People are always in such a Rush these days. Blasting about with that desperate need to get somewhere ASAP!

Leveling in the World of Warcraft isn’t any different. Get to level 70 in 5 or 6 days (in game time)? Why? Who needs the stress?

So in the interests of slowing down and taking the time to sniff the Peacebloom, I offer you a few tips to level slowly:

• Every time you get a new quest, even if you’ve done it repeatedly, make sure to study every last detail. You might even want to look up some details online, you know, just to be sure.
• Make extensive use of Thottbot.com, and similar sites, when studying quests, lore, and items. While you’re there, make sure you read every comment.
• Go afk as much as possible, especially if you’re on a PvP server. The runs back to your body will give you time to slow down a bit and wash away the stress.
• Head over to the Auction House everytime you level, to look for the next upgrade for your gear, useful potions, etc.
• Don’t bother getting extra or larger bags. They’re just a waste of money. The bag you start with is good enough. When it fills up just head back to town to sell the junk.
• Always ask about your quests in general chat. The quest log is hard to read and is probably wrong, or broken, anyway. Using the WoW forums is even better. Edit: Aendi (see comment) suggests not using this techniques in the starting areas since the advice you’re likely to get will help you zip along faster.
• Play as many alts (alternate characters) as possible. It’s Ok to have 37 (or more) characters between level 1 and 13 across several servers. Really, it is.
• PvP whenever possible. Even PvE servers allows duels and have battlegrounds.
• When you’re grinding away always work on mobs a few levels higher or many levels lower than you. The corpse runs that the higher level mobs have you do will force you to slow down and relax. The low level mobs won’t give you any XP so you won’t have to see that annoying yellow flash when you level.
• When you enter a new area only grab one quest at a time. Take it to it’s conclusion, even if it’s 15 parts long and takes you all over the world. Don’t forget to use Thottbot.com (and read the comments!) as much as possible here. Only grab a new quest when done.
• Girnding is better than questing. You won’t have to worry about the extra XP or quest rewards.
• Enjoy the scenery. The WoW developers went through a lot of effort to build Azeroth and the Outlands, even detailing areas that aren’t normally accessible. Carefully examine every out of the way area, who knows when you’ll get another chance?
• Always practice your emotes, they’re there for a reason, after all.
• Develop your gathering skills, such as herbalism. Hunt down every last flower in an area and pick it (or every last piece of ore, etc.)
• Never ever pick up a WoW leveling guide. If you do you’ll find that the levels will fly by so fast that you won’t have time to enjoy anything. Blech.
• Make sure your in-game buddies are onboard with the above tips. They’ll be happy to help you out. if they’re not and if they’re getting too itchy to blast their way to 70, then you’ll either have to get them to chill, find new friends, or join them. Ugh.

Follow the above rules and your leveling in WoW should be very relaxing and leisurely. You should be guaranteed a leveling speed of at least a month or two of in-game time and a complete lack of stress.

I’m sure there must be many other suggestions that could be added to this list, so If you have any tips to level slowly then just leave a comment.

Edit: Visin makes a good remark in the comments. However, it does need to be improved to fit with this article. So…

• Never ask for advice about how to play your character. That would force you to play more efficiently, thereby leveling faster, and that’s bad. It’s best to stick with what you learned in the training area. Why bother with all those fancy new techniques and abilities anyway?

Edit #2: Matticus has a similar post that’s great fun. 10 Silly Timewasters

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I wish I could claim credit for these, but they’re both from the people at Dominate Your Server. Cool site, great tips, and their emailings are full of good stuff.

1) Never quest out of rest.

Questing is faster than grinding, but only if you have your quests somewhat organized. This is why I like leveling guides. Many players don’t really need them, especially after leveling several characters all the way.

Always stop in an inn when done and always make sure you have rest XP available when playing your toon. When you run out of the rest XP then you hand in whatever quests and log out in an inn to recharge.

If you run out of Rest XP and just have to keep playing then go for it, or farm for items or gold or rep or go kill other players. Heck, log into your auction house banker and do some buying and selling.

If you stick to the rest XP and you have your quests organized you should find yourself leveling very quickly.

1b) Roll several toons and run …

Have lots of playing time? Roll several toons and combine playing them with the rest xp. So when toon #1 is out of the rest xp you log her ouit and log in the net toon. So you’ll have two more characters leveling at pretty much the same rate, you’ll be able to stay in the rest xp zone for 100% of your playing time, and you’ll have those characters all hitting 70 arouind the same time.

