An Experience Point (abbreviated EXP or XP) is a unit of measurement for character level advancement. Advancing to the next level requires a fixed amount of experience points which is determined by a formula.

In World of Warcraft, you can gain experience by killing mobs, completing quests, exploring, Battlegrounds, or collecting materials with a gathering profession such as Mining or Herbalism (but not Skinning^[1]). Raids can give XP, but in very low amounts.

This is based on the concept that as characters defeat stronger enemies, they gain combat experience that allows them to improve their skills. This system is adapted from D&D and is present in some form or another in almost all role-playing games.

Contents 1 XP To Level 2 Quest XP 3 XP Modifiers 4 Mob Gray Level 5 Level Locking 6 Money Instead of XP at Max Level 7 Patch changes 8 References

XP To Level

Main article: Formulas:XP To Level

The experience needed for a given level is specified by a formula that takes in to account several different factors. Up to level 10, it takes 8*CL kills of creatures of your same level to advance to the next level, where CL is your Current Level.

At level 11, the "difficulty reduction factor" added in patch 2.3.0 will kick in, thus reducing the XP needed to level. At level 30 the "difficulty factor" (from the original game release) will kick in, which increases the number of kills needed to level.

At level 60, the expected XP from killing a mob of your level increases drastically, as it is assumed that you will be killing mobs in Outland. This increases XP required to level. However at the same time, another reduction factor (active 60-70 only, added at the release of WotLK) goes into effect reducing the XP needed.

At level 70, the expected XP from killing a mob of your level increases drastically again, as it is assumed that you will be killing mobs in Northrend. The 60-70 XP reduction factor expires also, thus causing a large jump in the XP needed to level.

Quest XP

The following formula for quest XP was obtained by studying the XP rewards provided for various quests and various levels on the long defunct www.wowdbu.com (since 2008).

Character_Level <= Quest_Level +  5 : Quest_XP = (100 %) or Full_Quest_XP
Character_Level  = Quest_Level +  6 : Quest_XP = ( 80 %) or ROUND(Full_Quest_XP * 0.8 / 5) * 5
Character_Level  = Quest_Level +  7 : Quest_XP = ( 60 %) or ROUND(Full_Quest_XP * 0.6 / 5) * 5
Character_Level  = Quest_Level +  8 : Quest_XP = ( 40 %) or ROUND(Full_Quest_XP * 0.4 / 5) * 5
Character_Level  = Quest_Level +  9 : Quest_XP = ( 20 %) or ROUND(Full_Quest_XP * 0.2 / 5) * 5
Character_Level >= Quest_Level + 10 : Quest_XP = ( 10 %) or ROUND(Full_Quest_XP * 0.1 / 5) * 5

Some lower level quests (Quest_Level < 10) seem to give full XP only for Character_Level <= Quest_Level + 4, differing by 1 level with the table above.

For the table, see Mob difficulty colors.

In respect to current level, higher level quests do yield a larger relative xp gain. However, in the time it takes to do these harder quests it is possible to do several of the lower quests. Each to their own, but don't confuse the absolute value of xp gained as a number with the relative xp gained as a percentage of current level requirements. One strategy is to avoid reds, miss most oranges and focus on a mix of yellow and greens. If you are meant to do them then you will find you have time later. If by then you have already moved on, there are plenty of shiny new quests in the next zone.

Also, bear in mind that by completing higher as opposed to lower level quests, you will reach a point where the quests below you are grey and there are no new quests to complete. All that's left is the grind...

Match the green and yellow quests and there is more than enough to see you questing all the way through the game.

XP Modifiers

There are multiple ways to earn bonus experience points for completing the same task as one without any. These include: Rested, Recruit-A-Friend, and a buff from an Adventurer's Journal.

Rested Bonus - Normally, the experience bar is filled purple for the amount of XP a character has. When a character is in the Rested state, the bar will be filled blue and all experience gains (except quests) will be doubled (2x). A character will gain the bonus if they stay inside of an inn or capital city. The longer one stays inside, the more the XP they can receive before returning to a normal state (shown by a transparent-blue bar follwed by a marker, positioned after the filled bar of XP already gained).

