(Using classic / level 60 current content for my example here)
So you are telling me that in Shadowlands, the OG Classic raiding is now open at level 24/25?
Because simply, Classic raiding technically is full of 63+ mobs, which they to would be lowered to the level 25-28 range.
I dont understand why a Chromie type option would have to get involved or why a squish is necessary if we are still the same power as before, it just seems un-necessary …
Nah. They’re flat out cutting the entire power scale out from 1-120 and fitting it into the scope of 1-50 which will be throwing all of the pre-Shadowlands content into one big scalable level range.
It sounds like every period of the game (i.e. Kalimdor, EK, Outland, Northrend, “Cataclysm Zones”, Pandaria, Draenor, Broken Isles, and Kul Tiras/Zandalar) will be 1-50.
Which would mean that each expansion’s raids would unlock at level 50, at least in the “Instanced, Leveling Version” – excepting Shadowlands.
Because Blizzard agrees with a lot of players that getting 120 levels is not rewarding most of those levels mean nothing and at some points last like 20 minutes. making leveling actually make you feel like your character is progressing is a lot easier to do with 60 levels rather then 120+
Don’t worry. The guys who supported the level squish say it will all be worthwhile and improve gameplay and player experience somehow. Also, there won’t be any problems in the conversion. Go read the old forum threads from earlier this year for proof. lol
Old 60 = 50.
Old 70 = 50.
Old 80 = 50.
Old 85 = 50.
Old 100 = 50.
Old 110 = 50.
Old 120 = 50.
There’s some weird buff-shenanigans to make it so you can still solo old raids for transmog, but otherwise everything from prior expansions was crushed down.
That’s why they went through the effort implementing the squish. Probably took a couple of hours of coding at most, right? It will payoff in the end, right?
Except for the part that all expansions would be reachable after finishing level 10. Even DKs and Demon Hunters come out of their intro quests at level 10. Can do the starter thing from 1-10, then immediately go to Northrend, or Pandaria, or BFA.
It’s going to payoff right away, despite whatever pockets of unbalance that they miss early and eventually fix.
A new player sees three zones: entry zone, BfA, and SL.
Existing player can level through the entry zone, and then: Classic, BC, Wrath, Cata, MoP, WoD, Legion, or BfA up to 50.
No need to hop around. Each expansion basically an isolated little world of story.
Imagine. 50 levels in Northrend. You can level 10-20 in Storm Peaks, 20-30 in Grizzly Hills. Maybe get 10 levels simply doing Icecrown Heroics over and over (no, I have no idea how/when they’re going to open up expansion heroics).
I have no expectation of being able to go in to ANY raid before 50. The expansions have no “end game”, rather than have raids to farm for transmog – at 50.
But we’ll see.
The nice thing about this is it does what WoW has needed for a long time. It helps shrink the world.
World Scaling will remain the same with old world scaling to 25, Wrath and BC scaling to 33.33(probably to 34) and so on.
If you visit Chromie in the capital cities you can choose an expansion to set it to a sort of timewalking mode where it will scale from 10-50 for you allowing you to spend all your time in that expansion. If you do not utilize Chromie then you can bounce around where you want however some expansion may only last 4 or so levels like Cata and Mop where they would scale from 33.33 - 37.5.
Ion said that the Level Squish is just a number change not any sort of stat or numbers squish.
It helps grow the world. Rather than paddle around for a zone and a half before moving on to the next expansion content to just skim the surface, people can get stuck in where they want, and really delve in.
Simultaneously, it shrinks the walk to current content.
Agree this is something that was needed to be done 2 expansions ago haha. Right now because of the massive number of levels, a lot of levels between talents feels like just filler levels we have to do to get talents etc. And because of the level restrictions of certain zones we do not get a cohesive leveling experience because we out-level each xpac after just 1-2 zones. For older players it might not be a problem since we know the stories and just want to level thru fast. But for new players and those that want to level while enjoying the storylines it is very frustrating and not fun.
