I feel like "Massive Level Squish" should have been a bulletin point if it was a full squish.
The way he sold it sounded, to me at least, like the other expansions were getting the option to be run at lower levels (10-50) and then you can immediately hit the end game content at 50-60, and then choose to level up higher on your own time without having to power level to 120 to get to the end game and without falling behind on the new stuff.
That's what it sounded like to me. If I'm wrong, oh well. No big deal. Nothing of value is lost with a full level squish.
But if I'm right, people need to understand the difference.
Don't lump me in with other people. It's insulting. Both to me and to them.
US - Eitrigg - <Bank Space is Magic>
Delupi, Amoora, Jisu, Beahru, Rusa, Yeun, Neralyis, Usii, Razzil, Zaramja, Oshaz, Shawnie, Iziss, Gearsi(A)
Yes, I'm very much aware of how squishes work. I'm all in favor of them.
Like I said, nothing of value is lost with a level squish. Meaning the only thing lost is the ridiculous and unnecessary level bloat.
If I misheard what he said, I'm perfectly happy to hear it. I'm actually hoping I did misinterpret his point on the matter. Still think it should have been a big bulletin point though.
US - Eitrigg - <Bank Space is Magic>
Delupi, Amoora, Jisu, Beahru, Rusa, Yeun, Neralyis, Usii, Razzil, Zaramja, Oshaz, Shawnie, Iziss, Gearsi(A)
How does the squish eradicate character progression? The characters lose nothing except for a level number that means nothing in the end. You lose no items, no achievements, not mounts, nothing. Thinking before writing something would indeed be great.
Classic was much more popular than expected, level 60 must be the answer!
...? That wouldn't make any sense. For one, it indicates that all of the previous expansion continents can be done 10-50, then going into Shadowlands at 50-60. Why would you constantly phase in and out of being level 60 and level 120? What level would old dungeons for transmog runs be at? 60? If they're all capped at level 50 or 60 to allow for easier runs for people who don't want to level past 60, then allowing a player to go back all the way to 120 would be pretty pointless.
There's no reason to put "massive level squish" as a bulletin point because "Level from 50-60" kind of implies a level squish by itself.
Edit: Also,the deep dive will probably go into more detail and thats why there wasnt a specified bullet point, maybe
Last edited by GenericDragon; 2019-11-02 at 07:18 AM.
It'll be a full level squish, even based on his wording. The whole level brackets for new chars and previous expansions is more of a feature for new players and alts, as it's a daunting task (numerically and time-wise) to plow through 15 years of content to catch up to the soon-to-be current content. However, the squish feature has benefits for everyone, it just will impact new players and alts the most.
What I'm more curious about was the reference to progressing through end-game content while you're leveling your alts through Shadowlands. I have this image in my head of something equivalent to the paragon system in D3: the progression system for the expansion is account-wide, and your alts can enjoy the benefits of your main so you don't feel like you need to constantly regrind. I suppose the difference would be that unlike the D3 paragon system, you would have to simultaneously gain xp for levels at the same time as progressing through end-game systems (whatever form that may take, maybe tomorrow we'll get more details). I'm all for any improvement in this department, as the essence system in BfA is a prime example of pointless rehashing of progression on alts that likely shouldn't exist. If anything, I hope Blizz fully embraces progression as an account-wide concept rather than only a character-specific concept... obviously you want both to matter, but we're currently at the point where account-wide progression is pretty anemic.
“Society is endangered not by the great profligacy of a few, but by the laxity of morals amongst all.”
“It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights — the 'right' to education, the 'right' to health care, the 'right' to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery — hay and a barn for human cattle.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville
I think the level squish is long, long overdue. I just hope they also squished the time it takes to get to the new level 50 as opposed to the old level 110/120.
Nowadays, i find that leveling a new toon (new allied race) is painful as it takes so long.
If it is your very first toon, it sounds like there is a way for that player to experience the world, they might need to level several toons though.
I think they meant character specific endgame content that you could work on before hitting the actual endgame.
Like, as an example, a currency for endgame gear that you can earn from killing mobs while leveling while your first toon doesn't get that bonus because they're the first one.
US - Eitrigg - <Bank Space is Magic>
Delupi, Amoora, Jisu, Beahru, Rusa, Yeun, Neralyis, Usii, Razzil, Zaramja, Oshaz, Shawnie, Iziss, Gearsi(A)
Its a good move to bring in new players tho. No longer is it a game with 120 lvl and 8 expansions, its now 60 lvls and the expansions dont really matter outside the current one. Alot more inviting.
All zones already have some sort of scaling anyway so I can't imagine they even have to do much.
Nice for alts too.
Little risk, possible great rewards.
An arbitrary number, I have no qualms as long as I can still solo earlier content.
This is going to suck. Big time. Seriously, leveling is going to be painful as heck. Think about it. We have 6 expansions, 7 if you include the original game, worth of content to level up through. Each expansion had 5 - 10 levels worth of content spread through out multiple zones up until recently.
Right now, you can easily go 4-5 levels without a single item upgrade. With the way scaling works, you get weaker each level since the mobs get stronger, but your stats go down due to how they scale and require more to see any increase.
I can easily see someone going from 1-25 or higher without any item upgrades. All the while, you will continuously get weaker and weaker as the mobs get more stats, but you lose stats.
Not to mention how they are going to have to handle leveling content. Its going to have to basically be level anywhere, anytime.
It can't be to combat ilevel bloat. Why? They control that! They could simply stop increasing it so darn much to ensure the squash lasts more then an expansion.
The way I see it, this is just another bandaid fix for the larger issue at hand. Their inability to go beyond certain numbers.
Pretty sure going from 10-50 will take about as long as each expansion took to do the new 10 levels. Half the point is to make leveling a lot faster. So if anything waiting to use the boost is actually a bad thing since leveling a new character at that point will be much quicker anyway. Might as well just enjoy the new 120 now.