You should now be level #, if not grind until you are

[Cartman]

I also saw the grind steps at lower levels but that's normal. When I played my alliance characters I used to grind before getting to the first village (Kharanos, Goldshire) so I was near level 7 when I got there. From that point on I had no problems following the guide.
The main reason you see the grind steps now is that Blizzard made all mobs in the starting zones neutral so you usually kill only the ones needed. And with Cataclysm the droprate of quest items in the starting zones seems to be 100% (the bats and wolves in the undead starting zone for example now always drop the quest item where it was a 50-75% chance before 4.0).

[chaos5061]

Not completely 100% more like 95% at least in the Blood Elf Starting area.

[pops64]

Also the dwarf guide grind steps are off. I rolled a fresh Dwarf Mage and got the grind steps(I was about 70-90% done the current level when it told me I should be the next level) until about lvl 45 then they stopped and now it seems that I'm staying slightly ahead of the grind steps. I skipped the grind steps and also didn't encounter an issue

[chaos5061]

Also the dwarf guide grind steps are off. I rolled a fresh Dwarf Mage and got the grind steps(I was about 70-90% done the current level when it told me I should be the next level) until about lvl 45 then they stopped and now it seems that I'm staying slightly ahead of the grind steps. I skipped the grind steps and also didn't encounter an issue

What level did you firstrun into this? I have a dwarf priest lv. 11 and I haven't run into the grind steps. Wonder if it's a dwarf Mage thing.

[cabby]

Nah, I'm running a dwarf mage and just hit 10 without any grind steps. He might have just been very unlucky and got drops on every kill and thus never had to kill extra mobs while looking for a drop.

[esqulax]

I tended to find that if i made sure to stay at inns or in a city when i wasnt playing.. there was enough 'Rested' XP to keep me a fair few steps ahead of the ding point.
Swings and roundablts i guess... is it worth a 2 min detour running into an Inn if you know you're going to be offline for a few days?
Maybe not worth it if you're only logging off for the night or for a few hours.

I used the guide on a mates computer, starting at level 45 i think.. now im 55 and its taken me about a week of casual play.

Now i've bought it (I like to support software developers when its deserved)