Old World Scaling Question

[Vailyn]

So I understand that zones will scale with level up to a cap and then you move into the next scaling section of content from there and so on.

My question is, will we be able to literally go to any zone per section of zone scaling once we cross over into that section of content?

For example: If I roll a Worgen, once I finish Gilneas can I go down at level 13 or so to Tanaris and level there until I completely finish the zone or do I have to get there in a certain order?

Another example: Once I get to 60, my understanding is that I could potentially never go to Outland and head straight to Northrend, BUT... could I at level 60 go straight to Icecrown? Or do I have to go to Borean Tundra at 60?

Thanks

[Bloodyleech]

You don't require quests from other zones to do the one you want. You go there, you quest there, if it is your level-range (10-60 vanilla zones)
If you want, you can simply take the boat to Tundra und fly up to Icecrown (it would be nice to know, if Coldweather is buyable with lvl 60 though - I'd say yes, but we'll see)

[Imnick]

I believe they said that most zones will also have a minimum level, Tanaris probably won't be banded for a level 18 character, in fact it's quite likely that most of the zone minimum levels will not change hugely, they will just scale upwards.
But we really don't know the exact details yet.

[Diamondium]

I don't think anyone knows specifically how it will work regarding that situation. I think the assumption is that you should be able to jump into Icecrown or whichever zone you want at 60, but we haven't got any confirmation that you can indeed 'work backwards' through an expansion's zones. They could potentially have to make some adjustments to how some zones' quest chains start but it should be fairly easily manageable.

[Bloodyleech]

I believe they said that most zones will also have a minimum level, Tanaris probably won't be banded for a level 18 character, in fact it's quite likely that most of the zone minimum levels will not change hugely, they will just scale upwards.
But we really don't know the exact details yet.

I was under the impression, that they clearly stated, that all vanilla zones are 10-60 (starter 1-10) - could be wrong, though

I don't think anyone knows specifically how it will work regarding that specific situation. I think the assumption is that you should be able to jump into Icecrown or whichever zone you want at 60, but we haven't got any confirmation that you can indeed 'work backwards' through an expansion's zones.

Now it is possible to skip zones too, why should they change this? I could do Tundra > Fjord > Zul > Grizzly now - this should'nt be different with all expansion zones scaling

[Diamondium]

Now it is possible to skip zones too, why should they change this? I could do Tundra > Fjord > Zul > Grizzly now - this should'nt be different with all expansion zones scaling

I suppose that's actually quite true. Probably shouldn't be much of an issue.

[Highwhale]

I believe they said that most zones will also have a minimum level, Tanaris probably won't be banded for a level 18 character, in fact it's quite likely that most of the zone minimum levels will not change hugely, they will just scale upwards.
But we really don't know the exact details yet.

Nope. All vanilla zones are scaled from 10-60. After your racial starting zone you can go wherever you want.

[Mackeith]

Nope. All vanilla zones are scaled from 10-60. After your racial starting zone you can go wherever you want.

This is incorrect. They clearly stated that if you're levelling in Tirisfal Glades as a new character, if you venture in to Western Plaguelands, you're going to get pummelled. What they said is, all zones from classic content, will scale all the way to 60. However, their starting level will be different. So where Tirisfal will be 1-60. Western Plaguelands will be something like 40-60. This is true for all zones from classic, so I suspect Tanaris will retain it's current minimum level (which is like 40 I believe? not sure) but you'd be able to level in Tanaris at 55 for instance if you so desired.

[Cerilis]

Do you get all Call to arms!-quests at once the moment you hit level 10? :crazy:

Nevermind, so the areas only scale up, I see?

[Imnick]

Nope. All vanilla zones are scaled from 10-60. After your racial starting zone you can go wherever you want.

I know this is the impression a lot of people got, I don't think it is actually what they said.
And so now I am going to go check.

- - - Updated - - -

This is incorrect. They clearly stated that if you're levelling in Tirisfal Glades as a new character, if you venture in to Western Plaguelands, you're going to get pummelled. What they said is, all zones from classic content, will scale all the way to 60. However, their starting level will be different. So where Tirisfal will be 1-60. Western Plaguelands will be something like 40-60. This is true for all zones from classic, so I suspect Tanaris will retain it's current minimum level (which is like 40 I believe? not sure) but you'd be able to level in Tanaris at 55 for instance if you so desired.

Confirming this, rewatched the Blizzcon stream video and starting at 33:30 he says exactly this.

If you jump to 34:20 on the recorded "World of Warcraft: What's Next" panel video he says "Imagine Westfall scaled from 10-60, imagine Burning Steppes scales from 40-60."
He explicitly deconfirms the idea that every vanilla zone will be 10-60.

