What is the best leveling path right now?

[Rorke]

It depends. If you can get in when no one is around, the quest density is really high and efficient to run. But if it's packed with people the respawns will be hell.

You keep going on about Quest density as if it matters when it doesn't matter when the quests themselves take FOREVER to complete. I just did both Stranglethorn zones on an alt rogue I was leveling the other week and holy shit it was terrible. Northern Stranglethorn has quests like the ones at rebel camp that force you to go to that camp and back three fucking times and then there's the quest that sends you into the cave to kill all the rebel guys which is FILLED with enemies that just slow you down and the cave goes so far in its ridiculous. The worst thing is that there's no innkeeper at rebel camp so you're forced to run back out. It sucks and there's fucking panthers everywhere in the jungle ready to slow you down by dismounting you.

Then there's the troll quests that they send you to go back and forth to kill guys. The fucking raptor pet quests are also slow there's one where you have to wait for him to dig shit up it sucks. There's also another quest that forces you to kill shaman trolls for a totem to drop and there's so few of these mobs that you're stuck waiting because other people are stuck waiting because the drop rate is trash.

There's some crocodile quest that forces you to swim in fucking water to kill 100 crocodiles because the drop rate is shit and you waste so much time going from one mob to the next because the enemies are so spread out and there's other people killing them stuck on the same shitty quest. The hunting quests where you have to kill 15 of each animal suck too because it takes way too long and all of the animals are so spread out from eachother that you spend so much time roaming the fucking map to complete these worthless quests.

Then there's the cape which sucks right off the bat because they first send you to a cave and then come back only to go across the map again to kill tigers and naga. But that's not even the worst because the worst is when you get to booty bay and they send you 100 times back and forth to complete quests which take forever. Once you get to the pirate quests it slows down even more because they force you to swim through fucking water again seriously you need a strider or else you're fucked in this area because there's water EVERYWHERE. They even make you swim to an island to complete another quest chain. It's just swim swim swim its awful.

I would recommend both STV zones to NO ONE unless you enjoy wasting your time. I can't understand how people find Duskwood to be too much backtracking when both STV zones are 100x worse. Duskwood is actually decent once you have an epic mount and know the quest layout to reduce the amount of times you need to backtrack. The thing that sucks about Duskwood are the shitty quests with the low drop rates like the first few you get from that cook that makes you kill those spiders. That quest sucks and people are stuck there too because its the first quest in the zone and the drop rate is shit so you're again competing with other people for drops.

I'd still ignore Duskwood though. There's better zones to go to at 40 like Felwood. Badlands and Searing Gorge are surprisingly good too I used to go to those zones all the time before the leveling change because the quests are so easy and fast. Badlands literally hands you quest exp like its fucking candy when you get to the section with the dwarf dudes its insane.

On horde side the quest density is so high that it's almost ridiculous. I can't imagine that Alliance is much different since most of the zone is neutral. Cata revamped a lot of the vanilla quests to make them more streamlined too.

The zone is perfect for 60-62 when you have flight.

Never did horde side but I do know the alliance side sucks because its old quests. Maybe with flying its fast but the fucking quest layout is horrible unless you know it from the inside out. Last time I did that zone I regretted it.

[SirCowdog]

You keep going on about Quest density as if it matters when it doesn't matter when the quests themselves take FOREVER to complete.

Quest density AND efficiency.

Look, I'm not saying STV is a great zone. I'm saying it can be a good option if you've already cleared the better zones and hit it at the right time of day. That's not exactly a glowing recommendation from me personally, but other people have had very good results, so I included it in the list. YMMV.

[Alduin]

So after I leveld my fourth allied race to 110 and finally got all heritage armor (atleast until they release the other races) I want to share some thoughts on the leveling process over all:

Hell it sucks. I do not know what Blizzard thought when introducing scaling but some areas (especially 80-100) are broken, e.g. Draenor content. I got my 10 alts to Level 100 in WoD and neither the intro quest nor the zones where as difficult as they currently are. I seriously have no clue how you want to kill 30x 400k HP "mobs" in the intro quest when merely doing 0.8k DPS as character.

