Power Leveling Guide (Tips)

[Vaecir]

The purpose of this guide is not to provide a route of quests or a leveling route, but simply to give people some insight into the world of power leveling. The exact routes will always change around, and there are so many of those out there that providing another would be rather redundant, so we've opted to instead write something which should give a good overview of the concepts of power leveling. Recruit a Friend (RaF) is yet another issue that power leveling guides have, as they cannot account for the extra experience gained (which is also seen in cases where you level up using a lot of rested (double) experience, but more about that below). In the end, ts much more fun to power level on your own terms, and ignore those power leveling guides which seek to dictate your every move! Only you can know your playing style, and only you can effect the time it takes you to level up. Know that, and you shall succeed.


Looting is optional: Do not always loot mobs, if they are far away and would prove inefficient to loot (this applies mostly to Ranged classes), then don't do it.*Obviously, this would change depending on your reliance on that character making some gold (i.e if you have a higher level main supplying the character with mount / possible equip gold, then you really don't need that extra loot)*


Fight mobs! The fastest way to level has always been through fighting a continuous stream of mobs (for most of the time). Of course, with the recent(ish) quest improvements, one must now balance quests with mobs. You should always be doing as many quests as possible, preferably the ones which require you to kill mobs, as these are the most efficient. In the end, getting mobs down as quickly as possible while doing quests is the fastest way to level (excluding mob tagging / other less-honorable methods).

• While between quests or running from zone-to-zone, it may also be prudent to kill mobs (depending on your class, as its much easier for ranged) if they come within your immediate attack range. If you are on a mount, disregard this.

Set up Keybinds: Much of the time you spend leveling in World of Warcraft is spent fighting mobs (as explained above). Your ability to do this quickly, and often on the run, greatly effects your ability to power level. Setting up keybinds and avoiding pressing buttons on your action bars is a good way to do this (plus, its a necessity in PvP). That being said, you don't have to keybind every ability - it can be hard to get used to pressing shift+alt+4 to set off rapid fire (hunter ability). Do what your comfortable with, and slowly scale up until you get the majority of your abilities on keybinds (start off by just binding 1-2-3-4 and possibly 5.

• Q & E (strafing buttons by default) are relatively unnecessary, and are very easy to quickly click, so I'd recommend using them as keybinds.
  
• Use Shift and Alt to make as much use out of your easy-to-click buttons as possible (1234 etc...) (ex. 4 can be ability 1, 4+shift ability 2, 4+alt ability 3, 4+shift+alt ability 4).
  
• Do not go overboard! There is lots of information here on keybinds, but honestly, they can slow you down if your not used to them. As mentioned above, use them only if your comfortable with them.
  
• A good addon for UI and keybinds is the Bartender addon (get it here: Bartender4 - Addons - Curse).

Mounts are paramount: Need I say anything more? Buy your mounts as soon as you can, and use them as often as you can.


Bagspace is important: As is being able to quickly sell grey items (there are some mods which can auto-sell your trash items, such as the SellJunk mod (SellJunk - Addons - Curse)). If you want to auto-pickup all items on mobs, there is an option in the WoW Options to do so. Buy the biggest bags you can (its a very good idea to send new characters bags boughten on your main. I give every new character 4 16-slot bags, but theres nothing stopping you from buying better ones)


Gold gold gold! Give new characters some starting gold (I use 25g to start with) - you do not want to worry about gold when power leveling. Of course, if your on a new server and trying to get the 'first to 80' or something, then you will just have to try and make enough gold through looting and quest rewards.


Stay away from the auction house! Aagghhh the temptations! Really, though, the auction house will just slow you down. If you're super-serious about your power leveling, stay away from it until that aforementioned power leveling is complete. (Of course, it can be fun and profitable to use the auction house, so certainly, if your not too worried about your /playtime and are being more casual about the whole power leveling process, then please, do use the auction house!)


Preparation! There are many ways to prepare before power leveling a character - one of the best being through items. Bind on Account items (purchased through Stone Watcher shards) are a great way to increase your leveling speed (truly, the 10% experiance buff is almost necessary if you're going for a fast time), as they stay as equivalent blue items as you level and may be equipped at level one.

• Its often worthwhile to plan ahead and buy green (or even blue) items (especially weapons) for future use on your character, so that you can instantly upgrade while questing and don't need to run back to check the auction house or do some instance.
  
• Some people opt to make a starting 'set' of items for their new characters - these consist of low-level (sometimes those with no level on them so they can use them on level 1's) items with powerful enchants on them. The items that are enchanted are not Bind on Equip, so the player can mail them to a character, use them to level through the first ~25 or so levels, and then mail them to another alt and do the same.
  
• In general, high level enchants can make leveling go much faster.

Recruit a Friend: This Blizzard promotion has more potential to increase the rate at which you power level characters more than anything else on this list. You can take advantage of this offer by getting someone to sign up for a new WoW account (see more details about how to do it in your account management page on World of Warcraft Community Site).

• It gives the following benefits (to each of the RaF participants):
  
  • 3x Experiance both mob and quest (this is a ridiculously powerful buff, especially when contrasted with the fact that rested experiance only grants you 2x experiance on mobs and 1x with quests)
    
    • This experiance bonus lasts until level 60.
  • A Zhebra mount (level 60 100% movespeed mount that can only be obtained through RaF).
    
