I think leveling should be replaced.

[Kokolums]

The devs obviously HATE leveling with a passion, so they made it boring and stupid easy. Its unsurprising that people will call to remove it. The solution is to hire devs that actually like leveling, so that they can pour their passion into it. The current devs are about end game raiding, so leveling is terrible and PvP is in a tiny sandbox arena.

One of my fixes is about fleshing out PvP and leveling into their own true end game path. Hardly matters at this point. WoW is getting absolutely destroyed now.

[Swnem]

I love how people react to this claiming this to be an RPG.
This game is not an RPG. Hasn't been for a long time.

It's closer to a moba with loads of power systems on top and pve option. Literally an instanced game you repeat ad-nauseum.
The story is mostly absent, your character is a nameless champion no one truly knows. Has no backstory, no persistance in the world, no personality, no relationship with the other characters, no weight on decisions.
Where exactly is the Role Playing Game? Probably only on RP servers.

Yes, the leveling is currently useless in this game and resources might as well go for creating more dungeons and raids if this is what they keep doing. Fans of the current game would probably be happy with that.

Otherwise, they have a lot of work to do to turn this into an RPG.

[Dellis0991]

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.

Naw we good.

[Biomega]

I love how people react to this claiming this to be an RPG.
This game is not an RPG. Hasn't been for a long time.

That depends entirely on how you define RPG. It's a very broad, somewhat vague term - what people mean, in many cases, is that WoW isn't/is no longer a SPECIFIC KIND of RPG that they think it used to be or that they would like it to be. Which, don't get me wrong, is an entirely legitimate complaint. It's just important to be clear about what you mean when you say RPG, so perhaps avoid using that very general label and just outline your expectations.

It's entirely possible to define "RPG" without any leveling being involved at all; even without any mechanical (as opposed to narrative) character progression being involved, though that would be more difficult. No one is saying WoW should get rid of all character progression when they criticize leveling - quite the contrary, many people who advocate for the removal of levels would like to see it replaced with some other kind of character progression that is more meaningful than an arbitrary "you need to be this tall to ride" kind of number.

[Kokolums]

An RPG minus leveling is usually classified as an action-adventure game. Zelda is an example.

You could make an argument that Blizz is slowly turning WoW into something more like Zelda.

In fact, you can also argue they are stripping out social everywhere they can and also turning it into something more like Zelda in that regard as well.

[Garretdejiko]

Leveling is the only enjoyable thing this game has left.

[Belloc]

Remove the level system and replace it with a questline. If players want, they can just do all of the main quests and hit max level asap. It could be something like completing one of the four covenants, or whatever. Whatever the new leveling quest content ends up looking like.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

I can’t think of any thing that would kill new/returning players interest or even just the first of trying different classes then throwing players into abunch of forces tutorials with no sense of world and then being spat out at max level.

[Coldkil]

Leveling serves the purpose of introducing the new expansion, new systems and the main story.

I'm all on for constant squishes all the times. Every new expansion is 50-60 and the old one goes into the "legacy bucket" as an additional timeline to do the 10-50.

Leveling is fine as it is. A starter progression you do first to learn the ropes. If you don't like leveling, there are level boosts in the shop. Not that it takes really long to level normally at this point.

[Soon-TM]

Levelling should take longer and be at least a bit harder. Max level grinds could be toned down as compensation. It's no use levelling a toon from scratch (or level 10 in the case of ARs) to the level cap at lightning speed, only to be grinding tedious stuff such as renown or Torghast once you get there.

Come to think about it, WotLK almost hit the sweet spot in that regard. The only bad parts were making Outland mandatory for levelling and overnerfing a lot of outdoors content.

[Narzok]

the problem with removing is, you assume that your reasons for removing something outweight ALL other people's reasons to like that thing.
in that vein, why have X or Y? i don't like it, remove it.

an alternative would be nice.

with how convoluted classes/speccs are, and with how much the gameplay often changes after unlocking end-game systems such as legendaries,
there is no way they can teach proper class gameplay during leveling.

maybe a nice alternative would be to allow the shop level boost to go to max lvl once you have a maxed char and are 1 patch in.
so starting with X.1, you can boost your alt to max lvl with any unlock from leveling unlocked, but no max level systems outside of account-wide stuff.

and once X.2 hits, the base stuff from X.0 could be added so that a boosted char was similar to someone starting X.1 in normal gear. that way you would always be 1 patch behind the curve, which is a fine place for an alt to start.

[czarek]

RPG is more about character progression. Leveling atm gives you 1% of character progression. Yes lvling is pointless and could be replaced.

[LostSinclair]

Leveling is an important part of an MMO it can't be replaced but I do wish it were more like where it was during Cataclysm. Before they nerfed the ever living daylights out of player stats and damage going through the old content was fun and felt faster. Out leveling a zones questline halfway through wasn't great but that was solved by scaling. A pity there heavy handed approach at the time screwed us over for years and were just now at this point again.

[kodemonkee]

I think leveling should be replaced.

And I think, not.

There is a boost for purchase for exact people like you.

[procne]

Threads like this show how much the audience has changed over the years. At the start of WoW leveling WAS the game. It was a journey, it was an adventure. It brought fun from slowly improving your character and gear (also by running dungeons or crafting), taking on bigger challenges and seeing how something previously hard becomes easier now or even taking challenges to beat something above your level.

Over the years this all has been removed - leveling has been so streamlined and simplified that it holds no challenge and became bland. It's so fast and easy that it doesnt make sense to try to improve the gear. With scaling there are no challenges either and you can't see the progress. In its current form the leveling has been diluted to this one single meaningless number, just a timegate for the endgame. As such it could simply be removed.

And it seems that nowadays people want it that way.

[stross01]

I enjoy leveling up and losing damage, crit, mastery, versatility, and haste every level, becoming weaker until the next raid tier.

I enjoy leveling up to regain abilities, spells, and talents I had lost because of the prepatch.

It's great. 8^)

[procne]

Leveling is an important part of an MMO it can't be replaced but I do wish it were more like where it was during Cataclysm. Before they nerfed the ever living daylights out of player stats and damage going through the old content was fun and felt faster. Out leveling a zones questline halfway through wasn't great but that was solved by scaling. A pity there heavy handed approach at the time screwed us over for years and were just now at this point again.

In WoW leveling has already been replaced with progression through max level content (3 difficulty levels of dungeons / raids. pushing m+). What was left of leveling is neither engaging, nor meaningful, nor fun.

[MoanaLisa]

Leveling should remain the game. Full stop. It should be expanded and made interesting for new players.

It would be great if expansions just provided end game content without the pathetic excuse for leveling that is current now. There are MMO's that do this and are doing well.

- - - Updated - - -

And I think, not.

There is a boost for purchase for exact people like you.

You don't even need to purchase it. One comes for free with an expansion.

[kranur]

So basically just turn it into a lobby game where you just select class/spec and press enter dungeon?

[froschhure]

terrible ideas