Outlands?

When should you move on into outlands? Before 2.3 your best bet would be to move to outlands at 58 and grind the starter mobs. Now that the last levels are easier and quest xp is so good a couple of extra quests to bring you to 60 before heading to outlands will only take you a few hours in Wintersping and or Silithus.

Then, its Outlands time.

The fifties

Late 40ies and early 50ies you can do Un’goro or Felwood, just skip the areas you don’t like. Now, you have lots of choices. You can do the easy quests in a lot of the areas or a lot of quests in just a few areas. For example I usually do the easy quests in Un’Goro, then head over to Felwood and then begin the EPL quests.

I will be about 56 when I move to Wester Plauge Lands and after WPL I head over to Winterspring for the last couple of quests before I move to outlands.

Azeroth 35-50

Stranglethorne Vale, STV

There are two tiers of quests at STV. The first quests will be level 35-37 and the later will be 40-42. That’s why it’s a good idea to go here after 1k needles and then move on to badlands and Dustwallow marsh before returning for the last group of quests. This will leave you in the early forties and ready for Tanaris.

Tanaris

There’s no need to enter Tanaris to early, your goal here is to get to level 44-45 to be ready for Feralas. If you can get to 44 without doing anything but the Wastewander / Pirate quests you can save the rest and move on to Feralas.

The forties

At least for horde characters Feralas and Hinterlands are somewhat connected. You can do the first quests in Feralas, head over to Hinterlands and then return to Feralas and end up at level 48-50. The Jintha’alor quests are great now that you can solo them, just get them all done at once and you will ding 2-3 levels.

Now, finish off with the last couple of quests in Tanaris, the tree elementals and ogres and you should be at level 50 and can start on Un’goro. Or, if you prefer you could head up to Felwood around 48 and start the quests there.

When do we go into the Scarlet Monastery?

Well, do you want to you go to SM for eq or xp? Will you be boosted? I’d say that after the first trip to STV is the time to go into SM. You will be in the area, en route to or from Badlands and around the right level. Be sure to pick up the Sword of Omen if you can use it.

Azeroth – The first levels

Do the starter quests in the correct order. If you have done them before you will know what I mean. Often you get two or more quests so that you can minimize the amount of running you have to do.

Also, it’s a good idea to make sure to get to level 6 before leaving as you will be able to train these skills in the newbie area and won’t have to bother with trainers until level eight.

In the twenties you should head over to Thousand Needles and Desolace

Crafting

In a few cases you can speed your leveling with crafting. You can do this by crafting the right armor (cloth/leather/mail) for the first 20 levels. After that crafting probably will take time rather than speed your leveling. If you choose to craft do so for the fun of crafting, you wont get all that much else form it.

Regarding gathering professions be sure to spend enough time in areas with easy leveling (i.e. 1k needles for mines etc.) to keep your skill at appropriate level. It will take a lot of time to grind the skill after you’ve leveled past that area.

Specs and Equipment

If you want to level with a resto spec, just do it. It will take you ages longer and you will miss out on quests you can’t complete on your own. It’s like biking the Paris Dakar rally instead of using a car. Theres a “leveling spec” for each class, take a look at them here.

I recommend using quest rewards to gear up, and any drop you happened to pick up. Don’t go out of your way just to get a few more stats on a piece that will get replaced a few levels later.

Other than that you might want to speed up your leveling with a few strategic blues form the auction house, especially for weapon users like hunters, rogues, shamans, pallys and warriors.