Leveling Guide

The point of this guide is straightforward. However, I'm going to start with some points that may not be so straightforward for new players. If you have suggestions for this guide or questions, post them below!

Contents
I. Tips.
II. Choose your race!
III. Choose your class!
IV. Choose your leveling path!
V. Helpful addons.



I. Leveling Tips

• Do not buy skills from your trainers that you do not need. Money will be hard to come by while you level up.
• Save cloth, herbs, ores and blue/green item drops that you don't want to sell them on your faction's Auction House. This is the best way to earn money aside from doing quests while you level up.
• Your top priority purchases from the Auction House should be bags (16 slot Netherweave are the most efficient purchase here) so that you have plenty of space to store all of the items you're going to pick up.
• Make sure you collect every "flight point" you come across, for the sake of easy travel. You can identify these by the green exclamation marks over the NPC's head or on your mini-map.
• Gathering professions are the easiest to make gold with early on in the game. If you want to use a crafting profession later in the game, you should get the gathering profession that pairs well with it. The gathering professions are Herbalism, Mining and Skinning.
• Your first mount you can earn at level 30. They are expensive, save up your gold for this!
• Remember that reputations decrease gold costs! Up to 20% discount for exalted reputations!
• Stamina is the best stat for helping you to survive against many mobs.
• You gain 1 talent point for every level starting at level 10.
• You can use lower rank spells to kill stuff and use up less mana!
• Remember to set your Hearthstone to a capital city so you can easily return there!

II. Choosing your race!
Aside from loving how a race appears, there are perks to playing a certain race. You can find those perks listed below.

Alliance
Human
- Class choices: Warrior, Paladin, Rogue, Priest, Mage and Warlock
- Diplomacy: Increases reputation gains by 10%!
- Mace Specialization: Increases expertise with one-handed and two-handed maces by 5.
- Perception: 3min CD that dramatically increases your stealth detection for 20 sec.
- Sword Specialization: Increases expertise with one-handed and two-handed swords by 5.
- The Human Spirit: Increases your character's spirit stat by 10%!

Dwarf
- Class choices: Warrior, Paladin, Hunter, Rogue and Priest
- Find Treasure: Allows the Dwarf to sense nearby treasure, making it appear on the minimap. Lasts until cancelled.
- Frost Resistance: Frost Resistance increased by 10.
- Gun Specialization: Increases critical chance with guns by 1%.
- Stoneform: 3min CD. While active, grants immunity to Bleed, Poison and Disease effects. In addition, Armor increased by 10%. Lasts 8 sec.

Night Elf
- Class choices: Warrior, Hunter, Rogue, Priest and Druid
- Nature Resistance: Nature Resistance increased by 10.
- Quickness: Dodge chance increased by 1%.
- Shadowmeld: 10 sec CD. Activate to slip into the shadows, reducing the chance for enemies to detect your presence. Lasts until cancelled or moving. Night Elf Rogues and Druids with Shadowmeld are more difficult to detect while stealthed or prowling.
- Wisp Spirit: Transform into a wisp upon death, increasing speed by 50%.

Gnome
- Class choices: Warrior, Rogue, Mage and Warlock
- Arcane Resistance: Arcane Resistance increased by 10.
- Engineering Specialization: Increases Engineering skill by 15.
- Escape Artist: 1.75 min CD. Escape the effects of any immobilization or movement speed reduction effect.
- Expansive Mind: Intellect increased by 5%.

Draenei
- Class choices: Warrior, Paladin, Hunter, Priest, Shaman and Mage
- Gemcutting: Jewelcrafting skill increased by 5.
- Gift of the Naaru: 3 min CD. Heals the target for X damage over 15 sec.
- Heroic Presence: Increases chance to hit by 1% for you and all party members within 30 yards.
- Shadow Resistance: Shadow Resistance increased by 10.


Horde
Orc
- Class choices: Warrior, Hunter, Rogue, Shaman and Warlock
- Axe Specialization: Increases expertise with one-handed and two-handed axes by 5.
- Blood Fury: 2 min CD. Increases attack power by X, but also reduces healing effects on you by 50%. Lasts 15 sec.
- Command: Increases Warlock and Hunter pet damage by 5%.
- Hardiness: Chance to resist Stun effects increased by an additional 15%.

