About Joana's Guides / Manual

Helping players level quickly through WoW since 2006!

World Record fastest time through Vanilla WoW 1-60 in 4 days 20 hours

Usable for Classic WoW / ERA / SOM / WOTLK / Hardcore

Joana's Hardcore Leveling Guides are Here!
Unofficial hardcore has been a thing for quite awhile and now has also become official on August 24th 2023 with the launch of official Blizzard Hardcore servers.  All my leveling guides now have a Hardcore toggle on them, which will dynamically change a lot of things for Hardcore to help make your journey safer through the treacherous lands of Azeroth.

 

The wait is over, Joana's In-Game Addon Leveling Guides are here!  The in-game addon version of my leveling guides will make leveling easier than ever thanks to the ability to view the guide inside of the game.  My leveling addon is full of features, here is a few of them:

• Advanced Coordinate System - Joana's leveling addon utilizes the most advanced coordinate system used by any addon.  Dynamic waypoints will appear even if you go off track, this means you can wonder around aimlessly and the addon's coordinate system will keep you on track, continuing to show you the fastest way to your destination, just like a GPS system in a vehicle would do.  The addon is capable of knowing exactly where you are at in the game world and can show/hide content accordingly.
• Hover Tooltips - Hover tool tips for just about everything, including 3d models for NPCs and game objects.  Click on anything and you will get a link to wowhead.com for more info on that particular item/npc/spell/object, etc.
• Auto-advancements - The addon will automatically advance after completing things, no need to checkmark things off as you go.
• Fully Robust - The addon will show and hide boxes according to only what you should be seeing or doing at any given time.
• Quest Status Detections - For example the addon knows whether or not you completed a group quest will not tell you to turn it in if you didn't do it.  Or tell you to turn it in if you did it.
• Reputation Status Detection - The Addon can recognize your reputation status amongst all the factions. This will make the daily quests in Sholazar Basin and Dun Nifflelem efficient and streamlined.  And this will also come to play a lot in the 60-70 Outland guides with Aldor, Scryer, Cenarion Expedition, Sporeggar, etc.
• Quest Items Next to Boxes - Use of items are very important in WoW.  With my leveling addon we are fully committed to making sure quest items, or items in general are accessed easily with every function you need for them.  Quest items are nicely organized next to the box they pertain to, so you will know exactly what they are for.
• Target Buttons - Next to boxes, you will see target buttons for important NPCs that benefit from targeting.  These will light up when NPCs are within the game view for you and certain selected ones will even play a sound effect (of your choice) to let you know a mob is in your game view.
• Hotkeys - Quest items and target buttons are hotkeyable for easy access.
• Link Addon with WebGuides - The addon is easily linkable to the webguides.  This allows you to easily see follow-up quests, and see the whole guide at a glance..

- Go To My Speed Leveling Addons Page to Learn More! -

Guide Features

This is a list of new features since my original 1-60 Vanilla Leveling Guides:

• Hardcore Mode - Hardcore (Death = Delete) has become very popular in the Classic WoW community.  My leveling guides are fully compatible with Hardcore for both my webguides and leveling addon.  This will effectively take out all the death warps, along with warnings for quests or things that could potentially kill you.  Safer questing area recommendations will also be shown on my leveling addon.  A lot of quests that would be done on the normal route are simply taken out of the Hardcore route.  And for the unofficial hardcore toggle, it will effectively take out open world grouping, AH use, bank alts, and mailbox storage.
  
  

  

• Auto-adjusting XP Rates - My leveling guides will dynamically update the XP rates depending on if Joyous Journey is available or not.  Or if SoM happens again, the guides will dynamically update according to the XP rates they pertain to.
  
  

  

• Reworked For All Classes - My leveling guides are no longer just tailored to hunters.  I have spent a lot of time reworking my guide so it is usable for ALL classes.  I've done this by listing quests that can be skipped for tough elites, that cannot be soloed by certain classes and telling them they can solo that elite later in the guide once they are a higher level.  And a lot of sections have been reworked so harder quests are done later on without losing time.  Most all class quests have been implemented into my guides along with tip/tricks for specific character classes.  Also I tell all character classes when to get new spells/abilities at the best possible times.
  
