2 weeks in beta. Overview.

[guardian_titan]

I've done Azsuna, Val'sharah, and am now about halfway through Highmountain. I just barely hit 108. I have yet to do any dungeons, I've done every bonus objective, I kill every rare I can find, and I loot every treasure I find. I did have some rested xp and did get the bonus xp items from the class hall missions from time to time. I suspect I'll have to go to Stormheim next to hit 110.

One of my few complaints thus far with beta is Malfurion. His voice .... I thought people were exaggerating when they said he was bad. But my god. He's terrible. His "noooo" when Cenarius fell was hilarious.

After doing three zones, I'm shocked that I haven't really run into many "collect X" quests. Highmountain has a few of them. Highmountain was also the first zone I ran into group quests in.

The Huln Highmountain quest was amusing. Since you see other players, you see not only your Huln Highmountain but also every other player as Huln Highmountain. Talk about immersion breaking.

My only other complaint is the stupid fill the bar quests. Some areas I can fill the bar faster than I finish out the other quests in the area. In other areas, I'm lucky to be 50% done by the time I finish the other quests.

That's excluding my complaints regarding the artifact quests. I died 4 times doing the survival hunter one and the frost DK one. I died twice doing the assassination rogue one. I think I died once on one other one that I forgot. My shaman who was in heroic HFC gear when I copied her over has her heals feel like a pittance. I tried to heal that stupid sea giant in the resto artifact quest and despite spam healing him, I was literally watching his health either not move at all or drop. It wouldn't go back up until the mobs we were fighting were dead. Some artifacts I found just outright boring to acquire. Can't say I care much about the back story of the elemental or resto weapons. Ashbringer felt meh. Thinking about it, I can't think of a single artifact I did whose story I did like. Class halls are also rather meh. Seeing the rogue hall in person didn't change my impression of it being crappy. The shaman class hall is meh. The paladin one is rather dark for being a hall for paladins. The warrior one is too bright. Mage one is rather dark. Only class hall I haven't really seen in person is the priest one which I'm not sure I want to. Given how many issues I've had with many of my other toons, I'm not sure I want to level my priest.

[Soisoisoi]

Anyone able to confirm how many levels you're getting per zone? I got barely two levels per zone (as above #12), yet other people are claiming 3 and a half. o.O

[nazrakin]

Anyone able to confirm how many levels you're getting per zone? I got barely two levels per zone (as above #12), yet other people are claiming 3 and a half. o.O

It seems to be matter of how throughout you are. Each zone has a number of quests, bonus objectives, and treasures that are unrelated to the main storyline. Youve got to explore to find them. In addition to that youve got profession and class quests which provide a ton of exp. If youre doing all of that then you should be hitting 110 in ~2.5 zones.

[Soisoisoi]

It seems to be matter of how throughout you are. Each zone has a number of quests, bonus objectives, and treasures that are unrelated to the main storyline. Youve got to explore to find them. In addition to that youve got profession and class quests which provide a ton of exp. If youre doing all of that then you should be hitting 110 in ~2.5 zones.

Well I did all of the main story and any quest/area that had a breadcrumb for it, looted any nearby treasures I found and did any bonus objectives I could see. So the only thing from that I'm missing is class quests (?) and profession quests.

What are the class quests, I haven't seen anything of those? Unless you mean artifact quests?

[Varaben]

Well I did all of the main story and any quest/area that had a breadcrumb for it, looted any nearby treasures I found and did any bonus objectives I could see. So the only thing from that I'm missing is class quests (?) and profession quests.

What are the class quests, I haven't seen anything of those? Unless you mean artifact quests?

Profession quests are a TON of XP. I did LW/Skinning and it was easily half a level or more's worth of experience from 100 to 107 I think. You just get a ton of them plus you're out there killing stuff which is a little xp. But it's a buttload of quests that give equivalent XP to normal quests out there. If you time them right, you can do them in parallel, which makes the leveling go very fast. I played beta only a few times and got to 106 or 107 I think. professions quests are nice because they are a little break from the storyline.

[Sylvaeres]

Yeah, I've leveled 3 chars to L110 now and they roughly all dinged L110 halfway through the 3rd zone. I did two-three dungeons on them each. I don't think two dungeons compensate for 1,5 zones though. So I'm really not sure why some people claim they need to fully finish 4 whole zones to ding. Does not compute for me.

I've leveled 6 times and not once have I hit 110 until the final zone, so I don't understand what you're talking about.

- - - Updated - - -

Anyone able to confirm how many levels you're getting per zone? I got barely two levels per zone (as above #12), yet other people are claiming 3 and a half. o.O

I dont believe a word of what they are saying, especially since the OP stated it took him 25 hours to level. it took me roughly 7 hours to level through 3.5 zones.

[SirCowdog]

Well mythic is the only mode worth doing. You'll out grow the queueable dungeons in the first week. There will absolutely be burn out, thats a problem MMOs will never solve.

