Many Horde players take the dungeon option for leveling their character from 1 to 85 nowadays. This is not a bad idea, but if you’re choosing this Horde leveling path to level your character, it’s best to aim for the instances with a high density of trash mobs. This will grant you a higher volume of XP. That, of course, if you don’t really want to complete random dungeons, for the treasure bag.

Although there are many dungeons in the game, I’m going to focus here on the instances found in Outland. So, these are the ones that I prefer when I level up. This is my dungeon leveling path for leveling up a Horde character, when I reach Outland:

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1. Hellfire Ramparts, level 58-63. Only 3 bosses here, but there are plenty of orcs. Since the orcs are, of course, humanoids, they drop plenty of Runecloth and Netherweave Cloth, which makes it an ideal place to level up if you’re a Tailor. In fact this is one of the best places to farm Runecloth in World of Warcraft.

There’s also a fair drop rate for green items here for Enchanters, and the final boss drops quite a nice polearm weapon for the players that don’t have the Heirloom one. It’s not a very hard instance and if the group is good, you can even complete it without a tank. On my last run here, a hunter tanked the whole instance with a turtle pet.

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2. Underbog, level 63-66. Plenty of trash mobs in this instance, especially near the entrance and most of them are plant-type. This means they can be “skinned” by a Herbalist. However, even if you won’t get too many useful plants from them, the XP here is great and regardless if you have Herbalism or not, there’s a quest herb that you should gather to sell at the Auction House.

The Sanguine Hibiscus which is needed by those who want to earn the Diplomat title, for reputation with The Sporregar.

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3. Sethekk Halls, level 66-68. Although there are only 2 bosses in normal mode here, Darkweaver Syth and Talon King Ikiss, there are plenty of trash mobs, and it’s not a bad choice for leveling up. Most mobs are humanoid and drop plenty of Netherweave Cloth.

Also, since most of the mobs are Arakkoa birds, you will get plenty of Arakkoa feathers which you can use either to increase your reputation with Lower City, or you can sell to the Auction House. In case you want to sell these feathers, it’s best to sell them in stacks of 30. That’s the number required for the repeatable reputation quest.

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4. The Botanica, level 68-70. This is my favourite for the exit levels of XP from Outland, the last dungeon in my Horde leveling path for Outland. There are plenty of Sunfury Elves here, and you’ll also get reputation with the with the Sha’tar.

Of course, leveling just by completing dungeons might get tedious, so it’s not a bad idea to alternate with BGs and quests. Questing still remains the best way to level up a character to 85, but to do it right, it’s best to follow an optimized quest path. For that I usually use a WoW leveling guide.

So, if you also want to level fast, each one of the guides I reviewed here, has a consistent Horde leveling path.

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I know this sounds more like a PvP guide, but winning in any battleground while leveling, you’ll get much more XP than if your faction loses. Like many other players, I really like to level up in BGs and here’s a 3 steps Horde PvP leveling strategy that I usually follow when joining as a solo player in a Warsong Gulch battleground, to significantly increase the chances of my team to win the battle.

Step 1.  As soon as the doors opens, I don’t follow the rest of the team down through the GY or the tunnel, I always run down to the ramp, as fast as possible, to get the Berserking buff. I remain there, hidden, untill the enemies pass through there, into our base and attack one of the last players in their group, trying to kill him (or her). Even if I succeed or not, 2-3 players will remain to fight me, and their group will divide. This puts my team into advantage.

Step 2. If I don’t die attacking the other player (with a rogue, I vanish), the next step is to intercept the opposite team’s flag carrier. If I manage to do that, my team has a big chance of capping the first flag, if they pass through middle as a group, protecting our flag carrier.

If I died during step 1, I usually run into the base as I get the resurrection, trying to keep one of their healers busy in our base, leaving the opposite team’s flag carrier with less heals.

Step 3. As a 3rd step of this little Horde PvP leveling strategy, I remain in base defending, if our team has successfully capped 1 flag. Everytime one group of attackers come for our flag, even if I cannot kill them alone, I report which way they took the flag, letting my team know where to intercept them. In case they come more than 2-3, I always try to keep one of their healers behind.

If after the first clash of arms the score remains 0-0, both flags being returned, I take a place in defense as well. In my team fails to cap the first flag and it’s 1-0 for the Alliance, then I go and fight in the middle or try to steal a flag.

I hope this Horde PvP leveling strategy will help you out in winning Warsong Gulch battlegrounds and maximize your honor gains there, and also raise the amount of XP if you’re leveling up.

Anyway, in case you don’t like leveling via BGs, I strongly recommend to work with a quest guide. They have optimized questing paths that will allow you to level up any character much faster. If you don’t know which are the best guides for leveling a Horde character, check out these Horde Leveling Guide Reviews.

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Raising your skinning skill along with leveling your horde character is always a good idea. I mean, after reaching level 85, not many players like to get back to the low level zones to continue leveling this profession, and most players leave it at 200-300.

Especially if you level up via instances of battlegrounds, skinning is a good activity to kill time while waiting in queue.

Here is an excellent and profitable spot in Badlands where you can increase your skinning skill and also get some XP.

I’m talking here about the old location of Kargath. This is quite a nice Badlands grinding spot. This place is now “inhabited” by whelps, pretty much the same whelps that used to hang around in Lethlor Ravine (and still do) before Cataclysm. You need around a 225 skinning skill for them and a minimum level for your character of 43. This is not a bad grinding spot for Horde players because New Kargath is close by, so if your inventory gets filled up, a mailbox and vendors are just around the corner.

Now, the whelps at Lethlor Ravine, used to drop a companion pet, the Dark Whelpling, which sells for a lot of gold. I don’t know if the whelps at the old Kargath spot drop it, I didn’t get is after about 2 hours spent here, but the Thick and Heavy Leather you’ll get from them is quite a reward. You’ll also get nice XP and it’s a pleasant way to kill some time if you’re in queue for BGs or dungeons. All in all, if you have a bar of rested XP on your skinner, which also happens to be in a level range from 43 to 50, this Badlands grinding spot is a good place to choose for a grinding session, for a little XP and to raise your skinning skill.