But here are my results:
- first char used the infamous greater argus invasion point abuse and got to level 110 in around 17h. Boring experience but you could do some other things beside.
- second char used a mix of method-0 and questing (after the nerf). I used my second account as the constant relogging is kinda annoying. I went for RFC until 37, Stratholme until 60, Hellfire Ramparts til 80, Blackrock caverns til 90, Draenor Intro Quest, Bloodmaul Slag Mines til 98, Artifact Intro Quest and Highmountain. Full Heirloom Gear used, Bear Tartare for the shuttle. I hit instance lock out several times and used the remaining 20-30min (until lock out was lifted) to read a book or do something productive. Short: Stratholme is great due to several extra encounters. However you need a shuttle char (e.g. Druid) that can port to his Order Hall and back. Draenor Intro quest did cost me around 2h more than I would have liked. Temple of the Jade Serpent was of limits due to that freaking bug at the first boss. The method-0 is highly focused on Dungeon Completion Bonus - which got nerfed a while back (around 20% average per Instance). Overall time: 1d 15h. Also: Do buy off set items when you hit level 98 as the damage of your pets and your char will increased highly.
- third char and my most hated one: Tanking from level 20 to 110. You sign up for random dungeons and quest through Ashenvale - Feldwood - Winterspring - Borean Tundra - Dragonbligh - Grizzly/ZulDrak (Arena) - Draenor. You have to wait 5-10min (instead of 20 when going for DPS) and you can dictate the speed. This method is aimed for Group Finder bonus XP and Dungeon completion. Got to level 110 in 1d 4h - but you lose confidence in mankind. RFC with good groups took 15-25min, with bad 35min+. If you get a good group ask them if they want to run several dungeons together (most will stay). Tactic highly depends on capable healer (!!) and DPS - which you will not find many. With Full Heirloom Gear I was #1 DPS around 80% of the time I spent in Dungeons. PS: Use monk!
- fourth and final char: Healing from 20 to 110. See third char but you go for heal. You will find way more capable tanks than healers - reducing my time to level 110 to around 22h played. If you find a good tank, try to convince him to run multiple dungeons.

If you go for Horde as DPS you can do as #3.
I would highly recommend to go Warlock or Hunter.
Tipp for new joiner: Cloth Haste Heirlooms (for mage, priest, warlock) are insanely good and can later be used for other good classes to level, same goes for Leather Haste Heirlooms (monk, druid). Also go the level 110 upgrades on all +% xp items as they scale up to itemlevel 800 in Legion and are reducing your overall time spent in Legion content to under 5h best case. You most likely will not finish the zone you started in.
Use Invasion Points UNLESS you are going to hit 110 that day. If you have completed the Invasion World Quests you cannot finish the scenario at max level, losing you the item rewards.
Don't forget to talk to your fraction leader to unlock the heritage armor.
And - buy yourself fast flying asap.

At level 110 get your Unsullied gear from you mains, start the Argus quest (most likely for your third relict increasing your artifact weapon to 910+), trade in your Nethershards at broken shore, trade your lowest itemlevel gear/relict in for the 650 Argunite Reward, go for invasions and go for world quests. Go LFR or buy yourself an Argus NHC or HC clear run.

[SirCowdog]

Tanking from level 20 to 110. Got to level 110 in 1d 4h
Healing from 20 to 110. time to level 110 to around 22h played.

So much for the complaints that both Dungeon spam isn't effective, and that leveling takes 5x longer than before the patch. :/

Granted this isn't going to fully apply to classes that can't tank or heal. But it's not like questing is that much worse if you follow the guide and stay focused.

Did you run into any particularly inefficient dungeons? Last time I ran Diremaul, for instance, it was painfully bad, both in terms of exp/h and quest rewards. Not worth it at all.

[Alduin]

Dungeon Spam is kind of effective if you get a decently good tank/heal combination and maybe one decent DPS.
- yes there are some areas which provide decent XP via Quests and
- yes there are some parts of the grind where Dungeons are more effective.

