people who prefer retail to classic: do you feel the level phase in retail is ok?

[Maarius]

I don't want to spark just another retail vs. classic thread, I just want to know from the people who prefer retail to classic:

Do you like the level phase in retail?
Do you think it's a good experience?
If no, would starting the game at endgame be preferable?
Too fast / too slow?
Should you be able to skip whole expansions worth of content?

Just your thoughts on current retail leveling from people who prefer retail...

[BB8]

I love the story so far.
Retail gives me a chance to make my own history with my chars.

I expect nothing from the story in advance, so I am not dissapointed when a new expac comes out like a lot experience and then ventilate that here on champion.

Instead I enjoy the ride.

I also hope classic will be a succes for those who do like that. Maybe good elements from classic will come back to retail.

So the game feels at a good speed and with some squishes between expansions here and there its very doable to skip some content

[bloodykiller86]

I don't want to spark just another retail vs. classic thread, I just want to know from the people who prefer retail to classic:

Do you like the level phase in retail?
Do you think it's a good experience?
If no, would starting the game at endgame be preferable?
Too fast / too slow?
Should you be able to skip whole expansions worth of content?

Just your thoughts on current retail leveling from people who prefer retail...

I think we can all agree that the leveling experience isn't amazing but to me the leveling experience in vanilla/classic sucks too. Mainly there's an issue that blizzard has already recognized due to their questionnaire. Their vertical expansion ideology has created an issue where old content becomes invalidated and i think this is a mistake. Blizzard has this massive world that isn't put to use because of their design philosophy.

A few good examples of where blizzard can improve the game alot.

Incursions are fantastic pieces of content that are completely under utilized. They should be around the world and even around enemy capital cities with an end quest to attack the city and kill the leader of it.

WQs should be all over the world in random zones every day instead of just the current content

Quest text needs to be expanded a bit. Theyve gotten a bit lazy on the explanations as of late but i still enjoy reading them all

Leveling shouldnt be so easy, it takes longer with the 7.3.5 update but its still pretty hard to die. I think 110-120 went way to fast. shouldve taken longer

Story wise though the game is great honestly regardless of what people say. Vanilla lore and story telling was a complete clusterf*** imho and im glad when Cata revamped all the old zones. loved re-doing all the quests for loremaster when it came out

[keldarepewpew]

Bb8 is the way all mmo posters should be happy for people who enjoy what they like, wish we had more like you.

[Barzotti]

I don't want to spark just another retail vs. classic thread, I just want to know from the people who prefer retail to classic:

Do you like the level phase in retail?
Do you think it's a good experience?
If no, would starting the game at endgame be preferable?
Too fast / too slow?
Should you be able to skip whole expansions worth of content?

Just your thoughts on current retail leveling from people who prefer retail...

It depends on how much characters you already leveled. After the first 2-3 characters, it became a chore I want to get rid of it fast (especially in the 60-110 range, because you keep going into the same leveling process). Been here, done that. However, I enjoyed a lot my first alliance character because everything was brand new and because I loved the Tiragarde Sound and Drustvar chain quests and the atmosphere. I'd definitely like to be able to skip whole expansions, because I enjoy the game the most at max level.

Leveling pace is fine for me: even if you can speed things up significantly, it still takes you 30-40 hours of playtime from 1 (or 20) to 120. The leveling process could be more interesting/challenging for sure though and some scaling has been atrociously bad (you are comparatively way more powerful at level 111 than at level 119, that doesn't make sense in a RPG).

[Lorgar Aurelian]

The gameplay is still better then classic Leveling so ya.

[thilicen]

Prefer it by miles but I will admit the classic beta made me pretty nostalgic.

[Sluvs]

Leveling is kinda fun. But the lack of challenge makes it kinda boring, in the 50's or so, and only get worse from there.

We kinda can skip it. That is the point of the Lvl boosts.

[Kumorii]

Thing with Retail leveling is that there is no danger, there is no thought required... which means that essentially it just becomes a grind like a Cookie clicker.
Click said buttons without thought X times then lvl.

