Quests or dungeons: the faster way to level in WoW Forever after the changes

Questing, measured in XP per hour. A dungeon pays off once, when you have all its quests in your log. Repeated runs for kill XP fall behind the open world.

Below are testers' measurements after the October 8 change and our estimate for dungeon quest rewards. These come from a handful of players rather than Blizzard's statistics, but they point in the same direction.

Dungeon enemies give little XP; dungeon quests give a lot. That has been the plan from the start: your first run should feel rewarding, while farming the same dungeon should not be the best leveling method.

Josh Greenfield explained Blizzard's goal: with ideal play, dungeons should provide almost as much XP per hour as the best questing route, but no more. He said leveling to 60 entirely through dungeons does not fit the game's foundations, and the team intends to hold to that position.

• From the start: dungeon kill XP was sharply reduced, while dungeon quests became much more rewarding.
• October 1, beta: the dungeon quest bonus was halved. Only the extra reward above a regular quest was reduced; the Classic base XP remained.
• October 8, beta: dungeon kill XP increased by about 20%, and the group penalty was fixed. It once again uses each player's level rather than the highest level in the group. See our October 8 build report for more.
• The result: dungeon enemies still give roughly a quarter of Classic's XP. Players counted around 4k kill XP for a full Deadmines run, compared with 17k in Classic.
• If someone in the group greatly outlevels the enemies, nobody gets kill XP. Running a friend through a dungeon for XP will not work.

Roughly 1.6–2.7 times the reward of a regular quest at the same level, depending on the dungeon. A dungeon's full set of quests adds up to around 0.7–1.5 levels at levels 15–28.

For example, Deviate Hides from Wailing Caverns awarded 1600 XP in Classic, around 4650 on the beta before the nerf, and around 3100 afterward. That is nearly twice the Classic reward even after the reduction. Players on the Blizzard forums report that a full set of dungeon quests still gives around a level and a half, with Hall of Thanes giving slightly less than a level.

Not if you play solo or join pickup groups. A Forever dungeon is like a good film: great the first time, fine the second, and by the third you start to question the time spent.

Before the October 8 buff, one Stockade tester counted around 26.7k XP for a full run with quests, versus 22.4k in Classic. Only around 2k came from kills, compared with 10k in Classic. Two runs work out roughly even with Classic; from the third run onward, you fall behind.

The picture is similar after the buff. A level 19 Mage earned half as much in 40 minutes in the Deadmines as in 40 minutes killing gnolls outside. Another tester earned as much in 25 minutes inside as in 15 minutes grinding in the open world.

That excludes forming the group. WoW Forever has no automatic dungeon finder, only a bulletin board. Meeting stones cannot summon; only a Warlock's Ritual of Summoning can bring you to the entrance. Beta reports put group assembly and travel at 15–50 minutes.

The exception is a coordinated group that knows the dungeon and wastes no time. One tester estimates that such a group at levels 14–16 can keep up with a good questing route, though this was an impression rather than a timed measurement. That is the ideal play Blizzard is referring to.

The best plan for now is open-world questing, with one visit to each level-appropriate dungeon once you have collected all its quests. For preparations before you start, see our launch preparation guide.

• Collect dungeon quests in advance. Beta data suggests the quest log holds 40 quests, compared with 20 in Classic. Our Undead Rogue route (Russian) shows where to pick them up along the way.
• Run a dungeon when you have three or more of its quests. Make a second visit only to finish quests whose items did not drop.
• Eat. Any cooked food grants the Well Fed XP bonus: +5% kill XP.
• Put up a Camp Tent. A leatherworker with skill 20 makes it from 5 Light Leather. The tent gives rested XP worth 5% of a level, then the Improved Rest effect prevents another use for an hour. Only the person placing it needs the profession; everyone else just needs to sit at the campfire.
• Check Legacy after level 25. Well Rested, Permanence, and Gourmand speed up rested XP gains and extend campfire and food buffs for every character on the account.

Tanks and healers have the hardest time: dungeons no longer carry their leveling, while questing in a tanking or healing build is slow. Friends have an easier option: if their levels match, visiting a series of dungeons with quests collected in advance will probably be about as fast as questing.

For more on grouping, see how to play with friends. For choosing a role, see which class to choose.