Forsaken (Undead)
- Class choices: Warrior, Rogue, Priest, Mage and Warlock
- Cannibalize: 2 min CD. When activated, regenerates 7% of total health every 2 sec for 10 sec. Only works on Humanoid or Undead corpses within 5 yds. Any movement, action or damage taken will cancel the effect.
- Shadow Resistance: Shadow Resistance increased by 10.
- Underwater Breathing: Underwater breath lasts 300% longer than normal.
- Will of the Forsaken: 2 min CD. Provides immunity to Charm, Fear and Sleep while active. May also be used while already afflicted by Charm, Fear or Sleep. Lasts 5 sec.

Tauren
- Class choices: Warrior, Hunter, Shaman and Druid
- Cultivation: Herbalism skill increased by 15.
- Endurance: Total health increased by 5%.
- Nature Resistance: Nature Resistance increased by 10.
- War Stomp: 2 min CD. Stuns up to 5 enemies within 8 yds for 2 sec.

Troll
- Class choices: Warrior, Hunter, Rogue, Priest, Shaman and Mage
- Beast Slaying: Damage dealt versus Beasts increased by 5%.
- Berserking: 3 min CD. Increases your attack speed by 10% to 30%. At full health the speed increase is 10% with a greater effect up to 30% if you are badly hurt when you activate Berserking. Lasts 10 sec.
- Bow Specialization: Your chance to critically hit with Bows is increased by 1%.
- Regeneration: Health regeneration rate increased by 10%. 10% of total Health regeneration may continue during combat.
- Throwing Specialization: Your chance to criticially hit with Throwing Weapons is increased by 1%.

Blood Elf
- Class choices: Paladin, Hunter, Rogue, Priest, Mage and Warlock
- Arcane Affinity: Enchanting skill increased by 10.
- Arcane Torrent: 2 min CD. Silence all enemies within 8 yars for 2 sec. In addition, you gain X mana for each Mana Tap charge currently affecting you.
- Magic Resistance: All resistances increased by 5.
- Mana Tap: 30 sec CD. Reduces target's mana by X and charges you with Arcane energy for 10 min. This effect stacks up to 3 times.

III. Choosing your class!


Paladin
Paladins specialize in using holy magic and can fill three roles: Healing (Holy), Tanking (Protection) and Melee damage (Retribution). The Paladin provides a large variety of group buffs and auras to a group, and a variety of utility spells. The Holy Paladin specializes in single-target healing. The Protection Paladin specializes in tanking many targets at once. The Retribution Paladin specializes in burst damage and maintaining buffs on allies and debuffs on enemies.

Holy weapons: One-handed mace/sword/axe & shield.
Holy stats: Intellect, 'mana per 5 sec', bonus healing.
Protection weapons: One-handed mace/sword/axe & shield. (Use a spell damage weapon.)
Protection stats: Stamina, defense rating, dodge/parry/block stats, armor, expertise.
Retribution weapons: Two-handed mace/sword/axe/polearm.
Retribution stats: Strength, attack power, critical strike, hit rating, expertise. (Agility can be useful as well.)


Shaman
Shamans specialize in elemental magic and totems, and can fill three roles: Healing (Restoration), Melee damage (Enhancement) and Ranged damage (Elemental). Like the Paladin, the Shaman can provide a large variety of group buffs through their totems. The Restoration Shaman respecializes in group healing. The Enhancement Shaman specializes in single-target melee damage and providing the almighty Windfury totem (grants additional attacks for melee). The Elemental Shaman specializes in single-target melee damage and providing spell haste and damage to their fellow casters.

Restoration weapons: One-handed mace/axe/dagger & shield, or Staves.
Restoration stats: Intellect, 'mana per 5 sec', bonus healing.
Enhancement weapons: One-handed mace/axes (dual wielding). Two-handed mace/axes at lower level.
Enhancement stats: Agility, attack power, strength, critical strike, haste, hit rating, expertise.
Elemental weapons: One-handed mace/axe/dagger & shield, or Staves.
Elemental stats: Intellect, spell damage, haste, spell critical strike, spell hit rating and small amounts of 'mana per 5 sec'.


Druid
Druids specialize in nature magic and changing forms, and is the only class in the game that can fill all four roles: Tanking (Feral), Melee damage (Feral), Healing (Restoration) and Ranged damage (Balance). A Druid's specialization is in their versatility in their roles, and their ability to provide unique but very powerful abilities to a group (Innervate for mana restore and Rebirth for a resurrection during combat). The [Tanking] Feral Druid specializes in huge amounts of armor, dodge and health in addition to being a fairly versatile tank that can fill both the main-tank and off-tank roles when necessary. The [Melee] Feral Druid specializes in single-target damage and having massive amounts of attack power. The Restoration Druid specializes in heal-over-time (HoT) effects. A Balance Druid specializes in single-target nuke damage at range.

