Ion Hazzikostas on leveling and pristine servers

[Kryos]

Just make all zones the way they are on Broken Shore - that the zone will adjust to your current level (but with a minimum level requirement to enter so you can't start a level 1 character in Pandaria). Then you can still level pretty fast but don't have to leave in the middle of a story based quest line. If you do all quests in a zone and reach max level in let's say Western Plaguelands or Burning Crusade already that's ok, you can still continue to do the other zones for gold an quest rewards (that should also scale up to max level).

[TheSerialSniper]

Use the level tech and break it up by expansion, so Vanilla stuff scales up to 60, bc stuff starts and 58 and scales to 70 etc. That would be awesome, because then you would get to do zones you normally never got to do because you would be into the next expac by then. I would love to level up from 58-70 in netherstorm instead of shitfire peninsula.

[Marston]

Aside from outleveling, mobs definitly need to be stronger. They could probably double the health and damage of all 1-90 outdoor and dungeon mobs and it still wouldn't be too hard. If they just increase the required EXP so zones would no longer be outleveld (which I think is a good idea, if the zone scaling is not applied or only in 1 or 2 expansions) that is simply not enough as mobs would still die way too fast.

[savagesyke]

Game it self got so much more to do , I'm quite ok with it at the moment yes sure if it's like back in Vanilla we will have lot of players and soon to interact while leveling.

[Deleted]

He actually talked about that. They want it to feel epic, but it can't feel epic if you keep oneshotting mobs before they even engage you (for example).

It won't feel epic if that is the same leveling experience as we have now, only slower. A slow leveling was relevant in vanilla because there was a lot of pre cap group content, content which has long been removed from the game or trivialized.

[Mormolyce]

Personally I like the idea of: "You should not outlevel a zone so quickly, that you cannot complete the story" but it adresses none of the above issues.

Last time I levelled a character, there were only a few zones where that was a big issue, Ashenvale being the biggest offender. But that's without looms - if you wear looms you shouldn't be surprised about outlevelling zones.

[Pieterman]

Glad they addressed it. Trying to turn and MMO into an action game is going to rub people the wrong way. If it takes less than 12 hours to join the endgame of an MMO, that's a problem. You're not gonna appriciate power gain if your dps can go from 50 to 70000 in a day.

[Pull My Finger]

I feel like this is a ploy to increase boost sales. I want leveling to be fun, not necessarily slow.

Sure, it's a ploy. They're schemers over there in Irwine. It's most important that you always keep your tinfoil hat on, it'll protect you from any machiavellian guile they come up with.

[Deleted]

Why wouldn't it? If you want to enjoy the game the same way these players claim they did in vanilla then they can choose the long leveling process. If some other player skips that because they dread that part of the game how does that affect your gameplay?

It doesn't and that is one of the problems. Many people wanna play MMO and not a singleplayer game, like you do.

[deniter]

Well to be fair you had that in Vanilla as well but since you generally had paths like Elwynn Forest->Westfall->Redridge->Duskwood->Stv etc, but since Vanilla had such a large amount of release areas you could vary to a degree, but it often took quite a long time. For example the Vanilla Night Elf run from Darn to Westfall was atrocious.

Also I would very much say the game was not "perfect" in Vanilla, it very much had it's issues in it's questing.

To be fair, night elves' leveling path was meant to be Teldrassil --> Darkshore --> Ashenvale --> Rachet, boat to Booty Bay and walk to Darkshire, and from there similar to other alliance races.

What i mean with 'perfect' is the way quests were placed. Most of them were in a relatively small area or hub for you to pick up, but many were somewhere else so that a player had to explore a bit, or do another quest and find them in coincidence. People say these days there was too few quests and you had to grind mobs in order to level up, but they were just reluctant to explore and find those quests.

Also, having elite-, dungeon-, and raid quests was awesome. It gave the quests a meaning other than just some xp and crappy green item - you never knew if the quest continues further and gives you a reason to run dungeon or raid. What's even more awesome is you had quests also on max level, and they were not daily quests or repeatable errands, but long quest chains that kept you busy for days and made you visit many different dungeons. Quests, dungeons and professions were linked to each others, not separate 'features' like they are today.

