Levels 1-20
I highly advise against grouping with anyone until
you're well into your teens. At this point of the
game, very few people know how to use their classes
and skills properly and honestly, you're going to die
a lot because of it. That being said, there are a few
times you will want to group to get chain quests out
of the way, Defense of the Lands in Loch Modan is one
example.
For Alliance members, I suggest heading to Loch Modan
or Westfall in the teens, then head to Redridge until
you're level 20. Yes, if you're a night elf, you need
to travel far but there are no non-night elves in Teldrassil
or Darkshore and you're missing out on grouping with
Mages, Warlocks and Paladins.
For the Horde, The Barrens are where it's at. You don't
need to group much at all here but you can head into
the Wailing Caverns instance for some decent experience.
More than likly, you'll be level 20 in less than a week.
If you start on a Friday night and play through the entire
weekend you can hit 20 by Sunday if you know what you're doing.
Grouped with a healer you'll tear through everything with ease
and no downtime.
Levels 21-40
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At this point you will have a good grasp of what you can and
can't do as a Rouge. You will acquire the last of your Rouge
skills and get to try out different combinations. You will also
get to actually see some use from your talents as you'll be deep
enough into the trees to access some of the stronger talents.
As an Alliance you're looking at Duskwood and the Wetlands for 20
through 30, Stranglethron Vale(STV) for nearly all of your 30's.
The quests in STV require groups and give some excellent Rouge items.
As Horde, you're more than likely still in the Barrens for a few levels.
Head out to Stontalon Mountains and 1000 Needles for the rest of your 20's,
IN THAT ORDER. For the 30's, I also suggest STV through Gromgol as there are
some very nice quests to complete for some good gear.
Near the end of your 30's, I highly suggest heading to the Scarlet Monastery(SM)
as there is a quest that will give you either a good dagger (Black Menace) or sword
(Blade of Harmony). The Tigerbane also drops here. There's nothing wrong with simply
doing SM until you hit 40.
Before you hit SM, hit Gnomeregan and get to the end to kill Thermaplugg to complete
the quest to get Triprunner Dungarees. You'll keep these pants well into your 40's. You
can also pick up the Toxic Revenger.
I won't go into super big details for these levels as they are fast to get through, 20-30
will be a week's worth and 30-40 about the same. Playing 4 hours a night you should easily
get at least 1 level per session if not more. Just do as many quests as you can.
Levels 41-60
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This is when the Rouge truly stands out. There is a very little difference between Horde and
Alliance either as they usually each have their own outpost in most zones. I won't go into
too much detail here because this is the Groups section and you really will be grouped for the end
of the 50's.
You should head to the Badlands for the early 40's and knock off Uldaman by level 45. Head
off to Feralas to complete some easy quests then up to Mauradon. Make sure you collect as
many quests as you can for this instance and go through it multiple times. There is some very
good Rouge loot here so kill all named opponents a few times.
After you've done your run of Mauradon, head to Tanaris and knock off Zul'Farrak. There are
about 9 quests for this zone alone and you can probably do 7 of them in 1 run that lasts 2 hours.
It's best done at level 48+ and you will have a great chance to practice your Distract Pulls here.
Later on, you can head to the Sunken Temple to run off a few quests, which is by now an easy instance.
From 50-55 there's not much going on group wise but you can head to Ungoro Crater and both the East and
the West Plaguelands. From 55 on up, it's Blackrock Deeps, Black Rock Spire, Strathholme and then Scholomance,
in that order of difficulty.
You will often find groups availble for BRD while in a major city. You will find the best gear in these instances.
From 50 on up, never turn down an opportunity to go and from 55 on make an effort to go.
SOLOING EXPERIENCE LEVELS 1-60
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LEVELS 1-20
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Levels 1-10, stay in your home zone. There are tons of quests to do and you are
close to town when you die. Don't leave until you're level 10 as there's simply
an abundance of things to kill up to that poing and grinding is great. At level 10,
go to the main city and the rouge trainer. They will give you a quest to get the Blade of Cunning.
Do this quest now, as the dagger is quite effective. You can also start using different
weapons at this point by training in certain cities. If you have mining or skinning, start it
now. You will see your first gold by level 8 if you do either profession by selling on the
Auction House in Ironforge/Ogrimmar. You can get to level 10 inside 1 day.
From 11-20, it's pretty much the same thing. Hrode are in the Barrens and Silverpine Forest,
doing quests while the Alliance is in Loch Modan and Westfall. Again, the professions can make
a good buck here, so keep at it. Near the end of the 20's you will be able to do your first instance.
I suggest you do it simply for the chace to get better gear.
There's always a chance some stuff will drop by doing the instance but odds are the reward for killing
the end boss is what you really want. Getting to 20 can take a few days if you quest a lot. If you simply
grind, you can finish all of this in 2 days.
You can get to level 20 in a weekend if you don't mess around.
