It will make it faster, so yay. That will make me happy. But does it truly fix the leveling issue? I am not sure.
To eventually fix the leveling issue Blizz needs to answer the question of how long should it take in hours played for someone to reach the starting level for the newest expansion. That is the question right there. Should it take 40? Longer than a lot of AAA single player games. Should it take 20, not quite as long as most single player games but a good chunk of time. Far more than needed to understand the mechanics of the new class, and lets face it, playing a new class truly well will only be learned endgame (PvE or PvP). What about 10 hours?
They also need to balance that question with the idea that to short of a leveling hill and it won’t feel satisfying, to long and and boredom will set in due to repeating content. It is a hard question.
Blizzard do something that will satisfy everyone? That will never happen! This buff to XP might actually get me to level an allied race from the start for heritage armor.
I, however, would see it as a positive change and would welcome it. It severely cuts the XP to level during some of the most boring (for me) parts of the game, the 70-80 area that I’ve done a million times over and that critical phase where certain classes are missing certain vital skills that makes combat far less interesting.
The 7.3.5 changes were abysmal and I haven’t bothered to level a character past 66 since then ad the slowdown is just horrible given how clAsses performed pre artifact and even more so now that artifacts are gone. Classes are shades of what they were even in legion.
I agree with the experience reduction needed to level heavily and wish they would buff heirlooms as well.
there is no ilvl scaling on early zones. that was brought from legion onward. That being said said 7.3.5 made my shadow priest slower… 8.0 made my shadow priest intolerable to play. It’ll still be terrible… but 40% less terrible with the speed ups.
I wish they had an opt-in “heroic” leveling mode or something that increases rewards, bumps up mob damage and ability usage, etc.
I guess you can kind of achieve something similar by using white items? I haven’t tried that approach because I really don’t want to lose out on the bonus XP from heirlooms.
It will have to. Its already far too generous if you ask me.
Leveling wasn’t slow to begin with, and I do feel like a vast majority of the complaints about leveling just come from people who don’t actually enjoy leveling in the first place.
Now, that’s a separate problem. Nerfing leveling is not going to make it more fun or enjoyable, and nor should they nerf it just because people don’t enjoy it.
They need to come up with another solution for that, and preferably ASAP.
Leveling used to be a core part of the game, and they spoke both at Blizzcon and recently saying they want to try to make that the case again, so I am hoping that means they have some ideas to make it so.
With the increasing parallels they are trying to establish between Classic and Live, that is the one thing that remains.
The pacing and scaling changes were a step in the right direction, but nerfing experience tells me they don’t have a good solution right now.
It would probably take a massive overhaul of a system that no one really WANTS to enjoy anyway, and I’m not sure that would be healthy for the game anyway.
The problem with making leveling a “core part of the game” is that for the last several expansions, the focus has always been Endgame. Raids, Heroics, World Quests, all of that stuff is at Max Level Only.
Max Level is the only game around and it’s been that way since Wrath, easily. There are no meaningful repeatable content, no struggle to gear up, none of that stuff while leveling and even if there were, it would feel meaningless because you’d replace whatever the rewards were rather quickly.
What they needed to do is do a Level Squish. Yeah I know their fears… “You logged on 120 yesterday and you’re Level 90 today that would feel terrible.”
Except, no.
It’s just a number. People burn out by having to gain 120 levels before getting to the “good stuff”. But if you only had to get 70-80 levels instead, that’d be a lot more palatable.
The only heirloom nerf is their stats, not the experience granted. You get the same percentage from them that you did in the previous patches.
The reason leveling pre 7.3.5 was quick was not because of experience needed.
It was because you could one-shot everything around you with little effort, or stand in a city and do dungeons that gave you 5+ levels per queue.
That’s not something that should be in an MMORPG and has been removed as such.
Now, you will level and fight things normally, BUT it will require significantly less experience than it has in the past.
So combat will take twice as long, but experience will be twice as fast too, effectively.
