Mobmap – Powerful Ingame Database

I’ve long thought the main strength of World of Warcraft’s game design lies in its ability to be easily customized. The numerous and varied addons that have been created over the past 3 years attest to this.

I have already covered Cartographer and Lightheaded in the Addon section and now I would like to introduce another resource I use that I have found to be very helpful in speeding up the leveling grind.

Mobmap is an in-game database of quests and items, similar in spirit to Cartographer QuestObjectives. The main difference is that MobMap is not simply a database file that displays icons on your map – it is a fully-searchable database similar to Wowhead available to you in-game.

The main download for Mobmap is an executable file (a separate program) that runs similar to Wowecon, meaning you run a small program to upload and download database information. This of course represents a security risk, though as of this writing the software is legitimate. If you don’t want to take this risk, you can also download the addon and current database and manually install them. I believe the trade-off is that the information won’t be quite as current. The manual install link is at the bottom of the MobMap page.

But which ever path you choose to install the addon you will not be disappointed with the result. The database is much like having a Thottbot or Wowhead database available to you in-game and integrated into your quest log so you can easily find information and locations.

Mobmap is divided into the following categories which you can search:

• Mobs/NPCs – a list of all the quest-related mobs and NPCs the database has picked up so far (most or all of them) along with their locations.
• Quests – A list of all the quests picked up by the database (again, most if not all the quests in the game).
• Merchants – all the NPC merchants in the game and what they sell.
  Recipes – all the recipes in the game along with their skill requirement and materials needed for each one.
• Drop Chances – A list of various items in the game along with who they drop from and the chance the item will drop. This can also be displayed as a list of bosses, showing what each drops and the chances he/she will actually drop it.
• Pickups – a list of all the items you find throughout the game that are not looted from a dead mob. This is actually a pretty solid resource for finding ore and herb nodes.
• Quest Events – A comprehensive list of actions taken to complete quests. You can search for the action (example: Peons Awoken) and it will show you the location(s) where the action is taken on your map.

So how it works in the game:

There are three ways to access the database in the game: mini-map icon, quest tracker and the quest log. The mini-button is located on the ring of your mini-map and ? buttons will appear next to the objectives in your quest log and tracker.

Clicking a button next to a quest objective will bring up the MobMap database with the value for that objective already filled in. It will also open your map and flash the relevant locations so you know exactly where to go. The location markers will stay on your map until you choose a different objective, so you can always close your map and look at it again later.

It works the the same basic way if you are looking up non-quest-related information like recipes or epic drops. You can type in the name of what you are looking for, or simply click through the lists.

This simple addon will make your life in WoW sooo much easier. It will help with a lot more than simply finding quests and their objectives. Of course, it won’t tell you the fastest order to complete those quests, for that you need a walkthrough like the Elite WoW 1-70 Guide. Following that will definitely make the levels fly and you help get you into epics in no time.

First Posted on: August 23rd, 2008 by Fortuente 2 Comments »

Tags: Addons

Midsummer Festival Questing for XP

I recently wrote a guide for The Best WoW Gold Guide detailing how you can make nearly 600 gold at level 70 by completing all the Midsummer Festival bonfire quests. About halfway through it I realized that this is a great way for under-70 players to take a break from the slaughter of leveling to make some solid xp. At least until July 4, when the festival packs up its bags until next year.

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First Posted on: June 28th, 2008 by Fortuente No Comments »

Tags: Questing

Cartographer – The Ultimate Questing Addon

If you are sick and tired of trying to keep track of all the thousands of quests you need to run to reach level 70, then I have an awesome bit of information for you: you can use the WoW addon Cartographer to increase your leveling speed by a huge factor! This has to be one of the best kept “open” secrets in all of World of Warcraft.

Cartographer is a tool that allows you to display information about WoW directly to your in-game map and minimap. Addons like this are famously used to track profession nodes such as ore veins or herb nodes. Cartographer allows addon developers to create plugins to feed it whatever information they please to your in-game map, and because of this two projects were born that we are now interested in: Cartographer Quests and Cartographer QuestObjectives.

