You realize they could literally just put in a “skip leveling” npc in the game right?
Which would work out better for people who want alts for end game without ruining one of the primary pillars of the game.
Of course, but this will lessen sub numbers if everyone just could skip the game. It’s a live service, after all.
Nobody is advocating to make leveling a slog.
Ive said many times in this thread that leveling should be completely skippable for anybody who wants to skip it.
What we have NOW is a slog. Keeping the current system is keeping the slog. What youre advocating for is a slog.
I think even if that feature wasnt paired with a rework to leveling it would be well recieved…
The annoyance of leveling up alts has always hurt the longevity of WoWs post game content.
Yes leveling is wayyyy off. There are even specs you shouldn’t play while leveling because everything dies far too quickly.
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This is factual wrong. I play spec-only characters and I have done it with every spec in this game.
Play on a Priest or Mage, you will struggle for a long time until you hit your peak levels, where you start to proc.
Veteran players already know how this stuff works–and have the benefit of heirlooms and warband bonuses.
New players actually struggle quite hard past level 30 or so because of several issues. This is common knowledge. Many WoW streamers/youtubers have covered this issue. Also, the lore is an absolute mess for new players, which seems to be as big an issue.
That’s why I think the Lorewalker quests are currently a testing ground for a soft overhaul on how new players will get through the game and to current expansion/season content.
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Play an aff lock in a leveling dungeons. You’ll be at the bottom of the meters because the mobs will live long enough for a single tick of your dots.
I’m talking about gameplay not about lore.
No one wants to spend 2 hours in a leveling dungeon these days.
You guys just really aren’t getting it.
The majority of WoW players have seen this content a dozen times. We don’t need to slog through it again at a snail’s pace.
New players struggle for these reasons:
confusing lore
huge gaps in appropriate gear upgrades begin to make many classes/new players struggle post level 30 or so
no one running old content/wait time for leveling dungeons is very high for DPS, aka what most players roll at their level (most players run old content for transmogs)
Economy is borked (no easy fix for this, I just encourage new players to take gathering professions and sell all the mats on the AH)
Lorewalker-style guided questing to get new players some gear and teach them their class and tell them the basics of the story will fix those issues without Blizzard having to overhaul ancient content for a rather small group of players (new players).
No one said anything about spending 2 hours in leveling dungeons. But mobs need to stay up longer because otherwise you can’t play the game.
How long a pack of mobs lives has a Goldilocks zone where it feels just right. Too short and it’s boring and too long and it feels like a training dummy.
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Do veteran players really need that though? Most of us are just trying to get through leveling, the faster the better. <---- this is the part you don’t seem to get. Most players are veterans. Most players do not want leveling to take any longer than it already does. We’ve done it a dozen times.
Again: new players are facing a far different struggle than “stuff dies too fast in dungeons that already take an hour to queue for because most players aren’t doing content a decade + old”
Holy necro.
Anyway, the leveling is fine if you’re not a new player.
But.
If you are a new player, it’s among the worst things this game has to offer. You go from fighting elwynn wolves and boars and learning about the human culture in WoW to flying on a dragon and fighting other dragons and elementals in a strange place with people you’ve never met referring to you as “champion” and “hero.”
You literally don’t even get a horse. Straight to dragonriding.
They need to, at a minimum, force new players to play through the game in order. Atm that horrid leveling is experience leaving noobs confused and uninvested narratively, and a significant amount just quit.
After they make it to 80 on one character (be it with an expansion boost, paid boost, or by actually playing all the way up) give them access to chromie time to skip ahead.
I used to think the quest grind in FF14 was excessive, but I realize now it’s vastly superior to just a person straight into endgame storylines and content. It also helps that new players generally have no concept of a game’s endgame, seasons, or anything and usually aren’t in a rush and take their time.
And if “force new players to experience the game in order” is considered too much, Blizzard should put resources into creating expedited story mode questlines for each expansion or actually revamp the experience (chromie time was not a revamp at all).
And don’t get me started on that new starting area they made a while back. Horrible experience that does next to nothing to inform a new player about the race they chose (literally the first thing you pick alongside class when customizing your character).
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Seems like you don’t get it. Because you can have mobs living longer so you can actually play the game while keeping the time it takes to reach max level the same.
You simply increase the experience gained to keep exp/hr the same.
Never getting an opportunity to learn your class and having the first x hours of your game experience in wow being incredibly boring is a major issue.
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They should just hide old world leveling like an unwanted step child. There is no fixing it and this has been obvious for a long time.
Catching pkayers up to the story also doesnt matter. WoW is really not a story driven game. And any competent writer can make a new expansions story make sense without needing to know all the lore.
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Hence why I think Loremaster guided/linear “main story beat” questing is going to happen for new players. They can get gear, talent points, all the lore in an easy(ier) to understand format, blah blah blah.
Chromie Time can still exist for players who have already hit cap on a character and want to do a “deep dive” into an expansion, or just collect the quest rewards for transmogs/money/whatever.
And yet I keep addressing how they can fix that without screwing over veteran players who have already leveled through this content so many times we don’t need to have our hands held to be “taught” a class or “see the story…again”.
Freaking derp.
For you and the whiny dwarf? Don’t use heirlooms, only use quest rewards, and turn off your exp gains so you can slow-level all you want. Problem fixed. Chromie time exists and so does turning off exp/not using bonus gear.
There is a difference between the game play and how long mobs live and how long it takes to reach max level.
Story driven? No.
But player retention is driven by investment, be it investment in your character, the world, or the story. Having absolutely no clue what’s happening, and having no sense of progression with your character doesn’t build investment in a noob.
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Like I said, don’t use heirlooms, use only quest rewards. You’ll get that new player experience that isn’t very easy at all. Mobs won’t die immediately, and if you pull more than 2 you can be in serious trouble, just like the old days. There ya go.
You can make it difficult by doing these things, but most veteran players don’t want a slog anymore. We’ve done it enough. Faster leveling to get to current and relevant content is how most play this game. You’ll have to cope.
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