World of Warcraft - The Revival of Leveling in Patch 7.3.5 - MMORPG.com

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World of Warcraft - The Revival of Leveling in Patch 7.3.5 - MMORPG.com

Middle of the road patches in World of Warcraft are rarely so impressive. But 7.3.5 has almost entirely reinvigorated the leveling process of the game. By activating leveling scaling across the entire game, with some caveats, the act of raising a new character is not only inviting, but it’s far more enjoyable because you can finally do it however you want. 13 years into Azeroth’s MMO existence, and leveling is now the best it’s ever been.

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Malaclypsety

is it possible to skip/evade warlords of draenor? ive always hated that part of leveling.

Avarix

Glad to see you're enjoying it. I haven't had a chance to jump back in to the game yet but really been looking forward to this.

I usually play casters and ranged, thinking of starting a Rogue to level up to experience the new system. Also, I LOVE that we get to skip Outland. Easily the weakest area of the game for me. I hated hitting 60 and needing to slog through it before getting to Wrath zones.

BillMurphy

Malaclypsety said:

is it possible to skip/evade warlords of draenor? ive always hated that part of leveling.

Not yet. It's still 90-100. I expect in the future, it'll be flexible with Legion. Right now the few that are flexible are TBC and Lich King for 60-80 and Pandaria and Cata for 80-90. So Wardlords is still 90-100 and Legion is still 100-110.

k61977

Think they did it right as far as the scaling. Just glad they didn't copy ESO as far as making everything scale all the way, as it would have killed transmog farming altogether. I will wait to roll any more alts till the next xpac myself so I can take advantage of this with one of the newer reskins and get their heritage armor sets. Pretty much already have most everything other than 2 classes at max level anyway.

Just curious as to why they needed another major extended patch to bring the health back down for raids, it should have been something simple to do. Feels like they are changing more but not telling us just like they didn't talk about the mob health increase in the first place.

jpedrote52

now if they removed the 100 boost I would actually believe they wanted to improve the game experience, with the boost as an option this is just a way for blizz to squeeze some more money out of the players.

Akulas

So, standardized leveling experience for quests / dungeons in other words.

6stack_Chris

Here is my take:

While cool that they finally have implemented such a great thing, and I'm really enjoying leveling my Paladin right now. I feel as though MMORPG's in general are really missing the mark on the whole leveling, exp and progression system as a whole. Creating zones that are level and quest locked where a mistake in inception. Anyone who has played older MMO's (ones that were out just a few years before WoW) should remember the grind of level caps taking forever, but you were not locked into a zone or area. You always felt you accomplished something when you logged in and communities were much closer.

Take Asheron's Call, originally it was 126 level cap, it took years or a XP chain to get to that point, but you could go back to starter towns and kill Drudges or Shreth for the same amount of EXP no matter what level you were at. Now, getting 150-250 exp per kill when you needed 100's of millions would not be the best choice, so you would fight tougher mobs to get 50-250k per kill, typically with a group of friends.

So, where am I going with this? Leveling to get to cap, just to do end game content seems to be the pain point (in my opinion) of many MMO's. It is good to see WoW is moving to keep people playing together, and allowing you to make your choice of where you want to go, to level and experience the LARGE game that is WoW. So, in the end this is a welcome change, and hopefully this will help curb some of nostalgia we all have for Vanilla.

Simsu

This is a good change, but I don't think it's enough to get me to come back (even for a month of nostalgia playing) unless this change also made it harder (more rewarding) to level. Also, I'd be happier with the change if I could skip any of the expansions (even being in a MOP zone makes me want to uninstall the game).

I do agree that future MMOs would benefit greatly from integrating this or similar scaling.

Theocritus

Leveling in WoW burned me out to where I never wanted to come back....Even the part that's free 1-20 I have no itnerest in.

Viper482

jpedrote52 said:

now if they removed the 100 boost I would actually believe they wanted to improve the game experience, with the boost as an option this is just a way for blizz to squeeze some more money out of the players.

What do you care if someone wants to pay for a boost?

Viper482

This all implies the leveling in WoW is actually fun enough to want to go back to those old zones. WoW has never been that game the masses play for the leveling content.

BillMurphy

Viper482 said:

This all implies the leveling in WoW is actually fun enough to want to go back to those old zones. WoW has never been that game the masses play for the leveling content.

It's what I played it for. I was never an end-game treadmill guy. I always loved leveling.

OldKingLog

My apologies in advance to the article writer, but I can in no way agree with you. All Blizzard has really done with this change is to metaphorically tie one of your character's arms behind their backs to make the game world more punishing. Punishing. Not challenging, not dynamic, not exciting, and certainly not more fun. It in no way brings anything new to the game and nothing of quality. It just brings more drudge to slog through on your way to somewhere else.

Sovrath

Viper482 said:

This all implies the leveling in WoW is actually fun enough to want to go back to those old zones. WoW has never been that game the masses play for the leveling content.

hmmm, I don't know about that. I don't think everyone is into "raiding" per se. I'd be curious to see the statistics though.

Javiso

All great points! This is one of the main reasons I am thinking of returning to WoW after 10 years!

josko9

While I think world scaling is the way forward for MMOs, I still think this is a very poor attempt at it, especially compared to ESO. But I guess I've gotten used to Blizzard over the years copying other MMOs and giving way inferior systems.

Besides scaling doesn't do much for WoW, when it's barely an RPG at it's core. The game world is shamefully unimmersive and generic. On top of that quests and story writing is incredibly bad, which makes adventuring in older zones even more pointless. Most of the playerbase is at the endgame anyway, chasing that carrot on the stick, over and over again. Can't blame them, it's that kind of a game.

