Leveling to 100

Leveling can be boring, engaging, fun and stupid. Leveling can be many things but it's part of the MMO experience. Getting to lvl100 as quickly as possible is often a good idea and this guide will put you on a solid path. Your first character to max level (100) will be a bit of a slog, especially if you don't have any help. Remember to use "/join world\_en" to reach the larger population of English speakers, many of them will be helpful!

This is a first draft of the leveling guide and will focus on the Alliance faction since it's what I know best. From my experience the Horde leveling experience is entirely superior to the Alliance. The zones flow and progress in a more linear fashion with significantly less time spent running to the next area. Horde level better and have an inferior end game experience (their garrison is legitimately terrible and suboptimal).

On Firestorm you level at x10 the normal rate! Talk to the ethereal white angel looking guy in the capital city near the Loyalty NPC and the Quest Board to ensure you're getting the x10 exp rate. Having such an accelerated exp rate has some interesting side effects! Any "swarm-type" NPC (think like a swarm of bugs, they usually have a smaller typeface nameplate) will give extraordinary amounts of exp and die to a sneeze. Finding these swarm-type NPCs and farming them is a great way to gain exp quickly.

From years of playing WoW it is advantageous to have the addon "Scrap" installed while leveling. If you loot literally everything and teach Scrap to sell the crappy Green-armors etc, you can gain significant amounts of gold quickly. Certainly enough for flying at lvl60. This process is benefited by having frequent access to vendors (like the vendor mount Yak / Mammoth) and larger bags over 16 slots. But even as a brand new character with crappy bags this can be a good way to earn gold in the early game. The other addons in my pack will help with leveling as well, I highly recommend them.

### **Heirlooms and Exp Potions**

Heirlooms are an item type in WoW that scale in level with the player and increase their experience gains from every action. A full set of heirlooms will gain you an extra 55% exp!! If you're a brand new character heirlooms won't be available unless you receive help from a guild mate or friendly stranger. Luckily gold is easy to make a lvl100 so most max level players can help a newb with some starting gold without much trouble. If someone gives you some gold I recommend you use it to purchase heirlooms immediately. A weapon is the #1 choice since it will always be useful.

Heirlooms have two upgrade levels that must be purchased if you want them to continue working. At upgrade=0 the heirlooms will work until lvl60 then cease giving you added exp and will stop scaling. Upgrade=1 will work until lvl90 and is technically all you really need for an efficient leveling process. Upgrade=2 will get you heirlooms that scale to lvl100 and are decent starting gear (600ilvl isn't bad). So upgrade your heirlooms before lvl60 to gain the benefit. The slots available are: helm, shoulder, back, chest, legs, weapons / shields / off-hands, rings, necklace, trinket. Some of these slots aren't available until you are guild reputation "Friendly" (questing increases guild reputation and your exp lvl, so get questing!), and the rings aren't available until you're an established lvl100 with the Garrison Shipyard.

Once you have thirty five heirlooms you will get an achievement which rewards you with a lvl1 mount!! You can create a new character and be mounted speed buffed right away. This is a massive quality of life bonus and is one you should strive to have immediately.

You can enchant your heirlooms on certain slots as well to great benefit. Cloak for 10% movement speed, neck + rings + chest + weapon all can be enchanted! Because movement speed is so useful while leveling, I recommend enchanting your heirloom cloak and lvl1 boots to gain an 18% movement speed buff. Chest gets a stats buff, neck and rings can get multistrike buffs which is OP in the old world because the stat doesn't exist on gear, and weapon should get "Elemental Force" if you want to be overpowered and level like a breeze.

There are also experience potions you can purchase for Firestorm Gold Points ($$$) and/or farm directly in game. The potions increase your exp gains by 300% and stack with all experience boosting effects, *including each other*!!

These two main potions are plentiful and are easy to farm at lvl100. The best works until lvl85 and is called the "Elixir of Ancient Knowledge". Farm this potion in Draenor --> Nagrand! Using the Handy Notes addon, locate the fossil grey/brown icons in Nagrand. These are reputation NPCs for the Steamweedle faction in Draenor. These elite NPCs drop reputation items and also some gross bags. Each kill gives you one bag, save the bags and do not open them right away. Get about five bags in your inventory and queue for a PVP Arena (skirmish 2s or whatever), then open the bags once you're standing in the arena lobby. Each bag you open will give you an exp potion! These potions have a 1hr duration.

The other exp potion is gained from Garrison Missions, has a 10min duration and is the same 300% exp boost. Remember these exp potions stack with each other, and the heirlooms, and the x10 exp rate. You can get leveling so fast you'll spend all your time running to the next zone. But this feeling is only possible with help or with an existing lvl100 character.

### **Questing & Leveling Mentality**

Questing and leveling can be fairly boring, especially if you're experienced and ESPECIALLY because you're lower level and your class doesn't have enough buttons to make it interesting. I recommending putting on a movie or music or a podcast and enjoying your time spent leveling. Luckily the process of leveling is fast af if you're dedicated, so the slog won't damage you unless you let it.

