I cant wait to level in classic. The joys i love are all the useful things you can use along the way. Sharpening stones, elixirs (even +4 str or something seems like alot) bandages and everything else. Super excited for those little yet meaningful buffs.
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I’m excited for meaningful Blue items that can last you 10 levels.
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Leveling is a whole hell of a lot more fun when the world is dangerous. It makes the rewards and buffs more fulfilling to obtain because you need them to survive, and by extension farming for gear, mats, and consumables is actually rewarding.
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I remember that westfall chestpiece and emberstone staff lasting ages, even longer than 10 levels. Or the gnomer helm. Dungeon gear was so exciting back then, you were never dissapointed if you got an upgrade while leveling, wishing it was titanforged or something. Not to mention lasting 10 levels meant lasting days or weeks, not just… a day.
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The title of this thread reminded me of something that was a huge part of leveling - getting a random drop of something you couldn’t even equip for a few levels. I remember how much anticipation that built as I worked through the experience bar however many times it took until that moment I could swap in that upgrade. Sometimes it was a dungeon drop, sometimes it was a world drop, sometimes it was crafted, but it was often something that we wouldn’t replace for many levels.
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Exactly, they weren’t so easily replaced, which made earning them a lot more special. Especially the quest line for Whirlwind Axe, basically a huge level 30 milestone for any aspiring Warrior.
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My favorite thing about leveling was just meeting players in random places and helping eachother out, like it’s something you did naturally because it was kind of fun just meeting another player out in the sticks.
And then, seeing them later when you’ve both leveled up and you’re in Scholo or something together.
Seeing others progress alongside you over time in a consistent, predictable way is really nice for some reason, you’re not just seeing random people from other servers you’ll probably never meet again, but the same guys you’ve been doing dungeon PUGs with off an on with, and crossing paths in zones with for weeks.
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I never liked leveling. The first mainstream MMO (ultima online) had no levels and it is still up and running to this day. Levels came from the Everquest players that worked on original WoW. I’ve always found them to be a nuisance hoop to jump through the exist merely to extend time played.
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Not numerical levels as a description of your character. But it does have skill levels. I could use your same argument to say that killing 100+ skeletons to increase your mace fighting skill is:
Which is comparable to weapon proficiency in WoW aside from the fact that it caps based on your character level.
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WoW was my first MMO and I was very timid about joining groups to do dungeons, but as soon as I figured out about “of the monkey” gear on the AH I had my progression plan figured out. Every few levels I bought a new set and I was ready to venture out into the wilds again. In the days before transmog this was fun because I always matched and I was getting new looks regularly.
Leveling was arduous and lengthy. There were not enough quests to get you to 60. Lots of grinding and farming mobs. The last few levels were just killing undead mobs in eastern plaguelands.
But I miss the joy of “dinging”. Every level was a celebration, it was a big deal. And leveling herbs and mining as I went, had to advance the skill enough before you left a zone or you could not gather in the next zone.
It will be so good to just take my time and enjoy the trip.
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I hate leveling. I hated it in vanilla and I hate it now.
There were other things along the way that weren’t so bad, but the actual process itself I’ve never liked.
Not the same at all. No areas in UO ever became obsolete due to out leveling. NO pre-defined classes with abilities time gates behind levels. You gotto choose 7 skills and make anything you could dream up. And all the while you had no skills gated behind arbitrary levels.
Questing in Vanilla was the most fun I’ve ever had in a video game.
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Sure, but your abilities ARE gated behind your individual skill levels. UO is definitely more flexible in class choice (or lack thereof). But to pretend that UO doesn’t have abilities gated behind skill levels is flat out wrong. You can’t cast Flamestrike until 67 Magery much the same as you can’t cast Fire Blast in WoW until level 14.
Similar, but different of course - they are both representations of your character’s progress/capabilities.
Any form of skill level is arbitrary. But so is everything else in a game. Arbitrary rules add layers and make things more interesting but that’s dependent on personal perspective.
I don’t disagree with most of that. But in UO magery had a few spells gated but most other skills did not (melee for example). You started from scratch being what you wanted and simply got better at it over time. I found that system in the completely open sandbox world far more engaging that the arbitrary theme park leveling zones of other MMOs.
This is what I get for not invoking a #NotAll.
Totally not a fan of redundant (consumable) content setups aside from storytelling. I never really liked theme parks because they excluded me from rides as a child for being too short. (lol)
If you can’t wait 6 months for WoW and you’re hungry for a UO type game I would recommend checking out Legends of Aria. I haven’t given it a crack yet because the steam release has been delayed due to various issues, but you can still get the DRM free version on their site.
Bad reviews on steam would very much damage their profit. Some release their garbage state game and expect everyone to be okay with it just because its “Early Access”. But that just brings you to respect when people practice restraint. /rant over
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I’m just glad to have the old quests and zones back. The Cata revamp wrecked leveling for me.
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My favorite part of leveling is running dungeons with people from your server. If you were friendly you might even add them to your friends list and run another dungeon with them later.
Not to mention Vanilla dungeons were pretty challenging, had huge exp quests, and dropped really strong items.
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Your out questing in your 40’s and you go to loot the mob you just killed. You click to loot and see the color purple… What do you do?! Frantically you loot the item before you even look at it. Its a BoE epic world drop. You determine that you can use it for your character but the proposition of selling on the AH and gaining money towards your epic mount is also a nice prospect… What do you do?! Do you equip it or sell it?!
#vanillaproblems
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This was one of my most memorable moments from Vanilla. I was lucky enough to get a Bloodrazor off of a wolf in the Hinterlands. I was leveling as combat swords so I really though about equipping it. In the end I sold it and had the gold for a epic mount the moment I dinged 60.
I bet there are a ton of people with stories just like that one. Extremely powerful items randomly dropping in the world was such a cool thing. Hell who doesn’t remember the dwarf warrior on the WoW box with a Teebu’s Blazing Longsword? What a devious little tease that was.
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