by Robin Torres

Before the Dungeon Finder Tool, leveling through instances just wasn’t possible for those of us with limited playtime unless we had 4 friends with similar schedules and an appropriate selection of classes. But now, we can take advantage of the speedy XP, better gear and grouping practice.

More importantly, dungeons are fun. In order to research this guide, I dusted off a level 18 paladin I hadn’t played for at least 2 years. I picked up skills that were new since the last time she trained, redid her talents and tested the Dungeon Finder waters. It was an absolute blast running through Deadmines with an appropriately leveled group. I’ve also had a great time leveling a priest in her 30s and a mage in her 60s using the Dungeon Finder. If you too want to try some instance leveling (and I bet most of you already have), here are some tips to make the most of it:

Set aside uninterrupted playtime

The great thing about soloing is that you never have to worry about interruptions bothering anyone else but you. And if you have close friends or understanding guildies, you can usually impose on them with non-emergency AFKs as needed. But if you’re going to PUG it up using Dungeon Finder, you should make arrangements to only be interrupted if absolutely necessary. Captain Obvious says it’s inconsiderate to do otherwise. If you’re a parent, I find that after bedtime is great.

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by Christian Belt

So you’ve boarded a ship or zeppelin and headed north to battle the Lich King’s armies. Some general tips for starting out in Northrend:

1. As with Outland, you’ll find a fairly steep difficulty curve increase here, especially if you’ve taken the advice I gave last week and come here at level 68. The monsters hit harder and have more health than their similarly leveled counterparts in Outland. The gap isn’t as drastic as it was when jumping from Azeroth to Outland at 58, but it still could prove a bit of a shock. Be prepared.
2. You’ll find the quest design here to be improved even over that found in Outland. The hubs are all over the place, and multiple quests will send you to the same place. The quests themselves are largely a vast improvement, having relatively clear objectives and being routinely very fun to complete. Clear your quest logs of any leftovers from Outland so you can pick up anything and everything you come across here. Trust me.
3. Quest upgrades are, as with the last expansion, by and large a pretty vast improvement over whatever you’ve got on from Nagrand or Blade’s Edge Mountains. Unless you overstayed your welcome in Outland and managed to get yourself some level 70 epics somehow, you’re going to find upgrades at every hub here. Have fun watching your spellpower, intellect, spirit, and stamina skyrocket. Also, you don’t have to worry about the whole “Hannah Montana back-up dancer” gear aesthetic we talked about last week rearing its hideous head here. Instead, you’ll soon find yourself dealing with the “awesome, now I look exactly like every other clothie on this continent” gear aesthetic. You’ll upgrade gear in Northrend only to discover that the only part of your appearance that has changed is that you’ve gone from one ugly shade of brown to another, slightly uglier shade of brown. Oh well. Maybe the gear reset will be more pleasing to the eye in the next expansion.
4. Go to the instances early. Seriously, Northrend instances are short, fun, and simple. They reward excellent gear, and folks are always looking to group for them. Even DPS can find a group in Northrend, so don’t wait.
5. And while we’re on the subject of instances, I have some sad news to relate: your sheeping services will no longer be needed. Seriously. Thanks to the preponderance of AoE tanking at this point in the game and the overall design of the instances found in Northrend, crowd control has sort of gone the way of the dodo, guys. Have fun pew pewing, though. Every once in awhile you’ll run into a group that requests an occasional Polymorph, in which case you can dust off your sheep hot-key, but most of the time you’ll find that you can just focus on burning things down while the Death Knight holds six different groups of mobs at once. Must be nice.
6. Start raising your reputation with the various factions as soon as humanly possible. Though I won’t be spending much time talking about them in this leveling guide, the Northrend factions will prove to be of vital importance to you once you hit max-level, and a little time spent now completing their various quest lines will make things so much easier to top off at 80. Doing the occasional daily quest can be a nice experience boost as you go along, and the reputations rewards can be very nice gear-slot-fillers at the appropriate levels. So be nice and help those hideous seal-things mate or whatever. It sounds gross, but later on, you can buy a sweet fishing pole and a penguin.
7. Oh, and one huge bummer: No flying mounts. That’s right, the mount you purchased a mere 8 levels ago and have been happily soaring around on through all of Outland is now grounded. To use it again, you’ll need to jump through one of two hoops. If this is your first character, you’ll have to wait until you hit level 77 and then purchase Cold Weather Flying from the trainer in Dalaran (or Sholozar Basin…or the Storm Peaks) for a cool 1,000g. Until then, you’re stuck with your land mount. If your mage is an alt, and you have a level 80 main, you can purchase an heirloom item called the Tome of Cold Weather Flight from the flight trainer in Dalaran for that same 1,000g cost. You can then mail it to your mage the moment he hits level 68, and viola, your mage can fly around to his or her heart’s content.

