Jame's Game Guides

So I went to the midnight opening of my city and got my two Wrath of the Lich King boxes, and then I... slept!

Yes, sadly I couldn't pull the allnighter every serious gamer would like to pull, because I simply had work to do the next morning and needed to be reasonable :P

I only started playing the next day close to noon. I started with one of my horde characters first, a hunter specced Beast Mastery. And off I went to Howling Fjord to follow my horde guide.

I'm sure most of you experienced the overcrowding and how much it can affect your XP rate. Well it sure did affect mine, as the hunter I played is on a very high pop server, we had some very long queues later that day and some areas had more players than mobs for sure.

However, the results were still very good, not nearly as good as what I got on beta, but still, I caught up very quickly with several guildmates who pulled the allnighter and were already well into level 71 when I started to play (obviously, they weren't following my guide, or I wouldn't have caught up like that :P)

I took screenshots at every important step, to check how fast I was leveling.

This screenshot was taken when I logged in, before I went to Howling Fjord:



Total time played: 117 days 3 hours 23 minutes 53 seconds

This screenshot was taken right when I hit Level 71:



Total time played: 117 days 6 hours 53 minutes 46 seconds

If you do the math, that means it took me exactly 3h 29min 53s to ding. This is a pretty good score, considering the whole level was done:

1. Without any rested bonus
2. With a lot of people fighting for quest mobs, I estimate that this slowed me down at least by a good 20 minutes
3. Without any consumables

So yes, it's actually great and says alot about how fast one could level with my guide once the release rush is over.

And then more problems started as I was on my way to level 72:

1. Captain Ellis was nowhere to be found. That means the quest chain including [71] The Lost Shield of the Aesirites was broken. I spent 15 minutes looking for Captain Ellis, checking wowhead and various boards to find out where he was, and then I gave up and moved on. This was really annoying because the follow ups of that chain are really quick and give about 100K xp in total. That was a big setback. But anyway, I finished the rest of Howling Fjord and then moved on to Borean Tundra.
2. As the day went on, the overcrowding became worse :P Mid afternoon it was already crazy, at least on my server, especially for all the quests close to Warsong Hold in Borean Tundra. I wasted a lot of time waiting on respawns, I estimate I lost another 20 minutes there.

In any case, this is the screenshot of when I dinged Level 72:



Total time played: 117 days 11 hours 14 minutes 38 seconds

That means it took me 4h 20 min 51s to go from 71 to 72.

That's dissapointing compared to what I know I'm supposed to get, but this was release day crazyness and it can't be helped. It's still pretty decent considering that whole level was done with:

1. No rested bonus
2. No consumables
3. A broken quest chain
4. A transition from Howling Fjord to Borean Tundra (that damn turtle really took a while to come to Kamagua)
5. Very heavy overcrowding

Then after that I took a break and I logged out outside of an inn, because I don't want any rested bonus while testing my guides. I'll resume leveling tomorrow and hit 74 and then I'll report my findings to you guys.

Overall, besides the broken quest chain, I'm quite happy with the release of WotLK and with how my guides performed so far. The overcrowding was really a factor, but it was predictable.
I was still able to progress fast through most quests and I know for sure that once the dust clears, people who follow my guide will come up with some really amazing /played from 70 to 80. I guarantee you that :)

Meanwhile here's a very simple tip which might help you perform better in crowded areas:

Tip: When you get to an area where you have to kill a rare mob or anything which might make you lose time if you have to wait on respawns, immediately offer other players in the area to group with you. There's nothing worse than fighting with 3 other players over the same spawns when you could all be completing the quests together 3 times faster. I recommend making a macro with this simple line "Hey, want to group up for this quest?" and use it whenever the situation warrants it. Because trust me, sometimes, while you're typing that line, the mob you need spawns and the other player kills it in front of your eyes before you even get the chance to ask him if he wants to group with you ^^.

I know this must sound really obvious, but trust me, the macro helps, and you won't have to type that same line a hundred times that way ;)

This was done with my level 76 Rogue while following the last 25% of my Dragonblight Guide.

• This was done with no consumables. Just normal poisons applied on weapons and bandages/ normal food to heal up when needed.
• No rested xp.

That's right, 620000 XP / hour. That means you can theoritically get one level every 2 hours and half if you follow my guide properly.

Also, it can probably go faster with other classes, like hunters for example, as they never need to drink nowadays (I had to bandage and eat many times with the rogue, which slowed me down of course). So you can imagine how fast you can level while following my guides.

