Shadowlands WILL have a level squish!

[Baracuda]

Character progression that the levels and their constant increase represent is fer sure a dumb definition of an RPG. You got me there.

That character progession is just an illusion. You don't get anything for most of the levels.

[PenguinChan]

That's not the point. I've spent 15 years leveling through expansions and squishing it to 50 - 60 is a slap in the face. People are saying the number is "arbitrary" but if that was true why change it at all. I will not be playing the game if my leveling is going to be removed.

Well, the number isn't arbitrary and the effort you put in isn't either. But, the issue is that you have less feeling per level and less care for your levels if nothing happens but a bright light every level for the most part, with no skills or new talents. It just means you're closer to finishing leveling. Instead, what they want is clearly to give you more talents per level, more skills per level, more rewards per level.

Right now the leveling experience may be alright in speed, it is really unrewarding after you hit about 50 - 60. You basically have everything but your mastery and level 90 / 100 talents. And most 90 talents aren't anything special, and 100 talents sometimes are defining - but again, not always. And Mastery can be as dull as % damage increase... Woo.

Now imagine all the things we have now, but squished to 50 levels (And whatever else they introduce / change). That's a lot more rewards per level compared to what we have now, where empty stretches of many levels exist.

[Frozen Death Knight]

Totally unnecessary. They could have left the levels as they are and change the leveling experience. Do whatever you want for levels 1-120 (like they are doing for 1-50) and have the levels come twice as fast so it takes the same time as going 1-60.

But I'm sure they did this because their game math is bad and causes exponential power creep. Instead of fixing the system, they de-level the characters just like they squished item levels. It's a band-aid fix.

The issue with having too many levels is that eventually you run out of stuff to get from each level. It's like spreading butter onto a whole loaf of bread when you only have enough for a slice. That is a perfect metaphor for the modern levelling experience in WoW since around the time Mists of Pandaria got released and it has only got worse since. When taking all the ability pruning over the years into account, the layer of butter has become extremely thin indeed.

WoW never really needed an increased lvl cap in the first place. There are other ways to go around the issue of progression from expansion to expansion other than adding 10 more levels.

[coprax]

Will there also be another itemlevel/character power squish?
I hope not.

[Bhanzai]

No biggy. Nothing to see here. Much ado about nothing, per usual on these forums.

Thank the MMO heavens that I can level to max in an expansion I actually enjoy and can skip all the crap.

[Steelcryo]

Looking forward to a level squish and leveling actually being fun again. It's funny all the people here going "they're taking away one of the most important parts of an RPG" as if current leveling is meaningful in any way. Having levels that are actually meaningful and worthwhile? NAH FUCK U BLIZZ U RUININ TEH GAME!

How anyone can think having fewer levels that all mean something is a downgrade from lots of levels that mean fuck all I don't know. Personally I think it's a great change.

[Rageadon]

i bet you are one of these guys who hate on MoP just because they added pandas... content/class gameplay wise MoP was one of the best if not the best out there...or lemme guess Classic fanboi who just hates on everything thats not classic

Nop, race changed my main to panda back in the day, content/class gameplay was the best in mop? wow... thats where i have to tell you it wasnt, it was utter shit