Recruit-A-Friend - (note: read more here: Recruit-A-Friend) After successfully recruiting a friend for a trial period, both you and your recruit will receive a 3x XP bonus for all XP gains (does not stack with Rested Bonus) as long as you are both in a party and close enough to each other within the game.

Adventurer's Journal - (Applies only to characters below level 85.) There is a chance that after reading an Adventurer's Journal (created by a Scribe), you will receive a buff that grants a 10% increase to XP gains from killing mobs and from quests.

Mob Gray Level

For formulas to calculate the Gray Level, see Formulas:Mob XP.

For a similar table with more information, see Mob difficulty colors.

Killing a mob stops giving XP if the level of that mob is too low. The level of the mob by its portrait will become gray. this is called the Gray Level, and occurs depending on your character level.

The full formula for the Gray Level is rather complicated, so here is a table. Mobs at or below the level given in the table do not give XP.

Char Lvl Gray Lvl 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 0 5 0 6 1 7 2 8 3 9 4 10 4 11 5 12 6 13 7 14 8 15 9 16 10 17 11 18 12 19 13 20 13

Char Lvl Gray Lvl 21 14 22 15 23 16 24 17 25 18 26 19 27 20 28 21 29 22 30 22 31 23 32 24 33 25 34 26 35 27 36 28 37 29 38 30 39 31 40 31

Char Lvl Gray Lvl 41 32 42 33 43 34 44 35 45 35 46 36 47 37 48 38 49 39 50 39 51 40 52 41 53 42 54 43 55 43 56 44 57 45 58 46 59 47 60 51

Char Lvl Gray Lvl 61 52 62 53 63 54 64 55 65 56 66 57 67 58 68 59 69 60 70 61 71 62 72 63 73 64 74 65 75 66 76 67 77 68 78 69 79 70 80 71

Char Lvl Gray Lvl 81 72 82 73 83 74 84 75 85 76 86 77 87 78 88 79 89 80 90 81

• A Gray Level of 0 means that no mobs are gray at that character level.
• The lower the Gray Level (bigger difference between character level and the gray level) the better for the player, as it means more mobs to give XP.
• For character level 6-39 there is a little jump in favor of the player every 10 levels.
• For character level 40-59 there is a little jump in favor of the player every 5 levels.
• At character level 60 there is a big jump to the disadvantage of the player.
• For character level 60-80 the Gray Level is simply 9 levels below the character.

Level Locking

Main article: Level locking

If you do not want to gain XP (ex. for the purpose of making a Twink), you can visit  Behsten or  Slahtz to turn off all experience gains. It costs 10 to disable and another 10 to enable it.

Money Instead of XP at Max Level

When a character has reached the highest level attainable (60 for , 70 for , 80 for , 85 for ) they will receive money instead of experience points from completing quests. As far as can be determined, for all of these versions the conversion formula is:

Money in copper = XP * 6

Players who have turned off their experience gains by visiting Behsten or Slahtz do not get any money in compensation for the XP they would otherwise gain.

Patch changes

Patch 4.3.0 (29-Nov-2011): XP needed to gain levels 71 - 80 lowered by 33% 
/ Patch 4.0.1 (12-Oct-2010): Gathering herbs and Mining will give XP.^[2][3] 
Patch 3.2.0 (04-Aug-2009): Battleground experience has arrived!

• Players will now be awarded experience for completing objectives and actions that yield honor in Battlegrounds (honorable kills not included).
• Players who do not wish to gain experience through PvP can visit Behsten in Stormwind or Slahtz in Orgrimmar - both located near the Battlemasters in either city - and turn off all experience accumulation for the cost of 10.
• Disabling experience gains will prevent a player from gaining experience through any means available in the game.
• Players with experience gains turned off who compete in Battlegrounds will face off only against other players with experience gains turned off.
• After disabling experience gains, hunter pets will continue to gain experience up to the level of the hunter.
• Behsten and Slahtz can reinstate experience gains for players, for a 10 fee of course. Any experience that would've been accumulated if experience gains were enabled cannot be recovered. 
  

References