FinaL.FreeDoM's 1-60 Grinding Guide

Hello all! I have read Jame's Alliance Leveling Guide and I have to say it is one of the best guides I have ever seen. I have yet to try it but I know it will be a very useful guide to anyone who wants to level fast. I too have also leveled very quickly. I used to believe grinding was more efficient than questing, until I read Jame's Alliance Guide. Questing really is the way to go, but you have to know exactly what you're doing, otherwise you will cost yourself hours, even days of downtime from finding where everything is, what mobs to kill, where to look for them, how to kill them, etc. This guide was written for the people who do not know the quests, but just do not have the patience to learn them and still want to level fast.

But first, let me name some pros and cons of grinding, before you decide if this is really the way you want to level.

Pros:

1.) Good Experience. My highest rate of experience in grinding has been 35k/hour non-rested, on a druid in cat form. I do not know how fast questing can possibly give you, but this is still pretty damn good!

2.) Easy. All you have to do is run around in a circle and kill mobs, and watch your mana and health, whereas questing you have to know where to go, where to find the best place to kill the mobs, etc. And because it is easy, you can solo all you want, without having to waste time on trying to find someone to help you, thus letting you level easier.

3.) Money. You can get a lot of nice BoE's and vendor loot from places, and you can either vendor them for good amounts or sell them on the Auction House. Many places I will give you in this guide will give you good loot to sell on the Auction House.

Cons:

1.) Boring. Be warned. Grinding is painfully BORING!! Repeatedly killing the same mobs over and over again, running the same path over and over again for hours on end will get very old. If you want to grind, have some of your favorite music CD's playing so you have something to think about. If you do not think you can handle the boredom, then stop reading now and do not attempt grinding, or you will cause yourself even more downtime than questing, even if you do not know the quests.

2.) Rewards. Questing gives you consistent rewards and reputation bonuses. Though some of the time grinding does give you nice world drops and reputation bonuses (I.E. Argent Dawn), the items you'll pick up from grinding will most likely be sold than you actually using them. Quests often let you choose your rewards, thus giving you things that you can actually use.

3.) Efficiency. I used to firmly believe that questing was very inefficient. Nobody could ever prove me wrong. But then I stumbled upon Jame's Alliance Guide...and I was amazed at the level of detail that he put into his guide. It was then that I realized that questing is very efficient, more efficient than grinding, if you know what you are doing. But if you do not know quests very well, and want to get level 60 ASAP, grinding is still the way to go IMO. If you are in no rush to get to level 60, just learn the quests, it's a lot more fun. Once you know the quests very well, you will be a very fast leveler. One guy got level 60 in 4 days and 20 hours simply from questing. I do not think this is possible with grinding.

4.) The game! If you wish to grind all the way to 60, also be warned that you will miss out on a lot of aspects of World of Warcraft. You will miss bits of storyline, some nice action scenes, challenges, and other stuff that Blizzard put much work into. If you are a first-time player, I recommend that you do not rush to level 60, and take it slower and enjoy everything WoW has to offer. Whether you want to rush to 60 is completely up to you, but this is what I recommend.

With that out of the way, let's get started on the guide, shall we?

Just a few things to remember when grinding.

1. Get First Aid. This is a very useful skill with ALL classes, even those than can heal. Why use mana and cause more downtime when you can heal yourself for no mana? Many mobs I will set you up against will drop cloth, so you will not have to worry about using up all your cloth. If you run out of cloth, just pick up some food and drinks (if your class uses mana of course).

2. Don't go AFK! This can create bad downtime. Obviously, you will not get optimal EXP if you go AFK for whatever reason. Keep your AFK times to a minimum.

3. Watch your money. Use http://www.thottbot.com/ to check how much your skills will cost at each level. If you are coming up short, then visit the vendor more often when your inventory is full.

4. Be as efficient with your health/mana/rage as possible! The less mana you use and the less health you lose, the less time you spend eating/drinking. This is very important when grinding. Keep this in mind when you choose your talent spec also.

This is how I leveled and I thought it was great. I'd STRONGLY urge you to check out Jame's Alliance Leveling guide though. It truly is an amazing guide. But if you don't feel like putting in so much effort and just want a lazy way to get level 60 fast, this is your guide.