Some parts of the grind allow a good mix of dungeons-quest but honestly between 60 - 100 it feels weak with WoD content currently being worst (close to broken in certain areas).

Dungeons "fun" ranking (personal view):
Top Tier: RFC, Stockades, Stratholme Main Gate, Hellfire Ramparts, Shattered Halls, - pretty much anything that is straight forward without patrols or "hidden" groups someone can pull.
Upper Tier: Deadmines, Scarlet Monastery, Scholomance, Zul Farrak, Blackrock Detention Block, Coilfang - anything clear but maybe a little bit more trash than really required.
Good Tier: Oculus - anything were you need 3 of 5 people know their stuff.
Okay Tier: Cataclysm and MoP Dungeons - anything you get bored of while playing. WoD because some people do not have full heirloom gear to do the required damage.
Please No Tier: Wailing Caverns (even after revamp), Maraudon, Dire Mail, Auchidoun - anything you have to run back and forth and do senseless stuff.
What the hell Tier: Instances like Pit of Saron, Halls of Reflection etc. that are/were clearly broken in Timewalking already. I got them both once and thankfully not another time as your tank can randomly die to trash DPS.

In terms of leveling you can cross of a lot of post-wrath dungeons as they do not have a lot of quests and yield little to few XP. Same counts to Legion Dungeons which yield nothing comparable to Invasion Points. I got lucky with my runs in most cases - but if I could delete some dungeons it would hit all of Wailing Caverns, Maraudon, Dire Maul, Auchidoun, Caverns of Time, late Wrath Dungeons (e.g. Pit of Saron, Trial of Champions, Halls of Reflection), Oculus. They are FUBAR - whilst the others would only need some slight adjustments to HP/mechanics as sometimes the group may not be fitted to dispel poisons/interrupt every 10sec/do certain stuff to counter a mechanic.

But it is nowhere close to a relatable effort to invest 22h (minimum) into a skin that only that one race can wear.

Oh and for "new" players that do not have heirlooms, do not understand certain mechanics or do not know the dungeons it would preferably be great to give them some tools. RFC is straight forward, Wailing Caverns (which you might get after) asks way to much. Some "low level class trials" for at least key skills of your class could help. I had tanks in my group that did not use Shield Block/Ignore Pain, Death Strike or defensive cooldowns at all (so you heal 50-80% more than you should). If they got told to use it more frequently they instantly became "better". There must be a lot of frustrated "new" players ...

[monchwow]

I was looking through my bank and found 2x MoP 300%+ potions that used to drop from rare mobs. These aren't the ones you can sell so they are BoA only.

Anyway, would Method-0 be the optimal way to use these potions?

Questing is terrible and method0 is ok. I just hate the relogging etc.

All I want is the heritage armor.

[BicycleMafioso]

Method 0 would be optimal, but convincing a guildie to run you through dungeons is even better.

[SirCowdog]

I was looking through my bank and found 2x MoP 300%+ potions that used to drop from rare mobs. These aren't the ones you can sell so they are BoA only.

Anyway, would Method-0 be the optimal way to use these potions?

Questing is terrible and method0 is ok. I just hate the relogging etc.

All I want is the heritage armor.

How long do they last?

Stockades takes ~2 minutes to run with a 110. If you've only got 15 minutes of 300% experience, then I'd recommend not just using method-0, but rather dual boxing or getting a guildy to run you until dungeon lockout. If you're on the ball, you should be able to crank out 10 stockades runs in 15 minutes. RFC will take longer if you're horde, and I wouldn't recommend it.

Alternatively you could save it for the WoD level range so you can set up all your bonus objectives with everything finished but 1 kill or click, slam the potion, then quickly fly around and complete as many as you can before the 15 minutes runs out. This would work with the 60 minute potion too, but you could gather treasures after the bonus objectives all the way from 90-102.

If you have an hour long potion, then Method-0 will be a little better, especially if you're doing Ramparts. Each Ramparts run takes maybe 5-6 minutes, so you could do about 10 in the time the potion lasts. It takes the same amount of time with a guildy to run you through, so that would work too. This would effectively knock out the 58-74 range where most people are slogging through WotLK quests.

