Grinding Guide

Common Grinding Guide

Mage Grinding Guide

Common Grinding Guide

A few tips you should always remember when grinding:

1.: Always remember bandages and food, grinding is no good without it.

2.: Getting into big discussions/chats in the /gchat or /wchat or whatever is always fun, and it definitely makes the grinding less boring, however it will slow you down… You can go from 40k/hour to 30k/hour just by having a conversation in the chat which doesn’t seem to take up a lot of time… Keep that in mind if u really want to lvl fast.

3.: If you can’t stand to grind non-stop, just combine it with some questing to ease it up a little…

4.: If you go back to IF/Orgrimmar every half lvl to check AH, you will lose a lot of time with the travelling… Although u may have your hearthstone there, the trip back again will cost you a lot of time…
There’re many reasons to go back to the main city during your grinding, but I guarantee you most of them can be done with a lvl 1 char sitting in the main city, just to check the AH and buy stuff for you… You mail some gold to it to do your dirty work, and it can mail the items back to you.

5.: Always remember to sit your character at the nearest Inn when you log off, to gain rested time… It is really worth it, or rather: Not worth not to do it .

6.: I am very well aware of there’s some very good grinding spots in AV, however I highly discourage this, you will take up a spot in the battleground and you will not help ur team… You will actually help the opposing faction win, which is just stupid… Do not do this if you have any respect for your own faction!

18-20: Bristlebacks just north of Camp Taurajo in Barrens, there’s so many of them you can’t run dry, and they die quick… If your horde you will have a couple of quests here as well, and if your alliance, Well, you don’t wanna be here if your alliance.

21-23: Duskwood, cemetery, south of Darkshire, half casters half warriors, an alright grinding spot with good drops… I always find my first blue item here on all of my chars. Wool and silk cloth are also a nice addition at this lvl. This place is mainly for Alliance though…

22-24: Dunhold keep, in Hillsbrad foothills, not a very known place, rogues and horde have a quest there, but that’s it… they are humanoids, die really fast, drop a nice amount of cloth and there’s tons of them.

28-32: Centaurs, in thousand Needles, a little north of Freewind post. There’s 28-30 centaurs outside the cave, and 30-32 centaurs inside the cave, a very nice place, they die really quick and drop nice silk cloth. Although this is a horde dominated area, it work for alliance as well, there isn’t as many horde as you would think.

29-31: The underground of raven hill cemetery, in Duskwood, there are 2 areas of underground, one with skeletons and one with zombies, and they are connected through a small and hidden path at the end. This is a very good place to grind, start from one end and go to the other, then back again. It’s an alliance area so if you do it at primetime, you will have some problems if you’re Horde. I did it with my shammy though, and it still works, usually if you leave them alone they will leave you alone as well.

32-34: Beasts, and lots of them, do the hunter quests from Nesinwary’s camp in Stranglethorn Vale, and then keep grinding those beasts after you have done the quests… Especially the Mistvale gorillas, these are probably the only beasts in Stranglethorn Vale that you don’t get a quest to kill, and funny thing, they are the best ones to grind.

34-36: Kurzens compound, all these fellows are really good to grind, specially once you get the sword from Scarlet monestary. They also drop fadeleaf from time to time which is always appriciated. A chest spawns every 15 minutes, can contain blue items, overall a very good spot!

34-37: Basilisks, yes, you heard me, basilisks, the shimmering flats in Thousand needles. Go the ruins all the way down south of the shimmering flats, those are the ones you want!
They are pretty good to grind at these lvls, you’ll never run dry cause there’s just so many of them, they don’t have much life and drop some decent vendortrash.

37-38: The water elementals on the haunted island in stranglethorn vale is very good grinding at these lvls, the only downside at these are the drops, they really suck, but u don’t grind for loot, u grind for xp.

