The World of Warcraft (WoW) is a huge virtual world, so big that most of the other Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) games can’t touch it. What this means for you is that you won’t see all of it if you take just one character all the way to the maximum level (which will be 85 with the Cataclysm expansion.) With that size comes all kinds of things to do, plus arenas, battlegrounds, raids and dungeons, thousands of quests, and more.
If you want to get leveled as rapidly as possible, perhaps to join your friends at higher level or get to the end-game content sooner, you might find the number of quests and objectives to be daunting. If you follow a few rules, though, you can greatly speed up your leveling, regardless of class or faction. The fastest way to get leveled, of course, is with a professionally created product, like the Zygor Guide, but that’s only for the people who really need to get to max level ASAP.
There are a few time killers that you need to be aware of. PvP is great fun (for many of us,) but it doesn’t help you get leveled. Shopping is great sport, especially if you have a full wallet, but it doesn’t get you to 80 any faster. Hanging around town, lying about your exploits with your pals, spreading malicious rumors about the other faction, won’t get you to 80 or 85 any sooner. Not that you shouldn’t slaughter them at every opportunity or inform your associates about just how slimey the other side really is, just be aware of the time cost.
There are a couple of ways to gain experience faster than the normal way. The first is the tried and true “rest XP.” End your game session an Inn and when you come back to the game you will get the bonus XP. The longer you stay in the Inn then the longer the XP lasts. The other is World of Warcraft’s Refer a Friend program. What this does is link your account to your “friend’s” and then the two of you team up, kill together, and get 3x the normal XP.
Besides the better XP from Recruit a Friend, teaming will speed your leveling because, even though the basic XP gain is smaller, you will kill things much faster and have a lot less downtime. This gives you a big advantage over going solo. The catch, of course, is that you have to have a compatible partner, which is easier for some to find than for others.
For now just skip all of the crafting professions, since they’ll slow you down. If you have enough gold then go ahead and skip the gathering professions. The idea is to control anything that will slow you down. marketing your loot is one such example. Make a “banker” character, which will live at the Auction House (AH.) Then, instead of heading the big city to sell your better loot, just mail it to your banker. Log into the banker when you’re done and post your stuff on the AH. You’ll also want to have the biggest bags you can afford. You’ll be able to collect a lot more loot before returning to that mailbox.
You don’t always have to train when the opportunity presents itself, you can skip that trip to the trainer if the new skill(s) isn’t worth the effort. Don’t buy new stuff all the time. It’s fine to wait a few levels before upgrading your gear. Of course, certain classes can go alot longer without upgrades than others, Hunters, for one, but even the gear dependent (Warriors) don’t need to upgrade all the time.
Do quests instead of just grinding and group your quests. Any time you pick up new quests group them by area. Any quests that are in the same area will be done at the same time. If you’re going to hit a dungeon try to get as many dungeon quests as you can. If you want to go into the big city then save all your city quests for that time. The worst way to go is to do one quest that takes you all over the place, then hand it in and do another which hits the same areas.
Just by following a few easy steps and by organizing your time and how you do things you will greatly improve your leveling speed. An expert leveling guide will really speed things up, but even without one you’ll still have fun and be faster than most people. And isn’t that the point?