  

  

• Duo Leveling Friendly - I have put in a lot of effort to make my leveling guides duo leveling friendly, including quests that requires 2 or even 3 players.  These are labeled throughout my guides as GROUP and how many players it will take to do the quest.  I have recently been getting good reports from duo levelers saying my leveling guides worked great for them in this regard.
  
  

  

• Inventory Management - My guides now tell players to bank many items throughout the guide (mostly quest items) to help you free up bag space.  I tell players when to put an item in the bank and when to take them out.  Bag space is very valuable in Classic WoW.  Having quest items remain in your inventory for long periods of time is damaging.  Some quest items never disappear and some are not even used at all and can be destroyed.  This new feature will help you gain more gold and be more efficient.
  
  

  

• IMPROVED ROUTES - I am constantly going through these guides again and again.  Each time I am constantly trying to find faster methods for everything.  For example, recently the level 21 Horde Ashenvale section has been removed for all classes except Shamans and Hunters not playing on WotLK.  Every small detail is taken into consideration!  Many small improvements everywhere and I include many new hidden shortcuts in the game world to reduce travel time.
  
  

  

• Argent Dawn Turn-Ins - The guides now include all the quick and easy turn-ins for Light's Hope Chapel in EPL from The Argent Dawn.  This is a good chunk of easy and quick XP that my previous guides never mentioned.  Please note that this becomes available for versions of WoW running Phase 4+.
  
  

  

More about this guide
The leveling guides on my site are essentially speed leveling guides.  My leveling guides are the same guides I use myself to speedrun to 60 on new servers.  I list many occasions where I tell the player to "die on purpose" to go faster.  I tell the player to skip certain quests, because some quests are just not worth the time/XP.  I list tricks and shortcuts to go faster so you can reach level 60 much quicker.  I am still constantly going through them over and over again perfecting the guides to make them faster and easier to follow.  For the most part, the guide can be followed without the need from other player's help, as the whole guide was made from a solo run anyways.  Although I do list quests that can optionally be done if you have a group.  My leveling guides also work great for duo leveling.

Virtually Everything is covered
My leveling guides cover everything classic WoW:  all classes, all races, all starting areas, all game versions, all game phases, hardcore, normal, class quests, class tips, open world grouping (2+ Player group quests), all XP modifiers (joyous journey and SoM).  The only thing that is not covered is dungeons.

 

Purchase a membership
A membership to Joanas World is only $5.95 USD a month (with one-time purchase options) and will grant you access to all of Joana's leveling guides, which includes the following:
 

• 12-60 Azeroth - Usable for any version of classic WoW: Era, SoM, WotLK or Hardcore.  Note that the 1-12 is free on the site/addon.
• 60-70 Outland - Also contains 12-20 Bloodmyst Isle and 12-20 Ghostlands.
• 70-80 Northrend - Also contains Death Knight leveling guide.
• Hardcore toggle is included with all products.
• Access to all continuous updates as time goes on.

Purchase Options on Homepage

About Joana

The Horde leveling guide you see on this site was originally made back in 2006 by Joana (AKA Mancow, or FuriousPaul).  It was the first ever leveling guide ever created for WoW.  The guides have been tweaked many times over the years to make things "faster" and more efficient.  The leveling guides were made because of all the messages I got from people asking me how I was able to level up so quickly on new realms.  I was first to level 60 on 7 different realms (3 with Mancow and 4 with Joana), even winning Blizzard's "First to Level 50" contest they held back in 2006.

I am a video game speedrunner.  My true gamer name is FuriousPaul, while Joana is the name of my WoW character.  I will stick with Joana for all my WoW stuff.  I have speedrun many other games in my history and even competed in the Games Done Quick events numerous times.  Speedrunning games is the passion of my life.  I also enjoy making strategy guides for games, so making speed leveling guides for WoW has been a pleasure!

Do I stream?
Yes I stream on Twitch!  I joined twitch in 2013 with the gamer name of FuriousPaul and I streamed speedruns of the classic Castlevania games full time from 2013 - 2017.  My streams are about 95% WoW now.  My channel is now twitch.tv/Joana.  Lately my twitch stream runs 24/7.  When im not streaming live playthroughs of WoW, my twitch channel will play reruns of my 2006 WR 1-60 run I did in Vanilla WoW, or other various WoW reruns of my gameplay.  You can also catch me streaming the testing/programming of my leveling guides through out the day.  I do stream other random things on occasion to mix things up and to give me a break from making leveling guides when I feel like it.  So give me a follow on twitch, you may catch me live on occasion!

