Blizzard just changed the best way to level alts in Shadowlands

Which is the best way to level an alt in Shadowlands? Leveling via the storyline forces a character to potentially hit 60 and have to keep playing through a zone before getting to the game’s real endgame content. Threads of Fate allows a character skip the zones’ storylines and leveling via World Quests and Bonus Objectives — although they both don’t feel like a great source of XP. In most cases, Threads of Fate is going to take longer to hit max level than playing through the zone storylines.

Now there is a better option — as of December 3, Blizzard put in an option to opt out of the storyline once level 60 is reached! No matter where you are in the storyline, once you hit that final “DING!,” return to Oribos and speak to Fatescribe Roh-Tahl, in the back of the inn area (79, 49). There will be an option about Fate and moving on.

Furthermore, at any point during the storyline, speaking with Roh-Tahl will allow a character to switch to the Threads of Fate option instead of the storyline. This is a nice alternative if you hit a point where you do not want to continue with that same pathway and need to mix it up.

Why did Blizzard add this? There has been no official blue post. However, this seems to be a response to player behavior. What some players were doing to maximize their leveling speed was starting the storyline on their alts before their main finished. Then, when their main character completed the storyline, the Threads of Fate quest popped up on their alts. They continued the storyline until they were most of the way through 59. That is when they accepted the Threads of Fate quest, turned it in, and finished level 60 through this method. That way, they could use the faster speed of the storyline but opt out right at level 60.

This was a great response to player behavior! There was an issue, players found a workaround, and the Blizzard gave a solution so the workaround was not necessary. This does mean that every single leveling character will now have to play all the way through Bastion, Maldraxxus, most of the way through Ardenweald, and will almost never see Revendreth. Hopefully those are the zones you love.