With leveling alts being so convenient (+ War Within) - maybe some options for leveling difficulty?

Community General Discussion
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I ask for this mostly as an altaholic but I prefer retail and, with the accessibility to so many ways to play now, wish there was a way to get Retail leveling to feel better for those not trying to race through to end-game (like me)

With War Within coming out, leveling will be even quicker than before; and thats awesome, I too want to get a bunch of classes to max level and have fun with them. But I also get an itch to play a more challenging leveling experience sometimes; even if it isnt truly difficult but moreso time consuming

Ive thought for a while that Chromie should offer a debuff you can apply to yourself to make leveling a more engaging experience, while also making the gear you acquire feel good (though I try to collect a bit so just getting the pieces is fun too). Currently you have to sell any greens+ and wear whites to have some sort of similar vibe

Maybe an option to slow down leveling (I know you can stop it - I already plan to utilize this and appreciate it - since Chromie does have a level cap and I enjoy clearing expansions).

And finally - with Chromie being utilized so often (so I assume, she’s great) - could we maybe get back normal/old scaling, either as an option or defaulted outside of Chromie? I love the QoL and added depth of Retail but do miss those moments questing and seeing something, checking its level, and then running or it being too late - and then returning to get revenge

Its somewhat inspired by playing a little bit of Classic and Hardcore - but honestly I love having my time investment in Retail since itll carry on until I stop playing (plus who doesnt love piling gold in a personal guild bank? :wink: )

With Blizzard showing more and more ability to incorporate other means of playing into Retail, I really hope they show some (optional!) love to the older days of a more meaningful leveling experience

(thought this seemed the best place to post this)

Thanks!

4 Likes
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Yeah this has been repeatedly brought up by others as well on the forums. It likely isn’t something they’d do because it’d be very niche though.

I agree though something like a debuff you get would be a simple solution if you want leveling to be more difficult.

3 Likes
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And me!

Here are my ideas on making leveling more enjoyable and satisfying:

Play options:
a) Easy Mode: scaled progression (everything scales to character’s level)/low danger
-what we have now
b) Challenging Mode: in-zone progression* (each zone starts out challenging and then, with gained xp and gear, gets easier)/medium danger
c) Hard Mode: in-zone progression* (each zone starts hard and then, with gained xp and gear, gets easier)/high danger
-what we had in Cata
*endquest bosses are twice as hard

Experience (xp) gain options:
a) Explorer- original xp for each expansion (for those that want to experience the content)
b) Defender- xp for lvl 10 to lvl 60 is divided up per expansion (for those that want to experience an expansion in full)
c) Conqueror- present quick system (for those who want to barrel thru to endgame)

Note: everything, the difficulty, the rewards, the purchase option levels are tied to the individual character’s experience and gear level

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Personally I would like to see a tutorial mode that actually teaches people, how to use cc, proper class rotation etc.

Have it be an hour or two long and make sure it really teaches the ins and outs of a class then drop them into the world level cap. My issues with current leveling is that it is effectively pointless

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personally i will never make another alt outside of the remix type event ever again

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Isn’t this just… leveling without choosing a Chromie Timeline? The scaling outside of Chromie Time is expansion-based so it’s just Cata leveling until you hit the end of your expansion level bracket (which admittedly gets awkward post-30 because the brackets are on the small side, but still).

I feel like the only difference is that exp rates are so jacked up these days that you don’t spend as much time in any given zone as you would have in Cata.

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inb4 “Take off your gear!!”

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Don’t use heirlooms, take off your gear, avoid dungeons, try to solo dungeons… There’s plenty of ways to make leveling harder for yourself.

Unironically yes.

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No.

If you are leveling in the expansion where you are at level without Chromie Time, everything still scales to you and you are still fighting the same fight over and over and over again.

Vanilla Zones: lvl 10-30
Burning Crusade Zones: lvl 10-30
Wrath of the Lich King Zones: lvl 10-30
Cataclysm Zones: lvl 30-35
Mists of Pandaria Zones: lvl 10-35
Warlords of Draenor Zones: lvl 10-40
Legion Zones: lvl 10-45
Battle for Azeroth Zones: lvl 10-50

All Chromie Time does is scale content you have leveled out of to you.

