Welcome to my ultimate leveling experience. Since my first level 70 back in Burning Crusade I have always tried to level as fast as possible. Awhile back I wrote my own alliance leveling guide as well after Brian Kopp’s guide started to get outdated. Now though I have used and prefer a better leveling guide.

So my plan is this. I am going to document for everyone my leveling experience as I go from level 1 to 80. My goal is to make it in under 6 days played time. I will not be using recruit a friend as this would of course make under 6 days way too easy. I will be doing this all on my own, soloing all if not most quests. I will not be running any instances either, this will be a pure questing/grinding experiment.

I also wanted to address the fact that I am choosing a Horde toon and not Alliance. I will be doing this as well for an Alliance toon, but because of realm issues I will be doing this as Horde first.

The Plan

I will be creating a Horde mage for this leveling speed run. Now while normally I would choose a Blood Elf mage because of their fasting leveling zone, I decided to try and keep this more legit. Legit in the fact that I plan on choosing the race I really want, that being an Undead.

Of course I will be using things that some may think make this run as “not as legit”, of course I am talking about heirloom items. I will be using 3 of the heirloom items, the shoulders and weapon are the pvp version, and the chest piece will be the badge pve version. I will also be using 4 Netherweave 16 slot bags. Of course to offset some of this stuff I also plan to pick up 2 gathering professions. I feel that in the end by trying to play as normal as possible, I make this run a little more fair.

So to recap, I will be making an Undead mage, he will be equipped with the heirloom shoulder, chest, and weapon. He will also have four 16 slot bags. On the flip side I will be leveling up 2 gathering professions. skinning, and mining.

The Guide

So now on to the main tool of this whole process, the leveling guide. I will be using Dugi’s Ultimate Leveling guide. Take a look at the guide yourself, it really comes in handy if you are wanting to be a true WoW speed runner. I used to use Joana’s Horde guide for all my horde characters but since switching to Dugi’s I have not gone back. I was kind of bitter that Joana said he would offer free lifetime updates, and then with the launch of Wrath of the Lich King, required that I buy that guide to use it. Anyways if you are wanting either an Alliance leveling guide or a Horde leveling guide look no further.

Mods I Will Use

Titan Panel – This is a mod I have used for as long as I can remember. It is a top and lower bar that runs across the screen. You can have it display useful information like your current gold, leveling speed, and coordinates. I use it because it is very streamlined and makes noting certain things quick and painless. Quest Helper – I use this in combination with Dugi’s Ultimate Leveling guide as it helps to show the different areas mobs may be. Sometimes I find better concentration of mobs based on quest helpers description, as well as quest item overlaps. Just make sure to turn off ant trails, as it can be quite annoying. Dugi’s Leveling Guide – A lot better then the old school guides as it uses an in-game mod to help you track your quests. When combined with quest helper this guide makes leveling very fast. One of the whole reason I think I can pull of 1 to 80 in under 6 days.

Character Creation

Here is a quick little intro of me creating my character. You can see that on that realm I have an 80 paladin who I dps and heal with as well as a 80 warrior who is my tank. I created the mage and used the name of Druima so you can follow him on the armory if you so wish. Like I mention in the video feel free to try and beat me to 80 or go for your own speed record. I will be opening up comments fairly soon, which will allow you to show me and everyone else how it goes for you.

And So it Begins…

Level 1 to 10 – Time /played 1:57

With the easy levels now done and gone I think it can only get better from here. Like I mention in the video I did die once, so no I am not god. I am fairly happy with my end time after 10 levels, but I still think I could have shaved about 5-10 minutes off that time had I been on my A game. I plan on getting to 20 in the next few days so expect an update shortly.

I do want to comment on how annoying it is being a mage in the early levels. Blizzard in their all infinite wisdom decided to give mages like 2 waters, with no vendor to buy any from. Now this could just be the undead starting area but still it was a real pain. Anyways here is the 1 to 10 leveling video. Enjoy.

Level 10-20 – Timed /played 8:36

What a frustrating set of levels, holy cow. I died quite a few times due to just being a clothie and not having much in terms of raw power. I did not get my skills after level 10 until level 14 and then after that I didn’t get any new skills till 20. Now while I thought it would be faster to continue questing and grinding, I think it was a dumb mistake. I should have gone back at like 16 or 18, as I know even though it would have taken 5 to 10 minutes to fly to Silvermoon at least then I would have had strong spells.

I bought my mount and now am on my way to the barrens to get a level or two. After that who knows, 20 to 30 is always a different experience every time. There are just so many ways to get those 10 levels. My goal is to take about 30-35 minutes a level which would give me a played time of about 13 hours. This would be a really good time to 30 and I would be happy with it. I am kind of hoping to get to 60 in less then 36 hours.

I will be working like crazy the next few days so even though I really want to finish this I most likely won’t have my next video up for 5-6 days. I promise to keep this rolling though, and thank you to e everyone who has supported me this far.