Greetings, travelers! In a previous article, we have covered your first steps in Classic WoW – choosing a faction, creating a character and picking a class. Today we continue our journey through Classic with the Alliance Leveling Guide, the first in a series of articles on the leveling process and its nuances. Let’s start at once!
«Remember to take all things in moderation (even World of Warcraft!)» |
Leveling Tips and Tricks
Before we proceed to the leveling itself, first let’s start with some theory. It is no secret that leveling in Classic WoW will take a while. The following list may help you level your character faster.
General Tips
Quest Optimally
Questing in Classic WoW is non-linear, quest log is capped to 20 quests. You need to be aware of what quests you have in your log, plan out a path to complete them all before going back to quest hub to turn them in, so you can save a lot of travel time. Which leads us to the next tip.
Minimize Travel Time
Running from place to place will be a large part of your leveling experience. Making the most of the travel time is very important. Grind all mobs on your way from quest to quest.
Professions
Leveling professions while leveling can be fun but will slow you down quite a lot. It is better to avoid crafting professions and stick with gathering ones. Skinning, mining, or herbalism will help you make some money while leveling or stockpile some reagents to level a crafting profession, once you hit level 60. Must have for all classes is the First Aid, regardless if they have the ability to heal or not.
Consumables
Keep your food and drink updated, because regenerating mana or hp faster from eating and drinking will reduce your downtime between pulls, which is important for faster leveling. As soon as you hit a checkpoint (level 15/25/35/45 etc.) you should upgrade your food/water.
Use Your Hearthstone
Your Hearthstone has a 1-hour cooldown, so you should plan your questing around that item. When you arrive in a new zone, set your Hearthstone at the local inn. A well-timed Hearthstone will save you a lot of time. Keep in mind, that Hearthstone’s cooldown will tick down even when you are logged out, so you can take a little break if your hearth is on cooldown and then log back a little bit later to use it. Plan your IRL breaks!
Auto-Run
Use Auto-Run when you can, you are able to type and do other stuff while auto-running.
Use Auto-Loot
Can be enabled in the Interface options, will save you a few extra clicks.
Vendor
Make sure to empty your bags, make sure you have plenty of bullets, arrows, and repair every time you are near a vendor. This way you can last hours before having to return to town.
Inventory management
Talking about bags – you don’t have to go back to town every time your inventory is filled. It is a common thing to destroy items to make some room for quest items or items that are more important or sell for a higher price.
Use a Bank Alt
It is very important to have a bank alt. Send all your BoE gear, profession items and other stuff that sells well on the Auction House to your bank alt, and keep leveling. Then just take a moment to log on your alt and put everything on the AH all at once.
Cooldowns
Do not save your cooldowns for another «right moment», utilize them to your advantage here and now.
Gold
This is one of the most important aspects of the leveling. You should be making prudent financial decisions as you level. Don’t train abilities that are not useful for the moment, don’t waste money on overpriced items on the Auction House, and make you are saving money for the 60% speed mount at level 40. Gathering enough gold to buy mount once you hit level 40 is very important. Minimize your travel time, remember?
Dungeons
It is a common question – are dungeons worth it? We say, only if you have a good group to do them and only when you got ALL the quests for the dungeon. Once you have several quests stockpiled, run the dungeon, as these quests are worth a LOT of XP.
Skipping
Some quests are simply either too hard to solo or not worth the XP/time, especially if you value the speed of your leveling. Usually, avoid collection quests with low drop rates, kill quests in which the target respawns at long intervals and escort quests. For the kill quests, gauge the risk/reward of attempting to tag a mob, based on how many people are around you and how realistic is that you can tag mob or loot the quest object.
Grinding
You can just hang outside in the sun all day, tossing a ball around. Or you can sit at your computer doing something that matters. Eric Cartman, «Make Love, Not Warcraft» |
Grinding is an excellent alternative to questing and it shines in efficiency when quests mentioned above need to be skipped. Grinding mobs is important to get some extra gold for the mount, and because of lack of quests – even all quests available to you will not give you enough experience to hit the max level. Also grinding is more efficient than questing if you can reliably AoE grind.
This XP chart may become handy when you decide to spend some time grinding mobs of your level (up to level 30, 30-60 bracket will be present in Chapter Two of the Alliance guide).
