An Introduction to Speedy Leveling
From Exile’s Reach to the Dragon Isles, your journey will take you far
Speedrunning is a popular challenge for players to take on in many games. In World of Warcraft, players often race to defeat powerful foes with haste, battle to see who the quickest gold making goblin really is, and speed through the leveling process for whatever reason they see fit.
Why Should I Level Fast?
Why should you hit 70 quickly? To have these muscles, of course!
Everyone has their own reasons for wanting to level up quickly. Some want to catch up with their friends. Some want to try endgame content as a new class. Some simply enjoy the rush. Whatever your reason(s) may be, this guide will help you get to 70 in no time.
Getting Started: Before WoW Loads
Gnomish creations are great, but not as life changing as addons
The following addons can be installed in CurseForge and are all free. Follow the steps below to get a good start on your leveling journey!
- Download CurseForge at https://www.curseforge.com/
- Install the following addons as they pertain to you. Each one listed below will have reasoning next to it. If an addon does not appeal to you, there is no need to download it
- TomTom is almost essential for any WoW player. It makes tracking your destination significantly easier! https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/tomtom
- Hekili Priority Helper will help you win more and die less if you’re leveling to try out a new specialization. https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/hekili
- RareScanner helps you find rare creatures as they appear. These beasts provide a lot of experience, so you’ll want to slay them as you level. https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/rarescanner
- Pawn will help you decide on what gear to choose at the end of quests, saving you the time and pain of comparing manually. https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/pawn
- Questie is an endlessly helpful addon for leveling through quests. It works well with the previously mentioned TomTom–make sure to get both! https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/questie
- Deadly Boss Mods (DBM) is great for those who want to incorporate dungeons into their journey. Please look at the description at the link to see what additional versions of DBM you may need! https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/deadly-boss-mods
- World Quest Tracker is best for that 60-70 stretch on alt toons. https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/world-quest-tracker
Getting Started: Character Creation
How can you level without a character?!
While you should always choose what you’ll enjoy playing, there are a few things to consider if you really want to level at max pace. This guide uses the Exile’s Reach starting zone, as it is incredibly efficient. As a result, the following races and classes will need to skip to the 10-20 subheading after completing their own starting zones.
- Death Knights
- Demon Hunters
- Allied Races such as Void Elves and Nightborne
Do not skip ahead, even if your starting zone gets you over level ten. The levels in the subheadings are more like suggestions than rules!
Additionally, some classes have easier rotations when leveling along with better movement speed. These classes might be good picks for speedy leveling. The hard work of narrowing this down to the best leveling specializations has already been done for you!
- Hunter – Beast Mastery specialization
- Monk – Windwalker specialization
- Druid – Feral specialization
Actually Getting Started…On Your Main
If you already have a max level character, this is about to get a whole lot easier!
If you do not already have a character on your account at level 70, please disregard this section and consider leveling at an easy pace–especially if this is your first time playing World of Warcraft.
- Get some gold to transfer to your leveling alt. This gold can be used to purchase consumables and bind on equip (BoE) gear if your alt ever needs it
- Purchase Mount Equipment to send to your alt. Comfortable Rider’s Barding is suggested, as it will prevent you from being dazed while mounted. You can find more information at https://www.wowhead.com/items/miscellaneous/mount-equipment
- Learn about heirlooms at https://www.wowhead.com/guide/heirloom-list and then obtain the ones you think you’ll benefit from. Consider obtaining at least 35 to unlock a mount usable at level 1! https://www.wowhead.com/item=122703/chauffeured-chopper
- Is the Darkmoon Faire active? If so, purchase DMF quest items on the AH and mail them to your alt. These will help you purchase Darkmoon Top Hats, a consumable that increases experience gained by 10% for one hour. Learn more at https://www.wowhead.com/event=479/darkmoon-faire
- Consider getting some Draught of Ten Lands potions. These will increase experience earned by 10% until your character hits level 50. You can learn more from Harldan, the master of leveling with unbeatable speed! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejuwL40wuJk
ACTUALLY Getting Started! Levels 1-10
Think of your character like a Murloc–dumb, aggressive, and overall a noob
If you are playing an Allied Race, DK, or DH, you will need to complete your class/racial starting zone. Otherwise, when prompted by the screen to select your starting zone, select Exile’s Reach. Quest through the zone and you will easily hit level 10. If you wish, you may kill rares and loot chests, but this may slow you down unless you are incredibly methodical.
