What is the best path to level? 1-50

I created a brand new character yesterday and decided to try a bunch of different things to see what would be the most efficient leveling. This isn’t all-inclusive, just an attempt to figure some things out. Please give me some input on best places to level. Here are my results:

  • Dwarf Paladin with Heirlooms and Chauffeur Mount
  • No bonus objectives were done on purpose.
  • My intent was to do this without dungeons, but I did one anyway.
  • I stopped at 47. I’m done for the weekend.

1-10 (one hour) (1 level per 6 minutes)
Coldridge Valley & Dun Morogh
Followed the quests and hit 10 right at Amberstill Ranch. This was convenient since Learn to Ride turn-in was right there.

10-16 (40 minutes) (1 level per 6.67 minutes)
WoD portal quests and construct level 1 garrison

16-16.5 (35 minutes) (half a level for 35 minutes) -waste of time-
Legion start (not skipped) through the Dalaran move

16.5-20.5 (one hour) (1 level per 15 minutes)
Pandaria Intro and quests to Pearlfin Village

20.5-23 (40 minutes) (1 level per 16 minutes)
Northrend Boralus Harbor quests through Farshire

23-30 (2 hours) (1 level per 17 minutes)
WoD Shadowmoon Valley questing

30-31 (35 minutes) (1 level per 35 minutes)
Isle of Qael’Danas ten primary daily quests

31-35.5 (1.5 hours) (1 level per 20 minutes)
Vashj’Ir quests until Shimmering Expanse
Slow at first because no seahorse

35.5-36.5 (35 minutes) (1 level per 35 minutes)
Hellfire Peninsula quests
Mobs here took longer to kill, but didn’t seem to hit harder. This was the same pace as Isle of Qael’Danas. It’s the same expansion.

36.5-40 (2 hours) (1 level per 34 minutes)
BfA intro and a bunch of quests

40-40.5 (30 minutes) (1 level per hour) too slow
Legion Prot Pally Artifact Weapon and United Force in Class Hall

40.5-42 (40 minutes) (1 level per 27 minutes)
Legion Highmountain Quests

42-44 (40 minutes) (1 level per 20 minutes)
WoD Gorgron Quests

44-45 (45 minutes) (1 level per 45 minutes)
Pandaria Pearlfin Village quests

45-45.75 (35 minutes) (1 level per 47 minutes)
Zul Farak (LFG dungeon)

45.75-47 (45 minutes) (1 level per 36 minutes)
WoD Talador Quests


Now I did read that leveling takes as long as follows:
(counting 1-10 as well)

BfA - 16 hours
Legion - 14 hours
WoD - 12 hours
MoP - 16 hours
Cata - 20 hours
WotLK - 24 hours
TBC - 24 hours

My own opinion is that WoD is the best method to level if you are in a rush. TBC and Legion not so much.

Please provide your input.

I have been leveling most of my alts in the classic zones herbing/mining with WM off. Once they get to 30 and can fly, I send them to Kul Tiras and give them some cute Monelite-Hardened Stirrups to go with their Sky Golem. :smiley:

It takes about 20 minutes per level from 20-30, 15 minutes per level before 40, and then about 20-30 minutes per level up to 50. I also always go with rested xp, I don’t bother without rested xp.

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Not sure if I can mine/herb all the way to 50.

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I think that the new intro experience plus WoD gives you the most efficient leveling experience from 1-50 nowadays.

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I leveled several guys in various expansions and I found BC to be the slowest and Warlords to be the fastest.

Sorry my results aren’t as detailed.

Well done btw.

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Yeah, I won’t go back to TBC for any leveling…maybe for nostalgia.

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[1] I get mining and herbalism on each alt. Then I just pick nodes that I happen to be next to. Each pick gives the same XP as killing 3-5 mobs.

[2] In WoD, I did all the objective zones. Most of them are just a few kills, for added XP.

[3] In WoD, once I had flying (30), I got the addon Draenor Treasures. Then I flew around several zones getting the treasures for good XP. A few of them require mob-killing (you can skip those). Most of them are just hard to get (until you have flying – then they’re super-easy).

EDIT: get the Archaeology profession (just level 1). That let’s you pick Draenor treasures without dismounting. You might still have to be resting on something solid (not “flying”) but you can stay mounted.

One thing I’ve been doing to casually/passively level alts is to log them in and do the loop of pet battle dailies: Westfall, Elwynn, Lakeshire, Darkshire, STV 1 and 2. Leave them in Booty Bay and the next day run the loop in reverse. It’s worth about a level each time until sometime in the 40s, I think it was. If you have mining/herbing, you can patch some of the holes in the xp by gathering along the way.

This method is casual, again- not focused like OP is suggesting, but it’s there for those that aren’t as alt-centric. Also, it has the added benefit of compounding rest xp since the pet battle dailies don’t eat into that (but gathering does).

The quickest leveling is not sticking to one single expansion, you don’t JUST level in wod, you do the intro and some point and only certain areas, and also do a lot of “classic” leveling since those zones are a joke with a mount.

If you are Horde, the Silverpine Forest quests are super fast (about two or so hours), and you get like 10 levels.

well, as a dps my queues for classic dungeons are about 2-5 minutes.

you can do classic dungeons in the cata timeline all the way to 50.

still feels odd to do Stockades at level 49…

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