39-41: Earth elementals down south in the badlands are awesome here, so easy to kill, despite the fact that there’s no casters amongst them, and the stones they drop will make u rich by the vendors.
There’s also lesser elementals a little east of Kargath, which are a little lower in lvls, but doesn’t drop quite as good, and there’s usually people on those…

40-44: Feralas grimmtotem camps, the tauren there die so fast it s almost pathetic.

42-43: Nagas at the southern beach on the island of the feathermoon fortress, we all love nagas, and these are quite good, many casters among them, only bad thing is the disarm they sometimes do, but considering their low armor/health it’s still a very good place!

44-47: Nagas are simply the best thing to grind, here u move on to the cave on the isle of dread also in Feralas, it’s the fastest grinding I’ve ever done there, so awesome… Only very rarely do other players come, and those that do come, come to do a fast quest then they leave again!

44-45: Ogres down south in Badlands, next to the earth elementals, they drop a bit of mageweave and silver, but as all other ogres they die really fast, so they are nice to grind. A lot of casters amoung them which is always nice.
Mithril spawn in the cave often and a chest every 15 minutes.

45-47: Ghosts at Azshara lvl 45-46, Good at that lvl, half casters, half warriors, none of them have any special attacks so it’s very easy and u won’t get surprised by some high damaging spell.
Should u decide to want to grind these at an even higher lvl, u should keep in mine that there aren’t a lot of them, so u’ll have to combine it with the satyrs just north of there… But at 45-46 there should be plenty to keep u going on them alone!
Good mageweave drops, some silver and an occational rare mob.

46-49: Feralas, ogres down south at the big ruin. 45-47 is their lvls, drop decent mageweave, and if u go down to the cave all the way down at the bottom, u will almost only see casters inside.
Because of the packs u may get, I suggest not going here til the stated lvls, instead of when ur the same lvl as the mobs which would usually be my suggested lvl range to grind them.
Also the warlords call for help when they get low, attracting other ogres that are near.

48: Quests in Searing gorge, u should gain an entire lvl if u do them all, very fast, can be done in a matter of a few hours!
And ofc the trinket reward "Luffa" u get from one of the quests is not to be underestimated when u as a rogue fight a warrior (Or farm gold at Deadwind pass ;), damn that rend they got)!

49-51: the cactus-guys way down southwest of Tanaris, those die so fast it’s hardly believable… very good grinding here!
If ur a fan of Un’goro u can always combine with some questing there, it’s right next to it, and is good at that lvl.

The deadwood village in Felwood is also very good at these lvls, but it’s always filled with both horde and alliance, so no point in going there unless it’s at some hour where the server is almost empty ;)

One thing you should keep in mind after hitting lvl 50, is that reputation with Argent dawn can be a pain to get, so it might be a good idea to start grinding a bit in western/eastern plague lands, the latter at a higher lvl since it is a tough place to grind.
Make sure you do not turn in the stones you get before reaching 6000/12000 honored reputation, because after you reach that point you will no longer get reputation for killing mobs, only by killing bosses and turning in stones… So you’ll get more out of it if you save your stones until you reach that point!

50-53: Nagas at the beach in Azshara, they die relatively quick due to their low armor/hp, just as any other naga in the world.
Unfortunately they also drop as bad as all the other nagas, the silver is alright, but that’s about it,
Unless ur lucky enough to find a golden pearl in one of the clams they drop.
A good place to go if the satyrs are taken and u don’t feel like wasting your trip to Azshara.

50-53: Another option is satyrs in Ashaera, these are 51-53, but die so quick they can easily be grinded at lvl 50. I did this, combined with searing gorge and the cactus guys, just because some lvl 60 is always on the satyrs, and there isn’t enough for 2!
The fact that they drop Felcloth and traveller’s backpacks and cards for the faire is just a nice bonus.

51-53: Sorrow hill in western plague lands, some people like this place although I don’t hink it’s very good, due to the fact that there’s no casters. It’s all melee mobs, and they don’t drop very fast. If u want rep with Argent dawn however, this may be a good place to start. Good runecloth/silver drops and Librams have a decent chance of dropping here as well.

