WoW: Lich King player hits level 80 just 9 hours after “Classic” server launch - Ars Technica

Naowh said he practiced this method in the live retail version of World of Warcraft before the launch of Wrath Classic servers Monday.

"It's still the same to this day in retail," Naowh said.

Together, these exploits let Naowh gain experience points at an astounding rate of 1.8 million XP per hour, letting him make the usually grueling run from level 71 to 80 in just under nine hours.

Athene's strategy wasn't exactly the same as Naowh's but made use of a similar mob-tagging bug that let players get full "solo" experience points for mobs that are actually destroyed by an entire high-powered group.

Blizzard, for its part, seems to have recently implemented a "stopgap fix" to prevent Athene-style mob-tagging in Wrath Classic.

Perhaps recognizing this history a bit, Naowh acknowledged the possibility that Blizzard might revoke his own record and reset his character for using other exploits to power-level.

For now, though, Naowh can revel in having the first level 80 character on the Wrath Classic servers at a time when countless other players are still patiently waiting in queues to log in.

"Imagine if we get world's first [level] 80 rollback as well," he said.