xp locked characters. during the anniversary it was level 11s, now it appears to be level 10s and level 70s.
i just had a level 70 mage in ilvl518 run ahead of the group in a legion timewalking dungeon and one shot every single boss. not like “oh they were good they killed the boss fast”. no, actual 1 shot, 100-0 in a single spell.
i also encountered a level 10 xp locked monk who was doing 15x as much damage as the rest of the group combined with nothing but spinning crane kick, geared out in full purples.
this scaling is broken and these players are exploiters, probably selling leveling runs for gold or cash. please. fix this game.
and if you absolutely REFUSE to fix it, remove the leaver penalty so i dont get a half an hour time out for not wanting to play with someone bending a poorly designed system over their knee and exploiting math irregularities.
8 Likes
Few things here -
I agree that the scaling at certain levels is broken - I was able to solo TW dungeons on most of my toons that were raid-ready at level 70 from being geared from the previous expansion - with my staff use ability on my casters being able to one shot bosses - so 100% agree that the scaling is broken.
Wouldn’t necessarily agree with the exploiting aspect entirely. It is 100% taking advantage of the mathematical irregularities with scaling. As I was levelling those level 70 toons it began to even out around level 75-76 to where I wasn’t able to solo the dungeons.
In terms of the users selling levelling runs for gold, or according to you cash/IRL trading, with the latter being against ToS that would be bannable. But on the note of gold and levelling trading - there is a debuff that blizzard implemented early on in the anniversary event which degrades 99% xp if not more so users barely get any XP - if anything they would be boosting the currency/loot from dungeon. This debuff is persistent within dungeon, if you group with an xp locked character and queue, and will persist for 5 mins after the fact and refreshes with any xp gain.
I do agree somewhat with the leaver penalty aspect - except it is now in place due to folks abusing it not being there once and having folks kick them so they can requeue without penalty or simply AFK entire runs.
This isn’t an exploit, people are just taking advantage of the scaling that exists in the game.
That said, the scaling does need to be fixed, in both directions. The ultra powerful levels need to be toned down, and the levels where characters are very weak also need to be buffed.
Right now the variance of difficulty from dungeon to dungeon, based on the levels of people in your group, is way too high.
15 Likes
if the interaction is unintended and the player is knowingly abusing it, its an exploit, and that is definitely what is happening here.
i cannot imagine that blizzard intends for level 10 monks to be doing 15x the damage of an entire group with what is supposed to be a weak-ish aoe filler spell, or for a level 70 mage to quite literally speed off well past the group insta-killing bosses in half a second, when they are in a dungeon that is supposed to scale everyone to be roughly comperable in power so all players can participate.
its broken, and the players doing this know its broken, and are abusing the broken mechanics. thats an exploit
3 Likes
Level 70s cannot lock XP. Maximum level for that is 69.
There was a bug that allowed 70s to lock XP at TWW’s release, but it was fixed and those players were unlocked again.
Level 10s, even if they AREN’T twinking, do tremendous damage in dungeons if a competent player is piloting them.
7 Likes
You can be xp locked at level 70 if your character is on an account that hasn’t purchased TWW. Some people are transferring their characters to non-TWW accounts specifically for this reason.
1 Like
Ahh, clever. I stand corrected.
2 Likes
bro if thats not the definition of an exploit idk what is
2 Likes
Exploiting in a game involves using unintended features or mechanics to gain an unfair advantage.
We would need clarification on Blizzard’s end to determine whether or not this is exploiting. According to below – exploits of any in-game bugs, and thereby granting you and/or any other user an advantage over other players not using such methods
From Blizzard’s End User License Agreement
ii. Cheating: Create, use, offer, promote, advertise, make available and/or distribute the following or assist therein:
1. cheats; i.e. methods not expressly authorized by Blizzard (whether accomplished using hardware, software, a combination thereof, or otherwise), influencing and/or facilitating gameplay, including **exploits of any in-game bugs, and thereby granting you and/or any other user an advantage over other players not using such methods**;
2. bots; i.e. any code and/or software, not expressly authorized by Blizzard, that allows the automated control of a Game, or any other feature of the Platform, e.g. the automated control of a character in a Game;
3. hacks; i.e. accessing or modifying the software of the Platform in any manner not expressly authorized by Blizzard; and/or
4. any code and/or software, not expressly authorized by Blizzard, that can be used in connection with the Platform and/or any component or feature thereof which changes and/or facilitates the gameplay or other functionality;
its ultimately going to come down to blizzard on weather this is intended or if the combination of extreme item level skew, experience locking, and scaling dungeons constitutes a bug and potential abuse. to my eyes, something is clearly not working as intended because 1/5 players in dungeon that is supposed to scale everyone to equal terms is one shotting bosses or out damaging the rest of the party combined by an order of magnitude. to me it seems to pretty clearly fall within the wording of #1 but thats going to be up to them to decide
i reported it, its up to them to make a ruling on it. we can debate it all day but they’re the ones who are going to have to make this decision on what they actually want for their game.
