Just like people have become fearful of their favorite gold making guides being banned, they’ve become fearful that Blizzards new UI guidelines means that their favorite fast leveling guides will be banned too.

Fortunately, most of the guides that are available on the Internet also come with a printable, or .pdf version of the guide.

Notable authors who include .pdf versions include:

1. Joana from Joana’s World, and

2. Dugi from Ultimate WoW Guides. UPDATE: Dugi has released an in-game guide viewer which meets all of Blizzard’s new UI policy requirements. It is now included with his leveling guide.

So, if you’re after a “Blizzard safe guide”, those two guides are the “absolutely safe” choices.

I also know that John “Zygor” Cook and his team are working furiously on a new .pdf version of their awesome leveling guide — so you’re pretty much covered for all the guides I recommend here on fastwowleveling.com.

The rumor at the moment is that this whole thing came about because a certain addon started advertising from inside their in-game addon (real smart guys!), and so Blizzard simply reacted by publishing strict policies related to UI mods, just so that they could ban anyone they felt wasn’t playing nice.

The main problem in-game guides face right now is that Blizzard don’t want customers paying for UI mods such as fast leveling guides. HOWEVER… the interesting part is that guide owners may simply be able to “give away” the in-game addon, and then load their leveling routes into the addon, hence getting around Blizzard’s issues with paid addons.

I personally don’t believe Blizzard is going after the legit leveling guide owners. They’re playing fair and not taxing their servers. In fact, if anything Blizzard would be alienating a lot of customers, and perhaps losing subscribers because people just don’t have time to do it “the old fashioned way”.

So is buying a leveling guide still safe?

I believe so, yes. As I said above, even if you buy a guide and Blizzard decide to ban the in-game version, you’ll still have access to the print, html, or .pdf versions – and Zygor is working on his stuff now, just in case.

Disclaimer: my thoughts above are just that, my thoughts. They don’t represent anything more than rumor and opinion based on my knowledge of the facts at hand. To get the legalese and long print regarding UI policy, check the source out at Blizzard!

There’s mass panic in the gold making community!

Has Blizzard BANNED the most popular and effective gold making tool of all time?  Read the rest of this entry