Hit the escape key to skip cutscenes if you are dedicated to getting through the leveling process as quickly as possible. If you like lore, though, you should experience the cutscenes you haven’t already seen. WoW is a wonderful MMORPG as far as storytelling goes.
To New Dalaran! Preparing for Levels 10-20
Portal hopping will save you time and allow you more freedom to set your Hearthstone in different places
Note that this step can be skipped if you are playing as a Vulpera, Dark Iron Dwarf, Mage, or Monk. All of these races/classes have abilities that make this step obsolete.
Once you complete Exile’s Reach, you’ll be in your faction capital. You may need to tour the city before this step–if so, remember that NPCs are slow to move and quick to yell for you to wait. The next few steps are simple and will save you a LOT of time and hassle!
- Find Chromie. Chromie can be found near your faction’s embassy sitting on an hourglass taller than she is…which doesn’t say much, because Chromie is short. Very short. Ahem, anyway!
- Start the Legion campaign and continue it until you speak to an NPC named Recruiter Lee (Alliance) or Holgar Stormaxe (Horde). If possible, skip the introduction. If this dialogue is not available, go ahead and do the introduction as it will save you time in the long run
- Get your Dalaran stone
- Return to Stormwind or Orgrimmar by visiting your faction’s area in Dalaran
Notes for Levels 10-20
Elwynn Forest is lush, beautiful, and filled with quests for Alliance toons
You may hit level 20 before you complete this stage. That’s okay! Keep following the guide as is until you hit 60, as these routes have been tried and tested beyond belief. Do not skip zones unless you find yourself really unhappy with the process of one. Your enjoyment should be a priority!
Once you hit level 20, you should take the fastest route to your faction’s capital and enable world PvP combat through War Mode. This will give you an experience buff. In my experience, enemy players will nervously stare at you before leaving in most cases. Being fought or killed is fairly rare.
Remember that you have immediate transport to Dalaran. This is a quick way to return to your capital. It also gives you the freedom to set your home inn to the nearest one for a quick return.
Leveling From 10 to 20
Diseased and sickly, Silverpine Forest is contrasting to Elwynn Forest. It does, however, have good quest density!
Alliance and Horde players will branch off here. Horde players might be leveling faster for this first chunk due to their zones being a bit more efficient in quest density. Alliance players leveling during the first full week of the month should be aware that the Darkmoon Faire mages provide an instant method of getting to Goldshire.
Horde players should follow these steps.
- Portal to Silvermoon, then use the Orb of Translocation to get to a zone near Silverpine Forest
- Complete all of the quests in the zone Silverpine Forest. Skip the cutscenes you can
- You’ll need to kill Korok the Colossus and a few crocodiles to pick up hidden quests. Complete the hidden quests and continue on
- The last two quests for this zone are a bit slow. Do not complete them unless you’re invested in the story. Instead, go to Hillsbrad Foothills
- Quest here until you reach the subzone The Sludge Fields. You may find yourself above level 20 by now–that’s normal
Alliance players should follow these steps.
- Get to Goldshire. Accept the quests A Fishy Peril and Further Concerns. Take the provided mount for the second quest to save time
- Once you arrive near Eastvale Logging Camp, complete all quests in this area
- You’ll be near Redridge Mountains at this point. Go over there and complete quests up until Prisoners of War. Some quests towards this one will take a hot second, but it will be worth it
- Pick up a quest for Duskwood. A few NPCs in Redridge offer it. Take a route through the southwest of Redridge Mountains to get there
- Do one cluster of quests at a time in Duskwood. Starting with the Darkshire cluster is suggested. To maximize your time, do not complete the quest that asks you to slay Mor’ladim unless you still have quests near their spawn location. This quest alone is not worth the travel
Leveling Lords of Draenor
You can become a warlord when you’re level 70 and all grown up. For now, leveling it is!
Horde and Alliance players will both need to complete the following steps.
- Speak to Chromie to start the Warlords of Draenor experience
- Talk to either the Thrallmar Mage or Honor Hold Mage, depending on your faction. This will save you a few minutes compared to the suggested NPC
- Complete the introduction questline. It is extremely efficient, according to leveling experts!
- Continue questing until your garrison is built. Alliance players should continue until offered either of these quests–Soul Shards of Summoning or Cleaning Up Gul’var. Horde players should complete their garrison and then return to Hillsbrad Foothills to finish questing. Only two quests are absolutely not worth completing. Those two quests are Stagwitches and Basic Botany. A Haunting in Hillsbrad may be worthwhile if you have other quests nearby. Horde players should then return to Draenor
The next few steps are quite different for the two factions.
