Joana's Classic WoW 1-80 Leveling Guides

Who made this leveling guide?
The vanilla WoW Horde leveling guide you see on this site was originally made back in 2006 by Joana (AKA Mancow, or FuriousPaul).  It was the first ever leveling guide ever created for WoW.  The guides have been tweaked many times over the years to make things "faster".  The leveling guides were made because of all the messages I got from people asking me how I was able to level up so quickly on new realms.  I was first to level 60 on 7 different realms (3 with Mancow and 4 with Joana), even winning Blizzard's "First to Level 50" contest they held back in 2006.

I am a video game speedrunner.  My true gamer name is FuriousPaul, while Joana is the name of my WoW character.  I will stick with Joana for all my WoW stuff.

What Am I Working On Now?
As of January 2018 I am now back on WoW leveling guide construction full time!  I am currently working on WOTLK leveling guides.

Joana's Classic WotLK 1-80 Speed Leveling Guides

Do I stream?
Yes!  I joined twitch in 2013 with the gamer name of FuriousPaul and I streamed speedruns of the classic Castlevania games full time from 2013 - 2017. Lately my streams have died down quite a bit due to working on WoW leveling guides every day.  My channel is now twitch.tv/Joana.  I do stream random things on occasion to mix things up and to give me a break from making leveling guides when I feel like it.  So give me a follow on twitch, you may catch me live on occasion!

More about this guide


The leveling guides on my site are essentially speed leveling guides.  My leveling guides are the same guides I use myself to speedrun to 60 on new servers.  I list many occasions where I tell the player to "die on purpose" to go faster.  I tell the player to skip certain quests, because some quests are just not worth the time/XP.  I list tricks and shortcuts to go faster so you can reach level 60 much quicker.  I am still constantly going through them over and over again perfecting the guides to make them faster and easier to follow.  For the most part, the guide can be followed without the need from other player's help, as the whole guide was made from a solo run anyways.  Although I do list quests that can optionally be done if you have a group.  My leveling guides also work great for duo leveling.

Class Steps
All starting zones includes all class steps.  The 12-60 Horde contains all the Hunter, Warlock, Druid and Warrior steps.  The 12-60 Alliance contains all the Hunter and Warlock steps right now.  You can still get a LOT of use out of the leveling guides even if your class's steps are not implemented yet, you will just need to do those few class steps on your own for now.

Videos
Currently, all videos are linked to my 1-60 speedrun that was done back in 2006 on the official Blizzard vanilla WoW realm Jubei'thos (patch 1.9.2).  The video is known as the only fully recorded 1-60 speedrun of vanilla WoW and the fastest known time done in 4 days 20 hours played time and first level 60 on the realm.

Before Using the Guides, Read This:

Before reading the guide, it's recommended that you view my speed leveling Tips/Tricks page first to know basic tips on how to level up faster.

Quest Log Management
Through out the game in Classic (vanilla) WoW, the quest log will be capped to 20 many times.  The guide makes use of maximizing the total amount of quests you can accept at once.  Because of this it's important to follow the guide exactly and only accept quests if the guide tells you to so you won't run into issues not being able to accept a quest.  If you do accept a quest that is not listed in the guide, write it down because you may need to abandon it in order to keep following the guide if your quest log is full.

Please note that starting in TBC the quest log got raised to 25 slots, so this will make the guide easier to follow dealing with extra quests you may have.

Understand the Guide Terminology
To help you better understand the terminology in the guide and allow you to follow it more effectively it is important to understand what it means when the guide says the following:

  • Do - This means to do a quest and to finish it entirely before moving on.
  • Do part of - This means to only do a certain portion of a quest according to what the step says to do.
  • Start working on - This means to simply start working on a quest, but you don't have to finish it yet and you can move on to the next steps.  This usually means to kill certain mobs while on your way to the next step(s).
  • Continue working on - This means you were previously working on a quest and the guide is telling you to continue working on it but you do not have to finish it before moving on to the next step.  This is similar to "start working on".
  • Finish - This means you were previously working on a quest and the guide is telling you to complete the quest before moving on to the next step.  This is similar to "do".
  •  ":"  -  Any time a step ends in a ":" instead of a "." means that the next step is part of the current step you are on.  This generally means the next step should be done while working on the current step.  This means every "start working on" or "continue working on" will end in a ":".  But this is used with other occasions as well, so keep this in mind.

