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There are a number of World of Warcraft leveling guides out there on the market right now. For Horde characters, someone named "Joana" has a guide that claims to get your character from level 1 to 70 in the shortest time possible. For Alliance characters, there are guides by Brian Kopp, someone named "Penn", and several others. Through friends who will remain nameless, I've had the chance to look at three of these guides in some detail. I'm going to share my impressions here for what they're worth to you as a WoW player.
The guides are all done in a cookbook type format, telling you where to go (usually with coordinates), which quests to pick up, where to go to do them, where to go to turn them in, etc. Periodically, they tell you approximately what level you should be by that point in the guide, usually suggesting that you grind on this or that mob until you get there if you're not at that point yet. They usually focus on Hunter characters, with others tossed in almost as an afterthought.
Out of curiousity, I followed one (a popular, paid for) guide to take a level 18 Human Warlock character to level 35. I didn't do any scientific measurements, but an occasional check of the "/played" command told me it was taking me about 3 hours of playing time to gain one level with the guide with this particular character. It took a little over a week to get the character to level 35. The guide says you'll find it faster to level the second and successive characters to level 70 than the first. To test that assumption, I started working on a second character, a level 21 Dwarf Warrior. It took me about 3 evenings of solid play to get him to level 28. Still, periodic checks of the "/played" command told me it was still taking about 3 hours to go up one level. Interestingly, the guides tend to claim something more like an hour a level. Without the assistance of other players, I don't see that happening. Maybe I'm just a lousy player.
Another thing I noticed working through the guide is the problem you experience trying to use at least this particular guide to level up non-hunter characters. A hunter can usually leverage his pet to take down mobs that are several levels higher than he is. The pet essentially acts as a "tank" that's taking damage while the hunter pounds on it from the safety of a distance. If the pet dies, the mob is usually so weakened by this point that the hunter can take it down from melee range. As a result, the guide has a tendency to direct the player to quests where the mobs are 3-6 levels higher than the player's character. While this is fine with a hunter and his pet, and works reasonably well for a warlock and his minion, it's not such a cakewalk for a warrior or other type which has to deal directly with the mob without a "shield" between him and the mob. I found my warrior dying repeatedly on some quests because the mobs overpowered him. If I came back and resurrected in place, I'd often die immediately again if I couldn't complete a heal before a nearby mob noticed me (or spawned on top of me, in some cases).
I used a different guide (also a popular, paid for one) to try leveling up a Horde character. That guide was less detailed than the Alliance guide I'd been using for the other characters. It seemed to be missing details about where to pick up quests, where to find mobs to complete them (sometimes), etc. On the other hand, I seemed to move up through levels a bit faster with it (but I haven't used it long enough yet to say whether I think it's truly any faster to level up a Horde character than an Alliance one).
Is there any value in such guides? Yes and no. The authors claimed to have researched all the available quests for a given character level and that they are therefore sending you on the "best" ones for your level. That may or may not be true, I have no way to confirm it or refute it.
What I can tell you is that if you really wanted to, you could probably do just as well or better by taking a little time out to research the quests in the area where your character is currently located. Run around and pick up every quest there is. Then, take a few minutes out to look up on Thottbot.com or another site to see what is involved in completing it. If it looks like too much work for too little reward, it probably is. Abandon it in your quest log. For the quests that are left, make note of the relevant mobs, coordinates, etc., listed on Thottbott.com (or your preferred site) for each quest. Then head out and complete them. I'm betting you'll probably level as fast as you would with any of the paid-for guides and you won't be spending $35+ for them.
But if you don't have that kind of time, and you do have the money, the guides at least provide all that information in a single, concise location... so they'll probably help as much as anything.
