I just tested the timing of leveling with this event using a level 73 hunter I leveled to 76. It’s slower than the ordinary time walking buff we had in the past that stacked from doing multiple dungeons. So in other words, this update was a flat out nerf to XP, and is actually SLOWER. Legion is also badly scaled, dungeons took much longer overall due to size and difficulty than previous time walking weeks
Soooo this leveling event is somehow slower. Wow. Such a fun event
I don’t know what you are on, dude.
I took my Level 66 Fury Warrior out into DI, and after fiddling with her talents and hotbars, I had Level 70 in like 15 minutes. Granted, she was 1xp from dinging 67, but still. 3 levelups in 15 minutes? Waaay faster.
One pull of solo outdoor gnolls in Azure Span gave me 10% of a level. Heck on the way down to there from Valdrakken, I killed 2 rares and had half a level + some map discoveries.
This is without the 10% buff XP potions.
EDIT: I also got from 25 to 27 Reknown with the Iskaar in that 15 minutes, lol. The rep buff is crazy. The battle story alone gives 750, rares giving 300, etc.
Turbulent Timeways was not the status quo.
That was also a leveling event. You’re acting as if the exp buff is somehow bugged and causing a negative effect.
Anyways, to call Retail leveling slow is just ridiculous.
He’s also of a silly notion that Timewalking Dungeons is the only way that someone should be leveling, like it ought to be used as a measuring stick.
That’s like saying that we ought to use a Ferrari as a metric for how fast average cars should go.
You completely missed the point. How is this a leveling event if it’s only 20% XP boost? That’s like the same as always. Also, retail leveling is fast until 71, then dramatically slows down. 71-80 is a slog
It’s not an event. Turbulent Timeways is an event. This is just a buff for rep and XP gains. Which is more than baseline. Thus: a gain, not a loss.
In what universe is +20% XP equal to “exactly what we’ve always had”? 
This is false. It’s super fast. I leveled 70-80 in two play sessions last week, just by running each Delve once for the quest turn in and doing all of the WQs in each zone.
It’s a little buff to help.
The main highlight is the rep buff.
“Slog” - Aka it takes 30 minutes per level? If that.
Probably because we had the anniversary event for so long and timewalking with it. People became obnoxiously spoiled and seem to think this was the “norm” lol.
Could be that I’m tempered from classic levelling but you can easy level 80 in a day of levelling and not only that, you’ll be 606+ by just doing Undermine questline and nothing else (not mentioning the crafts/sparks/delves/warbound gear).
During the anniversary event, I leveled a couple of characters 70-80 just by flying around the Isle of Dorn picking herbs. Not the fastest way by a long shot, but an easy way to turn off my mind and catch up on some shows I’d missed.
So, I logged a 60 hunter on and in right around one hour, I am just a hair from 68, like literally 1 map discovery or mob kill would do it but had to log off because of Maintenance.
8 levels in 1 hour is crazy good. I wasn’t even trying to level as fast as possible, I was more targeting Reknowns, going after stuff that’d give good Reknown and wasting time flying everywhere to find stuff that’d give Reknown rather than seeking optimal XP paths.
And the reps? My DI reps are almost maxed out except for Loamm and Dream Wardens which I’ve yet to start, figure I’ll level my alts through DI and then leave one down there to do that content until it’s maxed out, probably a druid. In that hour alone I probably got like 5-6 reknown amongst 3 of the factions lol.
Each Delve has a one-time quest, usually on a scroll at the start of the Delve. Has been a solid chunk of XP for 70-80 since TWW released.
The random buff potions found in loot are fun as well. My little gnome monk was electrified.
I also love the bags that randomly give gear too. One thing I hate about modern WoW leveling is how fast you level, means your gear gets outdated and you end up getting weaker as you level since everything scales with you.
Now, they mitigated this with the Secret-Dredger’s gear from Delves (whose item levels increase as you gain levelups), but that doesn’t help if you get the same couple slots out of 5+ delves in a row, but we could still use some help and those satchels are awesome with this.
Does the XP buff stack with the warband mentor bonus? Don’t remember seeing that anywhere.
Almost certainly does. I think I remember someone on youtube saying it does, but it certainly feels like it.
I did a couple Level 60->80s and it’s definitely way faster now.
EDIT: Confirmed, the Once-Per-Delve quests now give 90k instead of ~78k at Level 70 with full mentor +20% from the event but without the potion.
I did a bit of an alt yesterday and went 60-75 in what felt like no time
So idk
How long is no time?
60-70 in an hour and a half lol.
Just doing random open world stuff, not even trying to speedrun.
Well, as far as “level smart, not hard”, what should be?
Almost any leveling advice from 2025 is “wait until timewalking week then spam dungeons”. There isn’t really much else. We don’t have much of the “New Game+” elements we used to, like powerful heirlooms than doubled your leveling speed and didn’t cost gold (which now equates to cash, IE the resource you can just buy a boosted character from Blizzard with).
Hour and a half is a whole 90 minutes though!!!
So, an update, the same aforementioned hunter got from 70 to two bars shy of 75 in about 2.5 hours.
BUT, the first two delves were painfully slow due to terrible gear (I went straight from DI to TWW without doing any DI endgame) but once a gun dropped from a world quest, it sped up a bit.
This is doing all WQs and optional objectives that I know of in Isle and Deeps, along with all the Delves + their first-run quests in those two zones.
Before this update, doing the same would have given me barely 74 to 74 and a quarter-ish depending on how many quests were up where.
Also this is without any gathering profs, this hunter is an engineer/jewelcrafter so no gathering XP.
EDIT: Also I did not use any XP potions, I plan on it when I go back to it after supper.