Which is the fastest and most direct route from level 1 to level 85, running dungeons or questing? If you’re leveling as a protection paladin, I recommend running dungeons. As a tank, your queues will be instant. You’ll get decent gear from boss drops. You’ll get to practice tanking for a group. This means you’ll also have to work with others, to play as a team. If you prefer to go it alone and set your own pace, stick to solo play and quest your way to 85. Either way it comes down to personal preference, but let’s talk about the pros and cons of both.
With a tank’s instant queue, you can run dungeons back to back. While leveling Corrinne, that’s what I did. I quested the starting zones until level 15, at which point the LFD feature unlocked, and then from 15 to 58 I did nothing but randoms back to back to back. Each dungeon gave me a level and because I set a fast pace for my groups I could go up 20-30 levels in a single day. Because Blizzard recently moved most dungeon-related quests into the dungeons themselves, you can gain even more XP if you run new dungeons as soon as they become available. Dungeon quests offer much more XP than most regular quests.
At 58, I felt like a change of pace, so I quested in that dreadful Hellfire Peninsula until I could get Outland flying at level 60. Then I switched back to dungeon mode, and ran nothing but until 68. At 68 I went to Howling Fjord. Since I don’t mind questing in Northrend (I especially like Howling Fjord’s music), it didn’t feel like so much of a drag, plus the gear from quest rewards is quite an upgrade in Armor from the BC greens I was wearing before. I quested the whole Fjord until about 72, at which point I’d replaced all my BC gear, and with a mix of dungeons and quests in Grizzly Hills and Sholazar Basin, I reached level 80 somewhere in Storm Peaks. If you queue for random at this point, pray you don’t get the Occulus, or pray that your group isn’t filled with impertinent clowns who don’t want to learn how to fly a drake. Like the vanilla and BC dungeons, most quest-givers have been moved into the dungeons, though there are still some dungeon-related quests that you can only start through questing on the outside.
Upon reaching level 80, things changed for Corrinne considerably. Unless you ran a bunch of WotLK heroics, you’re likely wearing a bunch of quest greens, and your ilvl isn’t even high enough to queue for the first Cata dungeons. Luckily, you no longer have to discover a dungeon’s entrance physically before you can queue for it. (You had to at the start of Cataclysm.) At level 80 you have a choice to quest in either Mount Hyjal or the underwater zone, Vash’jir. I personally dislike Vash’jir, despite its originality, though I would recommend questing there at least until you learn your Abyssal Seahorse. From 80-81 I quested in Hyjal, and from 81-82 I quested in Vash’jir. Running dungeons at this point didn’t seem nearly as fast as running dungeons from the previous expansions felt, especially since half your heirlooms stop working after level 80, so I stuck to questing for most of 80-85. As soon as you reach 82, switch gears for Deepholm, and do every single quest there to unlock Therazane reputation and get a head start on your way to Exalted. Until Blizzard is kind enough to make the shoulder enchants BoA like they did with the head enchants, every character you level will want to hit Exalted with Therazane as soon as possible.
When Deepholm is cleared and you’ve done your first day of Therazane dailies, head over to Uldum until 84, then switch to Twilight Highlands for the longest, most unbearable grind yet. 84-85 takes forever, whether you quest or chain dungeon queues. But when it’s over, it’s over, and you’re done leveling until you start a new toon or until Mists of Pandaria comes out. This is how I got my second paladin from 1 to 85 in about 3 days time /played. Your mileage may vary.
My next leveling guide will cover how to run chain dungeons as quickly as possible without pissing off the rest of your group.
(4.3.2)
Greenlee 