuff you arent going to use. Blacksmithing can give limited benefit to warriors and Paladins, in that they can boost their dps with sharpening stones and weight stones. Main thing is that WOW is a game. If you want to level really fast and have lots of money for training and your mount then 2 gathering skills are for you. If you just want to have fun crafting stuff and arent too worried about money then take a crafting skill.

I disagree a bit with blink on buying gear in the AH. Some classes are very gear dependent (Druids, Warriors, and Paladins) and need to keep their gear fairly up to date. Druids are the easiest becase Feral is all about stats. Cruse the discounts for you level and look for SIGNIFICANT increases in stats. If it only gives you 1 or 2 more points in a needed stat then pass on it. If its a good deal and cheep then pick it up. Warriors and Paladins can have trouble killing stuff unless their gear is up to date. About every 10 levels I cruze the AH for deals when I play a War or Paly. Don't spend alot of money and it doesnt have to be exactly your level and epic. Try to update with quest rewards if you can, but there are dry spells on good gear.

Sometimes instances are a nice break from solo questing. Plus you can normally get a bunch of quest turn ins and some good gear. Don't do instances just for gear. Its not worth your time and effort. The only classes I really recomend doing instances on are pre-lvl20 druids and pre-late 30s priests. Leveling these 2 classes can be really slow during these levels. Druids I recomend getting all the WC quests together, be on the low end of the lvl range, and either a good group or tag along on a runthrough. Runthroughs dont give the best xp but you can finish your quests fast and get some good loot. As a Druid ive gained 3+ levels from running WC once. Only do it once. Priests get pestered to heal instances anyway so you can normally get good groups that take you through instances that give lots of xp. You can be a bit of a mercenary about it. Groups should wait for you to be ready and not give you any grief about your heals (make sure your doing your best though. If your not healing effectivly then you may deserve a little abuse.) Things like screaming "HEAL!!!!" when you are healing, not holding agro on all the mobs, and not pulling agro off you are not acceptable. If you are getting this. Be nice but leave the group. Its not worth your time. Once you get good at ripping stuff down solo style then dont bother with instances unless you want to.

The biggest and most important thing is to have fun!

Sorry, ended up being a wall of text anyway.

Blinkdeath wrote:

OK so I'm not sure if you've noticed or not but it seems that some people have more trouble leveling than others. After having run through the leveling process a hand full of times now, I think I can safely say that I'm a decent leveler. The purpose of this post is to share some of the basic leveling tips (some of which you should already know) as well as some of the things I personally find aid me in speeding things up. It may or may not be useful to you so if you think you can already do a much better job then that's all good and you can just ignore most of this stuff .

Well first things first. I'm sure most of us, gifted as we are, will be aware that the class we choose can influence our leveling pattern and speed. Yes as incredible as it seems some classes are just more suited to speed leveling than others. The hardest classes to level are the Warrior, Paladin and the priest (note that this is a general statement, taking into account things like what spec you choose obviously helps, after all a shadow priest will level faster than a holy spec priest). In the middle tier we have the Rouge, Druid, Shaman and the Mage. This leaves the Warlock and the Hunter as the fastest and easiest classes to level.

Going hand in hand with solo play is survivability. Quite simple really, dieing less is an obvious bonus. You'll notice that all of the faster leveling classes have some sort of ability to help them survive (Feign Death for a hunter, Stealth/Vanish for rogue/druid etc.). You may be thinking that a Warrior with it's tanking ability has great survivability, well this sadly isn't the case. Sure he can tank a ton of stuff but when it comes down to it he lacks the dps and the healing capabilities to go it alone.

OK next is the style in which you level. By this I mean your choice to Quest, Grind or Instance your way through the game. Now don't question me on this because I strongly believe that questing is the fastest and easiest (not to mention enjoyable) way to level. Ok now this may shock some people but have a think why we go through instances (especially if this isn't your first playthrough). We go to find gear correct? Well I'll tell you, not only is running instances the slowest (save for the few exceptions such as SM and ZF) way to level, it's also not worth the gear you pull out of it. Going out of your way to collect gear at lower levels is 100% useless. This includes wasting honor points/marks for gear not at level 70. You should be leveling much too fast for any of this gear to make even the slightest bit of difference. This being said there are some quest rewards that are worth collecting, http://www.wowhead.com/?item=6900 and http://www.wowhead.com/?item=6802 to name a few.

I am sure lock's and hunter's lvl fast solo all the way from 1=60, I wouldn't undserestimate the druids (especially oens that are feral as they should be at these lvl's) are great solo'ers starting from 20 (Cat form). They can kill stuff greatly and fast. Even if they are a couple of lvl's higher they get owned. It get's better once you get some key talents (FFF, HotW, ILotP) and at 50, once mangle comes in, lvl'ing (from what I read and heard) is EZmode. I know I am a druid and I know I lvl slow, but I run instances REAL OFTEN so that kinda explains alot. Druids I would have to say, if smart, can survive long(especially outside). Beat it up in cat, when `40%, if the mob ain't dead, bear, bash him when you can, throw a quick regroth or a roots/hirbernate if needed, then go back to killing.

And haku has a good point. Speed can make a bigh difference in lvling. Less downtime, abd if you can get talents that help your suvivability or DPS, thery should come in 1st if possible.

Hey guys, it's really good to hear a few other peoples opinions on this. I definitely can't say I know everything about the game, (as I'm sure no one can) so the opinions of fellow players are very valuable. I also forgot to mention that in the end how you level really comes down to your own personal play style! Thanks for contributing to the post Haku, Nights

Hey fuck you enchanting paid for my mount and engineering has made farming easier with nades. They are, however, absolutely horrible money sinks.

Dismeeir wrote:

Hey f*** you enchanting paid for my mount and engineering has made farming easier with nades. They are, however, absolutely horrible money sinks.

Fix'd to make sure we are polite. Let's not bring out the heaby words (just yet)