Will it be faster to lvl now or during shadowlands?

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1

my shift button is broke so excuse the lack of caps.

As of now it seems that we get 130% increase to xp gained from the buff and turning the pvp thing on.

but with shadowlands, as i understand it, you’ll be able to level from lvl 10 to any expax minus cata.

i know theres alot more variables to consider but i was thinking that it would be faster to level an heirloomed up character from 1-60 in the later expansions, like draenor on, because of the way the dungeons and quests were made.

any opinions or advice would be great.

’

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I would say it depends, but generally speaking, it’s going to be faster to level once the EXP Buff is gone. It all depends on how good you are. And if you use all the tricks and stuff to level fast now or if you level at an average pace. It certainly feels better to level regardless. No hopping around expansion to expansion, I can just chill and level wherever I want in EK/Kalimdor or whatever expansion I pick.

That being said it should be noted that heirlooms no longer provide EXP once pre-patch rolls around. It’s just going to provide a set bonus which honestly isn’t super great. I haven’t found it very useful anyway. It still scales and you can enchant them so there’s still a bonus to using them, but not as much.

3

SL leveling speed is still a work in progress.
I’m not in the Beta but have been following the Beta forums. What follows is my general impression. YMMV.

1-50 appears to be faster even without using war mode for questing.

50-60 SL content needs to have XP adjusted as, even with war mode active, you cannot level 50-60 just by doing the main storyline quests. You need to do side quests. Without war mode, you need to do a LOT of side quests.

Dungeons no longer scale so XP gained by running them is reduced.

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4

wow this all good info. thanks alot guys.

is there anywhere else i should be looking for more info?

5

Something else to factor in is that the squish is not linear. So, some levels get squished more than others. The 60-80 range gets squished the most (with 4 live levels being 1 shadowlands level) while the post 80 levels get squished the least with 2 live levels being 1 shadowlands level. (20-60 on live falls inbetween the two.)

Here’s the conversions I’ve observerd:
20 > 10
60 > 25
80 > 30
90 > 35
100 > 40
110 > 45
120 > 50

Getting to 30 in shadowlands is way way faster than getting to 80 on live (even with XP buffs currently on live.) Shadowlands still feels faster after 30, but it’s not quite as dramatic as the lower level squish.

Also remember that DKs and DHs get downgraded to allied race starting level (actually a bit lower as it’s set up so you hit 10 at the end of their starting zone.) So, if you have any new DK or DHs in your future, make them now and get them through the starting zone.

Another factor is that flying is being moved to higher levels relative to current levels. (How existing characters are being handled is a bit weird, so it’s not clear what’s a bug and what is intended. Last time I checked, you could still fly at whatever your current speed was, but your spellbook doesn’t have it unlocked and the vendor still sells the ranks.) So, if you’ve got any 80+ characters with faster flying, you might want to get them to 100 just to be safe. (Especially given that the 80-100 range is currently one of the fastest/easiest on live.) Basic flying is level 30 on the beta, with faster flying at 40.

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6

I’ve been spending considerable time leveling low-level characters up due to this. I’m trying to go into SL with the majority of my characters either having fast ground riding or somewhat higher level characters being able to fly.

7

Start a character now, level it in Shadowlands, unless you REALLY want that character available for SL content.

DKs and DHs are really the ones that gain the most out of this.

DKs are halfway to max and DHs are 3/4 of the way. In SL, they will start in the basement with everyone else (unless you rolled an Allied DK, but that’s SLIGHTLY different).

Even if you don’t plan to level either of those classes NOW, it’s best to get them rolled now (and possibly get them out of the starter zone. I haven’t heard what is happening there)

8

Just to consolidate riding info:

Current Level > Squished Level > Riding Ability > Cost
20-22 > 10 > Slow Ground > 250 gold
45-47 > 20 > Fast Ground > 250 gold
80-81 > 30 > Slow Flying > 250 gold
100-101 > 40 > Fast Flying > 5K gold

9

I’d like to take a moment to sincerely thank you for your unprompted generosity of knowledge.

Well it was prompted but not expected. Something very good samaritan about the internet sometimes.

Sometimes…

thanks again.

10

Your costs for the lower levels are just a bit off.

Current Level Level (Squished) Riding Ability Cost (before rep discounts)
20-22 10 Slow Ground 1g
44-47 20 Fast Ground 50g
80-81 30 Slow Flying 250g
100-101 40 Fast Flying 5000g
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11

@Udiza - thanks for catching that!

I should probably note those levels for riding are only for new characters created after SL is released.

If you already have a level of riding, you will still have it when your character is squished even if it is squished below the SL level for acquiring that skill level.

e.g. If you currently have a level 60 character with flying learned, SL will squish that character to 25 but you will still be able to fly although the SL level needed to learn flying is 30. Your current riding skill will carry over.