- Horde players should go to Gorgrond and get to Beastwatch. There, Horde players should construct the Savage Fight Club
- Using the ability called Champion’s Honor, you can pick up some quest items. You can track these quest items at https://www.wowhead.com/achievement=9402/prove-your-strength and get them while completing the quests for Stonemaul Arena, Gronn Canyon, and Rexxar
- Avoid completing the quest Strike While the Iron is Hot
- Do the bonus quests to the south and then travel east to complete the Crimson Fen questline
- Fly to Talador and complete objectives as you travel
- Construct the Arsenal in Voljin’s Pride to unlock bonus objectives
Now, let’s look at what Alliance players should do.
- Fly to Talador and then to Fort Wrynn, completing bonus objectives as you go
- Construct the Artillery Tower and complete the bonus objectives for it
- Fly to Gorgrond, completing bonus objectives on the way, and then construct the Sparring Ring in Highpass
- Using the ability called Champion’s Honor, you can pick up some quest items. You can track these quest items at https://www.wowhead.com/achievement=9402/prove-your-strength and get them while completing the quests for Stonemaul Arena, Gronn Canyon, and Rexxar
- Avoid completing the quest Strike While the Iron is Hot
- Do the bonus quests to the south and then travel east to complete the Crimson Fen questline
- Alliance players will want to complete the Bloodthorn Cave objective and its companion quest
Spires of Arak
Depending on who you ask, this zone may not be worth it…
A lot of sources say that Spires of Arak is not a useful zone for leveling. After research, it seems like it can be useful…if used right. Build the Stoktron Brewery or the Hearthfire Tavern as soon as possible, then complete all quests in this zone. You’ll get a 20% buff to your experience gains after building your faction’s structure.
Still Not Level 60?
Don’t let this annoy you as much as a full mailbox!
If you are yet to hit level 60, don’t panic. Do some of the following zones and you’ll get there!
- Western or Eastern Plaguelands
- Cape of Stranglethorn
- Azsuna or Val’sharah
- Felwood
- Or wherever you find the lore most interesting! You’re almost there, so have fun!
The Dragon Isles!
Finally, some real adventure!
The final stretch is here, adventurers! You’re about to embark through WoW’s current expansion, Dragonflight. Before you set off, consider the following.
- If you have War Mode enabled, you’ll likely find yourself fighting more enemy players during these last ten levels than you did before. If you really hate the risk of death, consider turning it off
- You’ll want your average item level to be about 160 to quickly mow down the foes you’ll face in the beginning. You can usually find some gear on the AH for a low price that’ll get your item level to at least 160
- You can get a full level of experience from professions, specifically first craft bonuses. Pick a profession, buy the necessary materials from the auction house, and come prepared to craft. Use the website https://www.wow-professions.com/profession-leveling-guides to help you with this. The quality of the materials will not have an impact on your leveling, so buy whatever is cheapest
- If you haven’t already done Dragonflight’s main storyline, you’ll have to do it on a character before following what remains of this guide. It is extremely fun and fairly quick, so enjoy yourself and then return!
- Make sure to unlock all Dragonriding Glyphs to make travel easier
Starting Out in Dragonflight
Ebyssian, the purified black dragon, will aid Horde players in the Dragon Isles
To get started, go to your faction’s capital. You will be directed to meet with either Ebyssian or Wrathion. Complete the quests up until you’re sent to either the tower or the docks, depending on your faction. If your transport will be taking over 3 minutes, it may be worth using a portal to get to Valdrakken and then fly to the Waking Shores. This won’t matter much in terms of time, so choose based on preference.
The Waking Shores
Home of two flights, this is the first zone you’ll see in the Dragon Isles
This zone’s questing path, along with all other zones in the Dragon Isles, is the same for Alliance and Horde players. You should pick up dungeon quests as you see them. Once you finish this zone, feel free to start doing the random dungeon grouper for a shot at completing one of them.
- If you used the portal to enter the Dragon Isles, fly to where your faction’s landing spot is. This will be in the northeastern part of the zone. As long as you land where the zeppelins and boats stop at, you’ll get credit
- Follow the campaign as usual until you get to Wingrest Embassy. There, you’ll be prompted to select a zone. Pick up the starting quests for every zone, as this will give you extra experience along the way. Then, resume questing in the Waking Shores
- Sendrax talks a lot. Use this time to complete profession first craft bonuses or side quests!