I might also consider burning one potion starting at 73-74 for solo Kara trash clears. Do a run through without an exp pot to make sure you know the route and can clear it efficiently. Pop it, then repeatedly do that run until the potion expires or you reach level 81-82.

Barring that, if you know the quests really well, you could pop it for MoP/Cata questing to boost you through the deadzone between Kara clears at 81, to heroic ZG runs at 88. You'll want to set up a bunch of quests so that you pop the potion then immediately hand them in, then race to the next set.

The one thing I would definitely NOT do is use the pots for LFD runs. You never know if you'll get an AFK turd, or a bad group that could waste your potion.

Whatever you end up doing, let us know how it works.

[Deleted]

Just boost it for money, not worth the time if you just want to rush level 110.

[YouWillAllAnswerToSithis]

My guess would be to start with zones that have less quests and flat terrain, saving your favorite ones toward the end of each leveling bracket and filling in extra areas with dungeon grinding, with the key element of being as quick as possible.

[Deleted]

I might also consider burning one potion starting at 73-74 for solo Kara trash clears. Do a run through without an exp pot to make sure you know the route and can clear it efficiently. Pop it, then repeatedly do that run until the potion expires or you reach level 81-82.

optimal route for Kharazan*:
>76 trash Midnight and basement (dogs, spiders, rare) ca. 6min per (ca.66% lvl), opera etc trash takes too much time until:
76+ trash Midnight -> collect trash upstairs from midnight to kitchen to Moroes -> collect trash from maiden until basement. ETA 12-13min, 66%(76)-33%@80 (x3 if Elixier of Rapid Mind/Wisdom)
81+ xp gain reduced massively.

*minor disclaimer: sophisticated prot paladin with up-to-lvl crafts for non Heirloom slots. started at 71, couldnt pull more than 3 mobs, Legacy buff at 72 with 20k+dps (Lightforged racial ftw), 73 pulling 3-4 packs, 74+ clearing area on one pull (btw jumping while moving allows a 90 degree turn to attack while moving forward)


/edit: Darkmoon Faire quests 1lvl (without XP-pot) 4-8k depending on AH prices for quest items. DONT FORGET THE CAROUSEL XP-BUFF (i did)

[monchwow]

How long do they last?

Stockades takes ~2 minutes to run with a 110. If you've only got 15 minutes of 300% experience, then I'd recommend not just using method-0, but rather dual boxing or getting a guildy to run you until dungeon lockout. If you're on the ball, you should be able to crank out 10 stockades runs in 15 minutes. RFC will take longer if you're horde, and I wouldn't recommend it.

Alternatively you could save it for the WoD level range so you can set up all your bonus objectives with everything finished but 1 kill or click, slam the potion, then quickly fly around and complete as many as you can before the 15 minutes runs out. This would work with the 60 minute potion too, but you could gather treasures after the bonus objectives all the way from 90-102.

If you have an hour long potion, then Method-0 will be a little better, especially if you're doing Ramparts. Each Ramparts run takes maybe 5-6 minutes, so you could do about 10 in the time the potion lasts. It takes the same amount of time with a guildy to run you through, so that would work too. This would effectively knock out the 58-74 range where most people are slogging through WotLK quests.

I might also consider burning one potion starting at 73-74 for solo Kara trash clears. Do a run through without an exp pot to make sure you know the route and can clear it efficiently. Pop it, then repeatedly do that run until the potion expires or you reach level 81-82.

Barring that, if you know the quests really well, you could pop it for MoP/Cata questing to boost you through the deadzone between Kara clears at 81, to heroic ZG runs at 88. You'll want to set up a bunch of quests so that you pop the potion then immediately hand them in, then race to the next set.

The one thing I would definitely NOT do is use the pots for LFD runs. You never know if you'll get an AFK turd, or a bad group that could waste your potion.

Whatever you end up doing, let us know how it works.

The potions last 1hour.

I might trudge along to lvl 60+ before burning a pot.

