Starting Cataclysm with your ALT

You know who you are!

You're the kind of player that likes levelling, but not the grind of faction work and collecting Justice points for gear. You don't scour the Auction house for every available edge and you rarely ever use stat food or potions.

You play organically. You play for fun. You may just avoid instances and do solo content because the pressures of "group" play are kind of intense. Fight some. Skin some. Mine some. Do the next quest. Ohh look!!

Congratulations! Your character made it to level 80!

Lets move onto Cataclysm content..... And get your ass handed to you.

There is an ocean of difference between level 79 WotLK content and level 80 Cataclysm content.

There are alot of nasty nasty things with truly quick spawn times in the new Cataclysm zones. The water goblins and naga in Vash'ir or the twilight cultists and fire elementals in Hyjal. Both types will repop quickly and hit like a truck. I was getting beaten up.

Demonology spec helped. Crafted Emberweave helped. Getting out of my 200 iLevel gear helped. Apparently, my warlock was so far behind the curve, that the new expansion was daunting. My hunter was Tier 10 and ate up the mobs. My Tier 10 Enhance shaman was nearly immortal and had a blast. My DK was beastly in Tier 10.5 and never stopped.

ICC raiding "Mains" and newly minted level 80 characters are not equally sucessful against the Cataclysm starter zones. I would take Mt. Hyjal , personally. It's more player-friendly. For those of you who are making the jump from level 76 to level 80. Remember, gear gets a HUGE jump in Cataclysm but the difficulty has a HUGE hump as well.

Cataclysm Green items have 170 more STA and 170 more INT than Epics from Heroic LK instances. I have no idea why level 78-80 Icecrown blues even sell at the AH anymore. Once you outfit yourself with a full set of Cataclysm greens, you can resume dealing out dark cold justice from your fiery finger-tips. The difference is awesome.

If you can't get full crafted gear, do the first few quests until you replace at least 50% of your equipment. THEN hit the instances. You'll thank me.

My Darker Side

Dks have been around since WoTLK released. We’ve all made one up to see what the news was about, but I personally didn’t get excited about things until just a couple of months ago. I stopped running Ulduar /ToC instances on my Hunter and got back to the basics of leveling. I had my other characters up to level 80 and got familiar with doing raids as an Elemental Shaman. Around December of this last year, my son and I decided to start up characters together.

We all have darker sides and the DK was a fun way to play a "Bad guy" and get all the super-powers I'd ever wanted immmediately. DKs are overpwoered. I have to admit it. They rocked great damage from day 1. We both rolled Alliance DK’s and got into testing out different specs and gear setups for solo Dk’s. I got better atusing the damage meter along with message boards to tweak my damage output for yet ANOTHER class.

Over the months, my rotation got better and I got to check out all three trees thoroughly. I was initially Unholy spec till level 60. Then got into Blood spec till 68. Then I moved my character into Northrend and REALLY took off. I dual specced around 72 and started to build up a second tank set. By the time I hit 80, I had a collection of Blues and a few crafted epics. He was still PvPing with his buddies at level 74. I was moving into Raiding and he was back to a new alt to try out.

The LFG tool allowed me to get into pickup groups SUPER easily. I soon had enough Triumph badges to get my 2pT9 set very quickly. Then I could run the new instances for 232 epics and stomp thru ToC 25 for Trophies. Then I decided to grind out heroics non-stop for a week. I had my 245 Tome as well as a nice 2Hander and the Rep Ring and Frost Badge Cloak.

After a couple of ICC 25 Pugs and a couple more ICC 10 Pugs, I had enough gear to be respectable at DPS and a half-decent tank. Sadly, the guild I was involved with disintegrated with the leadership suddenly left for a 25 man guild. No sense in sticking around, I left for greener pastures. I eventually found a good group of guys running ICC 25 on DKP as an endgame raider.

Bout time I shared some of that info I’ve learned on the way here….

LV 58 to 68 goes WAY too Fast!

