WoW has super fun leveling content but Blizzard is not promoting/utilizing it.

[Qnubi]

What's so bad with that if that's so? Even if you're a new player the fundamental way to learn and play is at max level any way. You won't be a better player because it takes you longer to level just because you get less xp.

Isn't a more logical solution to make leveling similar to endgame/max level so you actually learn on your way? Making content for new players where they learn nothing of value seems like retarded design. I understand you don't want to overwhelm a new player. But teaching a new player ~40 hours of nothingness (other than WASD movement) seems stupid when you want to keep him playing.

Most games are finished after 40 hours, so the climax of gameplay is usually met around 4-5 hours, where all gameplay elements of a game have surfaced and the player knows 90% of the game in terms of gameplay and depth. In WoW After 40 hours you know little to nothing about the actual end gameplay you will pursue.

At the moment WoW leveling has been designed for people that have never played a game before, but gaming became so much more popular literally everyone nowadays had contact with games. Even old people are exposed to gaming more than ever. All kids, and I mean ALL KIDS played a video game by the age of 12. There is no reason to have a 40hour journey of absolute simplistic WASD and 3 second combat that showcases nothing of the final endgame.

[otro]

make all content scale to lvl and/or ilvl, also make em scale with number of ppl.

[babyback]

Isn't a more logical solution to make leveling similar to endgame/max level so you actually learn on your way? Making content for new players where they learn nothing of value seems like retarded design. I understand you don't want to overwhelm a new player. But teaching a new player ~40 hours of nothingness (other than WASD movement) seems stupid when you want to keep him playing.

That's why I think they should remove leveling. It offers nothing in terms of teaching you how to play the game. Give even new players access to all skills but a short tutorial how the general game works as in quests, professions etc. A new player would still explore the world and what it has to offer.

As for experienced players you'd still go out in the world by making questing partially optional as in shorter zone story quests to access the dungeons, reputation, achievements etc.

Considering that WoW has been around for so long and it's mostly veteran players that keep the game alive leveling is an outdated mechanic.

[Magistrate]

This, mostly.
I personally don't mind the xp buff at times (or some kind of xp buff, having leveled a crazy amount of alts), but I think they should have made it an on/off switch rather than giving you gear that trivializes content at your current level (heirlooms). The slow power increase as you level up makes the leveling experience (in my opinion) more fun. Sure, there will always be those people that crank out gear via professions every level but in general, I think making the leveling rewards actually worth something makes the leveling experience better.

Honestly, even the gear that drops trivializes all combat while leveling. I have to unequip several slots and lock my experience every so often when I do feel like questing old content even without heirlooms. While thoroughly exploring Ashenvale, including all the quests locations, and mining/blacksmithing to a level that's appropriate with the zone I was in, I had gone up almost triple the levels intended for the zone.

My thoughts on heirlooms as they are:

1. There's too many of them in too many slots, so there's not really any impetus for gathering new equipment.
2. They increase damage/health/etc. too much.
3. They should be more focused on accruing experience faster, not trivializing everything. (Normal gear also massively outstrips the content it was made for.)
4. It mostly looks like crap.

Things I think we could do, instead:

1. Instead of pieces of heirloom gear, you can purchase (for the same current amount of gold, DMF tickets, etc. per piece) an appropriate higher level of an XP buff at the existing heirloom vendors. Any unlocked heirlooms players have now could be converted at an appropriate rate to add to the buff.
2. Trinkets and similar items that scale with level but have effects that are unique remain as trinkets, but no longer have the XP buff on them--it's handled separately. This is for people that need them for grinding dungeons, BGs, etc., at low levels for where it evens out the playing field in relation with other characters that unlock certain abilities (heals, stuns, etc.) at lower levels.
3. The buff can be toggled on and off from the same UI as where heirlooms are currently located, with the exceptions in point 2 (above) still usable in the same fashion below said options.
4. An experience slider is added in the heirlooms section for base experience gain. 0 being no experience gained, 100% being experienced gained without heirlooms, and then it slides up as far as your accrued XP buff.
5. Whatever you set the XP slider to appears as a buff icon in the expected UI area so you know exactly what percentage you're playing at.
6. At max level, the XP buff option locks and the buff icon disappears.