3 Likes
100%
I would like for them to clarify it. The anniversary event felt pretty broken encountering xp locked toons almost every run and having it done within a minute or two. Sure the experience was nice - sure it reduced time spent levelling - but it definitely lessened the rewarding feeling of doing it yourself (all I really do anymore is level toons and hit weekly quests on a few 80s that I enjoy on each faction).
I wish they would adjust scaling in both directions as another stated above. Certain levels, especially with twinking, feels way too easy - and on the contrary 76-80 feels extremely off balanced and the scaling gets hard to compete with especially given poor RNG / lack of questing gear drops (especially during anniversary event and this extended TW event).
I agree that if it wasn’t their intention it 100% falls within the wording of #1 and should warrant some type of action taken against them - but without Blizzard’s clarification I can’t necessarily say one way or the other. It could be considered exploiting, but it also couldn’t be in the instance if it being their intention to allow such things (especially given the debuff mechanic they have implemented due to anniversary twinking). So it really is hard to say one way or the other.
I do hope scaling gets fixed in both directions, and that they make some kind of statement regarding this.
2 Likes
There is no world in which making a timewalking twink is an exploit. Locking your exp is a feature implemented in the game BY BLIZZARD. I have an xp off character, 99% of dungeons people thank me for getting their chores overwith for them quickly. There is a vast mulitude of ways to challenge yourself in wow - doing 10 year old content on easy mode isn’t it and if this is something that bothers you deeply you might be running out of stuff to complain about.
By the way, it isn’t as simple as logging in at level 10 and deleting the instance. There is a lot of grind associated with getting all of the BiS gear for your character, there is a discord dedicated to this activity and a lot of players research and enjoy this content. Perhaps you would as well if you weren’t so busy being a bump on a log.
15 Likes
yeah, a lot of finessing the games systems to break the mechanics over your knee in an unintended way so you can solo steamroll group content with 4 other hostage players
lets see how blizz feels about it. if they are fine with these ilvl math breaking twinks in scaled dungeon group content, then this post will fade away into obscurity and nothing will change for you.
better hope you’re right
4 Likes
Wait, are we really calling out people who make timewalking go faster?
First, two things.
- If it’s a level 10 or 11, they can’t technically queue with anyone initially, as if you join a group with a person who has XP disabled, you also don’t get XP. So you have to be lucky and land in a group with them. Once you do, you can requeue with them (but be warned, it takes 4-5 minutes per queue for some reason).
- A level 70 on an account that hasn’t purchased TWW can just group up and queue. This isn’t an exploit, lots of people don’t buy the latest expansion (during DF, Korthia was always full of these people), so in that case they are able to do the same. But a level 70 even in the best gear isn’t as powerful as that level 10 or 11 (it really varies based on class).
Neither of these are exploits, it’s simply people playing the game and providing others with a quick and easy run through timewalking. I’m always excited when I get into a group with one (a few weeks back I got into a group with 2 level 11 warriors), as it’s super fast XP.
8 Likes
Blizzard has had what, 2-3 months time to address and/or fix it, in which they have done neither.
And this has been a constant topic, so it’s not like it is unknown.
Think they just don’t want to admit they’re bad at scaling things.
4 Likes
It’s neither an exploit or a bug. It’s designed to be that way. Maybe that’s dumb but it’s still 100% intentional.
What are you even mad about, leveling dungeons are never going to be hardcore tests of skill and learning. Takes so little time to finish a speed dungeon you can always requeue if you want to try for a more agonizing run.
4 Likes
The interaction is 100% intended.
They added this scaling so low level could group with high levels.
At ANY character level, if you gear yourself to an iLvl more than 5 times your character level you start PUMPING damage. I have an 11 Fury, 13 Blood DK, 59 DH and 70 Frost DK and all of them can hard carry 5 man queued content whether it’s regular dungeons or timewalking.
Before 11.0.7 they used to scale characters down to the dungeon levels for this content. Back then I had 2 characters decked out with 26 sockets, azerite setups and old legendary items like the MoP cloak. I used to carry 5 man content using these 2 characters as well.
Optimising characters for trivial content is fun. It speeds up an otherwise old, boring, solved game mode.
So just enjoy the fast weekly completion and stop falsely accusing people of exploiting.
11 Likes
As someone who loathes timewalking. I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE when I get in these groups.
4 Likes
Anything below current content is scaled to be easy so people can catch up to current. As long as level 10s and level 80s can play together then lower level characters will appear to blow up the content.
Then there is scaling beyond levels. A fresh level 70 will do less damage than a fully raid geared Dragonflight S4 level 70.
Fixing this requires going back to old TW where we had set stats, but that gets broken every time they release an expansion or do a stat squish and they have to go back and fix it. It also has its own issues with TW gear sets full of old legendaries, tier sets, and Heart of Azeroth gear.
Tl;Dr TW is likely never going to be serious content. Just roll with it.
8 Likes
That’s not xp locked. It’s capped.