Feedback - Leveling a new char

[Wade-living-flame]

So I have leveled several chars in SoD and now just recent in P4 I leveled another one and here is some feedback.

With the changes made to make all the incursions quests a daily quests has given a big opportunity for people who boost people. They now make a lot more money because it simply takes too long to quest, people wont bother doing it and will rather pay. I dont think this is what our devs had in mind that regular people or even newcomers should have it way more difficult or that they pay for services in order to quickly get to 60.

Duskwood Incursions are now just a daily quest, this is not a good change. At level 25 no one will bother go all the way to Duskwood for just a daily quest, this means less people there(from a Horde perspective).

Even making a group for SM prooved to be difficult because people just prefer to buy the boost instead. I myself bought these boost and I talked with several other who agreed that if the Duskwood Incursions were like before then it wouldn’t had been an issue. They would rather do the Duskwood Incursions than pay for boosts from level 20.

People can say, oh why dont you quest? It still takes time and we’ve done the same quests so many times already so for me personally I just want to get the char up to max level as quickly as possible. I know there are some people who enjoy the questing, well the option is still there for them, nothing is changed there.

Ashenvale incursion is also made as a Daily quest and well its possible to get groups for ZF(takes some time) but I would still say I prefer the incursions. This way I will also get Honored with Emerald Wardens by level 50 and can get a few good gear upgrades which I think is fair.

So I propose to make the following changes:

Duskwood Incursions - dont bring back the envelopes/letters instead make it so that people can accept the quests infinite amount of times however for duskwood, just like it is now, the quests wont be accessable at level 35.

Ashenvale Incursions - Same thing here, dont bring back any envelope/letter instead make it so that people can accept the quests infinite amount of times just that the quests wont be accessable after level 50(or 53).

When it comes to Hinterlands and Feralas Incursions I think they should stay exactly the way they are now because they are part of the endgame content.

Remember that SoD can already be annoying in the sense that you have to gather a lot of runes, the last thing you want is to make the leveling more difficult. The leveling should be much more smoother and easier which will make it more fun and welcoming + getting the runes won’t be that bad. We want people to come play SoD and not get tired of the leveling and leave.

Thought on this? Discuss.

[Fox-nekrosh]

I know this is an unpopular opinion to say but I think that Vanilla levelling is by far the worst of all expansions. Anything that makes it smoother and more enjoyable would be nice IMO

[Galarhan-living-flame]

Wow, I didn’t expect to see someone calling for incursions back…

This is a bad idea in my opinion. Questing isn’t long at all with the new buff 150% exp till lvl 50. It takes A LOT more time to farm the gold to be boosted than to level up yourself. In SW it’s around 30g for 5 runs and SM is around 15g per run. I can’t imagine many people doing it.
It’s your choice to want to level up fast but I don’t think the infinite incursion loop should come back. It was really at the opposite of what classic wow used to be.

[Wade-living-flame]

@Galarhan-living-flame

Wow, I didn’t expect to see someone calling for incursions back…

This is a bad idea in my opinion. Questing isn’t long at all with the new buff 150% exp till lvl 50. It takes A LOT more time to farm the gold to be boosted than to level up yourself. In SW it’s around 30g for 5 runs and SM is around 15g per run. I can’t imagine many people doing it.
It’s your choice to want to level up fast but I don’t think the infinite incursion loop should come back. It was really at the opposite of what classic wow used to be.

I have 2 friends who are not close to anything of the speed of leveling that me and many others, just like yourself had which makes it less interesting for them to level. Have you tried to level a new char in p4? I recommend trying it out. And stop imagine, go check the SM spawns yourself.

Once again you saying “this is not what classic is about”, we saw what happened in p3 where SoD simply died off. This is not something we want and we need to adjust the game accordingly. We need to make SoD more welcoming and easy going.

Incursions changes I recommended needs to happen or you are just putting gold in the pocket of boosters and you basically prevent newcommers from playing SoD. The 150% boost isnt enough that I can tell you for questing. For questing it needs to be 3x that minimum.

If you dont want Incursions then increase the exp from quests by 450% up to level 50. This way you get new people coming or if current players want to level up a new char, they dont have to go through the hassle of paying for boosts because it goes so much faster.

[Galarhan-living-flame]

@Wade-living-flame

I have 2 friends who are not close to anything of the speed of leveling that me and many others, just like yourself had which makes it less interesting for them to level. Have you tried to level a new char in p4? I recommend trying it out. And stop imagine, go check the SM spawns yourself.