52-53: If u haven’t done them at an earlier state, the quests in Un’goro would be excellent here… Even if u did do some quests earlier, u can’t have done them all cause there’s a lot of 52-55 quests which are almost impossible at lower lvls unless u go with a group.

53-55: The blood elves in Ashaera die really fast… They’re the same lvl as the satyrs, however they all do this nasty AoE which can get a bit too much if ur not high enough lvl… And they’re placed kind of tight some places, which inevitable makes u aggro one too many… However still very good to grind, they drop a lot of runecloth and silver as well, being humanoids and all.

54-57: Ghosts by the lake in Winterspring, these are a little tricky for a 54, due to the DoT the give u, which prevents u in bandaging, but still good to grind!
These can be grinded all the way to 60, I’ve seen it done and it works fine… Although there are better places after 57…

55-57: Furlbogs just south of the entrance to winterspring. Decent amount of hp/armor and throw faerie fire on u, but there’s good things aboiut them as well… Good silver drops, good chance of blue drops, a chest with guaranteed green item (And often healing potions) and everyones favourite potion: Winterfall firewater drop pretty often from them, although this should change in patch 1.9 according to the patchnotes.
Give reputation with the timbermaw faction as well each time you kill one, if you’re interested in that.

56-60: The birds in Deadwind pass, These are very good to grind, they die relatively fast, and drop very good vendortrash… The only downside is that they hit rather hard and put rend on u all the time which makes it almost impossible to start with an ambush… But if u use swords that won’t be a problem.
There are also very often other people grinding on these, and to be honest there’s just not enough for 2…

57-60: Yetis in Winterspring are very popular to grind, there’re tons of them and can be skinned for thick/rugged leather, they also drop silver… They do however have a lot of health points, which makes them a bit harder to kill, but if ur saving for ur epic mount, this will be a good place to get some good xp and some steady gold flowing…

58-60: The ogres in Deadwind pass, very good, just like all other ogres they die pretty fast… The amount of runecloth they drop is just unbelievable.

Mage Grinding Guide

Before reading this guide, check out this excellent video:
http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=44168

AoE grinding

In case you’ve been living in a hole, AoE grinding is a very famous type of grinding only available to mages, and sometimes good protection paladins.
It’s famous due to its insanely fast xp gained, as you can kill 10+ mobs in almost the time it takes to kill 1, so you get 10x the xp.
It’s also incredibly fun – the sight of seeing your ungodly destruction on 10 mobs, or watching other people’s reactions when you utterly omgwtfpwn them is amazing.
However, it’s not easy, and it does require fast reactions, quick thinking and lots of training.

Here is what’s in my little guide.

1) Pros and cons of AoE grinding, why it’s good or bad.
2) What kind of talents you need!
3) How to do it.
4) Notes on (3)
5) Some good places to try it out!
6) Other things, such as gear.
7) Tauren meat.

So I’ll start with the pros and cons.

Advantages:
- It’s fun, and fast, boosting you through the horrible grind between 55-60, or if you want, your entire journey between 1-60. I haven’t tried doing 55-60 as fast as I can, but I’ve seen friends level ridiculously fast.
- Much better than normal single-target grinding.
- Gives a lot of gold, and cloth (you’ll be generally grinding on humanoids or undead)
- Also the advantages of grinding, as opposed to questing.

Disadvantages:
- It’s hard, and you’ll often die, especially in the beginning. You’ll look like an idiot, rounding 10 mobs and then just dying >.<
- You need to spec to a certain AoE spec, which essentially wipes out your single-target DPS.
- You might have to miss out talents which you may really like.
- Also the disadvantages of grinding, as opposed to questing.

So firstly, we come to the talents. Generally we pick the frost tree due to Blizzard and CoC.
Flamestrike and Blast Wave IS possible, but that’s IMO harder to do, so I’ll focus on the frost spells.

I also prefer Blizzard AoEing than CoC kiting AoEing, as it’s easier to do. However, if you do want to do CoC kiting, these talents are still more or less valid, but you’ll want more +crit, and less imp blizzard.

