I feel weaker the more I progress

Community General Discussion
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I do like a lot of what was done in the pre-patch, but I do have an issue with the feeling of my character progressing and becoming “weaker” with every level. I like how we are getting something meaningful every level, like a new ability, but it also feels like due to scaling or whatever, my character is not getting stronger, which is too bad! I would like to feel like I’m getting stronger and better for group content, but feel the opposite… the higher level I get, the weaker I feel in dungeons.

Do you guys feel the same?

I’m not a game designer or anything so not sure how to fix this… but thought I would raise it up for the devs.

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Its jarring on the beta too. When it happened in BFA there was outrage on the forums enough that many (including myself) thought they had changed scaling at max level. I don’t know the solution but it really sucks for that first month or so before you have some gear.

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I feel the same, and that’s why I started this discussion last week:

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/leveling-blizzard-obviously-didnt-get-it/680838

When they said we would get to level at the intended pace, I thought they were going to rework all the areas so that their zones scaled from 1-50 instead of from 1-60, 60-80, 80-100, 100-110, and 110-120. I didn’t realize that they would be lazy and just make everything scale to whatever level you happen to be. The current system turns leveling, which used to be one of the funnest parts of the game, into a veritable slog. They reduced the amount of time you have to spend slogging through this borefest, but it would have been nicer if they had just done it right so that we could actually enjoy it.

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The scaling right now is so whack. Look at the Demon Hunter starting zone. Those demons have less than 80 hp and all die from a swing lol

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Ya I remember when my BfA 111 was stronger than my newly leveled 120. Pissed me off. I think you should get stronger as you level up, makes more sense to me!

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It seems to be about lvl 25 to 30 that the scailing for the mobs gets a boost or something compared to how much damage we do, suddenly things feel “harder” to fight once we have most our abilities unlocked. It could prob use some balance tweaking but idk, i managed on my rogue and warlock. On this character i use more of my tanking abilities which in a way is kinda nice cause it helps reduce the amount of brain dead feel to playing.

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The level has always been a denominator to your character attributes and stats.

So all you’re actually getting is a new ability or talent at the expense of them.

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well what im saying is that for example a lvl 10 to 11 mob may only have about 100 - 200 hp or something, at that lvl our basic abilities hit harder compared to the hp of the mob so it feels mobs are weak and die quick. Where as at about mid way (25-30) mobs have way more hp to them so things like Chaos bolt for example only chunk off 1/4 to 1/2 the hp making fights a bit longer lasting and we take more damage as a result. Because of how fast we can level to that point it “feels” like an instant change giving us the impression our toons suddenly become weaker at a higher level.

Edit: on my warlock i was fighting mobs in legion that had an upwards of 28k hp i mean, its hard finding players with that much at lvl 50 and they are all raid geared.

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I FEEL WEAKER THE MORE I PROGRESS

This is how I feel in real life.

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I don’t know, to me it seems like an rpg should make you feel some sort of character progression, a feeling that you are getting better and more ready for more difficult content. The current state of the leveling feels the opposite of that…

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I was thinking about hopping on WoW today to try the pre-patch, but this thread reminded me why I’m waiting. :confused:

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I agree OP, I hope blizzard addresses this

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Unfortunately wow works opposite to most rpgs. Gaining levels and gear prior to max level makes you progressively weaker. All things being equal, a level 1 character is far more powerful then a fresh max level. The true rpg power progression path only begins after you hit max level and begin gaining your ilvl and borrowed power for the expansion that makes up roughly 50% of your characters power.

It’s disgusting, I know.

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You can thank level scaling for this, every npc remains evenly leveled to you so your gear/level will never feel as though it’s making a difference unless you level lock and become a twink.

NPCs being damage sponges that do (for the most part, some do hurt) little damage doesn’t help.

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This is why trying to turn WoW into an “open world” game was such a terrible idea - WoW can’t be scaled properly without losing all sense of progression, and progression is the engine that powers it.

All scaling in WoW does is tweak invisible numbers and make you feel like you’re going nowhere. There is no direction, there is no progression, and there is no meaning. Being able to “go wherever you want whenever” was in no way worth compromising the central premise of the game.

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It has been really noticeable as I level this character. Went from Ice Slapping goons with one proc to needing about 3x the amount of time to end something.

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Piddy was weakest when she first dinged 120 in BfA. Noticeably weak, manifest by how she was taking on generic open world quest mobs.

I dinged 50 on my new DH recently. Running around with iLevel 50 gear (he leveled in Legion).

But he dived straight in to the basic quests to open up WQs and open up Nazjatar.

Early on, I won’t say he struggled, but if he got a pack of 4 on him, well, he was pretty much dead. That’s just the nature of it, I honestly don’t consider that weak. Other than that, he did fine. He was awful against elites. But that’s normal.

Now he’s done the Nazjatar opening questline (which gave him 5 L71 pieces), 2 full days of WQs for gear (which are dropping L63-65 for him now), and he pretty much runs the world with impunity. He’s overall iLevel 66 now. He’s finally qualified for Heroics (hopefully I’ll get him through a couple of those this evening, they drop L78). I was going to run the Darkshore Warfront, but the gear reward is less than what he already has.

I also have the neck upgraded, and OK buffs on my azerite gear. I’m more focused on my Class Hall Campaign than the Cloak quest, which I really should be working on. Probably advance that while waiting for heroics now that all the dailies are done. The cloak will be a nice up.

The only curious thing is that he’s running the warblades Artifact from Legion, using Legion relics, and they’re L70 – which is remarkable. They were L70 in Legion before he dinged 50. I haven’t found anything better, and I know there are better relics in Legion to hopefully bump the warblade up to 80-82, so I’ll need to keep my eye out on Legion Dailies for that.

My single complaint with the DH is that I don’t care for the AoE, in contrast to my Warrior at least. Especially on weak trash. Firing off all the cooldowns, my DH is a monster. But off cooldown, spamming the basic melee fury builder and spender, he’s lackluster.

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the upside is with how easy lvling is now i mean you dont feel the impact for too long, few days worth if your playtime isnt much per day. I may go ahead and lvl a war and priest now after i finish my vulp shammy who still mostly feels like mini god with lava burst.

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No worse feeling hitting max level, getting a few drops to up your ilvl and still kill mobs in open world at the same rate/pace. This was really bad in BfA. Never felt like I making progress, just chasing that carrot to inifinity

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Wait until everyone azerite traits are gone then the real complaints would flood gd.