Darkshore Leveling Guide

I've really enjoyed the newly revamped early level (sub-60) zones for World of Warcraft that have been introduced with the Cataclysm expansion. Having previously written a leveling guide for a Northrend zone long after most people would have leveled past it, I've decided to write some leveling guides for the low-level zones that I enjoyed with my hunter, Jahger.

The leveling guides I'm writing and have read should probably be called questing guides or zone guides, as they are just a step-by-step guide to completing all the quests in a specific zone in the most efficient manner. Discovering all the quests (from sources such as Wowhead), their inter-dependencies and then optimizing the route to accomplish them all is a fun challenge. But after that is a lot of hard work - testing the route, writing it all down in a clear step-by-step way, creating the maps, retesting... overall I've run the Darkshore zone 5 times and can now reconstruct the optimal route from memory :P

The end result, my first completed guide for Cataclysm, is the Darkshore Leveling Guide for Alliance characters from level 10-20 and is part of the excellent collection of free leveling guides available on WoW-Pro.

Although the guide caters for the possibility that you're a first time player, I personally would recommend only using it when you're trying to level your umpteenth alt character to max level as quickly as possible. Newcomers would do well to just take their time and enjoy the upgraded, streamlined, leveling experience provided in this post-Cataclysm World of Warcraft.

Just for interest's sake, I've reproduced a very short sample from the guide. Personally, this is the most significant section for me as it details a quest that I never found on my first time through with Jahger.

To Cliffspring Hollow (9) and Maw of the Void (10)

10. Leave the cave, and jump down to the left of the waterfall. Follow the top of the cliffside and you'll see the top of a massive waterfall ahead of you. Jump into the water and swim over the edge of the waterfall. Go into the big whirlpool, Maw of the Void, at 52,31. You will be sucked down into Bashal'Aran's Collapse.

Follow the only path out up to Telarius Voidstrider. Kill him and loot him for Writings of the Dark Herald. Use it to get the quest Writings of the Void.

11. Use your hearthstone to return to Lor'danel. (If your hearthstone is on cooldown, return to Bielara Ivyshroud at the foot of the path and talk to her to return to the surface, then walk back to Lor'danel.)

Turn in:

• The Boon of the Seas
• Writings of the Void
• A Cure in the Dark
• The Corruption's Source
• Bearer of Good Fortune
• A Troubling Prescription

Get the following quests:

• The Final Flame of Bashal'Aran
• A Love Eternal
• A Lost Companion