Zygor's Leveling Guide, Reviewed!

Zygor’s Leveling Guide, Reviewed!

Zygor’s Guide for the Win

Need to get leveled to 80? Fast?

edit 10/30: Zygor’s guides have been updated for the 3.0+ patches and will be Wrath ready (1-80 leveling) when WotLK is released.

edit 12/31: Totally updated for Wrath, when it was released in Nov, the guides have been updated a couple of times since then. The updates are free.

edit: 4/17: Updated for the 3.1 patch.

What I’m going to do here is go into some other guides, first. This will give some background on why we think Zygor’s Leveling Guides are so cool. Just scroll down if you want to skip this part and get to the review.

In the Beginning

In the beginning there was Joana’s Horde Leveling Guide. For Horde only, it promised, and delivered, on a fast path from level 1 to level 60. It was later updated for the Burning Crusade expansion and offered a fast path to level 70. (I used Joana’s to get my Rogue from 1 to 70. )

Shortly thereafter, Brian’s Alliance Leveling Guide came out, offering a similar system for Alliance characters.

Both of these excellent (and they are) guides had a lot of similarities, besides being Hunter oriented and solo friendly.

They offered a fast and efficient route to 70
Little, if any, need for grinding. Everything is based around the quests.
They were both PDF documents (digital ebooks.)
They were both built around the Hunter class, arguably the fastest leveling class in the World of Warcraft.
Both guides have links to sites such as Thottbot.com for extensive info on every quest in the guide.
Both guides eliminated the need for grinding to level.
Both guides come with a customized version of the Map Notes addon which heavily modifies the in-game map, adding coordinates for the location of every quest in the guide. Get the quest, get the cords from the guide, enter the map, find the point, set your waypoint, and follow the arrow to your destination. Couldn’t be easier, right?
Both guides are intended for the solo player, so don’t require you to group (generally) or enter any instance (ever.)
Both guides also offered extra goodies, such as builds, tips, and user submitted guides for the various classes.
Both are printable, so you can print ‘em out, put them on a clipboard, and check off things as you go.
Both guides will still get you leveled at a very nice pace.

As with all things there were a couple of issues that could be directed at either guide, or any other ebook type guide:

Since they’re both ebooks you have to switch back and forth between game and ebook. Unless you are/were among the few, the proud, the owner of two monitors crowd.
Not all the quest detail was included in the guides, though Brian’s did have more than Joana’s. This meant not only reading the guide, but also the quest log and the occasional link to Thottbot & Co.
If you leave the game you’ll have to remember where you left off.
The leveling path was built around using a Hunter character and run by a player who knows how to use that character well. For the average player running, for example, a Paladin, the guides could be frustrating in spots, due to the level of the mobs. I played through Joana’s Guide with a Rogue (all the way from 1-70) and was able to deal with most everything, except for a few elites and I skipped most all of the group quests.

The next level in leveling guides, such as the TeamiDemise Leveling Guide, put the entire guide in-game. This is slick. You go to the in-game map and see a listing, like this: step 1, step 2, step 3… Click the step and the marked point on the map glows, making it easy to find and set a waypoint.

The iDemise guide wasn’t class specific, either. Play what you want and the guide would get you leveled in good style. It also included Pro Tips, which are cool. No more switching back and forth to a pdf, either.

The only real hits were some typos, the need to switch back and forth to the in-game map, and that you already had to know how to get from zone 1 to zone 2, since the guide offered no help in that area. Not an issue for experienced players, but definitely one for new players.

edit - The iDemise guide has now been updated to version 3, and now shows on your main screen. It’s not automated in the way Zygor’s is, but it’s a nice step.

So now we have the next step:
Zygor’s Leveling Guides (Horde and Alliance.)

John Cook has put this thing together and we think it’s pretty darn cool. He advertises a leveling speed of less than 7 days for the 1-80 trek. Given the way this guide is put together, and assuming some fast and efficient leveling on our part (don’t take the scenic route, etc.) then I think that many of us will be able to at least come close to that speed.

So here’s how Zygor’s Guide works:

No more switching: The entire guide is in a small, resizable window on your main screen. All the detail that you need to complete the quest is included. You’ll never have to switch back to a PDF, a website, or even the in-game main map to see where you have to go or what’s next.

Here’s a shot of the in-game guide windows:

Here’s what it looks like in-game. Click the image for the big picture (it’ll open in a new window.) Note the detail in the small window, to the right, plus the mark on the mini-map, and the waypoint arrow (top) with the extra detail.

This next one shows the expanded guide. Note that quests completed are grayed out. Log out, come back, and the guide will pick up from where you left off. (Click the image for the big picture.)

One of the very cool things about Zygor’s Guide is that it’s automated. Not only do you not have to manually switch from game to guide, you won’t even have to click to the next quest. Complete a quest and the guide will automatically update to the next quest. The guide does it for you (usually, sometimes you’ll have to click to the next quest on your own.) It really is like having someone giving advice over your shoulder. Here’s the next quest, here’s what you need to get…

No more setting waypoints: They’re all set for you automatically, and include distance and time to target. Plus, a dot is placed on both your mini and main maps, if you want to use them. Each time you are on a quest you follow the arrow, and do what you need to do.

