Revenge of the Jiyas: Valley of Trials

Here it is: The first installment of my new series of articles in which I speed test the  WoW-Pro Leveling addon! Today we take a look at the orc starting zone, the Valley of Trials. Our intrepid orc warrior, Jiya, is ready to begin her journey!

She sure thinks she's special.

Note: The 1-5 starter zones are very quick, with levels flying by so quickly it's hard to get an accurate measurement. Additionally,  the pacing of some starting zones is vastly different than others. It will be nice to have a comparison of how long each takes, but not too much should be read into these tests. The higher level tests will be much more accurate and indicative of zone and guide quality.

Total /played at level 5.5: 28min 
Valley of Trials (1-5): 28min

6 min/lvl

Previous Chapters:

• Project Overview

 The time for this might be a little deceiving, because I spent roughly 5 minutes setting up my UI at the beginning of the test. However, I'll need to do that for every new character I start, so I decided not to try to correct for that time - it would simply make the /played calculations more complicated. Additionally, the starter zones measurements and calculations are extremely rough at best, since the levels go by so quickly, that I doubt it's worth it.

I wouldn't recommend much changed in this guide. This makes sense considering I created it in the first place - I should hope I would be satisfied with it! However, I would recommend having the user use their hearthstone to get back to The Den quickly at the end of the cave quest circuit. That cooldown is not being utilized and it can definitely save some time. It's nice that I have timing information now so I can tell easily exactly how often the hearthstone can be used in a guide!

Now let's talk about the zone. Bleh. With all the awesome work Blizz did to improve other starting zones, it's really disappointing that they  didn't bother improving this one. It's sad that this will be the first thing some players see of the game, because the game play is extremely dated (as in, not changed since the beginning of WoW). Oh well, at least they kept the peon-smacking quest in there!

I've updated the guide page for this section on WoW-Pro.com, and the changes will be included in the next addon update. I wouldn't recommend trying to update the file on your own unless you are experienced working with addons. If you do decide to update early:

1. Go to the Valley of Trials page and copy the contents of the guide. 
2. Open up your WoW folder and go to Interface > Addons > WoWPro_Leveling > Horde 
3. Open up 01_05_Jiyambi_Valley_of_Trials.lua. 
4. Copy the guide contents there.

Next Up: The Echo Isles!