WoW: Forever leveling guide 1 to 60: dungeon XP rules, quests and level-by-level content

Dungeon kill XP rose 50% on November 8, after a 20% raise in beta

World of Warcraft: Forever launched November 4 with a dungeon XP model Blizzard has changed several times, and it changed again four days later. Community manager Kaivax posted on November 8: “At about 11:05 PST today, we deployed a hotfix that increased kill experience in dungeons by 50%, so it feels better to go back in for more runs.” Blizzard’s stated reason is repeat runs, and the change landed within the first week after launch.

The rules below come from Blizzard’s own beta development notes and hotfix posts. Each date is when Blizzard posted the change.

Three things the notes do not give you. We found no Blizzard figure for how far dungeon kill XP sits below Classic Era, so nobody outside the studio can state a total percentage. The November 8 post does not say what base the 50% applies to; the plain reading is the live value at the time. And no post gives XP per level or a target time to reach 60. Any exact rate you see elsewhere is someone’s measurement, not a Blizzard number.

Dungeon quests pay half the bonus XP they paid before October 1

Read the October 1 line carefully. It is not “dungeon quests give half XP”. Dungeon quests carried extra XP above a normal quest, and it is that extra amount that was cut in half. Blizzard’s note framed it as a response to “feedback on leveling speed”. Nothing in the later notes reverses it, and the November 8 hotfix only mentions kills.

On Blizzard’s dungeon podcast on October 8, the designers said the first clear with the quests in your log is meant to be the big payoff, as in original WoW. They also said the point was not a single visit: “We don’t necessarily want you to just run it once and be done with it.” The same segment conceded the cut sat badly with quests that need several runs, like Wailing Caverns’ Deviate Hide collection, saying the XP change “wasn’t congruent with a lot of classic quest design”. Kaivax’s sign-off on the November 8 post, “good luck with those Deviate Hides”, reads like a nod to that.

Group XP now uses your own level, unless someone far outlevels the mob

Before October 8, kill XP in a party was penalized by the highest-level member. Developer Aggrend’s example: in Deadmines with four level 20s and one level 25, the level 20s got very little per kill. That was reverted to Classic Era logic: “only the individual’s level matters.”

The exception is the one to remember if you plan on a high-level friend carrying you. The notes say: “if a member of the party is at a vastly higher level than the enemy being killed, then no player in the party will receive XP, as intended.” Blizzard gives no exact gap. That line covers kill XP. We found no Blizzard statement on how a higher-level party member affects quest XP.

Grouping is limited too: characters can group, run dungeons and raid only with players on the same ruleset and the same faction, so settle both with friends before anyone rolls. On the October 8 podcast the designers also said there would be no summoning stones, because the trip to the dungeon counts as part of it, so plan travel into your sessions. If you are tanking those groups, our Paladin tank guide covers Seal of Fury and the launch talents.

Blizzard wants dungeons close to questing speed, not ahead of it

Before the November 8 buff, Aggrend set out the intent in plain terms: “with perfect xp/hr play, the leveling rates in dungeons will be very close, if not equal to the speed you can level with optimal questing play.” He also wrote: “XP gain is not going to be what it was in era, but it should feel significantly better now.” On dungeon cleaving to 60, he said that style being the fastest way to level “does not pass that muster” against the team’s design pillars.

That statement predates a 50% buff, and Blizzard has not said whether dungeons have now passed questing. On the podcast, a designer described the target as somewhere that feels good without being “the optimal thing to do”, using 50 runs of Scarlet Monastery Cathedral from 30 to 50 as what they do not want. Expect more tuning, in either direction.

Players are split. An r/classicwow thread arguing the cuts do nothing about boosting and only push people out of dungeons drew more than 350 upvotes before the hotfix, while a reply in a community discussion said leveling through it is “slower but by no means is it as bad as ppl are making it sound”.

Two Blizzard notes affect early pacing. Respawns were sped up for launch, “with starting zones being the fastest”, and Blizzard says it will bring low-level zones “down to more typical rates” once the launch surge settles, so crowded starting zones will not stay this forgiving. And class setup moves your pace more than route trivia: check the talent changes, how hit and crit work now, and your race’s reworked abilities. Blizzard also warned on November 6 that Enhancement Shamans leveling up “will want to collect Strength and Attack Power gear from now on” ahead of tuning on November 10.

