What is your preferred route for leveling?

[Forsakentag-turalyon]

We all have our favourite zones and continents, but that is your preferred leveling route? And why?

For me not having leveled any alts yet. I plan to be heading my now lowbie straight to Howling Fjords at lvl 60 and work my way westwards from there. As opposite to my main which went Eastwards from Borean Tundra. And I wont do that again because I found the story being very confusing at this point.

I skipped Outland altogether simply by not knowing that it was released before Northrend, and went to the nearest continent on the map. Have since leveled through Outland as highlevel, but foung it to be a less preferable place for me to be. Shattrath is ugly, and everywhere else isn’t that much better. Sad, ruined, and boring, but of course some interesting places here and there.

This was after I quested through Draenor in appropriate lvl, and I am definitely returning there with my alts. Beautiful continent, and Draenor’s Shadowmoon Valley is one of my favourite zones simply due to the scenery and colours. Yes, much can be said about what WoD became contentwise, but still it is a great place to be.

Catalysm brought some great zones too. At first I really hated Vashj’ir, due to the starting zone Kelp’thar Forest being overrun by mobs everywhere. Couldn’t do a skit without being gangraped by sea creatures! But that changed once I reached the Shimmering Expanse and I suddenly could have a more relaxing existence. First then could I start enjoy the beautiful sea environment.

I have yet to visit Pandaria and the Legion and BfA zones (being at lvl 113!!! ), but I really hope to get these done before the start of Shadowlands.

[Beerwolf-sunstrider (Beerwolf)]

I just quested to current level (now irrelevant with scaling) while searching to join up a dungeon to do the quests within once.

So now I’d be doing Vanilla -> WotLK -> WoD -> BfA.

[Ljusagan-argent-dawn]

My latest and only alt is a horde Pandaren.

My leveling route was (after Wandering Isle, of course):
-Opening chapter of Barrens
-Stonetalon Mountains (had heard good things about it. It was nice)
-??? probably dungeons?
-Burning Steppes (despite playing this game on and off for over a decade, I don’t remember ever questing there. Was a bit underwhelming but ok and short enough. Wished there would be something about the lore of that interesting zone because I really learned nothing)
-Felwood (first 7 of the 9 chapters. I just really like the atmosphere in that forest. Really gets good somewhere around 5th or 6th chapter)
-Eastern Plaguelands (had heard good things about Fiona’s caravan, but eh. I was supposed to finish it no matter if I outlevel it, but I ended up leaving at 60. I feel like I will return to finish that questline later, tho.)

At 60 I went to Outlands. Back in Legion, when scaling was first introduced I did 60-80 purely by questing in Northrend. I loved it, but now I felt like I should go back to the amazing Outland.

-Blade’s Edge Mountains (I gave up after like 2 finished chapters. I love the zone but a bit too many Ogres)
-Tons of dungeons
-Nagrand (had good memories of this place. Guess what? More ogres)

Yea, let’s just say Outland hasn’t aged all that well. I still love the place, I really do. Amazing zones, amazing music. But good lord, I killed well over 100 ogres during my stay there. And didn’t even really get to touch any good story material, because I just ended up feeling exhausted before that. Also realized that time moves fast. Feels just like yesterday when I was questing in Outland last time, but since I didn’t go there during Legion… the last time was in Cataclys. A decade ago.

Anyway, now I’m sitting at 80. I will gradually lock my XP as I go through loremaster of Pandaria, permanently stopping at 90. My original plan was to wait until Shadowlands so I can jump to Pandaria straight away, but with this 100% buff I figures 1-80 won’t take that long.

When Shadowland drops, I will level one character through Draenor. Probably a Mag’har orc since they will open the allied races for everyone.

[Kayleen-emerald-dream (Kayleen)]

haven’t leveled an alt in ages, so i might be foggy, but after lvl 60 I usually go to the fjord in northrend, and then go on from there where questing brings me ( i don’t follow a specific path.)
after wotlk i go cata: hyjal and twilight highlands have some nice compact quest hubs iirc, also i can’t stand the jinyu their gurgling voice annoys the crap out of me ( strange because i love murlocs)
then draenor as fast as i can.
in legion i start in valshara as i like the region, and fey dragons, then after i wipe my tears for Ysera, i go stormhelm or highmountain depending on the mood.
all the while im queued for dungeons.

