Wranngar 7/27/09

Today, when I logged on, I ended up with Infused Mushroom Meatloaf from Katherine Lee (41,65), the Grand Master Cooking Trainer in the kitchen of A Hero's Welcome and Dangerously Delicious from Marcia Chase (53,65), by the fountain in Dalaran.

As usual I did the cooking first. That had me running around in the sewers picking Infused Mushrooms. When I first got down there I didn't see any, I thought it was going to be one of those days, but after running around for a minute they started to spawn. I got 2 in the Black Market and 2 in the tunnel outside the Black Market. All I had to do then was run over to the guild bank and grab a couple pieces of Chilled Meat to cook them up with to make my meatloaf. Once I had that cooked up I headed over to see Orton Bennet upstairs at Curiosities and Moore who gave me 9g93s, a Dalaran Cooking Award and a Small Spice Bag with 5 Northern Spices in it. Not a bad haul today.

I headed over to Wintergrasp after that to catch my 10 Terrorfish. That took forever, I didn't even get my first one until the 7th cast. Then I got one about every 4-5 casts after that. The mood I was in by the time I had my 5th one I was wishing some Horde would show up so I could take out my frustrations, but as usual the Horde are never there when you need them. I finally got my 10 and took them back to Marcia Chase. She gave me a Bag of Fishing Treasures with 6g69s44c, 5 Pygmy Oil, a Diamond-tipped Cane and 4 Deviate Fish in it. I certainly have had better returns...

The Need for a Good Leveling Guide – Let’s Hit on This One More Time

I have heard this argument so many times now I don’t know what to say to people anymore. I will bring up the need for a good leveling guide and like clockwork, the person I’m talking to will tell me that they don’t think it is “right” to use one – that it is cheating or that it is unfair to their fellow players.

I’m not going to knock on anyone that would rather complete a game alone than with a guide in hand, but I do have to say that a good leveling guide is a great way to enhance the enjoyment of a game without ruining anything. I like to use Extreme Leveling, a guide I recently discovered that has been instrumental in reducing my leveling time dramatically, as my example here.

1. You don’t have to use it all the time – The thing that many people feel is that having a guide means it must be used at all times. This is not the case. A leveling guide is a tool, much like your auctioneer add-on. You use it to enhance your experience and boost your effectiveness in a certain part of the game.

2. You are getting an unfair edge on other players – Well, yeah, but isn’t that the point? It’s not like you are a better player because you know where to go. A Leveling guide isn’t going to get you more loot or win you PvP matches. It just gets you through the slough of leveling faster so that you can enjoy the end-game sooner. What’s wrong with that?

3. The speed increase is negligible – I couldn’t disagree more. My first character in WoW took my 19 days to level up to Level 70. I didn’t play after hitting level 60 at all (I switched to an alt), so that is all time spent gathering XP. My most recent character leveled up with Extreme Leveling took me 7 days and 14 hours. I would say I’m doing a bit better.

These are just three of the most common arguments I hear. All I can say is that you should visit Extreme Leveling and read up on the newest guide for World of Warcraft – perhaps even partake of the free offer for the first 12 levels of the guide and then give judgment on whether you think leveling guides are a good thing or not.

Extreme Leveling