This is something that really surprised me while leveling in classic so far. I’ve played the game since vanilla and I honestly can’t remember the last time I was engaged in the leveling process. It must have been in BC or wrath before everything became so streamlined. This isn’t to trash retail. I think several of the changes made over the years have been beneficial but as the level cap has been increased the focus of leveling switched to speed and smoothness which took something out of the experience.
In retail you get a lot of your core abilities from the beginning. The combat is more complicated but you also have virtually no challenge during fights, even with BOAs. With BOAs, leveling is trivial. There is nothing to worry about or manage. In classic, you can easily go OOM while fighting and if you happen to get too many resists/misses/dodges/parries you can be in trouble fighting one mob. If you happen to engage two mobs below full health and mana, you very well may die. It’s something that has been missing from the game for a long time. You actually have to consider what you’re doing while leveling. So even though you may only have 2 spells, there is a huge challenge in figuring out how to approach fights that is totally absent from retail WoW.
Ironically, all of the quality of life changes made to WoW over the years have made the leveling process much worse, in my opinion. You no longer have the experience of being that lowly adventurer stepping out into the world: a world that feels dangerous. You don’t have to think about anything other than which zone you’re going to destroy next. You’re on auto pilot. But just playing from 1-10 in classic, I was really amazed by how many times I had to stop and think. Like, is it worth it to make the long trip to Orgrimmar to train skinning?
That is no longer a part of leveling in retail. You just breeze through everything until you’re max level and you choose to do mythic + or hardcore raiding.
Sorry but it is the same it’s always been. Yes it is fun to see folks out and about and see actual chat about quests and helpful tips in the chat but it’s the same leveling process. Take off the rose colored glasses.
I’ve leveled through the content about 15 times now. I want it to go fast. When I played back in BC and Wrath, before the world changed, I wanted that to go fast too. Same poop, different stink.
I’ll be honest, I immediately remembered why I loathed leveling in earlier WoW. Every time I see someone else, I feel a strong wave of irritation and disgust. And that magnifies if they’re on the same quest as me because then I’m fighting for mob tags. And if the quest requires drops from mobs, I don’t want to invite them to a party because it’ll take twice as long for me to complete the quest because you only loot every other.
For a game focused around community and seeing other players, I want to be left alone even more than in Live because I hate fighting for mob tags.
Could barely make it past level 10 in classic. I don’t really find it fun having my spells being randomly resisted and having to sit around drinking so I can cast 1 of my 3 different bolt spells that don’t actually interact much with anything else besides doing damage. It’s perfect timing that Classic came out so soon because I recently leveled this mage and the experience is still fresh in my mind and I was hooked immediately and played around 9 hours before I put it down in retail.
I was almost falling asleep in classic. Things taking a long time to kill and hitting hard doesn’t make them hard it just makes them tedious. I wasn’t having an interesting combat experience, I was literally just pressing fire ball until it was dead and going oom and then repeating.
Oh lordie really? Yes the spells and when you get them is different but the overall experience is the same. I went over and gave it a go and it was fun to experience it but the end results are the same.
Leveling is meh imo. Im just glad i get to be in the old world zones again. Missed that place be relevant in retail.
The fact that there is no shared tagging of mobs in classic sucks so very hard. Yes it was like that but that part makes leveling ugh.
If i culd boost classic to 60, i wuld. No questions asked. I care only to see the endgame coz i missed out on that.
I made it to level 8 on a dwarf priest. It is more engaging but there are some super frustrating aspects as well. I personally hate being oom constantly. I wish they could retain the difficulty while not making mana so limiting.
It’s such a problem in fact that several caster specs are not “viable” end game due to being out of mana all the time. Meh.
Do you realize that expac leveling is very different?
You all start from the same ground from level 1 in classic.
However in retail, when new expac is released, some of you start from mythic gear of previous expac, some of you start from greens from quests only. And not to mention you have a bunch of abilities available.
The item level difference is so huge that how do you balance the “engaging” factor?
Personally I don’t know how the heck I managed to get through playing for so long with mob tagging being in the game. Being in competition with other players for mobs and items sucks a lot. I hate grouping as well, because then I can no longer go at my own pace.
Yes it was like that but that part makes leveling ugh.