To Hellfire and Back again .... As a Shaman

The speed at which quests stack up and bonus XP accumulates is staggering. I took a portal to the Outlands at level 58. Racked up the two level s quickly to 60 and got my flying mount. This opened up a wealth of opportunities. Collection quests just became 50% easier when you can swoop in and grab whatever you’re after. The back and forth travel got faster. Can I afford an epic flyer? Yes. Probably. I can’t physically get it till I break the level 70 cap on 225 Riding. I’d certainly purchase it for 4200g at Honor Hold. Who WOULDN’T take the 800g tax break? Plus, most people take flying into Shadowmoon Valley like going into Bangladesh, Darfur, or Tiajuana. Avoid it if you can.

I hit Lv64 before I left Hellfire Peninsula. There are THAT many quests in the zone. You can’t avoid making a couple of levels and my drop rate on some of the “kill these for item x” quests were pretty good. I hit 66 wrapping up Zangarmarsh. Get the 30 min buffs to spellpower and attack from the Treant guardians in Cenarion Enclave. Even hybrids can benefit from this cheap and easy buff.

Cenarion Faction. I’ve done this several times and it’s a huge boost to Cenarion Expedition faction gains. DO NOT take any quests in Zangarmarsh without collecting / buying up 200 unidentified plant parts. Ideally the max number is around 300, but the turn ins for the plant parts are repeatable. Grind your faction up to Honored thru turn-ins. Then any quest XP will guarantee your character reaches Revered with the Expedition. All of the tradeskills have one or two good patterns / recipies with this group. Why not max out your faction early? The swamp was going green as the mob level was falling below mine quickly. I needed the faction with the Kurnei in Nagrand as well, so I decided to stick it out. This was also setting up some important quest chains.

Terokkar forest. Not much to say. I hardly knew ye. There were no significant blue drops. I did a few quests and stopped when the rest became green or instance quests. No time to mess around with Auchunei crypts or Mana Tombs. No one goes to those places any more. Off to Nagrand. I got into the zone after hitting Neutral / Friendly with the Kurnei. This is a must. Then you can get the Ortor my Old Friend quest + Sunspring villiage cleansing + Murkblood corruption + another quest. This gives you 5 quests for the same spot. All 5 involve burning or killing something in the area. You can just go to town. The whole carnage took 5 minutes. The flight there and back was more tedious. Shamen don't get AOE, but we can chain lightning rather quickly with Malestorm weapon. We also get wolves and elementals to summon. Too easy.

Gear Upgrades

I gemmed out the Helm from Zangarmarsh and the blue cape from the goblin + Jump-o-Tron . Using a flying mount on the Jump-o-Tron is priceless! I was so over-geared, the Windrock Matriarch was beat down quickly solo and I got the blue DPS cape. Quickly, getting a +22 AGI enchant and crossing cloaks off my list. Both the Old crone and Zelgor the Wise died in seconds. Even 20 minions were trivial matter. Elites like the Felguards and the Demonic Engineers are painful. Luckily, I tagged along with a very nice 80 Paladin and a pair of DK’s at level 69. We did the Ring of Blood and the first Forge Camp: Hate quest chain. Easy 80k xp there plus some gold, potions, and a blue 2H Axe. Am I gonna use the axe? Probably not. I’ve been selling off or replacing my caster set since level 40.

I have the Relic 2 set for Caster Mail Armor. No big. I’ll dual spec Heals at level 70 or 72. This is just to multiply my Raid viability at Lv 80. For leveling, I can stick to grinding out Enhance Shammy dps and shredding anything I meet. Durn the Hungerer? Not quite. Everything else - Yea. It’s toast. I'll ride along with my blues till mid 70s. I've seen 80s with green gear in pickup runs. I plan on being light years ahead of them.

I hit 68 last night . The upper 60’s as a Shaman are just rockin’ good. Level 60, Spirit wolves. Every minute I get to call them in for 15 seconds. I don’t use them enough because, I can’t get mana back from Shamanistic rage. You get that from hitting things. The combined dps of the wolves + myself + totems is too darned high. That’s right. The wolves just tear up stuff for 15 seconds and I have nothing left to hit for mana. 1 minute cool down is quick. Nothing survives long. Mob density is rarely high enough to warrant using them all the time. If I’m in a confined space with enough creatures to absorb all the dps, I’ve screwed up or I’m facing an elite mob alone.

