Cataclysm is this year, and several months after its initial announcement many of the broad details have become clear.

What seems clear is that the game – at lower levels at least – is going to be speeded up yet further.

On rolling a new character, you will notice that you are skilled in several weapons and armor types right from the off. Hunters will have skills in Bows and Guns, Rogues will be able to dual wield daggers.

This does not mean you will be more than zero proficiency, it just means that you will be able to use them.

Not that you\’ll be right at the start for long. Blizzard have hinted at double speed levelling for all. Though more recent postings have said this might just be a 50% increase.

The new levels between 80 and 85 will pose a different challenge. We are promised a whole new outlook on this. Each new level, we are promised, will be an \”event\” with new options, skills or unlocks available. Quite how this will be implemented,

Apparently each is to be a major milestone. With achievements and unlocks being made at each one. How this will work in practice we will have to wait and see, but at least it seems to be a positive step.

Although real detail is some months away, we can now be pretty sure that both mana and health regeneration are going to be upped. I have heard only one figure mentioned here. That\’s double speed regen. Alongside this, the \”rested\” stat will increase more quickly and give at least 66% more rested bonus (minimum of two and a half levels rested rather than the current one and a half)

Is it just me, or would this change the whole dynamic of levelling? Now I see it as a bonus to have double XP. The new system will reverse that and I will be loath to level with anything other than double XP.

This is probably Blizzards intention.

Most of the news regarding Cataclysm points to an increase of end game importance. Yes even more end game importance. Expect favourite old instances to be re-jigged, and many new ones added. For those who like the grind, levels 80-85 will bring a much needed difference to the usual hack and slash.

You can download free Warcraft guides from us. These are professional productions and cover levelling, gold making and professions. Free Warcraft Guides click here Alternatively, come and join our discussion. The Warcraft blog is preparing for Cataclysm and patch 4.0 Warcraft Blog Click here

Dugi\’s Ultimate World of Warcraft Guide is a top notch guide for WOW, which provides you the ability to level fast, get lots of gold, and improve your PVP abilities.

This page reviews the features of the Ultimate World of Warcraft Guide and provides information to assist you in deciding whether to use this guide to take your World of Warcraft play to the next level.

First, lets take a look at the many benefits of using this guide.

*The guide is delivered 100% in-game, which means all the information you need is provided within the game window, with no need to switch screens to view the contents of the guide.

*A talent guide comes included with the main guide.

*Quests for each class are also included in the guide.

*An instance guide is available for level 60-80 instances.

*The guide can be printed, although you will not have to do that since everything you need is conveniently displayed within the game.

*All leveling is done by completing quests, eliminating the need to grind endlessly.

*PVP tactics are included as part of an additional guide. *A gold guide is also included, with techniques to make up to 500 gold per hour.

*An arrow on your screen shows you the direction and distance to your next target.

To be objective, we also list some of the things we didn\’t like so much.

*There were some bugs in the guide.

*Some of the instructions were not as specific as we think they should have been. If you have a basic familiarity with the game, however, this will not be much of an issue.

Compared to the older guides that were provided as ebooks, the Ultimate WOW Guide is vastly superior. The combination of having in-game information along with arrows and map waypoints will greatly increase how fast you level in the game. Overall, we recommend this guide to anyone who wants to take their World of Warcraft game to the next level.

For more, visit our full review at the Ultimate WOW Guide Review page, where you can also get for free the first 20 levels of the guide

If you\’ve ever wondered where the best gold farming locations are for your character, this gold farming guide will show you the top spots for your level.

Despite what many people think, gold farming is not an activity that should be restricted to high level characters. It might be true that at higher levels, you will average more gold per hour, but sometimes low level characters need a way to make some quick gold to buy some much needed upgrades. It is therefore a good idea for any character, regardless of level, to consider gold farming as a means of acquiring gold.

Listed below are some popular gold farming spots.

Player Levels 12 – 20

Westfall – Coordinates: 32, 33 – Target the Defias Trappers here. They drop linen cloth and respawn as fast as you can kill them. Sell the cloth at auction houses. Depending on the server you can get as much as 1g per stack.

Skinning, Herbalism, and Mining – These are the best professions for lower level characters to make some quick gold. It doesn\’t matter if these professions fit in with your character, since you can change them later when your character is higher level. An hour going through Elwynn Forest is all that is required to get some good gold with these professions. The herbs or ore you collect can be sold at auctions houses for good prices.

Character Levels 40 – 60

Stranglethorn Vale – Coordinates: Around 44, 45 – Crystalvein Mines is a good place to kill mobs and sell their drops to vendors.

Tanaris – Coordinates: 72, 44 – Lost Rigger Cove is a place with lots of pirates you can kill for some nice drops and lots of mageweave and silk.

Character Levels 60 – 80

Winterspring – Coordinates: Around 52, 43 – The mobs near the lake drop decent silver and items you can sell.

Felwood – Coordinates: Around 41, 20 – Head over to Jadefire Run, kill the mobs, and sell the runecloth they drop at auction houses.