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First Posted on: July 11th, 2007 by Fortuente 15 Comments »

Tags: Addons | Power Leveling | Questing

Original Joana’s Guide Videos – Levels 1-60

Beginning originally as a post on the WoW community forums in response to a power-leveling contest, Joana/Mancow illuminated the WoW community how he was able to quickly level from 1-60 in only 4 days, 20 hours /played. Since then Joana’s Guide for leveling Horde characters has become Read the rest of this entry »

First Posted on: July 1st, 2007 by Fortuente 11 Comments »

Tags: Levels 30-39 | Levels 50-59 | Power Leveling | Questing

Shadowmoon NPC Helps You Grind Out 64-67

NERFED:

Well, this sucks! The Domesticated Hellboars have indeed been nerfed and now no longer give XP or drops. I wouldn’t have figured this strategy would get nerfed since it isn’t the absolute best way to level. In Outlands questing is definitely the way to go, but little tips like this help break up the quest grind and are fun for those of us who actually enjoy the grind once in a while. Perhaps it was the botters that got this nerfed – if I were going to level by botting this is one spot I would have definitely camped. Thanks to commenter Trax for the heads up!

First Posted on: June 15th, 2007 by Fortuente 8 Comments »

Tags: Grinding Spots | Nerfed | Power Leveling

Grinding Satyrs in Azshara, Levels 51-54

An awesome place to grind out levels 51-54 is in central Azshara (Wowhead | WowWiki) near the Legashi Compound (61,23). Here there are a large group of satyr that go down easy and respawn quickly. And best of all, they also drop Felcloth, so you stand to make quite a bit of extra gold grinding here. If you are a tailor this is a must-grind spot.

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First Posted on: June 7th, 2007 by Fortuente No Comments »

Tags: Grinding Spots | Levels 50-59 | Power Leveling

Best Spot to Grind Experience in Outland – Level 67+

So by now you know the easiest way to grind in World of Warcraft is to focus on yellow passive mobs as much as possible while leveling. They don’t have aggro, so you don’t need to worry about adds. In fact you can sit and rest right in the midst of a group of them without worry for your safety.

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First Posted on: June 4th, 2007 by Fortuente 13 Comments »

Tags: Grinding Spots | Levels 60-70 | Power Leveling | Questing

LightHeaded – Access Wowhead Comments Ingame

One of the greatest aspects of World of Warcraft is the ability of players to create and use special Addons in the game. These allow players to enhance WoW in a variety of ways, including the ability to change everything from the cosmetic look and layout of the user interface to the ability to gather data on everyone logged into your realm.

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First Posted on: June 1st, 2007 by Fortuente 5 Comments »

Tags: Addons | Questing

More and More Turtle Grinding, Levels 42-47

If you know me, you know there is one mob I love to grind in World of Warcraft more than any other – no, it’s not ogres, but they are good also – I love to grind turtles. What is there not to like about grinding turtles? They generally have high hit points, but not much damage. They go down in a satisfying way: not overly quickly, but very easy. And best of all, because the bulk of turtles in the game are yellow (non-aggroable), you never have to worry about adds. And that, my friend, will save you many wasted minutes and corpse runs.

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First Posted on: May 27th, 2007 by Fortuente 1 Comment »

Tags: Grinding Spots | Levels 40-49 | Power Leveling

Grinding Turtles in Alterac, Levels 29-32

What better way to escape from the tedium of your desk job in the Stormwind Library than by wreaking havoc upon the turtle populations of the Alterac Mountains? Not many, really. Unless you’re really into brooding Nelfs looking to cyber at the Goldshire Inn (shudder).

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First Posted on: May 25th, 2007 by Fortuente No Comments »

Tags: Grinding Spots | Levels 30-39 | Power Leveling

Ogre Grinding and More in Badlands, Levels 40-45

An easy place to level quickly is the south-westernmost corner of the Badlands. There you will find ogres. Lots of them. The reason I like ogres is because they tend to go down easy. This isn’t always the case (such as the elite ogres in Loch Modan), but as a whole I’d say they’re one of my most-grinded types of mob.

