Leveling: Because variety makes it less painful...

My guildies podcast will be talking about leveling 58-80 (so um go listen, okay), and that got me thinking about leveling (which I do WAAAY too much of) and ways to switch it up.

First, the random dungeon finder. It's the only way I like playing my mage, and it really does give you a break. Just, um, have some clue before you zone in. Doing things like giving the healer water (and the tank if it's a pally), or soulstoning the healer, or switching out your tanky pet (or blueberry) for a dps one, it generally sets a better tone for the pug. It may not make things run any smoother, but it does tend to put people in a better mood, plus it starts good habits you'll want at 80.

Second, pvp. I just hit WSG on my shaman and well, I hated it with a burning passion. I dunno if the 30-40 bracket is a bad one for shammies, if low-level elemental stinks in pvp, or if I just have no idea what I'm doing. Probably all of the above. But it was a break from questing, and on other toons I've had a blast in BGs, so try it. Worst thing that happens is that you die a lot, get frustrated, and swear off pvp on that toon. And even then, it might be worthwhile retrying later after you get some new abilities or a new BG unlocks for you. I can't stand doing WSG on my priest (required mobility+disc heals=fail), but Eye of the Storm or Arathi, those are great cause I can pair up with a dps and guard things.

Third, the grind. Not grinding for levels, grinding for other things. Rep grinds, rare drops, mounts, and other shinies. It's not the most fascinating way to level, but you can turn off your brain for a couple of hours and just mindlessly slaughter. Things you might want to consider grinding...
Minipets that drop. Granted this list also includes things like the fishing daily pets, but I can't figure out how to filter it. At least it gives you a starting point.
Rep grinds aren't going to be great till you're in the 50s, really. You can use rep beforehand to decide where to quest, but it's not that useful. But once you're ready to hit Plaguelands and/or Silithus, a rep grind isn't a bad way to level. Slaughter undead or cultists and see your Argent Dawn or Cenarion Circle rep rise along with your XP level. Heck, go from Silithus to Zangermarsh, do some grinding and turn-ins (and read wowwiki) and you could hit Northrend with the sexy title Guardian of Cenarius!
Mount grinds tie in pretty closely with rep grinds, but a mount's better motivation than just an exalted rep, really. Get to 70 and hit up Skyguard or Netherwing if you already have epic flight, or go gather beads in Nagrand for talbulks or get the Cenarion Expedition to love you for a hippogryph mount.
Rare drops, well, those could be many different things. Recipes or cloth farming (yes, cloth isn't rare, but it's useful) or a shiny blue axe that twinks love. Maybe even a piece of RP gear or two.

Fourth, dailies. Yes, dailies. While leveling. They offer a good chunk of XP plus some gold, and once you learn them you can generally burn through them quite quickly. Go help the walrus people in Northrend or run the Isle of Quel-danas. You can even pick up some nice gear and get a headstart on those level 80 rep grinds.

So, go forth and do something other than quest! And do listen to the podcast because I know they're covering far more than I am, and will have more tips too!

Pally Loves Outlands (because if I don't spice up the leveling my brain is going to ooze out my ears)

I've been doing a lot of leveling lately, with brief breaks to get further in Black Temple and convince the Netherwing that they really, really like Garetia. And I started thinking about maybe leveling slightly differently. Both Garetia and Lyllea hit Northrend at 68 and both of them have done far more Northrend quests than Outlands. In fact, Lyllea's only seen Terokkar and Hellfire, while Garetia's a bit more travelled, with Hellfire, Zangermarsh, Nagrand and a dash of Terokkar.

So why not level my next alt exclusively in Outlands till I can't level there no more? There are still green mobs for Garetia at 80 (granted these are mostly elites, but they exist!), and it'd give me a change of location and lore. Plus it'd give me a bit of a roadmap for Loremaster of Outlands, which is the part of the Loremaster achievement that is giving me fits.

Thus, the Pally Loves Outlands idea. Adowa, my pally, is 65 and has just about finished Hellfire (1 or 2 quests from the Loremaster achieve). I'm going to keep her in Outlands until one of two things happens... either a) she gets Loremaster of Outlands, or b) she runs out of ways to gain XP. I'm currently pondering which zone to go to next (between Blade's Edge, Zangermarsh, or Nagrand). I'm going to avoid instances because, well, I don't really like to run dungeons on her. Melee dps not my thing, and pally healing is not fun for me. So no XP from instances, all from questing and killing things. Ideally I'll get enough gold to buy her epic flight before the Netherwing quest line no longer gives XP, but she'll still grind with them to exalted because I can think of nothing more epic than a paladin on a Netherwing drake.

Addons for Leveling Professions

One of my major 2010 WoW goals is to have all professions maxed. I figure I'm not the only person who wants to do this, so I though today I'd talk about some addons that might help you get there.

First off, Altaholic. It's not just for profession leveling, but it's really useful for it. I can mouse over something in my inventory and see if an alt or a gbank has some and what alts know the recipe and what alts can learn it. I cannot recommend this addon highly enough, especially if you're trying to keep track of multiple professions on multiple alts.

Second, Gatherer and the wowhead database plugin. Every node wowhead knows about, all displayed nicely for you. Great for leveling or farming.

Third, Auctioneer. Okay, I know you're going wtf, but follow me on this. Not only can you make sure that you're buying and selling mats at a good price, you can also use the Snatch list to grab needed items when they're cheap. Just go look at a profession leveling guide (like this one), see what you're going to need, then add it to the Snatch list. Sadly the only way I've found to add items to my snatch list is to have one in my inventory, but I may be missing something. Plus, while you're there, do a vendor search and grab everything that people are selling below vendor price. Vendor them and yay, instant gold!

Other nice addons:
You need to have a character in the mid60s or so to get their professions to 450. If you don't have enough high level toons, may I suggest a couple of nice leveling addons?
Tour Guide and Jaime's Leveling Guide I've been using these for the various alts, and it does make leveling quicker.

Oh, and one last thing... Cartographer. Sadly 3.3 has borked this addon, but if you disable the look and feel module it still works. If you'd prefer to replace it completely, hit No Stock UI for a nice writeup of your options.

And I have 3 level 60s!

So after a weekend of power-leveling (I got the druid and priest from lvl 51 to 60 in two days), I've been trying to figure out a few things.

1) How to play each one separately.
2) Why my pally now stinks (gear+having no idea what I'm doing is my best guess)
3) If power-leveling mining on two more characters will drive me insane.
4) Why my DK has no talents and how to spec her This was the answer

Well, I've found some answers to number 1, and figured I should share them with you.
First, disc leveling. This is a great forum post that gives you specs, rotations, glyph choices, and gear. I haven't followed the spec exactly, but the rotation is quite effective, and a lot of fun. All I want to do now is play the priest. But she has no rested XP, so I must wait. Grr.

The druid's going feral kitty, and here are two nice guides for leveling feral.

And last, but not least, a slightly outdated guide for leveling as an aoe paladin.

And just for kicks, my favorite profession leveling site is here. The druid's herbalism and inscription are both at around 270, but the pally's still in iron, and well, the less said about the priest's mining and jewelcrafting the better.