Note about Escort Quests
Escort quests can take awhile to do.  I have thoroughly tested all the escort quests in the game for time/xp.  Most are worth doing, but as long as you are able to actually do them without failing.  Most require you to pay special attention to the escortee as most are fragile and will die easily, so do your best to keep mobs off of the escortee during escort quests.  The longest one in the game is the Tanaris chicken escort.  The chicken escorts are only worth doing if you were able to do all 3 of them, as if you do, you will be able to turn in an additional easy quick XP turn in quest at BB, which makes them worth it.

Also if the escort is not there when the guide tells you to do the escort means that someone else is currently doing the escort and you would have to wait until the other player is finished first.  In this case, I recommend skipping it and moving on with the guide and consider coming back to do the escort if its on the way.

Making bandages during an escort is a good way to save time building up First Aid.  Also turning on friendly nameplates during escort quests is a good thing to do.  Being able to see the escortee's health at all times can help you understand how to keep them alive better along with you being able to see where they are at all times.

Skipped Quests
Some quests in my guide are marked as "SKIP" and colored in red.  These quests are simply either too hard to solo or not worth the XP/time and are skipped.  My guide will only list SKIPPED quests if the quest is a direct follow up after completing a quest, not one that you have to click the NPC again to get it.  If you hover over the skipped quests, it will give info on why it is skipped in the guide (unless that info is already listed directly in the guide text).

Waypoint Arrows
A new feature I started added in my webguides as of 4-9-21 is clickable coordinate buttons that look like this:  

When you see these buttons simply click on them to copy a coordinate to your clipboard, then inside the game press CTRL-V to paste it into your chat.  This will bring up an arrow inside the game to direct you where to go.  You will need the TomTom addon in order for this to work.

Get Speed Leveling Addons
Addons can make leveling more efficient and easier.  Check out a list of addons I recommend here.

Important Items to Obtain

Keep an eye out in the AH through out the 1-60 game for these items:

Purchase these items when you find them with your Bank/AH alt, then send them to your main so you can use these items to level faster.   Please note that my guide will tell you when to get these items out of your bank.

Horde & Alliance:

  • Swim Speed Potions (used especially at lvl 37 for Faldir's Cove in Arathi Highlands and lvl 57 in WPL).  Try to get multiple stacks of these.  I also recommend keeping a stack of these always in your bags.  You will frequently pass rivers and lakes and can use these potions to pass them faster through out the guide.  Please note that these potions do not stack with Druid's Aquatic Form and Glyph of Aquatic Form.
  • Moonsteel Broadsword (used at level 38 Dustwallow Marsh).
  • Frost Oil (used at level 41, Badlands).
  • Gyrochronatom (used at level 41, Badlands).  The Alliance has several NPCs they can purchase this from and my guide does tell players to see if this can be purchased through out the guide.
  • IF you were able to get the previous 2 items (for the Badlands), then also try to get a Healing Potion and a Lesser Invisibility Potion along with a Patterned Bronze Bracers.  These are also used in the Badlands at level 40.
  • 9 Blue Pearls (used at level 41 Badlands for quest).  This item can be farmed under The Vile Reef sea in STV.
  • A 15 stack of Silk Cloth used for level 48 Searing Gorge.
  • Mithril casing (used at level 51 Ungoro Crator).
  • There is a quest in Eastern Plaguelands at level 56 that wants these items:  2 Thorium Bar, Golden Rod, 8 Hi-Explosive Bomb, 8 Unstable Trigger.

