Why is leveling Alts so brutal in BFA?

[Echeyakee]

It's pretty bad, true. They keep reducing the number of questing zones each expansion, really puts a damper on enjoying alts. Both in bfa and legion you pretty much do all the quests on your first trip to max level, leaving alts to repeat the same shit. Sure, heirlooms help, but I do miss the days of LK and pandaria, when even on your third char you still had areas you never quested in. Islands were fun for one or two alts, but after that they become soulcushingly boring. And I'm still annoyed that they axed invasions. At least in legion you could work on a few alts at the same time, now you get an extra timer egging you on. I like to take my time, do a bit of leveling, tab out and watch some youtube, just to break up the monotony. Does not work when you have to make up for lower invasion XP with that shitty bonus xp buff.

Maybe it's time activision took a look at leveling process. It worked fine in the past, but it's been 15 years, maybe it's time for a new take on it.

[Phuongvi]

Because the content is boring af

[Vathius]

This is actually pretty normal and you're been a bit whingy.

Taking into consideration ever single expansion every alt you decide to lvl you are going through all the previous expansions first to get to the current content. Thus lvling to max in BC wasn't so bad because you just needed to get to 70. then wrath to 80. etc. however now you have to get through 120 levels. double that of the original game. And going through all the content again to get to that max lvl.

Its not that its boring, its just that you've done it before and that makes it feel boring. And the more expansions that are released the more repetitive the lvling of alts will be.

[Super Kami Dende]

Haha what? I hardly touched BFA and quit just after 8.1 and I've got 6 120's..

[Aresk]

I've leveled four to max level so far with two others in the mid 110s. My issue with alts is essences (it takes a long while to farm them just on the one character, depending on the number of roles it can do) and professions (it seems to take more mats to level the professions due to some spots where progress is really expensive before one hits the next breakpoint). Now that flying is available (which I think is the only reason leveling in Cata was good), it goes pretty quick.

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

Its about to get a lot better!
Tested party sync yesterday and got a full level from 114 to 115 in Hillsbrad with a friend in about an hour and a half without any real pacing optimization.
Was getting 18.5~ thousand exp per quest there with Warmode (10 percent) on.

Oddly enough, the first quest in the game in Durotar to kill the 6 boars gave 22k.
Probably means there will end up being very high value zones worth leveling through that friends can assist you with, if that type of thing ever gets mathed out.

[Arakakao]

Because the content is boring af

I can't agree more with you in this part.

[arcaneshot]

Let's pretend heirlooms aren't usable now. That way it's so much easier to blame it on.....


Scaling.

This is just a load of crap and just another excuse to put off leveling. In the past month I recently finished off leveling an alt 111-119 purely through pet battles and then I got impatient and finished the rest off with the intro quests in Zuldazar (and ended up not finishing the first three questlines). Yes, those blood trolls down by the docks hit like trucks, but they weren't insurmountable in my crappy 210 gear from the War of Thorns (which was the last gear that character ever got prior to this; the weapon came from skipping the Battle for Lordaeron part. Character was still wearing the two Legiondaries because they're still high ilvl regardless if they were working or not).

Same character had a full set of basic Benthic gear waiting for him at 120 so I can't speak for the rest of it, but honestly the only thing the scaling did was make it so I couldn't pull as many things as I would've liked.

** If you're wondering why from 111, it's because I got a 'free' level answering the quiz questions from last year's anniversary event.

[Smash Adams]

My biggest issue is just a complete disinterest in everything post MoP. I just don’t enjoy any of it and by that point, I’ve hit the “just get this over with” mentality. I genuinely enjoy leveling through 90. And it just feels like from there it turns into a joyless slog. The zones get progressively less interesting. There are no more skills or talents to work towards. It’s literally 30 levels of hell with no carrot to keep you motivated other than just getting it over with.

I really think 120 levels is just too much. Even just from a mental standpoint. After awhile it feels like a never ending mountain climb.

