Huge experience nerfs mean The War Within pre-patch is a great time to level — especially for 60+ characters

The War Within pre-patch 11.0.1 is now live, and with it we’ve gotten Warbands, Skyriding for most mounts, and the ability to unlock all sorts of new transmog. Pre-patch is also when Blizzard tends to reduce the leveling requirements for the ending expansion content, and this time is no different as the experience required from 60 to 70 is getting a substantial nerf.

How much faster can I level in patch 11.0.1?

How big of a drop is the nerf this time around? Looking at the numbers on the PTR it appears that the amount of experience required for each level between 60 and 70 is being reduced 70-80%. For example, I copied over a level 64 character to the PTR and she now needs 65,510 experience to reach level 65 whereas on live she needs 276,945 experience — over four times the amount needed now that the pre-patch is live.

While the experience requirement is going down, quest rewards aren’t seeing a concurrent drop — on the PTR a quest I have queued to turn in will actually reward slightly more experience in patch 11.0.1 (8220 instead of 7750).

As a result characters should be leveling 4 to 5 times faster from 60-70.

How quickly can I level from 10-59?

Even though the final ten levels will see the largest reduction in experience required, the experience required will drop between 15% and 20% from levels 10-50 and between 20% and 45% for levels 51-59. While these reductions are nice they’re not as dramatic (especially under 50). However, no matter what you’re leveling (or where you’re leveling it, you’ll progress a lot faster now that the pre-patch is live.

Of course one interesting twist is that WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria will also be receiving these deductions as well, resulting in an even faster leveling experience in that game mode. Experienced Timerunners may already be gaining a level from 60-70 every 10 minutes due to your thread count, but if you’re still trying to get your first Remix character to level 70, it should go even faster — and future alts faster still.

Originally published July 15, 2024; updated July 25, 2024