When WoW's highly anticipated Cataclysm expansion launches later this year, the world of Azeroth will be changed forever. Much of the original level 1-60 lands will be completely transformed, which means there are only a few months left to explore them before they're gone forever.
For this reason I've decided to take one last journey through the lands of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. I plan to dive into all the dungeons at least once too (thanks to Dungeon Finder). This will be done with a brand new Tauren Druid.
This experience will also let me try out two leveling guide's I've been itching to review. Throughout my journey from levels 1-60 I'll be swapping back and forth between Dugi's Leveling Guide and Zygor's Leveling Guide and sharing my thoughts. So far, the experience has been great (see below).
Who is Snaffy?
Most people know me by the name screen-name Snafzg, but my friends call me Snaffy. I was a complete unknown until I started up a little Warhammer Online blog called TheGreenskin and became one of the more vocal voices in WAR's community.
From there I eventually went on to write for Massively.com, part of the Joystiq Network and sister site of WoW.com. As a contributing editor I covered a multitude of MMOs, writing news articles, investigative features, and even conducting interviews with some high profile MMO developers. It was a great gig! I wish I could have stayed on but real life responsibilities grew and I found it difficult to keep up with a second job.
My history with WoW dates back to closed beta. I was playing Dark Age of Camelot in a competitive RvR guild at the time a friend of mine got into closed beta. We ended up sharing the account and I quickly became hooked. I played WoW until early 2007 with one of the baddest guilds on Shattered Hand (PvP) called Enmity. At that point I had simply burned out on the game and wanted to move on. To make sure the break was clean and permanent I actually sold my account on eBay (when they still allowed it, hehe). I took an MMO vacation until I started following WAR in late 2007 and got into that beta in early 2008.
In mid-2009 I got into Aion closed beta and quickly realized the market for Aion leveling guides would be hot because the game was simply grind-tastic! I put what I learned with my WAR leveling guide reviews to use and set up AionLevelingGuide.com. The site was a huge success and it got me interested in leveling guide affiliate marketing as a hobby.
I plan to continue the tradition with this site once Cataclysm launches, however, I also plan to keep it updated with my adventures as I blog my way through World of Warcraft into 2011.
How will these posts work?
Snaffy's Log will be my personal diary as I take my new druid through levels 1-60 one last time before the "old world" disappears forever (probably landing in some Blizzard recycling bin). I plan to update it periodically, as I have new stories to share. My guess is that updates to this series of posts will come 3-4 times per month.
I hope to share fun in-game experiences with everyone as well as conduct a running pseudo-review of Dugi and Zygor's leveling guides. Hopefully, Snaffy's Log will be as fun to read as it is to write.
The journey so far
I actually got this project underway on Monday night. A friend of mine referred me to WoW's trial so I'll be able to play for 10-days free of charge. Once the free trial is up I'll buy the digital upgrade and continue on. Even though I'll play the game casually (6-8 hours per week), I have no doubt the leveling guides will help me speedily progress.
So, with the WoW trial installed I set about installing my first addon: Dugi's Leveling Guide. I plan to folow Dugi's Dungeon Guide because I want to balance solo questing with dungeon raiding. Once I hit level 10ish I'll switch to Zygor's Leveling Guide until level 16. From there I'll go back to Dugi's to follow his dungeon advice. I will keep switching back and forth every few levels to get a feel for their guides.
After watching Dugi's helpful instructional videos, I made my very first character: Snaffy the Tauren Druid of Emerald Dream (RPPVP). I logged in and was surprised to see several other Tauren newbies in the starting area. I'm sure they were other free trial characters, but it was nice to see so much life in the newbie zones for a game that's over 5 years old!
I took my very first quest, which wasn't difficult since the giver was standing directly in front of me. and all of a suddent Dugi's Guide kicked into action. The TomTom arrow over my head told me how far and in which direction the plainstriders I needed to kill were. After killing them it showed me exactly how to head back. Once the quest was turned in it told me to pick up a few more while I was in town and immediately sent me back out into the wilderness in the most efficient order of quest tasks possible.
I basically played the game on autopilot for 1.5 hours and was quickly level 7.2 and well into the next quest hub. I've played MMOs with and without leveling guides, and even rolled several newbies in WoW back in the day. Never have I progressed this fast through starter zones.
On the flip side, a bit of the "magic" was definitely missing because I spent as much time looking at the quest arrow as I did enjoying my surroundings. Some people find it fun to wander around and explore as they try to figure out each quest step on their own. Even I enjoy it to a point but eventually I'll get annoyed and my inner-achiever will kick in and shout, "Hurry up already!" This is mostly because I'm a casual gamer and my friends are usually flying ahead of me in levels.
So yes, the arrow is definitely an immersion breaker, but maybe I'll get used to it the more I play. After all, I only have 1.5 hours into the game so far! Right now my little druid is logged out at the local inn building his rest experience. I guess we'll see how far I can get next session.
See you soon!
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