TBC Classic Leveling Guide (2024)

While this is a general leveling guide, we have dedicated levelingguides for all TBC classes.

There are two basic leveling methods: questing and dungeons. If your goal isto reach Level 70 as fast as possible, dungeons will be faster, especially ifyou do not have experience with the questing process.

Questing can also be efficient, but some classes are better than others, andit can be easy to get side-tracked. On the other hand, questing allows you todo other things, such as Professions and PvP, while leveling,which can be both enjoyable and help set you up for playing at Level 70.

There are pros and cons to each, which will be discussed further below. Keepin mind that, while you can solely stick to one strategy, you do not have to.Mixing dungeons and questing can be a great way to keep things interestingwhile leveling and will let you pick up dungeon gear, while getting thebenefits of questing as well.

Dungeon grinding can be an incredibly efficient source of experience in TBCClassic. With a group of 5 players, you can clear through instances for fast andefficient XP while getting dungeon drops that will almost certainly beupgrades over the gear you may have from questing. The experience from dungeongrinding is so good that, when done well with a geared and coordinated group,can be over twice as fast as traditional questing. However, this is entirelydependent on your group's gear, knowledge, skill, and efficiency. When executedwell it is incredibly lucrative, but if not planned properly it can be muchworse, especially if you have to constantly find new group members after everydungeon clear.

Dungeon grinding can be efficient, but you become reliant on a group. If youdo not have a set group of 5 people that plan to go together most of the way,then you are going to be reliant on finding people to do dungeons with in-game.Most servers have a "Looking For Group" and "World" chat where you can findplayers for dungeons, but it can be hard to find people looking to play on thesame schedule as you. If you end up having to find new people every 1-2 clearsof a dungeon, then your XP/hour will drop drastically. For the fastestpossible leveling, you will want a consistent group that you can run with forminimal downtime.

Another potential issue with dungeon grinding is that you become isolatedfrom the world for prolonged periods of time. While this can be great on PvPservers (to avoid getting killed by players) and for avoiding congestion onhigh-population realms, there are some downsides. It is almost impossible tokeep most professions leveled as you do dungeons, meaning you will be forced towait until 70 to train them. A big selling point of WoW is the community andopen world, which dungeon grinding can take away from by forcing you to onlyinteract with a select few people and keeping you in small, isolated areas. Butagain, this is more of a personal preference issue and should not deter youfrom trying it out if you desire.

The difference between efficient and inefficient dungeon groups is enough tomake dungeon grinding better or worse than questing in terms of XP/hour. Forthe best possible experience gains, there are two types of "meta" groups. It isimportant to note, however, that with a full group of raid-geared players fromWoW Classic, almost any comp is acceptable to dungeon with especially early on.The difference in power between a freshly-boosted character and a full BiS Tier 3character is going to be night and day in dungeons, and it will make more of adifference than class choice.

The first type of "meta" dungeon grinding group is known as the meleecleave. This group is made possible by one class: Warriors. Warriors use Rageto deal high amounts of melee damage, and gain access to theSweeping Strikes, Cleave, andWhirlwind skills, which allow them to do very high cleavedamage to 2-3 targets at a time. Melee cleave groups are built around Warriors,and are designed to pull small, controlled groups of enemies at a fast pacewith little to no downtime. This is made possible since Warriors using Rage meansthey do not need to regenerate Mana between pulls.

They also are naturally durable and can "tank" while being intheir normal DPS setup without issue. With multiple Warriors, your healer canfocus on naturally regenerating lots of Mana, doing mostly efficient healingwith only occasional drinking. Above all, the goal for this style of group isto minimize downtime. If you are always pulling, that means you are alwayskilling enemies, which means you are always earning XP.

This is the most common type of group since the comp restrictions are muchmore lenient. The best version of this comp is 4 Warriors and 1 Shaman orPaladin, but you can exchange 1-2 Warriors for Hunters, Rogues, or really any DPSwithout much issue. Mana users such as Mages will not be nearly as good in thisstyle of comp, though, due to the frequent pulling, meaning they will have tospend lots of time drinking and not dealing damage. For healers, Shamans andPaladins are the best due to the powerful buffs they bring for the Warriors,in addition to their efficient healing and Mana regeneration. Priests andDruids are viable, but are not as good.