2) Never play alone.

If you always pair with someone to do your leveling you’ll find that the levels go by significantly faster.

You’ll get less XP per kill, sure, but you’ll kill things alot faster. You’ll also have less downtime, even if the extent of your healing capability is your first aid skill.

You’ll be able to take on tougher mobs, those silver elites will be much easier, the gold elites will become something to sneeze at, team quests will be a lot easier, and your chances of getting ganked on the PvP server are a little less. Conversely, your chances of successfully ganking others is that much better.

My wife and I play together alot. She’s pretty new, but is coming along quickly. One pair is my Hunter and her Rogue, the other is my Pally and her Hunter.

It works out very well. We truly suck at the PvP part on these toons, but we’ll get there.

Now get back to work.

We’ve put up a couple more Druid guides and a Review of the killer Zygor Leveling Guide. Here ae the links. You can also see them to the right.

• Druid Bear Form Quest, for the Horde
• Druid Bear Form Quest, for the Alliance
• Zygor Leveling Guide review

I’ll post a longer one, presently. (edit 6/12: The longer guide review is here.)

Zygor’s Leveling Guide is one of the newest of the leveling guides and I think it kicks the iDemise guide in the butt. Both of these are in-game guides, but while the iDemise guide is attached to your main map (and it ain’t at all bad) the Zygor guide is present on your main screen at all times.

It’s an addon, so installation is simple. You dump it into your addons folder and it’ll load automatically. If your character is new just start from step 1, otherwise scroll through the guide till you find the right place for your level and go from there.

I ran an Undead Warrior up to 12 and a Blood Elf Paladin up to 16 using the guide and had no issues and never had to consult the quest log.

Here’s a screenshot of the minimalized guide

• Note the waypoint arrow at the top of the screen. It also lists the current quest, special things to look out for, and the distance to go to reach the objective.
• Note the bright dot on the mini-map, marking the goal. There’s also one on the big map.
• The quest box appears on the main screen at all times, but you can get rid of it by clicking the X at the top right corner. Bring it back by hitting the ZY button on your mini-map (in the 8:00 position in this screenshot)
• Level and quest objectives are also tracked.

Here’s another screenshot showing the full guide.

• Note the dot on the mini-map and the waypoint at the top of the screen.
• Also note the expanded guide showing the quest list. Quests that have been finished are greyed out, while the current quest is highlighted.
• Sometimes the guide will not update the current quest. If that happens just click the next one and it’ll pick with up from there.
• The guide also keeps track of your level and your exect stop in the guide. If you log out (you do log out sometimes, don’t you?) the guide will remember your position and start up from that point when you come back. Try that with a PDF or the iDemise guide.

Class quests are not included. You’ll have to grab those on your own, they’re not part of the guide. But then again, Joana’s Guide only had the Hunter quests and the iDemise guide has none, either.

Where to go next is also detailed. New to a zone and not sure where to go to get to the next one? Zygor’s will show you the way.

Notes: I didn’t have to look at the quest logs at all. No trips to Thottbot or any of the other WoW sites and I hardly looked at the big map, except to keep an eye on my location.

How much time do you think you’ll save on your blast to 70 by not having to consult your quest logs, thottbot, the main map, or having to set your own waypoints?

The perfect guide? Well, for that it would have to include the class quests. It would also have to remind you to grab flypoints, repair your gear, go to the bathroom, get something to eat …

So check it out here

This is interesting because I’m not the fastest leveler in the world. I got my Rogue to 70 in just over 15 days time (using Joana’s Guide,) which is Ok, but it’s not breaking any records.

So here are a few things which slow me down, besides lack of experience, and what do do instead. This assumes that you’re leveling solo:

