How to level up fast in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands

Ava Thompson-Powell
WoW Level Guide featuring Bastion

With World of Warcraft Shadowland’s release finally here, players are going to want to level up new toons fast to experience the content Blizzard has in store.

With WoW’s recent pre-patch level squish, the time it takes to progress through the game’s 50 (and with Shadowlands’ release, 60) levels have effectively slashed in half reaching the endgame.

As well as that, though, there are some extra features that can be utilized to further your fast leveling experience.

There’s bound to be a huge race online to reach the level cap first, so being prepared and ensuring you’re using all tools made available to you is important.

Exile’s Reach

A photo of different races in the Exile's Reach dungeon, Darkmaul Citadel
Exile’s Reach will teach you the core meat of what you need to know.

Exile’s Reach provides new and returning players a fantastic way to experience the world and lore of WoW. It’s also a handy way to level 1-10 in a breeze.

Teaching the class fundamentals by slowly awarding early rotation skills, you’ll come out of the experience feeling primed and ready to take on whatever expansion it is that you’re venturing into.

It’ll also culminate in a dungeon experience, Darkmaul Citadel, too. This will get you ready for the many dungeons you’ll experience down the road.

Warlords of Draenor

If you’re a new player, you’ll be experiencing the prior expansion, Battle for Azeroth, as the first expansion you experience. This is fine, and you’re able to reach level 50 before finishing the complete story, easily.

But for those that are rolling a new character, Warlords of Draenor is a great choice. With the zones in this expansion all containing Bonus Objectives, it provides a fantastic boost to your level experience. BfA also has these, too, but to a lesser extent than WoD does.

Rested Experience

This is a system that many MMORPGs utilize, and is a fantastic way of allowing you to play catch-up after time away from the game. Logging out in a Capital city or inn will put you into rested mode (you’ll notice your experience bar turn blue from purple).

For every eight hours spent away from the game, you’ll earn a bar of that current level. It’ll cap out at one and a half levels, though, so it isn’t something that can be continually utilized.

Pandaren

Pandaren’s racial ability ‘Inner Peace’ gains them rested experience twice as fast, stacking up to 300%. As well as having fantastic animations, a deep, rich lore and being absolutely adorable, this is a fantastic reason to take advantage of this race when trying to blast through leveling.

A bonus tip, too, that can stop you from accidentally falling to your death: Pandaren’s racial ‘Bouncy’ means that they take less damage. Stacking that alongside rogues that take less fall damage means that with this class/race combo, you’re further cushioning yourself against accidental deaths even further than rogues of other races!

Classes

Demon Hunter Night Elf in the character select screen
Demon Hunter’s Soul Cleave provides fantastic healing.

Races don’t just come into play when choosing how to zip through content: classes can also come into play. There are three classes that we particularly recommend utilizing:

Druid

With DOTs (damage over time) and instant-cast abilities, alongside a way to root targets to the ground AND heal, they’re a no brainer for a comfy experience.

Flight Form is an instant-cast spell, too, allowing you to get out of tricky situations in a pinch. Travel form is also great, allowing you to move faster depending upon the environment.

Demon Hunter

With incredible mobility and AoE (area of effect) damage skills, Demon Hunters are also a top choice.

They’re also able to heal to a degree, providing fantastic survivability. The passive skills allows healing through Soul Cleave, which damages all enemies hit, providing a healing percentage of the damage dealt.

Hunter

Though this class to some can seem boring and slow, Hunter is still a viable choice for those that want an experience that doesn’t really require too much thought to excel at.

Their pets provide a way for you to stay far away from attackers and have them tank for you, and also means that you can often defeat enemies recommended for multiple players.

Again, the prior two classes may  be preferable over this as a fast leveling experience, but it is definitely an option should you choose to take it.

War Mode

An image showing War Mode in World of Warcraft in the Talents panel
Turning War Mode on in the capital city will boost your experience rate by 10%.

Our final top tip for fast-leveling is War Mode. This is basically the world’s PvP mode outside of Arena. As well as providing players with extra skills as a reward for having War Mode on (which we recommend you do at all times), it also provides you with the ‘Enlisted’ buff, awarding an extra 10% to your experience gained at all times.

This mode can only be turned on in your faction’s home city (Stormwind or Orgimmar, respectively) and is something you don’t want to miss out on.

So, there you have it. Our top tips for a fast, streamlined experience through World of Warcraft and Shadowlands. We’ll see you out there!

About The Author

Ava was formerly Dexerto's Evergreen Editor, based in England. With a BA (Hons) in Media and Communications, and a passion for RPGs, The Sims, Pokemon, and Dead by Daylight, she primarily covered tips, guides, and reviews.