DONOTCHANGE As I mentioned here, I have bought Brian’s guide to level my paladin from level 70-80 in World of Warcraft’s latest expansion: Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK). In this article, I’ll share my initial thoughts.

I have been using Brian Kopp’s Guide this past weekend and easily reached level 72. I’d estimate it takes a good 6-7 hours per level with my Ret paladin and that’s messing around a bit too, checking out the new instances (The Nexus & Utgarde Keep), respecing protection to solo shattered halls, etc. Turns out my protection gear isn’t as good as my ret gear so I gave up soloing SH after a few times. Brian Kopp’s game mod for the guide makes it extremely simple to use and works with the TomTom waypoint addon and Cartographer map addon so when the guide tells you to go to a waypoint it is automatically entered into those addons. This then displays an arrow telling you which direction to go, how far, and puts a way point on the map. Anyways, each step is displayed for you, map coordinates are automatically put in, NPC names are given. There is no simpler way to level in WotLK!

Update 11-29-2008: My fastest level so far was between 78 and 79. It took me about 4.5 hrs.  Not bad!  I think my epic flying mount helped quite a bit there.

Update 11-24-2008: After a week using the guide, and not playing 24/7 like some people, I managed to hit level 77! Not too bad.. I do have to say the Grizzly Hills is the biggest pain in the ass zone so far. It is much easier if you could use your flying mount! Level 73-74 took a fast 4.5 hours, I have to say the guide helped me speed through Dragonbait and I got to see the really cool cut scene that ends that zone. Good stuff!

I first got hooked on Brian Kopp’s Alliance Leveling guide when I leveled from 60-70, but back then there was no in-game mod. I had printed the .pdf and checked steps off as I finished them and had to enter in waypoints manually. Kind of a pain now that I’m spoiled by the in-game guide! One more thing, I printed out the guide for WotLK’s Howling Fjord zone but haven’t had a need to look at it since the ingame mod presents the info on the screen.

-Ringmaster (Khadgar)

DONOTCHANGE There are three main suppliers of Warcraft Leveling Guides. Each of them will be updated for the Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK) Expansion. The guides have their strengths and weaknesses and this article will review each of them from a World of Warcraft player’s perspective that has been playing the game since it was released in 2004.

Joanna’s Horde Leveling Guide is one of the oldest guides around. This one focuses mainly on the horde side. Since I’ve played alliance, I don’t have much experience with it. All I can say is people have been very happy with it and the two other guide suppliers used Joanna’s guide ideas for the creation of their guides (formatting, map mods, layout, etc.)  Hands down, this is the best horde guide out there.

Brian Kopp’s Guide is a very well written guide that I originally purchased to level 60-70. I followed the guide which I bought the day The Burning Crusade was released. Printed out the .pdf and installed the map mod. The guide proved to be invaluable for leveling my Paladin. Having the printed copy helped me by allowing me to check off the steps that I finished and the map mod clearly shows you where to go. Brian took the time to set waypoints for each of the steps. Needless to say I was one of the first to hit 70 in my guild, it took me about 2 weeks. I then leveled my Mage alt to 39 using the guide, played as a twink for a bit and then used the guide to get to 70. It was a very fast to level my alt, this was before Blizzard buffed the experience rate too. I am very happy with Brian Kopp’s guide and will more than likely use it again when Wrath of the Lich King comes out.  There might be a delay between the release of WotLK and when Brian’s guide comes out, but it will be well worth it.

UPDATE (November 12, 2008): Brian Kopp’s Guide has been updated for WotLK so you can now level from 1-80 in that.  I just purchased it and will post my results once I get the expansion!  I had great success with his alliance guides and highly recommend them.. As I mentioned before, I did 60-70 in 2 weeks (real days) and 39-70 pretty quick too using Brian’s guide.

UPDATE (November 17, 2008): I have been using Brian Kopp’s Guide this past weekend and easily reached level 72.  I’d estimate it takes a good 6-7 hours per level with my Ret paladin and that’s messing around a bit too, checking out the new instances, respecing protection to solo shattered halls, etc.  Turns out my protection gear isn’t as good as my ret gear so I gave up soloing SH after a few times. Brian Kopp’s game mod for the guide makes it extremely simple to use and works with the TomTom waypoint addon and Cartographer map addon so when the guide tells you to go to a waypoint it is automatically entered into those addons.  This then displays an arrow telling you which direction to go, how far, and puts a waypoint on the map. Anyways, each step is displayed for you, map coordinates are automatically put in, NPC names are given.  There is no simpler way to level!

Team iDemise Leveling Guide - This guide looks very good and also has a map mod. They tout that they have the fastest leveling time out of all the other guides. The price is a little less too. They have guides for both Alliance and Horde so if I was playing both factions, I would get this one! Also, like the other guide suppliers they feature Lifetime membership. You will receive all updates for free and for the rest of your life! New versions of our addon are uploaded frequently and you will receive 70-80 when Wrath of the Lich King is released. This is good because the map addon that Brian Kopp uses had some downtime between patch 2.3 and 3.02. If it weren’t for some bad reviews about having to grind I would sriously consider buying this guide for leveling from 70 to 80.

In conclusion, any of the above three guides will get you to 80 effectively and efficiently. Alot of time has been spent developing those guides and each feature a money back guarantee. So if you are considering purchasing a leveling guide, you won’t go wrong by choosing one of the above.

-Ringmaster / Milenko, Khadgar - Look me up on the armory!