Levelling Guide 8.0.1-8.1.0 (Long) (Patreon)

I've been working on a leveling guide for youtube, this contains all the salient information plus rather more that won't appear publicly that goes into more detail. This took over 400 hours of research. 

Many of the techniques that appear here have appeared before but may have been amended or optimized. 

As in the video I'm trying to minimize the amount of basic information in this article-there's lots of articles and videos telling you to buy goblin gliders and which zones are fastest to quest through etc. Please tell me if there is something you feel needs clarification.

Broad Overview

In Battle For Azeroth mainstream player vs environment experience gains have been heavily nerfed to the extent that the simplest optimized approach would almost avoid pve altogether for the first 90 levels.  Dungeons and questing just do not give worthwhile experience. 

Random Battlegrounds and pet battles would be the simplest basic approach and indeed mostly I actually do the former when leveling my own characters.

Random Battlegrounds. This is the fastest non-exploit way to level consistently.

For example at:

At 18-19 I got over an entire level from one win in wsg ( taking 15 minutes). 

At 24 I received almost 20% of a level for a LOSS (taking 10 minutes). 

At 74 I received just over one-third of a level for a win in Temple Of Kotmogu in 9 minutes.

At 86 I received 10% of a level for a loss in Eye Of The Storm. 

A pop-up que for a battleground takes exactly one minute and thirty seconds to expire, so it is good to have a /timer macro to make use of this time since the time waste standing around in the starting area is just wasted. 

There are many, many exploits to do with pvp in the archives here, to many to even summarize. However some very simple strategies for pvp exploitation:

-The rez-timer works on periodic 31.5 second intervals from the moment you rez so use the /timer command the second you rez and try and time your deaths so they fall outside a 31.5 second increment. Say it has been one minute and twenty seconds since your last death and you are low on health-your next rez point is 1:345 seconds -die at that exact point in time and you'll have a thirty second wait, so you might want to avoid healing to die before that point when outnumbered to gain an effective instant rez.

-If you are ranged learn how to jump on things that aren't easy to jump into, this makes you essentially invulnerable to many melee classes. I have many class-specific youtube videos to help you do this. 

-Lag7 or other lag program can be used to devastating effect to prolong speed effects which can trivialize carry-the-flag battlegrounds. 

-The PvP Resilience stat is broken in the 70-89 bracket. Prismatic elixir currently gives you as much resilience as an entire pvp set.

-Healing specs are broken at low-level and do more dps in many cases than dps specs do. In addition number of healers is probably the most important stat in determining who wins a bg-so run bg's as healer even if you are inexperienced.

-In general it is helpful to look at what the "twink" community is doing to gain an edge at low-level. Twinks are players who optimize gear sets and other abilities at low-levels for various reasons. There's a huge crossover between exploits and twinking. Twinkinfo.com is the main website for twinks.

2. Pet Battles 

This has an excellent synergy with BG's since a pet battle should not usually take longer than a bg que does to pop. The basic strategy for this is to use a friend or alt mage to port a player to high-level location where they can pet battle at the maximum pet battle level of 25 (or at least somewhere close to it).

Much has been made of a reddit post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/91srxg/with_all_the_complaints_recently_on_how_leveling/

here, which requires the low-level player to go to Mistfall Village in the Vale Of The Eternal Blossoms. The claim of 3-4 levels an hour is accurate at low-level, assuming no practical problems, which is optimistic. For example 10 pet battles are needed to level the player from 22-23 which takes around 12-15 minutes (4-5 levels an hour) with no distractions (see below). 

These numbers decline a lot as you rise in level though: it requires 22 battles to level the player from 49-50 which takes almost half an hour (2 player levels an hour).  By 99 it takes 50 minutes to an hour to get to a 100 this way.

The above numbers assume that you can always get another pet battle instantly and that you won't get eaten by the surrounding wildlife, neither of which is accurate. There is actually an exploit which helps with these things I discovered which is very useful for when you have exhausted all the pets in close proximity:

Exploit: Aggro a critter you want to pet battle in range of a dangerous mob by using taunt or some non-lethal ability such as spellsteal at range. The critter will usually attack you. Now drop combat or move out of range and the critter will go back to its original location, however you can activate a pet battle as it is evading. This exploit strategy sounds ridiculous (and it is) but it significantly increases your xp per hour from this approach.

The reddit post mentions a complex array of pets that need to be acquired to farm Mistfall: in fact I can win a battle there in an average of about one minute twenty seconds using just one pet: the Teroclaw Hatchling, available from here: https://www.wowhead.com/object=230643/teroclaw-nest. Blizzard insist on you levelling at least one pet before you buy any level 25 pets off the AH so you will need to level the hatchling up: you can mostly do this just by finding appropriate level opponents and spamming a basic attack. It will take you 20-30 minutes to do this. 

Disclaimer: I have not tested the reddit "moth" strategy but I'm fairly certain it is both expensive and saves little or no time relative to the Hatchling strategy. 

