Conquest of Azeroth Leveling Guide: Fastest Way to Level Up in Project Ascension’s Conquest of Azeroth

This guide covers the fastest path from level 1 to 60, based on beta testing and personal starting-zone timings. The route splits into two phases: a focused 1-15 speedrun using the Travel Permit to hop between the quickest starting zones, commit to one when you can’t use the Travel Permit anymore, then a Dungeon Finder loop with Call Board dailies from 15 to 60 with some Leveling Quests while you wait for the queue.

Ascension rewards active leveling, so the sooner you unlock LFG and daily quest rotations, the faster the rest of the climb goes.

Before You Start

Two setup decisions at character creation directly affect how fast you level: enabling Scalable World, and grabbing the free bag near your spawn.

World Scaling keeps mobs within a narrow level band around your character, meaning quests and zones remain useful even when you outlevel them slightly. You still get the satisfaction of progression, since mobs cap out roughly four levels below you, but you never render an entire zone obsolete mid-questline. This is primarily used to complete multiple starting areas, reach level 15 as quickly as possible, and exclusively run Dungeons til max level. (And quest in the level-appropriate locations while waiting for queues)

You can toggle Scalable World later, but I would keep it on for the whole leveling run. It also lets you gather resources from lower-level zones without losing experience, which pairs directly with the profession loop later in this guide. You can set this in Character Creation, though for after this, check this article out: How to Enable World Scaling

Pick up Skills if you can – look for light purple floating books (Books of Artisans), sometimes following players; those teach you skills. You can pick up 2 skills and ‘free’ skills that don’t take up a slot. If you can’t find any, the second village of any race usually has one. It’s usually better to pick skills that award experience rather than those that offer usefulness.

Always pick up First Aid, Fishing, Cooking, Woodcutting, and Woodworking – those don’t take up a skill slot so they’re just free to use. Woodcutting can grant experience, and if you choose a starting area with a sawmill, refining also awards additional experience. Though this has been nerfed since Bronzebeard.

For skills that take a slot, you have the following options: Leatherworker, Skinner, Alchemist, Blacksmith, Enchanter, Engineer, Herbalist, Miner, or Tailor. Gathering Skills fit power leveling better, so we’d recommend choosing Skinner and Herbalism, as there is an abundance of nodes to obtain on the way to quest objectives. Also cut down Trees when you spot them.

Every starting zone has a large bag sitting on the ground near your spawn point. Pick it up before you touch a second village, because juggling inventory is the biggest hidden time sink during the 1 to 15 stretch.

The Fastest Route to Level 15

Level 15 is the real target for the first session because it unlocks the Random Dungeon Finder, and dungeon queues become the backbone of leveling from that point onwards. The route below stitches together two or three fast starting zones using the Travel Permit, which lets you teleport between any starting area for free until level 8.

Pick the Fastest Starting Zone

The starting zone you spawn in matters more than the race itself, because the race determines where you begin. In my testing, Orcs and Trolls came out fastest at roughly 1 hour 45 minutes to level 10, with Humans right behind at 1 hour 50. Goblins from Ratchet are the worst pick because the tutorial area is padded with extra dialogue and travel.

Personally, I would stick with Valley of Trials (Horde/Orc) or Northshire (Alliance/Human) as your home base. Both have tight quest hubs, short walking distances between objectives, and the second village is easy to reach for the free mount. Choose Deathknell (Horde/Undead) or Coldridge Valley (Alliance/Dwarves) as your second location using the Travel Permit. Some even try to do third ones, but we don’t recommend it.

Class selection matters less than you might expect, because Scalable World means anything can level. Starting kits do vary though, and classes like Barbarian and Tinkerer are noticeably strong at low levels while some magic specs struggle before they get their core spells. The Conquest of Azeroth class tier list ranks which specs are generally considered best from 1 to 60, which translates to the speed at which mobs are killed and, thus, the time to level.

The Travel Permit Rotation

The Travel Permit is a free item every character receives at character creation. Right-click it, choose a starting zone from the menu, and you teleport there instantly. It has a five-minute cooldown, and it stops working at level 8, so the window to use it aggressively is short.

The rotation is simple. Clear your home starting zone up to roughly level 5 or 6. Use the Travel Permit to hop to a second starting zone, clear the fast quest chain there, then use the Permit again to hit a third zone, or hearthstone back home once it hits its cooldown. Starting areas have the least amount of running relative to second locations.

Mob tags on CoA are shared, so you never have to fight other players for kill credit on quest mobs. You still need to tag a mob to loot it, but shared credit alone removes almost all launch-day congestion. If the Quest says ‘slay’, just tag any and all. If the Quest mentions loot, you need to initiate combat to loot it. Tagging still works in groups, so you can just ask for an invite from whoever is already at the location.

Grab the Level 5 Mount at the Second Village

Once you hit level 5, head to the second village of your starting area. Every second village has been reworked in CoA, so the exact NPC location differs from Vanilla, but a Path of Ascension objective automatically marks the trainer for you. Goldshire or the village at the bottom of Durotar.

