If you want to level your characters FAST, check out Zygor Guides and Joana’s Classic Leveling Guides.
Speed leveling is not only an art but also a sport niche. In World of Warcraft this is no different. Each expansion brings out a race to see who can be world first level capped. Having your name broadcast across the realm as the first to reach max level is an adrenaline rush few ever get to experience. But how do they do it? How do these Pros reach level cap before most of us even complete our first quest?
Front-Loading Quests
Before any new expansion a tactic widely used is Front Loading Quests. This is the practice of emptying out your quest log of any and all quests, then filling it up with current endgame quests that reward the most experience for completion. These quests can easily total over an entire level in themselves but with taking your time and preparing, you can make more out of your time. Before the new expansion is released, go out and complete all 25 of these quests but do not turn them in. This way, right when the new expansion is released and you log in to see you are no longer max level, you can turn in all these quests at once. Within minutes you can already be at least a level ahead of others just joining.
You will need to map out your course when doing this as well because just because a quest gives a ton of experience doesn’t mean that it’s always the best option. For example, if the quest is out in the middle of nowhere and would take 20 minutes to get there and turn in and isn’t by any others, then it might be best to take a closer quest with a little less xp.
Dealing with competition
One of the largest issues that speed leveling runs into early on into an expansion is congestion of players. When there is a quest choke point where all players have to complete the same quest before moving on it can slow you down drastically. When there are literally hundreds of players, each with the same quest to kill 10 mobs but only 3 are up at any time, it can take a while. The Pro’s will navigate this problem in two different ways.
By using sharding you can find less populated instances of the game. When a group is formed, all players are pulled into the same shard as the group leader. So speed levelers will work together with groups of friends and whoever has the least amount of players on their shard will invite others to their group where they can level with less competition. The second way is by bypassing the quest completely if that is a possibility. Some quest chains are simply not worth the trouble and if they are not required to unlock the next quest hub then speed levelers will just skip them completely.
Boosting and power leveling
Boosting and power leveling also takes place in these rushes. These top players will have their guilds, friends and followers assist them in that race. Having a warlock help summon you so that you can avoid the travel time is invaluable. Having a friend play a monk and use his Black Ox Statue to tank a mob while not grouped with the other is a great way to lend a hand in trying to tank down a rare spawn. Also, simply having a group of well geared, knowledgeable players standing by to help you at a moment’s notice is a must have. They can clear the way of mobs you don’t want to deal with, pull agro off you, and much more.
Grouping up during kill quests will also increase leveling speed. Even though the xp per kill will decrease substantially, the quest reward is the big prize.
Party Sync and multiple players/accounts
Now with Shadowlands on the horizon I assume we will see some interesting changes to this. If hitting level cap is the goal then that doesn’t mean that you have to do the new content now that Party Sync is a thing. The way Party Sync works is that if you are grouped with a lower level player and Party Sync is enabled, everyone scales down to the level of the zone. This allows for high level players to play with low level friends and still benefit with xp and scalable quest rewards. How this could impact speed leveling is by having a friend or a second account create a level 1 character in a starting zone then invite the speed leveler’s main to a group and enable Party Sync. They would then be able to level up in Mulgore, Teldrassil, Elwynn Forest, or Duratar without ever having to set foot into the new areas.
This will be a huge boost in speed leveling because there are several tricks you can do with this. First is when you accept a quest while in Party Sync you can then ungroup and regain your level advantage. Then you can slaughter all the kobolds your quest demands with ease, then regroup, enable Party Sync again, and turn in the quest for full XP. What was once a quest that would take 5 minutes now takes 30 seconds. Also Party Sync allows you to repeat quests once per day. So if you have never done the quests in that area you could front load them as previously mentioned, log in and turn them in before using Party Sync to reset them and do them a second time.
On this same point, I feel that quest chains such as The Ring of Blood in the very north of Nagrand (Outland) and Amphitheater of Anguish in Northrend will be used by speed levelers in Shadowlands. Each of these quest chains only takes minutes to complete and give massive amounts of experience, around an entire level.
Another layer to these tactics is using an ungrouped, tank monk put a Black Ox Statue down in a group of mobs to agro them. The person leveling can AOE the mobs down while the monk tanks. Since the statue does not do damage, only holds agro, the player gets all of the xp. If the monk did do any damage then then the xp the player would get would be insignificant at best. By not being grouped the monk gets no experience at all and provides the other player with all the benefits. Items such as the Hi-Explosive Bomb can be bought from BFA vendors and do static damage with no level requirement to use. So if trying to level in low level areas, this can be used to speed up your AOE grinding.
Easy ways to level solo
While the tips in this article work very well, they are admittedly a bit too advanced for many players. If you simply want to know how to level your character yourself, in a fast and efficient way, I recommend these guides:
Zygor Guides – These in-game leveling guides show you step-by-step how to reach max level, and they work for any version of of World of Warcraft and WoW Classic.
Joana’s Classic Leveling Guides – These detailed guides and in-game addon basically cover everything when it comes to leveling in any version of WoW Classic, including Era/vanilla, TBC, WotLK, Hardcore, Season of Mastery, and more.
- Leveling guides for World of Warcraft
- Leveling guides for WoW Classic (any version)
- Addon shows instructions inside WoW
- Navigation arrow inside WoW
- Auto-installer to install/update guides and addon
- Step-by-step instructions
- Works for any race and class
- Works for Alliance and Horde
- Adapted to Hardcore
- Being adapted to Season of Discovery in WoW Classic (ongoing)
- Monthly or yearly subscription to access ALL WoW guides
- Regular updates
- Free guide samples available
- Includes many other WoW guides for professions, dungeons, gear, gold and more
- Leveling guides for WoW Classic (any version)
- Specialized in WoW Classic
- Created by World Record holder at solo leveling 1-60
- Addon shows instructions inside WoW
- Navigation arrow inside WoW
- Step-by-step instructions
- Adapted to Hardcore
- Being adapted to Season of Discovery (ongoing)
- Works for any race and class
- Works for Alliance and Horde
- Regular updates
- Free leveling guide samples available
- Monthly subscription to access ALL WoW guides, or buy them for a one-time fee