Retail didn’t have half a year dedicated to level up phases. The content also wasn’t going anywhere once BC started - you could still finish leveling your characters, and in fact it was easier to take your characters into the expansion since you could go to Outland at 58 rather than having to be 60.
On top of that, if you missed out on BFD when it was current content, you will likely not be able to experience the sense of playing it when it was end-game content. I can see this hitting Sunken Temple moderately hard as I can’t imagine a lot of people are going to want to do Sunken Temple in phase 4. Granted, people will still need the crafting materials for the shoulder enchants which I assume will still be relevant in phase 4, but there aren’t going to be “Sunken Temple guilds” the way some guilds were stuck in Molten Core even when Blackwing Lair was released.
The only raid that people really missed out on in any major way was Naxxramas… which Blizzard recognized and re-released the entire raid in a later expansion to make up for it. Unless we get SoD fresh it’s likely that if you miss a raid you simply missed out on experiencing it in its end-game form.
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The fact that there are level up phases is even more reason leveling shouldn’t be shortened.
How is that?
When I played Vanilla WoW back in the day, by the time they released Battlegrounds, which is about a month from now, I had three level sixty characters (Rogue Lock and Shaman, not that it matters to my point).
Right now, I have zero level sixty characters because of these level-up caps. It would be basically impossible to alt if leveling speed wasn’t hastened given the amount of time you would spend doing raids. The tension has been eased a little bit this phase now that we’re on a 7 day lock-out, but the leveling span has gotten even longer, and 40-50 is a dead stretch of content.
I agree 100% with you, OP. The leveling process is the journey of an MMO. Remember the magical word of… DING! RIP to that cuz now nobody cares. Oh you got your mount from farming incursions? Nice, nobody cares.
P3 has nuked the entire reward system for classic and adding Incursions was the worst thing they could have done. 
BTW - I’m a dad, I have kids. I have limited time to play. That said, I will never be an advocate for this version and the enormous XP buffs, alt friendly, raid logging style; regardless of how busy I am.
If you’re on the other side of the fence, why play classic when this version of wow already exists?
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Because it is seasonal realm, which gets deleted at some point? Go back you vanilla if you don’t like it.
The Blackwater Raiders have moved into Gnomeregan.
Next phase all new characters start in Mekgineer Thermaplugg’s room where they can press red buttons for levels and loot.
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The level button malfunctions and sometimes reduces your level back 1-5 levels (never below 1)
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Loot button drops boe items from the ceiling and is completely randomized.
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A new engineer portal has been built at Ratchet.
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There is a Blackwater Raiders Auction House and Bank in the room and a engineer portal that randomly sends you to Stranglethorn Vale, Winterspring, Tanaris or the Barrens engineering portals.
Happy gambling goblins!!
I’m with you. But the old model may not make them as much money. And ultimately that’s what all this is about.
I always have the feeling that no matter how many XP boosts or buffs they throw at me, I am just more further behind than last time. 
Where do people get all that time from, to play video games all day? Does nobody work, raise a family, visit friends? 
I miss the days, when I could come back to a MMO two - three months later and the game was still the same and my char still powerful.
Nowadays it´s a race against the clock and I don´t like it. We have to slow down gaming, else there will be no future for it, as people burn out.
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Thing is, I’m not here for any money, so I’m out 
dual specs now, boosted leveling, both factions have other faction abilities, rune abilties that add crazy retail abilities…we was retail at the start of phase 2
What part of SEASONAL do you not understand? SEASON of Discovery. This is all going away in 18 months. Seasonal as a game mode means everything gets reset eventually.
Leveling quickly is not an issue in this game mode, nor is it making the game retail. There are more important aspects of gameplay to focus on in SoD.
The problem for me is: I didn’t want SOD to be anything like the retail version of World of Warcraft. KEEP CLASSIC LIKE CLASSIC. This phase now caters to the fast-paced retail audience.
Should this game be catered to the classic audience or the retail audience? 
I just asked Chatgpt what the differences are between classic and retail WoW.
Straight from Chatgpt:
Gameplay and Design Philosophy:
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Classic WoW:
- Difficulty: Generally more challenging and slower-paced.
- Leveling: Slower leveling process that requires more time and effort.
- Questing: More tedious and less streamlined; often requires more travel and exploration.
- Community: Strong emphasis on community and player interactions due to mechanics that encourage grouping and cooperation.
- Talents: Older talent system that allows for more customizability but also presents potential for imbalances.
- Raid and Dungeon Design: More traditional in terms of encounter design and strategy; often more focused on managing resources.
- Loot: Loot systems are more static, and there is no Personal Loot; Master Looting is available.
- PvP: World PvP and battlegrounds are more prominent, with specific ranking systems and goals.
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Retail WoW:
- Difficulty: More accessible and streamlined for modern audiences, with difficulty options for dungeons and raids.
- Leveling: Faster leveling experience, with boosts available; more narrative-driven questing.
- Questing: Streamlined questing paths, with a focus on story progression and world-building.
- Community: Less focus on community-driven aspects due to systems like Dungeon Finder and Group Finder.
- Talents: Simplified talent system with a focus on specialized builds.
- Raid and Dungeon Design: More complex and mechanics-driven encounters with different difficulty levels (e.g., Normal, Heroic, Mythic).
- Loot: Personal Loot is the standard, and there are various systems to accommodate different playstyles.
- PvP: More structured PvP with various modes, rankings, and rewards; less emphasis on world PvP.
with layering and megaservers, the classic community is pointless. AI missed that mark
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Yeah but SOD is still leagues above in the community category than retail. There is ZERO community and extra layering/phasing in retail.
Minimal effort? What about the classic andys crying the bosses were too difficult, complaining of too many mechanics, is it too much to ask them to put in the effort and i dunno… GIT GUD? A lot of the player in SoD, just don’t like leveling and probably never cared about it.
Well this isn’t era and a lot of us on SoD don’t care about the leveling journey, we’ve all done and it sucked… speeding it up was by far and away the best thing they ever did for the leveling process. A lot of us are here for the end-game where the game truly begins, where the fun starts.
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SoD is an abomination made for retail players who refuse to play retail, but want everything it has to offer. Aka Wrath Babies.
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Yet it’s still almost nothing like retail.
Plus I’d always take SoD over era.
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I ageee. It’s vastly worse than retail. Likely the worst WoW product ever made. Replacing Shadowlands
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That’s fair, we all have our opinions.
I’d take shadowlands over era everyday of the week… era gave us a horrible leveling process, a maybe 1-2 button rotation and raids that were absolute jokes having literally no challenge.
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None of us could have predicted that there would ever be enormous XP buffs to the point of leveling to max in single-digit hours.
I’m genuinely curious to why or how you got into this version of wow?
For me, classic is a journey. SOD is listed as and supposed to be a version of CLASSIC.
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