The trainer gives you the riding skill and a 40% speed mount for free. It is only a 40% mount, but coming from base run speed, it feels like a rocket during the 5 to 15 stretch. The next mount tiers unlock at level 20 for around 5 gold, and at level 40 for the epic mount at the normal cost.

Path of Ascension and World Forged Loot Along the Way

Path of Ascension quests trigger automatically as you level up, and they reward you with Runes of Ascension. Runes are the currency you use to reset talents and upgrade World Forged gear later, so treat every rune quest as a small side objective rather than a chore. Even the ones that feel like tutorial hand-holding add up over the climb from 1 to 60.

World Forged items are hand-placed in the world by the developers and appear as sparkly objects on the ground or tucked inside caves that were empty in Vanilla. Anything from bags to full weapon upgrades can appear, and some carry unique buffs you cannot get anywhere else. If you are leveling through Elwynn Forest as Human, the Elwynn Forest World Forged locations are worth checking before you start. For the Orc and Troll route, do the same with the Durotar World Forged locations.

RPG Loot also drops from humanoid mobs, meaning enemies drop the exact weapon or armor they are wearing. If you see a mob wielding a staff you need, kill enough of that mob type, and the weapon will eventually drop. It is mostly a transmog feature, but leveling upgrades often drop enough to make it worth killing every humanoid on your quest path.

Level 15 to 60: The LFG Dungeon Finder Grind

At level 15, the Random Dungeon Finder opens, and the pace of leveling completely shifts. Queueing into dungeons while questing on the surface offers the highest experience-per-hour combination on the server, especially now that Mana Storm experience has been slashed.

Random Dungeon Finder XP has also been reduced compared to the beta, but the completion bonuses on the first daily run plus the item drops still make it the best baseline experience source between 15 and 60. Combined with the daily Dungeon Quests from the Call Board, this is the clear winner. You can pick up Dungeon Quests in Major Cities for a good portion of Dungeons, as well as near dungeon entrances or through the usual methods you use in Vanilla WoW.

Queue as Tank or Healer for Instant Pops

Dungeon Finder queues are always short on Tank and Healer roles, no matter what time of day you play. If your class has a tank or healer spec, respec into it before you queue, because your wait time drops from 10-plus minutes as a DPS to essentially instant.

The catch is that you actually need to know the dungeons if you tank. Healers can get away with learning on the fly because the group will bail you out, but a lost tank pulls the group into wipes fast and gets blamed for every death. Personally, I would queue as healer during the first few days of a new class if you are still learning the layouts.

Players have discovered that completing entire dungeons is more EXP efficient than any other method. Meaning clearing all mobs within a dungeon, instead of doing just the singular boss marked on the map.

For reference, as a Level 27 – I’d get 600-1800EXP from Quests, 140 Exp from Mobs. From Dungeons, I was getting 200 EXP per mob (which were usually bundled), 4000-6000 Experience per boss, and leveled 3 times in a full clear dungeon. Though if anyone leaves after doing just the boss, all time efficiency has been lost, so requeue and continue questing in the world.

Daily Call Board Quests

Every capital city has a Call Board in the main plaza where players tend to gather. Talk to it and pick up the Daily Dungeon Quest and the Daily PvP Quest, because both stack a large experience bonus on top of whatever else you complete that day.

The PvP daily unlocks at level 10, so you can start earning it before you even reach LFG. The Dungeon daily unlocks at 15 and pairs perfectly with your first Random Dungeon Finder queue. Complete both every day the character logs in, even if you only play for 30 minutes, because the experience alone is worth roughly a full level in the mid brackets.

PvP is a coin flip during leveling. Trust me, if you cannot win about 50% of your PvP matches, just skip the mode and spam Dungeons instead. It happens more often than you think, and grinding losses is the worst experience per hour on the server.

Professions and Quests While Queued

Gathering professions spawn nodes directly in starting zones on CoA, which is a big shift from Vanilla. Pick up Mining and Herbalism early, and you will passively earn experience just from harvesting the nodes you run past. There is no reason to skip them, especially for solo classes.

Crafting professions also work harder in this realm because crafted items get randomized affixes, and each item can be upgraded twice. The second upgrade turns the piece into a rare (blue) item, which often outperforms anything the same level bracket drops from mobs or quests.

Combined with Scalable World, you can farm resources from lower-level zones without losing experience, then craft yourself upgrades that carry you into the next bracket. It turns professions from an optional side track into a core part of the leveling loop.

Log off inside Inns / Cities

Logging off in safe places ensures that you gain rested EXP, which is just free. There is little to no reason not to; it is most definitely a time saver if you are going to log off anyway.

Rested Experience was World of Warcraft’s solution for players who needed a break, ensuring they didn’t spend too long in the virtual world by rewarding time away with faster leveling based on how long they rested. Though the kicker is that it only applies if you logged off in Safe Places.

