Zygor's Leveling Guide, Reviewed!

Zygor’s Leveling Guide, Reviewed!

Zygor’s Guide for the Win

Is it perfect? Probably not. Do we like it and use it? Oh yeah.

Need to get leveled to 80 (or 85?) Fast?

edit 8/6/10: New guide pics are up, see below.

edit 7/29/10: The Zygor crew is in the Cataclysm beta and the guide will be ready when Cataclysm goes live. As usual, there will be an easy upgrade path to the new guide.

edit: 12/14/09: Zygor’s was updated to version 2.0 a few weeks back. The basic functionality is pretty much the same, but there have been some significant changes. I’ll note some of them here, the rest of the review is largely unchanged and is still applicable.

Improved user interface which allows more customization
Improved step detection as you fly through the quests.
Improved class quests – adds your particular class quests to the guide.
Internal talent guide and automated talent picker. Sure, there are a bazillion talent guides all over the web, and some who might read this have a detailed understanding of the talents and strong ideas of what’s “best.” This thing is for those who might not want to fuss about it. If you like it will select and assign your talents for you so that you don’t have to bother with it (is that making things too easy?) If you want to pick/assign your own, then go for it. It even works with the dual talent build system.
There is a Guide forum on the Zygor site where the admins actually answer questions. You don’t even need to buy the guide to see it. Actually this isn’t new with 2.0, but it’s a good enough forum that it’s worth mentioning.

Disclaimer: Part 1: If you buy the guide through these links I do get a cut. Part 2: With the guide I have leveled a Rogue from 70 to 80, another from 1-65, a DK from 55-75, a Pally from 1-48, a Warrior from 1-38, and various others to lower levels. So I confess, I like this guide.

And so it begins…

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.

Now we have the next step:
Zygor’s Leveling Guides ( for 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.

Actually, there a posts in his forum by people claiming to have done 1-80 in less than 7 days, using the guide.

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.

How is this better than the in-game quest helper thingie? While that shows you the destination of your quests it doesn’t show you the best order in which to take them. Zygor’s show you the optimum path to take to complete the most quests in the least time, which will save you lots of time over the quest helper thingie.

Here’s a shot of the large in-game guide window, updated to Zygor’s current version. (click to enlarge in a new window.) The check marks in the first listed step mean that those tasks have been done. The arrow points to that questgiver (I manually selected that quest, for display reasons.) The next step is to go to Alterac. Note the detail and descriptions of the steps.

Here’s what the small window looks like. (Click the image for the big picture.) 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.

If you had just finished the checked quests above (handed them in) the guide would automatically switch to the next step…

I manually switched to the one after that, to show the arrow (again, click to embiggen.)

By the way, both the guide window and the waypoint arrow can be moved anywhere on screen. I usually keep the arrow top center and the guide at the bottom right, but go ahead an put it anywhere it makes sense for you. You can even disappear the guide window anytime you like. No point in having it up while you’re raiding the other side’s towns, right?

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 and most builds. Naturally, builds that are faster at killing things (Hunters, Rogues, etc.) will go faster than, say, Holy Priests, but everyone should find the leveling path that Zygor presents to be quite good.

Class quests are included. Yeah, even for you Druids out there.

(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.

A PDF guide might have a path that’s just as good, but you’ll spend so much time looking up stuff (locations, quest info, etc.,) that it will end up being much slower than Zygor’s. If the guide has you hunting down Elite mobs, but you’re not up for that, then that quest is just a time waster. Zygor’s avoids the time wasting quests, as well. Overall, we’ve found it easy to use and we can just go boom, boom, boom through the quests. Very nice.

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.

Remember all those questions in the in-game chat, asking what to do or where to go next (for whatever level?) It won’t be you asking those questions.

Here’s a new feature:

With rest XP, recruit-a-friend, or just extra mob munching it’s easy to get ahead of the guide, in the old version. So it might think you’re level 37, but you”re really 38 or 39.

The new feature? The guide will skip quests, sometimes several at a time, and will keep up with you. This is a pretty cool feature, in our opinions.

There is a rare downside to that. For example, the guide took me to Orebor Harborage, in Zangamarsh, and said to make that my home. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough rep to do that since the rep quests had been skipped! (You have to earn enough rep to be, at least, neutral with these guys.)

No biggie, I just collected a few of the local quests, did them and handed them in, and I had enough rep to set the hearthstone and talk to the vendors.

Quibbles? Very few.

See above for a rare quibble about step skipping.
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. I expect the Cataclysm updates might take a few tweaks, but those updates are free.
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 that they need to be a bit more careful.
The instances are not covered at all. If you want to do them, great, but they’re not in the guide and the associated quests aren’t either. Zygor’s guide is intended to be a solo run, though you can certainly do it with a partner.
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 usually 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. The current guide does a good job of keeping pace with you.

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 (though they’re all coming out with in-game guides now.)

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.

Of course, one can argue that it makes the game too easy, but I’m not one of them.

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 activities, not to mention going AFK occasionally, which adds to the time number.

To level 44: 3 days, 20 hours

To level 64: 7 days, 2 hours, with all the usual time wasters, plus learning Inscription.

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. (It will also be ready for Cataclysm, when that expansion is released.)

Learn more about Zygor’s here.