Dungeon detour or keep questing? The rule of thumb in hammerdance’s Alliance 1–30 guide

On 22 October, hammerdance published an Alliance leveling guide for levels 1 to 30. It is pitched at speed: his target for the fastest approach is about 18 to 22 hours of playtime, an estimate based on a beta capped at level 30. One part of it is useful whether you are racing or not, and especially if you level in shorter sessions: how to decide whether a dungeon is worth the detour.

Count the whole detour

On the slide where he sums up the decision, the rule is to count travel, forming the group, the clear and the turn-ins together. The dungeon run itself is only one part of the cost.

He makes the point with an example of what goes wrong. If a dungeon is far out of your way, and getting the group together, collecting the quests and getting inside takes an hour, it may not be worth it if you are trying to level fast. He warns that you can waste a solid hour forming a dungeon group if you are not prepared. The point he calls most important is not to run a dungeon without the quests ready and a group that can get there and get it done.

When he says yes

His case for going in starts with three conditions:

• The group is full, ready and reasonably close by.
• Several quest rewards are available in one clear.
• The group knows the route and the bosses.

On the last point, he notes that the beta has been played heavily and most people know what they are doing, though new players will arrive at launch. He also estimates that a first run with a full set of quests beats questing out in the world for experience per hour. That is his estimate; we have not measured it.

When he says keep questing

The case against is mostly about travel and waiting. His example is a night elf questing in Darkshore with a dungeon a long way off: boats, Stormwind and a tram ride before you even arrive. For someone going for speed, he suggests, it may be faster to keep questing where you are.

Waiting works the same way. If your party needs more than 20 minutes to form, he says, you should be questing or grinding the whole time. That figure is his example, not a tested cut-off.

Line up the group before you get there

The detour is cheaper if the preparation happens earlier. Going into launch, he suggests having a fixed group of friends to run dungeon chains with, so that when you reach a dungeon, everyone has the same quest chains and nobody is waiting for one person to finish theirs. While you wait for people, keep questing.

Speed is not the only reason

He is also clear that the speed calculation is not the only one. He says he will not be speed leveling himself, and expects to use his guide at a good pace and do the dungeons, with the quest chains ready first. In the Darkshore example, too, he adds that if you are leveling to get good gear and run the dungeons, you should absolutely go.

For a short session, our takeaway is to decide first whether this session is about progress or about the dungeon, then count the whole detour.

This piece paraphrases hammerdance’s 22 October guide. We have not tested his route, timed the dungeons or measured experience per hour.