Welcome to MMORPGTIPS’ Classic WoW Leveling guide. Filled with all the tips and tricks you need to level from 1 to 60 in vanilla WoW. No matter if your choice is questing, grinding or running dungeons, we got you covered.
If you want to make some gold while leveling, check out our WoW Classic Gold Farming Guide.
Guide Contents
WoW Classic Leveling Guide Basics
So lets go over the basics for leveling in classic World of Warcraft.
How long does it take to level to level 60 in WoW Classic?
Leveling to level 60 in Vanilla WoW certainly takes a lot of time. Joana set the speed leveling record back in Vanilla at 4 days and 20 hours in-game time. Do not expect to beat that or get anywhere close, even as a veteran player.
Using Zygors Guides my time to 60 after Classic launch was about 6 days /played, even with a whole lot of AFK time so that I wouldn’t have to queue again.
A fast leveling time would be around 7-14 days in-game, if you don’t waste much time on battlegrounds or idling about.
Casual players can expect to spend as much as 30 days of in-game to get to level 60.
What is the fastest Leveling Class in WoW Classic?
Hunters are the fastest leveling class in classic WoW. They are good allrounders with ranged DPS, good pets and tons of utility making them maybe the best solo class and certainly the fastest levelers.
Joana’s speed leveling record was done with a Hunter.
The rest of the classes ranked are:
Hunter > Druid > Warlock > Mage > Priest > Shaman > Rogue > Paladin > Warrior.
Is grouping faster than soloing in WoW Classic?
Soloing while leveling is generally faster in Classic WoW, since mob XP is split amongst all players in a group.
Grouping should be considered only when doing dungeons if your primary goal is leveling speed.
Doing dungeons is also pretty slow as far as leveling goes and each dungeon should only be done once to get the quests done.
Rest XP
Rest XP is the only kind of bonus xp in vanilla WoW. You get rest XP by being at an inn or a capital city so always remember to log out here to get rest XP.
Always be Grinding
In classic WoW there isn’t enough quests to take you all the way to 60 just from the quests so you will have to grind as well. The best way is just to always be grinding mobs when moving around the world.
Get New Drinks and Food
Always have the best available food and drink so that you regen faster and keep downtime to a minimum.
Heartstone
Moving around in Classic WoW is much slower than in current WoW, so remember to use your Heartstone. The cooldown goes down when you are logged out as well.
Bank Alts
Going back to a captial city to bank or sell is a huge time sink, so if you are trying to level fast, mail all your stuff to a bank alt to save time.
Auto-Run
The auto-run feature is very handy when moving around so that you can do other stuff at the same time.
Looting or Not
If you are speedleveling, looting mobs is not always optional, but you have to consider what to do yourself. Before level 40, if you need money for your mount, you probably should loot. After level 50, looting a lot might be a waste of time.
Bag Space
If you can afford it, get bigger bags so that you can loot more without going back to sell all the time.
Level 40 Mount
At level 40 you can get your first mount if you can afford it. If you cannot, check out our classic WoW gold farming guide.
WoW Classic Leveling Addons
Addons can increase your leveling speed by showing you optimal routes to take in order to gain XP faster.
Zygors Guides – Are probably the fastest and most reliable leveling guide for WoW. Everything is in-game and the guides are updated frequently to make sure you are on the fastest path to level 60.
Azeroth Auto Pilot Classic – Azeroth
Questie Classic – Looks similar to Azeroth Auto Pilot. Still a work in progress.
Leveling by Questing in WoW Classic
This guide won’t go into detail about quest leveling as it won’t ever beat Joana’s Leveling Guide or Zygors Guides.
However if you don’t like reading in-dept guide while leveling, you can follow this general list of zones to hit at each level.