Once again you saying “this is not what classic is about”, we saw what happened in p3 where SoD simply died off. This is not something we want and we need to adjust the game accordingly. We need to make SoD more welcoming and easy going.

Incursions changes I recommended needs to happen or you are just putting gold in the pocket of boosters and you basically prevent newcommers from playing SoD. The 150% boost isnt enough that I can tell you for questing. For questing it needs to be 3x that minimum.

If you dont want Incursions then increase the exp from quests by 450% up to level 50. This way you get new people coming or if current players want to level up a new char, they dont have to go through the hassle of paying for boosts because it goes so much faster.

I am currently leveling alts, started with priest from lvl 1 (he is currently 40) and a drood probably after.
I ran a few SM and in Living Flam atm there is very few boosters for both Stockades and SM. Maybe one or two but that’s it. Probably because the alt wave isn’t coming yet, but it’s not that big. On the other hand I’ve been able to find groups for incursions and dungeons fairly easily, even if we sometimes had to 4 man it.

Incursions give plenty of exp and they are daily now, so you can play for 30 min/day on your alt and get a level and a half with one run. It’s a major boost, and at lvl 48 you can do both feralas and hinterlands (did both on my mage who was 50) to get 2 levels + in less than an hour.
I get that after a while the leveling isn’t what we want to spend our time on, especially after having done it a few times but it is currently amazingly fast compared to what it used to be in vanilla. It took me months to get a lvl max at the time and I felt stuck with my class since I didn’t wanna level another alt.
My main issue currently resides with runes. Some runes are so time consuming to get or nearly impossible to reach because the lower level content isn’t being played that much.
I take the dispersion rune as exemple that I have been lucky enough to get before lvl 40. If a priest lvl 60 didn’t have to do it and accepted to share the quest with me, it would have cost me 40g to buy the scroll and a lot of strugling through STV.

So I’m not at all for a return of the infinite incursion, I think they are nice the way they are currently - a big boost to exp once a day - but I’d like to see an easier access to runes from previous phases.

[Wade-living-flame]

@Galarhan-living-flame

I am currently leveling alts, started with priest from lvl 1 (he is currently 40) and a drood probably after.
I ran a few SM and in Living Flam atm there is very few boosters for both Stockades and SM. Maybe one or two but that’s it. Probably because the alt wave isn’t coming yet, but it’s not that big. On the other hand I’ve been able to find groups for incursions and dungeons fairly easily, even if we sometimes had to 4 man it.

As I said, I just leveled a priest to Max level, there are TONS of boosters in SM. Really as a Horde you found groups to go do Duskwood Incursions? I think not.

@Galarhan-living-flame

Incursions give plenty of exp and they are daily now, so you can play for 30 min/day on your alt and get a level and a half with one run. It’s a major boost, and at lvl 48 you can do both feralas and hinterlands (did both on my mage who was 50) to get 2 levels + in less than an hour.

You currently have max level chars on SoD and you enjoy logging in on your alts now and then and just do incursions or level a little bit. The new players doesnt want to log in a few times, he wants to play for hours because he find SoD interesting, however his interest will soon be gone because he has leveled chars in wow many times and the 150% exp isnt enough to cover it.

@Galarhan-living-flame

I get that after a while the leveling isn’t what we want to spend our time on, especially after having done it a few times but it is currently amazingly fast compared to what it used to be in vanilla. It took me months to get a lvl max at the time and I felt stuck with my class since I didn’t wanna level another alt.

Again stop comparing SoD with Vanilla or even Classic, SoD is its own game and you need to adapt the game to your audience and right now we are going the exact same step as before when it comes to SoD dying out which people such as yourself have hard time seeing. You focus on yourself and how YOU want the game and then you want to put the gameplay on other people when its perfectly fine to have different options of the game.

@Galarhan-living-flame

My main issue currently resides with runes. Some runes are so time consuming to get or nearly impossible to reach because the lower level content isn’t being played that much.
I take the dispersion rune as exemple that I have been lucky enough to get before lvl 40. If a priest lvl 60 didn’t have to do it and accepted to share the quest with me, it would have cost me 40g to buy the scroll and a lot of strugling through STV.

So I’m not at all for a return of the infinite incursion, I think they are nice the way they are currently - a big boost to exp once a day - but I’d like to see an easier access to runes from previous phases.

