Blizzard cut dungeon quest XP by half in the level 30 build, and the thread it answers has 1,000 posts

The WoW Forever beta reached level 30 on October 1, and the build that raised the cap carried a change testers have been arguing about since the beta opened: dungeon quests now give 50% less bonus experience.

What Blizzard wrote

In the development notes for October 1, under a developers’ note, the team says:

We appreciate the feedback on leveling speed as we continue ongoing discussions about the Beta. As part of those discussions, we’ve decided to reduce the amount of XP granted from dungeon quests with this release.

The line itself is short: dungeon quests now reward 50% less extra experience beyond normal quest values. Certain quest rewards were also recalibrated.

Note what it does not say. Normal quest experience is untouched, and so is the experience from killing things in a dungeon. What shrank is the bonus that made a dungeon quest worth far more than a quest outside.

Why this thread matters

This lands on the beta’s loudest argument. A week ago we wrote that the dungeon XP debate had passed 1,000 forum posts with no Blizzard reply. Players were split between those who said dungeon spam had replaced questing and those who said the XP had been cut so hard that groups were breaking up.

This build is the answer to that thread, and it goes in the direction the first camp asked for. Creators noticed immediately: WoWHub published HUGE Dungeon Quest XP Change! on October 2, within hours of the servers coming back.

The rest of the build worth knowing

• Level cap 30, after a maintenance of several hours.
• New dungeon: Excavation Site: Wetlands (26-31), plus access to Razorfen Downs (25+) and Uldaman (30+), on top of the eleven dungeons already open.
• Barbershops in Darnassus and Thunder Bluff, with barbers actually working at them, and city guards who give directions.
• Several quest fixes, including escort quests that could not be started with 25 or more quests in the log, and quest items that dropped more than once.
• Mulgore gained the quest “Kyle’s Gone Missing!”, the Make-A-Wish questline we wrote about last week.

What it means for your route

If you built a leveling plan around chaining dungeon quests, the arithmetic has changed, and the gap between questing outside and running dungeons is smaller again. The beta runs to October 21 and launch is November 4, so there is time for another pass if the numbers land badly.

Our leveling guides and the beta changes list are being updated as we work through the full notes.