Choosing a Starting Zone

Northrend offers a choice of two zones to start out in. A lot of folks apparently agonize over this decision. Borean Tundra or Howling Fjord? For the love of god, which do I choose?

Here’s the answer: both. Pick one to do first. Do it. Then go do the other.

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Just follow this step-by-step guide and you got it! Note that this is form a horde POV, the alliance is very similair just with different names. If your looking for a spice that you cant find then mouseover it and it will usually tell you wheres its sold. Like “Sold by the Pilgrim’s bounty vendor in Mulgore”

STEP 1: Talk to the cooking trainer (there’s one available right outside Orgrimmar for the event) and learn the Spice Bread recipe — buy the needed Simple Flour and Mild Spices (sold by the Pilgrims Bounty ingredient vendor nearby), and cook at least 80 bread. The recipe turns gray at 40, but don’t worry about that — be sure to save all the bread you make, as you’ll need it for the next step.

STEP 2: Go to a Pilgrim’s Bounty recipe vendor and purchase the Bountiful Cookbook for 1 silver, and in it you’ll find the Spice Bread Stuffing recipe — learn it, buy Autumnal Herbs, and make the stuffing until you get to 100. Reminder: When you reach 50, go back to your cooking trainer and get Journeyman in cooking so you will continue leveling to 100.

STEP 3: Learn the Pumpkin Pie recipe, buy ripe pumpkins and Honey, and make the pie until you get to 160. (Note: The necessary Ripe Trisfal Pumpkins are only available from a Pilgrim’s Bounty vendor outside Undercity.) Reminder: When you reach 125, go back to your cooking trainer and get Expert in cooking so you will continue leveling past 150 and up to 160.

STEP 4: Learn the Cranberry Chutney recipe, buy tangy cranberries and honey, and make the chutney until 220. (Note: The Tangy Southfury Cranberries required for the recipe are only available from a Pilgrim’s Bounty vendor outside Orgrimmar.) Reminder: When you reach 200, go back to your cooking trainer and get Artisan in cooking so you will continue leveling past 225 and up to 300.

STEP 5: Learn the Candied Sweet Potato recipe, buy the sweet potatoes, honey, and autumnal herbsand make the potatoes until 280. (Note: The Mulfore Sweet Potato required for the recipe are only available from a Pilgrim’s Bounty vendor inside Thunder Bluff. Be sure to get extra sweet potatoes here, as you’ll need them for step 6 also.) Reminder: When you reach 275, go to your cooking trainer in Outlands and get Master in cooking so you will continue leveling past 300.

STEP 6: Learn the Slow-Roasted Turkey recipe, buy the sweet potatoes, and honey, kill Wild Turkeys until you have enough whole turkeys, and cook until you get to 350. (Note: Wild turkeys required for this recipe are only found in Tirisfal Glades.)

I estimate this will cost under 10g, significantly cheaper and easier than leveling your cooking under the usual circumstances.

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by Christian Belt

Level 59

I’m assuming for the purposes of this guide that you’ve taken the advice given in last week’s installment and high-tailed it for Hellfire Peninsula the moment you dinged level 58. This is not to say that you can’t have a great deal of fun spending a few more levels in the lore-rich end-zones of the old world–in fact It’s entirely possible to stay in Azeroth well into the early sixties. This option is undoubtedly attractive to completionists, as you can see everything vanilla WoW has to offer and gain a few more levels before moving on to the first expansion content. But for the sake of efficiency, moving on to Outland at the first opportunity is simply the way to go.

