Why is leveling Alts so brutal in BFA?

[stresskiller]

It's the official website. Click the drop down menu > View All Your WoW Characters

ahhh hidden things

thank you now i can show that leveling really isn't that hard

[rohoz]

The level progression is unrewarding and you feel weaker every level its just plain terrible.

literally only if you had raid gear at max level. if you leveled a char from 1-120 you experience growth at every level.

[Rakshata]

5 level 120 toons; 4 alliance, 1 horde. 3 leveled via quests, 1 via IE and quests... and one via pandaria archeology. The pandaria archeology took way longer, but while I have no fruits of it (damn canopic jars...) it still would've had a more fulfilling outcome than if it was via quests as well.

BfA leveling is by no means harder than other expansions... there is just no carrot for doing so.

Legion: Unique class stories, artifacts, mage tower, tier gear... Artifact research a PitA, but allowed for HUGE gains later in the expansion.

BfA: A different story for horde and alliance (+), tier gear is by type (only need 4 alts max to get all of them). Artifact power has a level exp floor of 1,000; even if it is easy it sucks to do it.

Commonality: no combined progress (rep, artifact power, et cetera)

Legion had carrots to go after, BfA has some vague ideas of carrots you may be able to get one day if things go the way we hope/expect them to, and none of them are things you need more than one or two characters for (may not even need one on the opposite faction if other things come to pass)


Not brutal, unrewarding.

[Metrox]

I can't really contradict someone's opinion of leveling in BFA since we all have opinions on things. My feelings are that BFA isn't so bad. In fact it was pretty easy. At the moment, I have 1 max level toon of each possible class. I also have an extra hunter who is on Zul'jin since that is a very active horde heavy server. My other toons are on a very dead high alliance population server. I found that Legion was the best leveling experience that I have had and that goes back to Vanilla. The funny thing is that Legion was so smooth to me that it was the first expansion that I leveled every class to maximum. BFA was almost as easy. The downside to BFA was the azurite pieces that took up heirloom slots. So I ended up leveling:
1. Paladin, Hunter, and DK with full heirlooms. No warmode.
2. Warrior, Druid, and DH with heirlooms and azurite neck. No warmode.
3. Warlock, Priest, Shaman with full azurite. No warmode.
4. Mage, Monk, and Rogue with full azurite. Warmode on.
I just wanted to try different combinations and see how things went. For me it seemed that heirlooms versus azurite sort of evened out as far as time. I got more xp but things died slower and I died a few times with heirlooms. With azurite, I got less xp but my survivability was better and mobs felt like they died faster. Warmode was pretty much a non issue since I only saw Alliance (my toons are all Horde) a few times in my zones. Blizzard fed me quest gear in a good manner and the only gear issue was when the Legendaries died halfway to 120. That was a bit of a learning curve for a few hours. Legion was fun for me probably because I loved the Artifact weapons, the storylines/class halls and each class had at least 1 fun spec to play. Now after hitting 120 ...... that's a different thing. I have some toons parked from the moment they dinged 120 ( I dislike the class specs), some have 400 - 410 gear and just do a few activities (fish, pet battle, etc), and 3 are at a 420 level or above. Just my experience with leveling and the aftermath.

[Enan1981]

you can do island expeditions to level?

It give a decent chunk honestly... 30%-35% Not sure if there has any been recent nerfs to it though. And yes, people have been using it to level alts together. Match that with heirlooms with %.

[mickybrighteyes]

If you read op he is talking about expansions and he is talking about soul crushing. He has a point. It's not difficult to level to 120 but there is something wrong. I could do dungeons, I could do invasions, I could do islands, or I could do quests. I even have full heirlooms on all amor classes. None of those options are appealing. Everytime I start I am done in 30 mins. I can't bring myself to carry on. It's not fun. Leveling in classic is more fun right now if you took out all of the travel. This is a problem. I have no solutions.

It seems you'retrying to argue one point that I'm not even discussing. hell you're barely even elaborating on how exactly 'soul crushing is defined'

I'd personally say spending 10's of times longer to progress to not even teh level cap is far more 'soul crushing'. Not getting adequate gear rewards from quests till you're nearly into the 30's is another 'soul crushing' element. Minor disinterest at the prospect of playing isn't exactly 'soul crushing' in any capacity. Sounds like some people are experiencing burn out for the first time and want to act like it's some big deal.