Feral [Tank] weapons: Staves.
Feral [Tank] stats: Stamina, agility, defense, dodge/parry, armor, expertise.
Feral [Damage] weapons: Staves or polearms.
Feral [Damage] stats: Agility, attack power, haste, critical strike, hit rating, expertise. Strength can be useful too, but minor.
Balance weapons: One-handed mace/dagger & off-hand, or Staves.
Balance stats: Intellect, spell damage, haste, spell critical strike, spell hit rating and small amounts of 'mana per 5 sec' and spirit.
Restoration weapons: One-handed mace/dagger & off-hand, or Staves.
Restoration stats: Intellect, bonus healing, spirit, 'mana per 5 sec'.


Hunter
Hunters specialize in the ranged damage role, having a variety of pets which are tamed from the wild and using traps. All Hunter specializations focus on ranged damage, but have slightly different perks then can provide. A Beast Master Hunter specializes in having more powerful pets to help them deal damage. A Marksmanship Hunter focuses on dealing the majority of their damage through their ranged weapon. A Survival Hunter specializes in providing some group buffs and having more effective traps.

All Hunters weapons: Bow/Gun & Staves, Polearms or dual-wielding swords/axes/daggers.
All Hunter stats: Agility, attack power, critical strike, haste, hit rating and small amounts of intellect and 'mana per 5 sec'.


Mage
Mages specialize in the ranged damage role by bringing arguably the best ranged damage in the game. Mages also have the unique ability to teleport themselves or entire groups to various major cities and important locations. Like the Hunter class, all Mage specialization focus on ranged damage, but can provide minor differences. However, unlike most other classes, the optimal choice for a Mage specialization depends on which one can do the most damage with the gear available to you. The exception to this is the Frost specialization for the Mage, which has an additional focus on slowing/rooting effects and provides additional utility abilities, which can prove to be exceptionally powerful when fighting other players.

All Mage weapons: One-handed swords/daggers or staves.
All Mage stats: Intellect, spell damage, spell critical strike, haste, spell hit rating and small amounts of 'mana per 5 sec'.


Priest
Priests focus in holy and shadow magics, and can fill two roles: Healing (Holy), Ranged damage (Shadow), Discipline (Somewhere in between Healing and Ranged damage). The Holy Priest is the embodiment of the classic "traditional" healer in this game. It is a very straightforward specialization that focuses on a large variety of healing ablities. The strength of the Holy Priest is in their versatility in healing methods. They can cover just about any healing facet and be successful at it, but not necessarily the best at it. Shadow Priests specialize in ranged damage, but they also provide mana to their group while doing damage, which is considered immensely useful when doing things with a group. A Discipline Priest specializes in absorbing damage, but isn't necessarily more effective at it than a Holy Priest. Instead, the specialization focuses more on damage output and utility cooldowns, which makes it a useful specialization when fighting other players, but it falls behind when doing other types of content.

All Priest weapons: One-handed mace/dagger or Staves.
Holy Priest stats: Intellect, spirit, bonus healing, 'mana per 5 sec'.
Shadow Priest stats: Intellect, spell damage, spirit, 'mana per 5 sec', haste, spell hit rating.


Rogue
Rogues specialize in being stealthy and unseen, but can also provide massive amounts of melee damage. Rogues only specialize in the one role: Melee damage. However, they can provide ridiculous amounts of stuns and other 'crowd control' effects that can immobilize enemies. This makes Rogues a very popular class choice when fighting against other players. The Combat Rogue specializes in sustained damage with more powerful one-handed weapons than the other Rogue specializations. Assassination Rogues specialize in "doing it from behind" with surprise and backstab attacks. Subtlety Rogues specialize in avoiding detection and being able to surprise their enemies from seemingly nowhere. Subtlety is the go-to specialization for fighting other players due to its advanced utility abilities, which can be sometimes useful for other content as well.

Combat Rogue weapons: One-handed maces/axes/swords (dual wielding).
Assassination Rogue weapons: Daggers (dual wielding).
Subtlety Rogue weapons: Daggers (dual wielding).
All Rogue stats: Agility, attack power, critical strike, haste, hit rating, expertise.