Eastern Plaguelands – Coordinates: 28, 85 – Mossflayer Zombies are what you should target here. They die pretty quickly, and drop a good amount of runecloth.

While this gold farming guide will help you find good spots for gold farming, it is not meant to be comprehensive. Serious gamers may want to consider gold guides for further tips on making gold.

Visit the following Gold Farming Guide page for more tips on farming for gold and recommended gold guides.

The very first WOW guides that came out some years ago were mostly books or ebooks, which provided good information but were a hassle to use, since players had to switch back and forth from the game screen to the ebook or online guide. Needless to say, this slowed down the use of the guide, defeating the purpose of the guide, which was supposed to help players level faster. Fortunately, the latest guides for WOW are a big improvement.

The newest game guides on the market today, also known as \”in-game guides,\” allow the player to view the guide instructions and tips within the game window. The guide often includes information such as which quest to do next, and where it is located. The best guides even include map waypoints and arrows directing the player to the next task at hand. Using these latest guides, World of Warcraft players are now able to power level at speeds that were previously unimaginable.

Upon doing some testing, we found that 2 guides proved to be much better than the rest, and we sill discuss these guides in detail on this page.

First, there is Zygor\’s Guide, an in-game guide that displays quests in a expandable window that gives you a quest order to follow and tracks progress automatically. In-game arrows direct you to the next area to go to, and the path and order of the quests are optimized to make the best use of your time. When using this guide, remember to get the largest bags you can afford because you will be gone from town for long stretches at a time as you knock off the quests. You will not find it unusual that every time you return to town, you will have 3 or 4 quests to turn in, if not more.

The second guide on our recommended list is Dugi\’s Ultimate WOW guide. In some ways it is very similar to Zygor\’s guide, and includes many of the same features such as the optimized questing path displayed in a window. Dugi\’s guide also has the in-game arrow directing you to the next spot. The guide includes some nice extras as well, such as a gold and pvp guide, however, we did find the guide to have some bugs compared to the Zygor guide.

A guide is by no means a necessity for playing World of Warcraft, but we found that good guides enhance the game experience instead of detracting for it. Many of the common hassles or frustrations associated with the game are removed completely, and you no longer are stuck wondering what to do next or where to find a certain mob. Moreover, for serious gamers, using a good guide allows one to move swiftly through quests and level at twice the pace you sould without a guide. In-game guides are certainly worth a try for World of Warcraft enthusiasts.

To get free trials of the above guides, visit the following Best WoW Guides page.

In general, there are two reasons people grind in World of Warcraft.

1. To make some gold. If you are considering grinding for gold, consider gold farming guides to help you determine the best locations.

2. To get experience. If leveling is your primary goal, using a WOW in-game leveling guide will usually allow you to level fastest, however, many people still prefer grinding since it is something they can do while watching TV, listening to music, or chatting with friends.

Although many players try to avoid grinding as they consider it to be boring and tedious, grinding can still play an important function in the game of World of Warcraft. AOE grinding, for instance, can be challenging, and delivers quite a bit of gold and experience fairly quickly. If you have decided to pursue grinding, you have come to the right place. This page provides tips and a guide to some good grinding locations. First, some quick tips:

1. Get the largest bags you can afford. The reason for this is obvious. Killing tons of mobs in a short amount of time means you need lots of space for the drops. Having ample bag space will save you extra trips to town.

2. Go to your options screen and set your loot options to auto-loot. This allows you to loot a corpse with a single click, and through the course of killing hundreds or even thousands of mobs, this will end up saving you a lot of time, and raise your grinding efficiency.

3. Get the skinning profession. Do not over look this, since many of the creatures you kill will be skinnable. Skinned goods sell for good gold at auction, so by not having this profession you will be forgoing a lot of gold. The only exception to this is if you have more than enough gold and want to grind for experience only.

Listed below are some of the popular grinding spots you should consider.

FOR LEVELS 12 – 20

Westfall

Darkshore

Loch Modan

PLAYER LEVELS 18 – 22

Redridge: Murloc Camp NE and across the lake from Lakeridge.

LEVELS 22 – 25

Duskwood: Kill wolves and spiders along the West and North.

FOR LEVELS 26 – 30

Wetlands: Dragonmaw Encampment

Wetlands: Whelgar\’s Excavation Site

Duskwood: Raven Hill Cemetary

Duskwood: Ogre Mound

PLAYER LEVELS 30 – 36

Shimmering Flats is a prime spot for grinding.

Stranglethorn Vale: Kurzen Encampment, as well as the area around Nesingwary\’s Expedition

Alterac Mountains: Crushridge Ogres

PLAYER LEVELS 36 – 40

Stranglethorn Vale: Lashtail Raptors

Arathi Highlands: Boulderfist Outpost

For a full list of grinding location for levels up to 80, check out the links in the resource box below.

For more on grinding, visit the Wow Grinding Guide page (levels 1- 40) and the Wow Grinding Spots page (levels 40-80)