Level 1-15

As always this bracket is just questing and/or mob grinding and can be concluded in as little as half an hour.  You may want to set your hearthstone to the Legerdemain Lounge in Legion Dalaran via mage portal as the portal network there is the best hub in the game.

Level 15-60

There's a number of basic approaches which can be effective. We have dealt with the battleground/pet battle approach already. 

1. Rares. These gives thousands of XP at low-level. An add-on such as NPCscan is useful for this approach. 

As soon as you reach your starting zone max level (20) go to your capital city and return to the zone by hearthing. Switch on "war mode". You will find that rares in the zone are usually all up. The reason that is that only max level players will be in a starting zone and they will have no interest in killing rares. You can get a clean sweep and gain a ton of xp.

One approach I'm using very effective currently at Bael'Modan Excavation point in the Southern Barrens is to find a clump of rares which spawn in close proximity, kill them all, then realm transfer by flying a class trial into the area and forming a group, and then killing all the rares again. You can also fly level 1's to the area if you have a flying mount. This gets you up to 5 levels an hour of time played in the twenties-remaining an excellent method up to 60. This is my favourite leveling method from 20-60 currently.

2. Scarlet Monastery Zombies. 

This concept I published here a while back, it was the original idea of a guy called "Laptop Menace" who sent me the concept via youtube. Go to Scarlet Monastery, kill the scarlet mobs around the corpse piles near the entrance, but do not destroy the piles.

This is quite tough to do with a level-appropriate character though you might be able to do it with cc and excellent gear providing you don't mind dying a few times. I'd recommend grouping with a high-level character you have though. 

Have the high-level leave and the low-level character enter. The low-level character should be able to kill all the low-level mobs that spawn fairly easily. This gets 3-4 levels per hour depending on class from 20-40 and is still getting 2-3 levels from 40-60. You will need decent gear and enchants for this approach.

This can be done almost entirely afk, you just need an autoclicker program which can be downloaded for free off google, bound to an aoe ability. 

3. Quest Pet Exploitation. 

These are methods to exploit quest pets in a given area to speedily complete quests or grind mobs. Since 7.35 these methods have become more valuable due to the scaling. I have written about many quest pets before, the latest of which is:

Redridge Mountains Gnoll Farm (Alliance-only). Quest through the Redridge Mountains questline to the penultimate quest "Showdown At Stonewatch". You will gain the use of a rambo-themed group of characters with some ridiculously over-powered abilities. They can be taken anywhere in the zone, which is full of instant or hyperspawn mobs and can grind mobs for you mostly afk (not entirely as they despawn every 5 minutes or so) if you want as well as rares. Somewhat depending on what you actually do and how actively you play you can get around 3 levels an hour from 20-40 and 2 from 40-60. 

As in my previous leveling guide, quest NPC's "Johnny Awesome" and "Apothecary Lydon" can be glitched by the horde using the method explained in my public video here at exactly this timestamp : https://youtu.be/q0oD3CF3XOk?t=905 .That section also covers the "Farmer Army" Alliance players can acquire in the Western Plaguelands. Finally, Horde players can gain an almost infinite army of Orc Sea Dogs using this method here: https://youtu.be/sK9A3_xZPlE?t=475 .

None of these methods have changed significantly since I published them-indeed apart from the scaling changes in 7.3.5 they haven't changed since Cataclysm.

4.Blackrock Stronghold Instant Respawn Farm (requires monk).  Blackrock Stronghold in Burning Steppes has a large number of orcs in front of it. With the use of a class trial brewmaster monk and an ox statue the mobs can be essentially pacified and a low-level character can just dps them down. Even at 59 I could do this in just over two minutes and get almost 15% of a level(!). 

The process is a bit more complex than it seems because you have to kill an additional group of trash to the right of Blackrock Stronghold to force a respawn, and not all of the trash respawns instantly. That said doing this at four levels an hour is possible, especially with a guild battle standard and/or war mode on (only recommended on low population realms, realm transfer method above recommended for high-pop players). 

Level 60-90

This bracket is horrendous for mainstream pve. Unless you have a strong aversion to them I strongly recommend the battlegrounds/pet battles and bypassing this bracket altogether. 

From 60-63 I would recommend you do whatever you were doing from 60-63 as your increased power compensates for the reduced xp gain for the first few levels. You may also want to boost your low-level character through all the dungeons in the Auchindoun area in Terrokar Forest, Outland this is not a good way to gain xp by itself but the quests are worth doing. Access to Auchindoun is relatively easy if you set your hearth to Legion Dalaran, as there is a portal to Shatrath which is only a short distance away. 

Grinding does not seem to work at these levels no matter how fast the mobs respawn. The one possible exception to this is Magister's Terrace.   It is possible to use the following complicated strategy, but you will need a high-level monk (class trials do not work in instances):

1. Form a group with high-level monk in brewmaster spec and leveling character. Have the leveling character enter Magister's Terrace and aggro a mob, then leave, and invite the monk to a group.