  • A teleportation ability which will teleport you to your RaF partner.
    
  • For every two levels (up to level 60) that you can, you can grant 1 level to another alt of yours (to make the most out of this that you can, its recommended that you level another alt up to level 30 and then grant him/her the last 30 levels, as its a bit of a waste of free levels to grant a level 1 character a levelup to 2 when you could be granting a level 30 character a levelup to 31.

Rested Experience: Take a break! One of the best things that you can do while power leveling is, well, stopping power leveling, at least for a little bit. Not only does this give you a break from WoW, but it allows for your character to accumulate rested experiance, which grants him/her 2x experiance on mobs. To gain rested experiance, one must simply log off in a city (it doesn't matter whether its your hearthstone city or whether you log off in an inn). Of course, if you just want to level asap, this may not be the most practical method. Use it as you will, and perhaps consider leveling multiple characters at the same time (when one gets out of rested experiance, switch to another one, and so-on).


Multi-boxing: I'll be brief, as this topic is very broad and contains some debate. Multi-boxing is where you purchase and maintain multiple WoW accounts, then run them all at the same time (there are programs which make this easy to do, given that you have a good enough computer, and preferably a second moniter). This allows people to level very quickly (especially when you combine it with RaF), do instances solo (remember, they are playing 5 character simultaneously), and just mess around in battlegrounds or whatnot. Most people opt to use 5 characters of all the same class (eg. 5 elemental shamans), and usually use ranged caster classes (makes it much easier). Don't try to do this without doing a lot of research. Google is your friend.


Use DoT's! Killing three things in the time that another player can kill one is a huge advantage, enough said. If your a class with DoT attacks (especially warlocks), make good use of them.


Mind your class: Some classes are much faster at leveling then others are. Of course, you may be power leveling so that you can have another class to play at level 80, and may want a specific class - that is surely ok, just keep in mind that some classes can take significantly longer.

• I'll make a list of each class, and note its advantages in terms of power leveling:
  
  • Hunter
    
    • Ranged (can more easily reach mobs)
      
    • Pet (can tank for the hunter, minimizes down time, and allows for the hunter to fight 2 mobs at once)
      
    • Movespeed buff (aspect of the cheetah, obtained at level 20, greatly increases your mobility for the 10 levels before you get your level 30 mount, and can help out even after that in situations where it wouldn' tbe prudent to use your mount)
      
    • Low down-time (although you have mana, you can attack without it and tend to be able to go for a while before drinking / eating)
      
    • DoT's and traps (say you see two mobs: Send your pet after one, and then serpent sting the other and drop an immolation trap in front of you. DPS down the mob that your pet is fighting (he should have had enough time to grab aggro while you used SS and dropped the immo trap) while tanking the damage from the one with the DoT's. After the first mob is down the other should be at ~60% health, so now finish them off. This has lots of advantages, especially because it allows for the hunter to soak up some of the damage, as it can be quite mana-intensive to always heal up your pet.)
  • Warlock
    
    • Lots of DoT's! (Use these manically)
      
    • Pet (voidwalker (you get it at level 20) is great at tanking)
  • Priest
    
    • Shields (can be quite helpful, and allow you to fight mobs at melee range without getting your castbar interrupted)
      
    • Spirit tap (this mana-regenerating ability (Tier 1 shadow) is a necessity
      
    • DoT's!
      
    • Basically, you have to go shadow spec. There, I said it. (Note that Holy Fire is a very efficient damage:mana ratio ability for much of the game, so use it as much as you can)
  • Warrior
    
    • Low downtime (due to your lack of mana, although you will need to watch your health)
  • Paladin
    
    • Pretty well have to go Retribution
      
    • Usually considered slow at power leveling, although with the whole 'ret is op' movement, they are rather popular choices now-a-days
      
    • Good AoE spells, and low downtime with Ret
  • Rogue
    
    • High damage output (can kill things quickly)
      
    • Low downtime (no mana, although health is usually a concern (Rogues are often considered 'glass cannons', first to kill, first to die))
  • Shaman
    
    • Ghost wolf form at level 20 for fast movement before your level 30 mount
  • Mage
    
    • Can kill and cc things quickly - often taking on multiple mobs at once
      
    • Best AoE spells in the game
      
    • Frost is the best for power leveling, as it minimizes downtime
  • Druid
    
    • Can be very effective as feral druids, with high health, damage, and the option to morph back to a NE or Tauren and heal yourself
      
    • Versatile, more than anything
  • Death Knight
    
    • Very powerful and good at power leveling, starts out with good blue gear at level 58 once you've completed the starting quests
      
    • Unholy has strong AoE and movement buffs, as well as a useful pet
      
    • Blood has strong health regen and thus low downtime

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this guide, and have learned something useful and new. Thanks for reading, and happy power leveling!

[Vaecir]

test
test
test

[Saaman.muna]

Thanks for the tips shared here about the Power Leveling guide. I use to review the Leveling Guides to reach the higher levels in the game.