Since Shadowlands end game has been gate kept behind finishing the campaign which I for one have been happy with that. But it’s basically made leveling 10 more levels quite pointless and tedious. The increase in levels really adds no value to the game anymore. I feel like we can remove the 10 level, increases every expansion and just make it. So your main characteristically the story before you can progress to end game. This will allow you to start your alt even sooner, but people who like the quest are still welcome to do all the quest they desire so they won’t be impacted either.
I think it’s about time to make this change. It literally has no downside whatsoever. It makes the upside for alcoholics better and I can save 100k gold paying power level services to bring each my old top to max level each expansion.
Edit: I’m not talking about removing 1-70 leveling, I’m talking about next expansion no level cap increase. Just make it required to finish the story on your main and that’s it. This won’t impact people who like to make new alts they’ll still be able to level 1-70
I have a bunch of alts (23 70s and at 65 on my 24th).
First, I enjoy the leveling process on my main for the story each expansion. It helps with feeling that my character is growing.
I also like leveling for alts as it feels like good experience to relearn all the skills and keybinds for playing them. I don’t want people that don’t know the basics of playing their character in my end game groups.
Also, it only takes a few hours of TW dungeons to bring a previous max level to max. The dungeons get you comfortable with your alts play style to join endgame content.
I might be weird, but i like using the training dummies to practice rotations, then i find trash mobs to farm for crafting to practice and get in the vibe. Leveling does have that endorphin/dopamine release from the ding, but generally it feels tedious to me
I’ve always hated leveling honestly. There was one period of time where I actually managed to level a few alts to 60 during the previous expac, but I have no desire to level anyone 70 anymore so only my main is 70 (levelling is just so tedious most of the time, so it’s very rare for me to want to level anything).
Would vastly prefer to keep 70 as the level cap going forward and just let max level characters remain at max level.
Yeah. We would have been 140 right now. But there really isn’t no point in level increases anymore now that they have the power to nerf your levels. You level to 120 again and again and again for another level squish back down to 60 each time? Why not just stay at 60? Too much sense?
The level squish is my nemesis, the most anti RPG thing ever. With how fast leveling is and how whack level power scaling is (see: level 10 healers using one button for 3x dps of any level 50 dps), I wouldn’t object at this point if leveling weren’t part of retail WoW.
We could just take leveling out all together at this point there just going to keep squishing us back down over and over. RPG elements to WoW is pretty much gone.
(Seriously. You do understand other people who are not clones of you play this game, yes?)
It has great value to everyone who loves leveling, and feeling some progression because after all, it is an MMORPG.
This is a you issue with a you fix. Turn off your exp gains, buy a boost, or run Timewalking dungeons which make it super fast and is the same (boring, tedious, repetitive) content it sounds like you’re trying to get to.
I’m not talking about removing 1-70 leveling, I’m talking about next expansion no level cap increase. Just make it required to finish the story on your main and that’s it. This won’t impact people who like to make new alts they’ll still be able to level 1-70.
Level to the expansion cap and have completed all the current story quests on one character and then pass a “silver level” (updated) training grounds type test to skip leveling the last (in this case) 10 levels on your alts.
This way leveling is still a way to get to max on alts or if you are already good enough on an alt to pass a test that you understand how to play it, you can.
What do you suggest in its place? Because anything they implement is going to involve going around questing in the new areas and running through the same motions as leveling.
It’s really about removing the requirement to boost up every alt from 70>80. I still believe 1-70 leveling should be a thing. But when an expansion comes out you have to do the storyline on your main to progress, kind of like how it is now.
I don’t mind leveling to an extent. I do wish that my characters felt more powerful as I gain levels instead of weaker.
My level 1 can one shot mobs while my level 70 has anywhere from half to a full rotation to kill things. I’m not advocating for one-shotting things at max, but I should feel progression, not regression.
Most expansions, I hit max level before I finish the content, and then I don’t want to play that character any more. I managed to finish the main storyline of Shadowlands, since that opened up skipping the on-the-rails story, to go straight to the covenant of my alts’ choice. I am still not done with Dragonflight, because my Dracthyr hit 70, and now it feels like a chore to log onto him, since there are no more levels to get. I didn’t even do any dungeons or group content on him, and he still maxxed out before I was done. He’s in Azure Span content now, so I feel like it’s almost done…
Stat/Gear reset: Leveling forces you to replace your gear, no matter how high end it was, due to rating inflation. By the end of each expansion, players typically have ludicrous amounts of secondary stats and leveling serves as a more natural way to scale it down without it being a sudden jarring change (eg sudden changes like when legion legendaries would stop working halfway into BfA). This works to level the playing field, for a little while at least, between hardcore and casual players.
Makes more content available to casual players / solo players: A lot of shadowlands content that used to need a group, can now be done solo. This is due partly to gear but also due to the increased level, as your level affects innate resistance to spells and armor mitigation along with base HP amounts. A good example is the slime serpent mount. The slime serpent, which was difficult to solo for any non-tanks, can now be easily acquired by anyone in part due to the level difference between max level characters and the dungeon.