Warrior
Warriors specialize in their ability to wield any weapon type with maximum efficiency and can fill two roles: Tanking (Protection) and Melee damage (Arms and Fury). Protection Warriors are arguably the best "main tank" in the game, that they can tank a single target with more efficiency and strength than any other tank in the game. They do struggle at maintaining aggro on multiple targets though. Fury Warriors specialize in dual wielding weapons and doing maximum damage in the style of a berserker. ArmsWarriors specialize in wielding a single larger weapon, and using it with mastery.

Protection Warrior weapons: One-handed mace/axe/sword & Shield.
Protection Warrior stats: Stamina, defense, armor, dodge/parry/block, hit rating, expertise.
Fury Warrior weapons: One-handed maces/axes/swords (dual wielding).
Arms Warrior weapons: Two-handed mace/axe/sword/polearm.
Fury & Arms warrior stats: Strength, attack power, haste, critical strike, hit rating, expertise. (Agility can be useful.)


Warlock
Warlocks specialize in using demonic magics and summoning demons for pets. They can fill only one role: Ranged damage. Warlocks also have unique abilities such as the ability to summon players to your group, create health stones (which are much like health potions) and occasionally grant other players the ability to bring themselves back from the dead with a 'Soulstone'. Affliction Warlocks specialize in dealing damage over time with corrupting and defiling spells. Demonology Warlocks specialize in having more powerful and unique pets. Destruction Warlocks specialize in raining fire and chaos upon their enemies. The choice in which specialization to use in a group environment is similar to that of a Mage: whichever happens to do more damage with the gear available to you.

All Warlock weapons: One-handed sword/dagger, or Staves.
All Warlock stats: Intellect, stamina, spell damage, haste, spell critical strike, spell hit rating.




Extra notes on differences in stats;
There are a lot of different types of stats in the game, and it can be overwhelming or confusing in what stats are what. While leveling, you will have a fair amount of time to digest what stats apply to you. With that said, it is important to add emphasis on specific stats because they can be extra confusing. Those stats are the following;

- Spell Damage & Bonus Healing - Often times, both stats will appear on an item. Items that are a proper "healer" item will have significantly more Bonus Healing on it than Spell Damage. If the item is more itemized for dealing damage, then the item will have equal amounts of Spell Damage and Bonus healing.
- Hit Rating & Spell Hit Rating - Hit rating functions universally. When you gain this stat from an item, it will increase your chance to hit your targets across the board. Spell Hit rating, on the other hand, will only apply to your magical spells. Regular Hit rating will still benefit your spells, though.
- Critical Strike & Spell Critical Strike - Follows the same principle mentioned above for Hit rating.

IV. Choosing your leveling path!

Blue zones are Alliance zones.
Red zones are Horde zones.
All zones that are not marked Blue or Red are contested between both factions. You are automatically PvP flagged in these zones and can be killed by players of the other faction.

Green zones are great zones for questing, but a lot of PvP can happen since they are popular zones. Higher level zones that are not marked green can be decent for the few quests that they have, since there will be less players to compete with in these zones.
All Outland zones are great for leveling and have tons of quests, and thus they will not be marked.


Human
Level 1-10 Elwynn Forest [A]
Level 10-20 Westfall [A]
Level 15-25 Redridge Mountains
Level 18-30 Duskwood

Dwarf & Gnome
Level 1-10 Dun Morogh [A]
Level 10-20 Loch Modan [A]
Level 20-30 Wetlands

Draenei & Night Elf
Level 1-10 Azuremyst Isle [A] (Draenei)
Level 1-10 Teldrassil [A] (Night Elf)
Level 10-15 Bloodmyst Isle [A]
Level 10-20 Darkshore [A]
Level 18-30 Ashenvale Forest

Blood Elf & Forsaken (Undead)
Level 1-10 Eversong Woods [H] (Blood Elf)
Level 1-10 Tirisfal Glades [H] (Forsaken)
Level 10-20 Ghostlands [H] (Blood Elf)
Level 10-20 Silverpine Forest [H] (Forsaken)
Level 20-30 Hillsbrad Foothills

Orc, Tauren & Troll
Level 1-10 Durotar [H] (Orc & Troll)
Level 1-10 Mulgore [H] (Tauren)
Level 10-25 Barrens [H]
Level 15-27 Stonetalon Mountains
Level 18-30 Ashenvale Forest
Level 25-35 Thousand Needles

