If you're looking for a leveling guide for World of Warcraft's new expansion, you're in the right place. Whether you're a zoom-to-max-level MMO player or you like to stop and smell the questing, you can make your journey smoother with a bit of simple preparation.
Early access to epic-edition holders of WoW's next expansion launches on August 22, with full TWW access landing August 26. That's not a lot of time if you're just now jumping back into Azeroth, so this War Within leveling guide offers you tips for a speedy journey to level 80. Or if you're not in a hurry, there's plenty here to help make your journey to max level an easy one.
If speeding to level 80 is your priority, these tips will help you out. For more general, but in-depth, leveling advice, jump to the section below.
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Any new expansion has an overwhelming amount of two things: junk and quests. You're going to want to make room for both. Empty your bags of off-spec gear, fun/flavor items or crafting materials, and hotbar everything you do carry so you don't have to search through your overly-laden bags for it.
Consider dropping rarely-used things in your Warbank, and do the questline in Tanaris for the remote-access spell, which you should also put on your bars. Don't forget your Grand Expedition Yak or Traveler's Tundra Mammoth vendor mount and your mailbox toy (Katy's Stampwhistle, Ohuna Perch) if you have them, for a quick way to dump things as you go.
That's your bags sorted, now clear out space in your bank and Warband Bank, including the Reagents tab, as a quick place to drop things as you go—you can worry about evaluating the stuff later.
Next, get rid of absolutely every quest you have. Even though the quest limit was increased to 35, you're still going to run out of room very quickly (and likely end up abandoning quests in every zone in Khaz Algar). If you've already done your pre-patch questing in Silithus, you'll pick up the new quest in Dalaran when you log in on launch day/early access day, so go ahead and log out there.
As for add-ons and the like, use what you're using now–if updated properly, it should most likely work fine in The War Within. If you don't plan on reading quests or watching cut scenes, consider mods like AutoTurnin or QuickQuest to speed up accepting quests, turning them in and choosing rewards.
If you've been keeping yourself up to date in WoW and have near-maxed levels of gear, you're going to absolutely cruise through all of the zones until you hit level 76/77, and you won't get any upgrades worth mentioning. At this moment, tier sets still work until level 80 on beta, so if you have full tier and good gear, you can safely ignore every drop until level 77.
Pick one gear set to level up in and bank everything else; for trinkets, opt for things that do damage or give you continuous, passive stats rather than things that boost you temporarily, since packs die quickly and most of that power will be wasted.
For early levels, speed gear isn't a bad idea (or situational speed trinkets, like the low-level Hunger of the Pack trinket from Halls of Valor, which still works in The War Within beta). For later levels, you'll want to concentrate on power and survivability. If you choose to swap sets, put the set you'll use later at the very top of your bank, and consider changing it when the campaign ends and sends you back to Dornogal, where you'll have bank access.
Finally, if you haven't bothered to collect all the dragon glyphs, do that now. You'll want them when you're leveling, since you can fly immediately in the new zones.
If you have good gear, then things are going to start living longer around level 76, and by level 78, they will actually hurt you. Prepare by packing basic consumables to boost your power/defensives: flasks (especially versatility for later levels), runes/rockets/weapon buffs, and food. For later levels, try and pick up conjured mage food from a friend or someone in Dornogal, as it'll get you back into the fray quickly if you get hurt. Save any leftover potions of power for this period, and pack a good amount of healing potions, as you won't get many as drops.
Some items you'll use infrequently, such as invisibility potions and gunshoes (engineering crafted items that grant running speed to anyone and are still functional in TWW beta). Remember to craft extra or buy before the expansion if you need them, since you won't have easy access to crafting tables. These are only really useful when you're stuck at the back of a cave; everywhere else, you're going to use Skyriding. If you decide to have these around, toss them in your Warbank and use the Warband Bank Distance Inhibitor ability to snag them when you need them, so they don't clutter up your bags.
Two extra things you will want to keep in your bags: a cloak to take you back to your capital city in a pinch, and guild banners, both available from guild vendors if you have sufficient reputation. Guild banners provide extra experience in a generous radius, and while they trigger a short mutual cooldown when you use one and they don't stack, they don't share a long cooldown, either. This means you should buy and hotbar all three–uncommon, rare and epic quality–or use an add-on to track them. Drop one anytime you're killing things in a quest or bonus area with lots of mobs.
You'll need to complete the core campaign quests, which have distinctive icons on the mini map and above questgivers' heads. They're located at the top of your quest log, and must be done linearly through each of the zones in order.
You'll also want to complete at least a few side quests, particularly those that are in the same areas/overlap. (For planning, you might consider using Ennukee's simple leveling site.) I would not advise doing too many side quests as you go unless you're more-weakly geared and need quest rewards to increase your item level. If you complete the campaign, you'll unlock Adventure Mode, which allows you to do any quests anywhere for the same experience. This will give you the freedom to escape any areas that are frustrating/busy, and also unlock world quests for experience, which may overlap with normal quests you'll end up doing.
Bonus areas are worth doing if they overlap with other quests you're already on. In Isle of Dorn, where bonus areas are worth more than the other zones and poof after you hit higher levels, they're worth taking quests in the area specifically to do as you go.
If you do the main campaign quests plus a bonus area or side quest or two, you'll finish Isle of Dorn at 72, The Ringing Deeps at 74, Hallowfall at roughly 75/76 and Azj-Kahet at about 77. The end of the campaign will take you back to to the capital city of Dornogal, which is a convenient stopping point, since that gives you bank access and marks the point when monsters start getting challenging even if you were at a high gear level to start.
While Delves aren't the best XP, picking up the quest that goes with them (usually in a nearby quest hub) helps for the first run through. If you need better gear for leveling, or if quest areas are super-congested, Delves are a great alternative to quests. Tier 3 Delve gear, the highest that will be available at launch, is roughly equivalent to Normal-difficulty dungeon gear when you hit max level.
Dungeons are also an option if you'd like play with friends and questing is congested, though you're still going to need to complete the campaign at some point to open up full access to zones and world quests. Solo follower dungeons aren't efficient XP, sadly.
