WoW Forever gives no XP in dungeons for a mob that’s grey to anyone in your group: since the 13 November hotfix, nobody in the party gets kill XP from it.
Key takeaways
- If a dungeon mob is grey to even one player in your party, the whole party gets zero kill XP from it.
- Grey depends on the highest level in your group, so a big level spread now costs everyone XP.
- Getting carried through a low dungeon by a high-level friend no longer pays kill XP.
Why am I getting no XP in WoW Forever dungeons?
Because someone in your group outlevels the mobs. Blizzard’s 13 November hotfixes added one line under Dungeons: “Killing enemies in dungeons now awards zero experience to all party members if the level of the enemy is trivial to the level of one or more of the party members.”
So it isn’t split or reduced. If a mob is trivial to one person, the kill pays nothing to all five. Your own level doesn’t matter, and neither does how hard the fight was for you. One higher-level player is enough to turn the XP off for everyone.
The line only talks about killing enemies. It doesn’t mention quest rewards, so handing in a dungeon quest isn’t part of this change.
What does trivial mean in WoW Forever?
Trivial is WoW’s own word for an enemy that’s grey to you: too low for your level to give experience. It’s the same grey you see on a mob’s level when you target it. Before this hotfix, a mob that was grey to one player only stopped paying that player, unless they were far above it. Now, inside a dungeon, it stops paying the whole party.
WoW has long worked out grey from your level. For characters from level 6 to 39, the grey level formula is your level, minus your level divided by 10 and rounded down, minus 5. From 40 to 59 it’s your level, minus your level divided by 5 and rounded down, minus 1. Blizzard hasn’t published the exact cutoff WoW Forever uses, so take these as the long-standing WoW numbers rather than a confirmed WoW Forever table.
How far apart can your group’s levels be?
Not very far. What matters is the highest-level player, because their grey line is the highest in the group. Using that formula, this is the highest mob level that’s grey to them:
| Highest level in the group | Mobs grey to them (no XP for anyone) |
|---|---|
| 10 | Level 4 and below |
| 15 | Level 9 and below |
| 20 | Level 13 and below |
| 25 | Level 18 and below |
| 30 | Level 22 and below |
| 35 | Level 27 and below |
| 40 | Level 31 and below |
| 45 | Level 35 and below |
| 50 | Level 39 and below |
So with a level 20 in the group, every level 13 mob in the dungeon pays nobody, even a level 14 who would still get XP from it on their own. At level 20 the gap before a mob turns grey is seven levels, and at level 40 it’s nine. Keep your group closer together than that and you’ll still get kill XP from the mobs at your lowest member’s level.
Does the zero XP rule apply outside dungeons?
No. The 13 November line is only about killing enemies in dungeons. In the open world, the October beta change still decides group XP: each player’s XP from a kill depends on their own level, not on the highest level in the party. The one exception from those notes stays, so nobody gets XP if a party member is vastly higher level than the enemy.
That means questing together with a level spread still pays the lower players outside a dungeon. It’s only inside one that a single grey mob costs everyone.
Does dungeon boosting still work in WoW Forever?
Not for kill XP. A boost is a high-level player running lower-level characters through a dungeon so they can level without doing the fighting. Almost every mob in a low dungeon is grey to the high-level player, so under the new rule none of those kills give the party anything.
I never used a high-level friend to carry me through. Feels pointless, right? It basically just proves my dude can’t do nothing, if I have to be carried through the basic dungeons.
What changed with dungeon XP before this?
Blizzard has changed dungeon XP several times since the beta. In the October 8 beta notes, kill experience in dungeons went up by about 20%. Blizzard also fixed a bug that had cut party XP for lower-level enemies based on the highest-level member. They reverted it to Classic Era behaviour, where only each player’s own level matters. The same note kept one exception: if a member of the party was at a vastly higher level than the enemy, no one in the party got XP.
Then in the hotfixes dated 9 November, experience for all enemy kills in dungeons went up by 50%.
The 13 November change tightens that October exception. A player no longer has to be vastly higher level than the mob to switch off the party’s XP. The mob only has to be grey to them.
Is the zero XP rule fair?
I think it’s always going to be something that’s super hard to balance. You don’t want to give people the boosting service, which is the negative side. But people are always going to be a different level to each other.
Four of us, me and three friends, all switched over to Alliance at the same time. We’re all between 10 and 25 now, because of the different amounts we play, our play style, how efficient we’re levelling, stuff like that. Alliance was already the emptier side for me, even on a Normal server. On the table above, if our level 25 came along, anything level 18 or under would be grey to them, and none of us would get kill XP from it.
Some players on the official forums agree it’s too harsh. One thread argues it’ll be bad for the game’s health. It asks Blizzard to only remove group XP when a mob is trivial by at least 5 levels to one of the party.
Does the zero XP change stop me running dungeons?
It makes no difference to me. I’ll have to do dungeons at some point. I’m just enjoying the solo questing part of it as well, and there’s a lot of it, with all the new quests and campfires. The problem with a dungeon is you’re locked into that commitment of time.
A friend of mine did one quest in a dungeon, then left, and he was receiving hate messages for leaving the dungeon early instead of finishing it, because he’d finished his quest.
When you do group up, the new rule means checking levels first. If someone is seven or more levels above the mobs, those mobs will be grey to them, and that’s XP gone for everyone. The new dungeons get the same treatment, including the City of Dalaran dungeon.
FAQ
Why am I not getting XP from dungeon mobs in WoW Forever? A mob is grey to at least one player in your party. Since the 13 November hotfix, that gives the whole party zero kill XP from it.
Does boosting still work in WoW Forever? Not for kill XP. Almost every mob in a low dungeon is grey to a high-level player, so a carried group gets no XP from those kills.
How many levels apart can a WoW Forever dungeon group be? By WoW’s long-standing grey formula, a mob turns grey seven levels under a level 20 and nine under a level 40. Keep your highest player within that gap of the mobs.