Player Level | Overall XP to Level Up | XP per mob (mob level equals player level) | Amount of mobs needed to level up |
1 | 400 | 50 | 8 |
2 | 900 | 55 | 16 |
3 | 1400 | 60 | 23 |
4 | 2100 | 65 | 32 |
5 | 2800 | 70 | 40 |
6 | 3600 | 75 | 48 |
7 | 4500 | 80 | 56 |
8 | 5400 | 85 | 64 |
9 | 6500 | 90 | 72 |
10 | 7600 | 95 | 80 |
11 | 8800 | 100 | 88 |
12 | 10100 | 105 | 96 |
13 | 11400 | 110 | 104 |
14 | 12900 | 115 | 112 |
15 | 14400 | 120 | 120 |
16 | 16000 | 125 | 128 |
17 | 17700 | 130 | 136 |
18 | 19400 | 135 | 144 |
19 | 21300 | 140 | 152 |
20 | 23200 | 145 | 160 |
21 | 25200 | 150 | 168 |
22 | 27300 | 155 | 176 |
23 | 29400 | 160 | 184 |
24 | 31700 | 165 | 192 |
25 | 34000 | 170 | 200 |
26 | 36400 | 175 | 208 |
27 | 38900 | 180 | 216 |
28 | 41400 | 185 | 224 |
29 | 44300 | 190 | 233 |
30 | 47400 | 195 | 243 |
Any time a character is logged out, it’s at rest. There is a normal rest that comes from being logged out in the open world, and then there is an accelerated rest that comes from being logged out in an inn or in a capital city and accumulates 4 times faster than in the wild. Let’s take into consideration only that accelerated rest into consideration. There are two ways of indicating that your character is resting. First – your character’s portrait will glow yellow and your level circle will say «ZZZ», and secondly, if you try to log out in an area other than an inn or capital, you’ll have to wait 20 seconds to log as opposed to the immediate logging of a resting character. One bubble of rested XP (5% of a level) is earned for every 8 hours spent resting in an inn. A maximum of 30 bubbles (150% of a level) may be earned. In other words, you can leave your character resting in an inn or capital city for up to 10 days (without gaining experience) before you earn the maximum amount of rest state, and a resting character stores up to one full level of rest in 160 hours (6 days, 16 hours). When you are rested, the XP bar turns blue and a notch shows exactly how much rested XP you have accumulated. Killing mobs will grant 200% XP now. Now you see why it is important to leave your main in the inn when you log off, and the same rule applies to all of your alts, even the bank alt. Keep them logged in the inn, and leveling them, later on, will be a much easier task. Warriors have a difficult time leveling, they are heavily weapon-dependent. Demoralizing Shout is used to reduce damage taken, and Piercing Howl is the only option a leveling warrior has to escape mobs. Once you get to level 40, you may respec into Arms for Mortal Strike and then fill in the Fury tree from 40-60. Use only a 2H weapon, dual-wielding is not an option while leveling due to reduced hit chance. Affliction is the recommended spec due to having a little downtime. Improved Drain Soul is ignored because warlocks do not stack enough Spirit to make it worthwhile. Use the voidwalker as a tank, but after level 34, if you find yourself pulling threat from it, switch to another minion and start “drain tanking” instead. Turn off your imp’s Firebolt and all of your succubus’ abilities at level 40 so they keep regenerating mana for you to leech off with the Dark Pact. Demonology and Destruction are ignored because they do not get their key components until late levels. Talent Tree order: 5/5 Improved Corruption, 5/5 Improved Life Tap, 3/5 Suppression, Amplify Curse, 5/5 Suppression, 2/5 Fel Concentration, 2/2 Nightfall, 2/2 Grim Reach, 3/5 Fel Concentration, Siphon Life, Curse of Exhaustion, 1/5 Improved Curse of Exhaustion, 5/5 Fel Concentration, 5/5 Shadow Mastery, Dark Pact. Combat Swords is the fast leveling spec a rogue can use because it’s not dependent on stealth. Combat is highly recommended because the other specializations do not provide the same consistent damage. Talent Tree order: 2/2 Improved Sinister Strike, 3/3 Improved Gouge, 5/5 Deflection, Riposte, 5/5 Precision, 4/5 Dual Wield Specialization, Blade Flurry, 5/5 Sword Specialization, 5/5 Dual Wield Specialization, 3/3 Aggression, Adrenaline Rush. From the start, put your