Dungeon Leveling – The Fastest And Funnest Way To Level 85

Dungeon leveling used to be one of the most painful ways to get to 85. I know. I leveled a resto druid in Vanilla WoW. Back then, you used to need a reliable leveling guild, or sit by the dungeon entrance and call out “XXX Class/spec LFG for ZF!” It wouldn’t have been quite so bad had Blizzard introduced the Random Dungeon finder back then. Nowadays, there is no reason not to be dungeon leveling to reach level 85. However, read on and you’ll discover 4 specific reasons why you should be.

1 – Faster Exp: Experience flows faster when you have a good dungeon group. There are more monsters packed into a single dungeon with no competition from outside players, and there is no need to search for these monsters. They are literally on your way to the end of the instance, providing fuel for your experience bar. As a group, you are much more efficient at clearing larger groups of elite mobs that have a higher rate of exp per kill, and per second. Combine these with appropriate level quests, and you have a nice little bonus in dungeon leveling experience when you clear the final boss of the instance.

2 – More Gold: Quite simply, elite instance mobs drop about 5 times as much gold, more frequent rare items that you can either equip or sell, vendor trash for instant cash, and much more raw materials such as cloth, skins, or meats that you can sell on the auction for house for a pretty penny. If you plan on dungeon leveling your way to 85, then you will have a nice cache of gold stashed away by the time you get there. In addition, using the random dungeon finder will reward you with a nice bag of silver, gold, or a usable item upon completion of the final boss. Again, make sure you pick up all the dungeon quests you can so you can get that nice little bump of cash at the end of the run.

3 – More gear: This is a no brainer, but there are actually 3 ways you can get gear while dungeon leveling. The first is boss drops, and random drops from trash mobs. However, you are never guaranteed a piece of gear from any particular boss. Second, you will get that nice little goodie bag at the end of the run, and while the item will definitely be the appropriate armor, the stats are randomized, so several runs may be necessary. The last method is almost always a sure thing. And that is… SURPRISE! Dungeon Quests! You will almost always find a piece of gear that is beneficial for you at your level when you complete quests while dungeon leveling.

4 – More fun: That’s right, you get a good idea of a group dynamic while dungeon leveling and you will learn to play your class much better with others. WoW is a MMO. That’s massively multiplayer. You’re going to be interacting with a lot of other players, and it pays to know your class, especially in the end game raids. The last thing you want is to START learning dungeons and class mechanics like tanking and healing by the time you get to level 85. That will get you kicked from a group fast if you continually wipe everyone. And that’s no fun for anyone. Getting into dungeons while leveling will help you get a grasp on group and class functions so that end game will be less stressful and it will be what a game is and always should be… fun.

Dungeon leveling is one of the most fun and efficient ways to power level through WoW, but it pays to know what you’re doing. Class mechanics are a start, but knowing the routes, encounters and mechanics of instances are all absolutely essential to dungeon leveling. A few practice runs may be able to get you up to speed, but a dungeon leveling guide is always helpful as well.