I’ve recently been handed the new Team iDemise leveling guide, “QuestUp”. After using the guide for 10 levels with a new character and a few levels with my level 61 toon, this is what I thought of it.

Firstly, how does this guide work?

Traditional leveling guides are basically “hand crafted” — the owner, or the owner and their team basically sift through World of Warcraft quests and find the best ones, and then string them together as efficiently as possible to save you as much time as possible.

Now, the Team iDemise guide, “QuestUp”, technically doesn’t do this at all. QuestUp is actually a program which monitors the best routes taken in WoW by the fastest levelers, and then communicates that to you by telling you which quests to take and which to pass over.

Now, I don’t personally KNOW how the Team iDemise leveling guide does this, but its a rather fancy trick. Its also not clear exactly who they’re tracking, and where they’re from. Do they track all the servers, and then collate the information before putting into the guide? I don’t know.

What I do know is the guide looks good and plays well.

I gave it a test run with a level 1 Orc Warrior through to level 10, and used it with my level 61 Shaman for a few levels and they did fine — no slow or low exp quests, and I wasn’t running back & forth all over the zone.

So whatever Team iDemise is doing, they seem to have hit a good formula.

Here’s a few screen shots of me using the guide with my 61 Shaman, and of the members area:

So is “QuestUp” a good guide for you?

• Horde guide and Alliance guide available
• Fast leveling only guide – no extra content available
• No gold guides, no instance guides, no PvP info
• In-game guide from lvl 1 to 80
• Directional arrow points the way
• Easy to install, easy to use
• Initial syncing up with the guide can take time for higher level players

Who wouldn’t want the guide?

Anyone who can’t put in a little time and effort into setting up the guide! Using my level 61 Shaman in Outlands meant I needed to right click dismiss a bunch of quests from the guide to get to the right spot… it took about 10 minutes and I was good to go. All guides are a pain to sync up with when you start, and this guide is no different (unless you’re starting a new toon, in which case disregard all of this).

Just keep reminding yourself that once you’re synced, you’ll make back the time you spent x10.

I also wouldn’t recommend this guide if you want to get yourself extra gold info, or if you’d like to educate yourself on PvP and professions. If that is what you’re after Dave Farrel’s Ultimate WoW Guide has a big bundle pack with all that stuff in it.

Just after the leveling info though? I thought the Team iDemise Leveling Guide was great, and it comes with a 100% money back guarantee if you don’t agree.

Click here for more info.

Dave “Dugi” Farrel of Ultimate World of Warcraft Guide fame gave me a few minutes of his time yesterday to answer some questions I had. I hope this helps you get to know the man behind the guide, what goes into a leveling guide, and dispel a few of the more insidious myths out there (aka the “level to 80 in week myth”).

Interview With a Leveling Guide Author
Jon Weston interviews Dave Farrel

Jon – Can you start off by telling our readers a bit about yourself, what your gaming and professional background is, and how you came to create a leveling guide for World of Warcraft?

Dave – Thanks Jon, my name is Dave Farrell, I’m a 28 year old website designer and I’ve always been a gamer all my life. Back in the day it was Atari and Nintendo, now World of Warcraft is pretty much the only game I play. I was one of those crazy people who obsessed with getting Rank 14 when WoW first came out, unfortunately I only managed to get Rank 13. Its very nice to have the ‘Warlord’ title for my character, many of the new players always ask how I got it.

My friends always make fun of how much I play World of Warcraft, but I know if they give it a try they will love it too. The social aspect and interacting with real people is really what draws me into the game as well.

Jon - Can you tell us about how you made your guide? Was it all a solo effort, or did you enlist help along the way? Do you continue to improve your guide today? Read the rest of this entry

I’ve just spent the last week leveling my Horde Warlock character, Anguine from level 35 to level 40 using John “Zygor” Cook’s Alliance and Horde Leveling Guide. What did I think? What’s the best thing about the guide? Does it fall down anywhere?

Keep reading & I’ll reveal all! Remember, my guides follow a strict and objective process that I outline here. I won’t tell you a guide is good unless its GOOD.

Zygor’s guides are touted on his website as being the number 1 selling guide on the Internet. I believe this for the following reasons.

1. The guide is very well polished — you feel like you’ve just bought a product from a large well funded company like adobe. The guide itself is presented in a graphically appealing way inside the game, and the forums, complete with Zygor staff are abuzz with activity and answered questions.

2. The Zygor forums are full of people who praise the game and are happy with their purchase.

3. The guide is obscenely easy to use. Its an in-game guide, and its fully automated… so you don’t even have to click “previous/next” to go to the next step.

4. Zygor and his team are constantly refining their leveling routes to make them as fast as possible, and

5. John “Zygor” Cook is always updating his customers with what they’re up to.

So lets get into the meat of it. Read on to find out about installation, ease of use, and effectiveness. Or in other words, can I use this guide, and does it level me fast? Read the rest of this entry

Dugi's Ultimate World of Warcraft Guide Reviewed!

This week brings my next in-depth WoW leveling review, and this time its Dugi’s Ultimate World of Warcraft Leveling Guide. What did I think? Is it worth checking out?

Keep reading and find out!

My last week of play has had me going from level 30 through to level 35, mostly in Hillsbrad Foothills, Thousand Needles, and Stranglethorn Vale.

The key differences I found in Dugi’s Ultimate WoW Guide when compared to the other guides on the market are:

1. their versatility, 
2. their flexibility, and 
3. a comprehensive range of information that goes beyond just leveling. 

Dugi gives you all the guidance you need on where to go next and when to level the fastest, and his guide also gives you the tools and assistance you need to make buckets of gold, or how to spec and kit out your character for PvP.

The way Dugi’s Ultimate Guides do this is through the use of 3 bundled mods that have been expertly tied into his leveling guide – they show you exactly where to go, and in what order to most effectively complete a series of quests. 

The mods & their interfaces are also easy to use once you get used to them – and using the bundled map mod is a bit like a combination between Google Earth and Supreme Commander, and works very, very well to give you a clear picture on exactly how to get to your next quest location in the fastest way possible.

Dugi’s Ultimate guides are also about the most full featured and well rounded available – you can get gold guides, class guides, pvp guides and profession guides, all designed to get you to level 60, 70 or 80 as quick as you can. 

But enough preamble – lets get into the nuts & bolts of Dugi’s guide and talk about the installation, ease of use, and its overall effectiveness in leveling you fast. Read the rest of this entry

I’ve done an in depth review of Joana’s Horde Leveling Guide! Want to find out if your leveling could be faster than ever in WoW?

Read on!

For the last week, for at least 2 or 3 hours a day, I’ve been playing World of Warcraft with my level 25 Warlock, Anguine… and its been a blast leveling fast with Joana’s Horde Leveling Guide!

Like I said in my last post, I was particularly interested to give Joana’s guide an in depth review now that his new map-mod enabled guide was out. Joana, for one reason or another has put off including map mods, but thankfully he’s put in some time and produced an amazing in game leveling mod, complete with directional arrow that points to the next location, distance, and estimated time of arrival. Handy stuff!

So how did it play? Was it easy to use? Keep reading!

Lets start at the beginning. Read the rest of this entry