point into the Spirit Tap, and then you throw everything in the Wand Specialization. You should keep your wand updated and use it a LOT. At level 40 rRespec for the Shadowform and then go up the discipline tree and pick up the mana efficiency. Talent Tree order: 5/5 Spirit Tap, 5/5 Wand Specialization, 2/2 Improved Shadow Word: Pain, 5/5 Shadow Focus, 3/3 Shadow Affinity, 3/3 Shadow Reach, 2/5 Shadow Weaving, Vampiric Embrace, Mind Flay, 5/5 Shadow Weaving, 1/5 Darkness. Paladins are mainly an auto-attack class, leveling spec – Retribution. Simply use Seal of the Crusader, Judgement, Seal of Righteousness / Command, and swing, using Judgement of Command on a fleeing mob. Remember to keep Blessing of Wisdom up to maintain mana. Talent Tree order: 5/5 Benediction, 2/2 Improved Judgement, 3/3 Improved Seal of the Crusader, Seal of Command, 2/2 Pursuit of Justice, 5/5 Conviction, 2/2 Eye for an Eye, Sanctity Aura, 3/3 Two-Handed Weapon Specialization, Sanctity Aura, 1/2 Improved Retribution Aura, 5/5 Vengeance, Repentance. Mages have several options while leveling: Fire, Frost, or Frost AoE. Fire does the most damage, Frost has the best mana conservation and survivability, and Frost AoE is the best for farming multiple mobs. Talent Tree orders: Fire – 5/5 Improved Fireball, 2/2 Flame Throwing, 3/5 Impact, 2/2 Burning Soul, 5/5 Impact, 1/5 Ignite, 3/3 Master of Elements, 3/5 Ignite, 3/3 Critical Mass, 5/5 Ignite, 5/5 Fire Power, Combustion. Frost – 5/5 Improved Frostbolt, 2/2 Frost Nova, 3/3 Frostbite, Cold Snap, 4/5 Ice Shards, 2/2 Arctic Reach, 3/3 Frost Channeling, Ice Block, 5/5 Shatter, 5/5 Ice Shards, 3/3 Piercing Ice, Ice Barrier. Frost AoE – 5/5 Improved Frostbolt, 2/2 Frost Nova, 3/3 Frostbite, Cold Snap, 3/3 Elemental Precision, 1/3 Improved Blizzard, 2/2 Arctic Reach, 3/3 Frost Channeling, Ice Block, 5/5 Shatter, 3/3 Improved Blizzard, 3/3 Improved Cone of Cold, 3/3 Permafrost, 1/3 Piercing Ice, Ice Barrier. Hunters are all about buffing their pets while leveling; it effectively makes them quest with a second player. Beast Mastery is the best spec. Talent Tree order: 5/5 Endurance Training, 2/2 Improved Revive Pet, 3/3 Thick Hide, Bestial Swiftness, 2/2 Pathfinding, 2/5 Unleashed Fury, 5/5 Ferocity, Intimidation, 1/2 Beastial Vigor, 5/5 Unleashed Fury, 5/5 Frenzy, Beastial Wrath. Hands down, best spec for leveling is Feral because Cat Form does not have a mana bar, and a lack of a mana bar means lower downtime. Feral also gets Feline Swiftness, which boosts movement speed in Cat Form by 30%, which is massive. Get Feline Swiftness then Feral Charge, then get 5/5 Furor by level 27, which makes it easier to self-heal and shift back into Cat Form. At higher levels, you should go for Omen of Clarity in the Balance tree. Talent Tree order: 5/5 Ferocity, 2/2 Brutal Impact, 3/5 Feral Instinct, 2/2 Feline Swiftness, Feral Charge, 5/5 Furor, 3/3 Sharpened Claws, 2/2 Blood Frenzy, 2/3 Predatory Strikes, Faerie Fire (Feral), 3/3 Predatory Strikes, 2/2 Savage Fury, 4/5 Feral Instinct, 1/5 Heart of the Wild. Keys: Ding – Level Up Hearth – Use/Set Hearthstone Fly/Boat – Take transport Die – Intentional Death NPC Name Quest Name Optional Quest (Levels 1-6) Northshire Abbey Elwynn Forest (Levels 6-11) Goldshire Elwynn Forest Goldshire Elwynn Forest Goldshire Elwynn to Westfall Stormwind (Levels 12-15) Ironforge Dun Morogh Loch Modan Thelsamar (North) Loch Modan Thelsamar Westfall (Levels 15-18) Sentinel Hill (West) Westfall Loch Modan (Levels 18-19) (East) Westfall Wetlands Menethil Harbor If you find leveling to tedious, you can always find a help at Overgear.Rested Bonus
Leveling Specs
Warrior
Talent Tree order: 5/5 Cruelty, 5/5 Improved Demoralizing Shout, Piercing Howl, 4/5 Improved Battle Shout, 5/5 Enrage, Death Wish, 5/5 Improved Battle Shout, 2/2 Execute, 1/2 Improved Intercept, 5/5 Flurry, Bloodthirst.Warlock
Rogue
Priest
Paladin
Mage
Hunter
Druid
Alliance Leveling
Empty/Ressuply – Sell/Buy stuff
Directions – N,S,E,W, NW, etc.
FP – Flight PathHuman Leveling
Northshire Abbey
To Ironforge and Loch Modan