Why do I post this? Well to prove that my guides are better than any other addon like Questhelper. It's quite simple really. Questhelper is a nice addon, but it can't optimize your quest circuits nearly as much as what I've achieved through hard work. It can't think 3, 4, 5 or sometimes 10 steps ahead. It can't think of quests coming from remote quest hubs which have synergies with other quests you already have. And more importantly it doesn't tell you tricks that make certain quests much easier.

This is the reason why I still write guides, because I know (and I can prove it), that they are still a much faster way to level. If it weren't the case I wouldn't bother writing them and would also use an addon.

I challenge anyone to come even remotely close to such XP/rates with only using Questhelper (or any quest tracking addon). And I know it won't happen, because I've tried it to, and I know the limitations of those addons.

Of course, when you follow my guide the first time, you might not get such high XP/rates, because you won't know my circuits as well as I do. But there won't be that much of a difference, because my WotLK Guides are very easy to read, most steps are one-liners. I've really worked hard on that too.

It will also depend on your class and gear. The rogue I used on this circuit is very well equipped. But you know, a hunter or a DK in full quest green/blues can probably beat this score :P And other classes too I bet.

In any case, I'm sure anyone can get close to 500000XP/hour while following my guides, even if you are a slow reader. That means one level every 3 hours / 3 hours and a half. And that's really amazing in the 70-80 bracket.

Oh, and just a little bonus. While recording that XP/rate, I also got the following two achievements:



So yea, if you're still thinking "lol questhelper is fastest", well I don't think I will ever be able to convince you, because you simply don't want to be convinced, more than anything :)

If you:

1. Play World of Warcraft on the US realms
2. Like my guides
3. Want to return the favor

Then there's a very easy way for you to do so. Sadly I can't post on the US forums myself, because I live in Europe. And this is actually too bad because a vast majority of wow-pro readers come from the US.

Jiyambi was kind enough to post an announcement for me on the US General Forums, but unluckily, the thread really quickly disappeared off the first page and very few people got the chance to see it:

US General Discussion Link

So I would really appreciate if you could reply to that thread and maybe say what were your experiences with my guide. If it was helpful to you or if you plan to use my WotLK leveling guides, then reply to this thread and mention it :)

That's the best way to get our community growing. Help me turn this thread into a success like the one I have running currently on the european forums:

EU General Discussion Link

Thank you in advance for your support and... YES, WE CAN! ;)

I've been playing the WotLK beta for about 2 months now, and I have experienced only about 50% of the solo content there is to explore so far, mostly because I'm working on my guides for both Hord and Alliance, which leaves me little time to progress.

However, I have to say that I am really impressed with Wrath of the Lich King so far. The quality of the zones, the quests, the lore, the loot, everything is really well done, far better than what we got for the Burning Crusade, and that's saying a lot because Outland was already awesome.

The biggest improvement for me has to be the lore, the feeling of being involved in the storyline, even while solo questing. What you saw in the videos I posted in my previous articles is just a small part of that, there are actually better quests that those. Better in every aspect, lore, fun, loot rewards. You are no longer considered as a random schmuck, NPCs treat you like a hero and rely on you to save the world.

I don't want to spoil too much, but I'll just tell you this:

Do not miss this quest chain in Dragonblight: [74] Audience With The Dragon Queen.

It is the most amazing quest chain I've ever done in World of Warcraft. Period.

To get this quest you'll have to complete several other mini quest chains in Dragonblight, starting at your faction's outpost.

Some numbers about this wonderful quest chain:

• Number of quests in the chain: 25
• Number of blue items rewarded: 3
• Number of Dragons controlled: 2
• Amount of XP rewarded by the last quest in the chain: 41000XP
  

And that's not all. You get to interract with several leaders of the Dragon Aspects, including Alexstrasza the Life-Binder.




You get to watch a beautiful cinematic, and even better, you get to fight a truly epic battle alongside your faction leader. Thrall if you're horde. King Varian Wrynn if you're alliance.

I'll say no more because that would be really spoiling it too much :P

Anyway, if you don't want to miss this quest, you can simply follow my WotLK leveling guides, everything is included in it, not a single quest is left aside. And I'm quite happy with that, because seriously, it would be a shame to miss anything on Northrend when the content is just so epic.

I just can't wait to get to the final zones of Northrend, if they are as good as Dragonblight was, we're all in for a treat.

Everything is running smoothly now. Please go back to posting guides and comments :)