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First Posted on: May 23rd, 2007 by Fortuente 2 Comments »

Tags: Grinding Spots | Levels 40-49 | Power Leveling

Best Grinding for Gold and XP, Levels 36-40

The best spot for leveling between levels 36-40 is in the rock elemental area just east of Kargath in the Badlands (around 15,37). Because of its proximity to Kargath, a Horde outpost, I would say this is a better spot for Horde than for Alliance. However on RP and PVE servers this point is moot (so grind away Nelf hunters), and I have grinded (no, not ground, lol) this area in relative peace on PVP and RP-PVP realms, as well (that includes ganking as well as getting ganked – I must have been feeling generous).

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First Posted on: May 21st, 2007 by Fortuente 5 Comments »

Tags: Grinding Spots | Levels 30-39 | Power Leveling | Professions

Shimmering Flats – THE Best Grind Spot, Levels 30-36

To be perfectly honest, I don’t know if this really is THE best spot – Stranglethorn is a great area also. But I do know that Shimmering Flats is the spot I have grinded almost exclusively for these levels for EVERY character I have ever made in WoW, Horde or Alliance.

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First Posted on: May 16th, 2007 by Fortuente 2 Comments »

Tags: Grinding Spots | Levels 30-39

Thistleshrub Valley – Good Grinding Levels 47-51

A good place to grind out levels 47-51 in relative quiet is Thistleshrub Valley in southwest Tanaris around the entrance to Un’goro Crater.

Thistleshrub Dew Collectors, Gnarled Thistleshrubs and Thistleshrub Rootshapers all call this area home. They go down easy and respawn fast – the two main requirements for a successful grinding spot. If you happen to be the only person in this area you will likely never run out of mobs, but since this area is fairly large it could easily accommodate six people. As an added bonus for non-aoe classes they are well spread out, meaning you should never have to fight more than two at a time.

The Dew Collectors also drop (.5% rate) those elusive Ghost Mushrooms, which can be a sold on the auction house for a decent amount to alchemists.

Grinding this spot will also get you good and ready to tackle Un’Goro Crater, one of the best general grinding zones at this stage of the game for skinners. Overall, though, if you are Horde I recommend Revantusk Village in the Hinterlands over this area.

First Posted on: May 11th, 2007 by Fortuente 1 Comment »

Tags: Grinding Spots | Levels 40-49

Efficient Grinding in WoW

There has been a debate going on since the World of Warcraft beta first hit the Internet: Grinding or Questing?

For whatever reason (most likely learned habits picked up from earlier MMORPGs like Everquest and Asheron’s Call) most believed that Grinding is the most effective way to level your character.

Then along came Mancow (Joana) who was a vocal proponent of Questing as the fastest means of leveling, and he actually produced video to prove it during a Blizzard-endorsed power-leveling competition on the WoW Community Forums (these videos later became the foundation for Joana’s Horde Leveling Guide).

There are those now who claim that Questing is indeed the fastest way to level … until you reach level 35, and then grind grind grind.

So how to most effectively grind when the time comes that you must? I recently saw a great blog post on how to most effectively manage your grinding time at WoW Gold For Sale. The author runs through a comprehensive list of good grinding practices and – here’s the gem – gives specific grinding tips for each class. Sweet.

To me, I think the truth about how to most quickly level your character lies somewhere in between. I’m not sure how anyone can deny the importance of questing (it’s like free xp), but there are times when you simply cannot solo or even duo certain quests and are forced to wait until you are higher in level to complete them; it is times like this when you must turn to some good solid grinding to get that bump to the next level.

One final thing to remember about grinding: when grinding you should take your cue from a concept spawned by Starcraft: APS, or ACTIONS PER SECOND. Essentially it means that victory will always go to those who perform the most actions every second – in our case the quicker you are able to bag-and-tag the mobs you are grinding, the quicker you will level. Period.

