My Leveling Experience in 7.3.5

[Deleted]

These are my thoughts on leveling in 7.3.5 please feel free to reply with your experiences and whether you agree with my last point.

So, after the patch hit I decided to level a new Alt to get a feel for the zone scaling for my soon to be Void Elf.

As I would probably use them on the Velf I used my full Heirloom set (- the ring) giving me a 45% xp increase and a few trinkets and neck items to help with downtime. My zone progression was, Dun Morogh > Loch Modan > Wetlands > Arathi Highlands > The Hinterlands > Western Plaguelands > Eastern Plaguelands > Burning Steeps > Redridge Mountains.

Up until Western Plaguelands it felt pretty cohesive as a progressive storyline and questing goes for a typical Dwarf, with Burning Steeps and Redridge being a bit of an oddity too get me to 60.

Now to be honest everything progressed smoothly most zones gave me roughly 5-6 levels after Loch Modan which I left around level 23-24 and I hit 60 pretty easily after the 9 zones. I made a point to get the questing achievement for each zone to help towards my Loremaster and did the odd dungeon when it felt right in the story.

However, for a new player who is fresh in the game to reach level 60 that’s another 45% worth of xp needed, pushing my 9 zones completed to 12-13 + id imagine as a new player that I would feel a bit overwhelming and disheartening that after completing the best part of an entire content I was only half way to max level and hadn’t reached the first expansion yet.

I can understand why so many people are angry that it takes too long to level, using heirlooms feels to me what base leveling should be.

I would like to suggest a XP bump 20-30% should to it and the scaled zones would take care of the rest.

With Heirlooms I think 7 zones in classic should be enough to hit 60 without feeling too slow, finishing my story at around the Western Plaguelands sounds about right, as it was here I started to feel a bit burnt out.

Posted this on the official forums as well but wanted to see what the MMO-Champion community thinks as well.

[hablix]

Maybe base XP needs to be buffed, and heirloom bonus XP needs to be nerfed.

[arrez]

You pretty much have to do most of the zones in EK to hit 60, without heirlooms. That's a pretty good pace tbh.

[Phuongvi]

I don't know but so far, I am under the impression heirlooms are useless (or a must)
Yes, You have quest everywhere, there's no zone travelling or anything, but I almost get one level after turning 8 quests. ( with all heirlooms), kinda frustrating.

Level 23 in the Blood eleves starting zones, 4:34 hours played, maybe I have wasted 20 min in Slivermoon.

[Lynexia]

Level bloat.

I don't think they should even tweak it. I think the best way would be one of 2 things.

Give massive XP upon completing a zone fully

Remove 60 levels, leave required XP alone

[Bullettime]

Would love to see them give a large amount of XP as a zone completion bonus. Without heirlooms, the leveling process seems like it would overwhelm players with how much shit they need to go through while getting basically nowhere. Trying a character without one and it's a total slog.

Then for players with heirlooms, the XP bonus and faster kill speed will let them knock down the zones faster and increase the bonus.

Basically, provides a few fixes while encouraging and rewarding you for staying through a zone to completion.

[Divinexve]

I hate it so much.
All I care about is hitting max level and doing endgame :|

[Powerogue]

after completing the best part of an entire content I was only half way to max level and hadn’t reached the first expansion yet.

In fairness there are two main continents, with a lot more viable zones than before. If you're level 55 or so and going "okay I should just need 1 more zone which do I pick?" that means you have like 30 choices instead of 2.

[shoc]

A new player won't have a frame of reference to realize that the changes to the game have made it take longer for them to level up. Time to level up is a pointless metric if they are having fun while leveling. I had fun while playing through the MMO style quests in Dragon Age: Origins and I certainly didn't keep track of the time it took for me to beat the game, because I was having fun and engaging with a game that presented a moderate challenge.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

I hate it so much.
All I care about is hitting max level and doing endgame :|

then get some gold or some money and get a boost.

[Gracin]

I hate it so much.
All I care about is hitting max level and doing endgame :|

That is why the boost is available for players like you.

[Varjo410]

I like the idea of bonus xp for completing a zone (or perhaps an %xp buff).

They also should add automatic fp/travel to a zone you just picked from the hero's call board, I find myself just picking the one that's most convenient to reach at the moment of choosing instead of what I like the most if the travel time is too long.

[Gracin]

These are my thoughts on leveling in 7.3.5 please feel free to reply with your experiences and whether you agree with my last point.

So, after the patch hit I decided to level a new Alt to get a feel for the zone scaling for my soon to be Void Elf.

As I would probably use them on the Velf I used my full Heirloom set (- the ring) giving me a 45% xp increase and a few trinkets and neck items to help with downtime. My zone progression was, Dun Morogh > Loch Modan > Wetlands > Arathi Highlands > The Hinterlands > Western Plaguelands > Eastern Plaguelands > Burning Steeps > Redridge Mountains.