Level 64, Earth Elmental with 10 minute cooldown. Level 68, Fire Elemental with separate 10 minute cooldown. Level 70, Heroism with a 10 minute net cooldown. That’s a lot of dammed power available for oh-shit moments. What shamen don’t get? Aggro reduction. Once I win the threat war, I get to tank. I did a crushing amount of DPS compared to the others in an instance run because I’m a shameless twink. My gear is ugly powerful. However, I don’t get to drop threat. At all. In any manner.

Aggro Reduction

Hunter – Feign
Mage – Invis
Warlock – Soul Shatter
Rogue – Vanish
Priest - Fade
Pally - Bubble

Warrior - ?
DK - ?
Druid -?
Shaman - ?

I can’t think of any way these classes can drop agro. The top 3 classes have Tank specs. Warriors / DKs / Feral Druids can handle a beating. Kitty Druids, Fury Warriors, and Blood DKs get hosed, but I kinda see how that spec is a choice and agro reduction shouldn’t be a guaranteed ability held by all classes. Pure DPS should get aggro reduction. Healers should get aggro reduction. Hybrids…. Meh.

We get Reincarnate. Lol. 100% Guaranteed to drop your threat to 0 every time. Usable every 30 minutes without glyph. Repair costs are at a variable rate for use.

Twink Gear vs Levelling gear

(Building a better Shaman.)

There's twink gear and there's enchanted/gemmed/blue quality stat enhanced equiment for the gods. We classify twink gear as normally lv 18-19, lv 27-29, or Lv 49-50 item sets geared to overpower and dominate PvP battles. This is where spending 1000g to give your 19 rogue an extra 1000 health, firey weapons, and +90 AGI may give you a big edge in combat. Players enjoy "owning" a PvP bracket and dont' plan on getting any further xp.

Buff Levelling gear is a different vehicle alltogether. Relic items are purchassed thru Conquest / Heroic / Valor / Triumph badges and give your players blue quality gear that scales to your level. This in essence means if you buy a Mail BP and shoulder for your shaman.... That's the last one you'll probably need until he hits level 80 and replaces them with Epics. I've checked. Even Outland/Northrend blues don't beat them. Enchant them up and watch the xp fly past.

Relic Chest + Shoulders. Most crucial pieces. Each adds 10% Extra XP from Killing and Quests. The 2 set give a 20% bonus. The pieces don't even have to match.

Relic weapon. Although they are limited by which enchants you can place on them... Relic weapons have no equal. They rock. Crusader + 15 AGI on my two maces. I'm a shaman. You may change which one you buy for your favorite Newbie. At level 1 they are Insanely powerful. At level 41 they're Awesome. At level 61 they're geat. Eventually they will scale to level 80 and be "Good weapons".

Relic trinkets. Know any good level 1 trinkets? I do. The +Haste and the +Spell power trinets also give 2% to your HEalth and 2% to your Mana when you kill stuff for xp. A bonus to levelling indeed.

Overgemming Armor. At level 58, I hit the Outlands and rolled thru Hellfire Penninsula. Great fun. Very few other players. I could just tear across content. Yay! In the first instance, Hellfire Ramparts, I got a pair of Mail pants and a pair of Mail gloves. The pants are spectacular. Three Gem slots plus attack power, AgiI, Sta, and Int. wow. The gloves have two red slots and more great stats. Normally, with newbie JC gems available in outlands, these gloves and pants can last you at least 5 levels. With a 440+ enchanter and 450 JC recipies, you can have a Monster pair of items. +30 STA, +20 Hit, +60AGI. Adda +30 STA +10 AGI armor kit and a +20 Hit glove enchant. Monster powerful gear.

This stuff will be the last set to get till 70. Normally, I would consider it wasteful to spend 5 epic gemsn and blue armor kits on Lv 60 gear. However, I had the gems in my bank. My stuff is all enchanted. Why NOT gear up myself? My dps from level 58 to level 61 went from 250 dps to 500 dps in group. At level 65, I'm getting a necklace of the deep. +21 AGI, +20 STA, +20Atk, and 2 red gem slots. Seriously?? That's gonna be Overpowerd!!

