Guide to levelling a Hunter 1-60 in 35 hours 54 minutes...

[Lonsdale]

By The Way, I Did not write this!
I got it from a source i had to pay for to get it
Im giving it to you for free!
SUMMARY:

* Take as many quests as possible and at the same time, try not to do quests one at a time. When entering a new area, find all the quests from NPC's first, before you start killing things.
* A complementary group of 2 or 3 (such as tank + healer) is sometimes far better than solo'ing. Especially when a quest calls for "kill X amount of something". Use groups when they suit you. Leave a group when it bogs you down.
* Play a Multi-Zone game. When you hit level 10 or so, its time to run to the nearest "other" starting area and do the quests there. You will do them fast, and get exp for all the kills (as long as they are colored green to you) Doing a load of quests 3-5 levels beneath you really racks up EXP fast.
* Green quests are your friends! These are quests that are 2-3 levels beneath you. When I get a bunch of yellow colored quests, sometimes I'll just 'level grind' 2-3 levels, then power through the quests solo. It basically comes to this: If you are getting killed more than once doing a single quest, you are wasting time- its better to grind a level and do it later.
* Dont be afraid to dump quests It's so tempting....you just don't want to let go of that quest that's been in your books for several days. It requires you to run around the world - see this person, see that person...will take you 3 hours. Or that quest you forgot to do way back in Elwynn Forest, and now you're all the way in the Wetlands. DUMP IT. There are thousands of quests in this game. Wasting 4 hours just to 'finish' that green or gray quest is not worth it. Abandon that quest, and replace it with others.
* Level Grinding still works! This is killing monsters that are GREEN to you. Why Green? Because you kill them fast and with very little down time. You can basically steamroll through dozens of con-green enemies in minutes! Spend an hour or two doing this (boring ya) and you'll see what a difference in EXP it makes! Small EXP gains over a long period time really add up.
* Decide if you are going for power or wealth (or both) before you decide on your profession. Ask yourself, "will mastering this profession take too much extra time and hinder my primary goal?". Take professions that do not hinder you.

After playing Warcraft since beta, and logging in hundreds of hours over numerous characters ever since, I can tell you from my experience that the fastest way to level up and make cash is to take as many quests as possible, and follow some basic principles. If you are a newbie and haven't even started the game yet, take a look at these tips, and then read the starter strategy page.

NUMBER ONE PRINCIPLE IN POWER LEVELLING: DOWN-TIME is your enemy! Down time is defined as either sitting around waiting for manna, waiting for health, or running to and from the graves. How do you minimize down time? By killing that which is WEAKER than you and thus the numerous smaller XP gains will rack up faster than the slower, bulky XP gains. Read on for more.

POINT ONE: QUESTS ARE BETTER THAN NOT!
This has been a big debate in this game. Some people just want to kill and grind without bothering to do quests. But I disagree. I believe that quests are an important component of powerlevelling as they give additional EXP, money, and items. BigDwarf starts the game in Dun Morogh, near an icy field full of lvl 1-3 wolves and such. He immediately runs to the field and starts hammering wolves. He gets to level 3 fast enough, in about 40 minutes, after killing dozens of wolves. He then starts talking to the NPC's nearby that have Yellow "!" (exclamation marks) on top of their heads (a yellow ! means the NPC has a quest for you)

So BigDwarf talks to an NPC who gives him a quest to kill 15 wolves, and when he does he gets extra exp and extra copper. The problem is, of course, that now BigDwarf has to go back to the fields and kill wolves again. Had BigDwarf taken the quest at the start, he would have greatly increased the efficiency of his character gains and would have the quest completed! Grinding is always good, but the benefits of questing is that you get additional exp for finishing a quest, and cash or valued items.

POINT TWO: MULTIPLE QUESTS ARE BETTER THAN ONE AT A TIME

Learn this lesson now, or waste numerous hours to learn it the hard way. In fact, this is certainly what I would call a key to the game. This principle becomes more profound the more you advance in levels. Numerous times I found myself accepting a quest to kill "10 of X monster" that I had already killed 20 of! Its so tempting to do this:

talk to NPC --> Get Quest --> Do Quest --> Return

Trust me! Once you get out of the first newbie stage and are past level 5, this approach will slow you down. You want to gain maximum levels, at maximum speed! The right approach, therefore looks like this:

Talk to all NPC's in the greater vacinity --> Get All The Quests you can muster. Collect quests like candy. Accept them from NPC's, accept them from other players (when you are in a group, players can 'share' quests). Quest A may say "Kill 10 of monster X", and Quest B may say "Kill 10 of monster Y". You will find that as you kill monster X, you have to plow your way through several monster Y's. In essence, you are completing two quests simultaneously. Doing multiple quests at once is the only way to fly.

