Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm WOW Leveling Guide Reviews 1-85

Cataclysm/WOTLK Leveling Guides Update: I’ve been getting emails that the Cataclysm and Wrath of the Lich King leveling guides I’ve recommended are too expensive and could I recommend a cheaper Wrath of the Lich King leveling guide for 1-85 leveling for both the Horde and Alliance :)

So after five months of research and testing (I love playing World of Warcraft) I can recommend The Ultimate World of Warcraft Guide as a cheaper alternative to WOW leveling. The Ultimate World of Warcraft Guide covers levels 1-80 and 80-85, comes with an ingame mapmod so in concept it matches the other main WOW leveling guides. I’ve leveled 8 toons with this guide (eight from level 1 to 85 and three from level 70 to 85) and it’s not my favourite leveling guide, but at $32 for Horde, $32 for Alliance or $47 for BOTH (I bought both, big saving) it’s far cheaper than the other leveling guides, especially if you want to level both factions.

If you’ve never tried a WOW leveling guide you’ll be very happy with this one as it far better than the first ones I tried.

Buy The Ultimate World of Warcraft Guide.

WOTLK Leveling Guide Update
As of today (November 13th 2008) the World of Warcraft has opened it’s doors to a new addon called the Wrath of the Lich King and like millions of other World of Warcraft fans I’ve been patiently waiting for months with my level 70 WOW characters and can’t wait to see the new Death Knight class and hit level 80.

Over the last two years or so I’ve leveled lots of Horde characters to level 70 and a few Alliance characters to level 70 (I prefer the Horde) all waiting to level to 80. Other than the first 30 or so levels of my first toon all my level 70s have been leveled using four leveling guides, so I have a fair amount of experience using the World of Warcraft leveling guides listed below.

The World of Warcraft leveling guides I’ve used

Joana’s Horde leveling Guide Review (updated to level 80 on 12th November 2008) cost $77 for 1-80.
Brian Kopp’s Alliance leveling Guide Review (updated to level 80 on 12th November 2008 Recently CLOSED)
Team iDemise Horde leveling Guide Review (updated to level 80 on 1st December 2008, not impressed and now closed!!)
Team iDemise Alliance leveling Guide Review (updated to level 80 on 1st December 2008, not impressed and now closed!)

All four WOW guides are excellent, the leveling routes are different and some paths benefit particular classes of WOW better than others, but considering the amount of time us World of Warcraft players devote to this MMO game (like our second life) there’s very little between them.

Before today the Team iDemise guides just had the edge because they were the first to include an ingame map mod which means there was no need to tab out from the game to read what the next leveling step was. Now however both Joana and Brian’s WOTLK guides include an ingame map mod and so there is little between these four Wrath of the Lich King leveling guides.

That being said there is one VERY important feature that has swayed my decision to recommend Joana’s and Brian’s The Wrath of the Lich King 1-80 leveling guides over the Team iDemise leveling guides and that is they have both updated to level 80 super fast. For this reason and this reason alone I make the following recommendations.

For the Horde I recommend Joana’s 1-80 Horde leveling Guide Review

This is the first WOW leveling guide I used and I liked it a lot. Originally it lacked an ingame map mod, but with the Wrath of the Lich King release Joana has included an ingame map mod and so this feature is no longer a reason NOT to use Joana’s Horde guide.

Joana is the first to release a fully functional 1-80 or 70-80 Horde leveling guide with an ingame map mod. You can not get better than releasing a leveling guide the day before the official release of Wrath of the Lich King and so for the Horde Joana’s guide is highly recommended.

I look forward to leveling my current level 70 characters to level 80 with this WOTLK horde guide and might even try out the new Death Knights class (who am I kidding, of course I’ll try a Death Knight :)).

Check out the Joana’s Wrath of the Lich King Horde leveling guide (1-85).

For the Alliance I recommend Brian Kopp’s 1-80 Alliance leveling Guide Review

Unfortunately this leveling guide is no longer available!

I’m not a big Alliance player and so have only leveled a few Alliance toons to level 70, two of the toons however was leveled using Brian’s guide and other than the tabbing out it was an enjoyable experience. With the level 80 Wrath of the Lich King update to Brian’s guide we now have an ingame map mod and so the slightly annoying tabbing out will no longer be an issue.

Like with Joana’s horde guide, Brian is the first to release a fully functional 1-80 or 70-80 Alliance leveling guide with an ingame map mod. You can not get better than releasing a leveling guide the day before the official release of Wrath of the Lich King and so for the Alliance Brian’s guide is highly recommended.

Best alternative on a budget The Ultimate World of Warcraft Guide

Still Good, but slow on Updates Team iDemise 1-80 Alliance and Horde leveling Guide Review

Team iDemise were the new kids on the block when it came to WOW leveling guides. Their very first release included an innovative ingame map mod that made leveling with a guide less of choir (no tabbing out). For this reason I switched my recommendation in the summer of 2008 to use Team iDemise leveling guides for both the Horde and Alliance, but with Brian and Joana now including ingame map mods that reason is gone.

I’m disappointed Team iDemise have not released their level 80 Horde guide and level 80 Alliance guide yet and so from now on Joana’s and Brian’s WOW guides will be my first recommendations.

Update 1st December 2008 Team iDemise finally updated their leveling guides to include level 70-80 information roughly two weeks after the release of WOTLK. This is VERY slow and so I can no longer recommend this guide! I already have level 80 characters, this update was way too slow from Team iDemise.

If you still wish to check out their World of Warcraft Leveling guides go to the Team iDemise site.

More 70-80 Wrath of the Lich King Leveling guides

There’s a lot of choice for World of Warcraft leveling guides these days and although I hate to waste money, when I put my very limited spare time into a game like World of Warcraft (I also play Warhammer, I’m torn between the two MMO’s time wise right now!) I want the very best gaming experience and for WOW leveling guides that means an ingame map mod.

So for me I’d rather pay more for Joanna WoW leveling guide 1-85 which include an ingame map mod than go cheap.

That being said I used Joana’s guide for over a year to level almost five characters to level 70 prior to Joana adding an ingame map mod and I didn’t miss an ingame map mod (had never used one before). It’s a case of now I’ve used an ingame map mod I’d never go back to tabbing out of WOW.

Update The Ultimate World of Warcraft Guide has reduced it’s prices, you can get both Horde nd Alliance guides for just $47 and it includes an ingame map mod, their guides are just as good as Joana’s guide and Team iDemise guides.

Wrath of the Lich King level 80 ROCKS!!!!!