As World of Warcraft (WoW) expands to its current expansion pack, Cataclysm, more races are now available to the players while the cap of the character level has increased. At the same time, storylines have increased while end-game contents are even more exciting. Although many players are often interested and would like to play with a new race, they are often deterred by the painful process of leveling a new character. Currently in WoW Cataclysm, leveling from 1 to 85 (the maximum level) is very time consuming. Sometimes when a player tries to power level, going from 1 to 85 as fast as possible, they typically get burnt out, and end up needing a “break” from the game after reaching level 85.
For all the reasons discussed above, and more, leveling guides have become quite popular in the WoW community. WoW players are seeking assistance and tools that can alleviate the leveling process by reducing the amount of time necessary to reach that golden level 85. Personally, I have not had the patience to level another character from 1 to 85, although I would love to play with a level 85 goblin or worgen. So, I decided to research on what are the most important and valuable ingredients in a WoW Cataclysm leveling guide and came across 5 main areas.
1. Hand-holding through quests: This is so important because the game has many complicated quests that are often chained. Even though you can get a lot of experience by completing a long chained quest, plus the reputation for that faction, it is very easy to get lost in the quest line. At the least, an effective leveling guide really needs to guide the players through the quests smoothly.
2. Legal with Blizzard: Guides often come with an user-interface to assist the players. And of course, the user-interface (addon) has to be legal with Blizzard, or else you can risk having your account banned.
3. Tips on quests: Not all the quests are self-explanatory. It is helpful to have tips on how to complete a quest, e.g. where is the boss that needs to be defeated, items to be looted, mobs to destroy to loot quest items, etc. It would be ideal for a guide to be integrated with a website like WoWhead that has all the tips for the quests. This would save time from alt-tabbing out of the game to search for tips on quests, which can be quite time consuming, especially when your computer freezes or crashes from doing so.
4. How to spec and glyph: Another reason to alt-tab out of the game is to find information on how to spend talent points for a good leveling spec, and what glyphs to use along the leveling process. Having the right spec and glyph can reduce downtime, e.g. drink less or bandage less, therefore increasing leveling speed.
5. Simple user-interface: I’ve seen leveling guides that display all sorts of things on the screen to a point where I can barely see the game itself and my character. Having a clean user-interface that gives players’ the choice to see a specific tool, note, tip, etc. is essential in an effective leveling guide. If the screen is crammed with leveling information, it really takes the enjoyment aspect out of the game.
After trying several guides, one that covers all 5 areas above is the Booster WoW leveling guide. Personally, I’m glad I came across the Booster guide because it has made the leveling process nearly painless; hence, I am enjoying playing with my new level 85 Worgen Warrior.