LEVELS 20-30
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Get your Poison quest done now. Alliance, it's easy to solo. Horde, get some friends. Make Instant Poison
and see the difference in your damage output.
Alliance, you will be hunting in Redridge Mountains and Duskwood. The undead in Raven Cemetary are quite
good to kill as they are humanoid and easy prey. Can always move on to the Nightbanes (SE corner) in the
later 20's. Finishing off the Ogres (West of the road to STV) is easy in the high 20's. All humanoid with
a few casters thrown in. If you're in Stormwind, do the Stockades a few times. There are half a dozen quests
to kill all the named in there and the experience is really good from 25-29. The instance is so small it will
take about 30 minutes per run.
Horde can do Stonetalon on the Goblins and Kobolds. Then move onto 1000 Needles and killing Centaurs. You
can also head to HIllsbrad HIlls (on a non-PVP server. PvP servers, this is a zone you will be killed non-
stop) and kill some Farmers and Gnolls.
Not much instance wise, nor gear wise. I suggest just grinding for 2 levels and going back to town only to
train and dump your items on the Auction House. Also, look for upgrades to your weapons. There's a fair
ammount of leather gear available at these levels as well.
LEVELS 30-40
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First, go to the Auction House and buy all the pages to the Green Hills of Stranglethorn quest. Once you have
them all, heave to STV and the Hunter's Camp to turn it all in for some great experience (10k if memory serves)
and decent enough reward.
STV is really where it's at for the 30's. There is just simply an abundance of quests here that all stack and give
good Rouge rewards. The animal mastery series is really good and you can knock off the first 2-3 quests in each
series alone. The bosses at the end require a group but the rewards are well worth it. Head to Booty Bay and get some
more quests there.
Grind-wise, there's the NE Kurzen Compound that has relatively easy opponents from 30-33. After that, head to Venture Co.
Basecamp and kill goblins. They are casters, so really easy kills if you can catch them before they start casting on you.
They are good from 33-36. After that, head to the middle of the zone and the East side of the road. There are trolls here
to kill that don't have a damage shield. If you were hunting rolls in the low 30's, you would notice some are Shamen and
that damage shield would just destroy you. The higher level ones don't use it for some reason… They can get you to level 40.
They drop Flasks of Mojo that sells well in the Auction House.
In the late 30's you can head to the Alterac Mountains and kill the Ogres. They have really low hit points and armor and therefore
die with ease. There are a few quests you can knock off in Hillsbrad that bring you here as well. If you're a skinner, the Yetis are
great. They are humanoids that you can skin.
NOTE: STV has a Rouge trainer, so you don't have to go back to the main town to train. You might want to leave STV at 35 and come back
near 38. It will make things easier for questing.
Gnomeregan has a very beautiful pear of leather pants for killing Thermaplugg. You'll be using them until you can get an upgrade in Mauradon.
Doing Scarlet Monastery(SM) and killing the bosses gives you either a good sword or dagger. Hell, just doing SM runs is a good way to get some
new gear as the drops rates are quite high and the areas pretty small. The experience is decent enough buy you're here maily for the gear.
LEVELS 40-50
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If there was a 'Hell Level' this enitre block would be it. It just seems hard to find any good
gear for this area and it hinders your experience gain. There are a lot of quests you can polish
off here and some easy collection ones as well.
Badlands Have a fair amount of collection quests to do and the Ogres in the SW corner offer good cash.
Also, the first Sturdy Junkboxes will drop here. You can do all of the quests solo except for Tremors
of Earth. Do this quest with at least 3 other people, it gives you the Blazewind Breastplate which will be
your BP until the 50's. Just doing quests, you can shoot through 42.
Head to Feralas and do a few quests there. There are some gnolls to kill in the South area as well as some
ogres West of that. Get the simple quests done and then head to Tanaris, where the real gains are. Yetis are
decent enough. I would not stay too long though, as mobs wander a lot ehre and you get adds frequently.
Kill the Wastewater Bandits. They have really low hit points for melee types and
occasionally drop water stachels. There's a quest in Gadgetzan (The main town in
Taris) where 5 of these give ~300xp adn the quest is repeatable. Kill these guys
until you're 45. They spawn all over the East side of the zone and have chests
that pop with them. There are some 'Rouge' bandits that are in stealth but you
should be ok if you pay attention to your combat indicator (Where you level is
indicated, it turns to a X of swords when in combat). Very easy to kill, have a
chance to drop Scorpid patterns, Mageweave out the wazoo! (Great for first-aid
and 1 stack sells for 1g in AH) and decent drops.
Once you hit 45 or 46, head to Hinderlands. You probably have a fair chunk of
quests for this zone anyways. Head to Aerie Peak and start the quests available.
At 45 you should be able to complete every quest here. Make sure you start the
Saving Sharpbeak quest line, as well as the Ancient Egg quest, both requiring
groups to complete. The Saving Sharpbeak quest gives the Gryphon Rider's Stormhammer
a great weapon to have.