Personally I prefer MMOs with living breathing worlds, full of details and that can provide a good story. WoW never had that.

kitarad

I actually love levelling and hated it when quests turned grey so bravo Blizzard.

k61977

josko9 said:

While I think world scaling is the way forward for MMOs, I still think this is a very poor attempt at it, especially compared to ESO. But I guess I've gotten used to Blizzard over the years copying other MMOs and giving way inferior systems.

Besides scaling doesn't do much for WoW, when it's barely an RPG at it's core. The game world is shamefully unimmersive and generic. On top of that quests and story writing is incredibly bad, which makes adventuring in older zones even more pointless. Most of the playerbase is at the endgame anyway, chasing that carrot on the stick, over and over again. Can't blame them, it's that kind of a game.

Personally I prefer MMOs with living breathing worlds, full of details and that can provide a good story. WoW never had that.

The lore and story are one of best parts of WoW.  It is really the only reason I play it anymore.  Also I am not a run through things as fast as I can either.  I take time to read the quest and take time to search for anything I can find.  ESO level scaling sucks because it basically doesn't ever let you feel that you are getting stronger until after you get above CP160.  So basically for 210 levels you are no stronger in reality because everything is just as strong as you.  Don't get me wrong I like ESO but hate leveling up to 50 now, once past that I get all my CP back and then it is better.  I prefer to be able to tell that I am in fact growing as I leveling.  It should not take the same amount of effort to kill a rat at level 100 that it did at level 1.

k61977

jpedrote52 said:

now if they removed the 100 boost I would actually believe they wanted to improve the game experience, with the boost as an option this is just a way for blizz to squeeze some more money out of the players.

I don't mind the boost myself, because some people like me have played thru the entire game 8 or 9 times already.  So what if I want to make a new character for a xpac and don't want to go back through all that again.  That is primarily who the boost is for, someone that doesn't want to do the old content again or never wanted to play it at all.

k61977

Sovrath said:

Viper482 said:

This all implies the leveling in WoW is actually fun enough to want to go back to those old zones. WoW has never been that game the masses play for the leveling content.

hmmm, I don't know about that. I don't think everyone is into "raiding" per se. I'd be curious to see the statistics though.

They released a metric a long time ago that showed only a minor portion of the game is in what could be called real raiding guilds.  The ones that make raiding the entire point of the game, that is.  Think it was like 75% of players had never finished some of the raids prior to the looking for raid tool, which was the best thing they ever added in my opinion.  Always hated story locked behind something I really don't want to do anymore.

laserit

k61977 said:

jpedrote52 said:

now if they removed the 100 boost I would actually believe they wanted to improve the game experience, with the boost as an option this is just a way for blizz to squeeze some more money out of the players.

I don't mind the boost myself, because some people like me have played thru the entire game 8 or 9 times already.  So what if I want to make a new character for a xpac and don't want to go back through all that again.  That is primarily who the boost is for, someone that doesn't want to do the old content again or never wanted to play it at all.

My only problem with that is that Blizzard shouldn't charging you $60 for that convenience. Your $15 a month that you have been loyally paying over the years should cover it.

ShaddyDaddy

Viper482 said:

This all implies the leveling in WoW is actually fun enough to want to go back to those old zones. WoW has never been that game the masses play for the leveling content.

I'm wondering where your are pulling that fact about masses not playing for leveling content from? Source? I know myself and many of my friends loved leveling in WoW.

k61977

laserit said:

k61977 said:

jpedrote52 said:

now if they removed the 100 boost I would actually believe they wanted to improve the game experience, with the boost as an option this is just a way for blizz to squeeze some more money out of the players.

I don't mind the boost myself, because some people like me have played thru the entire game 8 or 9 times already.  So what if I want to make a new character for a xpac and don't want to go back through all that again.  That is primarily who the boost is for, someone that doesn't want to do the old content again or never wanted to play it at all.

My only problem with that is that Blizzard shouldn't charging you $60 for that convenience. Your $15 a month that you have been loyally paying over the years should cover it.

Yeah I tend to agree with that like give away a free one after having an account so long etc.  Even lowering it to say $10-15 would be a good thing.

beebop500

jpedrote52 said:

now if they removed the 100 boost I would actually believe they wanted to improve the game experience, with the boost as an option this is just a way for blizz to squeeze some more money out of the players.

Not quite sure how a sub-based game is 'squeezing' players, but ymmv.  Or are you thinking someone with 15 alts, who has no problem paying X amount of dollars for the boost and as a matter of fact is happy for it, is somehow being victimized or 'squeezed' by Blizzard?  Level 100 is not the cap, 110 is.  Sometimes, convenience or 'speed-up' features do improve the game experience, yes?  Maybe not for you, or me, but that doesn't mean a company is trying to milk anyone.  They've been milking this game for over a decade, so I don't see how allowing someone to skip most of the leveling changes much.  There are countless max-level toons in the game, adding a few more instantly doesn't change squat.

UDprox

There's ups and downs to this level scaling. From my experience, running dungeons without heirlooms doesn't reward enough XP. I got in Utgarde Pinnacle on my 72 lock and it took about an hour to 90 minutes to finish and only got about 30% of a level. If I was a new player I'd probably avoid dungeons at later levels. It just wasn't worth the time it took unless you're looking for something to serve as a break from questing.

That being said power leveling a friend through dungeons is as good as it's ever been for content you'd rather skip.(WoD I'm looking at you.) You get full mob XP and you can typically just hit every dungeon for quests rather flying all over the world to get to ones that are level appropriate.

As it stands I appreciate the scaling change but at the same time I only had two classes left to level up to 110, lock and death knight, and I'm not so certain that I'm willing to put in the additional time it takes now to finish