I think leveling should be replaced.

[Crimson Spears]

With a series of challenges that give hard pass/fails on your class.

Something like a proving ground but tailored to each class specifically. Add to that a basic rotation guide and you could reduce leveling to roughly an hour and actually teach people the basics of the game at the same time.

Keep the world active for people who want to enjoy the story/transmog but offer a real tutorial to the game instead.

[Northelim]

I don't think you understand what an RPG is. Please do not ever get a job in the games industry.

[Darsithis]

That defeats the purpose of an RPG. I think leveling should be made more relevant, personally.

[ellieg]

If the game is the way its gonna be now, I agree. For classic I disagree. Retail is almost just a jump in and play arcade game. I have half the chars at max and other half near max. Been playing since a few months after release. Give me 2-3 hours and im 90+% efficient at the class. Just gotta set up the bars and run thru the rotation a few times and im there. Fun doing m+ and seeing how each class plays but I don't really get that thru traditional leveling. Would love to "prove" im good enough and just go.

[Crimson Spears]

I don't think you understand what an RPG is. Please do not ever get a job in the games industry.

Its a mmo. Having players with a vague sense of what they are doing trumps watching a story that ends with the players fighting thanos.

[gobio]

If you have to give me something fake so we can all pretend.
Then I rather you give me the truth and we face reality.

The leveling process right now is fake so we all pretend this is 'rpg'? You can try your best to wish the dev grow magical power and fix leveling. But realistically, just face realty remove the fake leveling, and face the reality, even though OMG it is not an RPG (in name) anymore... Yeah it was not for a long ass time, if 'leveling' is the last straw that holds the title for you.

[pahbi]

Levels just seem like old news.

RPGs are all about progression, but I would love to see something other than levels.

[Biomega]

Honestly, I kind of agree that leveling feels like an outdated concept in a game like WoW, that's so heavily focused on endgame. I don't really see any problem with replacing it with some other form of character progression. To give a contemporaneous example, what if e.g. a new character was simply playing through the Covenant campaign to start with or something like that.

Of course a dedicated tutorial option would have to be included for new players, something along the lines of Exile's Reach but more complex. Heck it could even be done for each class, so whenever you roll it for the first time (and optionally thereafter) you go through an instruction sequence that teaches you fundamentals about the class.

[Northelim]

Its a mmo. Having players with a vague sense of what they are doing trumps watching a story that ends with the players fighting thanos.

Not sure what your trying to achieve here with your statement that has no relation to the leveling topic whatsoever lol. Learn to read.

[vizzle]

Its a mmo. Having players with a vague sense of what they are doing trumps watching a story that ends with the players fighting thanos.

It's an MMORPG.

[salate]

To be honest I've recently started to wonder what made wow that great for me back in the days.
Because leveling in WoW Classic was somewhat eventful and interesting, not without problems but it felt... Like a journey.

Probably it felt more different than my first hunter in 2006 but anyway, it still was a good experience (in vanilla I leveld a hunter, in classic leveled a priest because of Benediction )

That the problem with modern WoW, you cant really enjoy leveling because all you need is to start your end-level content immediately.
Everything is about questing on max level. Actually the Legion campaign made me experience same sense of journey I felt once.
It was long, yeah, timegated with the mission table but still... I leveled alotta characters just to play legion campaign. It really felt like leveling, maybe it was because of artifacts and we really had to level up/questing/unlocking abilities, appearances and stuff. Not to mention epic quests in Sarumar. I repeated them It felt aint that great as I played first time. But first time experience was so good I still get assasin's creed vibes

So you either make a good leveling experience (relevant) or make a good journey, which wow now lacks imho.
For some reason covenants dont feel that way.

[Crimson Spears]

As an alternative, there could be an option for people to make new characters closer to max level for those who don't like leveling.
But leveling in its entirety I think should remain for those who like doing it.

They could also make other ways to level, so that those who don't like leveling could maybe find another method that maybe they enjoy.
Activities that don't award xp, like crafting professions, could maybe award xp, as one example.

Makes sense. I just see a tutorial as being better for new players then wow's current leveling structure.

[arkanon]

Its a mmo. Having players with a vague sense of what they are doing trumps watching a story that ends with the players fighting thanos.

Strange anology, but ill run with it - Using the same logic they should have condensed all the marvel movies, including the avengers movies, into a 1hour exposition, and then gone straight to "Avengers, ASSMBLE!" and shown the final fight.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

This is one of those "por que no los dos" situations if I ever saw it.

We can call it.... Hall of the Novice.

[arkanon]

Levels just seem like old news.

RPGs are all about progression, but I would love to see something other than levels.

The problem is, they have those other things in place already - you levle the character, then the gear, then the currencies / reps / other grinds, then every few months they hit the reset button and you start all over again. I think where some people object is when you have all those systems in play at once, for every character you play. One thing I have been for is having the leveling be account wide. I realise it wouldnt be very popular, but in SL i played 1 character through the story, and every single other one through TOF to get through it as fast as humanly possible.

[Kyphael]

I don't think you understand what an RPG is. Please do not ever get a job in the games industry.

I don't think Blizzard does anymore either after that level squish. At this point it's just a continuous grind without the reward.

[Kelathos]

It defeats the purpose of an RPG, but WoW had admittedly neglected RPG elements for a long time.

The suggestion is a natural progression of the path WoW is walking.

Yes, the direction should be changed.

[Femininity]

Leveling is antiquated. Since when is the purpose of an RPG simply leveling? Linear character progression doesn't have to be tied to a single numerical value.

[arkanon]

Leveling is antiquated. Since when is the purpose of an RPG simply leveling? Linear character progression doesn't have to be tied to a single numerical value.

Since when is the purpose of wow simply leveling?>

[Rendark]

Since they felt the need to bring everyone back to level 60 shows level really is pointless.