First Posted on: May 4th, 2007 by Fortuente No Comments »

Tags: Grinding Spots | Power Leveling

Alchemy 1-300 Guide

Ah, Alchemy. It was the profession I chose for my very first WoW character back in January 2005. I can still remember the frustration of trying to figure out how the heck to best level my alchemy skill. I wasted a lot of time and gold on it, but even back then I knew it was an awesome skill so I determined to figure out the easiest way to level it.

To begin with you’re going to need some herb, and I don’t mean the kind your brother-in-law sells in plastic baggies. You can either be an herbalist and farm it or you can buy it all from the auction house. Even farming, though, you will still need to spend gold on vials and training costs.

The amount of gold needed is approximately 40 to 50 gold if you farm all of the herbs. If you want to buy everything you need from the auction house expect to spend ALOT. And expect that the herbs you need will not always be there. Because of this I recommend taking the Herbalism skill if you want to be an alchemist.

These are the herbs you will need total to go from 0-300 skill points:

• Peacebloom – 60 (3 stacks)
• Silverleaf – 60 (3 stacks)
• Mageroyal – 20 (1 stacks)
• Briarthorn – 90 (5 stacks)
• Stranglekelp – 50 (3 stacks)
• Bruiseweed – 35 (2 stacks)
• Wild Steelbloom – 10 (1 stacks)
• Kingsblood – 40 (2 stacks)
• Liferoot – 40 (2 stacks)
• Goldthorn – 50 (2 stacks)
• Khadgar’s Whisker – 20 (1 stacks)
• Sungrass – 70 (4 stacks)
• Blindweed – 35 (2 stacks)
• Arthas’ Tears – 25 (2 stacks)
• Golden Sansam – 60 (3 stacks)
• Mountain Silversage – 30 (2 stacks)

Skill Points: 1 to 50
Make 60 minor healing potions. You need 55 skill points for the next step; don’t worry if the minor healing pots don’t get you to 60 skill. Make sure to keep the minor healing potions, however, as you will need them later.

Once you hit 50 talk to the appropriate trainer to become Journeyman Alchemist. You have to be level 10 to become Journeyman Alchemist.

Skill Points: 50 to 125
The minor healing potions made earlier are a component of lesser healing potions. You now want to use them to make lesser healing potions to get to 110 skill points. If you don’t reach 110, make elixirs of wisdom until you do.

At 110 train the healing potion recipe; make those until you hit 125 skill points. Then talk to the appropriate trainer to become Expert Alchemist. You have to be level 20 to become Expert Alchemist.

Skill Points: 125 to 200
Continue making healing potions until you reach 140 skill points. Then make lesser mana potions to get to 155, greater healing potions to get to 185 and elixirs of agility to get to 200.

Once you reach 200 skill points talk to the appropriate trainer to become Artisan Alchemist. You have to be level 35 to become Artisan Alchemist.

Skill Points: 200 to 265
Make some more elixirs of agility to get to 210. Make elixirs of greater defense until 215 and then make superior healing potions until 230. Make elixirs of detect undead to get to 250 and elixir of greater agility to get to 265.

Skill Points: 265 to 300
Although you can get to 300 using the elixir of detect demon recipe, the gromsblood needed is expensive when bought from the auction house. If you are an herbalist and are able to farm the gromsblood, price won’t matter and the elixir of demon detect may be the way to go. Otherwise you should use vendor-obtained recipe’s to get from 265 to 300 skill points.

The easiest recipes to use for training are superior mana potions to get to 285 skill points and major healing potions to get to 300. You can obtain the superior mana potion recipe from Ulthir in Darnassus or Algernon in Undercity and the major healing potion recipe from Evie Whirlbrew in Everlook.

For a complete listing of all Horde and Alliance Alchemy profession trainers, check this Allakhazam guide.

I also highly recommend using the Gatherer mod, which will allow you to track all the herb nodes you encounter and then display them on your map.

