Originally Posted by
Ophenia
Few things:
- Raids are no longer opened directly, we now have to wait one month to see the first raid open, that's plenty of time to level whatever you want if you're dedicated.
- Even if you level in three days, even with catch-up mechanics, you're still being time-gated by the game itself because of the weekly bullshit. Weekly mythic+ chest, weekly quest/content giving a shitton of azerite, whatever currency cap (valor points / residuum / legion's legendary coins i forgot the name...), weekly lockout on LFR/Raids... So you'll still be behind in terms of power (Azerite, Ilvl), unless your guild is really dedicated to you and decide to split-run just for you.
- I don't really remember how it was implemented for other races, but imo additional races could be available before the expac (pre-patch event) for you to "pre-level" your new chars up to the previous expac level cap so that you can level with your friends/guild.
Unless you're some kind of 24/7 player with insane amount of friends agreeing to boost you, I have trouble imagining someone being able to level a Zandalari in 8.1.5 and being able to competitively raid in Dazar'alor a few days/weeks later.
On the other hand, I've already seen newly-created characters be able to raid competitively at the beginning of the expac (lots of Pandas did that).