The leveling phase is one of the strengths of WoW Classic, since it is an integral part of the experience offered by the game. Not only do you learn to play your class, but you also gain reputation, run legendary instances, and much more. Here, we offer general advice to make sure you go in prepared.
The tips in this guide are inspired by Joana's work, a blog about WoW, a Reddit thread dedicated to leveling, a thread on the US Battle.net forums and, of course, our own experience.
Our guides to leveling per Class
Monsters, zones and travels
- Kill as many monsters as you can on your travels between two quest zones,
- Plan your destinations in advance, do not do blind quests, try to group them together and complete them all at once if possible,
- Don't loot every mob: if your target dies too far from the path to your destination (for casters) or your bags are full, it's a waste of time. On the other hand, if you are looking to get your mount fast, loot them all and once it is in your possession, stop. Finally, if some monsters drop quest items, loot them no matter what,
- Take quests as often as possible rather than grind mobs. Not only does this allow you to AFK during trips between areas (to eat IRL for example), but it also prepares you better for the instances by allowing you to obtain the quests relating to them. It also increases your reputations, and is definitely less boring,
- If dying is indicated in your leveling guide as the quickest way to get back to the quest giver, die fast — have your character sit, as when you're sitting you'll also be crit, which will optimize your death,
- Don't go back to your class master every two levels to buy your new skills — some are useless while leveling. Plan ahead for your next return by targeting specific skills.
Inventory, town sales and trades
- Avoid towns if you want to level up quickly. However, if you want to get your mount gold at the same time as your leveling, you can take time out from quests to earn more gold from vendor items.
- Have adequate food for every 10 levels — a level 15 food will give you less health than a level 25 food, and you will have to spend more time eating to be ready to fight again,
- Have a Level 1 bank alt stationed in Orgrimmar or Stormwind on which to send all the materials or valuables you loot (craft components, green, blue or epic items etc.),
- Manage your inventory smartly. Identify the grey and white objects that have a low resale value to a vendor and trash those first. Then, only sell those worth decent coin to a vendor on your next town visit.
- Level your First Aid when travelling by boat, zeppelin or while selling other items to a seller — do several things at once,
- Keep in mind that NPCs sell potions of healing and mana, this can save you gold and you should have them on you at all times.
Equipment
- Make sure to always keep the same type of weapon unless you loot an incredibly powerful epic weapon. Having to build a weapon skill from zero while leveling is a real waste of time.
- Don't spend your gold unnecessarily at the Auction House to buy more powerful weapons or armour — save it for your mounts, especially at level 40. Equipment obtained on the road and as rewards for quests is more than enough. The only things you should buy at the Auction House are goggles, bags and ammo for Hunters.
Instances and PvP
- Avoid BGs, time spent at the Auction House unnecessarily, Stranglethorn Vale, Ashenvale and the Hillsbrad Foothills.
- Avoid instances as much as possible if you play with groups of players you do not know — you will lose more time than anything else. However, if you play with a team of regulars or friends within the game, it's a good way to level.
- Remember, do not attack every player of the opposing faction that you see, whilst it might seem like an easy kill, the local chat will quickly descend into a scene out of War of the Worlds as hordes of the opposite faction descend upon the zone. This is especially true for Stranglethorn Vale
Interface, addons and social
- Download WoW Cartographer. This old tool will now be useful again, thanks to all the comments from players of the time! It can be found on Curse.
- Enable the automatic loot option (Interface > Options > Auto-Loot),
- Disable WoW's automatic camera and use your mouse to rotate it — it's much more optimal and enjoyable.
- Abuse Wowhead's WoW Classic database to quickly find NPCs, quests, and more that you may need to search for — this will make your life a lot easier.....
- Limit your in-game conversations to the bare minimum. Don't spend hours telling your guild about your last family BBQ — it's nice, but what a waste of time! You'll have plenty of time to do that at level 60, when you slack around in the capital waiting for a group.
- When you disconnect, always be in an inn: the rest time (the blue bar increases the experience gained by killing monsters) is 4x faster in an inn than outside.
Discover our guide to the classes in World of Warcraft: Classic. We take a look at each class, including Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock and Warrior, and look at what you can expect from each and how they match up.
