Why Old Expansions Should Scale to Max Level — A Huge Opportunity for WoW’s Future

Community General Discussion
61

What horrible take is this

We need old raids to be solo for transmog

4 Likes
62

Why not give the option to toggle between transmog mode and scaling? New rewards could be added.

1 Like
63

Nah bro it’s one way or the other . blizzz never does stuff to benefit two parties

1 Like
64

Not everyone is so rigid.

1 Like
65

I said in another thread that old instanced content needs three settings, fully under the control of the player…

  • “as if it were current”
  • “medium rare”
  • “LoL”
66

No. Just No. Please stop. This game has already eroded all sense of progression sufficiently enough.

2 Likes
67

I think making old raid gear relevant would be bad for a few reasons.

  • The gear was designed during a different period of WoW and could be completely broken since the game has changed in 15 years since it was current. Old gear would also likely be a majority of BiS just from a numbers point of view because we’d have 30+ raids to gear from instead of the current stuff unless they implemented more power creep into new gear (which defeats the purpose).

  • Tier sets would have to be reworked.

  • We’d have people split between 5 or maybe even 10 raids for people trying to get their one BiS piece from each raid.

  • People couldn’t farm for old transmogs as easily anymore.

I don’t think it would be beneficial, not to mention the amount of dev work that would be required to rebalance and retune older content to bring it up to date.

4 Likes
68

I think the better solution is the FFXIV approach which would be to basically make timewalking universal, and doing old content through a random LFR style raid, or dungeons, gets max level players some form of useful reward. Whether it’s a bunch of money, or valorstones/crests, or bring back the old Marks from the WotLK era. If you’re leveling, give it a big xp boost to do the raids, and so on, and if any character is new to the dungeon or raid, give a further “first time” bonus to any and all rewards for everyone. Make the old raids a daily lockout if you’re doing it this way.

That way everything remains relevant, an there’s an incentive to do these things and help players more.

And if you want to go in solo to farm transmogs, you can do that with a checkbox, but solo farming remains a weekly lockout, and current season raids also remain a weekly lockout.

69

It’s not fun to still need to group up for stuff that’s over a decade old.

Spreading people out across over a hundred zones would make all zones feel barren.

5 Likes
70

While it’s true that old raid gear was designed for a different era, scaling old content and gear could actually enhance the longevity and enjoyment of World of Warcraft rather than harm it.
• Encourages diverse gameplay.
Instead of everyone running the same few current raids, dungeons, quests, and zones players would have a reason to revisit older content for gear. This isn’t just nostalgia—it diversifies endgame content and prevents burnout from constantly repeating the latest raid.
• Transmog accessibility doesn’t have to suffer.
Making old raid gear relevant doesn’t mean it has to be locked behind BiS progression. Transmog appearances could remain farmable separately, or the gear could be scaled for stats but retain its original visuals for collectors, so cosmetic access isn’t lost.
• The work is challenging but not prohibitive.
Blizzard has already successfully updated old content for Timewalking. Rebalancing older raids, dungeons, quests, and zones for scaling is conceptually similar—while it’s work, it’s not unprecedented. The payoff is huge: it keeps the entire WoW library relevant rather than leaving a massive swath of content obsolete.

1 Like
71

I believe, if Im not mistaken, the ESO world all scales about the same.
I dont think any zones i went into were impossible for me.

it doesnt work exactly like WoWs scaling…much better overall.

2 Likes
72

Yeah. No. Not even close. It would be a massive disaster trying to revamp every single raid and dungeon to be even somewhat close in difficulty.

Overly diverse with people scattered across a dozen raids and a hundred dungeons. Good luck ever getting something you want.

It’d massively increase burnout when people can’t do anything at all due to how spread out everyone is.

You really need to try timewalking before you say something like this. And timewalking is nothing like they’d need to do to make this stuff actual end-game ready instead of just a fun diversion for a few days.

