Just days before it was supposed to end, Blizzard has extended World of Warcraft's double XP event in response to outcry from players. The event, called Winds of Wisdom, was initially supposed to end this Monday, but players were so disappointed to see it go that Blizzard is now saying it will take place right up until the pre-patch for the upcoming Shadowlands expansion.

That means WoW players now have several more months to earn double the experience points from quests and monsters (and anything else that offers them). Shadowlands still doesn't have a firm release date, so there's no telling exactly when we'll get the pre-patch update that bridges the gap between it and the current expansion, but this is great news for anyone looking to kill a lot of free time.

Winds of Wisdom was going to be replaced by a second event called Exalt in the Impressive Influence (who is making these names?) that doubles the amount of reputation players get for doing quests for different factions in Azeroth. That event will still happen as scheduled, with the double XP continuing alongside it.

That means right now is a fantastic time to start playing WoW if you've toyed with the idea or want to get a character ready for Shadowlands' release. With double XP and double the reputation rewards, you'll be able to quickly level a character to 120 and start chipping away at some of the longer faction reputation grinds to access cool rewards like Allied Races (cool variants of WoW's core playable races), mounts, and loads of other in-game goodies.

But you also might want to wait. With Shadowlands, Blizzard is implementing an enormous overhaul of its leveling system that will see the current level cap of 120 squished down to just level 60. In addition to a fun new starter zone called Exile's Reach, this will make leveling much quicker than it currently is. The way you level is also changing, too. Instead of grinding through the same old zones Warcraft has had since launch, you'll now choose to play through just one of the previous expansions, which will take your character from level 10 all the way to 50, where Shadowlands begins.

That's a big improvement, because after years of time-travel and new expansions, WoW's story is kind of a mess that's hard to follow. This new system will make the whole thing a lot simpler and quicker—though the double XP bonus might still be the faster route to endgame.