Thanks for this. That was a lot to write but the info is appreciated.
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GW2 and FFXIV both force you to grind levels between main story quests that push the plot forward. It’s probably taking inspiration from games like those - meaning it’s totally intentional.
I hate it though. If there’s a main story, I want to see the main story, not some side garbage literally no one cares about - and let’s be honest, this is WoW, there will NOT be sidequests with meaningful story, it’ll be like how the main story in Tiragarde ends like 25% through the zone and then you go help rando hunters and stuff kill animals if you want the zone completion achievement.
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I don’t know when you leveled thru 50-60 last, but I’ve done it close to a dozen times, the most recent last week, and if you have WM off you will not hit the lvl 53 gate in Bastion with only campaign quests. With WM on, it’s hit and miss, depending on how many mobs you’ve killed or how much you’ve gathered. you might hit it in time, or you might miss it by a little bit. Most people will need to do a handful of side quests.
Myself, I have never hit the blocks in either Maldraxxus or Ardenweald, that’s why I said I wasn’t sure where they are now, but I know they do exist, from reports on the beta threads that have been following this issue for months.
As of my last run through, I found that doing a little bit of side quests in Bastion got me out of there quickly, Campaign only was fine thru Maldraxxus, then I did many side quests in Ardenweald, so I came in to Revendreth at 59. Easily on my way to 60 before the break-point.
For my taste, I don’t like going out of my way to find side quests, and really none turn up organically in Maldraxxus. You have to go hunt them down.
In Ardenweald they are right in your face, easy to pick up and often very close to where you are doing Campaign quests anyway.
Bastion is a mixed bag, some are right there some are all over the place.
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I leveled 3 times before the nerf, once during the nerf (that was awful), once after they reverted the nerf, and twice after they adjusted the xp for levels and kills again. Never really had an issue in bastion (i don’t play with WM on at all), I didn’t do JUST campaign since a lot of sidequests are right there anyway, but it was pretty easy.
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Before the blanket 30% nerf no one was having any problem reaching level 60. Then Ion told us that powerlevelers were leveling up too fast, and they would do some “tuning” to leveling.
The fact is a lot of work had gone into balancing everything so you actually could have leveled up by just doing campaign quests. After that nerf it was no longer possible, and reworking the system was apparently not part of their plans.
People who don’t make it to 60 are not going to say, “Oh. Guess I’ll reroll.”
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Again, I just leveled 50-60 for the last time last week. The 53 block in Bastion is gonna hit people, especially anyone with WM off and skipping side quests.
I am confident we will see threads about this in the first week.
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Very informative. Thanks for the heads up!
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SL leveling sounds like a convoluted pain to me.
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We hit that quota back in BFA season 1.
Not at all. it’s really very similar to leveling before, with just a couple exceptions.
Many people, especially those who tend to do all the quests, will not even notice.
Those, like me, who are looking for that straight line from A to B are the ones who would get caught up.
Sounds like FFXIV leveling for me, although FFXIV make up for it by introducing the solo dungeon/trust system, let’s see if they upped the XP gain in following months
I see quest.
I do quest.
I’m very rarely underlevel.
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So I’m good then since I’ll do every quest I come across anyways.
I didn’t think people didn’t do side quests, I thought most players just downloaded AAP and shut up and did what they were told 
Do you have to do side quests to get pt.1 pathfinder?
I always did everything I could while leveling anyway, so normal procedure for me.
Sounds like how we had to level back in the day with green grey quests…Now get off my lawn!
not all hero’s wear capes!!!
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I encountered this one last night in beta.
I plowed through all of Ardenweald in one sitting because I wanted to get to the quests involving “the Wildseed” (last 2 story points), only to hit the level wall at midnight, and going to bed pissed off because I had to go out of my way to grind 75% of a level doing stuff I couldn’t care less about.
I think that the “on-rails” leveling experience is great, but given that you need to complete the campaign to actually unlock the endgame content, I see no point whatsoever for the whole thing to not be tuned to get you to 60 by the time you’re done, and then leave those sidequests available for those that seek rep or simply want to do them.
But more than anything else, the feeling of not being able to progress is terrible and should be avoided IMHO.
My 2c.
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Awesome post.
I read every word!
#boxingischeating
#endmultiboxing
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Are the Dungeons required to move to the next zone?