Daniel Roe

With the coming of the Cataclysm to World of Warcraft, you've set your sights on an exciting, ambitious goal – to be the first to level 85! You can try to get there on your own, of course, but the process is made a lot easier and faster if you make use of an excellent guide like the Cataclysmic WoW Blueprint –

Guilds have been part of the World of Warcraft experience since the start of the game years ago, back in the misty days prior to Patch 1.1. Whether they are casual guilds where people come to talk and occasionally get one or two extra people to help with an instance,

Getting a dual talent specialization – in which your character has two completely different sets of talent points, and can switch back and forth between them – is a highly useful thing for a World of Warcraft character to have. Formerly, it was also a very costly one. It could not be done until level 40, and it required a payment of no less than 1,000 gold to your class trainer.

For the first time ever, the Cataclysm expansion to World of Warcraft offers players the ability to alter the statistics of certain existing items of gear to better suit the needs of their character's class and talent spec, as well as their individual playstyle. There are quite a few limits on the changes that can be made, but the ability to tailor gear even to this extent is a huge change from the "what you see is what you get" nature of all in-game equipment.

TheCataclysm expansion has completely reshaped the way we play World of Warcraft. New zones such as Mount Hyjal and the long-awaited underwater zone have put in an appearance. Gilneas has opened as the starting area for Worgen, while many familiar zones have been changed in exciting ways and a whole new set of quests challenge you from level 1 through level 85.

Besides playing the auction house with gathered items, those bought low or sold high, and Volatiles collected from mineral nodes and farmed elementals, you can also make plenty of gold in World of Warcraft's Cataclysm expansion by playing your cards right with various crafting professions – in one case, literally using cards to make a profit from the desire of other players to gear up.

Playing the auction house on World of Warcraft is a great way to get plenty of gold for your character – if you know how to do it. Gold will help you get ahead in the new Cataclysm expansion in several ways.

When Cataclysm goes live, you'll probably be wondering how to level up your old level 80 toons to 85 as fast as possible. Your favorite characters are probably among these – important members of their guilds, decked with top of the line gear and enchantments, with many achievements and a rich history that makes up much of your past enjoyment of World of Warcraft.

Sometimes, I can only sit and marvel at the amount of detail that goes into World of Warcraft's design. Every terrain feature, every critter scampering around in the undergrowth, small things like the sound of hoofbeats changing when your mount is riding on paved road, a wooden bridge, or grass – it amazes me what the designers have achieved, a whole living breathing world inside a computer screen.

There are a lot of World of Warcraft leveling guides out there nowadays, knocking around the Internet, so it occurred to me to ask – what's the best choice for a Cataclysm leveling guide? Getting the Server First! Achievement for the first level 85 character isn't everything, of course, but it's fun to try – and even more fun to have a realistic chance of getting there. I looked at several different guides, but the one I kept coming back to is the Cataclysmic WoW Blueprint.