Solo PvE Leveling

How we ranked them

A character levelling alone from 1 to 60 by questing and grinding in the open world, the way most players level: kill speed and downtime, how the class feels in each bracket, pulls and adds, deaths, elite and group quests, the gold it costs and the travel between quests. Dungeon runs in a group are not rated here; the dungeon lists cover them.

The subjects are the 28 specs, each levelled in its own talent tree: a Holy Paladin is rated levelling with the Holy tree, a Restoration Druid with the Restoration tree. Druid's Feral is split into Feral Cat and Feral Bear as on the other lists. A subject's key is `<class>/<spec>` (`warlock/affliction`).

Levels 1–30 are rated from beta play; 31–60 are projected. The beta's cap is 30, so the first half of each spec's score rests on what players and Blizzard have reported from the beta and the client's level-30 kit. The second half rests on the client data, Blizzard's announcements and, failing those, the Classic Era kit. Each projection is marked in the research notes and listed in the entry's `extrapolated` on the page. The two halves count equally: a spec that is slow to 20 and strong after 40 is rated on the whole road.

Half of this is a forecast. The beta stops at level 30, so levels 1 to 30 are rated from beta play and the client's spells, and levels 31 to 60 from the client's spell ranks and talent trees, the class guides' projected builds and what Blizzard has announced.

Every score is a whole number from 1 to 5 against written anchors, and the tier comes from the weighted score alone: no spec is placed by hand. Two scorers rated every spec without seeing each other's work; where they differed, the score the facts supported better was kept, never an average, and a final pass checked that specs with the same tools got the same scores.

No spec reaches S. The highest score is Beast Mastery Hunter at 3.65, short of the 4.25 S needs: nothing yet measures play past 30, so no spec could be called clearly the best on the heaviest criteria. A spec that proves stronger past 30 than its kit suggests would move up in a later version.

Every spec is rated levelling in its own talent tree, so a healing or tanking spec is rated as it levels, not as the damage spec most players switch to. That is why those specs sit low: the list answers how each spec levels, not which spec to level in.

The formula is open to change: a different weight or threshold makes a new version of the list, with every spec that moves saying why.

The rubric: each criterion scored 1 to 5

Criterion	Weight	What it measures
Levelling pace	30	Kills same-level mobs back to back with almost no rest or drinking through most brackets: damage that doesn't depend on mana alone, a resource that refills while fighting, or a pet that tanks: 5. Kills at a fair speed but rests or drinks every 2–3 kills for long stretches: 3. Slow kills and frequent rest through most of the road; each mob is a chore: 1.
Power curve	15	Strong from the start; the key spells and talents arrive early and keep coming, with no dead stretch longer than a few levels: 5. One weak bracket (the first 20 levels, or a gap before a key talent or spell) that it grows out of: 3. Weak for a long stretch (until 30 or later), or the spec's tree gives little to levelling until its late talents: 1.
Pulls and adds	15	Handles 2–3 same-level mobs and a surprise add as routine, and clears quest clusters by pulling several at once: 5. Handles 2 with care or a cooldown; an add is a risk: 3. Two at once or an add is a likely death without an escape; must pull strictly one at a time: 1.
Survival and deaths	15	Rarely dies or corpse-runs: more than one escape or a cheap self-heal, on short cooldowns, from early levels: 5. One reliable escape or self-heal; a bad pull costs a cooldown or a death now and then: 3. A bad pull is a death; no escape worth the name until late: 1.
Elite and group quests	10	Solos most elite and group quests at or near their level with its own tools (kiting, fear, a pet tank, sustained self-heal): 5. Solos some with care, or a few levels above them; skips the rest or finds a group: 3. Skips elite and group quests or must find a group for each: 1.
Gold and gear dependence	10	Cheap to level: little beyond training and repairs, and works in whatever quest gear it has: 5. Some running cost (ammo, reagents, food and water) or a clear need for a weapon upgrade at times: 3. A heavy, constant drain (ammo, pet food, reagents, frequent repairs) or falls behind badly without good gear: 1.
Travel before the mount	5	A movement-speed form or ability available early and usable at will between quests (Travel Form, Ghost Wolf, Aspect of the Cheetah): 5. A short speed boost on a cooldown (Sprint), or a form that comes late: 3. No speed tool before the mount: 1.

An entry’s tier comes from its weighted score: 4.25 or more is S, 3.75 or more is A, 3.25 or more is B, 2.75 or more is C, 2.25 or more is D, and anything lower is F. A tier set by hand instead says why in its write-up. Within a tier, the best score comes first.

What the ratings assume

• Talents: the spec's levelling talent order from our class guide, kept in its own tree; where the guide levels in another tree, the nearest order the guide gives for this one.
• Gear: quest rewards and vendor or crafted greens as they come. No dungeon runs for gear, no heirlooms, no help from a higher-level character.
• Legacy perks: none. A first character, so the Talented perk and other account perks are not counted.
• Consumables and gold: only what the character earns on the way: quest gold, vendor trash, its own gathering. Training, ammo, reagents, pet food and repairs come out of that.
• Pets: the best pet the spec can get at each level, tamed or summoned on the way.
• The game rules of the stated build. A patch that changes them makes a new version.

Confidence: Forecast

Rated from the client data and our research, before anyone has played it at this level on this build. Where the data stops, the write-up says what it assumed.