World of Warcraft’s tenth expansion, The War Within, has introduced players to stunning new underground empires, compelling storylines, and innovative gameplay features. It was released on August 26, 2024, and has become widely loved since then. The expansion offers multiple pathways to reach the level cap — some fast, some more time-consuming. One of the quickest and easiest options to accomplish these is to use a WoW carry service. It is just ideal for players who want to skip the grind. But if you prefer to level up on your own and enjoy the journey through Azeroth, this comprehensive guide will help you navigate the leveling process from 70 to 80 with maximum efficiency.
Understanding Leveling Progression in The War Within
The War Within introduces the Worldsoul Saga trilogy as its inaugural part while leading adventurers into subterranean realms to encounter formidable enemies across fresh locations. You need 2,481,285 experience points to achieve level 80 from 70, which demands thoughtful preparation due to its high number.
The expansion introduces several new features influencing the leveling experience, including Hero Talents, Delves, and the exhilarating Skyriding system. Additionally, the Warband Mentoring system has revolutionized the alt-leveling experience, making it progressively faster to level secondary characters once you’ve mastered the content with your main.
Preparing for Efficient Leveling
Before diving into the new content, several preparation steps can significantly improve your leveling experience:
- Clean your quest log — Begin with a fresh quest log to ensure you can accept all new quests without hitting capacity limits. Abandoned quests from previous expansions only slow you down and create unnecessary clutter during your leveling journey. Take time before launch to complete or abandon old quests to start with a clean slate.
- Plan your talent tree — The War Within features expanded talent options, and planning your build ahead of time prevents wasting precious minutes deciding between talents while leveling. Research optimal leveling builds for your class and have a clear plan for talent point allocation as you progress. Prioritize talents that enhance movement speed, survivability, and area-of-effect damage capabilities for faster questing.
- Set your Hearthstone strategically — As you progress through zones, regularly update your Hearthstone location to minimize travel time. The ideal locations are central hubs with good access to campaign progression points, allowing you to return quickly after completing objectives in distant areas.
Additionally, when entering a new zone, prioritize unlocking flight paths before engaging with the main questline. This initial investment of time pays dividends throughout your leveling experience by significantly reducing travel time between objectives.
The Fastest Leveling Methods Ranked
Based on extensive testing since the expansion’s release, here are the most efficient methods for reaching level 80, ordered from fastest to slowest.
Focus on the Campaign
The main campaign consists of 12 chapters spread across four distinct zones: Isle of Dorn, Ringing Deeps, Hallowfall, and others. While completing the entire campaign is time-consuming, it provides structured progression and steady experience gains. For your first character, focusing primarily on the campaign quests (indicated by special quest markers) allows you to stay ahead of the general population and move to less crowded zones more quickly.
“We’ve really done a lot over the last 20 years to ensure that 20 years of content is not 20 years of obstacles that you have to overcome to get to the latest, coolest thing,” explained Game Director Ion Hazzikostas. This philosophy is reflected in the streamlined campaign experience in The War Within.
Selective Side Questing
While the campaign forms your leveling backbone, selectively completing side quests in your immediate vicinity can efficiently supplement your experience gains without excessive travel time. Prioritize side quests that:
- Share objectives with campaign quests.
- Are located along your campaign path.
- Offer notable rewards beyond just experience.
However, avoid the temptation to clear entire zones of side quests, as this will significantly slow your overall progress toward level 80. Remember that completing the main campaign plus key side quests will only get you approximately two levels from the maximum cap, requiring additional methods to reach level 80.
Dungeon Leveling
For players who prefer group content, dungeons can provide competitive experience rates, particularly for damage-dealing specializations with short queue times or pre-made groups. The War Within introduces several new dungeons set in the subterranean reaches of Azeroth, each offering unique challenges and substantial experience rewards.
Dungeon leveling is especially effective when:
- You have a consistent group of friends or guildmates.
- You’re playing a tank or healer role with fast queue times.
- You’ve outgeared the content through crafted equipment.
The Warband Mentoring System: Revolutionizing Alt Leveling
The War Within features its most significant advancement through the Warband Mentoring system, which greatly speeds up experience gain for alternative characters. Here’s how it works. For each character you level to 80, all subsequent characters receive a 5% experience gain bonus, up to a maximum of 25% with five level-80 characters. The experience system motivates players to build multiple 80-level characters because each maxed-out character accelerates the leveling progress for the following ones.
Additional Tips for Maximum Leveling Efficiency
To get the most out of your character progression in The War Within, there are a few additional strategies you’ll need to know:
- Employ leveling guide addons — Various third-party addons available to players from their community help speed up leveling by offering smart routing solutions and automated task functions, and goal tracking systems. These automation tools minimize mental exhaustion and direct your progress toward the optimal routes through different areas.
- Launch day strategies — Becoming a target during your leveling phase requires layer-hopping methods to bypass any competition for available quest objectives. To reduce server lag and avoid competition, you should perform leveling activities during periods outside the peak playing hours if possible.
- Welcome to the Azeroth bundle — Everything a new player needs to begin in World of Warcraft is in the Welcome to Azeroth bundle ($24.99), featuring Dragonflight expansion alongside a level 60 character boost and 60 days of gameplay. The bundle enables beginner players to rapidly grow their character while preparing them for The War Within activities.
These minor alterations will help you reclaim hours during your leveling while supplying you with an advantage against other players, particularly during the chaotic start of the expansion.
It Is the Right Time to Speed Leveling in World of Warcraft
The War Within offers multiple pathways to reach level 80, with the most efficient approach combining focused campaign progression, strategic side questing, and utilizing the Warband Mentoring system for alts. By implementing the above techniques, you’ll be able to reach max level quickly and begin experiencing the rich endgame content that awaits beneath Azeroth’s surface. Remember that while efficient leveling is important, The War Within’s story is worth savoring on at least one character. The subterranean wonders of Khaz Algar and its connected realms represent some of World of Warcraft’s most visually stunning and lore-rich environments to date.
