Level-up Your WoW Characters Much Faster

I know you will have read all sorts of ads telling you how you can get to the highest rank in a matter of days. The claims are misleading, because when they say days they mean 24 hours of play = one day. Not so excited, now are you? However, when you have read the rest of what I have to say you will have discovered ways to drastically reduce the amount of time it takes to rank up a character. It's the next page the page for the too lazy/did not read version, but be aware it is impossible to convey all the nuances of the game in a TL/DR version.

There are many guides telling you the best route to take to complete quests extremely quickly. Ask your most experienced Guild member and he's likely to tell you that there is no best route. What he might tell you is that to pick an Alliance Blood Elf would be a good choice because the quests are concentrated in a relatively small area. Certainly, up to a certain level they are, but Blizzard want you to explore the world and will gradually, through the quests, move you on.

Let’s face it exploring is what we want to do too. It does not take long to realise that WoW awards experience points (XP) for exploring the map, which is why questing is the quickest way to rank-up. Battlegrounds and dungeons add another dimension to the game but bear in mind how long you must wait to join one. As a healer or Tank dungeon wait times are usually very short.

There is a great deal of debate about dungeon grinding (constantly doing them) being quicker than questing for gaining experience and ranking faster. In my opinion questing whilst queuing for dungeons is the way to go, especially if you like variety. Random dungeons give more XP, but you will get bored if you find yourself in the same dungeons time after time, so be aware of that possibility. I do suggest completing the dungeons you have been given quests for, as you will get the added XP from the quest, the dungeon exploration, and the kills. You will find that on entering a dungeon any more available quests are offered by the NPCs.

What I suggest you always do is read up on a quest you are having problems with at WoWHead. This will give you all the information necessary to decide whether the quest is a good one or not, and will save you real money in not purchasing one of the many quest guides. There is a WoWHead add-on for your quest book called LightHeaded , which gives you a direct in-game link to WoWHead, and there is also a free levelling guide add-on available from WoW-Pro.

Remember to follow the guidance I gave you earlier in the book, especially the part about using your keyboard M frequently. If you keep on looking at the minimised map (not the mini-map, although that helps as well) you should not have too many problems in finding the quickest point from A to B. Getting that flying mount at level 60 is a real boon as a time saver. No more being ambushed on route, and you can survey the area to put yourself in a safe-zone before landing. You will also find that it isn't too hard to avoid monsters with your land mount, as the speed boost is too much for the critters to stop you, but don't get complacent. Also, note that it is counter-productive to quest at levels too far below your rank. Look at the XP available and move on to your next chain of quests if necessary. Don't feel compelled to complete quest chains when levelling-up is your main priority.

Tips for Making Life Easier

The WoW internal market (Auction House) is extortionate for beginners, which makes life extremely expensive and more difficult. So here are my tips for trying to circumvent the problems.

On the Realm (server) you have chosen, keep your toons to one faction i.e. Alliance or the Horde; and choose another Realm for playing the other faction. You can have a maximum of eleven (maybe more now?) toons per realm. Make two toons, the one is to be used as a messenger and kept permanently in a big city. Do not bother ranking this one any further up once you have got it to its destination, which will be the first big city it arrives at. Use this toon to be a banker and auction house run around. You will use the mail box to send goods to and from this toon.

Always read WoWWiki's descriptions of the class you have chosen. Each class has strengths and weaknesses. You need to equip your toon with items that develop its strengths e.g. a priest needs intellect, spirit, spell power, stamina and spell critical strike (might have changed with expansions).  Other stats are far less important for its effectiveness. Make sure you know which enchants, glyphs etc. are best for your toon. As a new player you will find this extremely expensive and consequently prohibitive and will soon get to grips with the idea that it is not always a good idea to buy stuff which you will have to replace very soon afterwards.

It is without doubt faster to level-up by solely concentrating on quests and random dungeons; and forgetting about manufacturing professions until you hit the maximum level. The collecting professions are great for adding experience ranking points to up your character, but if you find that they are slowing your progression down, by keeping you where you do not want to be, forget them and move on.

Rank up your first toon to the max level and make sure you kit it up with all the best dungeon gear, enchants and buffs (check out the best for your toon) etc. you can find.

Do Not Take Player v Player (PvP) Play Seriously Until the Maximum Level, in Fact Leave Well Alone.

Why do I say do not take PvP seriously until then? Well, it will slow your progression for starters. PvP play is not balanced below this level. PvP play is centred around team play, rather than on a class versus another class. Which is something Blizzard needs to look at with regards to Arena 2v2 and 3v3 contests. The classes really need to be individually balanced if Blizzard are serious about the Arena. 

PvP play below max rank slows your levelling progress down because you need to win to gain the maximum benefit. There are experience points to be won, but, and this is the big point, losing generally gains you very little HP reward or experience and you will often lose. My advice... wait until at max level.

Where to buy PvP Gear?