Horde Only:

Alliance Only:

  • Bronze Tube (used at level 28 Duskwood) for this quest.  If you cant purchase this from the AH, there are various venders my guide will have you check to see if they are selling them.  This item can be hard to obtain so keep checking the AH and the engineering vendors often until you get one!
  • Hillman's Cloak and Bolt of Woolen Cloth (used at level 31 Hillsbrad Foothills) for this quest.
  • 4 Lesser Bloodstone Ore (used at level 35 STV, or 42 STV) for this quest.  If you pick up mining you can also mine this item during the guide.

My step-by-step guide will remind you to get these items, when to put them into your bank and when to finally get these items out of your bank at the end of the 58 Silithus section to turn them all in at once.

 

News / Updates

Joana's World

 

October 18, 2022
If you are reading this, that means this website has finished migrating to its new web server and you can now fully access the members area with no problems.

Also, all Hunter steps involving taming pets for new abilities, or going to the Pet Trainers are now all taken out of the WotLK toggle.

September 26, 2022
Northrend has launched and so has my in-game addon for 70-80!  You can find out how to download my new in-game addon along with the full 70-80 content on the in-game leveling guide addon download page!

September 24, 2022
Northrend launches in 2 days (on September 26)!  My in-game guide addon for 70-80 Northrend has partially launched today!  You can now download it from Curseforge and you will get Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord for both Horde and Alliance for free to use.  Everything has been tested and im sure you will enjoy how well it works for your leveling efforts.  You can find more information about the addon here.  I have also released a new YouTube video showcasing my new leveling guide addon.

In-Game Guide for 70-80 Northrend is Here!

September 14, 2022
In preparation of launching my new in-game guide addon I have changed the color coding on this site for "accepts" and "turn-ins" from teal/green to yellow/orange to represent the same colors used in my new in-game guide addon.  I wanted the colors to be the same across all my guide versions.  Hopefully this will not cause any confusion considering I have used my old color codes for over a decade now.  I considered a site toggle to optionally switch them back to the old colors, but decided not to because I felt that we should get used to the new colors from now on.

Also my in-game addon for 70-80 Northrend & Death Knight leveling guides are about to launch in about a week.  You can get a sneak peak at its features and info for it on Joana's In-game Addon page.

August 24, 2022
My 1-60 guides now have a WotLK toggle option for the "Select Game Version" button (at the top of every guide).  I have also left in TBC as a toggle option until the WotLK prepatch officially goes live on August 30th.  The major changes for the 1-60 WotLK is the Stormwind City map is different, so all coordinates are updated for that.  All the Alliance boats are updated (Stormwind Harbor and Menethil Harbor).  And the 50% increase in XP from 1-60 has all been updated.  If you guys are aware of anything else I missed here please let me know either via my Discord or simply use the contact link on my site.  I do not have time to go play through 1-70 to find all the changes/errors as I still need to port my 70-80 webguides into my new in-game addon, which should hopefully be fully available by WOTLK launch!

Buy Now 

July 27, 2022
My WOTLK leveling guides are now available for purchase!  I have finished working on getting my 70-80 web guides done and are now available for use.  WOTLK game launches September 26th, so that is two months from now.  This means for those of you who have WOTLK beta, you can now use my WOTLK leveling guides to level through it.  Also its very important that you report any errors to me!  As I will continue to fine tune the guides so they are perfect.  Thanks!

May 25, 2022
Almost a month into WOTLK leveling guide work and everything is going smoothly so far.  I should for sure have my web versions done by August.  Then I will start porting it into my new in-game addon.  Also I have a Death Knight Abilities, Talents & Prep Guide available for free if you plan to play a Death Knight for WOTLK and would like to get some tips.

April 30, 2022
The 1-60 Alliance leveling guide has been further perfected for the 100% XP rate for SoM.  12-60 Alliance Druid class steps is now implemented as well.  Next up is WotLK leveling guide work!

April 19, 2022
Today, Wrath of the Lich King Classic was announced to be coming out sometime this year.  I will be providing high quality leveling guides for it.  These leveling guides should be available with my new in-game addon format along with web guides as well.  I have already spent an enormous amount of time working on leveling routes and guides for WotLK in the past and will be remastering all that work for WotLK Classic.  These leveling guides will cover all the daily quests in-depth along with a Death Knight leveling guides as well.  As of right now the release date for WotLK Classic is 2022.  Since WotLK takes place in winter for the most part and was originally launched November 13, 2008, I suspect a similar launch date for this year (November - December timeframe).