Teh epix spec - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=RZZMhMIsf0sro
You can either fill in the rest of the frost tree, or spec somewhere in arcane.

Now is the actual process of AoE grinding. The killing part is really easy. All you need to do is press a key, aim, and then unleash hell on your foes. And watch the purple numbers fly.

I wouldn’t recommend actually grinding before lvl 40 or so, but that’s just me (I prefer questing, it means more for the game to me – yes, I know, I’m writing a grinding guide….). But if you insist, I really recommend only grinding when you hit 26. This is when you get Arctic Reach 2/2 and Imp Blizzard 3/3, which are vital talents. Otherwise you’ll only fit in 1 full Blizzard.

Pick a place where there are 5-10 MELEE mobs, of your same level.
All ranged classes murder you, as they interrupt your blizzard casting and generally mess everything up. If you’re lucky, and there’s only one, you may be able to sheep them, but this is risky.
STAY AWAY FROM RANGED! There should be space for blinking around, running around, and also a good place to flee just in case. I’ll suggest some good places later on.

DO NOT put Ice Armor on! This has the same effect as frostbite because it disperses the mobs. You want them clustered! So use MAGE ARMOUR instead, and if you don’t have it, just don’t put a shield on.

However, if you are truly skilled, it is possible to use Ice Armor. But it is, imo, considerably harder to do so, so try this at your own risk.

Here is the entire AoE process, and I’ll explain how further below.

• - Choose a good spot, where you can see 5 or 10 mobs, and a good space for you to run around.
• - Pop up Ice barrier, or mana shield (not recommended – ice barrier doesn’t waste mana)
• - Mount up if you have a mount
• - Take a deep breath and hope you don’t die.
• - Run into the mobs – try to get the mob furthest away from your original position first, to the mob nearest to you.
• - After you have the mobs you want, run around in spirals for a few seconds to cluster them together. If they’re not in a group, run back and circle them until they are.
• - Dismount. (Or just hit the next spell, ie. Ice Block or Ice Barrier - dismounting is now automatic)
• - Put Ice block on, if you have it. Otherwise, put on ice barrier (just to be safe).
• - Once they are all hitting you, frost nova, and blink away. Anywhere, so long as it’s not off a cliff, or into more mobs. Strafe away about 16 yards, or a few seconds. This is your max range for Blizzard.
• - Hit the key, and aim the green circle so that the edge furthest away from you touches the furthest guy at the back.
• - When the first blizzard is about to be over, hit the key again, and aim the green circle so that the furthest edge away from you is just IN FRONT of the guy CLOSEST to you.
• - Ice barrier if you want to be safe. You’ll probably run out of mana around here, and you still need mana for one more blizzard and a CoC. Eat a mana gem if you want.
• - CoC, then frost nova and blink TOWARDS the enemy (so you’re now behind the mob who was furthest away from you – or you can blink away, but you have to check there IS space. Generally there isn’t, and just to be safe, you should blink towards your mobs)
• - Blizzard again, and they should be dead. If not, finish up with a CoC, and if the infidel still insist on living, you can wand them down, AE, Fire blast, etc.
• - Hooray! You killed them all!

Here is a nice video guide that someone made explaining how to do it, similar as listed above (thanks nyuu).
http://warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=30092

It’s a very long video, showing the same tactic again and again, but it’s ‘part of the learning process’

There are always people who want to be ‘heroes’. Make a macro telling them not to help. Chances are they’ll aggro 3 or 4, then fail to kill them. He’ll either die or run away, leaving the mobs to go after you again and ultimately kill you. At best, it’ll take you longer to kill your mobs as they’ll be out of the Blizzard radius.
So shoo the heroes!

Notes on the tactic above

The killing part is very easy to master. It simply involves blizzard, blizzard, CoC, nova, Blizzard, and maybe another CoC.

The pulling part requires precise movements and reactions, as you are being hit by 10 mobs of your same level. Ice barrier is pretty important, as you can lose a lot of hp much faster than you think.
You don’t just charge in like a crazed gnome either, you should tag the one furthest away, then work your way to the front. Keep going back to the first tagged mob once in a while, so they keep their aggro on you. Once you’ve tagged them all, you must run around in spirals, and if there are ones which aren’t with the group, you need to run to them, then run back to the group.

The biggest area for dying is the part between the dismounting and the blinking away.
This is why ice block can be very useful. It needs to be done quickly, but not rushed.
The second you dismount, you must frost nova, but you have to nova all of them.
If there is a mob you know who’s outside the nova range, don’t bother wasting your nova. Just run around in circles (very dangerous) until you can, and immediately blink away. If you’re lucky you might be able to pop up a CoC just before you blink, but this is depending on how good you are.

The first few tries you WILL die a lot. It’s a sad fact, but you have to accept it. Just keep practicing and practicing until you get the times, CDs, and movements right.

Oh no, it’s all gone wrong!

Things can go wrong. Not every run is going to be perfect, or identical. Part of the challenge is to deal with these problems (usually involving running away as fast as you can :D).

Here are some things which can mess up, and some solutions:

Nova (after the pulling) does not freeze all the mobs - either through resisting, or just out of range
There are 3 ways of approaching this
- Cold snap, and then nova again
- Summon your elemental, and freeze the extra mobs
- Run away. This is actually probably the best idea, for several reasons.
- It’s still early in the AoE run, so there’s not much to lose. You’ll have mainly full hp and mana, so just try again
- If you CS/Elemental and nova again, the extra mob(s) is away from the main group, which may lead to difficulties later on. You’ll also have lost precious seconds refreezing.
- All the mobs are frozen, so it’s very easy to run away.

You’ve eaten your gem, drank your pot, but they’re still living and you have no mana
Don’t panic. Just pop up ice barrier, and evocate. If you don’t have the barrier, freeze and blink away (hopefully you have mana to do this - if you don’t, just pray), then evocate. If they’ve still got more than 50% hp, there’s something wrong with your tactic, you’re burning your mana far too fast.

Help! An add!
Generally, just leg it. You can try to follow the nova tips (elemental/CS + nova), but the adds will be far from your main group, and have full hp. Freeze your friends and blink out of the area.
If the add is a ranger/caster, run away as fast as you can. Don’t even try to fight back, unless your main group is dead and you have a decent amount of mana left to single-target the guys. Do NOT AoE range/caster adds.

If you’re evil, run towards some unsuspecting player. He’ll either run away, or try to help you, or do some heroic last stand. If it’s the last two, then well done, you’ve saved your life and killed a player.

Places to grind in:

These are mainly alliance regions, but unless you’re on a pvp server, most should be accessible by horde anyway.
There is a nice list of ALL AoE spots (inc Horde) at the bottom too.

I’m assuming you’re at least lvl 26 or so for the talents, so I’ll start at around this level.

27-30
Raven Hill or Tomb. Duskwood. Good Undead mobs to grind on, lots of them and fast respawns. Watch out for casters, and there may be limited space to blink around in. Lots of quests for killing these guys. Undead so no runners.

25-30
Gnolls in Redridge. Pretty good, generally not too much ranged.

30-35
Witherbark Village. Arathi Highlands. The trolls are great to grind on, but watch out for ranged. There are quests for here too in AH. Look out for runners.

32-35
Yetis in Yeti Cave of Arathi Highlands. No ranged or casters, good to grind on. However, they may be quite spread out, so be careful during pulling process.

35-38
Hillsbrad farms. Horde only, this is an amazing place. Lots of meleeing weak male farmers - annihilate them! Watch out for the mages, though. The farmers run too, so get ready to wand. Work your way to the north, then go south again, etc.

34-37
Farms in Arathi Highlands. Lots of humanoids here, no ranged. Be careful for runners, but generally quite good. Kill the civilians!