[Lxser-draenor]

BGs and Dungeons while watching something on my other screen.

[Bagdawg-moonglade]

I usually start out at level 1, then go on to level 2. I keep going on like that until I reach level 120.

[Vulrin-argent-dawn (Vulrin)]

Dungeons till BFA then leveling. And glitching out of gilneas with some alien as F route if I make a worgen.

[Lyrandriel-ravencrest]

20 - 61

-Wetlands
-Westfall
-Duskwood

61-70

-Northend - Some basic quests in 3 zones

70-80

-Outland, because I like questing in Hellfire and Zangarmarsh with 280% flight speed

80-90

-Hyjal
-Valley of the 4 winds / Kun-Lai basic quests

90-100

-I go to Timeless Isle, teleport to Draenor, fly down to Garrison, do the first quests to unlock level 2 Garrison. Collect all treasures from Shadowmoon Valley, buy a few garrison XP potions, do all the bonus objectives in every zone until you reach 100.

100-110

-1 zone + 2 (if possible) legion invasions.

[Keyur-draenor (Keyur)]

1-60
Sitting in city and doing dungeons

60-80
Get flying and do some basic quests in boren tundra and Nexus area if I am not tank.
All the way dungeons if I am tank or heal.
Best dungeon experience in whole game in TBC and WoLK.

80-91
Dungeons + mount hyjal.

91-101
No dungeons at all
Assaults
Treasure hunting
Some questing on the way

101-111
Azuna main story like only and at the end dungeon for quest
Valsharah -same
Legion assault prio if available
Rest of the two zones if needed.

111-120
I dunno…mostly I leveled up through evens like korak etc…BFA leveling is boring like hell.
Only did questing once on both faction to know story.

[Itskittytime-argent-dawn]

Uhh, level to 15 in the starting zone and then do 240 dungeons to hit max.

[Iggwilv-draenor (Iggwilv)]

On my current toon I’m levelling I did about a quarter of Northern Barrens + dungeons until 60

Half of Zangarmarsh + dungeons until 81

Third of Hyjal + dungeons until 92

Welcome to Draenor scenario plus opening quests to get garrison going has took me to 95.

I’d imagine that by this time tomorrow I’ll be in BfA content.

[Азриил-deathguard (Азриил)]

Vanilla Dungeons->TBC dungeons-> Cataclysm dungeons, but since no one does them I am forced to do MoP dungeons, then questing in WoD, and then Legion invasions (I check the timer and aim next levelling session to start around then) and random zone for questing on side, and Drustvar… always Drustvar. No dungeons.

[Valpuri-silvermoon (Valpuri)]

Healer spec, full looms, dungeons only, sitting in The Gilded Rose, selling all my greys and useless rewards to Allison, imagining the pile of stuff she’s gathered into the backrooms from just me alone.

[Sholah-hyjal]

I usually try to combine leveling with gold farming because old mats are usually worth a lot of gold and that’s something i would’ve farmed anyway. I can thus level a character and still feel like i did some progress rather than wasting my time (and if your AH is merciful and you do it properly you may even get enough to buy a month of sub with gold by leveling an alt)

Here’s the breakdown : Don’t forget to always pick mining and either herbalism or skinning. You’ll be able to change at max level don’t worry

1-60 : Whatever is close by until lvl 40 and then Winterspring/Blasted lands/Sillithus for one reason : Them Arcane crystals. Basically 1k gold for each crystal farmed, pretty good overall and one of the few vanilla resource worth farming. Oh yeah and warbear leather if i picked skinning…

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60-80 : Time to waste ? Go BC and focus blade edge (if skinning) and Nagrand (mining). Expensive and hard to sell stuff, but still a nice additional income if you have the most elusive recipes. Any elemental resource is worth a lot of gold, especially air motes. So kill, kill, kill and kill some more elementals as you pass by, usually worth your time.

