Kick Back, Relax, and Take Your Time in Wow

Blast to level 70 in the World of Warcraft in 5 days? Why? To do that you'll have to miss your (in-game) cooking classes, the thrill of discovering what's behind that hill over there, they joys of Auction House browsing and more. Who needs the stress? Slow down and enjoy yourself more.

Take your time, get to know the details of Azeroth, and get to know each level in detail. The Blizzard developers have spent a lot of time, money, and effort to build it for you, so kick back and enjoy it! With that understanding in mind I offer you these five easy tips to level slowly.

1) Every time you get a new quest make sure to read the quest in detail, and then hop over to Thottbot.com, lookup that quest in their system, and read everything about it, including all the comments.

You'll gain valuable insight into the quest and how to finish it and maybe some greater understanding of the backstory behind the quest. Best of all you won't be dashing hither and yon getting stressed about leveling quickly.

2) Go AFK (Away From Keyboard) as much as possible, especially if you're on a PvP (Player VS. Player) server. Going AFK allows you to read your email, browse through the WoW forums, watch YouTube, talk to real world friends, and much more. In addition, the runs back to your body, caused by being AFK on a PvP server, will be a great help in keeping your leveling times up to a reasonable level.

3) The Auction House is one of the greatest slowing mechanisms in the entire game (or any game, for that matter.) Every time you level make a trip over to the Auction House and see what spiffy new gear is available for your character.

Constantly upgrading your gear will have a couple of highly desirable effects: Time not spent adventuring is time well spent and the constant acquisition of new gear will insure that your bank account stays at a reasonably low level.

Window shopping can be as much a hobby in the World of Warcraft as it is in the real world. Browsing the Auction House, several times per level, even if your gold supply is lacking, is great fun. Who knows what you'll find the next time you look?

4) Never ever even so much as glance at a WoW leveling guide. These are intended to level you from 1 to 70 as quickly as possible and isn't just too much stress? Why use someone else's experiences and take only 6 days (of in-game time) to get to level 70 and get a heart attack from all the stress?

Take 6 months, of in-game time, to level to 70 and you'll enjoy the game a lot more. Explore a bit, enjoy the scenery, and let the Type A speedsters eat the stress of the fast leveling.

5) Here's the best tip: Play as many alts (alternate characters) as possible. The World of Warcraft gives you 50 slots to use for your characters so take full advantage of that. There's nothing wrong with having 40+ characters between level 1 and 13.

Why not roll a Rogue or Hunter, or whatever class, for each race in the game that allows that class? For example, Rogues can be Orcs, Trolls, Undead, Blood Elves, Night Elves, Gnomes, Dwarves, or Humans so play one of each.

Not only will you gain a deeper understanding of the Rogue class (or whichever class you're playing,) but you'll gain a deeper understanding of the game world and how the different races relate to it.

Besides, eight level 15 characters is 120 total levels! 70 levels in just one character? Who needs that?

By following the above WoW Leveling Guide (and it works for other MMO games, as well) you will find yourself with enough time to enjoy the rest of the game. When you're not stressing about the next level you'll be amazed at what you can get done. You'll have a chance to talk to various NPCs, and maybe even players, you'll be able to explore the world, and when you find other players from the opposite faction you'll be able to take the time to kill them (or try to.).