World of Warcraft: Fastest Leveling Methods (2024)

With a new level cap of 80, and more to do in the endgame than ever before with the addition of Delves, players have a lot of incentive to level up fast in World of Warcraft nowadays. Though the leveling journey is really best taken slowly so you can learn your class and explore the world, there's nothing wrong with wanting to jump into endgame content as fast as possible.

Nowadays, WoW has a lot of ways for players to level up and gain XP, and it's faster than ever to get leveled – and even start getting geared for endgame along the way. Though the age-old strategy of spamming Dungeon Finder all the way to 80 is perfectly valid, there's plenty you can do while waiting for the queue to pop to maximize your XP gains and quickly level up in WoW.

Fastest WoW Leveling Methods

Don't Just Spam Dungeons To Get To Max Level Faster

Finish Starter Zone Quests Then Choose A Timewalking Campaign

After creating your character, you will either be sent to your starting zone for your race, or Exile's Reach (also known as Tutorial Island). If you are new to WoW, it's not a bad idea to head to this beginner-friendly zone to get to know how the game works – it even has an introduction to the Group Finder system, which will come up later.

After reaching Level 10 in your chosen starting zone, you will be hailed to your capital to either begin the Dragonflight leveling experience or choose a Timewalking campaign. New players should go through the Dragonflight leveling zones as it presents the most modern version of WoW, and grants the most ways to gain XP. If you would prefer to level up in an older expansion's content, though, talk to Chromie and select a timeline before continuing.

Continue Questing And Queueing For Dungeons

Once you have either chosen to continue to the Dragon Isles or have selected a Timewalking campaign, all you really have to do is pick up quests and queue for dungeons. The fastest way to level in WoW is to spam Dungeons, but unless you are a Tank or Healer, or are Timewalking in a low-population expansion (like Shadowlands or Cataclysm), it can take a long time for Group Finder to pop.

While waiting for your Dungeon group to form up, pick up Quests and continue through your chosen expansion from the beginning. The game will scale enemies to your level, and automatically raise Quest levels to your level, too. So even if you pick up a quest, do a bunch of dungeons back to back, and level up several times, that same quest will still be worth doing for XP.

Kill Rares And Complete Special Objectives Along The Way

Though dungeons are the fastest leveling method in WoW, questing while waiting for your group to form can help fill in XP gaps. While adventuring out in your chosen expansion, keep an eye out on your map for World Quests (in post-Legion content), Special Activities, and Rare Elites.

Killing Rare Elites grants a chunk of XP and they are worth stopping for to kill if you have the means. At lower levels, you will have a hard time killing Rare Elites because you will lack most of your class toolkit, but at around level 30 or so most classes are able to solo these encounters.

World Quests will grant a certain reward (including Gear) as well as a sizable amount of XP, oftentimes more than a normal quest would give. In certain areas, too, Special Activities will pop up, usually asking you to kill a certain amount of enemies to fill up a bar. When this bar fills, you will get about double the amount of normal quest XP, so these activities are very, very worth sticking around to finish. A lot of the time, Special Activities line up directly with quest objectives.

Head To Khaz Algar At Level 68 And Continue Questing & Queuing

Though most players began the The War Within expansion at Level 70 (being the max level in Dragonflight), you can actually start the new expansion's introductory questline and begin TWW at Level 68.

This is highly recommended because quests grant more XP, you are able to take part in world events and start working on weekly quests, and you will be able to start leveling current-expansion professions.

Once you get to Khaz Algar and are on the main storyline, follow the same fast leveling methods as before – pick up quests to complete while queueing for dungeons, and stop to complete World Quests, kill Rares, and complete Special Activities along the way.

Chances are, if you are able to get into Normal Dungeons reliably, you'll hit the TWW max-level before finishing the main story.

Other WoW Leveling Tips

• Several in-game events grant all characters an XP bonus while leveling up. Keep an eye out on the calendar for future holidays to save a bit of time leveling alts.
  • With the release of the 20th WoW Anniversary patch, for example, players will get a 20% XP boost.
• In TWW, leveling alts is easier because every max-level character you have on your account grants the rest of your Warband a 5% XP bonus.
  • This bonus stacks up to 25% bonus XP for alts with 5 max-level characters.
• Keep an eye out for World Quests and Special Objectives while adventuring through the Legion to The War Within expansions content for extra XP, Gold, and the occasional Gear Upgrade.
  • You will find Special Objectives and Rare Elites in previous expansions, but you will also find World Quests in Timewalking campaigns from Legion and beyond.
• When leveling multiple characters, consider sending them to the same Timewalking campaigns to get Loremaster, Explorer, and other long-term achievements.
  • You will likely not finish every quest in any single campaign before you reach TWW-ready level, and you can pick up right where you left off on an Alt with the Warband progression system.

A Note On Earthen: Exploration XP Leveling Is Really Fast

Leveling a brand-new Earthen character in TWW is significantly easier than leveling other races in WoW because of their Wide-Eyed Wonder racial passive that boosts all exploration XP gains by 200%. This is effectively 3x the normal amount of exploration XP, and with the Skyriding system that allows for ridiculously fast travel in old-world zones, it takes about four to five hours to get an Earthen to Level 70.

First, fly through all of the Eastern Kingddoms and Kalimdor, as these areas have the most explorable areas for XP. Then, continue through expansions until you reach Level 70.

It's not the most exciting way to level, but it's significantly faster than queuing for dungeons and questing, and it's something only Earthen characters can do effectively. Be sure to fly lower than you think and over smaller settlements – these smaller locations may not reveal areas of the map, but they will grant exploration XP.

World of Warcraft: The War Within

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Franchise

Warcraft

Base Game

World of Warcraft

Platform(s)

PC

Released

August 26, 2024

Developer(s)

Blizzard

Genre

MMORPG