36-40
Murlocs in Dustwallow marsh. These have no ranged and are easy to grind on, since they have no special attacks. This is where AoE grinding starts to kick off, excellent place to grind. There’s a large camp of around 40 murlocs north east of North Sentry Tower, with fast respawns.
Over the hill there are another 40 too, but these guys give poison, so watch out.
However, the aggro radius is pretty big, so watch out on this as well, They also run too. Gurgle

40-44
Murlocs in Swamp of Sorrows. Read above. Gurgle.

Some people are having lots of trouble here, I’m not sure why. The important thing is to find enough space amongst the vegetation, and no ranged. Lots of mobs doesn’t matter, more doesn’t necessarily higher chance of dying.

44-50
Pirates in Lost Rigger Cove, Tanaris, or just in Tanaris (watch out for the ‘locks though). Some ranged, and they run.

42-45
Trolls in Hinterlands. Not that great because there are lots of ranged mobs. Only really choose here if you have a quest, or you hate the pirates.

50-54
Undead in Sorrow Hill. Great place, this is where the speed of AoE grinding really kicks in when it boosts you to 60. Very fast respawns, and the mobs generally cluster in 5s or 6s in the first place anyway. Lots of runecloth/money drops, and no runners. No ranged. This can be a busy place though, so try to find a quiet time in the day, eg late at night or early in the morning. Weekdays ftw.

53-60
Undead in Dalson’s Tears. This is a great place to grind, no ranged at all. Even faster respawns than Sorrow Hill, and good drops too. Nice place to grind for rep for AD, watch out for fears though. This will take you all the way to the infamous 60. This is less busy than Sorrow Hill, so come here when you can.

Hellfire Pennisula

Bonestripper Buzzards (53-59)
Bonestripper Vulture (57-62)
Rogue Voidwalker (58-61)
Uncontrolled Voidwalker (58-61)

Zangarmarsh

(This zone is quite tricky because you don’t often have a lot of room to manouevre)

Daggerfen Assassin (61-63)
Ango’Rosh Brute (62-63)

Terokkar Forest

Shienor Talonite (58-63)
Timber Worg (59-63)
Dreadfang Lurker (59-64)
Bone Crawler (60-65)
Lost Spirit (60-65)
Boulderfist Invader (64-65)
Auchenai Warrior (might be the initiate I mean but the ones with no mana!) (64-66)

Nagrand
Most animals there are good for AOEing, watch the Talbuk’s however as they have a nasty charge which can bring tears to even the most highly talented AOEers out there…

GEAR – if you can, invest in stamina and intellect.
Eagle gear is good, as it focuses on these 2 stats.

Spirit is the only other valid option for a mage, but since you’re casting 100% of the time, all it’ll do is less downtime, but you can drink anyway. Mage armour allows a bit of mana regen (30%), but you’ll need a lot of spirit for it to have any effect, so it’s not worth it.

Mana/5s - like spirit, you need a lot for effect and it’s better to take intellect and stam since you’re doing burst mass damage, not slow endurance damage.

+damage does not affect blizzard much in comparison of the other spells. It’s good, but tbh Stam and Int is better, and imo it’s more important to get those. But if you think you have enough hp/mana, grab some +dmg for some extra pew pew.

You need lots of intellect because of the high mana usage, and lots of stamina since a lvl 50 being hit by 10 lvl 50s is quite deadly.

1 int = 15 mana
1 stam = 10 hp

Don’t take strength or agility, etc. You need a lot for the effect.

Try to get a rune of perfection from the wsg pvp vendor, as it makes your mobs resist less. It’s a trinket.
If you can, try to up your +hit, but don’t sacrifice your int/stam for this.

Apart from that, the main thing is to have fun! AoE grinding is meant to be fast, fun and exciting, so if you hate it, don’t force yourself! However, DO remember you die a lot in the first few tries, so don’t let that put you off. Once you learn it, you can’t forget, and you’ll be racking in the xp by the 1000s.

Enjoy this guide, and I hope it’s been of use. Have fun in AoE grinding, and may you always be a blink away from danger!