- Follow the main quests until you reach Scalecracker Keep. Once there, complete the bonus objective and kill Dragonhunter Igordan. Generally speaking, you should always kill the rare mobs that you see. They give a lot of experience and are usually easy to defeat
- While you’re completing the quest Veteran Reinforcements, complete the side quest Fighting Fire With…Water to get some extra experience while not taking a huge detour.
- When Sendrax finally shuts up, or in other words dies, you’ll be prompted to pick up a dragon egg and run like crazy. You won’t be able to use any abilities while holding the egg unless you want to drop it. You can, however, use Gunshoes right before you pick it up. Learn more about this item at https://www.wowhead.com/item=132516/gunshoes
- When you get to the Ruby Life Pools, set your Hearthstone there
- After finishing the quests for the Skytop Observatory, you can use your Hearthstone instead of flying back
- The quest Taking the Walls will ask you to ride on Wrathion’s back. You should only do this for the initial ascent. After that, it is quicker to ride your own mount
- Once you get the Black Wagon Flight quest, go to the Ohn’ahran Plains so you don’t have to listen to two dragons bickering
Ohn’ahran Plains
So many of the quest names here are puns…
If you’re grouping for dungeons, remember to continue questing while you wait for the queue!
- Speak to Ambassador Taurasza to start the campaign quests. You’ll be following the campaign with only a few deviations. You should also turn in the starting quest you picked up in Wingrest Embassy as you go through here
- At Timberstep Outpost, pick up the quests Thieving Gorlocs and Sole Supplier. Continue their quest chains to completion
- Ignore the quest Nergazurai
- Complete the orientation quest in Maruukai
- Once you reach Teerakai, set your Hearthstone here. Pick up the quest that directs you to kill Mara’nar the Thunderous and the quest Up to No-khud
- After you’re directed to leave Teerakai, complete the quest Return to Mender. That’ll be it for that quest chain since the rest aren’t very efficient
- When a quest tells you to ride Gerithus, you can hop on his back and immediately get off for full credit. Then, you can fly to your destination on your own. Around this time, you should be able to kill Mara’nar the Thunderous
- Gracus, an NPC in Shady Sanctuary, offers a questline that starts with Some Might Call Me Bug Catcher. Complete every associated quest
- The Lilac Ramble subzone offers the quest Find Theramus, which you should complete
- The last quest for this zone will ask you to choose offerings through dialogue. The correct answers are below.
- A hunting trophy
- An eagle feather
- And of course…blood
- Turn in any quests you have completed for this zone.
The Azure Span
Is it just me or is it cold?
You should hit 70 in this zone. If not, no worries! The step after this will explain what to do in that situation.
- On your way to Camp Antonidas, stop at Khuri’s Fishing Spot. Don’t do the quest that asks you to fish. Complete the quests that ask you to investigate arcane anomalies and kill Gorger
- In Camp Antonidas, do the main quests along with the side quests Setting the Defense and WANTED: Frigellus. Set your Hearthstone here
- In Iskaara, pick up the wanted quest, Scampering Scamps, the orientation quest, The Weave of a Tale, Nook News, and Rowie. Follow their chains to completion minus the Nook News questline, which you should abandon at No Dwarf Left Behind
- Follow the campaign up until the quest Azure Alignment. Detour to the Falling Water subzone and complete all the quests there
Finishing Off (You Haven’t Hit Max Level)
Time is such a strange thing…
If you haven’t hit max level, do any of the following steps to get there.
- Complete quests in Camp Nowhere
- Complete quests in Lost Ruins
- Complete quests in Snowhide Camp
- Complete quests in Theron’s Watch
- Kill rare mobs in Thaldraszus
- Complete dungeons
Credit Given Where It’s Due
I think I did more research for this article than Kalecgos has done in his life
The following sources were incredibly helpful in compiling this guide.
- Harldan is a champion leveler in WoW. His website and his guide laid the foundations for this article. https://www.harldan.com/index.html
- Reddit communities have been a goldmine for finding previously posted advice. The main community that helped me was https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/
- Of course, https://www.wowhead.com/ was endlessly helpful
- And let’s not forget all the addon developers!
Closing Thoughts
Have fun with endgame content!
Leveling in any MMORPG can be arduous. World of Warcraft is no different. However, thanks to recent developments in World of Warcraft, leveling no longer has to be such a grueling undertaking. So gather a few friends if you have any, figure out what realm to play on, and level together! Or do it solo, because most of us WoW players have no friends. Regardless of your social status, I hope this guide helped you speed up your leveling process. Now go out there and smash some Mythic+!