New zones and dungeons cover every bracket from 13 to 60

Forever has no level scaling, so a zone’s bracket is where its mobs actually are. This table merges the new questing and dungeon content by level. Dungeon ranges are from Blizzard’s dungeon overview, which supersedes the BlizzCon numbers. For the full detail see our zone guide and dungeon and raid list.

The Wetlands, Desolace and Azshara rows use each zone’s existing Classic bracket, because Blizzard gave no separate range for the new quests. Shen’dralas still has no official level range at all. Blizzard’s launch article gives the Riverglades “more than 150 new quests” across the mid-30s to mid-40s; our zone guide tracks how that figure moved.

Plan two trips ahead. City of Dalaran needs an attunement chain, started from Emissary Jacques in Southshore for Alliance or Magus Wordeen Voidglare in Tarren Mill for Horde, so begin it before you reach the dungeon’s range. Shaper’s Terrace needs power crystals gathered around Un’Goro first. If your route crosses water, our ship routes guide has the new docks, including the Steamwheedle sailing to Powderfuse Port in the Riverglades.

Quests reportedly pay no bonus gold at 60, so turn them in before it

In Classic Era, a quest finished at the level cap converts its XP into gold. In Forever that payout appears to be gone. As we reported, streamer JokerD said on stream that a Blizzard developer told him the change was intentional, and that a weekly quest paying a random amount of gold might replace it. That is secondhand, and as of November 8 we found no public Blizzard post confirming either part. Players are asking for clarity on the official forums.

The practical result is the same whichever way it lands. The old habit of banking quests until 60 for a first pile of gold no longer has a confirmed payoff, and a quest turned in before 60 still pays XP while one at the cap cannot. Clear your log on the way up, especially before your last level.

Budget for the road as well. Blizzard says total class training from 1 to 60 now costs between 206 and 207 gold for every class, and the cost of your first mount moved into riding training, which our ship routes guide covers.

Rest, XP food and Legacy’s Well Rested are the speed you control

Camping is a leveling tool, not just a social one. A Leatherworker’s Camp Tent raises the rested XP of anyone sitting nearby “by 5% of a level”, and does nothing if your rested XP is already above that. Blizzard’s camping overview says players sitting or crafting at a campsite for at least one minute gain the camp’s benefits, and all camp features share a one-hour cooldown. The beta notes also name a Boosted Rest debuff tied to a camp feature, so check your debuffs if a camp stops helping.

Food is the second lever. At BlizzCon, designer Josh Greenfield said “almost all crafted food will give some form of a stat boost, as well as a small XP buff”, and the Well Fed slide showed experience from kills up 5 percent for 15 minutes. That percentage is from September, so read the tooltip on the food you actually make.

Third is the Legacy system. Its Well Rested perk raises your rested XP cap and speeds up how fast rested XP builds. For most players Legacy opens when their first character reaches level 25, and each character can spend up to 16 points at launch.

The first level 60s landed about 52 hours after launch

Forever opened at 3:00 p.m. PST on November 4, which is 23:00 UTC. A community stream tracker logged JokerD’s five-player group reaching 60 first: the Undead Paladin Cloud Bells at 03:10 UTC on November 7, the other four within two minutes. That is about 52 hours after launch, and still November 6 in US time zones. Treat it as reported, not official: Blizzard has not published a time, and a second unofficial register that logs profile snapshots shows later times. This was a dedicated race by a five-player party, so it is no pace for anyone else to measure against.

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Source & credit

XP rules come from Blizzard’s own words: Kaivax’s beta development notes (October 1, October 8 and November 2), the November 8 hotfix post, the November hotfix thread, the launch-time post, Aggrend’s October 8 forum reply and the WoW: Forever Podcast episode 3, read from auto-generated captions. Dungeon ranges, camping and Legacy details are from Blizzard’s news articles linked above. The level 60 timing comes from a community stream tracker. Images are Blizzard’s official art from its Forever news posts.