I tried method 0 on Strat but you I see that you have to divide the bosses in half and log/relog/kill around the middle of the instance and get the latter at the end. It is about 12k per clear. Felt slow that's why I'm asking if it's worth it to burn a pot.
level 1-60 just seems slooooooow.

90-110 is a whole lot faster with draenor flying and legion invasions.

My goal is to get 110 for each class. I had all 100+ but I want the heritage armor.

Does anyone know if you can boost with the lvl 100 Class trials? I dn't have any 110 alliance so might have to faction change one of my 110's to unlock the alliance allied races and then level 20-110 for their heritage armor.

[Vargur]

Imo:

1-60 feels normal.
61-80 is ABSOLUTELY HORRENDOUS. This on its own took more time than everything else combined.
81-90 is super fast.
91-100 is pretty fast if you treasure hunt and do bonus objectives.
101-110 is normal.

If the 60-80 bracket was better then the heritage armour grind would actually not be too bad, but as it is, it's just a massive wall.

This is with both heirlooms and flying. I would refuse to do anymore without them.

Do you even use Zygor?

[SirCowdog]

The potions last 1hour.

I might trudge along to lvl 60+ before burning a pot.

I tried method 0 on Strat but you I see that you have to divide the bosses in half and log/relog/kill around the middle of the instance and get the latter at the end. It is about 12k per clear. Felt slow that's why I'm asking if it's worth it to burn a pot.
level 1-60 just seems slooooooow.

90-110 is a whole lot faster with draenor flying and legion invasions.

My goal is to get 110 for each class. I had all 100+ but I want the heritage armor.

Does anyone know if you can boost with the lvl 100 Class trials? I dn't have any 110 alliance so might have to faction change one of my 110's to unlock the alliance allied races and then level 20-110 for their heritage armor.

I did a test leveling only with Method-zero after the nerf. Alliance side doing stockade runs from 20-58, then ramparts from 58-74.

For Stockades you just round up the entire dungeon, park just outside aggro range of the NPC guards, log to your lowbie, log back to your 110 and AOE. Rinse and repeat.

For Ramps you do the same thing, only slightly different. Round up the entire dungeon except for Omor(batman). Park anywhere in the red, log to your lowbie, log back to your 110 and AOE. Immediately run to Omor and one-shot. Run out of the instance with both characters. Rinse and repeat. (If you're not carful to run up against a wall, some of the NPCs with their knockup attack will potentially throw your 110 out of the instance, off a bridge, or back down to the entrance, causing the whole dungeon to attack your lowbie).

Stockades will give ~30% of a level at level 20(with 50% exp heirloom buff), which slowly drops to 14% of a level by 57, and takes 2 minutes per run.

Ramparts will give ~30 of a level at level 58, which slowly drops to about 15% by level 80 and take 5-6 minutes per run.

With a 300% exp pot this should be retardedly fast leveling. Although several people have claimed that efficiently questing through low level zones while queuing for random dungeons as a tank or healer is actually faster. One guy in this thread said he reached level 57 in 9 hours flat doing this.

Given that you only get an hour of bonus exp, I'd probably use it during the ramparts phase. Level 20-60 is easy and painless and doesn't take much time, so no need for a potion there, and you risk wasting some of the potion buff due to instance lockout. Because ramparts takes 5-6 minutes each time(practice the run first before using the pot!) you should get the entire length of the potion buff with maximum experience per hour without hitting the instance lockout. And, for me at least, level 58-74 is the slowest part of the leveling process.

This is going to be more efficient if you have a guildy or friend(or dual box!) running you through the dungeon instead of using Method-0. If that's the case I'd maybe save the pot for the 90-100 range and just fly around grabbing treasures. You'd probably go from 90 to 100 before the buff ran out if you're super efficient.

[Delaios]

It sucks and there's fucking panthers everywhere in the jungle ready to slow you down by dismounting you.

That really depends. If you need to kill them for a quest, they are nowhere to be found.

After recently leveling a character through both STV zones I fully agree with your post. The only quests that are semi decent are the kill X creature quests (minus the stealthy panthers ofc) because they auto-complete. The rebel camp is in an awkward position, the starting camp in the cape is in an awkward position and Booty Bay is the worst of all.

