How to level up in the Radiant Echoes event in The War Within pre-patch

The War Within pre-expansion event, Radiant Echoes, is live through August 26, leaving the heroes of Azeroth (that’s us) several weeks to contend with the planet’s memories of the last 19 years of World of Warcraft. Pre-patch events are traditionally one of the best times to level, and catch up those alts that you’ve neglected (or start a new main), as well as gearing up characters to tackle the expansion.

And Radiant Echoes is no different, with XP flowing fast after Blizzard’s updates to the event. A level 60 character with rested XP can hit level 70 within an hour during this event, and lower level characters will advance even faster. While it isn’t quite as fast as the speed leveling you can do in WoW Remix, it’s a fast way to get preexisting alts leveled and geared; it’s worth dusting off any old characters you might want to play in The War Within.

Here’s how to get the most out of leveling in the Radiant Echoes pre-expansion event.

Do this first for the fastest leveling

With the Darkmoon Faire in town this week, that should be your first stop: go grab the +10% XP buff by riding the carousel or roller coaster, and if you have Darkmoon Prize Tickets you can also buy some Darkmoon Top Hats, consumable items which will give you the XP buff without trekking back to the Faire. It may only be 10%, but that extra 10% adds up!

If your character has rested XP, that’s also a big help. A full blue bar means you probably have max rested, which is 150%. If you have Heirloom items, you can stretch this out, as the two- and six-piece bonuses reduce the rate at which you consume rested experience. (Note, however, the heirlooms must be level-appropriate to your character or these bonuses won’t apply.)

Now it’s time to head to the Radiant Echoes event itself. It’s available to characters level 10+ and you can easily get to all of the event zones from Dalaran. While you’re going to spend a lot of time killing mobs, you also want to pick up the quest from each Radiant Echoes zone, which you can do once per account per day for an extra XP and currency boost. The questgiver is located near the zone’s portal from Dalaran, generally right in front of where you spawn in (although the Dragonblight NPC is behind you). These NPCs are also vendors, who can sell you armor and collectibles using all the currency you’ll collect as you level.

How to level in the Radiant Echoes event

Radiant Echoes takes place in Searing Gorge, Dragonblight, and Duskwallow Marsh, with the event rotating to a new zone every hour, on the hour. The event is split into two parts: clearing memories that spawn throughout the zone, and killing the zone boss once you’ve cleared enough memories. When the boss is killed, memories start spawning again and the cycle repeats. The first stage is where you’ll earn the majority of your experience.

During this stage, there will be 4-5 memories marked on the zone map, so head to one and start working on its objective. And those objectives vary wildly; for some you’ll kissing tadpoles and punting leper gnomes, while others have you clearing swarms of Azeroth’s finest annoyances (such as Quillboar), and some have you taking down a former foe such as Stitches. When clearing out a multitude of remembered mobs, be sure to tag everything in sight for kill experience! This speeds up your leveling a ton.

The mini-bosses can be a bit of a challenge, which will take some time and focused effort, so keep that in mind if there are only a few minutes left for the events in the current zone. Be wary of memories that require you to pick up a resource and bring it to a centralized location (such as lumber) — these tend to move slowly, and you’re going for maximum experience, right?

No matter what, completing an active echo event gives you a hefty chunk of experience — 15-20% of your experience bar is not unheard of. Each echo will tick down the “Memories Remaining” bar at the top of your screen, and when it gets to zero the zone boss spawns. Killing the boss — the Lich King, Onyxia, or Ragnaros — completes your daily quest, but also earns 500 Residual Memories and a chance at extra loot.

Now the event resets, and the Memories progress bar goes back to 100%. Just keep clearing memories and killing bosses, and you’ll hit level 70 in no time.

The best skills to use in Radiant Echoes

This event moves fast, so you’re going to want a good instant cast skill — ideally with some range — to efficiently tag mobs. Some classes are better at this than others, but every class has something in their base class (or early in their class tree) that fits the bill. If you’re playing an unfamiliar class, here are good skills for quickly tagging mobs, no matter your level or build:

• Warrior: Heroic Throw or Charge. Taunt as backup.
• Hunter: Arcane Shot or Wing Clip. Command your pet to attack as backup — they can take a few to run to their target.
• Mage: Fire Blast. Arcane Explosion or Frost Nova when things get too close.
• Rogue: Early levels are a little difficult for you with no ranged options — sorry, stabby friends. Blind when available, Shadowstep and Dash to get you closer for Ambush. It gets easier once Fan of Knives (Assassination), Blade Rush (Outlaw), or Shuriken Toss (Subtlety) arrive to the party.
• Priest: Shadow Word: Pain. Remember to cast Power Word: Fortitude on random allies as a thanks for killing things!
• Warlock: Curse of Weakness and Drain Life. If you have pets up and helping, toss a Health Funnel their way occasionally.
• Paladin: Judgment, Hammer of Wrath as available, with Hammer of Justice and Hand of Reckoning as a backup.
• Druid: Moonfire. Use Dash to zip around. It’s not really worth switching to Bear Form to use Growl.
• Shaman: Flame Shock. Keep Lightning Shield up and throw down Earthbind Titem in a pinch.
• Monk: Crackling Jade Lightning, with Roll to move around. Provoke as backup.
• Demon Hunter: Fel Rush if you’re just starting out, Throw Glaive once you hit level 16. Torment as backup.
• Death Knight: Death and Decay if you have no runic power built up, Death Coil once you do. Death Grip and Dark Command as backup.
• Evoker: Azure Strike and Disintegrate. Living Flame as backup. Pyre from Devastation is also a good choice.

Now, you’ll note that I have taunts as a backup option everywhere available. This will ‘tag’ the mob, but it may also pull it away from someone else who is doing a darn good job of killing it already. Be a team player — everyone wants to level, after all!

Is Radiant Echoes faster for leveling than WoW Remix?

As a test, I tried leveling two very different characters in the same zone’s hour-long cycle:

• A level 60 Death Knight with no heirlooms equipped and roughly 25% rested experience hit 70 by the end of the hour.
• A new level 10 (allied race) hunter with heirlooms but no rested XP hit level 22 with about 25% into the next level by the end of the hour.

If you’re leveling a brand new character, WoW Remix is still the faster choice. However, that event ends on August 19, so you’ll want to get any Remix alts finished quickly. But if you have existing characters that aren’t yet 70, Radiant Echoes are definitely the way to go. Grab your XP buff from the Darkmoon Faire from August 4 to August 11, hit the active Radiant Echo, and watch the levels fly in.

Radiant Echoes leveling TLDR

That’s a lot of info, so here’s the compact tl;dr for reference:

• Pick up the Darkmoon Faire XP buff (available the first week of August).
• If you have rested XP, equip level-appropriate Heirlooms to make rested last longer.
• Pick up the daily quests for each Radiant Echoes zone.
• Clear events in the zone until the progress bar reaches 0%.
• Kill the boss and turn in the daily.

Repeat as desired over the hour until you’re max level or need to progress to the next region. That’s it!