Manual / Before Using the Guides, Read This:

Before reading the guide, it's recommended that you view my speed leveling Tips/Tricks page first to know basic tips on how to level up faster.

Quest Log Management
Through out the game in Classic (vanilla) WoW, the quest log will be capped to 20 many times.  The guide makes use of maximizing the total amount of quests you can accept at once.  Because of this it's important to follow the guide exactly and only accept quests if the guide tells you to so you won't run into issues not being able to accept a quest.  If you do accept a quest that is not listed in the guide, write it down because you may need to abandon it in order to keep following the guide if your quest log is full.

Please note that starting in TBC the quest log got raised to 25 slots, so this will make the guide easier to follow dealing with extra quests you may have.

Understand the Guide Terminology
To help you better understand the terminology in the guide and allow you to follow it more effectively it is important to understand what it means when the guide says the following:

• Do - This means to do a quest and to finish it entirely before moving on.
• Do part of - This means to only do a certain portion of a quest according to what the step says to do.
• Start working on - This means to simply start working on a quest, but you don't have to finish it yet and you can move on to the next steps.  This usually means to kill certain mobs while on your way to the next step(s).  These quests are colored light blue on addon.
• Continue working on - This means you were previously working on a quest and the guide is telling you to continue working on it but you do not have to finish it before moving on to the next step.  This is similar to "start working on".
• Finish - This means you were previously working on a quest and the guide is telling you to complete the quest before moving on to the next step.  This is similar to "do".
•  ":"  -  Any time a step ends in a ":" instead of a "." means that the next step is part of the current step you are on.  This generally means the next step should be done while working on the current step.  This means every "start working on" or "continue working on" will end in a ":".  But this is used with other occasions as well, so keep this in mind.

Note about Escort Quests
Escort quests can take awhile to do.  I have thoroughly tested all the escort quests in the game for time/xp.  Most are worth doing, but as long as you are able to actually do them without failing.  Most require you to pay special attention to the escortee as most are fragile and will die easily, so do your best to keep mobs off of the escortee during escort quests.  The longest one in the game is the Tanaris chicken escort.  The chicken escorts are only worth doing if you were able to do all 3 of them, as if you do, you will be able to turn in an additional easy quick XP turn in quest at BB, which makes them worth it.

Also if the escort is not there when the guide tells you to do the escort means that someone else is currently doing the escort and you would have to wait until the other player is finished first.  In this case, I recommend skipping it and moving on with the guide and consider coming back to do the escort if its on the way.

Making bandages during an escort is a good way to save time building up First Aid.  Also turning on friendly nameplates during escort quests is a good thing to do.  Being able to see the escortee's health at all times can help you understand how to keep them alive better along with you being able to see where they are at all times.

Skipped Quests
Some quests in my guide are marked as "SKIP" and colored in red.  These quests are simply either too hard to solo or not worth the XP/time and are skipped.  My guide will only list SKIPPED quests if the quest is a direct follow up after completing a quest, not one that you have to click the NPC again to get it.  If you hover over the skipped quests, it will give info on why it is skipped in the guide (unless that info is already listed directly in the guide text).

Waypoint Arrows
A new feature I started added in my webguides as of 4-9-21 is clickable coordinate buttons that look like this:  34.42

When you see these buttons simply click on them to copy a coordinate to your clipboard, then inside the game press CTRL-V to paste it into your chat.  This will bring up an arrow inside the game to direct you where to go.  You will need the TomTom addon in order for this to work.

Videos
Currently, all videos on my web-guides are linked to my 1-60 speedrun that was done back in 2006 on the official Blizzard vanilla WoW realm Jubei'thos (patch 1.9.2).  The video is known as the only fully recorded 1-60 speedrun of vanilla WoW and the fastest known time done in 4 days 20 hours played time and first level 60 on the realm.

Get Speed Leveling Addons
Addons can make leveling more efficient and easier.  Check out a list of speed leveling addons I recommend here.