Levels 1-13 : Just do all the quests in the zone you start in. They are all fairly easy and give you good experience. If you need help, just ask around in General Chat, there are plenty of other lowbies around to help you. During these levels, be sure to pick up First Aid and level it up, even if you are a class that can heal. This skill will prove to be very useful. Expected EXP Rate: 8-12k/hr

Levels 13-17 Head to Westfall, if you are not already there. Along the northwestern shore of Westfall, there are crabs around level 13-14 that you can grind on. Grind on these guys, and be sure to open up the clam shells when your inventory gets full. Sometimes there are Small Lustrous Pearls inside those shells, and those and the trash they drop sell for a good amount. Expected EXP rate: 9-13k/hr

Levels 17-24 Now you head to the southwestern shore of Westfall, near the Lighthouse. There are more crabs to grind on, but now they are level 17-18. Like before, be sure to open up the clam shells. You may also want to consider running Deadmines for some nice gear upgrades, but you will also most likely have slower experience rates while doing Deadmines. Expected EXP rate: 14-19k/hr

Levels 24-26 Just do the quests you can in Darkshire. You should be able to do many of them. Stop when all the quests become tough. By the time that happens, you will be level 26. As you do the quests, pay attention to what you have to do in each, because many of the quests are done at Raven Hill or near Raven Hill. Minimize the time you have to spend running between Darkshire and Raven Hill.
Expected EXP Rate: 14-17k/hr

Level 26-29 Grind on the Skeletal Horrors and Skeletal Fiends at Raven Hill. If there are too many people grinding on them, then try the area to the east of the Fiends/Horrors, where there are lots of ghouls to grind on. Expected EXP Rate: 15-18k/hr.

Level 29-33 This is where grinding gets really good! Just north of Darkshire, around the Mistmantle Manor, there are lots of ghouls to grind on. Kill these guys for Silk Drops and great EXP. Expected EXP Rate: 17-21k/hr

Level 33-38 In Arathi Highlands, west of Refuge Pointe, there is a big area of Ogres that you can grind on. You can either choose to grind in a circle around the cave, or you can also kill the ogres inside of the cave. Very good EXP.
Expected EXP Rate: 18-24k/hr

Level 38-42 To the far north of Dustwallow Marsh at a place called Witch Hill, there are lots of raptors to kill. Be careful with the pulls around here. Very nice vendor loot here, and great EXP. Expected EXP Rate: 20-26k/hr

Level 42-46 At southwestern Badlands, grind on the Greater Rock Elementals. If you do not have enough money for your mount, you probably will have enough after you are done with this place. Good exp, GREAT vendor loot.
Expected EXP Rate: 17-22k/hr

Level 46-52* At Feralas, in the island north** of Feathermoon Stronghold, there is a cave full of Nagas. This place is exp HEAVEN! The Naga drop clam shells, so be sure to open them up. Sometimes you will get Golden Pearls, which can sell as much as 60 GOLD on the auction house! And the beautiful part is, hardly anybody comes to this area, and VERY seldom there are Horde around! Quite possibly the greatest grinding area in the game IMO. Expected EXP Rate: 27-34k/hr

**EDIT: The island with the cave is SOUTH of Feathermoon Stronghold. Sorry about that.

*Edited 2/24/2007. At 53 and above, some mobs stop yielding experience in the Naga cave.

Level 52-54 After some mobs stop yielding experience in the naga cave, go to southwestern Tanaris. There are lots of Thistleshrub Elementals that you can grind on. Grind these for the next two levels before going to Winterspring.

Level 54-60 At the lake south of Everlook in Winterspring, there are ghosts surrounding the entire lake. Lots of runecloth drop off of these, as well as some good random Blue item drops. I have found Assassination Blade, a few Librams, Four of Warlords, and Stockade Pauldrons from these guys! Grind around the lake, and you will also get some great EXP, and once you hit level 60, you can finally relax now that all the pain of boredom is over. And GRATS!!! Expected EXP Rate: 26-30k/hr

And that concludes my guide. If you logged out every time you went AFK or took a break, your play time will be at most around 7-9 days total.

Edited 2/24/2007: As for level 60-70 (Burning Crusade), Blizzard did a good job of designing the quests for maximum experience this time around. Questing can give you up to 120k/hr in exp if done correctly. If I can find a way to grind with consistently higher exp rates than that, then I shall write a 60-70 guide. Until then, just quest, it seems to be the best way to level from 60-70, no matter if you know the quests well or not.

Hope this helps you out a lot. Enjoy