After 7.3.5 leveling old content will take forever

[Deleted]

Thats the thing though. With the changes they are doing now, all you get is more time spent in the same content that you say you hate. How is that an improvement?
Also, you won't get more new players liking the game by taking a process that turned them away from the game and making it even slower and more tedious.

In any case, focusing all their efforts on the few new players WoW might get and ignoring the ones that already play the game seems like a stupid, stupid idea.

How disconnected are you? The time spent isnt the issue.

I had a few friends try WoW for the first time recently, out of 3 only 1 stuck with it and made it to the endgame and now plays regularly.

The other 2? They left due to 2 main reasons.

1. No actual challange, dungeons, quests etc... It was all stupidly easy, and seeing 4 heirloomed out players butcher the instance didnt help.

2. Outleveling the stories, some of the stories they were really interested in and finished anyway, but they still said... The story felt disconnected and rushed. I agree, WoW could take a page out of SWTORs book in regards to how to make a good lvling quest experiance. (To be fair that is about the only thing good about SWTOR these days...)

[Osmeric]

In any case, focusing all their efforts on the few new players WoW might get and ignoring the ones that already play the game seems like a stupid, stupid idea.

They're focusing their effort on people who enjoy shelling out $$$ for leveling boosts.

[Skulltaker]

Well, it doesn't really affect many older players at all as many of us have all the classes maxed out.
Acting as this is some for of improvement seems silly though. That is hardly what the designers had in mind here.

I'm not so sure, but of course, opinions might differ. But one problem WoW has is first impressions. If you use the RAF program, or a test account, you will be thrown into a startingzone, which you will quickly outlevel, even without heirlooms. You will one- or twohit most mobs, you will experience half a zone's story and then be forced to move on. The impression will be less than ideal.

Now however, mobs will be your strength most of the times, remaining a challange, and you can continue stories to your hearts content. For old players it makes little difference, but for new ones it will make a huge one.

[Aggrophobic]

They're focusing their effort on people who enjoy shelling out $$$ for leveling boosts.

Yes, pretty much.
There aren't that many of them though and they can't keep the game going with just thoes players.

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How disconnected are you? The time spent isnt the issue.

I had a few friends try WoW for the first time recently, out of 3 only 1 stuck with it and made it to the endgame and now plays regularly.

The other 2? They left due to 2 main reasons.

1. No actual challange, dungeons, quests etc... It was all stupidly easy, and seeing 4 heirloomed out players butcher the instance didnt help.

2. Outleveling the stories, some of the stories they were really interested in and finished anyway, but they still said... The story felt disconnected and rushed. I agree, WoW could take a page out of SWTORs book in regards to how to make a good lvling quest experiance. (To be fair that is about the only thing good about SWTOR these days...)

But the 2-3 new players make up such a samll part of the playerbase.
The game is just too old to attract new player to make it worth it.

[Osmeric]

Yes, pretty much.
There aren't that many of them though and they can't keep the game going with just thoes players.

Moreover, a new strategy of "make the game shitty, then charge $$$ to avoid the shit" is not a good sign.

[Aggrophobic]

In the end, they have to do something because new players are needed sooner or later (or wow just will slowly fade away). Keep in mind, I didn't try new leveling, however, according patch notes and reports from people, it is fixing some of these issue I personally have with current leveling. Let's see how it pans out.

It may mean nothing for people, who hate leveling, but for these, who can see enjoyment in this "journey", it could be improvement.

WoW is and has been slowly fading away for years. No amount of changes will change that.
Games age and new ones take their place. These changes won't make any difference or as I already said, they might actually speed up the process as the players that still like the main features will be leaving when they get no or very little new content.

[ManiaCCC]

But the 2-3 new players make up such a samll part of the playerbase.
The game is just too old to attract new player to make it worth it.

This is speculation buddy. You or me have no idea if WoW is attracting new players or not and if yes, what is their retention rate. Don't speculate. They have data, we don't. Only thing what we can focus on is, if current changes to leveling are good or not.

WoW is and has been slowly fading away for years. No amount of changes will change that.
Games age and new ones take their place. These changes won't make any difference or as I already said, they might actually speed up the process as the players that still like the main features will be leaving when they get no or very little new content.

