World of Warcraft Leveling - The right way

So, you've finally decided it's high time you dropped the training weights of inexperience and begin the real leveling sprint. The big question is, where to start?

Well, that's a fairly hard to answer question quite honestly. Throughout all sections of the game a variety of different strategems as well as tips & tricks can avail you, it's all dependent upon both your class, where you happen to be at the time, etc.

All things considered certain classes will have an immense advantage over others right from the get-go. Hunters and rogues often take top place amongst the fastest killers and therefore levelers in the game whereas the sturdy yet not what one would call speedy paladin brings up the rear in most cases.

This is all due to a number of positives and negatives specific to each class, in the example provided above I demonstrate this. A decent rogue or hunter will *always* kill faster than a paladin, yet to make up for this the paladin gains vast amounts of survivability as well as numerous other support abilities, meaning less corpse runs yet in general longer kill-times.

So, how would one go about leveling a paladin at a fast rate, especially given that we've already designated them a slow killer? Questing, and not just normal questing, oh no, I mean hardcore maximum bang for your buck questing! but I get ahead of myself here.

In closing, if you're looking for the specific tactical layout of exactly what to do and where to go at all times, then I'd instead recommend checking out the iDemise Alliance & Horde leveling guides, it'll definitely erase any difficulties you may experience in the leveling process - However, should you simply be an avid gamer looking to pick up the pace and learn a few tips & tricks that'll likely help in the long-run, read on.

Aye, for the first portion of our require reading we'll be focusing our strategic and tactical analysis strictly to those which pertain to Azeroth, leaving that fancy-pants Outland nonsense for later.

Now, why would I do that? Well it's simply due to the fact that Outland serves up a much more lavish dish for our leveling appetites. Azeroth on the other hand is a rather bit more stingy about spreading the love(experience.)

To make this easier on myself and you as well, lets illustrate the major points of leveling faster in handy dandy bullet-point style:

Quests, quests, and more quests!
This is primarily a requirement for those of us who happen to favor the slower variety of classes, as mentioned above paladin, warrior, mage, and a few others.

It's also not so much how many quests you happen to pick up at any one time, but rather the magic lies in efficient questing, strategic questing, and so on.

What's strategic questing you ask? It's that rare form of making a pre-planned method of attack upon the vast quest log you've built up, designating certain zones to be completed specifically when you gain the most.

When killing the ogres in (insert dungeon here) you also retrieve the war-banners for quest-B and possibly kill the ogre chieftan for that third quest you picked up back at town as well - this alone will speed your leveling time up immensely.

Never stop, mash them keys!
Well, this is really quite a simple one to explain actually, and it probably only applies to a small number of those reading as most have formed this habit already, but good advice it is nonetheless.

Never stop moving, ever. Now you've killed a monster, finished up a quest even in the process. Don't stand around and check the quest log while the world passes you by, smash that auto-run key like your life depends on it and navigate your way to the next quest zone while you read.

This also applies to any and all other menu's and options. No matter what you may be doing, always be on the lookout, searching for the next kill, quest object, whatever it may be.

Laying the groundwork for your success
This ones a biggy, and it's one I often skipped out on myself when leveling my first few characters to 60 and it's all about the flight paths.

Flight paths are crucial to giving you easy access from town to town as you beat various quest chains, always get them no matter what.

Even if it'll take you ten, fifteen, maybe even twenty minutes out of your way to reach a new town/flightpath in the vicinity, grab it anyway, the time lost now is negligeble to the possible lost minutes when you really need to get somewhere.

These three points cover what are likely the three largest wastes of time in any inexperienced players average leveling session. Learn them, live them, love them.

Some other lesser yet nevertheless helpful things to pick up are addons, modifications to the interface, the most popular being Mapnotes, an easily accessed in-game marking system that was notably used for the iDemise Leveling Guides much like you can as well.

Others to look for would be

Now, before we move on to the next section, one last tip. Always check the auction house for any future quest items you'll require, a good example of preparation is the Chasing A-Me-01 quest in Un'goro crater.

Enter unprepared and you'll feel the rage of making a trip to the auction house, a large waste of time, and possibly discovering that the item in question isn't even avaliable!

Outland is truly the most well designed and lavishly developed portion of the game so far. This is likely due to Blizzard's increased experience when it comes to giving players what they want, these improvements also seen in the newly added Draeni & Blood Elf starting zones.

As a result you'll be able to breathe a large sigh of relief the instant you set foot into Outland and leave behind the comparatively hectic and poorly developed level grind that is Azeroth.

For one, you'll now be able to pick up any and all quests for an entire zone with ease, the NPC's being located in at most two or three central areas, a big difference to Azeroth's haphazard placement of quests locations.

However, for all the changes in location, placement, and overall design, our strategies for maximizing leveling speeds remain largely the same - It's simply become far easier for the otherwise slower classes such as healers to catch up to the speed demon DPS players.

This is also where money starts to become a much larger factor. Not only is the auction house filled to the brim with Outland-class gear upgrades, but you also have that level 70 flying mount to worry about.

Thankfully Outland has such a large amount of cash-cow questing as well as a general increase in the rewards for simple objectives that creating a decent cash surplus has become much easier, it just takes some skill.

Now, read on below for a few tips of increasing the positive cash flow while you make your way through both Azeroth and Outland.

Making money is always fun, it's something to pursue throughout the entire leveling process as well due to the simple fact that money makes everything easier. Whether it be for a mount, simple armor repair bills, or to support an unhealthy auction house appetite, money makes the world of warcraft go round.

Now that we've established money is good, lets get on to some of the methods of making money in an efficient manner to coincide with our leveling shall we?

First thing, professions, they rock, mining, herbalism, skinning, and disenchanting, all good gathering professions - although disenchanting is merely a part of enchanting - and all great moneymakers.

Quest saving, the art of attempting to complete as few Outland quests before you hit 70, allowing you to reap the rewards of increased gold sums for completing them post-70.

Dailies, another prime money-making endeavor for anyone level 70 and looking to pick up and epic flying mount or two, also a good way to support gold-guzzling crafting professions.

Mote farming, and for that matter farming any of the many valued crafting recipe required items throughout Outland, you could even extend this to reputation item farming for more profit.

Now, I've given you the short overview of moneymaking opportunities, you can either take this and run with it, or you can check out a guide I highly recommend - Valkor's Gold Making Guide, you won't regret it.