Build of the Month
Recent Blue Posts
Dark Heart PTR Development Notes
Dark Heart PTR Development Notes
Recent Forum Posts
The War Within Alpha - The Isle of Dorn Zone Preview
Cataclysm Screenshots of the Day
The Screenshot of the Day Gallery has been updated with 3 more screenshots of Cataclysm.
Blue posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Grim Batol "Vehicle" combat
Just to clarify, it's not vehicle combat at the beginning of the dungeon. The forces of the Twilight's Hammer within Grim Batol are massive, so you'll start the dungeon with a bombing run through the halls to thin their ranks. It'll be a set flight path and will not involve aerial combat. This is only to get things started. This dungeon is not vehicle-driven at all. (Source)
Lack of class changes in Patch 3.3.5
Our systems team is hard at work tweaking classes, updating talent trees, and restructuring the way in which new spells and abilities are learned during the leveling process (given that spells and abilities will scale with level rather than have multiple ranks). These changes are planned to coincide with a future patch which will implement the framework for Cataclysm. No major tweaking is planned to take place beforehand unless serious class gameplay issues arise. (Source)
Leveling Curve in Cataclysm
As you mentioned, the leveling curve all the way from 1-70 was adjusted in the past. We feel those changes coupled with heirloom experience bonuses make for a reasonable leveling experience up to 70. Since we're making major changes to the 1-60 Azeroth zones in Cataclysm, it isn't likely we'll be making further adjustments to the leveling curve there. The goal is to encourage new and old players alike to try out a new race or class and experience all of the new content and environment changes in the "old world."
As it is, Cataclysm will bring about a much better quest flow, both in terms of the way quests are given in individual zones, as well as the way in which players will be directed from zone to zone. It will be completely reasonable in Cataclysm to level from 1-60 in Azeroth solely on Kalimdor, or solely on Eastern Kingdoms. In general, there will be much less need to jump from continent to continent because you hit dry spots while questing and need to find somewhere else to go in order to find level-appropriate quests. The goal is to make sure players are given the choice to go to the zones they want to while leveling, rather than force them to the other end of the world for a level or two.
Whether or not any changes are going to be made to the leveling curve in Northrend, or additional changes made to leveling in Outland, remains to be seen. We do want to ensure that the leveling experience from 1-85 isn't too daunting. That is a lot of levels after all. Once we have the Cataclysm leveling zones from 1-60 and 78-85 fleshed out, we'll more closely evaluate the full leveling experience during our beta test. (Source)
Just to clarify, it's not vehicle combat at the beginning of the dungeon. The forces of the Twilight's Hammer within Grim Batol are massive, so you'll start the dungeon with a bombing run through the halls to thin their ranks. It'll be a set flight path and will not involve aerial combat. This is only to get things started. This dungeon is not vehicle-driven at all. (Source)
Lack of class changes in Patch 3.3.5
Our systems team is hard at work tweaking classes, updating talent trees, and restructuring the way in which new spells and abilities are learned during the leveling process (given that spells and abilities will scale with level rather than have multiple ranks). These changes are planned to coincide with a future patch which will implement the framework for Cataclysm. No major tweaking is planned to take place beforehand unless serious class gameplay issues arise. (Source)
Leveling Curve in Cataclysm
As you mentioned, the leveling curve all the way from 1-70 was adjusted in the past. We feel those changes coupled with heirloom experience bonuses make for a reasonable leveling experience up to 70. Since we're making major changes to the 1-60 Azeroth zones in Cataclysm, it isn't likely we'll be making further adjustments to the leveling curve there. The goal is to encourage new and old players alike to try out a new race or class and experience all of the new content and environment changes in the "old world."
As it is, Cataclysm will bring about a much better quest flow, both in terms of the way quests are given in individual zones, as well as the way in which players will be directed from zone to zone. It will be completely reasonable in Cataclysm to level from 1-60 in Azeroth solely on Kalimdor, or solely on Eastern Kingdoms. In general, there will be much less need to jump from continent to continent because you hit dry spots while questing and need to find somewhere else to go in order to find level-appropriate quests. The goal is to make sure players are given the choice to go to the zones they want to while leveling, rather than force them to the other end of the world for a level or two.
Whether or not any changes are going to be made to the leveling curve in Northrend, or additional changes made to leveling in Outland, remains to be seen. We do want to ensure that the leveling experience from 1-85 isn't too daunting. That is a lot of levels after all. Once we have the Cataclysm leveling zones from 1-60 and 78-85 fleshed out, we'll more closely evaluate the full leveling experience during our beta test. (Source)
Site Navigation
vBulletin Message