You want soul crushing? Go make a warrior on the classic servers and try to chain pull Zhevra in whites at XR (cause you likely haven't gotten anything from quests yet). Go try farming in the reaches of the plaguelands with those 10-30 minute debuffs taking away your total accumulated hit chance, hp regen, and greatly restricting your ability to use food (cause forcing you to stand every 5 seconds wasting your food)... go experience the feeling of a couple deaths costing you your accumulated gold from farming because it barely covered your repair bill... THAT is soul crushing. I don't know what metric "i don't feel a drive to play" is on the 'soul crush-o-meter' but I don't recognize it as such.

[LionSinMaikeru]

level scaling works pretty good, you experience the zone at a pretty decent pace, don't outlevel quests, everything is appropriate.

of course you'll complain about that too but you know how these forums go. Hell, you can even take off the BOA gear and just chill and it's absolutely fantastic. Cata revamps were great as far as story goes, and having a single coherent narrative throughout zones is probably the best thing they've done in a while


of course you won't do it though, because confirmation bias and preconceived notions but whatever. Hell, you can level a character to 60 with level scaling with your classic sub *right now* and see how it is. probably won't, because you'll complain about needing boa gear or something along the way.

I've leveled alts. Doesn't change the fact that leveling hasn't felt rewarding or fun in a long time.

Um.. Legion was cake for alts. Do an invasion with heirlooms, bam, you level. And while BFA doesn't have anything quite that lucrative, random dungeons and expeditions give huge chunks of XP: run a handful of those and quest while in queue and you'll level quickly. And there's already a ton of great catch up mechanics in place: benthic gear, warfronts, solid gear from heroic dungeons, etc.

Just because something is easy doesn't mean it feels rewarding or good.

[Zyky]

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.

It's because all the classes feel bad in BFA, they're not fun, they've still very homogenized, and several classes feel very similar to each other. Let's not forget to mention that even if you hit max level you have to then spend time with their awful AP grind, so with that on the mind, it doesn't feel very fun to level in general.

[munkeyinorbit]

it's a problem because you want it to be a problem

Leveling is the same slog it's always been. After the first time it's like rolling around in a tub of oatmeal.

You are right. I want to be playing a game that I don't want to play. I want to login, look at my character and then logoff. I want to start levelling, realise it's boring as hell and then not touch it for a couple of weeks. This is exactly why I pay my subscription.
*eyeroll*

What a stupid response.

[Alvito]

Getting to 120 is super fast and easy, it just isn't much fun. Where it really gets bad is if you plan on playing your 120 characters in any sort of way that would make you care about Azerite traits and essences. If you casually play and don't care if you have great gear or tools to amp up your character you are fine. Once you start to care about traits or various different things the grind ramp up exponentially.

[Drusin]

I have to literally talk myself out of leveling alts. Like I sit in front of my computer saying:"No, don't level anymore fucking alts faggot, you won't have room on your account for future new classes". I have 43 120s, think I was around 40 prior to looms (and I don't have flying yet) and I leveled all the allied races except for 2 (opposite faction so I'm dragging ass). Only thing I don't like about leveling is scaling, I hate that shit, it's the reason (imo) that you don't feel powerful as before. Back in the day I used to buy greens like every level or every other level and wreck mobs (I do it on classic now ) then looms came and I didn't have to buy gear anymore (cool) but now with scaling I just don't feel powerful ever. I always feel like I'm fighting appropriate mobs which idk about you guys but if I expend the time to go out and get gear (looms or AH) then I expect to be powerful ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I know some of you guys want this but I don't want to fight equally powerful mobs I want to fuck shit up.

[munkeyinorbit]

It seems you'retrying to argue one point that I'm not even discussing. hell you're barely even elaborating on how exactly 'soul crushing is defined'

I'd personally say spending 10's of times longer to progress to not even teh level cap is far more 'soul crushing'. Not getting adequate gear rewards from quests till you're nearly into the 30's is another 'soul crushing' element. Minor disinterest at the prospect of playing isn't exactly 'soul crushing' in any capacity. Sounds like some people are experiencing burn out for the first time and want to act like it's some big deal.

