A WoW Classic levelling: how to max out your XP and level up fast

A WoW Classic levelling guide can be useful if you're coming from modern World of Warcraft, where zone scaling and quality of life improvements make for a more linear experience. And, while we'd encourage you to take your time and enjoy the levelling experience, we've put together a list which will hopefully make your WoW Classic levelling journey through Azeroth a little easier.

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Choose a PvE server

PvP servers can be a lot of fun but they can also slow you down if your priority is hitting max level as quickly as possible. The minute you start levelling in 'contested' zones on a PvP server, you run the risk of the opposing faction deciding that you're a more tempting target than the quest enemies. While this works both ways, it can become tiring if you're just looking to complete the area quests and move on.

Pick a Damage dealing class

While this may seem obvious, picking a class that's sole purpose is to deal damage is going to help you level faster than choosing a hybrid class that can perform a variety of roles. While other classes may be 'safer' thanks to their damage reduction (tanks) or healing skills (healers), these tend to dole out less damage than classes whose primary role is getting stuff killed.

Make a choice about professions...

It's a matter of choice whether you want to pick up professions while you're levelling or wait until later on. Stopping to pick herbs or craft items or gear will obviously take away from the time that could be spent killing enemies and gaining experience. But if you choose a profession that turns over a profit on the auction house, you'll stand a much better chance of affording that mount and Riding Skill when you hit level 40 which will, in turn, speed up the last 20 levels.

…But learn First Aid anyway

First Aid is a secondary profession that is incredibly useful if you're playing a class that doesn't have any self-healing abilities. You'll pick up a lot of cloth as you level and this can be turned into bandages with First Aid, allowing you to heal yourself up between fights and cutting down on overall downtime. 

Consider making a bank character

Bag space becomes an issue pretty quickly while you're levelling. You want to loot everything enemies drop - even junk - so you can vendor it for a bit of extra silver, ready for when you can purchase your Riding Skill and mount at level 40. But along with junk, you'll loot crafting reagents, cloth, and the odd bit of gear. This is stuff that you should probably not vendor as it could be used by a profession later or sold on the auction house for some extra gold. Setting up another character to mail the excess stuff to when you pass a mailbox means you can free up your bags and worry about that stuff later.

Move on when you out-level a zone

In modern Warcraft, many zones will scale to your current level but in Classic, quests - as well as the experience gained from them - remain static. You should pay attention to the level of the quests you're doing to make sure they're in your level range for optimal experience gain. A good indicator is the colour of the quest in your log; green is easy/lower level than you, yellow is normal/your current level, orange is hard/higher level. If you have any red quests, you'll want to avoid these until you're a higher level.

Use a quest guide and related addons

Quest locations are not at all obvious in Classic and you can waste a lot of time if you don't know the optimal order to do the quests. There are tons of written guides that can help you out and you should absolutely use them if you want to eliminate a lot of needless running around. Wow Classic Addons such as 'Questie' are also invaluable here and will give you a clear indicator on your map of quest locations and their objectives.

Kill everything (that's close to your level)

You'll be doing a lot of travelling in Classic and to make use of your run between quest-givers and objectives, you should kill enemies you find along the way for some extra experience. Obviously don't go out of your way to locate them but if you find a boar or two between you and your destination, don't skirt around them.

Level solo if you can

Levelling with friends or in a group is more fun but if you're happy with your class and the speed it can kill stuff, you're better off levelling solo. Experience gained from killing enemies is split amongst party members so unless the area is overrun with players hunting the same quest enemies, you're better off alone.

Don't rely on dungeons unless you have a good group

Dungeons are fun and can net you a significant amount of experience if you find a good group to run them with. If you're unfortunate enough to get into a group that struggles to make it through a dungeon, the time spent clearing it would be better used solo levelling. Of course, all players have to start somewhere - it can be fun discovering the difficulties of a dungeon with a group and learning as you go - but if you're looking for efficiency when levelling, dungeons can be hit and miss.

Stick with the same weapon type

Classic has a 'weapon skill' system in place which means you'll need to level up your ability to use certain weapons. When you start levelling a new weapon type, you'll notice that a lot of your attacks will miss. This gets less the more you level up the weapon so switching to a shiny new weapon type will mean your kill speed will suffer for a while until you've got some levels on it. For this reason, it's a good idea to choose a weapon type and stick with it.

Don't forget rested experience

You should absolutely make sure you level out in a rest area if you're planning on stepping away from Azeroth for more than a few minutes. When you're logged out within a city or an inn, you'll gain rested XP four times as fast as you would if you log out anywhere else. And as rested XP gives you 200 percent bonus experience on kills, it seems silly not to.