Maybe, but I still can't wait to try new leveling out. I still want level up few characters, so I am waiting, when these changes will hit the live servers. And I have hard time to believe, i am the only one.

[Aggrophobic]

This is speculation buddy. You or me have no idea if WoW is attracting new players or not and if yes, what is their retention rate. Don't speculate. They have data, we don't. Only thing what we can focus on is, if current changes to leveling are good or not.

And they are not, thats the point.
The same content, just as easy as it always was only it takes more time.

Nothing but the time it takes has changed. Thats is not good game design.

[Caaethil]

I think some people are confused by what is intended by these changes. As far as experience goes, Blizz has flattened it out a bit, making it longer to level at the lower end, but easier at the high end. Again, smoothing it out, but overall no real difference in time as far as XP goes. The only other change that I see was adding to the mobs health pools so players aren't 1-shotting mobs. This is a great change, because as someone who has started leveling alts recently.. I can tell you, I didn't use more then 1-3 spells while questing... anything else just wasn't needed as I 1 shot mobs.. it's boring, doesn't help you master the class, and takes away talent choices, because I just pick the passives.. Overall, I think this are well thought out changes that will make leveling a lot more fun.

I think you're misreading this graph. You seem to be suggesting that the higher levels come faster than before to make up for the lower levels taking longer. This isn't true. Not a single point on the PTR curve is lower than on the live curve. In other words, not a single level requires less exp than it did before. Every level saw an increase in exp required, or no change. So while some levels got hit harder than others, it still takes longer overall.

Bearing in mind I'm happy with the changes, I'm just making a correction. Honestly, I think the best compromise might be to bump the heirloom exp boost a little.

[ManiaCCC]

And they are not, thats the point.
The same content, just as easy as it always was only it takes more time.

Nothing but the time it takes has changed. Thats is not good game design.

From what I seen, I disagree. Fact, that quests stays relevant is big improvements, especially if you want follow the story. Also dungeons seems to be improved by quite a bit. People can actually wipe in dungeon, you are not forced to solo dungeons to have some challenge - group play means something. If they could rework some quests to be group guest again, it would be perfect.

[Deleted]

Thats why you should have every class on 110 already. Although im saving Mage and Shaman for Void Elf and Zandalari Troll!

[Caaethil]

And they are not, thats the point.
The same content, just as easy as it always was only it takes more time.

Nothing but the time it takes has changed. Thats is not good game design.

What are you talking about? It is good game design if the time it currently takes is a problem. Which it is.

The problem is that the most efficient way to quest and do dungeons is to spam whichever button does the most damage. The problem is that, for a new player coming into the game, none of the choices they make matter. They don't learn rotations because they don't need to. They just choose passive talents and don't even know what they do because they're inconsequential. It's boring. And they have to do that for 110 levels. And once they're done, they have no idea how to play the game. That's the problem, and that is 100% down to the mobs having 0 health. The quest design itself is perfectly fine.

[Maudib]

I can’t understand why players are exited for MORE TIME enduring old content. I play wow since the Burning Crusade and yes i loved it, but the reality is that all those zones are OLD CONTENT now.

The age of the content has nothing to do with why people find it a pain/waste of time. It is because it has no feeling of reward or progression... drops are replaced in 20 minutes, crafting items no longer are of value, and with the way talents are tossed out... you don;t feel like you are getting stronger.

Blizzard has placed too much emphasis and reward in endgame that the rest of the game is just a waste of time. This is why so many people are looking forward to classic... old content made relevant again... and fun!

[Dergiab]

Well to be fair, there were no real choices in the old talent trees. With the new ones you actually do have to make a choice here and there.

Legion has nailed most of the new talent trees, but they were REALLY boring in MOP and WOD which might be why a part of the playerbase is allergic to the current system. Usually it's a choice of three things that does the same thing.

[Aggrophobic]

Legion has nailed most of the new talent trees, but they were REALLY boring in MOP and WOD which might be why a part of the playerbase is allergic to the current system. Usually it's a choice of three things that does the same thing.

