The Grind Curve
Those of you who may have given up before even reaching the top will be happy to know that, as a result of feedback (read: people complaining like complainers love to), the middle chunk of WoW has been squashed to make the trawl from levels 20 to 60 a lot more pleasant. Blizzard quotes a spurious percentage to show how much easier it is, but we’ve been leveling new characters to try it out.

Not only has quest experience been increased between levels 30-60, the entire curve is noticeably easier on you - you’ll spend less time hanging around zones, and get a lot more bang for your buck on some of the tougher quests. Drop rates have been increased noticeably on some quests, and Dustwallow Marsh is now a great deal better. The addition of Mudsprocket and some additional goblin quests within adds depth to the zone - and gives you an extra flight path; useful considering the size of it all. Dungeons have also been tweaked to be more rewarding, and overall patch 2.3 has made the lower levels a joy - so if you’re hoping to start anew, not only is there still time to level up, but it’s going to be a lot of fun.

Fr’instance
Naxxramas and Zul’Aman are the newest instances - one released before The Burning Crusade, one released after. Naxxramas operates as a high-level raid dungeon, built for those able to compete in the higher level guilds, but Zul’Aman is an easily-accessible dungeon released recently for players burned out on Karazhan runs looking for a new challenge. Full of angry, tribal Forest Trolls, Zul’Aman should prepare you for the Trolls of Zul’Drak - and dealing with the icy instanced content of Drak’Tharon Keep.

But I’m not ready!
Here are our top five mods to help you prepare for the perils of the Lich King:

QuestHelper
QuestHelper is a user-populated database that personally sketches out your quests onto the map, showing you not only where to go and where to hand in certain quests, but also the optimal order to complete them in. This takes a lot of the frustration and time-wasting in large-scale areas like Stranglethorn Vale, and helps you keep track of quests. It’s like steroids for WoW.

LightHeaded
LightHeaded modifies your quest panel to include a side box with information streamed directly from the Wowhead database, and lets you browse the comments. More importantly, it gives you locations, follow-up quests, and tips about how to deal with a certain quest, and any fun blips there may be on the way.

X-Perl Unit Frames
X-Perl helps bring method to the madness of WoW user interfaces. Adding a clean, easy-to-read front-end and giving you more immediate information on both you and your group-mates, it’s easily one of the best additions to the UI around. The frames are moveable with a mere click of the top-right menu and are as simple to deal with as Windows itself - a real winner.

Bagnon
A new expansion guarantees one thing - new bags. This can be a bit overwhelming when you start getting a lot of them. Enter Bagnon, a mod that condenses all of your bags to one inventory, cleanly organised and oh-so-much simpler than searching through your stuff mid-combat, urgently scrambling for your potions. It also cleans up your bank a great deal - it’s simplicity at its best.

BuyEmAll
If you’re a rogue, you need vanishing powder. If you’re a hunter, ammo. If you’re a mage, teleport runes. Every class needs to have a lot of some item at any given time, and BuyEmAll lets you buy hundreds of items at once - and tells you the overall price, making it a must for anyone prepping for a trip. It uses a slick, simple interface, and is a welcome addition to any constant vendor-user.

In case you missed them, be sure to check out our coverage on day 1, day 2, day 3, and day 4.

Feb 1, 2008