As you explore Hellfire Peninsula, you’ll find that the mobs take longer to kill, but grant far more experience and drop far better loot than their old-world counterparts at the same level. You’ll also discover that the questing is so much better organized it’s ridiculous. Travel time is reduced, you’ll be doing several quests at once in the same area, and you’ll often find additional quest-givers hanging out in the areas you’re questing in, just itching to give you more experience points, loot, and gold for doing what you were already going to be doing anyway. Plus, the quests all reward you with a whole lot more experience points than any quests in the old world will. When talking about leveling, it’s difficult to advise anything other than heading to Outland as soon as humanly possible.

Unless you’ve done some crazy vanilla WoW raiding before you come here, you’ll find that absolutely every cloth quest reward is a massive upgrade over whatever you were wearing before in that slot. For instance, here’s a reward from one of the very first quests you’re handed upon entering Hellfire: The Staff of Twin Worlds. Now compare it to a staff rewarded from an Eastern Plaguelands quest of similar level: Sarah’s Guide. That’s not even in the same ballpark, right?

So spend your first two levels in Outland questing, upgrading as much of your equipment as possible, and gradually morphing into the confused mage/pimp/Hannah Montana back-up dancer featured in Andre’s screenshot. Because while this loot has awesome stats, it also tends to look like a steaming puddle of vomit. I’m not saying, I’m just saying.

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by Christian Belt

Levels 41-49

Sadly, there are no new spells from 41-49, at least not the ones you can learn from trainers. Use this as an opportunity to perfect your mastery of the skills you already have, I guess.

Instances to run in this range include:

• Uldaman (out-of-the-way, but full of good lore, and to an improbably large lady)
• Zul’Farrak (desert trolls, good loot, loads of quests to complete, and on my server, at least, it’s one of the few old-world instances I still see people looking to group for…just be careful not to kill the goblin before he blows up the door to the last boss encounter)
• Maraudon (Incredibly long, and full of plants. Plants that want to eat you. I hate this place. But it does have some good loot.)

Level 50

New spells: Portal: Darnassus or Thunder Bluff

Mages hit several milestones at level 50. First, we get our second major glyph slot. There are a lot of good choices at this point to fill that slot, so take a look at what’s affordable in the auction house and pick something that you like.

Second, you can finally complete your collection of old-world portals by traveling to either Darnassus or Thunder Bluff and snagging the appropriate portal spell there.

And third, more mage quests.

I’ve written about Archmage Xylem before, on several occasions. He hangs out in a tower high in the mountains of western Azshara and just oozes wizardry. At level 50 he’ll hand out the first part in a quest chain to your mage that will eventually lead you to the depths of Sunken Temple, pit you against a pair of giant dragons, and reward you with your choice of a dagger, necklace, or trinket.

Every class gets a similar quest to kill the same dragon, so finding a group for Sunken Temple isn’t as hard as finding one for other dungeons in this range. It’s a difficult and lengthy instance, to be sure, but I’m of the opinion that doing this chain is an essential part of magehood. Plus, that trinket is nice. Don’t waste your reward on either of the other two items. You’ll be replacing them almost immediately. But that trinket…it’ll serve you into Outland and beyond. Unless you’re not a Fire mage, of course. In which case, the trinket sucks. Three cheers for old-world itemization!

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I’m on a battle group where 2v2 skirmish queues are instant, OK so its simple your Cooking level is at 1, make a Campfire then Join a 2v2 Skirmish(or real arena lol) leave asap make a campfire then join another the 2v2 skirmish will reset the cooldown of your basic campfire so you can get another skillup. REPEAT!

It’s not much of a exploit but its something worth knowing for when you wanna do the 1-65 grind quickly

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The leveling guide itself is very simple. Many people thought that with 3.2.2 they completly nerfed the xp rates, this is simply not the case. Pre 3.2.2, Warsong Gulch was completely useless for leveling, but now, you can ding from 10-15 wins!

01-10 < --- questing, should take you just over an hour.

10-20 <--- warsong gulch unlocked, 10-15 wins per level (this is VERY level dependant, infact, WSG is THE worst bg to level in, but dont get put down by the slow start, I usually quest to 20)

20-51 <--- far greater experience gains than from WSG, about 15 wins per ding! Also much more fun than questing, although after 100 games, you'll want to kill yourself!

51-80 <--- Alteric valley unlocked! Your xp/h will shoot through the roof, almost competing with RAF! I have leveled 4 characters to 80 in AV. It is fast, fun and great practise for when you hit 80!
10-15 wins per level (on average). There are also many quests that you may want to check out!