Some socket items are goldmines. If it's a blue with sockets, you have a safe bet. Greens, not so much. At level 80 it all becomes moot, but get as much mileage out of things as you can before you get to the end of Northrend.

Warp Speed levelling

Get that Epic landmount at 40! Do this for every alt you have. The recent patch change is just awesome. How many times have I walked a character thru Stranglethorn vale or Desolace because I didn't have a landmount at level 40. Now we can get 100% movement Epic mount? Get to Zul Farrak and have soemone CRUSH Granzilla for your Carrot on a stick + some mithril spurs. Now you can have 107% Movment whenver you're just travelling on quests.

At level 60, get your Flying mount at Honor Hold / Thrallmar. 150% speed and you can now get your faction rep discount. That's Regular flying for hundreds less. Epic flying for almost 800g below cost. Seriously. Speed at movement = speed levelling. Also, running thru the valley of fecund orcs at level 58 is painful. Flying over the whole mess makes the zone a ton easier. Money is easy to get. The cost of the 225 speed riding skill is relatively inexpensive and would make things a great deal more efficient.

More levelling boosters? Keep a high level toon on hand. Too many times in the past I've been waiting for 5 people to kill Knig Bangalash or some other "hard" mob. Now I keep a 73 pally, 80 druid, or 71 Mage on hand for fast travel / buffs / or general killing. Now here's the TRUE secret about keeping a high level toon on hand. Use him/her sparingly. If you keep a level 80 DK on hand, don't use him for even level mobs. Properly geared, you should trounce creatures your level for max XP gain. I have taken out five mobs my level on one occasion in EPL. Use your High level toon for Elites, Giants, and (Group) quests. Solo everything you can. It takes about the same time to solo 5 mobs for 640 xp or than kill 10 mobs for 82 xp with your level 80 partner. For things clearly out of your league, bring in the big guns. Then send him back. Don't get used to a high level crutch. Learn your class.

Quest XP + Mob xp = Win. The best way to level is to kill things on a shopping list. I'd rather grind 10 mobs and then get 6k quest xp. Then grind another 10 mobs for another 6k quest xp. I've leapfrogged from 40 to 50 in no time. Now I'm coming up to outland zones thinking about which items to pre-stock and which quests I can multi-task. Kill 20 orcs THEN set towers ablaze THEN collect 16 scraps. Or we can play it smart and nuke, collect, and burn as we go. Really, once you've run thru Hellfire Penninsula once, you can run it a hundred times. Very easy. You get faster and more efficient at it.

Lastly, recapture your rest bonus by logging out at a city or Inn whenever possible. Blue xp is huge. 200% xp gains rock. Coupled with the 20% Relic armor set, you get levels in a fraction of the time it takes everyone else. Now to get my first few drops in Outlands under my belt.

Warlock Levelling 20-30

RIDICULOUSLY EASY!!

From the Ghostlands, I was shuttled over to Ogrimarr / Thunder bluff via the Barrens. Green quests. Easy quest chains for faction. Stonetalon was less than challenging. I hit Ashenvale and did the quests there. Then I returned for some stonetalon quests. The only REAL problem was the protect Fizzle quest in the Venture Company mines. That goblin took forever to mine the "special ore" and there were three waves of 3-4 kobolds to fend off. Fear wasn't a good option as the caves tend to wind around and aggro scores of other kobolds. Dot + Drain Tank + Dot everything else. The pet of choice was the voidwalker with the self-heal and the AOE Torment. Both did nicely to hold the Kobold invaders' attention until I could dot/LifeDrain them down.

Harpies got to be difficult because you were facing 1-4 level 26-28 creatures at once. Some that could hurricane you. Others that were straight melee. The elementals were actually easier. After a few visits to the Thunder Bluff AH, I was decked out nicely. At 27, I started the WSG grind for my Spell Penetration trinket and the blue lv 28 WSG ring.

By 28, I stopped XPing and switched to the PvP grind.

Newbie Trade skills

Hello. My name is Bob.... and I'm an obsessive Miner.

