I know many will disagree and I’ll probably be lynched for this.
By “journey,” I mean the leveling period, which should be more meaningful and symbolic. And by “symbolic,” I mean memorable and impactful.
it’s probably a “me problem,” but I feel like the leveling experience is no longer an RPG adventure, and instead, you’re being “guided” to reach the maximum level as quickly as possible.
I’m not saying that the current leveling experience is necessarily bad, but I feel that the game currently lacks a distinct vibe of progression of a journey or adventure.
The entire experience from level 10 to 70 (excluding the Exile’s Reach part, which serves as a tutorial) feels more like a “big quest”, without necessarily having that aspect of “venturing through the world, forging your own path, and creating a unique experience that will set you apart from other players.” I mean, everything seems scripted.
Maybe I’m just an old boomer with nostalgic memories of old RPGs where leveling was an essential part of the games, something that created memories, not just a “big tutorial” for beginners and a “big delay to the end-game” for veterans.
Again, I’m not saying it’s bad right now; I’m just being nostalgic and venting a bit.
EDIT: I’m not talking about the difficulty or speed, but about how leveling is treated (as an obstacle rather than a memorable/impactful journey).
I would argue that it is quite bad right now. No need to pretend it’s in a good spot.
But also, WoW is a 20 year old game. Expansions will never be a meaningful extension of the “leveling journey”, the questing is just an intro to the new setting for the new endgame.
WoW’s original world is massive. But to be able to recreate that in the timeframe an expansion is given is a bit much. So the focus isn’t the journey when it comes to expansions.
I think that’s reasonable.
So that leaves us with this weird situation where the largest portion of leveling content is basically skipped over because of how levels got squished down and early levels go faster, then it’s followed by a bunch of expansion introductions in quick succession because obviously the intro to an already-smaller expansion is going to be less expansive than what was essentially “The whole game” in Vanilla.
Chromie Time exists to “fix” the jumping around thing, but because leveling is just so insanely fast now, it doesn’t really accomplish that.
At this point, I think you kind of just have to play Classic Era if you’re looking for a long-winded immersive leveling journey. Which kind of sucks because Classic Class Design is actually awful, but I don’t see anything major changing for Retail.
I’m not saying it needs to have an end. I’m just saying that the leveling experience should be more impactful and memorable, resembling at least a bit of an adventure/journey through the world.
Currently, it feels like leveling is just an insignificant detail, without allowing the player, whether beginner or not, to fully enjoy the game. The game throws you into a campaign and wants you to reach the end-game as quickly as possible
All they have to do is make mobs lethal again. That includes dungeons. If players were aware of how often they could die, the leveling progress naturally flattens out without touching them.
I agree with you. At the same time, I think there should be instant max level servers on live for people who prefer to play the endgame. I think leveling should be better AND I think M+/raid/pvp focused players shouldn’t have to level to play their preferred game mode (as levelers shouldn’t feel pressured into M+/raid/pvp).
WoW is going on 20 years old. For people that want to mindlessly grind on boars with their incomplete characters, they can go relive their nostalgia on Classic.
Honestly the issue is that even in classic leveling isn’t that long.
Average players were reaching level 60 in around 5-8 days /played.
Players who decided on guides were hitting 4-5 days /played.
Maybe I’m just an old boomer with nostalgic memories of old RPGs where leveling was an essential part of the games, something that created memories, not just a “big tutorial” for beginners and a “big delay to the end-game” for veterans.
The version of the game that a lot of people remember just doesn’t exist anymore.
Sure, you have people talking more in seasonal and Era servers, but you also ended up with people just wanting to mindlessly farm endgame.
Most of the “counters” I’ve seen to threads like this just end up using the “game is solved” phrasing and frankly that is true.
Not necessarily spending more time, but something that makes people feel like they’re playing an MMORPG and not just a "big co-op campaign with a few side-quests.
I don’t have a problem with leveling being fast; I just wish it was impactful and memorable, lol ( But that’s subjective and personal, so w/e)
While the classic experience is definitely long, it’s not exactly all that great; mostly because quests back there were not really designed all that well and largely just a bunch of fetch quests with little cohesion. A handful of exceptions and big moments, but you were largely just stumbling through the world blindly.
Heck, they didn’t even have enough quests to allow players to reach max level originally (maybe no so much for classic, but I do recall the Vanilla days) and you actually had to straight-up grind mobs once you hit a certain point.
Anyhow, while it may not be the answer the OP wants, here’s the truth of it.
WoW doesn’t care about the journey. It never really did.
The closest they ever really got was during MoP.
If you want to experience an actual journey through leveling and beyond?
You’re better off playing another game, because you’re not going to get it from WoW.
Why is leveling a part of the journey? If you want to feel immersed in the world then it does not matter what level you are to do this. This is just so strange to me because even in Classic you would out level the questing areas in some cases. It was even worst because the zones themselves were level locked so the amount of xp you got per quest or kill became reduced to nonexistent. I have quested in may zones were I out leveled the content because I wanted to continue the story.
For me part of the journey means abandoning the need to “level” all the time so that I can see a story to the end. If you are questing for enjoyment then it does not matter how fast you quest.
I agree but I don’t think leveling needs to be slowed down to accomplish this.
I think a leveling revamp that prioritizes actual engagement with the content (I.e. being forced to use cc and or interrupts and learn to avoid certain mechanics) would make it a memorable experience. Image we had named mobs in the open world with actual mechanics. They would be memorable purely because of that.
As it is now we not only level blisteringly fast (which doesn’t bother me) but nearly every mob gets killed in 2-3 GCDS max until the level 50+ range
There is no question that the forum is dominated by people who would love nothing better than to be able to hit max level and max gear on day one of an expansion and spend the entire time in high level dungeons and raids.
However there are plenty of people who are very happy with other parts of the game including the stories that go with questing and the questing that goes with leveling.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a camera into your imagination; I don’t know what sorts of gameplay or structure does or doesn’t impact you or what makes memories for you.
So there’s a lot more description I’d need before I’d be comfortable trying to implement your wish (not that I’m a position to do so).
edit: one nagging little question: why don’t you consider the endgame to be part of your journey?
If you want to drive off a lot of players, I guess. What was that old stat in wotlk? 12 million active but 80+ million inactive accounts or something?
Basically most people who bought wow would quit and I’m pretty sure very few of the overall population hit 60 in vanilla. I think the only reason a lot of people think so fondly about those days was because a large chunk of players were still working through vanilla well into tbc.
Vanilla is also lauded as the gold standard sometimes, but I’m pretty sure it had a huuuge development period compared to every expansion afterwards and we have to remember it didn’t even launch with battlegrounds and most of its raids, so it’s kinda unrealistic to expect basically a vanilla amounts worth of world content and levelling every expansion on top of all the usual endgame content.
It being so pathetically toothless definitely is part of its boredom.
Not asking for mythic raid or dark souls level difficulty, but at least making pulling 8 mobs give a chance at killing a player? Maybe make dungeon mobs actually need the healer to cast some heals spells?
Not asking for much, but currently it’s so dreadfully boring.