Big changes in level progression are coming with the next patch for Blizzard’s 900 pound gorilla as they’ve just announced that leveling your character between the levels of 20 to 60 will be sped up:

As many of you already know we’ve been working on changes designed to improve various aspects of leveling for those making their way to level 60. These improvements, available in patch 2.3 will come in many forms and should significantly contribute to a more fluid and enjoyable leveling experience .

The first notable change was to simply reduce the amount of experience needed each level by approximately 15% between levels 20 and 60. Please note that when the patch is released, characters affected by this change will remain at their current level percentage. For example, if a character had exactly 50% of the current level’s total experience before this change went into effect, the character would still have exactly 50% of the current level’s total experience; only now fewer points would be needed to level.

Questing plays a very large role in World of Warcraft, especially while leveling and we felt that improvements to this front were necessary as well. Experience gained for completing quests (on average) between levels 30 and 60 is being increased. The increase becomes more substantial as you make your way towards 60. Additionally, many outdoor elite mobs will become non-elites, making many quests which were previously too difficult or required a group much easier and offer the same rewards (in some cases better!). A good example of this change would be Stromgarde Keep in Arathi Highlands, which will become a solo friendly environment when patch 2.3 goes live.

We’ve also added approximately 60 new quests in Dustwallow Marsh. This should help players who find themselves lacking quests in the 30-40 range. The Steamwheedle Cartel is building the new town of Mudsprocket in south-west Dustwallow Marsh, so you’ll have to wait until construction is complete to learn more about these changes.

We’re making other improvements to pre-bc leveling dungeons that players will likely find most agreeable. The level range for most every dungeon is being adjusted so that there is a much smaller range between the level of mobs found early in the dungeon to those found towards the end. For example, Shadowfang Keep is currently designed for levels 18-25 which means that right now, players who are towards the bottom of that range (18) will find it nearly impossible to complete the dungeon, while players towards the top of the range (25) will find most of the dungeon trivial. Using our new model (similar to what you’ll notice with Burning Crusade leveling dungeons), Shadowfang Keep is being retuned for levels 18-21.

We also want to make running a leveling up dungeon more worth while. In addition to increasing quest experience for dungeon quests, we’re also upgrading all pre-bc dungeon boss drops to blue quality items. Some examples are listed below:

Ragefire Chasm
Robe of Evocation old:  3 Stamina, 4 Intelligence
Robe of Evocation new:  4 Stamina, 5 Intelligence, and 5 Spell Critical Strike Rating

Deadmines
Smite’s Reaver old:  2 Strength, 1 Stamina, 1 Spirit, 11.1 dps
Smite’s Reaver new:  2 Strength, 3 Stamina, 2 Hit Rating, 14.5 dps

Shadowfang Keep
Robes of Arugal old:  3 Agility, 5 Stamina, 9 Intelligence, 10 Spirit
Robes of Arugal new:  3 Spirit, 5 Stamina, 9 Intelligence, 12 Spell Damage

As you can see there is much in-store for the next major content patch, particularly a number of changes designed to benefit players who are leveling a character. Though we’ve given you a few examples of the things to come, we think everyone will pleasantly surprised when they see the full extent of the changes discussed above.

Personally I would have been happy to just have had some new content and this patch will provide at least some of that, but it is rather hard to get groups for some of the older dungeons and such which makes leveling an alternate character challenging. In particular I’ve always hated the stretch between levels 40 to 50 so at least I can look forward to that passing more quickly. And there is at least some new content in Dustwallow Marsh which has always seemed to be lacking in much to do, at least from the Alliance side.