The Rest State modifier gives players a time-limited bonus to combat (PvE) experience. This frees up time for exploring other aspects of the game without penalty, such as tradeskilling and social activities, and helps players avoid level-grinding. Inns serve as a good place to hang up your sword or staff for the night because they confer special bonuses. Inns also act as home locations. Hearthstones provide a speedy way to travel back to an Inn when you need to take care of business in town, or when you're ready to check in and call it a night.

Rest State

The Rest state modifier only affects experience earned from killing monsters. It does not affect experience earned from quest rewards or other experience rewards in the game (such as future PvP experience rewards).

As players kill monsters and gain experience points, they become increasingly tired. Their rest level reflects this tiredness in two tiers: Rested = 200% experience and Normal = 100% experience.

At level one, players will all start in the normal tier. When a player rests in a city or at an inn they will gain rest bonus at a very slow rate. Eight hours of rest will be needed for a player to gain one "bubble" of rest bonus. At any given time, players will be able to accumulate a maximum of 30 "bubbles" worth of rest bonus which translates into approximately 1.5 levels worth of rested play (before your character returns to normal rest state).

Rested players receive bonus experience points for killing monsters. Normal players receive no bonus experience points for killing monsters.

To become rested and start earning bonus experience from killing monsters again, players must rest for many hours.

Thanks to the comforts of a warm bed and a hearty meal, players who rest or log out at an Inn will accumulate rest credit four times faster than players logged off outside of an Inn or City. Players who log out anywhere else in the world will earn rest credit four times slower.

Note that while your character is resting at an Inn, you can play other characters on your account. The Rest State is per character only.

Players have the ability to rest anywhere in the world. This helps players who forget or choose not to log off at an Inn. Resting at an Inn is still the preferred method, as rest credit will accumulate four times faster for players logged off inside of an Inn.

There is no penalty for leaving an Inn early. You are constantly accumulating bonus experience while in an Inn or City. If you leave and come back, the only time lost is the time you were outside.

Most players will be in the Normal experience tier most of the time. The Rested tier is primarily intended for players that take a day or more off from playing or are very casual with their play schedules. This has enabled us to greatly reduce the experience necessary for all players to level regardless of which rest state tier they play under.

Enter the City to Rest

hen visiting one of the six main cities (Darnassus, Ironforge, Orgrimmar, Stormwind, Thunder Bluff and The Undercity), players do not need to check into the Inn to rest. Players will however still need to seek an Innkeeper to receive a Hearthstone or to bind themselves to the city. You will still need to rest at an Inn in smaller towns.

Players can rest or log out at any Inn in the world.

[No Vacancy]
Inns are located in all major cities and some towns.

Whenever players enter a Major City or Inn or log out in a Major City or Inn, they will effectively be "resting", which is indicated by their portrait flashing yellow.

Players can leave an Inn at any time and continue fighting monsters; the experience they gain will be based on the Rest level that they have rested up to.

If players log out in an Inn, they will be able to instantly exit the game as opposed to having to wait 20 seconds before exiting.

When players log in to play the next day, their rested characters will have slept off the ill effects of any nasty debuffs from the day before. On the other hand, the buffs won't wear off before their normal term. Logging out pauses the timers for all the positive buffs.

Players use Hearthstones (an inventory item) to cast a spell that teleports them back to their "home locations". Casting the spell will take a reasonable amount of time, to prevent it from being used as an escape mechanism from combat.

[No good]

"Checking in" with an Innkeeper will make that Inn the player's current home location, and the player's Hearthstone will then take the player back to that Inn (as opposed to any previous home locations). If the player doesn't have a Hearthstone, the Innkeeper will provide one at no cost.

Because Hearthstones let players quickly return to town, players can easily log off from within an Inn when they're done playing for the night (or day). If they so choose, players can also use Hearthstones just to return to town to sell items, trade, or train. However, Hearthstones can only be used once per hour.

Starting characters have Hearthstones automatically located in their inventory.