Duskwood also has the occasional quest suffering from poor respawn rates. Took me ~15 minutes to complete a single quest due to some zombie mobs taking a long time to spawn.

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

whats the fastest way from 58-80 horde?

[SirCowdog]

whats the fastest way from 58-80 horde?

Same as alliance. Method Zero in ramparts or:

58-73:

Northrend quests while queuing for Utgarde Keep, Ramparts, and Blood Furnace. TBC quests, despite seeming nostalgic, are literally twice as slow as Northrend.

Alternatively, stay in "Vanilla" zones until 62. Flying and outleveling enemies will speed up your questing significantly, and more than offset the penalty for outleveling the content. This is especially good for people who despise TBC/Northrend.

74-81:

Set your dungeon difficulty to heroic and proceed to solo every TBC dungeon. Alternatively, Karazhan trash clears(Kill all beast boss, Morose, Maiden trash, exit, reset. DO NOT KILL ANY BOSSES) serve the same purpose.

NOTE: Some people are saying it's possible to start kara trash as early as level 70. YMMV depending on class, spec, enchants, and such. If you can manage it, I'd recommend it. That trash is crazy exp/h.

[monchwow]

I did a test leveling only with Method-zero after the nerf. Alliance side doing stockade runs from 20-58, then ramparts from 58-74.

For Stockades you just round up the entire dungeon, park just outside aggro range of the NPC guards, log to your lowbie, log back to your 110 and AOE. Rinse and repeat.

For Ramps you do the same thing, only slightly different. Round up the entire dungeon except for Omor(batman). Park anywhere in the red, log to your lowbie, log back to your 110 and AOE. Immediately run to Omor and one-shot. Run out of the instance with both characters. Rinse and repeat. (If you're not carful to run up against a wall, some of the NPCs with their knockup attack will potentially throw your 110 out of the instance, off a bridge, or back down to the entrance, causing the whole dungeon to attack your lowbie).

Stockades will give ~30% of a level at level 20(with 50% exp heirloom buff), which slowly drops to 14% of a level by 57, and takes 2 minutes per run.

Ramparts will give ~30 of a level at level 58, which slowly drops to about 15% by level 80 and take 5-6 minutes per run.

With a 300% exp pot this should be retardedly fast leveling. Although several people have claimed that efficiently questing through low level zones while queuing for random dungeons as a tank or healer is actually faster. One guy in this thread said he reached level 57 in 9 hours flat doing this.

Given that you only get an hour of bonus exp, I'd probably use it during the ramparts phase. Level 20-60 is easy and painless and doesn't take much time, so no need for a potion there, and you risk wasting some of the potion buff due to instance lockout. Because ramparts takes 5-6 minutes each time(practice the run first before using the pot!) you should get the entire length of the potion buff with maximum experience per hour without hitting the instance lockout. And, for me at least, level 58-74 is the slowest part of the leveling process.

This is going to be more efficient if you have a guildy or friend(or dual box!) running you through the dungeon instead of using Method-0. If that's the case I'd maybe save the pot for the 90-100 range and just fly around grabbing treasures. You'd probably go from 90 to 100 before the buff ran out if you're super efficient.

Good advice! Thanks.

The potions only work for up to lvl 84.
http://www.wowhead.com/item=86574/el...ient-knowledge

the other 300% one that you can sell on AH works up to 99.

[Ozzyorcborne]

I just skipped WoD intro and stuck at Gorgrond since the fly point is not connected to anything I'm so sad now...

Why would you want to skip that? you get almost a full levels worth of xp out of it. Picks up more with the xp pots.

[SirCowdog]

Good advice! Thanks.

The potions only work for up to lvl 84.
http://www.wowhead.com/item=86574/el...ient-knowledge

the other 300% one that you can sell on AH works up to 99.

That's good to know. Then yeah, I'd personally use it for Ramparts runs.

- - - Updated - - -

Why would you want to skip that? you get almost a full levels worth of xp out of it. Picks up more with the xp pots.

Because it's slower than treasure runs using flying.