WoW Leveling Guide: The Fastest Way from 1 to 90 in Midnight

World of Warcraft Midnight raised the level cap to 90, and patch 12.1.5 is the live version right now. This guide shows the quickest route for a fresh character and for alts: Chromie Time and dungeons up to 70, a short trip through The War Within to 80, then the Midnight campaign in Quel’Thalas to 90. Patch 12.1.7 will make leveling faster again with Turbulent Timeways and new XP potions, which are already on the test server, so the last section covers what to expect from it.

XP bonuses to switch on before you start

A few bonuses add up over a whole level range, so set them up first when you plan to level more than one character.

• Warband Mentor makes your other characters level faster for every character you already have at the cap. From level 80 to 89 the bonus is 5% per level 90 character, up to 25% with five of them, and an older version from The War Within does the same below 80, counted by your level 80 characters.
• Rested XP builds up while your character is logged out in an inn or a city, and it doubles the experience from kills until it runs out. An alt that waited in a city for a week starts with a full bar.
• War Mode gives bonus experience from quests and kills in the open world when you turn it on in a capital city, and in return players of the other faction can attack you there.
• Heirlooms no longer give bonus XP. They still scale with you up to level 70, so they work as a free set of gear and you don’t have to compare every quest reward.

Levels 1 to 70: Chromie Time, dungeons and Timewalking

Chromie Time

Talk to Chromie at the embassy in Stormwind or Orgrimmar at level 10 or higher, and she lets you level in any of nine older expansions, from The Burning Crusade to Dragonflight. Zones in your chosen expansion scale with you, so you can stay in one story the whole way. Dragonflight is the default, and you can choose an expansion until level 68.

Pick the expansion whose story you want to see. The XP difference between them is small, and an expansion you enjoy keeps you going longer than a slightly faster one you have to push through.

Random dungeons

From level 10 you can queue for random dungeons in the Dungeon Finder (press I). A run gives good experience for the time it takes, and the queue runs while you keep questing. Tanks and healers find a group much faster, so for those roles a dungeon queue running all the time often beats questing.

Timewalking

Timewalking dungeons are open from level 10 in the weeks of a Timewalking event, and they give a lot of experience per run. The weekly event quest adds a big chunk of XP on top. Which expansion runs this week, and when the next event comes, is in our Timewalking schedule.

Levels 70 to 80: The War Within

From level 70 you continue in Khaz Algar, the continent of The War Within. Blizzard added a shortened version of the story for this range, which catches you up on what leads into Midnight without the full campaign. Dungeons from The War Within and Delves in Khaz Algar give good experience here too. The Midnight intro opens at level 78, and once you reach 80 it is the faster choice.

Levels 80 to 90: the Midnight campaign

The road from 80 runs through Quel’Thalas. Your first character follows the campaign: you start in Eversong Woods, then choose the order of Zul’Aman, Harandar and Arator’s journey across the Eastern Kingdoms, and finish in the Voidstorm. Silvermoon City is your base for all of it. The campaign alone takes you very close to 90, and world quests fill the last bar once it’s done.

The level ranges are a guide, because the zones scale and you can quest in any order after Eversong Woods. You need just under 5 million XP for the ten levels from 80 to 90.

Two activities speed this part up:

• The Midnight dungeons open in the Dungeon Finder as you level: Windrunner Spire at 81, Murder Row at 83, Maisara Caverns at 85, and The Blinding Vale and Den of Nalorakk at 88. The campaign quests can open some of them earlier. The rest open at 90.
• Delves open at 80, and each one has a quest for its first clear that gives a lot of experience. Take that quest every time you enter a new Delve. Clearing the same Delve again without it gives little XP.

Leveling alts faster

Your second character doesn’t have to repeat the whole campaign, because Midnight opens shortcuts for the whole Warband once one character has done the work.

• Adventure Mode opens when one character finishes the campaign chapter Daylight is Breaking, and from then on it is open for your other characters. They start at the Sanctum of Light in Silvermoon City and can level with world quests and events in any zone instead of the campaign.
• Lady Liadrin offers alts a skip of the Midnight intro.
• Players report a full campaign skip from Soridormi at Wayfarer’s Rest for characters at level 90 when another character has finished the campaign. Blizzard hasn’t described this skip in its patch notes, so check in game what your character is offered.
• Warband Mentor adds 5% XP from 80 to 89 for each level 90 character, up to 25%, so every next alt levels noticeably faster.

For alts the fastest mix is usually Adventure Mode with world quests, the first clear of each Delve and dungeon queues in between. If an alt skipped the story and you want it finished later, our Midnight campaign boost completes the campaign on a level 90 character.

What patch 12.1.7 changes for leveling

Patch 12.1.7, Echoes of the Worldcore, is on the test server (PTR) now, and Blizzard hasn’t named its release date. Everything in this section comes from Blizzard’s overview of the patch and from the PTR, so details can still change before it goes live.

Turbulent Timeways VI: 30% more XP

Turbulent Timeways starts when 12.1.7 goes live and runs for eight weeks, with a Timewalking event every week. Each Timewalking dungeon gives you Knowledge of the Timeways, a stacking 5% XP buff. After four dungeons it turns into Mastery of the Timeways, which gives 30% more experience while it lasts, also when you quest outside Timewalking. That makes these eight weeks the best time of the season to level alts: run four Timewalking dungeons, then level your usual way with the buff. On EU realms the PTR dates point to 2 December 2026 to 27 January 2027, and our Timewalking schedule updates them once the patch has a date.

Four new XP potions from Talebound

Talebound, the new PvE action RPG mode of 12.1.7, has four tales, and each one has a puzzle achievement that rewards an experience potion: Darkhaven Wisdom, Greenthistle Wisdom, Greywake’s Wisdom and Court of Night Wisdom. The first PTR build showed 30% more XP for two hours. In the newest PTR build each potion gives 10% for two hours. The final value and whether you can use them together with other XP bonuses are unknown until the patch goes live.

Lorewalking from level 10

12.1.7 adds four new Lorewalking stories about Jaina, Thrall, the Titans and Tyr. Characters from level 10 start them with Lorewalker Li Li Stormstout, who waits for you in Stormwind, Orgrimmar and Silvermoon City. Lorewalking is a way to see the story, and Blizzard hasn’t said that it gives experience. While a story is running, you can’t progress any other quests, so pause it when you want to level.

Short on time?

Even the fastest route from 80 to 90 takes hours, and every alt adds more. If you would rather spend that time on the season, our WoW leveling boost takes your character to the level you choose, from 80 to 90 or all the way from 1, with your alts in the same order.

Frequently asked questions

Change Log

• November 2, 2026: WoW leveling guide published for patch 12.1.5, with the 12.1.7 PTR changes.