Which Zones to do as Horde
- 1-12 Starting Zones
- 12-20 Barrens
- 15-28 Stonetalon Mountains
- 21-27 Ashenvale
- 22-25 Southern Barrens
- 25-38 Thousand Needles
- 29-30 Hillsbrad Foothills
- 30-37 Arathi Highlands
- 30-47 Stranglethorn Vale
- 31-32 Shimmering Flats
- 32-44 Desolace
- 37-37 Alteric Mountains
- 38-49 Dustwallow Marsh
- 40-41 Badlands
- 41-49 Swamp of Sorrows
- 44-50 Tanaris
- 45-49 Feralas
- 46-54 Azshara
- 47-51 Hinterlands
- 47-48 Searing Gorge
- 50-51 Hinterlands
- 51-51 Blasted Lands
- 51-53 Un’Goro Crater
- 53-53 Burning Steppes
- 54-56 Felwood
- 56-58 Western Plaguelands
- 56-57 Eastern Plaguelands
- 58-59 Silithus
- 54-60 Winterspring
Which zones to do as Alliance
- 1-12 Starting Zones
- 12-24 Darkshore
- 17-20 Loch Modan
- 18-28 Redridge Mountains
- 21-24 Ashenvale
- 22-30 Stonetalon Mountains
- 24-31 Wetlands
- 28-30 Duskwood
- 31-32 Hillsbrad Foothills
- 32-38 Arathi Highlands
- 32-47 Stranglethorn Vale
- 33-34 Shimmering Flats
- 34-43 Desolace
- 36-38 Alterac Mountains
- 38-49 Dustwallow Marsh
- 40-42 Badlands
- 40-44 Swamp of Sorrows
- 43-58 Tanaris
- 44-49 Feralas
- 45-53 Azshara
- 46-50 The Hinterlands
- 46-50 Searing Gorge
- 50-54 The Hinterlands
- 50-52 Blasted Lands
- 51-58 Un’Goro Crater
- 51-58 Azshara
- 53-58 Felwood
- 54-54 Winterspring
- 55-56 Burning Steppes
- 56-58 Western Plaguelands
- 56-59 Eastern Plaguelands
- 58-59 Silithus
- 59-60 Winterspring
Leveling by Grinding in Classic WoW
Grinding in classic WoW isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but some players enjoy it.
Leveling probably won’t be as fast as with questing but at certain points you will run out of quests and you will need to do some griding.
Grinding is also much better for making gold if that is your thing.
Certainly classes, like the Mage are much better than other classes at griding.
Grinding Leveling Locations
- 10-13 Dreadmaw Crocolisks- River between Durotar and Barrens.
- 13-16 Southsea Bandits – South of Ratchet
- 16-19 Theramore Marines – Norwatch Keep
- 19-22 Stormhides and Quilboards – South Barrens
- 22-24 Bears and Spiders – Tarren Mill
- 24-30 Centaurs – North of Freewind Post in Thousand Needles
- 30-32 Roguefeather Harpies – Cave South in Thousand Needles.
- 31-33 Yeti Cave – Hillsbrad.
- 32-42 Kurzen Camp – North Stranglethorn Vale – First outside cave, then inside.
- 33-35 Yetis – Alterac Mountains
- 34-37 Venture Co. Meteorologists – Stranglethorn Vale
- 36-38 Naga – Islands in Desolace
- 36-46 Rock Elementals – Badlands
- 37-39 Murlocs – Near Grom’Gol in Stranglethorn
- 40-43 Scalding Whelps – Badlands
- 40-46 Wastewander Mobs – Tanaris
- 42-48 Naga – Stranglethorn Vale
- 42-44 Ogres – Feralas.
- 42-45 Woodpaw Gnolls – Feralas, south of Camp Mojache
- 44 – 48 Dustbelcher Ogres – Cave in Southwest corner
- 45-48 Yeti – Feral Scare Vale in Feralas
- 45-50 Pirates – Lost rigger cove in Tanaris.
- 46-48 Ghosts – Azshara
- 48-53 – Harpies – North West corner of Feralas
- 48-52 Dunemaul Ogres – Tanaris
- 49-52 Deadwood Village – Felwood
- 52-54 Ogres – Burning Steppes
- 52-56 Skeletal Slayers – Western Plaguelands
- 53-55 Satyrs – Azshara
- 53-58 Ghosts – Frozen Lake in Winterspring
- 56-60 – Yeti – Caves in Winterspring
- 53-60 Blood elves – Azshara
- 57-60 Ogres – Deadwind Pass