The other type of "meta" dungeon grinding group is known as spell cleave.While melee cleaves are built around Warriors, spell cleaves are built aroundMages. Mages get the spell Blizzard, along with the talentImproved Blizzard, which, when combined, enables them to keep manyenemies slowed while dealing the best AoE damage in the game. Mages andWarlocks use up lots of Mana to do damage, but have access to strong AoE spellsas well. Instead of using up lots of Mana to kill 1-2 targets, you can insteaduse slightly more Mana to kill 10+ targets at once, and then take a break torecover before doing it again. This type of group is high risk, high reward;when executed properly, this will yield the best XP/hour out of any possibleactivity in the game. However, to get the most XP/hour you need to doincredibly large pulls, which can also be very dangerous. Dying even once perdungeon can quickly turn this into an inefficient strategy.

While you might be tempted to do each new dungeon as soon as you can, thatcan be incredibly inefficient due to the travel time between dungeons. If yourgoal is the best XP/hour possible, it will be better to stick with fewerdungeons for longer periods of time. This is the list of the most efficientdungeons that you should do for the best XP/hour, and the levels you should bein them for.

One important thing to keep in mind is the attunement process. If your goalis to raid at Level 70, you will want to unlock all Heroic dungeons and levelup specific reputations eventually. You can actually jump-start that whileleveling if you desire, but it is optional.

1. Hellfire Ramparts from Level 60 to 61;
2. The Blood Furnace from Level 61 to 62;
3. The Slave Pens from Level 62 to 65;
4. Mana Tombs from Level 65 to 66;
5. Sethekk Halls from Levels 66 to 69.
6. Shadow Labyrinth from Level 69 to 70.

Questing is the default and most common way of leveling. You can play onyour schedule, there is always content to do, and you are not reliant on anyoneelse if you are questing solo. If you do not have a set group for dungeongrinding, this can easily be more efficient and will minimize yourdowntime.

Your time spent while questing can be broken down into three basic parts:combat, recovery, and travel time. Combat is the time you take to kill enemies,recovery is the downtime while you recover Mana or health in between killingenemies, and travel is when you need to move between quests or zones. Lots ofpeople focus solely on optimizing combat times, but the most efficient playerswill focus on optimizing their time as a whole. Check out theclass leveling guides tosee class-specific tips on how to better optimize your leveling speed.

Contrary to popular belief, grouping can actually be a great way to quest.Whether or not it is worth grouping comes down to your personal preference andkill speed while solo. First and foremost, leveling with a friend can be muchmore enjoyable than playing solo, so do not hesitate to do what is mostenjoyable to you. If all you care about is efficiency, though, then you need tolook at kill rates. Most classes benefit greatly from pairing up into a duo orgroup, but some less so than others. Hunters, for example, already have one ofthe fastest kill rates in the game solo, so putting them into a duo is onlygoing to slow down their XP/hour compared to being solo for the most part.Warlocks also have an excellent kill rate while solo, but giving them a duopartner who can tank or heal allows them to purely focus on damage which cangreatly increase their kill rate, making them a great class for duos. To figureout if it is worth it or not, you need to know how XP is affected in groups.

Let us start by assuming you are going to kill an enemy, and that enemy willaward 100 XP for the kill. The list below shows how much each player would earnfrom killing that enemy in different-sized groups.

• Solo: 100 XP;
• Two: 50 XP per person;
• Three: ~39 XP per person;
• Four: ~33 XP per person;
• Five: ~28 XP per person.

To determine if grouping is beneficial, you need to compare the XP reductionthat you get to the group's increased kill speed. For lots of players, thesafety and kill speed increase of being with a group ends up being morebeneficial than playing solo. It is worth noting that this only affects your XPrates for killing enemies and will not affect your quest XP. Grouping also canbe better since you can complete quests faster, but sometimes can be worse ifthere are not lots of quests or if an area has a low mob density meaning yourkill rate will not be as high as it could. Lastly, grouping can sometimes beworse if you and your group have different play schedules. Tying yourself tosomeone else's schedule can limit your playtime, which might end up slowing youdown over just questing yourself. The answer is different for every player andit is up to you to decide if grouping is worth it.

Unlike in WoW Classic, grinding is a poor option in TBC Classic for leveling.There are more than enough quests in Outlands to get you from Level 60-70,and grinding just is not worth it compared to questing in the zones. You couldgrind mobs if you choose to, but it is not recommended. Grinding will get youless xp, less gear, and is more boring to most people than questing.

