Revenge of the Jiyas: Kezan

From Jiyambi’s blog, the Journal of J.

After a long wait, chapter four of the Revenge of the Jiyas series is here! In case you’ve forgotten, this is a series of articles in which I speed test the WoW-Pro Leveling addon. This time, I was testing the goblin starting area, the island of Kezan. I forgot to take screenies this time through, so you’re sadly left without that entertainment.

Note: The 1-5 starter zones are very quick, with levels flying by so quickly it’s hard to get an accurate measurement. Additionally, the pacing of some starting zones is vastly different than others. It will be nice to have a comparison of how long each takes, but not too much should be read into these tests. The higher level tests will be much more accurate and indicative of zone and guide quality.

• Project Overview
• 1-5: Valley of Trials | Echo Isles | Red Cloud Mesa

Sadly, this was the longest run so far. While a small part of this is because I was out of practice, I feel it’s mostly due to the zone design. Kezan is a lot of fun, but it’s very spread out and not particularly fast.

The guide played through wonderfully, aside from one coordinate issue, but there were definitely some stylistic problems that I’ll be fixing for the next release. Level benchmarks were also unrealistic for a character with no heirlooms, and that will be fixed in the next release.

I’ve run through Kezan several times before, as I wrote the original paper guide for the zone, but I still love it. Despite it’s slightly longer play time, it’s one of my favorite starting zones!

I’ve updated the guide page for this section on WoW-Pro.com, and the changes will be included in the next addon update. I wouldn’t recommend trying to update the file on your own unless you are experienced working with addons. If you do decide to update early:

1. Go to the Kezan page and copy the contents of the guide.
2. Open up your WoW folder and go to Interface > Addons > WoWPro_Leveling > Horde
3. Open up 01_05_Malorajan_Kezan.lua
4. Copy the guide contents there.

Jiyambi is an avid gamer, and also develops games as a hobby. For articles about other games and the game development process, check out her blog, the Journal of J.