Here you will find a general overlook of what grinding or power leveling actually is, ways of performing it, and the best places to grind for Alliance and Horde. Please note that this guide is showing places to grind for maximum EXP ONLY.

Contents:
1 ) What is grinding?
2 ) Ways to grind
3 ) How to grind (Advantages/Disadvantes of each form of grinding)
4 ) Places to grind : Alliance
5 ) Places to grind: Horde
6 ) * Extra topic, how to AOE grind efficiently (As a mage)*

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1 ) What is grinding?

‘Grinding’ is the term used when a player kills mobs (Monsters) to level as opposed to questing. Even though it is generally thought that questing is the fastest way to level, it is often seen as more profitable to grind. In other words grinding is often used to level and earn money simultaneously. However alot of people still believe that grinding is a faster leveler 35+.

2 ) Ways to grind

There are only really two ways to grind, the most effective from personal experience is ‘AOE’ grinding. The term ‘AOE’ stands for ‘Area of effect’. Many AOE spells that you may be familiar with are the mage’s ‘Blizzard’ spell, arcane explosion spell and the paladin’s concecretion spell. These are labelled ‘AOE’ spells since they effect more than one target at a time. So generally when AOE grinding you can kill many mobs at the same time, thus giving you more exp.
The other form of grinding is the standard ‘single kill’ grinding where the player kills each mob, one at a time.

Advantages of AOE grinding: The main advantage of course of using AOE grinding is that you get more kills per hour, which in turn gives you more exp and loot per hour.

Disadvantages of AOE grinding: The disadvantage of AOE grinding are that it requires more skill to AOE grind and it is much more dangerous than single kill grinding. There is always a possibility that you could die (due to the large amounts of mobs per time) and this could result in a long corpse run. Also with AOE grinding, your class may not be able to AOE!

Advantages of single kill grinding: The advantages of one kill grinding is that it is much safer than AOE grinding. Single kill grinding can also be done by any class in the game.

Disadvantages of single kill grinding: The obvious disadvantage is that single kill grinding is much slower than AOE grinding, which in turn generally leads to less exp per hour and less loot per hour.

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PLEASE READ:

The following locations have been taken from various fan sites and I have also implemented some of my own. Please note that to grind i would advise that you buy stat potions that last for 1hr and bandages (if your class can’t heal). Also this guide from 1-35 can be skipped and just replaced with questing since questing is faster for these levels. This applies for Alliance and Horde.

4 ) Places to grind: Alliance

1-20 – I would personally advise that you quest these levels since they will give you some handy starting out gear and will give you an insight on the general game (if you are a first timer).
Alternatively you can of course just grind in all the newbie starting zones.
20-26 – Wetlands quests, and the slimes, orcs and raptors for grinding. You can also do the Lakeshire quests to speed things up.
26-30 – Duskwood, grinding on undead and possibly some Duskwood quests.
30-34 – Various STV mobs, pop to nesingway for grinding and mastery quests.
34-36- The venture co workers in Stranglethorn vale. These guys are great exp and are pretty easy to kill. The best to kill in my opinion are the meteorologists.
37-38 – The naga on the islands in Desolace, these are fairly easy to kill but you must be wary of wondering sea giants.
37- 38 – Murlocks in STV (next to Grom’gol)

38-40 – Badlands – south west Rock elementals
40-43 – Scalding whelps (north east of badlands)
43- 45 – Wastewonder humans in Tanaris (fairly centrered)
45-46 – Ghosts in Azshara
47- 49 – Elementals in the Searing gorge cauldron
49 – 52 – Felwood deadwood gnolls and quests from the sanctuary, the un goro crater (50+) do the quests from your mini city and do lots of grinding!
52- 58 – Ghosts in Winterspring (on the frozen lake)
58-60 - The yeti cave (south east of Everlook in Winterspring) or the ogres in deadwind pass (not many people go there).
60 – 70 – Outlands! The reason i haven’t placed a 60-70 grinding section is because 60-70 questing is usually the advised option. This is because you will get alot of money from quests along with very useful gear. But ofc if you want it, i can make one for you. Just ask and i’ll get round to it maybe.

5 ) Places to grind: Horde

10-13 Crocolisks in the river between Durator and Barrens. -14,000 exp per hour
13-16 Southsea Bandits and Cannoneers south of Ratchet. -14,000 exp per hour
16-19 Theramore Marines outside Northwatch Keep. -16,000 exp per hour

19-22 South Barrens Stormhides and Quilboards. -18,000 exp per hour.
22-24 Mobs around Tarren Mill and the surrounding area -20,000 exp per hour
24-26 Centaur at the north in 1k needles, if i remember correctly the camp was named something like camp E’thok(outside the cave) -20,000 exp per hour
26-30 Centaur same as previous step only inside the cave -20,000 exp per hour

30-32 Harpies inside cave on south wall of 1k Needles.
32- 35 Various STV grinding, take a visit to Nesingway to grab the grinding mastery quests.

From now on continue with the alliance 35-60 guide. Good luck!

6 ) How to AOE grind efficiently ( as a mage)

This should have been higher up in the post, however when i tried to add it things got messy, so this is the safest way to impliment it.
Ok so you wanna AOE grind as a mage? well heres a quick guide which will have you owning large amounts of mobs with ease.
Ok, first of all you ideally want to be frost specced, with talent points in Improved blizzard, frostbite, improved frost nova, permafrost.
Ok so now your ready to kick some butt, try firstly on 2 mobs, this way it is much safer. You want to run by and aggro 2 mobs (more when you feel ready). Then frost nova and blink away, from this range you should walk back slightly and then pull out blizzard. Then place the blizzard AOE spell over the mobs but so that the furthest point of AOE is just touching them, this is so that when they walk forward they will be in the AOE for as long as possible. When the frost nova breaks and they start to move (very slowly due to talent placements) you simply hold the spell until they are nearly out of the AOE. Then you cancel the spell and re cast. Note that if the mobs are getting close, it may be wise to run and re cast frost nova, then repeat the process.

Also note that as an AOE grinder it is VITAL that you watch out for wandering mobs, it is very easy to aggro a mob whilst running and casting which can disrupt your AOE spells and cause your plan to fail….miserably.

So in brief :

Aggro X mobs
Cast frost nova and blink away (get to max range for aoe spell)
Cast Blizzard so that they will be in the AOE for as long as possible (have the edge of the AOE just on them)
Rinse and repeat.

Guide Courtesy : Nikoleta of the Wow-Europe community board.