Would you believe I’ve only JUST created my first bank alt?

Its true, and I’m ashamed!

I’m ashamed because now that I’ve been using one for the past few weeks, I can now see the crazy, heart palpitating amount of time it could have saved me in the past.

Here’s how it works for those of you new to the bank alt technique.

Create a new character, preferably with an amusing bank alt name… I chose “Knab Alt”, though I’m sure you can come up with something better, here’s a few more ideas:

• Uber Mule
• Deep Pokkets
• Day Trayda
• Kash King
• BuyLowSellHigh
• Sleazo
• GoldFingars

You get the idea… hopefully your server has a few cool bank alt names left that you can use.

Oh, and try and pick something thats easy to remember! The first time you send something you wanna be sure its to the right toon!

Secondly, get auctioneer, or something similar from www.curse.com

Whenever you’re ready to start playing for the day, or 15 minutes before hand if you can, log in your alt, and start scanning the Auction House to find those cheap items some fool posted cheap, and so that you get a history of sales prices that you can use to your advantage in the future.

I recommend scanning at least 2 times a day for a week before you start posting items if you can, and definately no less that 5 scans before you post. If you do this, you’ll get a good history, and won’t make any money losing trades.

Lastly, of course, your main will simply need to post all the loot over to your bank alt at the end of your gaming session, ready for your alt to pick up in the morning.

Can you see your bank alt now? They’re just getting up, sipping at an Azeroth coffee, ready to hit the market.

Are you?

Dave “Dugi” Farrel has recently released version 2 of his famous “Ultimate World of Warcraft” leveling guide. Along with version 2 comes a free trial, giving you a full blown, commercial leveling guide which you can use from level 1 to level 20.

We all know going from 1 to 20 is one of the fastest leveling times in World of Warcraft, but why not just leap frog all those levels with the help of one of the web’s best pro guides… for free?

You’ve got nothing to lose! There’s no obligation to buy, and you DON’T need a credit card to use the trial. 

Get your copy of Dave’s free trial at UltimateWoWGuide.com, just scroll down about half way & you’ll see a sign up box. Don’t waste another leveling minute!

Its human nature to compare ourselves to everyone else. My neighbor has a better car…. my brother has a bigger plasma tv… my clan mates level way faster than me… and so on.

We compare ourselves to others each and every day.

So how can we tell if we’re leveling slowly compared to everyone else? (hint: this is just a bit of humor and not meant to be serious!)

1. You harbor deep feelings of frustration and hatred towards those “cheats” who are higher level than you.
2. Your /played time is mistaken for the closest estimation of the age of the solar system.
3. You took a few moments to remember what age you were last week… but yesterday when someone asked your level, you knew it instantly (and you’re not level 80!).
4. You know all the NPC’s in (insert zone here) by name and feel like they’re close members of your family.
5. You feel a great sense of dread, fear, and uncertainty when its time to leave your current leveling area.
6. When someone asks how many blues you’re carrying, you think they’re talking about music and congratulate them for their sophisticated taste in music.
7. You’ve met and encountered only one type of wild animal each, and think you’ve made a miraculous discovery when you meet a “savage” bear.
8. You’ve staked out a home in your favorite corner of the zone where you “grew up”. Leaving here would be like moving to a new country.
9. You contemplate quitting because you’ve started 10 different characters who’ve “never gone anywhere”. In other words, once you hit 20 leveling became so slow you started over… again and again!
10. You know the noob zones so well you contemplate writing a leveling guide… off the top of your head.

Got any other good signs you’re leveling slowly? Write me a comment below!

Want to speed your leveling up so you can make fun of others like I’m prone to do from time to time?  Well, I’m currently using Dave “Dugi” Farrel’s recently updated, automated, and now even faster leveling guide. Do yourself a favor and check out his gold guide while you’re there, too!

Today’s tip is based around your travel times, and how a few simple mistakes can add up to delay your leveling speed by hours over the month.

One problem I face day to day as a leveling guide reviewer is that I’m often wasting my time running back & forth from zone to zone. I’m doing this to quest in the area where the leveling guide author tells me to go, and not all of them agree which zone is most efficient… and so I run all over the World of Warcraft world, looking for the fastest leveling locations.

I’ll usually find myself on my summoned mount, trying to run through the middle of a thick mob of monsters in a desperate attempt to save myself the minute or two it would take to go around them all. Have you ever done this? I don’t know how many times I have…

You see a big thicket of monsters, but you think to yourself, “Easy! I can make it through there. No problems!”. And then a few seconds later you’re dismounted by the dozen hits you’re taking because you underestimated how close you were to the group of beasties.

Almost every time I’m in this situation I now speak to myself, and reinforce what I need to do to save myself a corpse run.

I tell myself, “Jon, that way might LOOK fast… but its NOT. You’re going to DIE, and then waste 10 minutes running back from your corpse.”

These days I usually convince myself not to make a mad charge through a bunch of monsters, and I find this is really keeping my momentum up, and my leveling times fast.

Do you make any bad mistakes like this, over and over? Let us know about them!

Quick update: I just dinged level 35 really fast with my review character in WoW — I was using Dugi’s Ultimate WoW Guide, which I must say is very different to what I’ve grown accustomed to in the past…  

Dugi’s leveling guide took some getting used to, but once I became comfortable with it I was really impressed by how effectively he integrated all of his leveling add-ons into his guide.

Keep an eye out soon for the full in-depth review! Can Dugi help you level faster in WoW? Stop back any day now & find out!