POINT THREE: MULTI-ZONING

I play maybe 2 hours at most on any given night. Given the small amount of time I have been able to play my main WoW char, I am doing extremely well, far better and way more efficient than most others for the amount of time I have played. A few days ago, I was in Elwynn Forest with a newbie char doing the missions there. Nearly everyone was human. I was the only dwarf I saw all night. Why? Because all the dwarves were up in Dun Morogh, their own starting region. Because I was already level 9 when I hit Elwynn Forest, I breezed through all the missions there, rapidly gaining EXP. At level 9 in Dun Morogh, I left the region because the remaining quests there were either at my level (9), or were a few levels above me. Trying to do quests that are higher levels than you can take many trips to the graveyard, and is not very efficient. I didn't feel like running around trying to find a team, so I left the region and headed for Elwynn Forest. I quickly did the primary missions in Elwynn Forest, jumped to Westfall and did several quests there, until the only quests left were orange and red ones. Rather than wasting time doing an orange quest (a quest 2-3 levels higher than me), I simply returned to Dun Morogh at level 14, and finished up all those level 9-12 quests. I cant tell you how fast you can level by doing quests 2-3 levels beneath you (green ones), rather than 2-3 levels above you! Every 6 levels or so, you should be leaving your current zone, and taking the quests in the neighboring zone. But make sure you dont wait too long! If you wait until level 20 as a human to go do the Dwarf Quests in Dun Morogh, you wont get hardly any exp for them because everything you kill will be a gray. A powerleveller is someone who maximizes quest EXP. Killing things 2-3 levels beneath you gives smaller amounts of EXP per kill, BUT you can rack it up so much faster. It was awesome last night as a level 17 priest being able to tank my way through a level 13 cave solo while everyone else was grouping up. They may have wondered, "what is this guy doing here? He isn't getting any exp for this." Wrong! A level 17 gets about 40 EXP per kill on level 13 critters. And I was killing them en-masse, plowing through my quests, and then getting 900-1000 EXP per quest. It really adds up! So....dont just sit around in your racial zones, but make sure you hop to the nearest "other" zone and take those quests too. You will fly through the levels. If all the quests in your quest log are yellow or orange, consider 'grinding' up 1-2 levels until they become green. Then, not only will you breeze through the quests, but you will have higher levels. And the goal is level 60....right?

POINT FOUR: BOTTING

This is where it can get hairy. I love botting. I believe in it. You see, I dont have time to play all that much. Some people spend 24/7 on this game and get to level 60. I pay as much as they do, yet because I have so much else going on in life, I don't get the chance to sit and play all the time. So I bot. I wrote the Realm Bot just for this purpose. Also, the WoW helper is a great utility that speeds up repetitive combat actions. The Bot is for when you are AFK, and the helper is for while you are actually playing. You don't have to use them, of course, because you run the risk of being banned, but I do it anyway. What you do is up to you

POINT FIVE: SOLOING VS GROUPING

Believe me, I know all about power-gaming. Its a solo endeavor. I have played numerous online games, and have wrote third party macros for UO, SWG, DAOC (and now this game). But there is a cold hard truth you must understand here and now: WoW is a group-oriented game. There are numerous....numerous quests that you just wont be able to solo, or if you do, you will spend 10x as much time on them than if you were in a group of 2 or 3. A few classes, such as Rogue, Shaman and Paladin are generally better at soloing than most, but even they will need to team up for many quests, and most of the 'elite' quests. The fastest way to power-level this game is to find two or three other players, get in a group, and steamroll through multiple quests. Note: You do NOT need to find permanent "buddies". You can form or join a group and simply 'use' them to solve a mission, then be on your way! This is what I do.

Example:

I have a quest to kill Monster X. He is guarded by 10 hard monsters, It could take hours to solo this. So I simply announce to the region by typing

/1 Is anyone doing the MonsterX quest?

typing "/1" will broadcast to the regional channel. The other way I do it is simply go to the location of monsterX (providing the server is populated enough), and either invite people or send a /tell message to them (typing /tell <name> will instant message someone). There is always someone nice enough to let you join, or someone who will hook up with you.

The point is, GET IN A GROUP and you will see the EXP gains as well as the quests fly. Having said that, I must mention that if you group, make sure the group is coordinated and not just some fly-by-night group of inefficient morons. If the people in your group are not serious about getting the job done, leave. You will fare better solo any day than you would in a chaotic group. And if you can't find a group, just 'skip' that quest and go to the next one, and return later when you can. Solo when you can, but don't push it and waste 3 hours trying to solo a mission you could do in 20 minutes if you were in a group.