I would say it's a problem LINEAR MMOs will never solve. Blizzard has a real problem with stacking all the content at level cap, and wasting too much dev time on content which is only played once. Combined with content that they periodically remove. It's incredibly inefficient, and more along the lines of something you'd see in a single player game.

I mean, think about it. Why do we even have leveling content or new levels 100-110 in Legion? Everything scales, and whatever new abilities could have simply been included in the artifacts. They could have spent all that time and effort on new dungeons or raids.

I'm not saying they SHOULD have done that. The open world is important too. But it's just a thought experiment. What if?

[nazrakin]

I would say it's a problem LINEAR MMOs will never solve. Blizzard has a real problem with stacking all the content at level cap, and wasting too much dev time on content which is only played once. Combined with content that they periodically remove. It's incredibly inefficient, and more along the lines of something you'd see in a single player game.

I mean, think about it. Why do we even have leveling content or new levels 100-110 in Legion? Everything scales, and whatever new abilities could have simply been included in the artifacts. They could have spent all that time and effort on new dungeons or raids.

I'm not saying they SHOULD have done that. The open world is important too. But it's just a thought experiment. What if?

You kinda answered your question, the open world/quest content is just as important as raids and dungeons, so I dont expect we'll ever see an expansion that forsakes one for the other. In fact, relevant world content is something people have been demanding for years. My guess is that we're leveling for the same reason that we level in any other expansion... its an easy opportunity to soft reset power levels and player progress by having a coherent break in the content cycle.

Besides that, the World Quest system does exactly what you're suggesting. It leverages the "only played once" level up content into something that will continued to be used throughout the expansion. According to Blizz its also an extremely adaptable system that they can easily add to.

[SirCowdog]

You kinda answered your question, the open world/quest content is just as important as raids and dungeons, so I dont expect we'll ever see an expansion that forsakes one for the other. In fact, relevant world content is something people have been demanding for years. My guess is that we're leveling for the same reason that we level in any other expansion... its an easy opportunity to soft reset power levels and player progress by having a coherent break in the content cycle.

Besides that, the World Quest system does exactly what you're suggesting. It leverages the "only played once" level up content into something that will continued to be used throughout the expansion. According to Blizz its also an extremely adaptable system that they can easily add to.

God...I HOPE they add to it. Because right now it's just repeating the same quests that you already did while leveling. If we're going to repeat stuff ad-infinitum, I'd much prefer a system where you could start over at level 1 and gain new abilities or powers by taking the same character through different classes. A bit like DDOs True Reincarnation system, or SWTOR's Legacy system.

[Zenko]

I switched out of feral and went guardian on 103 level. I feel bad for ferals out there because from my perspective (dont forget I had 650+ greens on start) levelling as kitty was quite uncomfortable. Sometimes I had to kite a single non-elite mob because 5 cp HT wasn't enough to outheal its damage. What can I say about bears? They freaking rule this world now.

Odd. Im pulling 3-5 mobs at a time as feral and blowing them up with Brutal Slash/Rake spam, but I do have to self heal with resto affinity. Maybe talent choices screwed you?

[Sounder]

Odd. Im pulling 3-5 mobs at a time as feral and blowing them up with Brutal Slash/Rake spam, but I do have to self heal with resto affinity. Maybe talent choices screwed you?

What's your pattern for fitting the Resto abilities in, given that they take you out of form (I assume)?

[Kraineth]

I mean, think about it. Why do we even have leveling content or new levels 100-110 in Legion? Everything scales, and whatever new abilities could have simply been included in the artifacts. They could have spent all that time and effort on new dungeons or raids.

Because the world they build, and quests they designed are re-used for the world quest system to give players something to do? Among many other things that you can do out in the world after hitting the level cap.

You can't honestly say that people would be satisfied with no new continent/story development and instead, the new expansion was just tons of content that can only be done in a group, and through the LFG queue system.

[SirCowdog]

Because the world they build, and quests they designed are re-used for the world quest system to give players something to do? Among many other things that you can do out in the world after hitting the level cap.

You can't honestly say that people would be satisfied with no new continent/story development and instead, the new expansion was just tons of content that can only be done in a group, and through the LFG queue system.

I didn't say no new story development. I just said that we don't need it to be in LEVELING content. They could just as easily put all the story in scenarios, and had the entire world be max level from the beginning. The open world could be entirely devoted to max level content instead of screwing around with level scaling.

[Soisoisoi]

So, I've just done all of Stormheim this evening, including the profession quests this time around, and I'm L102, and nearly 60% towards 103. I seriously still don't understand how you guys are saying it's 2-2.5 zones to 110 unless they seriously bump the XP up in the later levels. Val'sharah, as I posted above (minus profession quests) got me barely level 102. So, two zones in and that'd be 104-105. Where the fuck are you guys getting the other 5 levels from in half a zone?

I'll repeat:
This is with artifact quests done
Profession quests done (Skin/LW, so I went out of my way to kill extra stuff)
Zones completed, including achievement and quest ready for the dungeon
All bonus objectives completed
Every treasure I found on my way looted

So, what is missing? Either levels go a lot quicker after 103, or you guys are just BSing.