On Firestorm many of the quests won't work the way they did on retail. Take every quest freely, complete everything that is easy, and freely abandon the rest. Do not dump infinite time trying to make any one quest work, it's better to move on or simply "Pokemon grind exp" instead of dumping time into quests that likely won't ever work. In general murder or fetch quests will work and MANY will auto complete.

I recommend using the addon "Leatrix Plus" while leveling! It has the capability of taking and completing quests almost immediately, saving you time reading and dicking around when you could be moving onto the next task.

### **Lvl1 --> Lvl20**

**Stormwind --> Elwynn Forest --> Westfall --> Redridge Mountains**

Build your character and appear in the game as a lvl1 pleb with nothing. At this moment you will have a letter in the mailbox containing a mount certificate and the recipe for lvl3 "Trading Post" in the Garrison. ***DO NOT DELETE the recipe*** for the Trading Post!! Just hold onto it for your journey, you'll want that at lvl100!

When in doubt pick the Night Elf race. It is the undeniable "best race" on Firestorm. Being able to drop combat (lose combat bug - CB), have extra 2% movement speed and 2% crit/haste is simply too potent not to encourage. Not every class can be a Night Elf, but if yours allows it (especially non mages / rogues / hunters who can already lose CB) then please do yourself a favor and make that your race.

Lvl1 appears in the starting zone. You should take every quest you see, complete every quest that easy, and be making your way toward Stormwind as quickly as possible. For an optimal leveling experience you want to set your Hearthstone at the Stormwind Inn right near the Quest Board in the Trade District (blue rooftops). The general process is to take the starting quests from the Quest Board (Eastern Continent only!) and make your way to those quest hubs, level up and do your thing, then Hearth back to Stormwind (SW) and take the next set of starting quests.

You are now in Stormwind and are lvl8 or so. Head to the flight master and take a short flight to the quest hub in Goldshire right near SW. You will very quickly be lvl10+. This is a great time to type "/join world\_en" and find a guild. If you can get even a little bit of help right now, your experience leveling will be vastly superior. You will want 16-slot bags as quickly as possible. You will want any movement speed buffs possible (10% from cloak, 8% from boot enchant). You will want Heirlooms if at all possible.

Set your Hearthstone location to the Inn and begin taking starting quests from the Quest Board. And before you Hearth back to Stormwind it's often a good idea to venture further into surrounding zones, picking up a Flight Path to speed up your return. Often your next quest zone will be adjacent to your current zone and you can save some time by connecting flight paths when it is convenient.

In general you will open your map and hover over various zones, looking for zones in your level range. With such a high exp rate it is ok if you level in a weaker area for awhile and in some cases that is optimal (Western Plaguelands specifically).

Make your way from starting zone and finish lvl20 strong in the Redridge Mountains. There's a good chance you will be lvl20 before even getting to the Redridge Mountains!

### **Lvl20 --> Lvl40**

**Wetlands --> Arathi Highlands --> The Hinterlands --> Western Plaguelands**

At lvl20 you automatically learn the mount skill! Yay moving 200% speed, thank god. It's also a good idea for this section to carry some "Goblin Glider Kit" as you'll be going from a high elevation to lower elevations. You can glider-skip a lot of running if you position yourself and fall with style.

At this point in your play through you have two general directions to take and I recommend you take the path "Wetlands --> Arathi Highlands --> The Hinterlands --> Western Plaguelands" instead of the Southern tip of the Eastern Continent. You are going to have to work your way North anyway for lvl40 --> lvl60, so you might as well start moving that direction right away.

This whole section is just questing and fighting your way ever further Northward. The quest chains will give you versions of the quest board's "Starting Quest", but I encourage you to venture back to Stormwind between each zone anyway. You will end up with two starting quests (free exp!) and it will ensure the correct quest hubs will trigger properly.

It helps a huge amount to have the whole map revealed without exploration requirements. That way you can dodge difficult areas and see the connection points between zones. Often you need to run through a tunnel system or walk through a specific mountain pass to get to the next zone. Having the map revealed will make this whole process efficient and a superior experience.

As soon as you can be in the Western Plaguelands, do so. The density of NPCs in this zone is incredible and the exp gains here are exceptional. There are hundreds --> thousands of swarm NPCs here, a huge number of easy and functional quests, and I recommend you stay in this zone until the exp completely dries up. You can get to +lvl45 in this zone quickly. If you have a 10min duration 300% exp potion, this is a great zone to use it. Especially in the fallen city of "Andorhal".

### **Lvl40 --> Lvl60**

**Badlands --> Searing Gorge --> Burning Steppes --> Swamp of Sorrows**

The hardest part of this section is getting into the zones! All of these zones are surrounded by impassable mountains and canyons and you cannot fly yet. Having a guild mate fly you to connect the flight paths is extremely helpful here and will save a ton of time. Otherwise you will have to follow these instructions to make your way into the zones. It took me so many hours to find the right way into these zones the first time, oof....

Get to the Badlands via the zone Loch Modan, there are several options. Simplest path is taking the tunnels in the southwest "Valley of the Kings" section of the map which leads to the Searing Gorge; then follow the path southeast to the Badlands and begin your questing. Alternatively there are some switchback paths in Loch Modan crossing the Deathwing's map damage! Find the sneaky path in Loch Modan at coordinates 47.53 73.87! You can also make a Goblin Glider jump at coordinates 37.17 83.22 in Loch Modan. With enough determination you can and will find a way into the Badlands.