[Frozenbro]

Leveling alts? no, this is easy af
Gearing alts? this is the annoying part, essences plox.

[Otrew]

Spam timewalking dungeons also just fliying for the 6 zones grabing herbs, treasures and mining is a lot of xp.

[pewpmeiser]

I have had no problem leveling 7 alts so far.

[Guinness]

Why would anyone feel the need to level a 2nd to 120? There's nothing different than having the first.

[Byleth]

What's soul crushing is to keep them competitive with the wall of RNG, AP and essences.

Yes and no. Yesterday for example I jumped onto my 120 rogue that hasn't been touched since early BFA. With my main boosting him a set of Benthic gear, and the starter Naz quests, plus a run of Corrin I was able to get him to 400ilvl within 3 hours.

My AP is already 50 plus despite it being ~20 when I started the 3 hours.

So no, it's not challenging to gear an alt, it would be challenging if I were to continue and want him perfectly Mythic geared from this point. But again, that's an issue that can be solved by asking guildies for assist with boosts.

It all depends how you approach things, it's hard if you make it hard. It's SUPER hard if you're aiming for perfection right away.

- - - Updated - - -

Why would anyone feel the need to level a 2nd to 120? There's nothing different than having the first.

The opposing faction says hello, yes that is very different.

But the reasons for levelling an alt are many and varied. Sometimes it's just that you want to change things up and go melee/caster for a bit, other times you might want to heal for a bit. There really are hundreds of reasons to level an alt, repeating the story isn't really a factor.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Lack of Variety. You level to 120 once, you will find nothing new doing it a second time.

[Izalla]

Can't relate, I love the BfA leveling experience and can't wait to reach it on each alt.

[Aggrophobic]

I have played every expansion since Vanilla. I can say without a doubt that BFA is the most soul crushing expansion to date when it comes to leveling Alts. Going into BFA's launch I had 5 chars sitting at 110. Just over 1 year later and the only 120 I have is my Druid that I leveled up the first week it was live. My second highest is only 114. Its just miserable trying to level up anything else and it sucks any fun right out of the game. In the past year I even took a few month long breaks here and there just to keep from burning out. I come back ready to go and then after a week of trying to level and Alt I just quit again. I cant think of an expansion that even comes close to being as shitty when it comes to leveling. I didnt really like WoD leveling either but it was at least bearable with the 300% pots. Wrath, Cata, and MoP were all extremely fun to level up in. As much as people hate on Cataclysm it wasnt even close to being this bad. This is probably going to be the first expansion where I only have a single max level character. Does anyone else feel the same way?

Ehm? Why? It takes no time at all and if you do dungeons during TW week it takes only a few hours. I can't think of an expansion where it was faster and easier. You have looms, potions and oh, get a few friends to boost you in islands as well.

[Yunaqt]

As brutal as it is in Classic?

[Biomega]

Honestly, the LEVELING doesn't seem bad at all in BFA. Yes the content is boring after you've done it for the N-th time, but that's always been the case - at least the abundance of properly constructed quest hubs makes leveling reasonably efficient even without tricks like Freehold or the mind-numbing Island grind.

No, the leveling is totally fine.

It's what comes AFTER that is a nightmare, with AP and Essences that need to be re-farmed on every new character all over again. Why on earth they didn't make Essences account-bound or at least on some sort of diminished requirement I cannot fathom. I couldn't stomach it and just gave up, basically. I'm not farming Rank 3 of every relevant raid/M+ essence on yet another character. Heck, I didn't even farm some on my MAIN because I refuse to PvP to get things I want to use in PvE.

[SirCowdog]

none of it is brutal. It' the essence system that puts me off playing any of my 120 alts

Essences and AP grind to use them. It's VERY bad for alts. Worse than Legendaries even, I'd say. At least with legendaries you could get lucky and get them early. AP/Essence is nothing but raw grind. It's fucking awful.