I’ve been playing World of Warcraft since shortly after it went live and I would find myself lagging behind some of my buddies in leveling. I put in the time, but until I read a World of Warcraft Leveling Guide, I wasn’t leveling intelligently.
I’ve discovered there are basically three ways that people level their characters. You can play by the seat of your pants, as I was doing. You can do quests. Or you can grind.
When we first start a new game like World of Warcraft, I think we all just explore the content. You might visit the guys in your starting area with question marks over their heads and complete those quests, grind a few mobs along the way and move to the next area the quest givers send you.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this way to play. There is a certain thrill as you experience the wonder of World of Warcraft for the first time. However, if you are on your second or third character and even beyond that, the thrill is gone and you probably want to get to the end game.
That leads to the second way you can level in Warcraft – you can grind mobs. Grinding allows you to stay in one area for a longer period of time and you’ll probably get better overall drops than the quester, but grinding gets quite boring. It’s also not the way WoW was meant to be played.
The final way to level is considered the best by the fastest levelers out there. The creator of Joana’s Guide claims to have set the 1-60 record of leveling by hitting 60 in just 4 days, 20 hours played. The guide’s creator quests 90% of the time and grinds just 10% of the time – generally when running from one quest location or giver to another.
Brian Kopp, the creator of an Alliance 1-70 World of Warcraft Leveling Guide, claims to have gone from 1-70 in about 8 days, 20 hours, and 38 minutes. Brian also espouses the questing method of leveling.
Questing not only allows you to level faster, but you also get to experience the content Blizzard spent all that time creating. You will also certainly find yourself less bored.
When I decided I needed to do something different to level quicker, I bought World of Warcraft Joana’s 1-70 Horde Guide. I noticed immediately that following the guide, I was able to not only find all the quests I needed to do, but also was showed the order to do the quests. This guide is incredibly well put together and includes videos showing you exactly how Joana leveled so quickly. The quests in the guides are linked to Thottbot and Allakhazam.
Joana’s Guide is incredibly comprehensive and uses only legal ways to level. There are no exploits! I heartily endorse Joana’s Guide with one exception – if you want to level an Alliance character. Joana’s guide is for Horde characters only.
If, however, you are looking for an Alliance alternative to Joana’s Guide, Brian Kopps 1-70 Alliance Leveling Guide should do very nicely. Again, Brian shows a quest-centric approach to leveling with almost every quest linked to Thottbot.
Joana's Guide and Kopps Guide are awesome sources of leveling information. They are widely considered to be the best of the World of Warcraft Leveling Guide options.