First Posted on: May 2nd, 2007 by Fortuente No Comments »

Tags: Professions

Fast Leveling Spot, Levels 19-23

This spot is located at a small hill (51,33) crawling with Pridewing Wyverns in the middle of the Stonetalon Mountains north of Sunrock Retreat and on the southern shore of the lake. It’s on the left side of the main road as your heading north.

The wyverns have a very high respawn rate, at level 24 (a bit too high for effective grinding here, but I was on a quest) I was still able to pull about 7,000-8,000 non-rested xp/hour … competing with FOUR other people on the same hill. If I recall it was a paladin, 2 hunters and a mage. So it stands to reason that if you are level 21 (probably the level at which you will gain optimal xp/hour for this hill) and you have the hill to yourself, you will be pulling down a lot more experience.

First Posted on: April 30th, 2007 by Fortuente 5 Comments »

Tags: Grinding Spots | Levels 20-29

How to Power Level Like the Pros

Have you ever had trouble power leveling yourself or friends in World of Warcraft? I have, and I think there still is a popular misconception that power leveling in WoW is pointless. Given how relatively easy (albeit boring) it is to solo level yourself, it’s not hard to see how such a misconception could persist.

However, World of Warcraft power leveling is alive and well. In fact, if some forum posts I’ve read are any indicator, it may be (or may used to have been) one of the main methods pay-for-leveling services employ at higher levels. So how do you do it?

To get experience for a kill you must “tag” it, meaning be the first to do damage to it. Then no matter who does damage to the mob, you will get credit for the kill. However, if a character who could not otherwise receive experience damages the mob your experience reward will decrease significantly.

So to power level in World of Warcraft you must have an ungrouped companion within experience range of the mob; optimally the mob will be green (almost but not yet gray) to your companion. Now when you tag the mob and your companion finishes it off, you will get 100% experience for the kill.

Using this technique with a friend or guildmate, you can solo mobs three levels higher than you for the sweet xp they give. And you can do it fast. Better yet, bring along two friends – as long as the mob is at least green to them and you tag it first you will still get the full amount of experience points. Don’t you love World of Warcraft?

To read more about how to use this power leveling technique, look at the WoWWiki entry on Mob XP.

You can get other good powerleveling strategies in Elite WoW 1-70 Guide. It has a complete and detailed set of guides that aim to be the best complete WoW leveling guide for Horde and Alliance.

First Posted on: April 23rd, 2007 by Fortuente No Comments »

Tags: Power Leveling

Ridiculously Easy Grind Spot, Horde Levels 48-51

The best place to grind out levels 48-51 for Horde in World of Warcraft is located along the coastline of the Hinterlands right next to Revantusk Village. You will be grinding Saltwater Snapjaws, a non-aggressive mob that goes down very easily. If you find yourself alone there you can easily achieve a 20,000 exp/hour rate or more. Because there are so many of these mobs there it will also accomodate three, maybe even four players grinding with little or no interruption.

This spot is also especially nice if you are a skinner, as you can make a killing from skinning these turtles. Another bonus: because it is on the far end of the map and right next to a Horde outpost, those playing on the World of Warcraft PVP realms will not have to worry so much about getting ganked.

Grinding really isn’t the most effective way to level your character, however. Questing is by far the way to go, and IMO Dugi’s Ultimate WoW Guide has the best questing guide you can get. It has a custom addon for quest tracking that is updated for Wrath of the Lich King and everything.

First Posted on: April 21st, 2007 by Fortuente 4 Comments »

Tags: Grinding Spots | Levels 40-49 | Levels 50-59

Free Teleports to Major Cities = Fast Quest Leveling

I wrote this post for The Best WoW Gold Guide and looking back over it, I realized it has a lot of use for people who are grinding experience to level their Horde or Alliance characters. It cuts down on time in the “green questing” strategy by ALOT.

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First Posted on: April 15th, 2007 by Fortuente No Comments »

Tags: Questing