Perfect is maybe a bit too strong a word, i give you that, but the game design was still miles ahead from what they have done now in post-cata WoW.

[Deleted]

Not sure I would play on a "prestine server" just to level ANOTHER character though the same zones.

[Vaelorian]

I for one, welcome slower leveling. It is WAY too fast at current speed.

The thing I have a problem with comments like these is that imo (yes my opinion) they lack sufficient other variables as to why current leveling is in a bad place.
Gehco: In all honesty what will happen if they just made it slow(er)? Yes, quite right! It will be slow(er)!! So that solves everything right? If they just cut experience everywhere, the leveling content as it is now (heirlooms with insane stats, oneshotting mobs, lack of mobs, lack of elites, lack of elite packs, lack of runners/screamers, lack of mobs that hit harder then the current wet noodle trend etc) will remain the same.

So from what you posted, you only want it to be slow right? Nothing more changed? No danger etc? Just slow?

[Deleted]

Just do the obvious thing and make zones, quests and mobs all scale to your level. This way when you gain a level or two spamming dungeons you're not forced up and leave the zone you're in halfway through it. Players will experience zones in full and actually get a feel of the story and lore in the process. On top of that you won't have to deal with grey or green quests as everything remains relevant.

[Orby]

Not sure I would play on a "prestine server" just to level ANOTHER character though the same zones.

Couldn't you argue the same thing with vanilla servers? Another character through same zones?


On topic: I would prefer slower leveling, I for ome would love to have each zone capped. Not sure that would work, but I am currently leveling a horde char right now (I have been playing Alliance all my life), you know the old fashioned way of leveling, zone by zone while leveling all professions. Sort of like a challenge, doing all the zones in time with appropriate dungeons in due course. And its a mess right now. I entered Badlands and by the time I got there Uldaman was out of level range... :P

[Deleted]

Couldn't you argue the same thing with vanilla servers? Another character through same zones?

Well, for me that depends on what quests we would face. The Vanilla zones or the Cataclysm remakes?

If it's just slower leveling through the current zones and quests, there is no real appeal for me.
I would however want to go through the original 1-60 zones in the original pace with the original spells and abilities.

[Foj]

I feel like this is a ploy to increase boost sales. I want leveling to be fun, not necessarily slow.

You should be OK with fun/slow leveling. There are all these heirlooms and 300% potions and whatever available if you prefer not to wait around.

Is it a ploy to sell boosts? Are you serious? I'll give you a secret strategy tip. If you don't want to pay for a boost ... don't buy one!

Meanwhile, I still have my level 90 button. What will happen to it when my level 100 button appears? No idea, but I'm going to find out. And then they'll both, or one of them, or whatever, stay right there.

(11 max level characters, I know, I'm a slacker, sorry, I have a job and stuff)

Cheers, and happy leveling, at whatever speed you do or don't prefer.

[Ergunk]

I really hope they will make it as it was back in vanilla. No this is not a "i miss vanilla give it back"

I mean make it like it used to be, if you pull 2 mobs gg you better run, or sometimes where you had to group up to overcome it... which for me is the core of MMO's.

[Fedster]

People need to remember that there was a lot of mystery about leveling back then. There was no perfect way to do it, you couldn't Thottbot 50% of the quests and even then you would have to filter through a LOT of user posts to find the right way to do quests or to find them.

It is very hard to replicate that kind of experience at this time, there is just too many ways to find the information you require - and some of those ways don't even make you leave the game.

[Cæli]

Not sure he mentioned it but the point of this need is also accessing the old zones at will, as it should be. Pristine are kind of irrelevant unless they re implement the old world as an alternative. Which might happen one day, they're not stupid.

[Lex Icon]

my observations from leveling a char without heirlooms so far.. leveling is a bit too fast and quest rewards suck ass at lower levels. you rarely get anything usefull and if it is the armor type you need it often has the wrong stats on it.. how is this still a thing?