How to SOLO nearly Everything:

So you just don't go for that team crap eh? No problem. If you are bent on soloing the entire levelling process, your secret will be to always try and stay a few levels ahead of the areas you are in. For example, most players enter a region such as Duskwood that is level 21-30 when they reach level 24-25. You will enter this level at 28 or 29. Everything at level 22-26 or will be green to you... still worth EXP but EASY to kill. You will take all the quests and plow through them solo. The only exceptions may be the elite quests which might still require you to team. And if you enter an area and everything is yellow, then you should 'level grind' until its mostly green. Level grind means going back to an easier area and killing a ton of either greens or yellows (so long as you can kill a yellow w/o much down time). The main strategy while powerlevelling is to MINIMIZE down time. You want to be killing constantly w/o needed much rest in between.

CHEAP WAYS TO MAKE MONEY:

Ok, I'm going to be honest. When I play, I don't always play for 'honor.' Sometimes, I'm a nice guy and help others. Other times, I just want to acquire wealth at the expense of everyone else. Here are some dirty tricks you can use to get money. Be warned, these may piss other people off!

Chest Camping

Ya, it does work. Make sure you do this in active player areas. Also: Rogues can do this better than others since they can stealth. Why Crowded areas? Because it minimizes your chance of getting killed during respawns. Find a place, like a cave, where a mob boss resides, along with a good chest. A lot of other players will be coming to kill him regularly for quests. The chest will respawn every few minutes, and you will be there to get the contents before anyone else. In-between respawns, make sure you kill nearby baddies to keep your EXP going up.

Weaker Mob Boss Camping.

A nasty trick. Wait until you a few levels or so higher than a particular mob boss and his hoardes (so that killing him is pretty much a done deal, and you still get good exp for it). Many bosses have the best magic items on them. You can not only kill him and loot him repeatedly, but your EXP will go up. Nearby players will not like you at all, since you will be taking their 'kills' but hey! This is a free 'country'. ha! There are also some mob-bosses that take a long time (as in a big journey) just to get to.

Such as VanCleef. You have to travel miles of caverns killing dozens of things just to get to him. Well, once you reach him, he's only got a couple guardians with him. Kill him and his guards, get his great magic items, and instead of leaving, just wait around for the respawns. If you stay, you wont have to kill any monsters just to reach him.

Party Boot

If you do this, be warned! This is the dirtiest of them all. Its so pathetically 'grief-oriented' that it may not work anymore. haven't tested it in the live server, but this is like getting kicked in the ....you know what. Start a group to go kill a really tough mob Boss. (the elite bosses).

These guys have some pretty good items. Just as you are killing the mob boss, BOOT everyone from your group. That way, when you loot the mob boss, you wont have to 'roll' for anything and you'll be able to nab it all up yourself. Be forewarned, they will not like you if you do this. But hey, it makes you some extra $$.

GREAT EXP GRINDING TECHNIQUE:
Elite monsters that are GREEN to you deliver awesome XP and are usually quite killable. For example: Lets say I'm level 21. That level 17 Elite can be worth more than 240 XP per kill, and because i'm 4 levels higher, I can take it everytime. Great way to rack up XP quick. (and elites drop great items)

PROFESSIONS: Money or Power?

If you are out to make a lot of cash, and are not as concerned about power, then you can put more time into professions and look to make money on the auction market. If you do not want to put time into professions for the purposes of making cash, then take professions that help you in combat only.

Here is what I recommend for profs to those who want to be power-oriented:

* First Aid (everyone)
* Cooking (Rogue only)
* Alchemy (everyone)
* Engineering (Paladin, Rogue)

I have to be honest here. Blacksmithing, Skinning, Leatherworking are garbage. Unless they fix these, don't bother. You can get much better gear just from questing. Take something that helps you: FIRST AID I recommend for everyone- even a priest or paladin! (The priest who is a master in first aid, will be very difficult to kill, as he will have 1000's of potential HP's).

Engineering: Great if you want to deal explosives at other players, which can 'stun' them. Profitable since few players take it up, and selling explosives will generate some good income.

Tailoring: Crap, unless you choose enchanting (see next)

Enchanting: Probably the most profitable. Harder to gain mastery in and takes more time. If you want to just powergame to the higher levels, this may be too much of a 'time waster' for you. If you take enchanting, it may be wise to also take tailoring. Tailoring allows you to create magical items that you can then 'disenchant'. Tailoring and Enchanting are very complimentary.

Alchemy: Recommended. Having potions that buff stats and heal on the ready is always a great plus. Not very profitable, however.

Cooking: Profitable mainly for one drink: Thistle Tea, which Rogues will demand highly. If you are a Rogue, I recommend this for sure! If you want to make some $$ selling Thistle Tea, you can take it, otherwise, dump it.

[tahoebyker]

Thanks for sharing, some of this makes alot of sense. Alot of players think of green quests as a waste of time. +rep

[Cypher]

Thanks, nice share!

[HunterHero]

Thanks, nice share! +rep

[Tbone]

hunters get all the good stuff lol +1 rep

[denniz]

Awesome man!!! i had a hunter and tried this out.....IT worked!!! im now lvl 45!Thanks a lot bro!