While I get that Blizzard would like an easier transition from Classic to Shadowlands, it just seems a bit…underwhelming. Reaching level 120 felt much more rewarding, having seen through every campaign from WOTLK to BFA. Level 130 would feel a bit more like an accomplishment. On the other hand, there may have been a discussion regarding that I’ve missed.
Squishing item levels is one can of void worms, but squashing character levels…I’m not so thrilled. Is it just me? (shrug)
Convenience I would say. If you just keep increasing the levels you have to add things (abilities/etc) there to fill them out. Squishing the levels back down to a more manageable number makes things easier to balance and makes the existing leveling boosts fill out better, if that makes sense.
Giant numbers vs small numbers, it’s that simple.
because the more the levels get bloated, the less each individual level really matters.
back in vanilla and even through wrath each level you gained actually felt like it mattered, going from 70-71 or 84-85 just FELT good, about as good as going from 110-120 feels now… so if level bloat has made it so 10 levels of progression feels about as impactful as gaining 1 or 2 levels did back in the day… why not squish em and bring back that feeling of meaningful progress.
To new players leveling to what would eventually be like lv. 200 isn’t so appealing for the kind of game WoW is. Stuff has to be simplified and they’re doing it now. Also Blizzard isn’t spicing up the leveling experience beyond Exile’s Reach by the looks of it, so the sooner one gets to the endgame, the better at this rate.
man there’s a LOT of bloat in the leveling process as it is right now, it’s necessary
As I’ve said before I’d be fine if they got rid of levels altogether. But I know it’s part of an rpg experience.
It’s too make the Kul tirans think they lost weight
Because leveling alts started becoming an nightmare to slog through yet another expansion. Squishing every thing and letting all content become available to level in from 10 to 50 is absolutely a very good idea.
It gives people many more options instead of the boring old world slog from 1 to 60, Outland or Wrath from 58 to 70… so on and so forth.
I think this change is absolutely awesome, can’t wait for it.
It’s this.
They’ve basically said as much.
Either way, I’ll be venturing there. Make no mistake about it. The upcoming story looks promising, as does every expansion. It was just the level compression that had me curious. Thanks for filling me in. (And thank you, truly, for keeping it civil!) 
I think it’s because Blizzard is finally realizing that people don’t really play their game for…well, the game, I suppose. People are less focused about the journey to level 60, and more about what happens when they get there. Additionally, the amount of content you have to wade through to get to that point is kind of daunting. I’ve personally had troubles getting a character past level 40 when I realize I still have 4-5 expansions to tread through before I can reach the endgame. Making it so that you can visit one expansion and then hit endgame is much easier to swallow.
I also think it gives the player an absurd amount of freedom, which I think is important. I can say with confidence that I will never level in another Cataclysm zone (both revamped and new zones) ever again when given the choice.
I would also say what you find rewarding is subjective. Many people don’t find slogging through 120 levels, many of which you aren’t gaining core abilities/talents, to be rewarding if you have nothing to show for it besides a number.
Not really? It felt about the same as now. The only level that has ever really mattered is whatever the level cap was at the time.
Too many dead levels. Not just the levels between 1-100 where you don’t get anything but a level and some stats, but everything after 100.
Look, 100 is basically the end of character progression - no more talents, no more abilities, just stat increases, and a whole lot of borrowed progression systems that are no longer in place.
100-110 was Artifact Power. In addition to leveling, we were gaining power for our artifacts, which was the real focus of that expansion. That’s gone, and there’s nothing to look forward to. Legion’s been reduced to ‘get to 110 and move to BFA ASAP.’
110-120 was Azerite Power. Level up the necklace, gain more options on Azerite Armor. That’s going to be gone, and then there’s nothing to look forward to. Battle for Azeroth has been reduced to ‘get to 120 and push off to Shadowlands ASAP.’
Yeah, when you consider that, it shouldn’t be a surprise there’s going to be a level squish.
Such a slog, that can be easily completed in about two days, versus the five days it took to get to level 60.
In theory.
Scaling the entire world has been a nightmare of brokenness.
From unbalanced mobs in WoD, to the feeling of losing power with each level (no talent, mobs scale but your gear doesn’t until you can complete a more quests, etc.).
If all they do is scale xp and nothing else it will feel pretty terrible to level.
when was the last time you saw someone “ding” in guild chat? remember how that used to be a thing? notice how no one bothers anymore… that right there says everything about how individual levels used to matter a lot more than they do now.
yeah, it’ll probably end up the same timeframe to max level regardless.
Im not hung up on the numbers so much as the leveling time for new characters.
Im loving the idea of coming off the wandering Isle straight into Pandaria. Never has made sense that a pandaren has to wait until level 80 to go back home, lol.
I have seen quite a few sides to the level squish, as far as the different perspectives about it.
Mine is I like the idea that each level feels more rewarding to earn rather than just getting to max level being the only rewarding feeling, if not just main one. I like leveling new characters at first since I unlock new spells, abilities, and how they change how I approach battles and the world. However after a while I start losing that feeling of progression when spells and such are fewer, and/or take longer to obtain.
While I wouldn’t mind myself leveling to 120, 130, or even 200, I want each level to offer something new, be it a spell, ability, or even something such as the next mount speed upgrade so that each level feels like I am still growing than just stats alone. However, the problem I have experienced is that come later in the leveling journey, getting to the next level takes more time, and quest, dungeons and such don’t offer as much xp as the previous level did. To which the same amount it would fill the experience bar so to speak.
That and I imagine a new player would find leveling to 60 rather than 120 would feel more comforting. In a sense that one would not feel as far behind so to speak. Not everyone would feel as such, but some do as I have seen and myself included actually when I look at other MMO games to be honest.
Leveling can be quick depending on how you go about it but the problem to me is that the journey should be more enjoyable than the destination, in this case current end game of BFA. Everyone has a different perspective on what is more enjoyable however, and to me its not end game, its the journey down the road to it.