2. Run through dungeon with monk, killing the first boss and aggroing all trash. Slowly pull all the trash up to Vexallus back slowly towards the entrance. Be especially careful that the worms don't leash. Put down an ox statue.

3. Have the leveling character leave the group and kill all trash. The Brightscale wyrms give a 1% damage buff when killed which stacks. This speeds up the process a lot.

Classes which deal physical damage can also benefit from poor scaling with NPC's who use "Battle Shout" temporarily. For example, Dragonmaw Marauders, 

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=46310/dragonmaw-marauder

 in the Twilight Highlands have a buff which increases physical abilities by up to 400% for Horde Players. There is a similar buff from the Forsaken mob in Vengeance Landing, Howling Fjord:

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=23865/vengeance-bringer

There are some class-specific opportunities: for example Death Knights can co-opt some of the powerful mobs in Icecrown and grind the instantly respawning mobs on the Broken Front. Mages can find spellsteal buffs in a number of locations which can grind mobs at super-speed (see archives). 

Level 90-110 

This bracket has comparatively little interest for exploiters due to the fact it is so quick without any real need for exploits. Some claim to be able to level 90-100 in 2 hours by focusing on bonus objectives and treasues, using add-ons such as handy notes, and using the xp potion from the garrison. As has been mentioned numerous times by me and others you can bypass the lengthy introductory scenario to Draenor by visiting a cave in the South-East of the Timeless Isle in Pandaria. 

I find the 2 hour figure optimistic but it certainly does not take that much time. One (relatively minor) problem is that mobs scale higher than previously and for this reason the follow exploit helps quite a bit: each zone of Draenor has some kind of special ability after some short introductory quests. For example, you get artillery strikes in Talador and a tank in Nagrand. These are very powerful abilities gated by cooldowns. These are reset when you enter a bg or arena. It is actually worth it because of this to do arena even if you know nothing about it and lose every match. It is a surprising fact that losing arenas gives you 2.5% of a level. 

Arena que pop-ups last thirty seconds - use /timer to enter at the last second and waste as little time as possible. You will then have to wait 15 seconds for the arena to start. I generally complete the arena-you can in theory just quit after combat has been initiated with no issues gaining 2.5% xp for thirty seconds non-activity. Then you can launch artillery strikes or whatever at everything in the Draenor zone you've been returned to. 

An alternative approach with a confederate-and this is very attractive for players without Draenor flying, is to use the infamous "Goren cave" (65.6,31.4) in Frostfire Ridge-this has a bunch of eggs that spawn goren when you walk over them and which die a few seconds later.  It is really, really easy to get killed here due to mob density and the elite mob which patrols through the cave-I would highly recommend farming this with a class trial brewmaster monk putting down a statue. In addition to the fast respawns from the eggs the Brood Mother elite spawns multiple adds which make for very fast xp farming.

While Draenor is not that hard to level through, at 98 you want to start Legion content due to the weirdly scaled-down mobs in the Broken Isles, which are very easy to kill currently. I level exclusively with Demon Invasions (check when they are here: https://wow.gameinfo.io/invasions), Battlegrounds and bonus objectives which are rarely mentioned but offer almost as much xp as the invasions do. 

Gathering Professions

Gathering professions appear to be scaling better than mob xp, one herb or node generating several kills worth of experience, and benefit from rested xp. I would recommend taking both mining and herbalism while levelling even if you plan to use other professions later. Especially during the horrendous 63-90 phase you really need the extra xp.

Soloing/Boosting

I attempted to solo various dungeons using various classes and specs. With one exception it was not possible to solo dungeons. The exception was the Holy Paladin. I managed to solo all of Ragefire Chasm as Holy with little more than basic looms. However it was not efficient: 35 mins to complete the dugngeon yielding only one level in experience. The problem was that the vast majority of time was spent healing. 

I tested so many class combinations I was almost literally burned out for continuing research in this area, however, it may be possible for a holy paladin with an optimized  gear set to boost players particulary at some critical scaling point, or simply level up personally, as a practical matter. 

Finally...

 BFA content has been the subject of all kinds of (non-)leveling exploits on Ownedcore and elsewhere-all of which to date have just seemed to vastly increase the amount of leveling time required to hit 120 relative to questing or better still battlegrounds. I'd be very willing to examine proof to the contrary but at the moment these seem to be the best approaches.

Of course you can automate some of the instant respawn farms such as Daelin's Gate in Kul Tiras relatively easily, but this is only fast in the sense that you don't have to expend your own personal time on levelling-the automated approach is slower than questing in terms of CPU time.

There has been some excitement over the recently increased accessibility of island expeditions: but they aren't any faster than levelling and are slower than battlegrounds. EDIT: It seems that others are doing island expeditions about 10-20% faster than questing so I guess my experience was unrepresentative. 

 With a guide this long and comprehensive as always, I'd greatly appreciate any corrections or suggestions. One thing I found during the assembling  process of this guide is that wow is so vast it is quite impossible for any one to figure out the true optimal path at each stage.