WoW Forever: levelling to 20 takes as long as in Classic Era

On 24 September Blizzard published the first episode of its official WoW Forever podcast, with content creators Countdown To Classic and Xaryu. In it, senior game designer Josh “Aggrend” Greenfield and lead Classic designer Tim Jones talked about how long levelling takes on the WoW Forever beta. According to Blizzard's own data, beta players currently need 20.5 hours on average to get from level 1 to level 20. In Classic Era, the same levels take 20.4 hours.

The developers were answering a feeling among some testers that characters level faster in Forever than in Classic. They explained that this impression comes mostly from dungeon quests: handing one in can give a large jump in experience all at once. Blizzard's data, they said, does not suggest that players level faster in Forever than in Classic.

In Forever, dungeon quests give considerably more experience than in Classic. According to the developers, the aim is to encourage players to visit dungeons while levelling, without making running the same dungeon over and over the most effective way to level.

The figures only cover the first 20 levels, the current level cap on the beta, which Blizzard says will rise to 30 later in the test. The developers could not yet say whether levelling will keep the same pace all the way to the maximum level of 60. The beta runs until 21 October; if you want to try the early levels yourself, here is how to join the beta. WoW Forever launches at 23:00 UK time on 4 November, which is midnight on 5 November in Central Europe.