Could Hardcore lead the way for retail?

Community WoW Community Council
1

I’m not suggesting we make Hardcore retail, but what playing Hardcore (I never got hit with the classic bug until now) has made me realize is that the world is a scary place.

I’m level 12 running in westfall and there is a level 19 Dust Devil that will murder me if I get too close.

I’m level 18 in the barrens and if I kill this kodo it will drop an item to start a quest that will give me a good reward

I fly over the Searing Gorge on the flight from SW to IF and there are “??” level spiders below me.

All of these things make the world seem bigger. I have to level up to explore more. I’ll come back for this quest in a level or two when I’m stronger.

Since Legion, we have had zones that level with us, when we level up, so do all the mobs around us. Yes, it makes the story flow. Yes, it gives “options” of where to take your story - but this was much less… “free” in DF & SL than it was in Legion & BFA. This is even worse when levelling new characters IMO. I get why the change was made - more effective XP throughout the levelling journey, but I would ask - At what cost? The world feels less vibrant for it.

With 11.0 presumably being announced at blizzcon in a few weeks, I hope this will be considered - make the world a world again. Having mobs be stronger/weaker than the players is fine. Level scaling was bad for the game IMO.

(The one exception I will make is that having mobs scale in dungeons is good as it allows for faster queue times and replay-ability, I’m just talking about the open world)

9 Likes
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While I agree, the leveling speed we currently have on retail would make this change horrible. It works good for Classic because it takes time to level there. On retail, you’re 10-60 in 2-3 zones of questing, compared to Classic 50-60 taking me 7 zones, a couple of dungeons and tons of mob grinding.

They decided on moving retail towards max level content only and while I don’t blame them for it, it really sucks for anything resembling world building. It would be interesting to see a mode which slowed down leveling, enough to properly experience at least one entire expansion worths of content.

3 Likes
3

Even if in “Chromie Time” or whatever it’s called when you’re levelling that was the case and in new content/expansions it wasn’t a levelling world, I’d be fine with that.

2 Likes
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What would you think about Event style sub zones / continents that had scaling values that could be altered by players from a Npc. If you wanted to adjust mob health, damage, resistances, speed, aggro range, etc.

Would have trial event that allowed you to challenge yourself with friends or guildmates be an ideal alternative?

Would you prefer to have the option to play the game whenever you want at a moderate scaling change due to gear/ talent/ scaling restrictions currently in place if they made seperate queue-able long term zone leveling?

What are some other options we could conceive if there were options.