The Searing Gorge is directly connected to the Badlands, so getting to one means getting to the other. In general your starting quests will take you to the colored flight paths (blue for Alliance, red/orange for the Horde) and these will be your main quest hubs.

Traveling to the Burning Steppes will require a journey to the Redridge Mountains. Take the north-central path into the zone. You will walk through a fiery canyon into the Steppes. Make you way to the quest hub and begin questing!

Loch Modan 47.53 73.87 --> Badlands

Loch Modan GLIDER Jump 37.17 83.22--> Badlands

Loch Modan Tunnel @ 18.25 83.79 (leads to Searing Gorge)

You won't have to travel to each of these zones during the lvl40-->lvl60 phase of your journey. The exp gains are simply too high. So pick whichever spot fits your mood best and go from there. I personally end up skipping the Burning Steppes.

Swamp of Sorrows is easy to get to, even if you just force your character to it by running across the ocean! The normal path is from Duskwood --> Deadwind Pass --> Swamp of Sorrows. It's your final destination before going to Outland. The best quests are in "Bogpaddle". You should out level this zone very quickly as the exp gains are quite high.

### **Lvl60 --> Lvl70**

**Blasted Lands (or Stormwind portal to Shattrath) --> Outland --> Northrend**

Way to go broseph, OUTLAND time!! You have officially left the Old World and leveling will get sooo much faster. Take your starting quests for Outland and head to the Blasted Lands via the Swamp of Sorrows southern entrance. You can also skip the Blasted Lands and blitz right to Shattrath via the convenient portal in Stormwind near the Orange Balloon at the Earthshrine.

This is also the moment you can purchase flying!! It costs a fair bit so getting help from a guildmate is a good idea. If you've taken my advice and installed the "Scrap" addon you will have enough gold to purchase flying and your mount. Flying will hugely increase the speed at which you can level and complete tasks. Even the most basic lvl100 player will have 500g to spare, so get some help if you can.

At lvl65 you can access a massive exp area called the "Ring of Blood". It's an arena in North-central Nagrand at coordinates ~43 21. If you have a 300% exp boost potion this is **exactly when** to use it. Get help from a lvl100 player and have them kill the elite NPCs the quest summons. You can easily spike yourself from 65 --> 75 from this one quest chain. Then jump from 75 --> 85 using Northrend's Zul'drak exp arena. With one exp potion you can skip two entire expansions and be in Pandaria in about six minutes.

In Outland you just follow the quest progressions normally, accepting every quest and abandoning every quest that doesn't work easily. Move zones if you need to, but I know you can easily be lvl70 before leaving the starting zone of Outland. When you hit lvl70 head back to Stormwind and begin the next phase.

### **Lvl70 --> Lvl90**

**Northrend (take the boat) --> Hyjal (take the Earthshrine portal) --> Pandaria (take the portal near Orange Balloon in SW)**

Leveling in Northrend is straight forward and streamlined. The same process of taking starting quests and moving forward will work well. Stormwind will send you to the docks in the NW section of the city, take the boat that does NOT look like a pirate ship at the dock furthest North. This will take you to the Borean Tundra. Take every quest there and do your best to level efficiently, murdering every NPC along the way to simultaneously exp-grind and quest boost yourself.

Purchasing "Cold Weather Flying" is costly. I don't believe it's easily possible to do even with the "Scrap" addon. Sorry mate, you can't fly unless you dump time into gold farming and that just isn't worth it. No flying for you bro. Ask for help if that annoys you. Same deal for fast flying from Cataclysm (5000 gold? yeah no.) sorry mate. Find a gold-benefactor and fly your 410% speed!

***At lvl75 you get a huge exp boost!!!*** All players should utilize this. Make your way to the Dalaran Sewers, find a Goblin in the middle bottom of the Sewers giving a quest to Zul'Drak Arena. This arena quest will auto complete so it's free experience points to anyone who knows it exists! With an 300% exp potion this will take you from lvl75 --> lvl85 almost instantly.

Northrend has a massive number of quest hubs, repeatable quests, auto completing quests etc. You will level through this zone like a hot knife through butter. When you've finished with Northrend head back to Stormwind.

Lvl80 take the starting quest for Hyjal in Stormwind then fly yourself to the Earthshrine and take the convenient portal to Hyjal. Hyjal is by far the best location to level from lvl80-->lvl85. The quests are simple, local, and the entire area is contained.

Lvl85 enjoy the free exp in Stormwind starting quest "King's Command" (the NPC procs near the royal castle entrance). Then skip trying to find the skyship and simply enter the portal near the Orange Balloon at the Earthshrine. Take every quest you can in the starting area and pokemon-grind everything you see. You will absolutely unquestionably outlevel Pandaria before leaving the starting zone.

Keep in mind this optimization: the shrine in the **"Vale of Eternal Blossoms" is the best Hearthstone Location in the game.** Portals to every location, who needs mages muahahaha!!