You want soul crushing? Go make a warrior on the classic servers and try to chain pull Zhevra in whites at XR (cause you likely haven't gotten anything from quests yet). Go try farming in the reaches of the plaguelands with those 10-30 minute debuffs taking away your total accumulated hit chance, hp regen, and greatly restricting your ability to use food (cause forcing you to stand every 5 seconds wasting your food)... go experience the feeling of a couple deaths costing you your accumulated gold from farming because it barely covered your repair bill... THAT is soul crushing. I don't know what metric "i don't feel a drive to play" is on the 'soul crush-o-meter' but I don't recognize it as such.

I'm doing that right now. What's soul crushing about it? The only bad thing about levelling in Classic is the travel. If you can't handle a few deaths or don't know how to deal with mechanics then maybe WoW isn't for you. Honestly, trying to compare levelling in Classic to BfA? How try hard do you have to be? I bet you're the type of person that always has to one up people. "Feeling sad cause your gf dumped you? You don't get to feel sad because there are people dying in Africa". Now I feel sad for you. Is that ok for me to feel sad? Or are my feelings irrelevent because of all the wars.

[Averrix]

Leveling in BFA is so easy and quick it's boring in ways. I have 8 120s and I tried to start leveling my druid, but I just don't feel like it. Not that it's hard or anything, I mean it's silly to say, but it's so damn easy it's just boring. I already have a full set of benthic gear for that druid as well, but I just don't level it. Doing too much with other characters I guess.

[Drusin]

ahhh hidden things

thank you now i can show that leveling really isn't that hard

Hey I'm right there with you bro



Had to make two -_-



It's not about difficulty to me it's about enjoyment. Yeah I can do it, I can level to max ezpz but will I enjoy it or will it be poop.

[Devilyaki]

I did three, Hunter bm, Druid feral, and a protection paladin. It wasn’t soul crushing, just that terrible grind on the necklace has me not even going near another. The actual leveling is better than say classic at lest.

[mickybrighteyes]

I'm doing that right now. What's soul crushing about it?

I'm guessing you missed my last paragraph... particularly concerning barely covering repairs with your farming or hitting walls due to lack of gear (mileage may vary but say you avoid instances for awhile for whatever reason and get to lvl 20~ and never see greens have fun)

The only bad thing about levelling in Classic is the travel.

I will disagree about the 'only' here... poor balance between classes can be a gross factor depending on where you're at. Like I for one hated being an under geared warrior barely able to handle same level enemies without kiting them for 'joust' maneuvers to save hp and food.

If you can't handle a few deaths or don't know how to deal with mechanics then maybe WoW isn't for you.

Please do note I was not the one saying that I'm not enjoying things. I was pointing out how the OP was calling the game 'soul crushing' while only citing material that pertained to leveling speed. Do keep in mind that BFA might be among the fastest expansions to level in, more so when considering the more recent times, deriding the lack of a 300% xp potion is hilarious and I only cited classic because it takes something liek 10 times as long if not longer to not even reach 60 let alone do... say... 1-120 on multiple characters on the retail game.

Honestly, trying to compare levelling in Classic to BfA? How try hard do you have to be?

Considering this back and forth you initiated? I think you need to be a little less pot meet kettle.

I bet you're the type of person that always has to one up people. "Feeling sad cause your gf dumped you? You don't get to feel sad because there are people dying in Africa". Now I feel sad for you. Is that ok for me to feel sad? Or are my feelings irrelevent because of all the wars.

Projection thy name is...

[gutnbrg]

like others have said, getting to 120 isnt hard, but the ap and the essences is so fcking annoying on an alt...

[Klingers]

It's brutal because of poor game design and the fact that you're not actually having fun.

Praise the the artists, praise the story team. Praise the raid/dungeon teams... But place all of the blame on the systems team.

[Zeusy]

Retail wow just feels bad to level up because you don't ever feel like you get invested into a character. Leveling is so fast, gear is replaced so fast, professions don't matter, transmog,titles,achieves are all cross realm so you don't get into the character. It feels like a grind to get into raids and thats it. you feel immersed in older xpacs because theres other stuff that is important to do. Classic right now I have a level 46 mage and priest. Both I feel great to replace any piece of gear, i feel great to sit in a city and just talk in guild. It feels great to work towards anything when your character has VALUE to it. I have like 15 level 110 toons and it feels bad to work for even 1 level on live wow because none of the achievements, gear, grinds feel worthwhile to do.

[Tydan]

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?

Your joking right?

Heirlooms plus warmode plus dark moon faire buff plus invasion XP boost plus selecting herbing and mining as professions= level up VERY fast