Now that Allied Races are available in World of Warcraft, many people will want to level them up, especially if they want to unlock the heritage armor. If you have not leveled a character between 1-90 since patch 7.3.5 went live, you may be in for a surprise if you try to chain run dungeons to level up fast.
Leveling has been revamped in World of Warcraft from 1-90. The enemies take longer to kill and deal more damage. Dungeons also are much harder and give less experience than before. This means you will not be able to level quickly simply by chain running dungeons. This may seem like it will take much longer to level than it did before, but that is not exactly true thanks to the scaling.
A Scaling World
The new scaling in the leveling revamp allows you to do all classic/vanilla zones up to level 60. This means that once you hit the minimum level to quest in a zone, you can stay go there at any time until you hit level 60 without out leveling the zone.
Take Westfall in the Eastern Kingdoms if you play Alliance for example. You can start questing in this zone at level 10 and anytime after that until level 60. This means you can run dungeons, do some quests there, go somewhere else, and come back. If you want to save Westfall until you are level 50, you can. You are never at risk of out leveling a zone and all the quests and gear scale to your level. Ultimately, this means that questing is the best way to level since you will always be getting the maximum amount of experience in a zone, regardless of level.
After level 60, The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King expansions have been put together in the same bracket that scales to level 80. Now, you can choose to play exclusively in either of these expansions once you hit level 60. This means that Death Knights can finally start in Northrend when they finish their tutorial. You can also go to either of them at any time, so you aren’t locked to one expansion. When you reach level 80, you can choose either Cataclysm or Mists of Pandaria until level 90. Once you reach level 90 and go to the Warlords of Draenor expansion, everything returns to the way it was before the revamp.
Getting Experience Boosts and Convenient Leveling Items
Now that you are familiar with the leveling changes, let me go over ways you can boost your experience and generally make leveling faster.
First, you will want to have full experience heirlooms. You can get the other types of heirloom if you want, but the stats on heirlooms were nerfed, so the ones that will make a big difference are those that grant bonus experience. The following slots give you bonus experience:
Keep in mind that these only go to level 60 initially and you will need to buy multiple upgrades for each piece for them to last until level 100.
Since questing will be a big part, there are also heirloom maps you can buy from the Heirloom vendor. There are 2 maps and they cost 10k gold each. This is a hefty price, but it will unlock flight points to each area in either the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor.
Considering that this guide is meant for people just trying to level quickly, I’m assuming most of you are leveling alts and will be able to get enough gold to purchase these items. They drastically cut down on travel time since you can just fly to your next questing area via flight paths.
Darkmoon Faire
The Darkmoon Faire is an event that comes once a month and lasts for 1 week. You can talk to a Darkmoon Faire Mage in a major city and get teleported to the staging area. Once you go inside, you can go buy ride tickets for the merry-go-round. Stay on it to get a 10% buff to experience and rep until the buff says 59 minutes.
You can also complete quests and carnival games to get Darkmoon Prize Tickets. You can turn 10 of these in to get a a Darkmoon top hat. This is a consumable item that gives you a 10% experience buff that lasts for 1 hour. You can also sometimes get them from the prize boxes you get from completing carnival game quests.
These do not stack, so it is a good idea to save a few hats, and just get the buff from the merry-go-round. When that buff wears off, you can just use the hats instead of going all the way back to the Darkmoon faire.
Leveling Suggestions
Questing will be your main source of experience and overall, the fastest. The beginning zones, ones that go from 10-60, are the fastest because of how they were designed. I suggest leveling in one of these zones at the start. Once you’ve finished you can either go to a nearby zone and save the other early zones for later or do all the level 10-60 zones first for a nice boost at the beginning. Either way, you will want to do all of them for the fastest questing.
Dungeons are still great for experience and you should do them for the quests they give. If you are a tank or healer, or have one in your group, you could potentially level faster in dungeons. The groups you get in would have to be efficient, however, as some groups may take longer than simply questing.
When you reach level 60, I find Northrend to be a faster and overall more enjoyable experience to Outland, starting in Howling Fjord. At 80, Cataclysm is the fastest. Either of the starting zones there will work. Although Uldum is my favorite zone, and one I will be leveling in, you should avoid it if speed is your goal because of the multiple cutscenes and slow questing.
Draenor at level 90 has not changed, but if you have flying unlocked, you can simply fly around and get treasure and complete bonus objectives in each zone instead of doing any quests. At 98 you can start Legion or wait until 100. Leveling in Legion is streamlined and straightforward, but you should be on the lookout for Legion invasions. You will want to complete every quest during an invasion whenever available because they give a ton of experience.
That’s all you need to know to level up quickly in World of Warcraft after the leveling revamp. Remember, this is targeted at those that just want to level as quickly as possible. If you are a new player, or just want to enjoy the quests, I suggest taking it at your own pace and get to know your class as you level.
Leveling has been revamped in World of Warcraft from 1-90. The enemies take longer to kill and deal more damage. Dungeons also are much harder and give less experience than before. This means you will not be able to level quickly simply by chain running dungeons. This may seem like it will take much longer to level than it did before, but that is not exactly true thanks to the scaling.