This is the basic guide, but I vary from it for many reasons. The first one, is that it isn't really a viable leveling technique until around about 30, when quests become long and tedious! I usually quest to 30, and then start AB!

Some usuful MUST HAVE tips:

1) Do not buy gear, you do not really need it unless you want to have more fun killing people easier.
2) NEVER hit the honor cap, instead buy your 80 gladiator gear ( this really is a must do, it means that when you finally do hit 80, you are not stuck with level 20 greens)
3) always loot every kill you see, from 70-80 each player gives 25-40s in loot every kill, which will pay for your skills as you level up. I can make 40-80g in one AB from 70-80!
4) IMPORTANT! Variate your BGs so that by the time you hit 80, you have 100 marks of honor in each of your battlegrounds! This is because, at 80, you can hand them in for about 13g each and about 1.5k honor, thats 1.4k gold roughly and 150k honor (+ the honor you get from leveling up), enough to buy all your 80 pvp gear.
5) Everyday, make sure you get the BG daily (now available at all levels) and complete it, no reason to miss the XP and honor!

I only suggest this if you already have a level 80, as you may need some excess funds to get you started and for flying mounts etc.

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My Guide to Recruit A Friend (RAF)
Hello all, after recenty trying the Recruit A Friend (RAF) offer i decided to write a guide upon it. This method allows you to recruit a friend and speed level within days. Upon using this method i got 1-80 in just under a week of real time.

What is RAF?
Recruit A Friend (RAF) is an offer made by Blizzard that allows you to recruit a friend to play The World Of Warcraft.

What benefits does it give?
Summon
Once recruited, both players are able to summon each other by right clicking the other players party portrait and selecting summon.

Experience gain
In addition, both players recieve a 300% bonus to EXP gain when in range of each other, but must be within 10 levels of each other to benefit.

Recruits level grant
Every 2 levels the recruit is able to add an additional level to the recruiter, providing the recruit is higher level.

Mount
If the recruit decides to subscribe to The World of Warcraft, then the recruiter recieves an ingame Zhevra mount.
Swift Zhevra – Item – World of Warcraft – Mount

Gametime
The recruit recieves 10days free gametime upon being RAF’d. The Recruiter then recieves additional gametime if the recruit subscribes to the world of warcraft.

How do i RAF?
To RAF you must first sign in to account management.
https://www.wow-europe.com/account/ – EU
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account/ – USA
Click the Recruit a Friend Tab.
Type in your friends email, and a custom message.

Your friend now needs to log in to their email and click the activational link and create an account.
You can then login, group together, summon and start playing.

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This guide should power-level your fishing skill from 1 to 450 in 11-12 hours. I strongly advise that you do not attempt this in one continuous sitting – it may damage your health.

The method minimises time. Most of your catches will be junk. Consider spending a few more hours leveling to make gold as you skill-up

Here is one very simple method. There are lots of other options, some described below:

1. You will need to be at least level 10, feeling the >Wrath of the Lich King, with about 50 gold.
2. Buy a basic Fishing Pole. These are sold by many trade goods vendors and fishing suppliers.
3. Travel to Howling Fjord: Horde to Vengeance Landing, Alliance to Valgarde. At lower level, Horde travel by zeppelin (from Undercity), Alliance travel by boat (from Wetlands).
4. Find the fishing trainer. For Horde, Angelina Soren, on the docks next to the sea, with an umbrella. For Alliance, Byron Welwick (illustrated right), by the water, with an umbrella, behind the flight master. Learn Apprentice fishing.
5. Fish open water next to the fishing trainer. To learn about basic fishing techniques, please read Your First Catch. Between the fishing skills below, learn a new rank from the trainer:
   • 50-75: Journeyman.
   • 125-150: Expert.
   • 200-225: Artisan.
   • 275-300: Master.
   • 350-375: Grand Master.
6. And that’s it! Overall, half your catches will be junk items. But that does not matter, because every catch contributes to improving your skill. Both trainers in the Howling Fjord are next to water, and train all 6 ranks. So you won’t waste time moving.

Fishing 1-450 Fast – El’s Extreme Anglin’ – WoW Fishing Guide

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