The fastest way to level an Undead Paladin from the Deathknell crypt to 60, with the level 10 tauren meetup planned minute by minute.
Level cap 60 from day one · raids open 9 December · Undead Paladin is free with a subscription, no pack needed
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The beta and stress test say the first hours are a stampede: every Forsaken in Malta and beyond rises from the same crypt. The plan below assumes congestion and routes around it: skip contested named mobs, keep moving, and fall back to pure mob grinding or a dungeon if the open world melts down.
Speedrunner mantra for the night: quest first, grind if questing stalls, dungeon if the world falls apart. Dungeons in Forever are tuned close to, but not faster than, good questing.
One of six new race and class combos Blizzard added, and the one they put on stage. Free with a subscription. The fantasy: the Forsaken mistrust you, the Light hurts to channel, and the only paladins anyone remembers are the Scarlet Crusade who hunt you. Your job is to win acceptance, starting at Bandarion Keep in the Whispering Wood (northwest Tirisfal) around level 10.
In plain terms: you are the Horde's paladin with the Forsaken flavor, and the class questline hands you a black and gold barding steed, capped by an epic charger quest at 60.
| Racial | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Touch of the Grave | Now a drain, and for paladins it procs around 20% of attacks (25s cooldown). Free healing while you grind. |
| Cannibalize | Restores mana as well as health from nearby corpses. After Tirisfal's zombie fields, you rarely sit to drink. |
| Will of the Forsaken | Removes charm, fear and sleep. No immunity after the cleanse anymore, so re-fears can happen. |
| Underwater Breathing | Quietly useful on the North Coast and later water objectives. |
Level as Retribution: weapon seals, Judgement, Holy Strike and melee, with huge sustain to cut downtime. Slower kills than some classes, but you never stop, you never die, and you bring buffs, blessings and emergency buttons to any group.
At 40 the class questline grants Summon Warhorse: a free mount when everyone else is saving every copper. That alone pays for your skills.
Tank or heal dungeons while Ret if the group needs it. You can do all three passably while leveling.
| Level | Talent | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 10 to 14 | Deflection 5/5 | Parry keeps you alive while everything swings at you. |
| 15 to 17 | Conviction 3/5 | Melee crit. |
| 18 to 19 | Improved Judgement 2/2 | More Judgements, more damage. |
| 20 to 21 | Pursuit of Justice 2/2 | Move speed. On a class with no gap closer, glorious. |
| 22 | Seal of Command | The leveling seal. |
| 23 to 27 | Sanctified Judgement, Two-Handed Spec 3/3 | Sustain and raw weapon damage. |
| 28 to 30 | Sacred Arbiter, more Sanctified Judgement, Vengeance | Stacking damage train. |
First talent point lands at level 10. Train at every even level; skip utility ranks when silver is tight and buy damage first.
Tap a phase to open it. The skeleton is the Classic route that always won, with the new Forever quests woven in. Golden tips are speed advice, purple ones are paladin specific.
Your friend starts at Camp Narache, quests to Bloodhoof Village, and finishes Mulgore around 10 to 12, then walks into the Barrens toward the Crossroads. Tauren racials after the final tuning pass: Plainsrunning now stacks to 60% movement speed (no longer works mounted), so your friend crosses ground alarmingly fast for a walking bull. Thunder Bluff has no zeppelin in Forever, so their route to you runs through Orgrimmar, not the sky.
You rise in Tirisfal (Eastern Kingdoms). Your friend rises in Mulgore (Kalimdor). The good news: a zeppelin route links the Undercity directly to Orgrimmar, and both of you hit 10 within an evening. Two ways to play it:
Why this wins: you lose zero Tirisfal XP, your friend loses zero Mulgore XP, and the Barrens is a 10 to 25 buffet built for duos. Ragefire Chasm sits inside Orgrimmar at 13 to 18 if you want an early dungeon.
Pick this if you love the Forsaken zones or want the new dungeon early. Note one unconfirmed beta report of elite guards with knockback at zeppelin towers: harmless for a duo, just do not AFK on the platform.
The two Horde lanes meet at 10 and braid together after that. Zone hopping beats zone loyalty: leave when most of your log goes green.
Crossroads loops and the long Barrens chains, weaving Silverpine on the zeppelin when quests thin out. Ragefire Chasm (13 to 18, inside Orgrimmar) and the new Ruins of Lordaeron (15 to 20, above Undercity) with every quest picked up first. Shadowfang Keep at 18+ in Silverpine.
Tarren Mill's Battle of Hillsbrad chain, the Elixir and Helcular arcs. Or Sun Rock Retreat in Stonetalon for spiders, goblins and harpies. Wailing Caverns with quests if you skipped it.
Freewind Post: centaur chains, Test of Faith (bring a parachute or nerve), Arikara. Ashenvale's Splintertree Post as the alternative lane.
STV's chapter chains from Grom'gol (zeppelin from Undercity and Orgrimmar), Arathi Highlands, Desolace. Scarlet Monastery opens in Tirisfal: the armory is a paladin rite of passage, and its weapon drops last you ten levels.
Summon Warhorse at 40 via the class questline: your charger costs nothing while everyone else begs for mount gold. Tanaris and the Badlands from here.
Ferelas and the Hinterlands weave in. The Plaguelands call you home at the end: you began in Tirisfal, you finish its story.
Western and Eastern Plaguelands, Silithus, Winterspring. The first raids open 9 December: Barrow Deeps (10 players), Hyjal Summit (20) and Onyxia's Lair (40). Your epic charger quest caps the class story at 60. Be 60 before the gates open.