Grinding though, there is no better place in all of the game. From 45 to 50 you head
to the Altar of Zul and kill Soothsayers (10 of them). They are casters with really
low hitpoints and long cast times. They occasionally drop Wildvinem, which you should
keep as it sells for nearly 1gp each. They usually drop Troll Necklaces which when turned
in, in groups of 5 gives 390xp. With 4 empty 12 slot bags, I kept one solely for Troll
Necklaces that stack up to 20. They have a good chance of dropping items as well,
including the rare pop of a named troll. The biggest hurdles here are 3 roaming wolves.
When they attack you, just Vanish. It isn't worth the time killing them until 49 as they
spawn quickly. In an hour you'll have memorized the wolves movement pattern and where
the SOothsayers are. You will likely finish levels 45-50 faster than you did 43-44.
Dunemaul Compound in Tanaris isn't too bad either as the ogres have a better chance of
having Junkboxes on them. They do hit hard however. I qould only consider this if the
trolls are camped.
Ghosts in Azshara are reportedly silver mines and there are a lot of casters. They tend to
be camped by higher levels though.
Instance wise, do Uldaman for the quests once you hit 43. There's not much item wise and the
creatures spawn so close the experience isn't too good. Do Zul'Farrak for some decent leather
loots (Scorpashi items). There are about 9 quests that deal with this area, including the
Ancient Egg and Saving Sharpbeak quests. Razorfen Downs are pretty good here too, with decent
gear but it's a low 40s zone. Mauradon should only be done near the end of the 40s as the bosses
can be really hard and the 'orange' side of the zone is deadly to anyone under 50. In fact, if
you can, avoid the 'orange' side of the zone completely. It causes a very Large amount of lag,
everything seems to posion you or have a damage shield.
LEVELS 50-60
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The 50's are really all about the last push so you can do Blackrock instance runs. You also get the
final super powerful skills. Eviscerate now does at base damage what you were hitting for in criticals
in the 40s.
At 50, head to Ungoro as it has a ton of collection quests availible. It is entirely a beast zone.
However, there is no cash that drops but there is still a chance of items dropping. Doing all the quests
from Marshall's Refuge (that are non-elite) can get you 2 levels in a day. It really is ridiculous the
amount of experience you can gain from this zone with now effort. Bring a Mithril Casing, you need it
for a certain quest.
The Blasted Lands have 5 quests that stack fro a temporary stat buff to each stat. Personally, the quests
that need stuff from Basilisks and Vultures are not worth the effort as the drops are way too slow. They
are also repeatable for the experience. The ogres are also decent experience and start to drop Heavy
Junkboxes. Level 51-53 is a good spot on these. Again, they can hit hard compared to other humanoids.
Felwood has some good kills at Jaedenar that give fraction to the Timbermaw fraction. At
this point you should have your set weapons until you do high level instances, so put
Demonslay on both. This gives a chance to stun and 100 damage hit on all demons, which
Felwood is full of. With the enchantment it's incredible the amout of kills you can rack
up. Decent for the lower 50s. Actually some people stay here longer with Demonslay because
the kills become almost trivial, killing non-stop with out the need to heal.
Azshara is also a good area to run through at this point with dual Demonslay weapons.
The West side of the zone has some satyrs to kill which are pretty easy to keep clear,
though they tend to have imp minions. The northern part of the sone has more Satyrs
near level 51 if you find the West Camp Slow.
The mid 50s allow you to move to Winterspring. In the SW corner, there's a Dwarf lady
who gives a decent cloak for just walking from one end of the zone to the other. The
town also has a fair chunk of quests to complete, which aren't too bad. The really good
spot though is Lak Kel'Therill. It has more ghosts which are easy kills until about level
58.
The Plaguelands are the final area to hunt in. The West from 52-55 and the East from 55 to
60. They are just full of undead to kill. Mainly though, you're here for the Argent Dawn
faction, which can only be gained when you're under level 60. Might as well get it done before
that final level up. If you're looking for more deomons to kill, the East has a lot of hounds
but that's pretty much it.
The end of your travels will be in Blackrock Stronghold. Getting the basics of the spawn will
kill you a few times but once you get the hang of it, the experience is golden. Half of it
is casters, which are perfect for killing. you will more than likely hit 60 here.
Instances next. you want to finish everything off in Mauradon before 55. The Trash Blade
(from killing the princess) is an excellent sword, only being beat by a rare world drop
or killing the end boss of Blackrock Spire. Finish up any quests left for the SUnken Temple
as well, there are a few that give some decent rewards. There are quests for this instance all over
the world, so don't be surprised when you find a new one.
Blackrock Depths and Blackrock Spire are where you will spend your upper 50s. The drops here are
ridiculously good and require you to have a skilled group. Mess up just a little bit and you wipe.
You will want to finish the 50s so bad that you're more than likely to just plow through in a week.
