Level your character to 40, while being able to farm WoW Classic gold!
If you ever want a fresh start in a whole new World of Warcraft Classic realm, this is the definitive guide for you. While questing provides more XP, their rewards are somewhat lackluster and waiting just isn’t worth it. Many players would be waiting for quest mobs in a fresh server, so you’re better off grinding. Following this guide also lets you save up enough WoW Classic gold for certain WoW Classic items and mounts.
Take note that this WoW Classic grinding guide is more relevant to non-Warlock Horde characters. Alliance characters start out in a different location so this doesn’t apply to them.
Levels 1-6: Young Night Web Spiders
You can go straight to World of Warcraft Classic grinding as soon as you finish creating your character. A few hits from your weapon should take down these mobs. They’ll drop all kinds of equipment. Anything you can’t use is vendor trash and you should sell all of them—even those green tier ones!
You’ll need to defeat about a hundred to get to level 6. Move on to the next step as soon as you hit it.
Levels 6-9: Decrepit Darkhounds
Go to Brill and learn Mining and Skinning from the relevant NPCs. Grab the tools you need for the professions as well. You’ll be defeating Decrepit Darkhounds east and north of Brill. Hunt down about two hundred of them.
As you farm, make sure you track metal as there are copper nodes around this area (especially the lake). Mine them to level up your profession. Also, skin every single Darkhound you kill. The leather and the ores can give you a bit of WoW Classic gold if you choose to sell them to vendors. You should, however, keep the copper for later use. Avoid the bats as they have a tricky knockdown skill you can’t handle yet.
Levels 9-12: Cursed Darkhounds
At level 9, you move on to Cursed Darkhounds south of Brill or west of Undercity. Near the mountain ridge, there are copper nodes you can mine on your downtime. About 400 Cursed Darkhounds would give you enough XP to reach level 12.
You’ll also encounter some Scarlet-named enemies around here. They’re part of a quest, but you can cannibalize them if applicable. Otherwise, you can defeat them for their potion drops. Remember to sell any mob drops you can’t use, as well as whatever leather you have. Also, don’t forget to skin and mine what you can.
Levels 12-14: Moonrage Whitescalp
When you reach this level, smelt your copper. If you’ve been mining whatever and whenever you can, you should be about level 65 or slightly above. Upgrade your professions and pick up a throwing weapon if applicable to your class.
Direct your next hunting ground to the Silverpine Forest. Skin them after their defeat, and there are copper and tin nodes around the area you can mine on your downtime. You’ll need to defeat almost three hundred of these creatures to get to level 14. You might encounter packs of them. Use a ranged skill or provoke to separate them safely. If you know you can handle a group, by all means, attack them head-on.
Levels 14-17: Dalaran Apprentices and Giant Grizzled Bears
Moving on, start WoW Classic grinding Dalaran Apprentices and Giant Grizzled Bears. You’ll be strong enough to defeat these two mobs in a few hits, and they drop some great loot. The apprentices in particular may drop the Transmog WoW Classic item ‘Apprentice Robes’. Some players may want it, so make it a point to hold onto them.
There are mining nodes scattered around so keep mining on your downtime. Also, don’t forget to skin the bears. You’ll need to defeat a total of 400 to 450 of these mobs to get to level 17.
Levels 17-21: Dalaran Watchers
They may out-level you, but they’ll go down in a few hits. Remember to upgrade your weapons or change them altogether to something better. In your downtime, you can try the cave above their camp, or go west to kill the beasts there. There’s also a hidden vendor in the mountains nearby, so you can just head on when you run out of space.
There are mining nodes in the cave and around the area. About five hundred mobs will give you enough experience so you can move on.
Levels 21-24: Durnholde Keep
Raid the keep and kill everything you can. Although, you should keep away from the casters unless you have a silence, stun, or interrupt skill. Leveling up Mining takes a break as there aren’t many nodes to find around the area. Keep at it until you reach level 24.
Levels 24-26: Road to Dustwallow Marsh
Now, if you’ve got good gear or are using a strong class, you can move on to the next step in the Thousand Needles. Otherwise, you’ll be grinding around the road to Dustwallow Marsh. There are all kinds of beasts here, but your priority should be Hyenas. They give the best loot to sell, though the others have pretty great drops too. Kill about five hundred of these feral beasts.
Levels 26-28: Centaurs North of Freewind Post
They’re scattered across camps outside of the cave. They have pretty annoying mechanics, such as running at low health. Casters can heal and crowd control, Marauders can root, and Scouts have bows. It’s worth fighting them, as they drop great loot. You’ll be going back and forth to clean up inventory and mail stuff to a banking alt often. They also drop food you can stockpile for future grinds. You’ll need about 400+ kills to get to level 28, and even more, if you skipped the last step.
At this point, you should be able to mine iron and even gold in this zone. Remember to do so in breaks waiting for spawns!
Levels 28-30: Pesterhide Hyenas West of Freewind Post
The iron you can mine from this area can be used in grenades to help you kill the hyenas. At any rate, killing about 500 of them will give you enough experience to get to 30. You get some sweet loot to sell as well. Also, don’t forget to skin them!
Levels 30-32: Pesterhide Hyenas + Harpies
You’ll just continue hunting the hyenas, but this time, you’ll also be targeting Harpies. You’ll need to defeat another 500 or so of them to get to level 32. You may move to the northernmost entrance of Desolace to grind the beasts there, but it’s near an Alliance camp. Either you end up ganking them, or they gank you. Anyway, that’s a choice you can make if you want.
Levels 32-34: Gelkis Clan Centaurs in Shadowprey Village
Most guides will tell you to farm the other clan, so they should be largely ignored. This frees you up to farm the Gelkis Centaurs without competition whatsoever. Even better, there are Mythril nodes in the area. You should be able to farm these if you’ve been good about leveling up the profession along the way. You can hold on to them for personal use, or sell them to guilds looking to boost their blacksmiths. Either way, it can end up being a WoW Classic gold mine for you.
Defeat about 500 of the centaurs to get to level 34.
Levels 34-40: North of Gelkis Village
Now, you’re at the home stretch. All manner of beasts roam the area north of Gelkis Village. The further north you go, the stronger they are. Focus on the highest level mobs you can handle. You’ll particularly want the Basilisks and Hyenas, as they yield the best loot out of all beasts in the area. Since you’ll need two-thousand kills to get to level 40, you’ll end up killing all manner of creatures in the area anyway.
Additional Notes
Don’t forget to keep skinning and mining to level the professions up. They’re good sources of gold. Without leveling these up, you’ll get way less gold, but you’ll be able to reach 40 faster.
The whole process would take a playtime of about 2 days. In two days of playing, you can get to that level and have enough WoW Classic gold for a mount and good gear!
Since WoW Classic grinding is pretty mindless, it’s easy to multitask while doing so. Watch a movie, post memes, and the like to ease the boredom of grinding.
This WoW Classic grinding guide works best in a freshly-opened realm. Sure, you can try it in an old one, but generally, questing is much faster in terms of experience. By that time, more World of Warcraft players are focused on raiding than questing, so the latter should be freer.
Enjoy the rest of your journey to level 60!
