The leveling process needs to be slowed down

[Deleted]

I quit WoW some time ago, but I still occassionally check what's going on in Azeroth. Recent Post Mortem interviews (especially the one with GC) made me really interested with MoP. I think it may cure some of the crap taste that Cata left in many people's mouths.

My favorite thing in WoW is leveling your toons. It's like an epic journey, meeting new people, visiting new and old places, listening to the exceptional WoW soundtrack and many, many other things. My biggest concern with MoP is the 1-80 leveling process. Blizzard has been reducing the amount of experience to level up gradually over the expansion packs, and I think Cata is where they really crossed the line.

The low-level questing content just doesn't go in par with the current experience system and it feels too fast and rushed overall. All of the low-level areas have been revamped in Cata and it pains me that I can't fully experience their content, because I just keep outleveling everything. I always follow the questlines, never grind, do instances just one time to get the achievement and complete quests associated with them, and I still outlevel every single area I come to. And I don't mean just some slight overleveling. After some time I find ONLY grey quests in my questlog, which is disturbing. I talked with a lot of my friends about this concern, and they agree that something is off. This thing happens to people even when they attempt to minimize the experience flow by avoiding killing unnecessary NPCs.

A lot of players (including me) like to complete all quests in a zone before leaving it and then proceed to the next one. You can't really do that in Cata, because you will find yourself surrounded by grey quests.

I understand that Blizzard wants to make the leveling process slower, so everyone can start raiding and get them shiny epix as soon as possible, but please don't forget about people who play not only for endgame content, but also for leveling your toon (yes, there are such people). Fix this and make low-level questing a longer, more epic adventure, considering all the hard work you did revamping the old zones, so that players can actually experience them instead of just rushing through the content, skipping most of the quests.

I believe there are ways to make all people happy. Make the leveling process longer (but not EXTREMELY longer), so that your level actually flows with the area you're in.

[Rivin]

If you like to complete zones while leveling, simply disable experience gains every five or ten levels until you've finished all the zones in that range you want to do. It's costly if you're low on funds, but otherwise it makes questing much more enjoyable.

[Hedleyazg]

It should be slowed down so new players can actually learn how to play the game.

[Dhi]

SOR = instant 80! tuning instant anyone?

[RollTide]

Completely agree. As someone who loved to level alts in the past, I find the current pace annoying. Nothing is more frustrating then being halfway through a zone and realizing the things you're killing have all gone grey(Northern Barrens is a HUGE offender especially if you went Goblin and popped out of the Lost Isles at 13+).

@Above Poster, SoR is an entirely different animal and completely unrelated to the problem.

[danpaladin]

I do not believe slowing down leveling would cause players to become better at the game. There were plenty of bad players back in Vanilla. Plenty now.

As others have mentioned in countless other threads, the process is as fast or as slow as you want it to be. Wear all the heirlooms or none at all. Disable leveling. Don't get rested XP.

As someone who enjoys endgame a lot more than leveling, I wish I had the option of leveling even faster.

[Vargas]

I agree that the leveling experience should be a bit longer; when you add heirlooms and guild perks on top of an already speedy system you really burn through the early content (IMO) too quickly.

[bielanskimichal]

I do not believe slowing down leveling would cause players to become better at the game. There were plenty of bad players back in Vanilla. Plenty now.

As others have mentioned in countless other threads, the process is as fast or as slow as you want it to be. Wear all the heirlooms or none at all. Disable leveling. Don't get rested XP.

As someone who enjoys endgame a lot more than leveling, I wish I had the option of leveling even faster.

I agree, if you think it goes too fast then slow it down for yourself. Most people enjoy leveling to some extent but want to get to endgame ASAP.

[Profish13]

It should be slowed down so new players can actually learn how to play the game.

Except you dont learn how to play from leveling, at all. Back in BC when I started playing, I got my warrior to 70 and had no clue what I was doing. WoW was my first MMO so I had no idea what a tank or DPS was, no idea what rotation to use, really how to do anything except melee, cleave, and heroic strike mobs. Half the time Id use cleave on mobs single target because cleave sounded like it did a lot of damage.

Eventually I found websites that taught me things and made friends with people who gave me hints, but leveling itself literally gave me zero preparation for end game.

Now like I said, WoW was my first MMO so maybe all MMOs are like this, but every other game Ive ever played taught you how to play. Maybe it didnt show you the most advanced stuff, but it taught you enough to get by. Whether it was tutorial levels or literal directions on the screen, within 10-30 minutes I had a decent idea how to play any game I tried. WoW never came close to that.