Up until Western Plaguelands it felt pretty cohesive as a progressive storyline and questing goes for a typical Dwarf, with Burning Steeps and Redridge being a bit of an oddity too get me to 60.

Now to be honest everything progressed smoothly most zones gave me roughly 5-6 levels after Loch Modan which I left around level 23-24 and I hit 60 pretty easily after the 9 zones. I made a point to get the questing achievement for each zone to help towards my Loremaster and did the odd dungeon when it felt right in the story.

However, for a new player who is fresh in the game to reach level 60 that’s another 45% worth of xp needed, pushing my 9 zones completed to 12-13 + id imagine as a new player that I would feel a bit overwhelming and disheartening that after completing the best part of an entire content I was only half way to max level and hadn’t reached the first expansion yet.

I can understand why so many people are angry that it takes too long to level, using heirlooms feels to me what base leveling should be.

I would like to suggest a XP bump 20-30% should to it and the scaled zones would take care of the rest.

With Heirlooms I think 7 zones in classic should be enough to hit 60 without feeling too slow, finishing my story at around the Western Plaguelands sounds about right, as it was here I started to feel a bit burnt out.

Posted this on the official forums as well but wanted to see what the MMO-Champion community thinks as well.

Prior to 7.3.5 if you were to follow a "normal" leveling path, questing in each zone until that zones cap, and then moving on, you would basically be going through 12 zones.

Dun Morogh > Loch Modan > Wetlands > Arathi Highlands > Hinterlands > WPL > EPL > Badlands > Searing Gorge > Burning Steppes > Swamp of Sorrows > Blasted Lands

Keep in mind, that that was with or without heirlooms. Granted you could skate by with heirlooms and overlevel in a zone or two, but in the end you still had to hit at minimum 10 zones.

[Magnagarde]

What needs to be done is that the experience requirements to level up are reduced by at least a quarter of what it is on live. As I said in numerous threads, scaling is great; the ridiculously high experience requirements to level up are the problem. This - as was mentioned before - is even more evident when someone who doesn't have heirlooms has to level.

I saw this and experienced this back on PTR.

[SirCowdog]

A new player won't have a frame of reference to realize that the changes to the game have made it take longer for them to level up. Time to level up is a pointless metric if they are having fun while leveling. I had fun while playing through the MMO style quests in Dragon Age: Origins and I certainly didn't keep track of the time it took for me to beat the game, because I was having fun and engaging with a game that presented a moderate challenge.

This is actually a really important point that a lot of people are missing. And what's more important is when a new player is having fun leveling and seeing the story, when suddenly(for no apparent reason) at level 60 experience rewards start nose-diving, regardless of where in the progression they are.

This is going to break the fun and immersion of the leveling process just as badly as the old system. Having to drop everything at 60 and 80 to avoid being punished doesn't make sense.

[Zyky]

You pretty much have to do most of the zones in EK to hit 60, without heirlooms. That's a pretty good pace tbh.

I was able to hit 60(without heirlooms, wanted to test it personally) in EK Alliance without having to do either Stranglethorn, Blasted Lands, Swamp of Sorrows, and Burning Steps. So this is fairly accurate, you need to do roughly 75% of EK to get to 60. Also was done in under 10 hours, so its not as terrible as people say.

[SirCowdog]

What needs to be done is that the experience requirements to level up are reduced by at least a quarter of what it is on live. As I said in numerous threads, scaling is great; the ridiculously high experience requirements to level up are the problem. This - as was mentioned before - is even more evident when someone who doesn't have heirlooms has to level.

I saw this and experienced this back on PTR.

That and the flow of the quest progression needs to be corrected. You go from cata zones, backwards in the timeline to TBC or WotLK, then forward again to cata/mop. Once again breaking the flow of the story and questing progression.

I REALLY hope Blizzard has more planned for later down the road. Honestly, with the way scaling works, they probably ought to start players in TBC or WotLK at level 1, then move through Cata, MoP, WoD, Legion.

[Pastaman]

I like the idea of bonus xp for completing a zone (or perhaps an %xp buff).

They also should add automatic fp/travel to a zone you just picked from the hero's call board, I find myself just picking the one that's most convenient to reach at the moment of choosing instead of what I like the most if the travel time is too long.

Buy the toy from the heirloom guy. It gives you at least one flight path in each vanilla zone.

[Zyky]

I don't know but so far, I am under the impression heirlooms are useless (or a must)
Yes, You have quest everywhere, there's no zone travelling or anything, but I almost get one level after turning 8 quests. ( with all heirlooms), kinda frustrating.

Level 23 in the Blood eleves starting zones, 4:34 hours played, maybe I have wasted 20 min in Slivermoon.

You're doing something seriously wrong if you're only 23 in 4 and a half hours...I hit 60 with no heirlooms in just under 10 hours...

[Varjo410]

Buy the toy from the heirloom guy. It gives you at least one flight path in each vanilla zone.

Ha, I had totally forgotten about those. Thanks.