( Group ) "Hi Bob"

( Group ) "Welcome to Miner's Anonymous."

On most servers, I take mining and skinning. Then Herbalism and Alchemy.

Mining makes money. The market for rough stone is horrible, but Everyone needs copper.

Engineers + Blacksmiths + Jewelcrafters. All hungry for copper.

The REAL trick is how to work the Auction House.


Macro-Economics lesson.

Working the AH for copper prices involves the controlled buying and selling of two commodities. Copper ore and Copper bars. Both vary from 3 gold for a stack of 20 to 90 silver for a stack.

How do maximize your profit? Buy Low and sell high. More correctly, WHEN to place your auction determines how much profit you're going to make almost as what you're selling. If everyone has Scalping Tomahawks of Stamina ( lv5 newbie Axe ), you don't want to set a high price for yours. Actually, that prompts me to WAIT and try to sell the axe later. If no one is selling a similar item, and I have an open market, I can set my price MUCH higher. How high? Remember, asking 15g for a green newbie axe is insulting. Asking 75s when you control the market is not un-reasonable. You have to get a feel for how deep you can gouge your customer while still giving the illusion of offering him a deeal.

You must present to the buyer a deal below your competitors but not too far below to cut into your profits. If the lowest 20 stack of Copper bars is 1g 95s. I'd sell two stacks mine for 1g 90. You're still making almost 2g on 5 minutes of mining. The rough stone only sells for 10s to 15s a stack, but that adds up over time as well.

Price fixing. If I find a single person selling 3 Copper bars for 2s. I'll buy it. Why? Because it gets that price out of the auction house and I can sell that 3 copper as part of a larger stack for alot more ( 2g per 20 median price ). Only price fix the ridiculously low auctions. If everyone is selling copper at a low price, but it's not stupidly cheap, walk away from the AH. They will sell off their 120 stacks for 50s. The buyers will be happy. The sellers will make a tiny margin. Then the AH will clear itself out a day or two. Come back later and re-set the price.

The cycle. When there's no copper on the AH, the price soars up from 1g per stack up to 3g per stack. I like to sell around 2g. If you're at the bottom of a cycle, WAIT. Put your 2g stack up later. The AH deposits cost a couple silver. In the middle of the night, some dude is gonna NEED NEED some copper and your 2g stack is going to be the only one left to buy.

Always gather. If there's a glut of 90 people selling copper stacks for 50s each, it's time to gather. Return a bit later, and the cycle is going to swing up. Eventually, the cheap sellers will be out of copper. You just got back with armloads of ore. You can come in and set the price. The buyers will come back and find only your product is for sale at YOUR price. The other miners are out there collecting. You win. You may only sell of a single stack, but you make 2g for 20 while they're slitting their own throats for alot less.

After a couple of auctions, I found myself sitting on 12g. Comparatively, you're a billionaire when comparing yourself to the other level 10 newbies. At level 16 I had 20g. At level 18, I'm sitting on 30g with a full green suit of mostly Eagle / Stamina gear. Some of it enchanted and all of it with Armor kits. I have a bank stocked with copper and a good deal of gear I've sent to the other alts on my account to bolster them up.

In three days, I've gone from pauper to prince.

Take THAT, Billy Mays!@!#!!

Level 1-5 Blood Elf

Don't BLINK. It's over that fast.

Why write about it? Because I can.

By the time you're done reading about this guide...
You could have levelled from 1-5 as a new Blood Elf.

If you're new to WoW...
If you're just learning the interface and controls...
If you're a kid and still learning to read....

You'll take 10 minutes to grind thru the newbie area.


1) Almost nothing will aggro you until you attack it.
2) Don't bother twinking any gear, you'll find everything you need from drops/quests.
3) If you're mailing yourself anything, make it bags. Lots of cheap 6 slot bags.
4) Blood elves tap mana. Blood elves can AOE Silence in a small point-blank sphere.
Those powers are huge if you get into using them.
5) Those quests are ridiculously easy if you're a veteran WoW gamer.

Done reading?

DING. You're level 5. Go find Silvermoon City and your first class/profession trainers.