First clears are where the dungeon XP is

In an interview with The Sun at BlizzCon 2026, Blizzard said the overall experience curve to reach level 60 is unchanged from original Classic — players still need the same total experience, even as the activities that provide it shift around. The concrete change sits inside dungeons: experience from killing dungeon trash has been brought down, while experience from turning in dungeon quests has gone up significantly.

The effect is that a dungeon’s first run becomes very lucrative, while repeating the same instance pays off far less than it used to. Blizzard’s stated reason is that it wants players out in the world meeting each other rather than running one instance on repeat.

Why it matters: for a leveling route, running each new dungeon once for its quests is now worth noticeably more than parking in one instance and repeating it.