My 1-60 Speed Run Through Vanilla World of Warcraft

I am probably most well known in the past for my speed runs through vanilla 1-60 WoW (back in 2005 - 2007) before there were any expansions.  The game was dramatically different then and leveling was literally way harder and took a lot longer than it does now.

I did all my speed runs on brand new retail servers (realms).  As soon as a new server would open I would generally go right on it and create either a female character named Joana or a male character named Mancow.  I would then proceed to level from 1 to 60 (end level at the time).  I used the /played command to see my times. I was always the first person to get to the end level (60 at the time) and I generally had no help from other players, as I did these entire runs solo.  The time it takes for the average player to level from 1 to 60 was around 30 days of playing time. My fastest time was 4 days 20 hours and 52 minutes with a troll hunter, as shown below:

Note:  Leshraque's final /played time at level 60 was 6 days 22 hours.

I did 6 other speed runs before this one. 4 of them with hunters, 2 with warlocks. I was really curious to see how humanly fast someone could level from 1 to 60 in vanilla WoW, and I have always liked long marathon type stuff, so this was an awesome experience for me.  I literally dedicated myself to improve with each run by studying the game, timing myself in certain areas, experimenting with different quest paths, and tons of practice.  Basically an all out speed run through one of the biggest games ever made.  And yes I do indeed have a full 1-60 video showing you the entire run, as shown below:

Full 1-60 Speed Run Video (on Jubei'Thos realm) NOTE:  Keep in mind this video/guide is before Cataclysm and will not help you with the retail version of WoW. But some of you might have some uses for it if you know what I mean ;) CLICK HERE for the full 1-60 guide! (on my other website JoanasWorld.com) Download PDF Printable Guide! The guides sold on JoanasWorld.com are up to date with the latest retail version of WoW. Here are the quick YouTube links for the entire 1-60 speed run video: Edited Version: Unedited 1-6 (Durotar) - 0:29 0:52 6-13 (Durotar) - 1:32 3:41 13-15 (Barrens) - 0:45 1:37 15-15 (Stonetalon) - 0:10 0:20 15-20 (Barrens) - 2:03 4:44 20-21 (Stonetalon) - 0:27 1:07 21-22 (Ashenvale) - 0:12 0:34 22-23 (Barrens) - 0:45 1:40 23-25 (Stonetalon) - 1:01 2:13 25-25 (Barrens) - 0:16 0:36 25-26 (1k Needles) - 0:20 0:50 26-27 (Ashenvale) - 0:58 2:21 27-27 (Stonetalon) - 0:06 0:17 27-29 (1k Needles) - 0:57 2:09 29-30 (Hillsbrad) - 0:36 2:19 30-31 (Arathi H.) - 0:17 0:53 31-31 (STV) - 0:15 0:52 31-32 (1k Needles) - 0:33 1:12 32-34 (Desolace) - 1:16 4:41 34-35 (STV) - 1:01 3:17 36-37 (Arathi H.) - 1:04 2:16 37-37 (Alterac M.) - 0:21 1:00 37-38 (1k Needles) - 0:10 0:33 37-38 (Dustwallow) - 0:51 2:38 38-40 (STV) - 1:06 4:09 40-41 (Badlands) - 0:44 3:00 41-42 (SoS) - 0:56 3:07 42-43 (STV) - 0:45 2:42 43-43 (Dustwallow) - 0:19 1:05 43-44 (Tanaris) - 0:37 2:03 44-46 (Feralas) - 1:39 3:20 46-46 (Azshara) - 0:10 0:37 46-47 (Hinterlands) - 1:00 3:45 47-47 (STV) - 0:17 1:01 47-48 (Searing Gorge) - 0:42 2:41 48-48 (SoS) - 0:13 0:50 48-49 (Feralas) - 0:29 1:54 49-50 (Tanaris) - 0:39 2:28 50-50 (Azshara) - 0:16 1:03 50-50 (Hinterlands) - 0:10 0:42 50-51 (Blasted Lands) - 0:30 1:54 51-52 (Un'Goro Crater) - 1:20 4:44 52-53 (Burning Steppes) - 0:18 1:00 53-54 (Azshara) - 0:59 3:33 54-54 (Felwood) - 0:19 1:09 54-54 (Winterspring) - 0:36 2:46 54-55 (Felwood) - 0:22 1:42 55-55 (Silithus) - 0:29 2:15 55-56 (W. Plaguelands) - 0:18 1:06 56-57 (E. Plaguelands) - 0:43 2:48 57-58 (W. Plaguelands) - 0:53 4:00 58-59 (Winterspring) - 1:05 9:26 59-60 (Winterspring) - 0:44 1:58

This is the video/guide that I made in January of 2006 and contains the entire speed run I did on the Jubei'Thos Realm in 4 days 20 days /played and first to level 60 on this server. You can check out this 1-60 WoW Speed Run Video Trailer I made for a couple of tid bits of the entire 1-60 speed run video I recorded. Speed Run Legend This video is one of the most famous speed run videos in history as it is the longest speed run video ever recorded through the best MMORPG ever. With the edited version, I reduced it down to 35 hours by speeding up most of the video playback (still a LONG video though).  I can understand why someone wouldn't want to watch the entire run, but it is interesting to maybe see some parts of it. Remember though this was before Cataclysm and it generally will not actually help you with the new routes in any expansion after Cataclysm. Q/A: Why no auto looting? Auto looting was not implemented into the game at the time, so I had to manually click each loot item. What's that background talking I hear sometimes throughout your edited videos? That's from Pure Pwnage, their awesome! How many times did you die? I died on purpose 3 times, and one accidental death. How long did it take in RL time, and how much sleep did you get? It took me an 8 day span to complete it, and I slept about 5 hours a day. Check out some screenshots of conversations going on while I was leveling:   1: 2:

I Won Blizzard's First to Level 50 Contest

Back in March of 2006, Blizzard held a contest that was open to anyone who wanted to participate. The contest was labeled as "Race to level 50".  Of course at the time when I seen this contest announcement, it made me think "I have a REALLY good chance of getting first place". And indeed I did, check out a screenshot when I hit level 50:

Leveling Contest:  First to 50...

(click to ENLARGE)

As you can see second place at the time was level 46, then level 42 and so on.  I really didn't have much competition since I was the only one who actually managed to master speed running this game.

My WoW leveling guide on JoanasWorld.com

After all the messages I got about people asking me how I was able to level so fast.  And believe me, I got a TON of messages!  I knew there were over 13 million subscribers to this game at the time.  This game was way more cryptic at the time and people needed some form of a guide to get through it, whether it was thottbot.com or someone's made guide.  Thottbott was the most common guide used to play WoW back then, and was my main guide as well.  I knew that I can make a much more comprehensive guide and better than anything out there that gamers would really appreciate.

I took it upon myself to take a number of months to completely write an entire leveling guide for the game and then launched it via JoanasWorld.com.  The guide was a big success and really helped people get through the game effortlessly.

External Links:
Check out my Interview at BlizzardGuides.com  (this interview talks more details about what it was like for me to do these grueling long speedruns.)

Vanilla WoW Guides I Recommend