So if I am lvl 20, no Chromie Time and leveling in Wrath, everything scales to my lvl 20 and then my level 21 and then my level 22 until i hit lvl 30. Then I will have out leveled it and be one-shotting everything.

If I am lvl 20, in Chromie Time and leveling in Wrath, everything scales to my lvl 20 and then my level 21 and then my level 22 all the way up to lvl 60.

(The actual five Cata zones do offer some challenge, especially if you go there before hitting lvl 30 but still ends up being the same repetitive experience in the end; it just takes longer.)

In both cases, everything is scaled to me at least until lvl 30 and I am fighting the same fight over and over and over again. In Chromie Time I am fighting that same fight all the way up to lvl 60.

With zone progression, the fights would start out hard and then become easier with xp and gear gains as you adventure across the zone.

So if I am lvl 20 in Borean Tundra, the mobs would have good amount of health and hit hard at first and I would have to be careful to only pull one at the most, then, as I gained in health and protection, I could take more hits and hit harder so I could down one faster, and so on until final quests in the zone where, with a little planning, I could take down three mobs at one.

Another way to describe it is, you would need to hit a ten button rotation per mob in the beginning of zone progression, six button rotation per mob in the middle of zone progression and, by the end, only a couple of button rotation per mob.

Whereas in the present system I am, on average, using a four button rotation per mob over and over and over again at the way thru.

If I have done a poor job of explaining it, the following article might help:
https://www.wowhead.com/guide/chromie-time-leveling-zone-expansion-scaling

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Yeah, LOTRO did this and I’d love it for wow

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Ignoring the suggestion to solo dungeons for the moment:

It doesn’t matter if you do any of those things because the minute you come up with a rotation that kills one mob, that rotation kills all the mobs because they are scaled to you so you are still fighting the same fight over and over and over again, it just takes longer, making the fighting more tedious, instead of less so.

And there is still no feeling of progression.

Now onto soloing dungeons: I had a ball with this. As soon as I would level past a dungeon, I would start testing it for when it was doable solo and since the mobs have varying degrees of difficulty and there were tricks and mechanics, the experience was so much more satisfying than the repetitive open world fights. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long before you are one-shotting them as well.

(I did the same thing to solo raids but started testing them when I was 11 lvls higher because that was when they were suppose to become doable.)

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My opinion is that they should add a toggle, slider whatever at character select screen that lets players turn xp on, and off, if a player wants to. Instead of having to run back, and forth to some faction city npc to turn it off, and on.

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Prior to level scaling and nerfing of heirlooms I imagined a toggle on the heirloom panel that would allow players to +/- their xp and stats based on how many heirlooms they had purchased. Mob hp could be an option, but reworking leveling content to change mechanics would not be feasible.

This would be a massive engineering project that would not only take a lot of resources to complete, but it would be taking hours of /timeplayed from end game for people who prefer it. Blizzard needs everybody to fast forward into end game and start grinding those grinds so they can report bigger participation numbers.

Full disclosure: I leveled many characters through every expansion while that was standard. I never got tired of it. I thought they should have given more options to players who hated leveling than spending lots of money in the cash shop.

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they should make gear with negative stats. they could even make gear to nerf XP if they wanted. i’m sure i’m not the only one who views leveling as kind of sight seeing.

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People who are the niche like to believe they are the norm, and wont settle for an optional toggle, they need to force everyone into their style of gameplay. which is why people still cry for pvp servers to come back.

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Idk why I think warmode is a very cool idea and probably upped pvp activity.

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You just described the gameplay of World of Warcraft. Congratulations.

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And adding another extra thing

And more of these responses

“I am so confused and what are these things and what is that”

Type of people from YouTube and twitch.

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If you want leveling difficulty, go play retail. Don’t do dungeons, don’t do group quests, don’t use the AH.