• Skip the looting. On my way to 70 I looted everything and skinned everything skinable. You get the loots, but it does slow one down. If you don’t need the loot or skins then skip the looting. Just kill and move to the next. Youi’ll save a lot of time over those 70 levels.
• Skip the gathering and gold grinding. For the same reasons. On your blast to 70 you might want to be as ruthlessly efficient as possible. Besides, if you follow the gold blueprint you won’t really need to gather.
• Skip the PvP. If you’re on a PvP server just put up with the ganking you’ll get and move on.
• Keep yourself in decent gear. By decent I’m talking about gear for leveling, not raids or PvP. Green gear will do you fine. Upgrade it every 10 levels or so.
• Let your mule do the buying. You should have an Auction House Mule. This is a low level character that will live at the AH 100% of the time. This character will do all of your buying and selling. Your mule buys the gear, then mails it to your main character. You’ll save plenty of time doing it this way. Your main should never visit the AH.
• Never visit the Vendors, except to resupply, repair, and sell your grey stuff. Everything halfway decent gets shipped to your mule.
• Get a Guide: I used Joana’s Guide for my Rogue, but I think Zygor’s Guide will get you there faster, not because the path is necessarily better, but because the guide in 100% in-game and visible on screen at all times and waypoints are set automatically. You’ll never have to switch to your main map or a pdf again. It also remembers where you were when you log out.
• Log out in an Inn. Get that rest XP. Most of us have to log out sometime, might as well do it at the inn.
• Never go AFK: If you want a fast /played time you don’t want to have your character sitting around doing nothing. Besides, if you’re on a PvP server you’re likely to come back to the computer to find your character is dead. Log out if you’re going to be afk for more than a few seconds.
• Hunters are faster, but Rogues do it from behind. A hunter will have far fewer repairs (never engaing in melee) and somewhat less need to keep his gear up to date, given a decent pet. This is why Joana and Brian used hunters for their speed leveling. If you find other classes to be more fun then by all means use them. Zygor’s guide is not class specific.
• Spec yourself for leveling: assign your talents to allow faster leveling. Some talents are great for raids and/or PvP, other are better for faster PvE. You can always respec later, it’s easy and cheap the first couple of times.
• Group your quests: Pick up a bunch of quests at a time. You’ll find that you can do two or three or four in one small area. Do all those at the same time. This is one reason that guides are so nice. All the quests are grouped, useless ones are dumped, and you do a lot less traveling.
• Questing is better than Grinding: You’ll level twice as fast by questing. ’nuff said.

The idea here is to be ruthlessly efficient. Dump anything that slows down your “get quest and finish quest” time. If you can do a quest without reading the quest description then don’t read it.

A full review of Zygor’s Guide is coming soon. It looks to me like it’ll be the fastest leveling thing out there, partly because it’s an efficient path, but mostly because it’s all right there on your main screen. Check it out here.

Joana’s 1-70 Horde Leveling Guide is a step-by-step guide that will take your Horde character, of any race or class, to level 70 very quickly. The entire leveling path is laid out in an easy to follow manner and is exactly the same path that Joana uses to set speed leveling records.

In a way you could call it a HUnter Leveling Guide since Joana always uses Hunters for those speed records and since the guide contains all the Hunter pet quests. I ran through the guide as a Rogue, from 1 to 70, and had few problems. Most classes should be able to get through the entire guide with little problem.

Some things to point out: There are some Elite quests. Go here, kill this elite mob. Well, as a Rogue (and pretty new to the game) I quickly learned that the Elites were better left to groups or for a time when I was a few levels higher. However, Joana solos them and so does my kid (with a Hunter,) so it can be done.

Some of the quests are group quests, especially once you hit Ouitlands. Like groups? No problem. Hate groups? Guess you’ll have to skip them or gain a few levels, get some uber gear, and try again.

I think you’ll find that Joana’s Guide will move you along that leveling path pretty quickly. My time to 70 was just over 15 days (using the /played command to check,) but this was my first character past level 5. On either side. My next one will be a lot faster. I’l post it when it happens (it’ll be awhile.)

You can check out Joana’s Guide directly, here, or you can check out a more in depth review:

• Joana’s 1-70 Horde Leveling Guide Review

Here’s a cool leveling guide by TeamiDemise. These guys are a professional (yeah, they make money from it) Counterstrike gaming group and they’ve brought their talents to WoW. I don’t think I’d want to be on the other side of these guys in a battleground or arena.

Anyway, they’ve put their talents into a leveling guide that’s pretty cool. What makes it really cool is that it’s entirely in-game. It’s built into the Map Notes addon so you never have to alt-tab to some website to see what’s next.

Load the guide, bring up your in-game map, and you’ll see step 1, step 2, etc for every zone. Follow their path, which includes plenty of notes and remarks, and you should hit 70 very quickly.

One hit, which probably only applies to new players, is that there’s no info on how to get from one zone to the other. Another is that there are a few typos. Proofreading was not a high priority. Still, the content is very accessible and very good.

The iDemise guide is available for both Horde and Alliance.

You can see a complete review here: The TeamiDemise Leveling Guide review, or you can go here and check it out directly.