I recently compared leveling speeds on my guys:

Warlock (pre-TBC): 17 days to 60.
Warrior (pre-TBC): 13 days to 60.
Paladin (pre-2.3): 8 days to 60.
Mage (post-2.3): 4 days to 60.

Knowledge of the quests makes a huge difference, but pre-2.3 it took me 50% longer than it did post-2.3.
 

I just rolled a new Horde rogue on a PvP server and leveled him to 60 with 5 days played over about 2 and a half weeks. A week and a half later (and almost 2 days played) and he just popped 66. Given the speed at which I have been moving, there has been very little Rest XP. I also don’t have a main on this server, so the toon hasn’t been twinked and has fully supported himself. Honestly, I think the two keys have been 1) a consistent focus on completing all quests and keeping them roughly 2-4 levels below me and 2) spending as little time in the major cities as possible. One thing that has helped with #2 is Auctioneer - - I sell everything off by simply using refresh on appraiser and clicking “match competition.” I realize I don’t get as much for my stuff, but the time I save is used to actually do something useful. I figure I’ll have plenty of time to farm items of value when I hit 70. The only exception is that I hold onto all my meats, cloth and leathers to level up cooking, first aid and leatherworking.

The other key is that I use in-game tools that replicate the data mined in Wowhead. Specifically, I use Mobmap for mob and item drop locations and Lightheaded for the comments on the how-to stuff. Combined with Cartographer and the ability to easily create waypoints, I am pretty quickly able to know where to go without the need to alt-tab.
 

Also the mains can usually help alts level. I know you bought your mage some frozen wrath greens as well. The first characters usually end up leveling with whatever drops/is given from quests.

But I agree with Dorgol, knowledge of quests is a huge bonus, often I had to clear the same area multiple times on my first character because I ended up getting more and more quests on the same spot. I could bunch them all up on the following characters.
 

@sid67

"new Horde rogue .. leveled him to 60 with 5 days played over about 2 and a half weeks"

come now, 5 day played over 2 and half week ? how many hours per day you play ?

5 day played = 120 hours
2 and a half week = 17 days

average 7 hour per day for 2 and half week ???/

thats impossible unless you dont work and dont go to school.

i cannot stop laughing everytime ppl boast their 'fast' leveling time.
 

what is the current WOW leveling record for solo leveler ? how long (in real time) can a solo player reach 60 ? (before and after nerf)
 

thats impossible unless you dont work and dont go to school.

Not impossible at all, you've just said yourself how it's perfectly possiple =P
 

*possible, doh!
 

hmm

i have to agree with bitter, power leveling is akin to consuming food without mastication, ie its wasteful and sinful.

off course its posssible to level fast, but most internet claim is just BS. i'd rather see ppl stop claiming / boasting about their powerleveling time.
 

My Belf is now lv 67, and I dinged lv 50 on 1st December, so it's taken me 2 months of 'real time' to get 17 levels.
Actual play time is probably a lot more than anyone else posting here.
I've got Exalted with all Horde factions, grabbed most of the Moon festival Coins, got my fishing up to about 330 and my cooking to 350, and generally I'm very happy with the speed of my levelling.
 

It isn't impossible to do it by playing 7 hours a day, but it does eat up a lot of time from other things. (Plus 7 hours a day isn't all that good on the eyes, hands, headaches, etc., at least for me.)
 

One thing I don't understand. I thought you were not leveling your mage to prepare for raiding or something and I understood that you were not such a big fan of "rush to 70" especially with alts. If so, how come you are mentioning "Only cloud on the horizon is that fast leveling stops now"?

I have a rogue who became lvl 60 before my mage, but after TBC came out, I leveled my mage first. Since I skipped so many quests and 3 whole areas with the mage, I wanted to level the rogue slowly while enjoying the exploration/quests side of the game but reaching to level 70 came faster than I anticipated.

-Them
 

I don't level if I don't have rested XP. I have numerous alts I switch to or just set them aside for a while. I just don't see the point of leveling without it - seems like a waste.
 

5 day played = 120 hours
2 and a half week = 17 days
average 7 hour per day for 2 and half week ???/

@bitter_exwow:
Thats not intended as a boast. I simply wanted to point out that with about as little rested XP as you can possibly have, it takes about 5 days played and that's without wasting time doing other stuff.

Without rested XP, I think it would be difficult to do it much faster than that. I think that's useful info because it provides a baseline for people to estimate how long it would take to level that alt they are thinking about.

And yes, I averaged 7 hours per day but please don't tell my wife that (although I'm sure she knows). I couldn't sustain it forever though since I DO have a job and other things in my life.

My playing time in the 60s has dropped to more like 4 hours per day. Ironically, I still consider myself a "casual" gamer.
 

Gratz, Tobold. I'm rapidly closing in on my first 70 (finally). You'd think I was some kind of casual n00b. ;)
 

20+ days for my 1st on a very very busy(overloaded) pvp server. I think I spent a week puzzling my way through the call of water quest in december 2004 alone.

My last two "60's" were 4 days, I tend to slow at 59 for pvp reasons. Its a whole lot easier to run wsg/av @ 59 and 60 then 70.So my Alliance shaman has been 60 for 3 months realtime, but only 3 more av dailys and he will ding 61:(


Part of it is recognition that no matter how many 70's I get I really only devote enough attention to keep 3 at reasonable level ie pvp dailys,1500+ arena,heroics,occasional raiding.

Them>> just because you are not in a rush to get to 70 doesnt mean the post 2.3 of doing say 58-59 in 90 minutes doesnt come as a big shock when a quest is suddenly 2% of your bar instead of 5%.

Ngita