Level revamp, to lower amount of levels and make each level more impact in addition to making the world dangerous would make me want to level more characters.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Frankly it could be longer, as that part is usually the most immersive to me. Repeating dungeons, raids and now recycled quests ad nauseum isn't.. in a perfect world the game would be an eternal quest, but that is just not feasible.

[Rydanis]

Leveling has gotten a lot better since zones were scaled imo. I used to hate leveling, now I'm a bit indifferent to it and find some parts actually enjoyable. What I'm not a huge fan of is how much leveling there actually is to do, past 80 it starts getting much, much more tedious.

My perspective is coming from wanting to get to end game content though, that's my preference in the game. Raiding and working on achievements is what I find fun, leveling is something I mostly view as a step to getting there.

[Maljinwo]

The only part I hate is leveling from 60 to 80

Then it's pretty fast if you know what you are doing

[thilicen]

Thing with Retail leveling is that there is no danger, there is no thought required... which means that essentially it just becomes a grind like a Cookie clicker.
Click said buttons without thought X times then lvl.

Level revamp, to lower amount of levels and make each level more impact in addition to making the world dangerous would make me want to level more characters.

They could do a lot by implementing the island expedition type of AI to NPCs all over the world, at least pulling larger packs could be more interesting.

[Razorice]

I just want to raid do end-game content because that’s what I play for so, yeah I think I like leveling in Retail because it’s fast and easy or you can just boost if you have the G’s. IMO leveling should be optional at this stage. As for skipping expansions worth of content - Legion is a great example: you don’t need legendaries, artifacts, etc so you skip most expansions content anyway.

[prwraith]

They could do a lot by implementing the island expedition type of AI to NPCs all over the world, at least pulling larger packs could be more interesting.

Even on mythic island NPC AI is pretty laughably easy tbh.

[Queendom]

Since 2007 I only leveled one char from 1 to max.
So no, level phase is not okay for me, especially when you have 120 levels and the content you've seen again and again.

[Rydanis]

Even on mythic island NPC AI is pretty laughably easy tbh.

Making it harder isn't necessarily the point, but rather making it more interesting. If mobs could behave differently every time you approach them it would make questing much less grindy. Like maybe one will call hidden allies, or another will attempt to run you into a more dangerous area. It would at least be more dynamic, I'd be pretty into that.

[Trend]

I don't want to spark just another retail vs. classic thread, I just want to know from the people who prefer retail to classic:

Do you like the level phase in retail?
Do you think it's a good experience?
If no, would starting the game at endgame be preferable?
Too fast / too slow?
Should you be able to skip whole expansions worth of content?

Just your thoughts on current retail leveling from people who prefer retail...

I do prefer the modern game.

However, the leveling system in the modern game is awful. It's not that it takes too long, it's that it's a bunch of disconnected things you do to get through it as fast as you can. I appreciate the fact that they helped it somewhat with scaling so it is not quite as badly fragmented, but it's far from a cohesive logical experience.

I definitely do not think players should start at the end game. I would like to see some sort of class trials type thing. Not sure what that would look like, but my end goal would be to have some sort of cohesive build up that you work through to get to the entry point of the current expansion.

I can't imagine coming into modern WoW as a new player. Seems like that would be a sucky and unappealing experience.

[Fred Skinner]

I have a lot complains about retail. Yet i think it is superior to classic and any incarnations of WoW before.

[Briselody]

Making it harder isn't necessarily the point, but rather making it more interesting. If mobs could behave differently every time you approach them it would make questing much less grindy. Like maybe one will call hidden allies, or another will attempt to run you into a more dangerous area. It would at least be more dynamic, I'd be pretty into that.

Imagine a dungeon where enemies actually attacked on line of sight, instead of the classic scenario of "Man that pack of guards 15 feet away just ran toward a group of adventurers and got turned into a fine mist. Anyways, what'd you bring for lunch today, Bill?"