For the person who wants to level up his char in a fast way the current setup is not working, which means they will stop play.

What Im suggesting is that from level 25-35 and 37-50 you have the infinite quests, thats all, thats not endgame nor is it the start of the leveling journey.

I do agree that runes should also be made easier accessable but thats another thread for another day.

[Huitzo-ashbringer]

im quite sad they changed low level incursion , guess i should’ve leveled my alt sooner.

instead i just won’t upgrade them and play less.

[Wade-living-flame]

@Huitzo-ashbringer

im quite sad they changed low level incursion , guess i should’ve leveled my alt sooner.

instead i just won’t upgrade them and play less.

This was my first thought when I got to Duskwood and to my surprise no one was there and the bigger surprise was its now dailes you can do only once a day. Now i got the funds to pays for boosts but I know friends who dont and espcially new people.

[Galarhan-living-flame]

If as a new player you don’t wanna bother leveling at least your first char then the game isn’t for you.

@Wade-living-flame

You focus on yourself and how YOU want the game and then you want to put the gameplay on other people when its perfectly fine to have different options of the game.

Well, given the backlash incursions have received so far I’d say you are the one going against the current. I don’t really mind either way to be honest, so I’m certainly not as biased as you are.

No newcomer will want to spam incursion mindlessly to grind max lvl in a couple of days.
That’s the thing we do when leveling alts. I get that we want to be able to reach the end content but especially if you already have a max level, it’s not that long to level up.

If I compare SoD to Vanilla it’s because newcomers will have the expectation of a classic feel, meaning they expect the game to be more grindy than retail. Those who already play the game know what to expect.

As to the argument of SoD dying, it’s never been because of the leveling journey. It’s all about end game content. If the endgame content is diverse, rich and enjoyable, then people will play and go through the leveling process.

P3 didn’t bring much content and the leveling was more harduous than it is now. Hence the loss of players.

Again, I don’t mind either way if incursions loops are back it will make alt leveling faster for sure, but for the game itself I don’t think it’s a good idea and ESPECIALLY for newcomers.

[Wade-living-flame]

@Galarhan-living-flame

If as a new player you don’t wanna bother leveling at least your first char then the game isn’t for you.

Well, given the backlash incursions have received so far I’d say you are the one going against the current. I don’t really mind either way to be honest, so I’m certainly not as biased as you are.

No newcomer will want to spam incursion mindlessly to grind max lvl in a couple of days.
That’s the thing we do when leveling alts. I get that we want to be able to reach the end content but especially if you already have a max level, it’s not that long to level up.

If I compare SoD to Vanilla it’s because newcomers will have the expectation of a classic feel, meaning they expect the game to be more grindy than retail. Those who already play the game know what to expect.

I understand your point, problem is back in vanilla or even classic, if you were playing, you were playing other people, right now its a lot of solo gaming which doesnt lead up to classic feel. The grind can start at level 50. This is SoD not classic or vanilla, we ain’t chasing that feeling and we must adapt to the current envirement.

@Galarhan-living-flame

As to the argument of SoD dying, it’s never been because of the leveling journey. It’s all about end game content. If the endgame content is diverse, rich and enjoyable, then people will play and go through the leveling process.

P3 didn’t bring much content and the leveling was more harduous than it is now. Hence the loss of players.

I dont disagree with you on that point however making it easier for new players to come to SoD or current players to level their chars will make the phases last longer. Activity is key.

@Galarhan-living-flame

Again, I don’t mind either way if incursions loops are back it will make alt leveling faster for sure, but for the game itself I don’t think it’s a good idea and ESPECIALLY for newcomers.

The reason I made this post was because 2 of my friends who started SoD are stuck around level 30, it still doesnt give them that much interest to continue playing, even they like SoD, it takes too long for them. This is also confirmed by others I have spoken with that they have the same feeling thats why I bring it up.

You dont want to make it more difficult for people, you want to make it easier and you need to understand what needs to be done in order to keep activity in SoD. Those people who don’t understand this will be the ones destroying the game because of their constant whining.

Another example is GDKP, you like love it, hate it but it still kept activity going. P3 would had lasted way longer with its activity and I guarantee you the same thing will be for p4 and the other phases but people whined because they prefer to be boosted in raids by experienced people and not to make any effort in either learning boss tactics or improving their chars, which GDKP will require so they whined so hard blizzard made the move to ban GDKP.

The same people who whined, majority of them don’t play much and they just whine on forums.