Level 30 to 60
Level 30-40 Desolace & Arathi Highlands
Level 30-45 Stranglethorn Vale
Level 35-45 Swamp of Sorrows & Dustwallow Marsh
Level 40-50 Tanaris, Feralas & Hinterlands
Level 45-50 Searing Gorge
Level 45-55 Blasted Lands
Level 48-55 Un'goro Crater & Felwood
Level 50-60 Winterspring
Level 51-58 Western Plaguelands
Level 53-60 Eastern Plaguelands
Level 55-60 Silithus

Outland
Level 58-63 Hellfire Peninsula
Level 60-64 Zangarmarsh
Level 62-65 Terokkar Forest
Level 64-67 Nagrand
Level 65-68 Blade's Edge Mountains
Level 67-70 Netherstorm
Level 67-70 Shadowmoon Valley

All Zones by Level: http://wowwiki.wikia.com/wiki/Zones_by_level_(original)



V. Helpful Addons

TBC Addons Megathread: http://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=353669

The addons you will want to help you with leveling from this list of addons are;
- Atlasloot (Allows you to check for a lot of item drops in the game, but not from quests)
- Carbonite (This is a "quest helper" addon)
- Cartographer & Cartographer_QuestInfo (Allows tracking locations for quests and coordinates)
- MobInfo (Allows you to compile data while killing mobs so that you can see their health values and item drops)
- Quest Helper (Helps with tracking quests and quest chains, similar to Carbonite)
Check the thread linked above for the download link(s).

Well formatted and comprehensive.

Minor nuance - you may want to be explicit with Hit Rating vs. Spell Hit rating, Critical Strike Rating vs. Spell Critical Strike Rating. Most folk with any experience will readily understand, but as this seems to be geared toward "First Time Ever Playing" folk, clarity might be warranted.

As a personal preference, I'd probably use more language referencing "utility" as an aspect for the various specs (Discipline, Frost, Subtlety, Survival, etc.), as that may help new folk understand the overarching playstyle role of that spec. I think you do a fine job describing the play of the specializations for each class, and generally have stipulated that some of those specs are better used against other players, rather than AI-controlled creatures. I merely figure that having a "Utility/PvP" meta-label (in addition to the Tank/Damage/Healer might be of use to decision making.

Very straight forward. Well written.
I agree with using 'utility' to describe certain specs. It would be helpful for newbies with mmo experience (if there here they or someone they know has such experience) determine if the spec is good for them.
I love the zone level break down, very useful even for us older members who forget where to go next <3

Thanks for the feedback guys. I might eventually go and make further divisions between the specs being explained, but I kinda wanted to try and keep it as simple as possible for newbies. I've added "utility" as a keyword here and there, where it is appropriate. I've also added some more information for class themes, like teleportation for Mages and summoning for Warlocks. I added additional notes for the differences of stat types at the end. Hopefully it isn't toooooo overwhelming for newbies to learn all the different stats.

Awesome guide, you could also add in a slot where on what to do when you get to 70, like playing catch-up etc, but I may actually try out playing Warlock you made it sound sooo intriguing.

Am I to assume this guide can also be useful for Icecrown up to 70?

In regards to the leveling area. It says that the locations that are green are good for questing... Does that mean, the other locations, you want to grind mobs? I haven't played wow since BC was retail, so don't really remember much of leveling and how to go about gearing, so trying to learn as much as possible.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mercy

III. Choosing your class!
Feral [Tank] weapons: Staves or polearms.
Feral [Tank] stats: Stamina, agility, defense, dodge/parry, armor, expertise.
Feral [Damage] weapons: Staves or polearms.
Feral [Damage] stats: Agility, attack power, haste, critical strike, hit rating, expertise. Strength can be useful too, but minor.

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Druids can't use polearms until WOTLK 3.0.8

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FuhQx

In regards to the leveling area. It says that the locations that are green are good for questing... Does that mean, the other locations, you want to grind mobs? I haven't played wow since BC was retail, so don't really remember much of leveling and how to go about gearing, so trying to learn as much as possible.

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No, you may only have a higher chance of meeting an enemy while questing there. Also, Plaguelands are very popular for higher level players who farm runecloth. So, you may encounter them there.

Since Outland is x5 XP rated, there is no real need to explore all of them, just stick to one and you're good to go.