If you want to go back to a system where power levels and combat time was laughable, then you will be disappointed for sure, but if you want to play the game as it was meant to be while leveling considerably faster, than this nerf is more than you could have ever asked for.
It would probably take a massive overhaul of a system that no one really WANTS to enjoy anyway, and I’m not sure that would be healthy for the game anyway.
Its been too long to just make adjustments to the current systems.
They would need to start from the ground up to make leveling something people of all types could be actively engaged in, and as you can see in this very thread, most people do not want that to start with.
It seems like the more free and easy content the better for some, so no matter WHAT they do leveling likely will never restore its original place within the game.
With that being said, I hope those that don’t actually WANT it to, can at least admit what should seem truth to them at this point - they just want to get to end game asap. They don’t care about leveling being a good experience for new players.
Uh. Well, see, for a new player, the world of Azeroth is brand-new and exciting, and every quest is new to them. I think that they should take their time on their first Lv120 character, get to know the factions, get to know the world, etc.
You just couldn’t do that in pre-7.3.5, because even without heirlooms, you’d do 10 quests in a zone and have to move on because everything is now green and doesn’t reward anything worthwhile. This is why I applauded the level scaling system, it was the best thing they could have done.
That, and I didn’t like two-shotting mobs either. That was way too boring and put me to sleep. That, and new players won’t even learn their class’s rotation if they only have to use 2 out of their 5-6 abilities. Then you get hunters in dungeons spamming Cobra Shot and nothing but because that’s all they ever had to do while leveling.
But yet, for those of us who are doing their 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th character… yeah, we want to get said character to endgame so that they are useful to us. I’m not arguing that, whatsoever. Especially allied races and their gear unlocks that you must level with legitimately to get. Can’t just buy a skip for that.
Yes, leveling with no gear on is actually extremely fun! I did it a LOT during prepatch, when people were saying things like “dungeons are impossible” <_<
But the big problem is it basically takes all the actual leveling aspects out of leveling. There is no progression whatsoever and no way to out maneuver challenges outside of your spell book.
That in its own right makes for a more suitable challenge, but not one bound to appeal to many people.
I wish they could make a “mythic” leveling for sure, where we could fully benefit from gear, professions, buffs, grouping and whatever else.
Until then, I would heavily recommend leveling naked, even if its only for a zone or two. It feels so rewarding and makes you feel like you are actually in danger.
Also makes you REALLY fear other players, because an enemy faction will never lose.
Then don’t do it! Please don’t try to manipulate decisions on a system you admit to not enjoying.
Suggest ways they can make it MORE fun for you, other than by allowing you to complete it faster.
As long as I don’t feel like I am going to forever be in Outland or Northrend. Plus, why does leveling need to be fun. After the first character levelled it is the same exact quests. Why even try to make that “fun?”
Press the little arrow / “Reply” button btw! No need to type @ etc.
Anyway, ya I agree and understand that for sure.
Just please be aware that you don’t need to be leveling 20 characters. There is no practical way you could ever be playing 20 characters through end game, so its really a decision making problem, not a leveling problem.
What I would like though, is a way that it CAN be fun for people leveling for the 20th time, without us having to make the fun ourselves.
Maybe one day that will come!
Until then, only level if you enjoy it! Don’t force Blizzard to make leveling absurdly easy or quick, just because you think you need two dozen toons at max level!
Do it because you love it, or love the rewards or whatever else.
That’s all leveling needs. Less people treating it like a chore.
play it my way because i said so! how is that post valuable in any shape way or form?
They slowed down mob killing time, stats from heirlooms nerfed, dungeons are slow though on the plus side people might possibly do mechanics. Outside of a tank or healer you’re looking at a 40 min+ queue making questing much more viable. reduce mob hp by 20% across the board for leveling zones. make it faster. the game starts at max level anyway. Plus you had 60 levels in classic… now thats doubled. and for some reasons they slowed down the leveling… it wasnt broke before 7.3.5… but they decided to fix it.
Classic will be there for you for that “long” (took two weeks if you knew what you were doing) leveling.
![:rainbow:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/rainbow.png?v=6" ":rainbow:")