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When Burning Crusade was released, I had a guildmate who was not only the first Draenei to 70 on our server but also the fastest new race to 70 on the server - beating out any blood elves. Total /played after ding? 8 days, 2 hours, 26 minutes, 25 seconds.

So how did he do it? I sat him down a week after he reached 70 and interviewed him for our guild website and I just rediscovered the transcript:

Seventy levels later and barely a week after release, Bordello the Draenei Warrior became the first new race to reach end level on Shadow Moon. Renowned for the number of 60's he had prior to the expansion, among which included a night elf druid and a human warrior on this server, "Harbringer" as he is called by his guildmates determined to reroll at the launch of Burning Crusade. Utilizing his druid that was on another account, he AoE grinded his way to level 70 with his trusty 60 druid in tow, keeping thorns and HoT's up. He was the only player to play on the new draenei account, though at times his cousin would aid by logging on to the druid and relieving the burden of playing two characters at once.

To figure out how he did it, and why he did it, we decided to interview the player behind the character and listen to what he had to say.

What possessed the reroll, what did Draenei have?

The draenei look better in plate imo, and the racials for draenei dominate humans. Plus it was time for a change.

That's a lot of work for aesthetics!

If I don't like the look of my character I'm not going to play him. Humans have a slouch in their shoulders I can't stand.

"When do you sleep?" from the jealous crowd and "How close to ding?" from the fans :D

Were you aiming to be the first 70 draenei on the server? Or did it just happen this way?

Originally I was just trying to level as fast as possible, and it turned out I was owning the competition. I got a fan base I guess you could call it. I couldn't let them down by not being first :P I aim to please.

Do you think you could have leveled faster?

I could have leveled a bit faster, but not much.

If you could give only one piece of advice to a player who wishes to level quickly, what would it be?

Don't stay in capital cities too long, it is easy to lose track of what youa re doing that way. I only ever went to cities to train, then I left.

Harbringer's success lies in part due to the method that he used to level his new warrior, employing a healing class capable of casting a damaging ability when struck onto another character. However, his final piece of advice can be applied to anyone who wishes to level quickly. Whether you are playing alone or with a group, try to avoid major capital cities as they are a time sink. Between the Auction House, Bank, and Profession Trainers much of your time can be lost that would have otherwise been spent questing or leveling. Many professions can be leveled quickly when you reach 70 and some are arguably easier (such as herbalism). The more time you spend out of the city, the more time you are putting into your levels!

That's some really good advice. I never thought how much help a couple simple buffs and heals could be. He's so right about major cities. I think I spent over half my time leveling professions and socializing in major cities. It ended up making me a lot of money, but as an alt, you hopefully won't need that.

I have a bit of advice as well. Be picky about which quests you will do and dump the ones that aren't worth the time. Lots of quests are nothing but a time drain, especially those quests that require you to do deliveries. Stick to mostly quests that involve killing enemies and collecting their kills. Most people don't realize it but the vast majority of the experience gained from questing isn't from the quests at all. Quests just reward a little bonus exp at the end. You can often get as much exp as you would for finishing a quest if you kill 10-20 enemies. I found the fastest way for me to gain levels when there weren't any good quests around was to just kill enemies over and over again. I would just plop down in an area with enemies that gave good exp, were easy to kill, and dropped good items.

Also, leveling with a partner will cut your exp in half so make sure they carry their weight and help you kill enemies twice as fast. A good partner will really improve your leveling speed, but a bad one can slow you down to a crawl. Also be sure not to group with people 5 or more levels above or below you as they will cause a major decrease in exp gained.