Leveling Weapon Skill Fast and AFK in WotLK Classic

A situation a lot of players find themselves in is receiving a shiny new weapon and immediately equipping it before realizing they don’t have the weapon skill to use it effectively. This is an easy mistake to make and always puts a damper on my spirits when I realize I won’t be able to use my new best friend until I’m done with my dungeon or raid and have stood somewhere hitting enemies that are terrible at fighting back.

Along with this, even if you prefer classes that never swing a weapon, there are still two achievements directly tied to weapon skill. Master of Arms requires the player to raise four different weapon skills to maximum, and Did Somebody Order a Knuckle Sandwich requires the player to raise their unarmed skill to max. A melee player might be able to get away with leveling their weapon on dungeon or raid trash, a caster will be called out immediately if they were to try.

Even though we lost a few of the weapon skill training methods with the release of Wrath of the Lich King, there are alternatives. For some classes these methods will be fully AFK, allowing you to completely leave your computer for minutes at a time while your character swings a bad weapon at an unkillable enemy. For other classes you may have to pay a little bit of attention and tend to your character. Either way though, if you use a weapon, I strongly recommend that you train your weapon skills ahead of time. AFK for a day and get all the relevant ones to max, never having to worry about them again.

Preparation

You can do these methods with no preparation, simply grab your new weapon and go hit the enemies listed later in the guide. Unfortunately, you may be almost doubling the time you spend leveling your weapon skill if you just do that. Most classes look for slow weapons, and for leveling weapon skills you want the fastest possible weapon, regardless of damage.

Fortunately for us, Wrath of the Lich King added a whole heap of easily accessible, very fast weapons. These can all be purchased in Dalaran, making it incredibly easy to pick up a weapon to train with. These weapons may not always be the absolute fastest option, but they will almost always be the cheapest and most accessible.

Pick up whichever one is appropriate to you, and remember that if you can dual-wield, you absolutely should. Dual-wielding speeds up weapon skills tremendously. If you can use Fist Weapons, make sure you do, that piece of metal attached to your hand makes you swing significantly faster.

Your other equipment does also play a role in leveling weapon skills. The first thing to consider is that most of the enemies that are reliable to train on are going to hit back, so wearing tankier gear can go a long way towards how long you can be AFK. Haste is also very good to grab where possible, especially if you have something like Meteorite Whetstone that will passively provide a large boost to Haste while AFK.

Something else that is not always considered is Intellect. Of course this matters, the smarter you are, the easier it’ll be to learn! Some people like to wear a full set of Intellect gear, maximizing the speed they gain skill. You can of course do this, but I don’t think it’s necessary. On the other hand, some small, easy to get boosts can be worth it. Buffs like Blessing of Kings, Arcane Intellect, and Mark of the Wild are easy to get and will speed up your leveling at least a little bit. If you don’t have access to Arcane Intellect, you can substitute it with a Scroll of Intellect instead. Flasks and elixirs are another good way to get Intellect. Flask of Distilled Wisdom or Elixir of Mighty Thoughts will typically be the go-to for this.

Finally there are a few abilities that can help you. For a lot of classes they can bring these by themselves, but if you do find yourself struggling to survive, try bringing a friend that also needs to level their weapon skills.

Hunters & Warlocks bring pets, which can easily tank the enemies, allowing you to freely level up without any fear of dying, as long as you heal your pet occasionally. Paladins bring Judgement of Light, which will likely be enough for any class to stay alive. Any class with heal-over-time spells such as Renew or Rejuvenation can stay alive indefinitely by simply casting these every so often. Shamans may want to consider respeccing into Enhancement if they are going to level multiple weapon skills, as Dual Wield will speed the process up significantly.

Any class with a melee swing attack can speed up the process at the cost of being less AFK. Abilities like Hamstring and Wing Clip have no cooldown, and instantly swing your weapon. This gives you an extra chance to gain weapon skill, but you won’t be afk while doing this.

The Enemies

Wrath of the Lich King added the caveat that if an enemy is immune to damage, you will not gain weapon skill by hitting them. This does not apply if an enemy is simply unkillable, so we still have some options! This list will not be exhaustive, there are a million different ways to train your weapons. The list is a few examples of enemies that you can easily reach without any pre-questing or preparation.

Lady Sevine

Found in the Blasted Lands, Lady Sevine does relatively little damage but will constantly cast Summon Infernal Servants. These can be passively AoE’d down by a lot of classes, but some classes may find themselves easily overwhelmed by Infernals, making it less AFK.

Grol the Destroyer

Found in the Blasted Lands, Grol the Destroyer hits comparatively hard, but can be fought without having to worry about a ton of adds. Pull him to the back wall and come back a few minutes later.

Gothik the Harvester (Ranged)

Gothik the Harvester in Naxxramas may seem like an odd choice, but as long as your raid is OK with it, why not! During the add Phase, you can shoot him while he stands on his balcony. This Phase takes a set amount of time, so you aren’t slowing the raid down by doing this, as long as they can manage without you. Of course, this is only doable once or twice a week and some groups will not be OK with this method, so make sure you check ahead of time.

Plague Sprayer (Ranged)

These obelisks can be found in southern Zul’Drak, floating above the ground. Unlike the other enemies listed, these are in fact killable, and don’t have a massive health pool. This means you will need to retarget every so often once you reach higher weapon skills. On the plus side, they are in Northrend so they are easy to get to, and they only attack downwards, so you don’t have to worry about your health.