Joana's 1-70 Horde Leveling Guide

A dedicated gamer and power leveler, Joana has been the first to 60 on 6 different servers, not only beating his competition, but outright embarassing them. With a record time of 4 days 20 hours to level 60, he is, as far as I know, the world’s best Warcraft speed runner. Joana’s 1-70 Horde Leveling Guide shows you, step by step, exactly what route he took through the game to get this time. Speed-run times to level 70 aren't currently known, as Joana is still testing different paths to see how fast he can make it. Although there is a very nice Outland section already included with the guide.

I found Joana's guide to be easy to understand and to duplicate. The step-by-step instructions actually proved to be more helpful than I imagined they would be at first. For example, if you’ve ever found yourself leveling in The Barrens you’ll know how big that zone is. You can spend hours just running around to all points of it, doing quests haphazardly. Believe me, I've done it. But Joana's guide gives you the exact path you should take to minimize time spent. Here's a sample page from the guide, showing you the path through Stonetalon Mountains. Click on it for a larger image.

As you can see, all the printed directions are enhanced by a map highlighting the exact course you need to take. Joana's guide tells you when you should....

• Accept quests.

• Do quests.

• Wait to do them because a quest you'll receive later will take you into the same area.

• Turn quests in because you'll be running past the quest giver.

• Get a flight path.

• Make an inn your new home.

It even gives you strategic times to hearth, buy a mount, and my favorite -- when to strategically die on purpose to get closer to town when your hearthstone is recharging.

I enjoyed having all the quests that I did already conveniently linked to either Thottbot or Allakhazam. This saved me some time when looking for information, even though I hardly ever had to look anything up as the maps included are very clear, and exact coordinates are given for hard to find locations.  

Also very helpful, and something you Hunters out there will especially want to look at first,  there’s a section at the end with a list of tips for faster leveling. It includes additional Hunter specific tips, as Joana knows that class the most intimately.

Outland

The additions to this guide as a result of The Burning Crusade are coming along nicely. For the first few weeks after the expansion, there was little more than a general path through Outland to get to 70. I found this to be helpful on its own, but it wasn't the point-by-point, no thinking involved instruction I'd gotten used to from Joana. 

At the time of this writing, I see that Joana has upgraded from a system of having users download bulk guide updates, to letting users log into a website where the guide is updated constantly. Joana seems to be rapidly adding more detailed information to the 60-70 area, and it's starting to catch up to the rest of the guide.

Also, for those of you who want to start all over again with a Blood Elf, there is a very nice addition detailing the best way to make it through Eversong Woods and the Ghostlands.

Conclusion

Can you get to 60 in under 5 days by following this guide? That depends on you. Joana is an accomplished speed runner, and a time that good is  very difficult to achieve. It requires no Battlegrounds, no chatting with friends, no sightseeing, no AFK, etc. The average player should be able to achieve around 8 days /played time 1-60 by following this guide. Average time to 70 isn't known yet.