This system makes it pretty hard not to find your objective.

No more having to remember where you are: the guide remembers all. Log out and come back in a week and you can pick right up from where you left off.

Starting off at some mid level? Come into the guide from any level, scroll through, find and click the quest you want to start with, and the guide will take it from there. Zygor suggests starting the guide a level or two before your level. This is to allow you to work you way into the local quest chains. Just skip the chains for quests you didn’t pick up along the way, or the quests that you already did.

The entire path of quests is visible in the guide window. You can scroll forward or back at anytime. Want to skip something? Click the next quest in line and the previous quest is grayed out.

By the way, all the quests are grayed out as they are completed, so you can always see where you are at a glance, plus where you’ve been and where you want to go next. Want to skip a quest? Just click the next one and the skipped one will become gray.

No more Thottbot - Enough detail is included so that you rarely have to look at your quest log or thottbot or any other resource, it’s all in the guide. Previous guides (eg: the PDF guides) linked all the quests to Thottbot.com (and related sites,) which is cool, but scanning Thottbot will slow your leveling speed way down.

The leveling path is not class specific: Zygor’s can be easily run with any character class. One of the ways this is handled is by the path taken, another is by including some extra grinding in places, to ding that next level before moving on.

Class quests are included.

(You’re also reminded to grab the flypoints and when to set your hearthstone.)

Is the path faster than that of any other guide? I can’t really answer that, not having played through all of them to 80, but you will certainly move at a good pace. You will never wonder about where to go next. Consider this, also: Zygor advertises a 1-80 time of under 7 days. That’s as fast as anybody does it. Plus…

No more having to set waypoints, they’re set automatically. That’s a time saver.
No more having to switch back and forth between game and website or pdf, it’s all on the main screen, saving more time.
No more having to dig into quest details, all the detail you need is in the guide, on the main screen. Just follow the arrow and level.
No more having to visit Thottbot and the others. Think of how much time that will save you.

Now how much time will all that save you on your path to 80? Just using Thottbot can waste a lot of time. Just the fact that you don’t have to do all the time wasting lookup stuff is going to cut huge amounts of time off your leveling.

The home page for the guide says that using it is like having a leveling guru giving you constant advice. Having used the guide for a quite some time now I’d say that’s pretty accurate. You’ll always know what to do and where to go next, automatically.

Leveling is now almost a no-brainer.

Quibbles? Very few.

All classes will arrive in a common zone at level 13 (Westfall for Ally, the Barrens for the Horde.) This certainly isn’t an issue unless you like the 10-20 zones for Blood Elves and Draenei (Ghostlands and Bloodmyst Isle.) For example, I like leveling Blood Elves in the Ghostlands and John skips that entirely (says he doesn’t like that area.) Still, if you like those areas yourself then level there anyway and rejoin the guide later. Same with any other area.
Class quests are skipped entirely, but they are skipped in all the other guides, too. Except for Hunters, which Joana’s and Brian’s Guides cover. Still, I’d like to see a reminder to do the quests and where to go to get them, even if the walkthrough isn’t included.
Zygor’s Guide now covers all of the important class quests! Nice enough if you’re doing an easy quest, but some of those Druid quests can really use something like this. Very cool.
Every once in awhile the guide doesn’t update automatically. It’s easy to fix, though. Just click the next item manually and you’ll be back on track. Originally the Northrend quests didn’t all update automatically, but updates have corrected this.
There are times when you will be fighting things a couple of levels higher than your character. This is easy enough for some, but others might find it a bit rough.
Originally there was some grinding from time to time, but this has been removed in the current guide. For me, I just used rest XP, killed a few extra mobs here and there, and was usualy at least a level ahead of the guide. For example, At level 44 I was over a full level ahead of the guide, which certainly made the quests that much easier. This was with just a little extra grinding here and there.

In conclusion -

Our family has four WoW players, ranging from pretty new to very experienced. We all agree that Zygor’s is our leveling guide of choice. Having all the necessary info right there on the main screen has pretty much spoiled us for any of the other guides.

It’s easy for the new player to follow and efficient enough for the experienced player to want to use it. That’s a tough act, but John pulls it off nicely and his Zygor’s Guide rocks.

Give player A a copy of Zygor’s Guide and Player B a copy of any of the other guides. Everything else being equal (such as player experience) I think you’ll see the Zygor’s user (Player A) getting to 80 long before Player B. Not having to do the switching or looking up quest details will save large amounts of time.

Need to get a character to 80 fast?
Then get your copy of Zygor’s Leveling Guides here.

Edit: Dwarf Rogue time to level 30: 1 day, 22 hours, 58 min. This includes time for mining, skinning, visiting the AH, and a few time wasting activies.

To level 44: 3 days, 20 hours

My Rogue is 78 now, everything past dinging level 70 has been with Zygor’s guide. I’m not setting any speed records, though. I’m spending too much time exploring, making glyphs, and so on. The next character I run through Northrend will level much faster.

edit: As I mentioned above Zygor’s guides is completely ready for Wrath of the Lich King, so you will be able to blast to 80 in record time.

edit: Dinged 80 some time back, well before the end of the guide.

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