Having a route planned out ahead of time for what zones you want to go to,or even going so far as knowing what quests you want to complete, is the mainway that people get more efficient at leveling. The more precise your route,the faster your leveling will be. It is a long journey from 60-70, though, andknowing everything that you will do is unrealistic without a ton of practice.For most players, the best compromise is just to know the order you should goto zones in. When changing zones, there is no hard or fast rule on when tochange. In TBC Classic, you generally will want to go to zones at their levelto do the content. Most zones will give you 1-2 levels, with some particularlylucrative zones offering far more.

A general zone order to follow is listed below. Both Alliance and Horde canfollow the same path in TBC Classic, the only thing different will be thelocation of their questing hubs within some of the zones.

1. Hellfire Peninsula (60-62)
2. Zangarmarsh (62-64)
3. Terrokar Forest (64-65)
4. Nagrand (65-67)
5. Blade’s Edge Mountains (67-68)
6. Netherstorm (68-69)
7. Shadowmoon Valley (69-70)

There is one important thing to note for this order: if, on launch, HellfirePeninsula is far too crowded on your server, then you can choose to skip HellfirePeninsula completely and go to Zangarmarsh first. You will need to completemore in Terrokar Forest later, but it is an option to potentially take a muchless popular questing route.

Having a route is important, but knowing some of the basic time-savingstrategies is also useful. Here are some general tips that can improve yourefficiency while leveling:

Leveling takes a long time, so it is easy to think that breaks might notmatter overall. But, over the course of leveling, even lots of small breaks canadd up to hours of lost time. It is unrealistic to never take breaks whileleveling, but you can be strategic about them to improve your efficiency.Flight paths are a great way to travel between zones and, most importantly,require no input from you while your character is flying. This is a great timeto go to the bathroom, get food, or do whatever else you need to do. Some zonesare also relatively flat, and you can run in a straight line for longdistances. Auto-run is dangerous to do unsupervised, but can be used to haveyou character run in a direction while you step away for a minute. Use thedefault keybind of "Num Lock" to toggle auto-running in this way.

Some classes benefit from gear more than others. For Physical damagedealers, weapon upgrades are hugely important. For casters that can use wands,wands are also incredibly important due to their high DPS and zero Mana usage.

While you will not use or have access to many buff consumables whileleveling, food and water will be very important. If you only try to passivelyregenerate health and Mana, your regeneration time will be absurdly long,especially at higher levels. You should keep food on you at all times and, ifyou are a Mana user, should keep water on you as well. Befriending a Magewho can create these for you is a great way to save gold, but you can also buythem from a vendor as well.

Ideally, you should have an epic mount before entering Outland. If you areplaying on a freshly-boosted character, this may be difficult however. As soonas you can get the 540g required for epic riding training — and the 90g forthe mount if you need that as well— you should immediately buy an epic mount.It is one of the most important purchases you will ever make.

While leveling up, you are going to need to visit various trainers. Themost important trainers that you will need to visit are your class trainers.

As you level up, you will get access to more skills. Every level, you willhave new abilities or ranks of abilities available to train at your classtrainer. Class trainers are found in the major cities around the world.Training is important, since it is one of the ways you gain power as you level;it increases the damage and healing your spells will do. Be aware that majorcities will not have every class trainer, such as Undercity not having a Druidtrainer. Talk to the guards in the cities to see if your class trainer is inthat city or if you need directions to anything.

While professions might slow you down during leveling, they are incrediblyimportant at Level 70 and can be worth the time investment.Skinning, Mining, and Herbalismspecifically can be worth it, since you are traveling around the world anywayand can earn skill-ups for them as you go. Professions likeBlacksmithing, Leatherworking, andTailoring can also be great for making armor upgrades while youlevel. You can choose any professions that you want, but think about whether youwant to spend the time getting the up while you level or if you would ratherrush to Level 70 without worrying about them.

While leveling professions is generally optional while leveling,First Aid is not. First Aid allows you to use the cloth you getfrom killing enemies to craft bandages, which are a Mana-free means of healingyourself quickly. This is a secondary profession, meaning it does not counttoward your two primary profession slots. You should absolutely keep thisup-to-date while leveling and you will be able to get good usage out of thebandages. Check out our First Aid guide for more information.

There are many addons that can help you while questing, but the only onethat is required is Questie. By default,no quest objectives, pick-ups, turn-ins, or locations will be shown on yourmap. Questie will put all of these on your map, and is vital to ensuring youalways know where to go.