March 12, 2022
The 1-60 Horde leveling guide has been further perfected for the 100% XP rate for SoM.  12-60 Horde Shaman class steps is now implemented as well.

February 12, 2022
My SoM leveling guide (SoM site toggle at the top of all 1-60 guide pages) is now updated to accommodate the new 100% quest XP change for the latest SoM patch.  I will be testing this new change personally over the next few weeks.  Please report any errors or suggestions to me about this as you are leveling in SoM.

February 4, 2022
New site page:  Speed Leveling Addons - This new page on my site lists speed leveling addons I use personally while leveling.  It contains must have addons and optional ones.  It will also be the home to where to download my in-game guide addon (once that becomes available).

January 16, 2022

Happy new year everyone!  SoM is now fully tested for both Horde and Alliance.  Along with that the Warlock class steps are now fully implemented through out my 1-60 Alliance leveling guide.  SoM is very similar to my Classic Era leveling guide with only a few minor changes here and there.  If you are playing SoM please make sure you toggle the site button at the top of the site for SoM (or for whichever version of the game you are playing).

Over the next month or so I will be implementing all the class steps for the TBC starting zones (Eversong Woods + Ghostlands for Horde and Azuremyst Isle + Bloodmyst Isle for Alliance).

November 17, 2021
The 1-60 guides now have a SoM site toggle at the top of every page.  Please use this if you are playing SoM.  I will be testing SoM live on my Twitch over the coming weeks, feel free to follow it.

July 3, 2021
The 1-60 leveling guides have been updated, including:

  • All precise waypoint buttons are now in place.
  • Better routes that include new TBC specific quest hubs that will speed up the leveling process for TBC.
  • Updated quest log images after each section (for TBC).

June 10, 2021
Hunter steps are implemented for my 60-70 Outland guides.  These mostly pertain to taming ravagers and keeping them upgraded along with a few hunter specific tips.

May 31, 2021
Joana's TBC Classic Leveling Guides are now available!  You can Order Here!  With my TBC Classic speed leveling guides you will get:

  • 60-70 Leveling guides for both Horde and Alliance.
  • Access to my 12-20 Ghostlands leveling guide (Blood Elf area).
  • Access to my 12-20 Bloodmyst Isle leveling guide (Draenei area).

These guides are of the same high quality as my Classic 1-60 leveling guides that im sure you will love and get a lot of use out of.  Thanks for supporting my leveling guides!

May 29, 2021
New Guide Feature:  At the top of all the 1-60 guide pages you will see a button that says "Select Game Version", this will switch the entire 1-60 guide to either TBC Classic or Classic Era.  The guide will then change the content for the version of WoW you are playing.

April 20, 2021
1-12 Azuremyst Isle (Draenei) leveling guide is ready to go.

April 9, 2021
New Guide Feature:  Clickable coordinate copy for the coordinates!  A few of you have been requesting this and I thought it was a great idea and so far the all the 60-70 and 1-20 have the coordinate buttons in them so far.  You can see all the coordinates are buttons (which act just like the /Target buttons) that will copy coordinates to your clipboard to be pasted into the game and with the TomTom addon, it will give you an arrow to direct you where to go.  The rest of the 20-60 coordinate buttons will be finished soon.

And also to update you on what else is going on: ever since they announced that TBC is coming out back in Feb 19th, I have been working nearly over a 100 hours a week trying to make sure my TBC leveling guides are finished by launch.  I have about another 1.5 months until my 60-70 Outland leveling guides are finished (at least ready for testing).  I do plan on having an in-game addon version, initially for my 60-70 TBC leveling guide, which is being made by Twitch.tv/TomCat (he does all his programming live on his twitch channel), so go there and give him some support if you would like to see the in-game addon happen.  Unfortunately at this time I have no ETA on when it will be ready.