A Scaling World
The new scaling in the leveling revamp allows you to do all classic/vanilla zones up to level 60. This means that once you hit the minimum level to quest in a zone, you can stay go there at any time until you hit level 60 without out leveling the zone.
Take Westfall in the Eastern Kingdoms if you play Alliance for example. You can start questing in this zone at level 10 and anytime after that until level 60. This means you can run dungeons, do some quests there, go somewhere else, and come back. If you want to save Westfall until you are level 50, you can. You are never at risk of out leveling a zone and all the quests and gear scale to your level. Ultimately, this means that questing is the best way to level since you will always be getting the maximum amount of experience in a zone, regardless of level.
After level 60, The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King expansions have been put together in the same bracket that scales to level 80. Now, you can choose to play exclusively in either of these expansions once you hit level 60. This means that Death Knights can finally start in Northrend when they finish their tutorial. You can also go to either of them at any time, so you aren’t locked to one expansion. When you reach level 80, you can choose either Cataclysm or Mists of Pandaria until level 90. Once you reach level 90 and go to the Warlords of Draenor expansion, everything returns to the way it was before the revamp.
Getting Experience Boosts and Convenient Leveling Items
Now that you are familiar with the leveling changes, let me go over ways you can boost your experience and generally make leveling faster.
First, you will want to have full experience heirlooms. You can get the other types of heirloom if you want, but the stats on heirlooms were nerfed, so the ones that will make a big difference are those that grant bonus experience. The following slots give you bonus experience:
- Helm – Guild Vendor in Stormwind if Alliance and Orgrimmar if Horde
- Shoulders - Heirloom vendor in Ironforge if Alliance and Undercity if Horde.
- Chest – Heirloom vendor in Ironforge if Alliance and Undercity if Horde.
- Cape – Guild Vendor in Stormwind if Alliance and Orgrimmar if Horde.
- Legs - Guild Vendor in Stormwind if Alliance and Orgrimmar if Horde.
- Rings – Strangelthorn Fishing Tournament or Ghostly Naval Missions in Warlords of Draenor.
- “The House Always Wins” for Agility
- “For Hate’s Sake” for Strength
- “the Wave Mistress” for Intellect
Keep in mind that these only go to level 60 initially and you will need to buy multiple upgrades for each piece for them to last until level 100.
Since questing will be a big part, there are also heirloom maps you can buy from the Heirloom vendor. There are 2 maps and they cost 10k gold each. This is a hefty price, but it will unlock flight points to each area in either the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor.
Considering that this guide is meant for people just trying to level quickly, I’m assuming most of you are leveling alts and will be able to get enough gold to purchase these items. They drastically cut down on travel time since you can just fly to your next questing area via flight paths.
Darkmoon Faire
The Darkmoon Faire is an event that comes once a month and lasts for 1 week. You can talk to a Darkmoon Faire Mage in a major city and get teleported to the staging area. Once you go inside, you can go buy ride tickets for the merry-go-round. Stay on it to get a 10% buff to experience and rep until the buff says 59 minutes.
You can also complete quests and carnival games to get Darkmoon Prize Tickets. You can turn 10 of these in to get a a Darkmoon top hat. This is a consumable item that gives you a 10% experience buff that lasts for 1 hour. You can also sometimes get them from the prize boxes you get from completing carnival game quests.
These do not stack, so it is a good idea to save a few hats, and just get the buff from the merry-go-round. When that buff wears off, you can just use the hats instead of going all the way back to the Darkmoon faire.
Leveling Suggestions
Questing will be your main source of experience and overall, the fastest. The beginning zones, ones that go from 10-60, are the fastest because of how they were designed. I suggest leveling in one of these zones at the start. Once you’ve finished you can either go to a nearby zone and save the other early zones for later or do all the level 10-60 zones first for a nice boost at the beginning. Either way, you will want to do all of them for the fastest questing.
Dungeons are still great for experience and you should do them for the quests they give. If you are a tank or healer, or have one in your group, you could potentially level faster in dungeons. The groups you get in would have to be efficient, however, as some groups may take longer than simply questing.
When you reach level 60, I find Northrend to be a faster and overall more enjoyable experience to Outland, starting in Howling Fjord. At 80, Cataclysm is the fastest. Either of the starting zones there will work. Although Uldum is my favorite zone, and one I will be leveling in, you should avoid it if speed is your goal because of the multiple cutscenes and slow questing.
Draenor at level 90 has not changed, but if you have flying unlocked, you can simply fly around and get treasure and complete bonus objectives in each zone instead of doing any quests. At 98 you can start Legion or wait until 100. Leveling in Legion is streamlined and straightforward, but you should be on the lookout for Legion invasions. You will want to complete every quest during an invasion whenever available because they give a ton of experience.
That’s all you need to know to level up quickly in World of Warcraft after the leveling revamp. Remember, this is targeted at those that just want to level as quickly as possible. If you are a new player, or just want to enjoy the quests, I suggest taking it at your own pace and get to know your class as you level.
Last edited:
