Archive for January, 2012

Cataclysm Leveling 80-82 – Hyjal or Vashj’ir?

Once you reach level 80 in World of Warcraft, it’s time to pass into one of the Cataclysm zones, Vashj’ir or Mount Hyjal. But which one of the zones is best to choose for Cataclysm leveling, from 80 to 82?

Well, that depends, and I hope in this post I will provide you with the answers that you need. However, no matter which zone you choose, to keep your XP at a maximum rate, it’s always best to follow the leveling path of a WoW leveling guide.

Anyway, if you want to level faster from level 80 to 82, it’s best to go to Mount Hyjal. Moving from quest to quest, or to one quest hub to another in Vashj’ir, will take some time, at least until you get your Sea Horse mount. Plus, Vashj’ir is a much wider area than Mt. Hyjal, which means you will have to travel more, which means a little less XP.

WoW Leveling - Mt. Hyjal

Mount Hyjal

Therefore, if you want to level faster from 80 to 82, Mt. Hyjal is the right choice. If you already have a 280% flying skill, you will pass through this zone quickly. Quest hubs are closer to one another, quests are more condensed, and you will become revered with the Guardians of Hyjal. This will grant you access to quite a few nice, level 333 items (usable at 83), plus the caster head enchantment – 60 intellect, 35 critical strike rating. Also, by finishing all the quests in Hyjal, you won’t have to do the quests once more, if you want to unlock the dailies in Firelands, later on.

The only reasons I see for Cataclysm leveling underwater, in Vashj’ir, is to gain reputation with the Earthen Ring for the tanking head enchantment. However, even if you complete all the quests in Vashj’ir, you will only become honored with the Earthen Ring faction, and to buy the enchantment, revered standing is required.

WoW Leveling - Vashj'ir

Vashj'ir

Also, the quests scenarios in Vashj’ir are a bit more spicy, and more entertaining. But that doesn’t mean it will help you level faster.

In conclusion, for the fastest Cataclysm leveling 80-82, it’s best to choose Mt. Hyjal to level up. Also, to maintain a maximum XP rating, you should work with a WoW leveling guide.

I know, in World of Warcraft leveling in one spot, by grinding on various mobs, is quite a waste of time and XP. But, in case you’re not following some sort of WoW leveling path, or you’re not working with a WoW leveling guide, and level up your toon via BG’s or instances, this is a great WoW leveling spot to grind while waiting in queue, from level 52 to level 55.

WoW leveling guide - Silithus leveling spot

Silithus Leveling Spot Location

The WoW leveling spot that I’m going to point out is not just a spot for grinding for XP, you will also get plenty of valuables which you can sell for a lot of gold.

WoW Leveling Spot - Dust Stormer

Dust Stormer

The spot is located in northwestern Silithus, around (29,27). If you go there you will find plenty of Dust Stormers – wind elementals – which you should grind on for the Essence of Air they drop. Also, you can find Dust Stormers on the other side of the big rock there, around (38,18).

Essence of Air is a material for crafting item enchantments like Enchant Weapon – Agility or Enchant 2H Weapon – Agility, and the price for one essence is usually 100-150g. You can get up to 20 essences per hour and that should be a minimum of 2000g, an important amount for your epic riding skill.

If you have mining on the character you’re leveling, you will get plenty of Thorium ore and occasionally Truesilver around this location.

Now, I’m pretty sure you also know that just simple grinding on mobs doesn’t cut it, and the XP rate is usually poor. But, if you have one or two levels of rested XP, and you also have at least 2-3 Heirlooms with XP bonuses, this is a great spot to grind, while waiting in BG’s or instances queues.

You can get an important amount of gold if you spend some time in this WoW leveling spot, and by the time you become eligible for fast riding, you will have plenty of gold to buy all the skills that you need.

However, the fastest way to level up in World of Warcraft is to follow the optimized quest path of a WoW leveling guide. For that, the best one I know is Zygor WoW Leveling Guide.

As you level up a new character in World of Warcraft, there are plenty of actions that will stop you from keeping up a high XP rating. In this post, I’m going to underline a few aspects that can keep you from leveling fast.

So, here are a few WoW leveling tips that will allow you to maintain a high XP rate and reach level 85 without too much of a delay. This is what would stop you from leveling fast in WoW.

1.Fishing. Although you may be an angler in real life and enjoy fishing, unless the quest that you’re doing requires you to catch fish, leave this activity for when you’re going to be level 85. You will have plenty of time then, while waiting in queue for battlegrounds, heroics or raids. Other gathering professions are OK to pick up and skill up while leveling, in fact that’s recommendable. You get XP every time you pick a flower or mineral vein, and you can do that while questing. However, try not to remain behind on it.

2. Going to the Auction House too often. This is one of the most important WoW leveling tips that I can give you here. Of course, it’s required to visit the WoW Auction House from time to time, but if you leave questing every time you ding, to go to AH, you will waste a lot of time. So, it’s best to go to a main city every 4 or 6 levels to train and while you’re at it, see what’s for sale or sell your stuff. Other than that, focus on leveling.

3. Not using a WoW leveling guide. There are two ways to level to 85 at maximum speed and efficiency: knowing all the quests and having your own, well-determined route for quests in Azeroth, Outland, Northrend and Cataclysm zones, which means you probably have leveled up about 10-12 characters so far, and using a WoW leveling guide. A WoW guide for leveling will show you everything you must do, what NPC to speak or where to go to pick the next quest or quest objective.

If you stay away from fishing or other crafting activities that may consume a lot of time, you don’t go to AH very often with a character in course of leveling and of course, use a WoW leveling guide, you will level up pretty fast.

I hope these WoW leveling tips help. Godspeed leveling!

Advantages of WoW Leveling As a Tank

WoW Tank

Goblin Tank

A tank talent build will open new WoW leveling possibilities. If you’re planning to roll a new character that can serve as a tank, you should choose that spec. Even if you won’t play as World of Warcraft tank from the beginning, as soon as you become eligible for dual talent specialization, visit your trainer, train this ability, then choose tanking as your second spec.

So, how can a tank talent build would enhance your WoW leveling process?

First of all, you will be assigned to a group almost instantly, every time you sign up into the Dungeon Finder. Also, especially when you join an instance for the first time, you will benefit from a series of quests given by the quest givers at the entrance of the dungeon, quests which are usually done along that particular instance. With you as a very alive and kicking tank, leading the group, those quests and the instance as well, will be finished as quickly as possible, which will increase your XP rate.

Tanks have been given even more love from Blizzard since with Cataclysm, tank-oriented Heirlooms were introduced, like the Burnished Helm of Might or Ripped Sandstorm Cloak. Of course, you will be needing some reputation with your guild on one of your characters to be able to purchase those items from the guild vendor, but once you have them.

Even if you decide to level up in battlegrounds, you can still have a pretty much decent WoW leveling as a tank. With some PvP gear like the Brutal set, or a few PvP heirlooms, tanks are pretty hard to kill. By guarding a base or an objective, you can be a lot of help to any PvP group, increasing the winning chances of your team by a lot.

Now, if you add the optimized path of a WoW leveling guide on top of your tanking spec, you will be able to level up very quickly, and reach 85 in the shortest time possible.

The Pandaren Monk – Questions and Answers

World of Warcraft - Pandaren Monk

Pandaren Monk

The Pandaren Monk is the class that’s going to be introduced with the release of the Mists of Pandaria expansion in World of Warcraft. Although in Warcraft 3, Pandaren were Horde, in WoW they can apparently join both factions.

I’m sure that every player in WoW has at least a few questions related to this type of WoW character, so here are a few questions about this WoW race and class — Answered.

1. What specializations will the Pandaren Monk have?

When you think Pandaren Monk, you should think druid. They will be a multi-class like the druids, having the possibility to become tanks, melee DPS, and healers. The tank talent tree is called Brewmastery and your signature weapon for this build will be the staff. The melee DPS talent build is Windwalker, and on this spec you will become a martial artist using staves and fists, but it appears that Windwalkers will also be able to use 1-handed swords, axes and maces. Finally, the last talent specialization will be, just as for druids, healing. The healing tree is named Mistweaving and as a Mistweaver you will have powerful healing spells but also a few powerful melee attacks.

2. What racial abilities will the Pandaren have?

Pandarens are also brewmasters, so obviously they will get a bonus on Cooking, since this is the only profession in the game that allows you to create tasty drinks. They also have Inner Peace, which grants double rested XP, Bouncy – reducing fall damage, and Epicurean – which grants the Pandaren to get double stats from buffs.

The active racial ability of the Pandaren is a crowd control type which dazes the opponent for 3 seconds and it’s called Quaking Palm.

3. What other classes can you play as a Pandaren?

Well, the main class for a Pandaren is obviously Monk. However, you can also play hunter, shaman, warrior, priest, mage and rogue as a Pandaren.

Since the Pandaren class gets a double XP bonus from rested XP, a class made from this race will level up much faster. And if you will add up a WoW leveling guide to this ability, I believe you will be able to go through the 1-90 to-be content, in no time!