Horde Leveling Guide, World Of Warcraft

There is something gratifying about being level 1 and getting to level 2 in, say, a few minutes. Am I right? What if you could level almost that fast to level 70? The thought is enticing.

Normally, in the popular role-playing game (RPG) World of Warcraft, leveling becomes harder the higher you go. You start out in a fairly secluded "low-level" area so you will not encounter more than your character can handle. It then can be very easy to jump from quest to quest, do several at once, and then turn them in for a significant amount of experience points. Once characters leave the starting zone, usually around level 15-20, organizing quests becomes more frustrating.

Leveling guides are a walk-through of the entire game, from level 1-70. All the planning of when to do each quest, where to go, and how to efficiently manage your time is already done. Usually coordinates or maps are given to show locations of objects, places, or quests. Also, because the authors of such guides have leveled characters from 1-70 several times, they know the tips and tricks you would not otherwise. To help reduce unnecessary time and effort, they often say which quests to skip because the travel time, difficulty, or insignificant experience points is not worthwhile. They might give off-road routes to take so you do not get beaten down by mobs, or suggest you pick up certain items you will need later, even if you do not need any at the moment. Knowing certain tips can literally reduce hours of frustrating playing time.

I tried Brian Kopp's 1-70 Guide for Alliance and an associate tried Joana/Mancow's 1-70 for horde. I will say, it makes the game fun as far as questing goes. It can be very frustrating to feel like you are in a rut, whether in actual reality or virtual, but with such detailed step-by-step guidelines I found it satisfying to know that I was moving forward in the most efficient manner.

What leveling guides take away, however, is the element of the game that makes it a role-playing game: fantasy. If you get intensely involved in your character, then a guide could seem too rigid and dishonest-not that the guides have you do anything out of compliance with the manufacturer's guidelines, but it could make the game too easy, and thus, artificial.

Also, because the guides are solely for questing, they suggest you spend your talent points to benefit that only. So, if you are an alliance character built for questing and a horde character comes your way, you might have a tough time fighting him off. To build a character for PvP (player versus player) or for raids requires different talent points.

Lastly, many people have an entire social life in World of Warcraft. They "hang out" with friends, have "parties" with guild members, and love joining others to do dungeons (the leveling guides rarely have you do dungeons because of the time consumption). If you follow a leveling guide strictly, you do not have the time or need for any kind of online social interaction.

Of course, there is the possibility of using a guide for a section only or following it loosely throughout. Leveling guides do give some great tips on finishing quests, but then again, many tricks and more can be found on other World of Warcraft sites, such as the popular thottbot.com.

I suppose it boils down to one question: "Who do you want to pwn, and how?" If you go for the thrill of PvP, a guide might be useless unless you want to level up fast to get to a point where you can do serious damage. If you really enjoy soloing, however, leveling guides take all (well, most) of the frustration out of the process.

Go pwn.

Tags: world of warcraft armory, wow maps, zygors leveling guide