[Highwhale]

This is incorrect. They clearly stated that if you're levelling in Tirisfal Glades as a new character, if you venture in to Western Plaguelands, you're going to get pummelled. What they said is, all zones from classic content, will scale all the way to 60. However, their starting level will be different. So where Tirisfal will be 1-60. Western Plaguelands will be something like 40-60. This is true for all zones from classic, so I suspect Tanaris will retain it's current minimum level (which is like 40 I believe? not sure) but you'd be able to level in Tanaris at 55 for instance if you so desired.

Tirisfal is starting racial zone that will scale maximum to 10...

Also what the point of scaling then if i still bonded to same leveling path?

[blackblade]

So I understand that zones will scale with level up to a cap and then you move into the next scaling section of content from there and so on.

My question is, will we be able to literally go to any zone per section of zone scaling once we cross over into that section of content?

For example: If I roll a Worgen, once I finish Gilneas can I go down at level 13 or so to Tanaris and level there until I completely finish the zone or do I have to get there in a certain order?

Another example: Once I get to 60, my understanding is that I could potentially never go to Outland and head straight to Northrend, BUT... could I at level 60 go straight to Icecrown? Or do I have to go to Borean Tundra at 60?

Thanks

Tough call. I suspect that it'll be open season in the expansion areas; it would be wierd to for borean (for example) being both a 60 and a 70 zone, but dragonblight somehow requiring you to be 62 or 72 to start accepting quests.

For vanilla.. On one hand, Imagine what the capital will look like simultaneously having every breadcrumb for every random zone available all at once. On the other it'd be weird for expansion zones to not work the way I'd describe above and somewhat inconsistent with having minimum levels on the vanilla zones, but no minimums on the xpac zones.

I think it's gonna boil down to a "wait and see"

[Vailyn]

Yeah I got alot of responses and a long string of conversation from this post. I think its basically a given that this issue right now is unclear and though I posted the question, we still can't fully answer it.

[baskev]

So I understand that zones will scale with level up to a cap and then you move into the next scaling section of content from there and so on.

My question is, will we be able to literally go to any zone per section of zone scaling once we cross over into that section of content?

For example: If I roll a Worgen, once I finish Gilneas can I go down at level 13 or so to Tanaris and level there until I completely finish the zone or do I have to get there in a certain order?

Another example: Once I get to 60, my understanding is that I could potentially never go to Outland and head straight to Northrend, BUT... could I at level 60 go straight to Icecrown? Or do I have to go to Borean Tundra at 60?

Thanks

the classic zones will be at your level ( as far is i understand the sytem) its like current broken isle stuff....as long as you have the starter quest it does not matter witch zone you do. so if you only take quest from....night elfs you could i theory ( if there are enough quest) level on only night elf quests across both continents.

So example if you are level 20 you can do all quests in all zones ( if they do not need a pre quest).

Second example: Yes that is correct you could skip outland. The second part i do no know...i think they might edit it so you get all starter quests in all zones.

[Kluian05]

The zones will scale up to 60, etc but will not scale down. So zones will still have a level minimum. All classic zones will not have a level minimum of 10, it may be 20, 30, 40, etc.

This basically means you don't need to worry about out leveling a zone too quickly if you want to complete a quest chain.

[Jazzhands]

Tirisfal is starting racial zone that will scale maximum to 10...

Also what the point of scaling then if i still bonded to same leveling path?

People want to finish zones. Traveling all the way to Burning Steppes to do half of it and suddenly everything is green/grey kind of sucks. Even if they have minimum levels, it still varies the path, as you only need to visit one place for a huge chunk of levels instead of 2-3. Having minimum levels still keeps the RPG feel, going from the starting zone into Burning Steppes at level 20 would feel awkward.

[Thraim]

Ahh, that kinda puts a damper on some of my enthusiasm for the scaling change. It's still a good change, just maybe not exactly what I was hoping for. Though I do really hope that if say, all the quests in Ice Crown net me 5 levels worth of experience, it's lower bound is well below that on the scale. Otherwise there's still no real point to go to the endgame zones in an expansion's zone list. So if Ice Crown scales from say, level 70-80, I think I'll still be happy with that.

[Flurryfang]

Tirisfal is starting racial zone that will scale maximum to 10...

Also what the point of scaling then if i still bonded to same leveling path?

Well the thing is that you can ignore to go by the path and stay in the zones you like. Instead of going to a new zone every 5-10 lvls, you can stay in a zone for 20 lvls if you want. That way you can ignore some of the zones you dislike and stay in the zones you like. The route is also not bonded after lvl 60, where you can even jump past entire expansions if you want to.

- - - Updated - - -

Do you guys know if this "only scales up" also works in the expansion zones? Because if Wrath is gonna be together with TBC for the 60-80 bracket, why won't they just let them scale completly all over the zone, since they are already reducing/increasing their lvl anyway?