Zone scaling



Zone scaling, also known as level scaling, causes mobs, quests, and loot to scale with the player character's level over a range. This allows the player more freedom to choose where they level. It was first introduced in Legion for zones in the Broken Isles, but was later expanded to include the entire game. However, scaling usually excludes content that was meant to be part of its expansion's end game: raids, heroic mode dungeons, and end-game zones such as Suramar or Mechagon.

As of patch 9.0.1, all starting zones scale from levels 1 - 10, including those for hero classes; zones from Battle for Azeroth scale to level 50; and all previous expansions scale to anywhere from level 30 to level 45. New characters can also enable Timewalking Campaigns, which causes all content to scale up to level 50. This means that players can spend almost the entirety of a character's leveling journey in the same expansion, allowing them to experience stories more fully than with the previous system.

The below list shows zones' default level ranges. Timewalking Campaigns increase these ranges' upper limits to 50.

Zone level not changing

 * Deadwind Pass: 55 - 56 || 11 - 30

Zone level not changing

 * Plaguelands: The Scarlet Enclave: 55 - 58 || 8 - 10

Notes and trivia

 * Scaling only applies to equipment at the moment it is obtained. Completing a quest at level 40 will reward level 40-appropriate equipment, but leveling up after completing the quest will not cause that equipment to scale to 41 or beyond.
 * When scaling was added to old world zones, a number of items that had been made unobtainable by level changes in Cataclysm became obtainable again.

Previous versions
As of patch 8.2.5, most content was scaled based on the following level bands:
 * 1 - 60: Old world and starting zones
 * 60 - 80: The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King zones
 * 80 - 90: Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria zones
 * 90 - 100: Warlords of Draenor zones
 * 100 - 110: Legion zones
 * 110 - 120: Battle for Azeroth zones

Between patch 7.3.5 and patch 8.2.5, starting zones had their own band, which spanned levels 1 - 20. Only a few instanced starting zones (such as Gilneas) retained this level band after 8.2.5.