Want to get out of this hellish leveling range ? Worry not, Wotlk is there for you ! Howling fjord is one of the best zones to get your hands on some cobalt ore while leveling and it’s hands down one of the most expensive basic ore in the game, so that’s pretty good. Then target some of the highest level zones for Titanium ore or go to Stormpeaks if you’re a skinner for jorgunnar scales (misspelled the name, but smh expensive mat). Sholazar basin was pretty good for instance.

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Cata vs Mop : mop has some cool zones, but worthless mats so i’ll usually pick cata
Cata : Obsidium and herbs are your main focus here. Go to hyjal and complete the questline to unlock the molten front, especially if you’re a hunter. You’ll thank me later. Skinning is usually a bad choice here as the crafts are very expensive and not that interesting thus no real point in crafting anything imo.

Herbs and ore on the other hand are some of the most expensive all expansions combined, so you’ll get a sizeable pile of gold by the time you finish this xpack.(multiple mounts and other goodies worth farming for) If you’re not done by the time you finish Hyjal, then consider deepholm (lots of herbs & obsidium) or twilight highlands (mostly elementium & pyrium)

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WoD : You’re wasting your time here, do whatever you want there’s no gold to be made in this xpack with farming professions beside skinning but even that isn’t fundamentally worth your time.

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Legion : Leystone ore and herbs ! Lots of gold to be made here, and professions are a nice way to boost your leveling speed as each rank up quest gives you 20 or 30k xp. Pick any zone, do what you must and focus on the legion invasions as they give about 2.5 levels each

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BFA : At this point pick whichever profession you want to use at max level. I’d still suggest keeping a gathering profession but you do you. Also always keep any soulbound gear you got you hands on (or even BOE you dropped from mobs) if you intend to use any profession other than gathering or alchemy.

You’ll be able to get expulsom from the scrapper, and this is the most important resource for professions and gold making in BFA. (1 expulsom every 6 items scrapped. You also get 2 to 4 of the mats which were used to craft the item, especially important for LW as the mats required to craft any item is lower than BS or tailoring)

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Shadowlands ? We don’t even have a release date yet but at this point it seems that professions will be much more important and linked together which is imo a good thing. I’d suggest you start the xpack with at least one gathering profession.

[Andíra-silvermoon]

I have a bunch of capped characters, but I have to caveat this that I level additional characters for a very specific reason and that reason is goldmaking. This means that I have streamlined my levelling process with goldmaking in mind, if you don’t want to make gold on the way to 120 or set up goldmaking systems on the way, my routine will probaby be inferior to some other route. That being said, my last couple characters were done like this:

Fully heirloomed, Draught of Ten Lands up at all times. I also have a bunch of characters ‘going’ at once, I log into different ones and ususally just do an hour or two of activities until Rested runs out.

1-60 -> herbing and mining in Elwynn Forest while queuing for Random Dungeons

60-80 -> first batch of quests in Hellfire Peninsula, then loops herbing and mining around Howling Fjord with an occasional dungeon.

80-90 -> mining in the Valley of Four Winds while doing Tillers dailies and setting up the farm

90-98 -> Draenor introduction scenario, then Shadowmoon Valley bonus objectives with the Garrison xp potion. Before Winds of Wisdom was a thing I also needed to knock out a dungeon or two or a couple bonus objective areas in Gorgrond, with the double XP event just doing Shadowmoon objectives is enough.

98-110 -> Legion Invasions and Legion bonus objective areas. If I feel like continuing to play instead of waiting for another Invasion, I do the first batch of quests in Highmountain and mine/herb in Valsharah.

110-120 -> mining and herbing BfA stuff, usually in Drustvar.

Using this route, I can usually cover most of my levelling expenses like repairs and flying by selling herbs and ore (or pigment and bars after I process them, depends on the material). I end up with a character that has several stacks of BfA herbs and ores ready to sell or process with my other characters and the Tillers farm set up so I can do that to make more Sky Golems or just sell raw Pandaria materials every day. I then decide what to do with the character. If I need to add a specific profession to my lineup, I do that. If I feel like playing the character more, I will gear it up with Timewalking gear and Black Empire tokens and then fool around with it. If not, I train BfA alchemy, get a stack of every herb, park at the Tillers farm and log in every day to print Anchor Weed, Ghost Iron and Trillium.