I think some of the ways this improves things:

1. Players still gain all of the experience buffs they used to, with the slider option to change it however they see fit within the upper limit of the experience buff they unlocked.
2. Gaining gear is meaningful again and re-adds the gear-gathering, power-accrual excitement to leveling.
3. Trinkets, rings, etc. with on-use effects remain for the benefit of characters that need them while leveling.
4. Players no longer have to sift through pages of heirlooms (most of which are redundant since certain stats and secondary/tertiary stats either don't appear or become useful until higher levels).
5. The UI is simpler, and the intended effect (XP buff) is more central and able to be tuned by players directly. They can choose to level slower if they choose to, as well.
6. Characters have more visual variety while leveling without having to mog--you can see your gear progress visually again. But you can still mog as per the usual if you choose to, and the narrative of sharing gear with your teammates as you level returns.

[Qnubi]

That's why I think they should remove leveling. It offers nothing in terms of teaching you how to play the game. Give even new players access to all skills but a short tutorial how the general game works as in quests, professions etc. A new player would still explore the world and what it has to offer.

As for experienced players you'd still go out in the world by making questing partially optional as in shorter zone story quests to access the dungeons, reputation, achievements etc.

Considering that WoW has been around for so long and it's mostly veteran players that keep the game alive leveling is an outdated mechanic.

Both scenarios, leveling is only done by veterans/newbies, suggest that making it worthless is wrong design. Your veterans already know the ropes, so increase reward/difficulty (less time needed, but harder and more rewarding). Newbies will learn more about the class/game they are playing when put against harder challenges (I don't mean brutal elite fights, normal endgame combat duration in questing gear is fine). That means leveling atm is both, for veterans and newbies an absolute failed game design and should be fixed in an expansion overhaul.

[babyback]

Both scenarios, leveling is only done by veterans/newbies, suggest that making it worthless is wrong design. Your veterans already know the ropes, so increase reward/difficulty (less time needed, but harder and more rewarding). Newbies will learn more about the class/game they are playing when put against harder challenges (I don't mean brutal elite fights, normal endgame combat duration in questing gear is fine). That means leveling atm is both, for veterans and newbies an absolute failed game design and should be fixed in an expansion overhaul.

Balancing questing is actually impossible. For example if you'd make something hard for a mythic geared played you might make it impossible for a lesser geared one. Making it take one 20 seconds to kill a mob instead of 8 is just tedious other making you better.

Leveling is pointless in WoW. Atm it's just a tool to get players to see the world and you get a feel of accomplishment when you hit max level. I'm totally fine with having to level in a new expansion because they'd force you to do all of what we do now anyway without the "ding". But it doesn't offer anything to a new player to start at level 1.

[Qnubi]

Balancing questing is actually impossible. For example if you'd make something hard for a mythic geared played you might make it impossible for a lesser geared one. Making it take one 20 seconds to kill a mob instead of 8 is just tedious other making you better.

Leveling is pointless in WoW. Atm it's just a tool to get players to see the world and you get a feel of accomplishment when you hit max level. I'm totally fine with having to level in a new expansion because they'd force you to do all of what we do now anyway without the "ding". But it doesn't offer anything to a new player to start at level 1.

What would be wrong with a leveling difficulty of 100-110 across all 1-110? I never felt expansion leveling was too easy or too hard. It was acceptable for all. Also, normal Dungeons 101-110 are a lot more (still easy tho) harder than the faceroll dungeons you have while leveling prior to Legion. They need to apply proper scaling technology for all content so it's in line with the new expansion leveling because that is the foundation of everything. You gradually get harder content from expansion leveling into max level outdoor content, into max level Dungeons etc.

It just makes no sense to have it like this:

1-100 super easy everything dies when you look at it, to
101-110 (relatively normal)-endgame dungeons/raids/WQ (as difficult as you want it to be)

It should either gradually become harder, be baseline moderate (like 100-110) or, in best case, as hard or easy as you want it to be, just like the endgame is. And please, don't tell me you can make it as hard/easy as you want by telling me to unequip loot. The idea behind this game is to acquire more and better loot regardless if you want a challenge or an easy ride.