New player intro to the game and perception

[Rancid-medivh]

hi . just some background to get the entire scope.

i have an account with several aotc toons and several 3k plus IO toons. i have had that account for 20ish years. lots of stuff and pretty semi-hardcore bordering what i would call casual hardcore. pushing 14s in pugs is no joke.

that is me in a small brief statement as reference to my world of warcraft story.

fast forward (sort of) to friday 11 july 2025. i decided to do something. an experiment of sorts. i made a brand new acount. not linked to my original bnet at all. this account is RAW! the character im posting on is one of the 2 characters i have gotten to level 80 so far.

so i had to make some decisions. what was i going to play? i decided to stick with what i knew would make me happy. a death knight and a demon hunter. anyone care to guess what is wrong with this for a new player? you got it. you have to level a character to level 10 before you can access either of those. so i did. a druid. then made both. now i took advantage of knowing i did not personally need to level to 70 on either so i bought the boosts and a token. so far i am around $200 invested. for me that feels terrible for a new player. i know it isnt necessary but still.

on a positive note. i got both to 80 within 24 hours of making them from 70. i made some mistakes along the way and we will get into that.

now-there is a newcomer chat. you cant leave the chat until you meet some requirements. i have no idea what they are but there are people in that chat with a title of guide. these folks are basic knowledge points at best. they tend to google the question then copy and paste the answer into chat. then the one time the person didnt do that they gave out very false information and i was compelled to intervene. (can i be allowed to get out of this chat please? lol)

mistakes i made. i got lazy and stayed in dungeon finder to level for a lot of my time 75–80. this was a massive mistake. i wish i didnt. the reason why is because i did not realize that i had to do the ENTIRE war within campaign to unlock Undermine. completely forgot. thats terrible. so then i completely forgot you have to do the ENTIRE war within campaign to unlock all of the delves. which is weird because i got the D.I.S.C. belt right away. my opinion is if i cant do a t8 delve until i do the campaign then that should apply to the belt also.

now for the fun stuff. i play this game specifically for mythic plus. its what makes me happy and enjoy WoW. looking back if you made it this far you will remember i am over 3k io. so i tried to get in a +2 with 622 ilvl. got denied immediately multiple times. its interesting because at the end of season 1 you could be doing all the mythic plus dungeons with 620 no problem. I get it though. we got so many avenues for gearing that no one should really be under 640. except i went into LFR and did that. i didnt say anything there but it is pretty interesting to see 20 people rolling need on something in lfr still. i think i got a couple of bosses to do in lfr but 6/8 lfr and got absolutely nothing.

now for timewalking and dungeon leveling. that did not and does not feel good at all for a new player. you get scaled and a tank that just pulls everything to the boss including the boss with one or 2 dps lagging behind can not be fun for a new person. it didnt bother me because i expected it but thats different. i am not saying slow the dungeon down but scaling clearly needs to be addressed.

arathi-pretty cool event. every hour you get to do it. i did not do the quests yet because i want to get the campaign done but i did get roughly 10 ilvl just from one run. that was pretty cool.

i have not done any of the other events yet. focused on the campaign still.

all this to say this as my final statement.

wow is fun. even for a new player. there are some pain points and maybe they can be addressed. including the campaign requirements.

(side note-no i wont be paying for 2 subscriptions but i think this new account is turning out to be more fun and probably going to stick with it. i hope to see you in game and chat in the future. have a good day gamers!)

[Sabbia-moonrunner (Sabbia)]

Not really understanding the point of this post since you already said you weren’t a new player. When people mention the “new player experience,” they generally aren’t referencing people with years of experience under their belt lol.

[Rabititus-shuhalo (Rabititus)]

@Rancid-medivh

now i took advantage of knowing i did not personally need to level to 70 on either so i bought the boosts and a token. so far i am around $200 invested. for me that feels terrible for a new player.

A “new player” would still be falling in love with Azeroth, and probably wouldn’t buy either. The “wow” of a new player is something lost on veterans of the game, it was so very long ago. But I do remember wandering aimlessly quite often just looking at the world, end game wasn’t even a thought.

[Rancid-medivh]

@Sabbia-moonrunner

Not really understanding the point of this post since you already said you weren’t a new player. When people mention the “new player experience,” they generally aren’t referencing people with years of experience under their belt lol.

just a conversation. calm down karen

[Sabbia-moonrunner (Sabbia)]

Hate to break it to you but your reaction to that simple comment makes you more of a Karen than I ever could be lol.

[Rancid-medivh]

@Rabititus-shuhalo

@Rancid-medivh

now i took advantage of knowing i did not personally need to level to 70 on either so i bought the boosts and a token. so far i am around $200 invested. for me that feels terrible for a new player.

A “new player” would still be falling in love with Azeroth, and probably wouldn’t buy either. The “wow” of a new player is something lost on veterans of the game, it was so very long ago. But I do remember wandering aimlessly quite often just looking at the world, end game wasn’t even a thought.

yes! i forgot to mention those thoughts. i do think that having a new account is making me appreciate the game more. it is pretty interesting

[Pyrune-illidan]

It’s not so much a new player perspective,

It’s an older player on a new/fresh account lol.

You still know “what to do” as someone that’s played for around two decades.

Actual new players get pretty lost, I’ve seen it.

They’ll go and start the Shadowlands campaign (or an older one like WoD/Legion) and think they’re doing current content and get real confused.

It’s pretty bad for newer players lol. There’s a reason why WoW has a hard time keeping new folks around, and part of it is the story, or rather, lack of a cohesive one, from level one to max. (You’ve got multiple expansions to cover for it to all make sense.)

[Rancid-medivh]

pretty much my point also.

devils advocate- did i click through something instead of reading it though?

[Elk-thaurissan]

I would agree with the general sentiment this is more a ‘fresh account’ experience than a New player experience. There are some unique frustrations but also thrills that a new player experiences that just aren’t the same the second time around.

Thanks for your experiences, looks like you’ve had a fun time. Sticking with those two characters for Season 3?

[Meridyth-proudmoore]

@Rancid-medivh

. i have no idea what they are but there are people in that chat with a title of guide. these folks are basic knowledge points at best. they tend to google the question then copy and paste the answer into chat

I have not once used google for anything other than translating a question from spanish to english.

You can leave by either using /leave # or unchecking it in the chat settings.

I cant speak for other guides, but I try to be as helpful as possible. The people I see also are helpful.

Do you know how many times I have said “Target and then type /wave while you have chat open. Just /wave. Forward slash wave.”

[Forgotpants-area-52]

It baffles me as someone who has played this game that you would not only buy one boost but two. The time it takes to go from 1-80 is very minimal now especially 1-70 that’s like no time at all. What in the world

[Elk-thaurissan]

Maybe they have more money than time? or it’s a drop in the bucket for em’.

[Rancid-medivh]

@Forgotpants-area-52

It baffles me as someone who has played this game that you would not only buy one boost but two. The time it takes to go from 1-80 is very minimal now especially 1-70 that’s like no time at all. What in the world

im just not interested in doing it

[Hèrne-moon-guard]

@Rabititus-shuhalo

A “new player” would still be falling in love with Azeroth, and probably wouldn’t buy either. The “wow” of a new player is something lost on veterans of the game, it was so very long ago. But I do remember wandering aimlessly quite often just looking at the world

@Pyrune-illidan

It’s pretty bad for newer players lol. There’s a reason why WoW has a hard time keeping new folks around, and part of it is the story, or rather, lack of a cohesive one, from level one to max. (You’ve got multiple expansions to cover for it to all make sense.)