Best Leveling Routes by Faction Alongside Dungeon Finder

Even with LFG dungeons accounting for most of your experience after level 15, you still need a solid open-world route to run between queue pops. Alliance and Horde take completely different paths through Azeroth, so the routes below cover the cleanest way to fill the gaps.

Both routes assume Scalable World is enabled, so mobs stay useful even if you outlevel a zone by a few levels. If a zone feels overtuned, come back after two or three levels rather than pushing through underleveled.

Alliance Route: Northshire to Duskwood

Alliance leveling jumps around a lot at low levels, and that is a feature rather than a flaw. Clear every quest in Elwynn Forest first; most classes take 10 or 11 levels. Hogger is the first natural pause. Grab a group for him, or come back a couple levels later and solo him, which is possible on most classes.

At 10 you can dip into Westfall for a couple of safe quests, but Dun Morogh is the better move. Only take the two Eastern trogg mine quests and the elite quest tucked in there. If you land in Dun Morogh at level 10, the troll quest in the southwest corner is available too, though the long walk usually makes it a wash.

Loch Modan is next. Do not commit to the whole zone yet. Grab the innkeeper animal parts quest, the gnoll quest (skip the gnoll cave for miner’s gear at this level), and the first “In Defense of the King’s Lands.” That normally puts you at 13 or 14, at which point Westfall opens up properly.

In Westfall, sweep the quests on the way to Sentinel Hill, then grab the first “The People’s Militia,” “Patrolling Westfall,” and “Red Leather Bandanas” from the hub. A breadcrumb quest leads into Redridge and a Deadmines chain worth chasing if you have time. The northwest lighthouse quests are solid too, though the walk is not for everyone.

Darkshore follows. You will be overleveled for the first few quests, but the zone catches up and you should nearly clear it before leaving. Push north to the Tower of Althalaxx, do that quest, and grab the Ashenvale follow up to hold onto. Southeast of town, the Grove of the Ancients quests are worth doing with another player, especially “The Absent Minded Prospector.”

Loop back to Westfall to finish “The People’s Militia” and the escort quest, then return to Loch Modan for real. Clear the bridge quests, run the timed quests at Farstriders Lodge, and finish with the crocodile chain and the crashed pilot tools quest. Group up for the elite Ogre and elite Bear, since the bear hits far harder than his level suggests.

By the time Loch Modan is done you should be level 20 or 21. From there, roll into Ashenvale, Redridge, Wetlands, and Duskwood in whatever order suits your class and available groups. Deadmines slots in around level 18 to 20 if the LFG queue puts you there anyway.

Horde Route: Durotar to Salt Flats

Horde leveling is more linear than Alliance leveling early on, but the mid-twentys open up a lot of options that are easy to get wrong. Start in Durotar, clear the Valley of Trials chain into the northern quests, then roll straight into the Barrens by level 10. Crossroads carries most of your leveling from 10 to about 16.

At 18, Wailing Caverns is worth running. Grab the dungeon quests from Crossroads before you queue, because they stack an extra chunk of experience on top of the boss loot. If you queue as Tank or Healer, you can knock out two or three runs while questing on the surface between pops.

Once Barrens quests spread out into long travel legs, head to Camp Taurajo and roll into Stone Talon Mountains. Stone Talon nets you decent cloth for First Aid alongside the quest experience. By the time you reach the Harpy chain, those quests may already be orange, so it is fine to skip them for now.

Loop back to Barrens to mop up whatever is left, then head to Ashenvale. Focus on Zoram Strand first. Level 20 Naga quests are smooth, and the beach is a solid PvP hotspot if you enjoy the fights. Skip Hillsbrad for now, since PvP contention makes it a slog on most servers.

Once the easy Ashenvale quests are done, swing back to Stone Talon to finish the harder ones. Save the deeper Ashenvale chains for four or five levels later unless you have a friend. Thousand Needles is next, and the Salt Flats are the standout hub in the zone. You can circle back to the leftover Ashenvale quests once you outlevel them.

By level 30 to 32 the Salt Flats are done. From there, Dustwallow Marsh and Swamp of Sorrows offer quiet grind zones, while Ragefire Chasm gives way to Shadowfang Keep and Scarlet Monastery for the dungeon loop. Stranglethorn Vale is best delayed until 30 plus, both because of population saturation on quest mobs and because it is a magnet for PvP griefing.

What to Skip While Leveling

A few systems on CoA look tempting for experience but are not worth your time until you hit max level.

High Risk PvP looks like it rewards active play, but the scaling world change means a level 40 can now wander into your level 20 zone. There is an Honorable Combat buff that stops attacks unless the target is at least five levels lower, but ganks still happen. Skip High Risk entirely during leveling and revisit it at 60 for the endgame crafting materials.

Heirloom gear doesn’t exist yet either, because most people haven’t reached level 60 to unlock the account-bound experience-boost items. Once a character in your account hits 60, that changes, but at launch everyone is on equal footing, so do not waste time hunting for shortcuts that are not implemented.

Frequently Asked Questions