Right so we've got your toon to max level and we know we need to kit it out with PvP gear, and that gear is purchased with Honour Points. To get those points we can compete in Battle Grounds and convert Justice Points. If you have the Blacksmithing, Tailoring or Leatherworking professions you can craft your own PvP gear. With the professions, you will be able to craft cloth, leather, plate and mail gear, as well as make buffs for gear which you can use yourself or sell for profit.

Gear can be bought in several locations, but the only location of use will be found in the latest expansion, in a maximum rank zone.

Arenas are a specialised BG where you fight in small groups, but there's a Catch 22 problem with fighting in Arenas; because of your poor PvP gear you will not be wanted. So, forget Arenas until you have at least equipped yourself with the best available from the BGs. There are also Rated Battlegrounds and the best PvP gear is earned here, but what I've just said about Arenas also applies. You will need to belong to a Guild or party that are into PvP. If you are in a good Guild they will no doubt baby sit you and help you move up to Arena and RBG level. The PvP reward for winning, you get nothing if you lose, are Conquest Points and they are used like Honor Points and spent in the same locations.

Expansions will not change the fact that you need the best PvP and PvE gear appropriate to the environment. PvP gear is fine in low level dungeons, but useless as you progress. Whereas (most) PvE gear is pointless at the highest tier of  PvP, regardless of the base resilience all players have.

It is also possible to swap HP for PvE gear, and Justice and Valor points for PvP gear (not sure if Valor can now be exchanged for Conquest).

Your Next Character

Have you ever wondered why you were unable to dent the other players’ defences in low rank PvP combat? Well there is one word that sums it up "heirlooms".  You may have heard players talking about heirlooms and wondered what they were going on about. Well I'm not going to go into too much detail, suffice to say here's a link to WoWWiki explaining it all.

Once you have got you first character kitted out and have your professions at the highest level, you can move onto your next one. Purchase heirlooms for it.  Remember heirlooms can be used by more than one toon (if they are in the same Realm) and that classes have different needs e.g. Warlocks wear cloth, as do Mages and Priests. You can use mail items for Hunters but they will be leather items until the appropriate mail wearing level is reached. This “rule” applies to all appropriate classes.

You can, like I did, make your next character a Death Knight. It will start at level 55. Choose your talent tree after researching what you want to specialise in. Personally, I find a Frost DK is great for PvP and that Blood is a very good option for quest levelling, Dungeons and, later on, Raids, but be aware that people will want you to tank with a Blood spec.

Choosing your professions and how to rank up is a difficult one. This is because at level 55 you will not be able to collect the necessary materials in the areas where you are questing and going back and forth to areas where you can is time-consuming and difficult. So, my mantra for Death Knights is forget professions until max level. Your first character should act as a feeder to the Death Knight (DK), supplying it with buffs and any useful goods, gold and equipment, via the mailing system. Remember you can utilise the toon (gopher "go for this, go for that") you located in the city.

When you do reach the max level remember to research the best professions for the class. Engineering is stated as the best for a DK, Mining is great for providing money, and gives a strength buff later in the game. I give some links a little later regarding the best PvE and PvP websites for information on what professions to choose. PvE and PvP play do sometimes have different profession requirements.

It was whilst ranking up my Warlock that I concluded that the fastest way to rank up is to forget about all production professions, including cooking, and just quest and random dungeon queue. In fact, it is without any doubt the fastest way to level up your characters. So only gathering professions are viable, at least for a while, and will help you rank up. It is still a bind to level up your production professions at max level, but it is so much easier and faster to do because you can farm in spots that have good rates of return, such as dungeons. It would not be possible to farm these at low levels. At max level, you will also have cash to buy some of the items you need to level up. And those gathering professions will have stockpiled a lot of what you need to level up a production profession.

Right, that's two toons at the highest level, what next?

Now the idea is to mix and match your toons so that you end up covering all the professions and can thus feed your toons with all the available buffs that are produced as an offshoot of your industrious activity. In effect, what you will be doing is creating your own internal market and cutting your costs. Of course, all of this takes time, but given that you are playing against established players and their market prices, you really have little choice.

How you go about building up your stock of toons will be down to personal choice, although really there are only two ways to go. You will either level up one toon at a time, or you will choose to develop them side by side, remembering to pass the heirlooms, money, and other enhancements, back and forth through the mail. Ordinary clothing and weapons (soul bound items cannot be passed on or auctioned, only sold to a vendor) can also be passed on, but there is an upper limit to what a character can wear (apart from heirlooms of course, which you never have to replace because they level up with your toon), but it is still worth equipping your toon with the highest available items. More armour etc... must make sense, but don't waste money. When you are levelling, you will be replacing items frequently.

Remember that you will still have your first two highest-level toons available to have fun in Raids and PvP play. Choosing different races and classes from your faction will enable you to maintain variety.

#Level-up Your WoW Characters Much Faster

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