That is not quite true. Overall class design in MoP was the best it ever was and that includes the talents.
WoD had some that were a bit bland but overall the talents themselves was not the main issue classes were bad in WoD.

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What are you talking about? It is good game design if the time it currently takes is a problem. Which it is.

The problem is that the most efficient way to quest and do dungeons is to spam whichever button does the most damage. The problem is that, for a new player coming into the game, none of the choices they make matter. They don't learn rotations because they don't need to. They just choose passive talents and don't even know what they do because they're inconsequential. It's boring. And they have to do that for 110 levels. And once they're done, they have no idea how to play the game. That's the problem, and that is 100% down to the mobs having 0 health. The quest design itself is perfectly fine.

The point is, the faster you can level up the better as leveling is simply not fun.
You'll never learn how to play your class while leveling anyway. A level 45 warlock does not play the same way as a level 110 with maxed out traits and good gear.

The quest design is not fine at all. It's miles behind many of the competitors and without a huge overhaul and redesign it will stay that way. Making it take more time only serves to make the content less enjoyable and will most likely result in more players giving up long befor they reach max level. It might lead to a few more boosts being sold and yes, thats what the changes are about, most likely. New races added and leveling made much worse so they can get some microtransaction money.

[Deleted]

I really like the idea of redoing the old world, I`m mainly leveling in dungeons bcs I cant finish a zone without maxing it (even without dungeons) and I waste time moving to another zone to do 20 Qs and outlevel it again. The only problem (for me) is that you cant anymore learn the class while you level. I hope this problem will be kinda solved once artifact weps are gone. Bcs they provide tons of different stuff that you cant optain below level 110. I dont want every single spell at lvl 40, but maybe BfA with the remove of the AW will have better impact, who knows. Also it will be good if they buff the AP you get at lvl 100. New players (or players playing new class) cant get past few traits while leveling and once they get to 110 bammm everything unlocks. I dont mind reading the traits at 110 a few times to see what is going on but if they improve em, so you can end up with most of the original traits at lvl 108-109 will be good, in that way you can see how the spec is playing atleast by a little.
PS: Bad english, I know! :P

[Queen of Hamsters]

These changes are bad for new players because with the pruning players will spend too much time at low levels and not understand how their classes play. I think this is a push to see more transactions of level boosts from new players IMO. This isn't a mystery.

That's alright then, since it was always the case that you don't learn how a class operates and is optimized until you take interest in it, usually once you've reached max level and need to perform rather than just kill quest mobs.

These changes are made to make leveling less about travelling between zones to stay relevant, and more about going through the zones as you progress.

The retards saying it's about "earning Blizz them micro-transaction monies!" and such are clearly blind to the fact that players that give 2 shits about leveling, have been asking for these changes. They also project their own jaded, pathetic conspiracy theory-crap onto new players when new players are better served by a proper experience than outleveling zones and spending most of their time on flightpaths/fighting gray mobs because they don't understand how XP works.

[Magnagarde]

They shouldn't have increased the experience required for each and every level. Scaling zones, putting them into brackets and all of that was fine, but increasing the total amount of experience needed was totally uncalled for.

I wouldn't mind leveling with the old experience requirements, in which the heirlooms offer a great advantage and fasten things up, while I'd still be able to level through entire zones without outleveling them. This was the whole point of players wanting scaling; so you can level(at a faster rate with your heirlooms) through questing, without leaving zones and questlines unfinished. What Blizzard did is the complete opposite.

The only thing they've done here is to completely negate the effect of heirlooms and essentially doom all players that have no heirlooms. Leveling is now unimaginable without heirlooms as it would take a stupid amount of time, especially for new players. The new experience charts are literally counting on everyone having full-heirloom characters.

[solinari6]

Leveling is now unimaginable without heirlooms as it would take a stupid amount of time, especially for new players.

I don't think this is universally true. A lot of new players like a good leveling system. My roommate recently got into MMOs (Elder Scrolls) and I thought about getting him into WoW, but he really digs just plain questing and crafting. that is pretty much broken in WoW right now until you get to max level. So I haven't bothered getting him to try it. Why should new players have to skip (or skim) over HUGE amounts of content before they get something that is fun?

[Traveler Voltin]

RIP all 300% exp potions