Joanas Horde Guide Review

Dings? The Guide has Dings?

First off, if you're Alliance then, as I mentioned above, you need to go elsewhere. Zygor has a solid 1-85 Alliance Leveling Guide.

Secondly, Joana's Guide is an ebook. This means that you'll be switching back and forth between game and guide, which will slow you down somewhat. The 70-80 part is in-game and the 1-70 in-game part will be a future (free!) update.

Not all the quest detail is included - You will have to read your quest logs from time to time, you may find yourself clicking some of those Thottbot links, and the videos are cool.

It helps to be a Hunter - Joana's Horde Guide was built using Hunters. Mostly because they are the fastest leveling of all classes and when you're doing speed runs then that's what you want. Joana includes Hotkeys for Warlocks in his guide (as well as for Hunters) and I got through the guide as a Rogue.

Assuming that you're playing a class which can solo effectively then I think any class will be able to use at least 98% of this guide. There are a few quests which involve fighting Elites, which Joana is skilled enough to handle, but these are easily skipped.

If you're not adverse to joining the occasional team then there's nothing in this guide that you won't be able to handle.

He does a good job of noting which quests require groups or involve fighting Elites, so read carefully and you'll be fine.

Instances and raids aren't covered - but then, it's a leveling guide, not a dungeon/raid guide.

So how was it going through Joana's Guide as a Rogue? When I started I didn't know Durotar from Stormwind or the love some level 70 characters have for ganking chacters of much lower level (though I had some inkling, since my boys have played for a loooong time.) Thank goodness for stealth!

I also spent a fair amount of time exploring, doing some extra grinding here and there, and had a fair amount of AFK time. I also occasionally came back from the AFK to find my character dead. So now I hide a little better. ;) So a speed run it wasn't.

Still, there was never a question about what to do or where to go. The leveling was fast and smooth, especially for a newb player.

Some players will wonder, in chat, about where to go and what to do at any given level. There's never a doubt with Joana's Guide.

Ok, on to the plusses:

So just what DO you get in Joana's Horde Leveling Guide? Well, it isn't just a step-by-step guide to go from 1 to 80.

Every single quest in the guide is linked to either Thottbot or one of the other quest help databases. If the guide or the quest log just doesn't offer enough help, click the link and you'll get far more detail.

The comments that accompany the quest data is where the real gold is. Many of the commenters offer detailed walk-throughs of the quest in question and every quest in the guide is linked.

Want videos? Every bit of the entire 1-60 run is covered with videos. You can either watch the whole run or any of many segments detailed just one quest. This can be a big help if some quest is just a bit confusing. As a newb-elf Rogue I used the videos a few times. Joana has plans to make videos for the 60-80 sections, as well.

Regular Updates: Joana does update the guide as needed, and it has been updated several times over the years, and now again for Wrath of the Lich King.

You'll get notice of all new updates as they come out, including any new videos.

It's an eBook

Earlier I mentioned that a small hit against the guide might be the fact that it's an ebook, so you have to switch out of the game to read it (or have two monitors.)

I simply printed out pages from the Joana Guide, put them on a clip board, and checked things off as I went through them. That made following though the guide really easy.

Custom Maps

For all the quests that have specific locations there is a coordinate assigned and that coordinate has already been entered into the Map Notes addon.

Bring up your big map, find the coordinate, set a waypoint, and you'll be able to run right to it.

The 70-80 part of the guide take that a few steps further in that you don't even have to set the waypoints, the guide does it automatically.

A fast leveling path from 1-80 by someone who's been there and done that, many times and now you can learn all his Horde leveling secrets. You also get all the extra goodies, which are listed on his home page.

So what you do get is a

* Time proven guide that's been around since the beginning of World of Warcraft, and constantly updated

* Links to Thottbot (and other sites) for in-depth quest info

* Videos of the entire 1-60 run plus many videos for higher level quests

* Regular updates

* User Submitted Guides, including guides for Death Knights

Think all of that'll get you to 80 fast?

Then click the link and snag your copy of Joana's Horde Leveling Guide here.