[Deleted]

I agree, if you think it goes too fast then slow it down for yourself. Most people enjoy leveling to some extent but want to get to endgame ASAP.

The problem is, I can't. Disabling XP gains is a no go (I mean come on...), I don't wear heirlooms at all and my guilds are mostly low level. Nothing can help you with outleveling zones, except skipping quests... which kinda is a bad idea, considering that the new questing content is on railroads so you have to complete certain quests to get another.

[Netherspark]

I would prefer if there was at least an option to reduce your exp gains. Obviously a minimum limit would have to established, a rate that will bring you to a zone's intended finishing level only by completing all the quests.

For example, if you enter a lv15-20 zone now at level 15 (without heirlooms) you'll hit lv20 about halfway to two-thirds of the way though.

What I'd like to see with this option is that you only reach lv20 after completing the whole zone and dungeons/battlegrounds will not award any significant exp (or any exp at all).

[Rivin]

The problem is, I can't. Disabling XP gains is a no go (I mean come on...)

Except that solves the problem entirely. So why is that a "no go"?

[LordVada]

The problem is, I can't. Disabling XP gains is a no go (I mean come on...), I don't wear heirlooms at all and my guilds are mostly low level. Nothing can help you with outleveling zones, except skipping quests... which kinda is a bad idea, considering that the new questing content is on railroads so you have to complete certain quests to get another.

Your logic isn't very sound there. Basically you're saying you want to get half the xp so you have to finish the zone. Why not do half the zone while you get xp for it, and the other half of the zone when you're not getting xp for it? In the end its the same thing, just psychologically different.

[Netherspark]

Except that solves the problem entirely. So why is that a "no go"?

I think what he means is that it's just a major pain to have to take repeated trips to and from SW/Orgrimmar twice every time you play through a zone.

[Deleted]

Except that solves the problem entirely. So why is that a "no go"?

Because it's like amputing an ill limb that can still be fixed. Well, it doesn't hurt anymore so it solves the problem entirely, right?

[Lordender]

Its almost like theres a lot people who've never played Blizzard games before, how is current WoW leveling any different from Diablo 2? The entire game is completely irrelevant until the current expansion in current WoW just as how all of Diablo 2 is completely irrelevant until hell mode. The type of game that WoW is serves no point in slowing down leveling from 1-80(1-85 come MoP) when everything prior to the latest expansion is, once again, completely irrelevant content due to how each expansion invalidates everything else before it.

I don't think you learn anything leveling not because the leveling speed is fast, you don't learn anything because the game does a poor job at forcing you into situations where learning when to use that critical ability that makes the difference between life or death isn't present at all during the leveling process. When you pimp yourself out in heirlooms you can really wreck leveling mobs without knowing any rotations, depending on crits you can 1-3 shot most of quest mobs you encounter.

When you faceroll quest mobs like that, does it really surprise you when you see people in group content not knowing what to do? now they have to use all these tactics, rotations they never had to use for 85 levels which sets up high fail rates for the new players. Combine that with the general attitudes you come across in LFD or LFR and now you have a real problem on your hands.

[Deleted]

Your logic isn't very sound there. Basically you're saying you want to get half the xp so you have to finish the zone. Why not do half the zone while you get xp for it, and the other half of the zone when you're not getting xp for it? In the end its the same thing, just psychologically different.

I don't want to "finish the zone" at all costs. I just want the leveling process to feel less awkward. You can't achieve this with such cheesy tactics like disabling the XP gain.

[Senistian]

my first toon was a hunter and leveling in TBC when it first came out taught me nothing of how the class worked. My friend who got me into playing said, you wear leather until 40, then mail. And you want agi. So thats all I knew. send pet, click mob, press some button that looks cool, mob dies. Slowing the leveling process down won't teach anyone anything. I also hate leveling. I think once you have leveled a toon to max level you should have the option to auto level any other toon to max level at any time. I really see no reason not to. I mean, I already did the quest, I know the lore, and everything I'll need to know to play at max level is found on outside resources anyway. Why not?

[Baine]

While I agree the pace is a bit too fast, I understand why they made it that way. With all the expansions, we will need 90 levels until you see the end game content. That's a lot of levels.

[Deleted]

Its almost like theres a lot people who've never played Blizzard games before, how is current WoW leveling any different from Diablo 2? The entire game is completely irrelevant until the current expansion in current WoW just as how all of Diablo 2 is completely irrelevant until hell mode. The type of game that WoW is serves no point in slowing down leveling from 1-80(1-85 come MoP) when everything prior to the latest expansion is, once again, completely irrelevant content due to how each expansion invalidates everything else before it.

Sorry to put it so indelicately but... I think you're everything that's wrong with this game.