Level squish, or expansion levels?

Community General Discussion
1

So, with the discussion of the level squish still ongoing, and with Ion discussing it in the Q&A like he did, it seems like a level squish will happen.

But I don’t like the idea of a level squish. I worked for those levels and I dont want to lose them. So I propose expansion levels.

Essentially, everyone would do 1-70 (hear me out) then they would hop to ANY expansion and level 1-10 expansion levels (separate exp bar). No need to slog through BC for the millionth time, no need to set foot on draenor if you don’t want to. I feel like 1-70 is a good number because we currently have 7 tiers of talents. That’s one talent every 10 levels.

I feel like this would streamline leveling, and allow the devs to focus on creating awesome current content that flows well, and not have to worry about going back and making the leveling experience “better.” Leave the experience alone, and allow people to experience it if and when they’d like. This would also help with the legacy server ideas. Each expansion could be kept as current content for people to go back and play as though it were current content. Each raids armor bonus/ abilities would have to be locked to that specific expansion (ie only works in certain zones), but that is very doable.

But what about xmog runs and farming old content? Im glad you asked. With the addition of the portal rooms taking you to one point in each expansion, it would be simple to add a legacy NPC at each expansions portal exit (a bronze dragon, of course). Once an expansion becomes old content, toons would get a legacy buff increasing dmg done by 1000% (or whatever) and reducing dmg taken by 90% (or whatever). The legacy NPC would allow you to turn this debuff off at will to experience old content. [I personally like the idea of the buff only being available once you hit level 10 for the expansion, but I realize that would probably be an unpopular opinion.]

I think this would solve almost every issue most players have right now regarding both leveling and nostalgia. You would be able to level from 1-70 and then play the game wherever you’d like. You can have BC guilds that run only BC conent. Need a warlock to round out your raid comp? You can jump right to the current expansion after hitting level 70.

There are obviously some things I haven’t considered, but i feel like, overall, this system allows for much more accessibility for new players, and removes the hassle of legacy servers in the future, as well as preserving classic as a separate thing all together.

1 Like
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While I understand most of this comes from a place of feeling.

I don’t think it comes from a place of reason.

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That’s not constructive feedback. In what way is it unreasonable?

Thanks.

1 Like
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You won’t be losing levels via a level squish. Ever heard of equivalent fractions? Think of it like that. Your old 120 would be the same thing as a new 60 if they squished levels by a factor of two.

I don’t understand where the gripes concerning ilvl, damage and character level squishes are coming from. Does everyone really have such a hollow sense of character progression that rides on seeing bigger and bigger numbers or am I just an insane outlier?

4 Likes
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. (ten char)

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With the addition of scaled world mobs, the leveling system is pretty universal at this point. The only really new thing im proposing is the legacy NPC.

Again, saying it’s psycho is not constructive feedback. Details would be nice, if you could.

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. (ten char)

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^ You just had to edit in some passive-aggression, didn’t you lol

3 Likes
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bad idea

your post is like beastbash said a bunch of ‘because i feel like im losing something’ and not actual reason

it’s all % and fraction

1-60 is a much more digestible and approachable grind
the values will be similar

i personally have NEVER looked at my level in any xpac and thought to myself
“level 120 SPECIFICALLY ah yes it feels good!” general mentality is, it’s endgame or leveling to get to endgame
the number doesnt mean anything

i think for a vast majority of dedicated players that number is meaningless

2 Likes
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Im not sure what you mean by attach to you. I also don’t understand how leveling 10 levels through each expansion is never leveling again, but I guess trolls will be trolls.

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I agree. Whether we were trying to get 5 more levels for end content (Cata) or 10 it is merely a number to be satisfied to reach the top level.

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I think the amount of people complaining about the leveling grind supports the opposite of that. Just for the record, I enjoy leveling; I hit max and do endgame on one toon, and just level others for fun through the rest of the expansion.

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In what way? That’s an incredibly confusing leap there.

You’re saying im not making sense, but you are in no way defending your points. I’ll admit my idea is bad if you can give good reasons for it, but you’ve not given a single reason other than its based on “feeling.”

Constructive feedback would be nice.

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. (ten char)

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Thanks for the feedback. Maybe next time you can be a little more constructive.

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. (ten char)

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I feel for this to work, it would have had to have been set up right at the start as the idea for wow.
Its a bit complicated, for what i think the entire reason for a level squish is.

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I don’t think it’s so much the number that’s the issue as it is a bad feeling when blizz takes something away (whether it’s real or perceived).

The massive complaints at the beginning of BfA for the stat squash (even though it was WELL publicized, and was almost literally blizz moving a decimal place) is an example of a recent perceived loss. And then when you hit 120 and, all of a sudden, 3 mobs would murder you when at 119 you could kill 6 without breaking a sweat would be an example of an actual loss.

My point is that, when your talking about the playability of a game, reality ultimately matters less then the perception. If it feels bad it’s not fun, and I play WoW for fun.

20

Just say NO to level squish !

I think we should spread spec’s over the levels. 30 levels should cover one spec, and seriously , we’ve had our fill of some pally dps who’s never played tank in his life suddenly being in possession of a 120 tank, havn’t we ?

This would open the door to adding new specs to classes, maybe having to earn them the way we earn allied races. How about a Warlock that can summon skeletons ? Or an army of imps instead of just one and a couple of temporaries ? How about a paladin with a few summoned soldiers at his command (ie: like a death knight with it’s army of undead)

More specs, and let people learn them in any order they like. Except maybe the first one…always make that one the easiest on newbies.

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I agree, but a level squish is a temporary solution; a bandaid. If WoW is going to keep going for a while, I feel like a redesign (much like the technical rework they’ve done in bfa) is necessary. It seems like this type of rework would solve more issues long term compared to the difficulty of creating the system.