Winterspring

After much grinding and feather farming I finally achieved a neutral reputation with Timbermaw Hold. Not that I can buy any patters yet, but it does mean I may walk through the hold unharmed from Felwood to Winterspring. Since this is the only real route to Winterspring, it is quite a personal achievement. The tunnel is pretty as tunnels go and on first glance, Winterspring turned out to be as beautiful as people say it is. I think I am going to enjoy questing here.

Flight Paths

It's always a good idea to pick up flight paths to new regions as soon as possible. With so many regions and so many flight paths, I find it quite hard to recall which to pick up when. The list of flight paths compiled by WoW Wiki has been invaluable to jog my memory. Click here to view.

Covering the territory

I tend to forget just how big Azeroth is. The first ten levels take place in the start-up area, the next ten in the nearest 10 - 20 (Auberdine for Night Elves, Bloodmyst Isle for Draenei and Loch Modan for dwarves and gnomes). From level 20 upwards, every 5 levels or so, it's time to migrate to a new region and it's only then that I am reminded that there is plenty of see and much to do. (For the early birds keen to fly the next, there is the opportunity to begin the area to area migration at level 15 by moving on to either Redridge Mountains in the Eastern Kingdoms or Stonetalon Mountains in Kalimdor.)

When soloing, I do find it convenient to level up in 2 - 3 similar level regions. It provides a little variety, more choice for farming trade supplies and the option to complete only the type of quests I like - kill quests, drop quests and courier quests. Personally, I tend to stay close to home until like most players, I favour the Eastern Kingdoms as an alliance player. That said, I do have a Kalimdor list as well, but I tend to wait until level 40 and a mount before racing through Kalimdor for key supplies and flight routes. This is my current strategy for questing, farming and picking up flight paths as Alliance. I have made it to level 44 and so far, so good:

• Level 20: Wetlands
  
• Level 28: Hillsbrad Foothills (20 - 30)
  
• Level 30: STV (Stranglethorn Vale), Arathi Highlands, Alterac Mountains
• Level 35: Dustwallow Marsh (Eastern Kingdoms) and Swamp of Sorrows
• Level 40: Feralas and Tanaris
• Level 45: The Hinterlands, The Blasted Lands, Searing Gorge
  
• Level 48: Aszhara, Felwood, Un'Goro Crater
  
• Level 50: Burning Steppes, Western Plaguelands,
  
• Level 53: Eastern Plaguelands, Winterspring
  
• Level 55: Silithus, Deadwind Pass
  
• Level 60: Off to Outland!
  

Aside: I tend to pick up Kalimdor flight paths and mats once I have a mount by running through Darkshore, Stonetalen Mountains,Thousand Needles and Desolace to reach Feralas as end destination.

Level 15 - 25 entry level for zones

Level 15 - 25/27

• Redridge Mountains, Eastern Kingdoms (Contested, Alliance favoured)
• Stonetalon Mountains, Kalimdor (Contested, Horder favoured)

Level 20 - 30

• Duskwood, Eastern Kingdoms (Contested, Alliance Favoured)
  
• Wetlands, Eastern Kingdoms (Contested, Alliance Favoured)
• Hillsbrad, Eastern Kingdoms Foothills (Contested)
• Ashenvale Forest, Kalimdor (Contested)

Level 25 - 35

• Thousand Needles (Contested, Horder favoured)

Regions and Start-up Zones

Level 1 - 10 Alliance,

• Dun Morogh, Eastern Kingdoms (Alliance, Dwarf/Gnome Starting) - Capital City: Ironforge
  
• Elwynn Forest, Eastern Kingdoms (Alliance, Human Starting) - Capital City: Stormwind
• Teldrassil, Kalimdor (Alliance, Night Elf Starting) - Capital City: Darnassus
  
• Azuremyst Isle, Kalimdor (Alliance, Draenei Starting) - Capital City: The Exodar

• Eversong Forest, Eastern Kingdoms (Horde, Blood Elf Starting) - Capital City: Silvermoon City
  
• Tirisfal Glades, Eastern Kingdoms (Horde, Undead Starting), Capital City: Undercity
  
• Durotar, Kalimdor (Horde, Troll/Orc Starting), Capital City: Orgrimmar
  
• Mulgore, Kalimdor (Horde, Tauren Starting), Capital City: Thunder Bluff

Level 10 - 20/25

• Loch Modan, Eastern Kingdoms (Alliance, Dwarf/Gnome favoured)
• Westfall, Eastern Kingdoms (Alliance, Human favoured)
• Darkshore, Kalimdor (Alliance, Night Elf favoured)
  
• Bloodmyst Isle, Kalimdor (Alliance, Draenei favoured)

• Ghostlands, Eastern Kingdoms (Horde, Blood Elf favoured)
• Silverpine Forest, Eastern Kingdoms (Horde, Undead favoured)
• The Barrens, Kalimdor (Horde) - Level 10 - 25

Exploring Azeroth the first time round

Learning the geography of Azeroth reminds a little of being in primary school and memorizing the names of countries and their capitals from a world map. As in real life, certain places are easier to reach than others, some are safer whilst others are prettier. I dislike running in Azeroth as I'm sure everybody does. It's tedious and time-consuming with no benefit other than reaching your destination. I think the travelling component inherent to questing is particularly why I dislike quests. It always feels as if most of the time is spent running to the quest giver, then running to the quest location and then running back to the quest giver. My way of questing is to pick up quests where I pass them and if I happen to kill the monsters or reach the location per chance, I'll finish it up. I only hand in quests when I happen to pass the quest giver on other business in the future.

I feel the same way about exploring. It's just pointless and seemingly endless to run from one area to another. The best way of exploring for me is to simply wander from one area to the next, usually in search of something. Wandering is fun. No running involved. My wandering is guided by profession ingredients. I am always on the lookout for good fishing spots, easy to cook recipes, easy to gather ingredients for cooking recipes, humanoids who drop cloth, monsters for skinning, herbs for gathering and ores to mine.

I tend to solo and generally stick to areas with monsters and humanoids that are my level plus or minus one or two levels. It's a good principle, but often difficult to employ when you do not know the geography. Where do I find level 18 - 23 monsters? Or 34 - 38? It's usually a matter of finding sub-regions within regions and I'm learning how to explore rather than research.

First find the appropriate region and sub-zones are usually arranged according to the surrounding area. Where a level 20-30 area meets a level 10 - 20, the monsters in the border region is usually level 18 - 22. Similarly, where a level 20 - 30 area meets a level 30 - 40 area, the border region is usually made up of level 28 - 32's. The regions surrounding the villages and towns tend to be lower level spiralling upwards the further you move away from the town and similar with roads to some extent. Look at a map, find the borders, find the towns, find the roads and it's pretty easy to guess where which level of monster will be in subregions.

I dislike trawling through material as much as I dislike running from point A to B. With a little guess work, I really need not bother with either. I can simply wander from one sub-region to the next and gather what I need as I go along. The perfect life most definitely.