2 Likes
73

I noticed the other day that Wintergrasp is scaled to level 80. Obviously being a battleground zone its slightly different to the rest but when I go there to do any material gathering, the mobs match my 80 character.

Frankly, they are still pretty much a walkover. They have no real special abilities and against my geared character the majority are target practise. Unless they beefed up the mobs a lot, even when setting the zones to cap, they would still probably pose insignificant risk.

74

This could be a cool retail event with existing characters and not with new characters like remix currently is.
Something that happens for 1-4 weeks each season with max level boosting a whole xpac to get new rewards, or maybe for the whole season to add in an old raid and old area in the same way old dungeons are added in for a seasons M+.

75

They need to keep people mostly in the same zones so the game has players. If -every- zone was viable, it would spread out the active player base too much. Imagine trying to M+ queue to -every single M+ dungeon in a big queue- eek. Nobody wants in my Siege of Boralus… really? c’mon, it’s short and easy when it’s tuned to your level… hehe.

1 Like
76

I don’t know if that is true. Just having different trinkets because their numbers are better doesn’t really change much. Very few trinkets or items actually change how you play the game, most just boost your damage in non engaging ways. The only thing that changes is the BiS list.

You’d fracture the community too much. Instead of having the current raid and set of dungeons, you’d split the player base across countless raids, dungeons, zones, etc. It would likely be very difficult to form group content when the you’re that divided. Maybe if it was something like classic or SoD where it’s a separate game mode, but I don’t think it would be good to divide the retail player base that much.

Also what happens if some old quest items end up being extremely powerful? There have been a few that were really good over the 20+ years of WoW, but many of us have vendored/DEd them over a decade ago. Are we just out of luck?

3 Likes
77

Counter-idea: Make specific realms, akin to Hardcore Classic, in which the entire game scales and every old system remains relevant. Have people be pushing their guilds through AQ40, Undermine, and Ny’alotha in a week to get specific BiS items. All Legacy effects active, even if they apply to nonexistent abilities.

A set of realms in which the insanity of mixing various items and abilities is the whole point. If you want SOME kind of balance, maybe limit people to choosing ONE Borrowed Power item (such as no HoA if you have an Artifact or something).

This won’t affect the main game and just provides a (hopefully) fun way to keep all content relevant and give another way to enjoy the same game.

78

Personally, I want this as an option. Either downgrade the rewards for just transmog oneshots in Legacy Mode, or implement tracks to all items in the game in exchange for the content being challenging to a max level player, all as a choice to the player.

Add the ability to upgrade items from one track to another with significant investment, and you have the perfect experience for the game as a whole. That is evergreen, IMO.

1 Like
79

A solid compromise for both players who want scaling and those who don’t would be to offer a choice between two modes:
• Transmog Mode: Everything stays trivial for quick transmog/collectible farming, with appropriately downgraded rewards.
• Challenge Mode: Old content scales up to current max level, with modern difficulty and new rewards, gear, and housing decorations are added.

2 Likes
80

Nobody is going to waste time in old zones, even “scaled”, because world content rewards are inherently beyond worthless to anyone except pure left of bell curves who peak at LFR difficulty level.

And trying to rig the game and reward system to “encourage” entire world engagement…aka making the rewards attractive to right of bell curves, is GROSSLY unfathomable because of how much time and effort it would then take to optimize ourselves for our endgame pillars…and potentially screw those of us who actually did it back then if we no longer had access to the quests OR would give us massive advantages because we’re already starting at the end of that path poised to reap the rewards while all the FOTM rerollers and people who haven’t been here have to play catchup.

And so if you rigged it to where the catchup was gone/minimal, now we’re taking dev resources away from new content to appease a bunch of nobodies. Nobody but extreme left of bell curves “win” with this idea.

You can already play old content and not be a 1 shot god in it…pick it as a chromie time leveling expansion and level lock yourself 1 level before being forced out. Now you can finish questing and be “challenged” (pathetic if leveling actually challenges you) whilst the rest of us can actually stay in the modern content where we’re intended to be.