Revenge of the Jiyas: Northshire Valley

 We're back to speed testing today with a new Revenge of the Jiyas article! In this series, I document my speed testing of the WoW-Pro Leveling addon. This time through I was in Northshire Valley, on Humanhiya, the human warrior! Sadly I forgot to take screenshots. Oh well, there's always next time!

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: 18min 
Northshire Valley (1-5): 18min

4.5 min/lvl

Previous Chapters:

• Project Overview
• 1-5: Valley of Trials | Echo Isles | Red Cloud Mesa | Kezan | Deathknell | Sunstrider Isle

This zone was FAST. I have to confess I stopped paying attention occasionally and killed too many creatures for the kills quests, and I still got through it faster than any starter zone so far. That said, it was also incredibly boring. The kill quests were only a small step above the originals for this zone, and they seemed longer for some reason. It also felt like there was a lot of pointless running back and forth, that had nothing to do with the guide and everything to do with bad quest design.

One thing I noticed for this zone, that makes a LOT of sense to me, is that quests are class specific and so are rewards. This makes it impossible for a newbie to accidentally chose the wrong type of gear.

The guide itself was pretty good, but there were definitely some occasions that it needed to say a little more. In particular, it was difficult to know what quest givers where inside the abbey and which were outside, so I'll be adding notes to that effect. I did appreciate the use of hearthstone to return from the final quest objective!

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 Northsire Valley 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_11_Kurich_Elwynn_Forest.lua
4. Copy the guide contents there.

Next Up: ALLIANCE - Coldridge Valley!