Important Items to Obtain

Keep an eye out in the AH through out the 1-60 game for these items:

Purchase these items when you find them with your Bank/AH alt, then send them to your main so you can use these items to level faster.   Please note that my guide will tell you when to get these items out of your bank.

Horde & Alliance:

• Swim Speed Potions (used especially at lvl 37 for Faldir's Cove in Arathi Highlands and lvl 57 in WPL).  Try to get multiple stacks of these.  I also recommend keeping a stack of these always in your bags.  You will frequently pass rivers and lakes and can use these potions to pass them faster through out the guide.  Please note that these potions do not stack with Druid's Aquatic Form and Glyph of Aquatic Form.
• Moonsteel Broadsword (used at level 38 Dustwallow Marsh).
• Frost Oil (used at level 41, Badlands).
• Gyrochronatom (used at level 41, Badlands).  The Alliance has several NPCs they can purchase this from and my guide does tell players to see if this can be purchased through out the guide.
• IF you were able to get the previous 2 items (for the Badlands), then also try to get a Healing Potion and a Lesser Invisibility Potion along with a Patterned Bronze Bracers.  These are also used in the Badlands at level 40.
• 9 Blue Pearls (used at level 41 Badlands for quest).  This item can be farmed under The Vile Reef sea in STV.
• A 15 stack of Silk Cloth used for level 48 Searing Gorge.
• Mithril Casing (used for a quest at level 51 Un'goro Crater).
• There is a quest in Eastern Plaguelands at level 56 that wants these items:  2 Thorium Bar, Golden Rod, 8 Hi-Explosive Bomb, 8 Unstable Trigger.

Horde Only:

• Elixer of Water Breathing or Elixir of Greater Water Breathing (for level 33, Desolace and 36, STV).  Try to get a stack of these.  Undead, Warlocks or Shamans will not need these thanks to their given under water breathing abilities.

Alliance Only:

• Bronze Tube (used at level 28 Duskwood) for this quest.  If you cant purchase this from the AH, there are various venders my guide will have you check to see if they are selling them.  This item can be hard to obtain so keep checking the AH and the engineering vendors often until you get one!
• Hillman's Cloak and Bolt of Woolen Cloth (used at level 31 Hillsbrad Foothills) for this quest.
• 4 Lesser Bloodstone Ore (used at level 35 STV, or 42 STV) for this quest.  If you pick up mining you can also mine this item during the guide.
• 2 Elixir of Fortitude for a quest at level 49 Tanaris.  Please note that you will get one of these by doing the escort quest at lvl 39 in Dustwallow.

Light's Hope Chapel (lvl 59) Turn-Ins (Phase 5+ only):

My guide makes getting friendly with The Argent Dawn mandatory.  There is multiple reasons for this.  One is so you can purchase Enriched Manna Biscuits, and two so you can accept a handful of easy quest turn-ins at Light's Hope Chapel at level 59 that you will be able to start obtaining the items for in the late 40s.  These items & quests are:

• 30 Savage Fronds for "Savage Flora":  These are obtained from the Bloodpetel mobs in Un'Goro Crater (lvl 51-52).
• 30 Dark Iron Scraps for "Binding the Dreadnaught": obtained from Dark Iron dwarves in Searing Gorge (lvl 47) and from the Ogres in Burning Steppes (lvl 53).
• 30 Core of Elements for "The Elemental Equation": obtained by many different elementals, such as fire elementals in Un'Goro Crater (lvl 52), water elementals in Eastern Plaguelands (lvl 57) and wind elementals in Silithus (lvl 58).
• 30 Crypt Fiend Parts for "Cryptstalker Armor Doesn't Make Itself...": obtained from Crypt Fiend mobs in Eastern Plaguelands (mostly at Terrordale) at lvl 57.
• 30 Bone Fragments for "Bonescythe Digs": obtained from undead mobs in both E. & W. Plaguelands (lvl 57-58).

You can purchase these items from the AH too, but I really only recommend seeing if you can get some extra Crypt Fiend Parts, Savage Fronds and Core of Elements from the AH, as the others can easily be grinded out during the guide.

My step-by-step guide will remind you to get these items, when to put them into your bank and when to finally get these items out of your bank at the end of the 58 Silithus section to turn them all in at once.

Death Knight Abilites/Prep

 

- Submit Guide Bug (or Suggestions) -