One could make the argument that they don’t want people with characters stalled at 50, fragmenting them away from the greater community at max level. Here’s why that argument doesn’t work:
• If making a new character means I get 5-10 hours of playing them where I like, then I’m forced to play Shadowlands for actual gameplay… I’m just not going to make that character at all. I already have tons of characters who only have Shadowlands ahead of them - I’ll play them there. Some Chromie Time alts would help break up that loop by offering some more low-key, experiences when I’m Shadowlanded out… which is absolutely a thing considering the amount of alts I shelve not because I’m not interested in them, but because I need a break before slamming the same leveling zones again for the 12th time.
• While I may be locked at 50, I’d still be able to queue for those relevant dungeons and assist players who DO have the goal of leveling fast and moving that new toon into Shadowlands. I would be contributing to a wider player pool of people using the feature as a means to play Shadowlands.
• We already have an experiment in fragmenting the game into two completely separate experiences - WoW Classic. That didn’t kill the game. Chromie Time completionist focused alts aren’t nearly as fragmenting as some of the game’s own alternative offerings.
That’s every point I could make.
Most of my 120s got there cause I didn’t want the “whack-a-mole” we had. Even if you turned of xp at 80 say to experience Northrend, you still plowed through mobs like butter. What was the point?
I also like to play alts to get away from what my main or other characters at max level are doing. And a big one, I’m a sucker for nostalgia.
As for fragmenting me away from the greater community, my $15 isn’t fragmented from the greater Blizzard no matter how I play.
As a new player, I haven’t played through any of the content yet. So when I heard about this Chromie time thing, it was exciting because I thought I would get to experience an entire xpac’s content (with other people) like if it just launched.
That includes all of the content that came after it via patches/updates. But after reading a lot of the feedback here, it sounds like once I hit 50, I’ll be kicked off that xpac content and sent to shadowlands.
I do not like this one bit especially as someone who wants to experience the WoW lore.
There were a few other endgame daily hubs during those expansions, although you listed most of the main ones. BC had more dailies in Outland (not just Quel’Danas). There were dailies in almost every zone (ogres, netherdrakes, etc) and Aldor/Scryers stuff. The Argent Tournament expanded and took you all over Northrend in Wrath. Cata had the Molten Front (lots of endgame stuff there) and some dailies in Twilight Highlands and Tol Barad. Before the Isles were released in Mists, the focus was on different hubs in every zone (serpent dragon riders, Nat Pagle, etc). There was the big quest chain for the garrisons in Warlords before Tanaan. I think Suramar was considered end game before Broken Shore.
I have no idea if all of those dailies are still there (especially those ancient BC and Wrath ones) but if you are interested in seeking out the stuff people did when they first dinged back then, there is actually quite a bit of content I think a lot of people have forgotten or maybe never even saw. It is pretty cool to try to find it all.
Instead of rudely kicking you out of Chromie time it should just warn you that you won’t get any further experience as long as you remain in that mode.
Give us an auto accept quest. “Adventurer! This is as powerful as it’s possible for you to be in this time frame. I can bring you back to the present, or you can take this timestone and continue your adventures. Just use the timestone when you’re ready to be brought back. (Selecting to remain in your current timewalking phase will lock your experience until you return to the present.)”
Boom, now the player can keep playing, they have an easy port back to the present-day capital when they’re ready to be finished, and Blizzard doesn’t have to worry about anyone getting half a level they didn’t “earn” in current content.
For anyone not sure exactly what we’re talking about, here’s an example of what does happen the moment you ding 50 - image included.
It’s pretty clear that Chromie Time just ending with no recourse is an extremely jarring experience that doesn’t make sense in the context of what it was meant to achieve. I’d be amazed they they didn’t allow you to lock xp and return to it.
Agreed.
The problem is that this is that this is a change made in recent builds to not allow XP locks. When we started this feedback a month ago, the game didn’t lock you out of Chromie Time when freezing XP… so after clearly seeing the feedback on the feature their answer was to take away our ability to do so since the majority of us in the thread agreed we’d probably end up XP locking at 49.
Seems like too much to be a coincidence that the only update that’s been made is to specifically cut us off from the solution we’d come to.
I dont understand what possible gain there could be to stop this from happening… if it weren’t Blizzard I’d be completely sure it’s not going live that way.
Right? It’s just stupid with no logical reason not to let us lock xp and 50 and stay in a certain xpac.
Now you can stay out of Chromie Time and lock the xp but only one xpac scales over 45. The ones I’m xpacs I would like to lock a character in TBC and WotLK both cap at 30, and WoD caps at 40 outside of Chromie Time.
They need to fix this so we can lock xp at 50 and remain in the xpacs scaled to 50.
At the very least, we can lock XP at the endgame on an xpac, even if (for example) it means stopping at level 30 so you can play Burning Crusade.
Whoops, I thought of something that could be fun. Expect Blizzard to detect it, and put a stop to it… (grumble grumble)
Yeah at least there is that and that’s what I’ll do if it doesn’t change. At least we can still mog anything Vanilla to BFA at level 10.
I don’t understand what the fear about chromie time is. Are you like super powerful in legacy content when you are in Chromie time or something?
So is chromie time sorta like hammer time with a gnome?
As far as I understand, it’s exactly the same as leveling in Legion and BfA. The mobs scale to your level. If it’s a minion, it’s one or more levels below you. If it’s a normal mob, it’s your level. If it’s an elite, it’s one or more levels above you.
It makes sense if they want to guarantee players are pushed into current content. In fact, that’s the ONLY way this decision makes sense. Which doesn’t bode well for Shadowlands.
Totally agree. And what gets me is this character and others will go into Shadowlands. Any new characters I start now will probably see delete before they see SL.
Taking away my option to play through legacy content from start to finish is killing what little SL hype I had. Chromie time and character customizations were the selling points for me, and now Chromie time is turning out to be far and away from what they claimed it would be at Blizzcon, while Pandaren customizations are basically “you can pick your beard and mustache separately now.” So, disappointment all around.
While of course I was looking forward to the new stuff coming with a new xpac. Chromie Time was/is something I really couldn’t wait for. It seemed perfect when I needed that break from current content but still wanted to play WoW.