Leveling in Shadowlands - Request

Community General Discussion
21

Just wanted to highlight for this thread that veteran players will have a choice between levelling the new way or the old way. Of course the level numbers will be different but the OP here will be able to do what they want to do as it currently stands.

IMPORTANT: This is future content and is subject to change at any point in time. I can only comment on what was mentioned at Blizzcon 2019 by the developers. Stay tuned to your fansite of choice for datamined entries or participate in the beta for Shadowlands if you are lucky enough to be selected for it :slight_smile:

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22

By this, do you mean you level at a slower speed (eg completing one expansion won’t level you almost 10-50)? or just you can freely travel and do quests as/if you want, but you still level at the faster pace?

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Again, this can be subject to change so I can’t be definitive on this but from my understanding based on the Blizzcon panels, you can just freely travel to do what you want. The choice to level the old fashioned way is not taken away, just reserved for those that wish to do it that way.

The only stipulation they mentioned was that new players would have the new starting zone, then go right into the new expansion. Once that’s been done once (again, the specifics not nailed down), the option to level the time traveling way is open.

Lastly, just because I can’t stress this enough, this is all subject to change so feel free to speculate and provide feedback on how you would like it to work, but keep in mind nothing is set in stone just yet. :slight_smile:

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I would love to see a game plus mode - where you can choose to replay quest zones with a much higher difficulty and better rewards. (Better loot not more xp, maybe some unique transmogs?)

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Not gonna lie, sounds like an amazing system all around - especially with options on how you play through the game. But… it sounds like a system that is going to be much easier to show when it is in action than it is to explain with text and words :wink: (fingers crossed I get into the beta so I can write about it on my blog :heart_eyes:)

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OMG, this is great, thank you so much for replying.

And yes, ALWAYS keeping in mind everything is subject to change! I’m just really happy that so far, it looks like there’s the possibility to do it the “old fashioned way” optionally, which is just perfect and exactly what I wanted!

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I admit I was wrong and apologies :wink:

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1-50 you mean, 50-60 has to be done in Shadowlands, and I don’t want to do every quest again to level.

I thought datamining and posting it online was against Blizzard’s rules?

What I still don’t understand is why would someone voluntarily choose to extend something they’ve already done loads of times. What was it Einstein said? “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

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Doesn’t the last boss in that endtime dungeon say the same thing?

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I think its one of those rules that are put in there in case anyone ever finds a way to do anything malicious through it, but doesnt have to enforce the rule as people generally dont do it with malicious intent or have any majorly negative outcomes

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Well, it’s a matter of personal enjoyment. Some people hate leveling, and want to rush as fast as possible. Some people enjoy the slow journey, and progressing through “vanilla”, into BC/Wrath > Cata/Mop > etc. because it’s all part of an adventure. And from the looks of it, both parties should be satisfied in SL (subject to change), as you’ll be able to fast level or normal level. It’s a win-win scenario

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But there is a possibility of a different result when doing a boss in a dungeon. Even if it’s not for you.

I’m not against an optional lengthening version for those people, but Blizzard are known for making all the people do the same thing. Personally if I level again I will do zones in different expansions not all one expansion. I just don’t like some zones at all in one expansion.

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33

And that’s what we’ll get. We already know that you’ll be able to change expansions whenever you want to.

What isn’t /wans’t clear yet, is the option to level the old fashioned way without that 70% faster - one expasion / “TL Leveling”.

Sometimes I stuggle pretty hard with a depressive state of mind due to real-life issues, and sometimes the people I play with aren’t online, so I enjoy leveling the old way, and enjoy the old zones, and adventure - it kinda works as a healing process, you know?

And sometimes I simply enjoy leveling a new alt without any special reason, beyond simply enjoying going through that journey again

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Yup mb, 50-60 will be in shadowlands

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Without knowing all the exact details I can already tell with certainty, that Chromie will only drop a breadcrumb quest for all old expansions to start, like the old “Hero’s Call” quests for maps. And new players don’t get those quests enabled. That’s all the magic Blizzard will do, ultra-minimum effort as always. That’s the magic currently used, without starter quest there is no ability to e.g. enter Pandaria.

That part is not very interesting. What interests me is how we can actually play the whole old expansions. And with that I don’t mean how to blast thru an expansion in the shortest time, but how to do everything there. I use XP elimination all the time to keep me in an expansion bracket. I know most player think that’s stupid, but I can go on for days about the stupidity of leveling and item leveling and gear grinding and whatever… that’s completely reset with the next patch. I couldn’t care any less about XP and level, I only play for story, questing, maps. All that. That’s me. I pay as everyone else, I like it, I’m allowed to play that way.

Anyway, what will happen to me in Shadowland? Obviously a huge amount of quests require a flying mount. Oops. “We didn’t think about that”, yeah I know Blizzard. What about AoE quests? Rogues for example won’t get any AoE at low level, how do you finish such quests? Oops. “We didn’t think about that”, yeah I know Blizzard. A lot of quests are so broken and unplayable today in Draenor, Pandaria, Legion… I can give a sample list of over 200, and most block branches of quests to follow. Often I use a friend’s level 120 obliteration toon to get me thru such quests, well there’s a problem with Shadowland, a +10 level toon (level 60) won’t cut it to get those quests. Oops. “We didn’t think about that”, yeah I know Blizzard. What about the mini-bosses in the standard quests? Not dungeon, not raid… the semi elites. At level 10-20 you don’t have the talents, skill to beat those… expansions were designed for characters that already have all that stuff, not “naked” players. Oops. “We didn’t think about that”, yeah I know Blizzard.

So, Blizzard… do tell me how you will make this work? Don’t tell me you squish the enemy levels too. Obviously. I won’t encounter level 80 enemies in Pandaria. I’m smart enough to understand that without an official annoucement,. But if you bracket all enemies in Pandaria (for example) to level 10-50, it won’t cut it. It will not work. You have to look at all quests and determine if they’re still playable. Don’t tell me “We at Blizzard will do that”… No, you won’t. You lack the time. You never fixed old quests after the item-squeezes. I’m not that naive to think you will do it now. You’re overwhelmed atm with Shadowland alone. You wont go thru 30000 old quests to make them work. And the Beta/PTR players you gather don’t ever go there. So the plan is Shock-On-Release-Day? Oops. “We didn’t think about that”

I honestly want a status analysis of that now. And not a Oops. “We didn’t think about that” the day Shadowland is released. Replying with “We only support BfA and abandon all other expansion. Do on your own risk” will not be a valid solution. Unless your goal is to discontinue WoW with Shadowland.

And what about non-Shadowland in general? I assume you level cap every other region to 50, so it will be some form of automatic XP elimination. With only Shadowland areas granting XP above level 50. That will be your super-easy minimal effort implementation. A spell only working in Shadowland areas, granting XP above 50.

Well, all that being said Blizzard… if you look for players not interested in Shadowland testing but testing the old expansions for roadblocks, drop me a line. Because if the old content turns out to be unplayable, you force me out of the game. So far I’ve never touched anything in BfA. Why? Because I haven’t finished the old content. “You’re stupid”. Maybe. But me and others are those players, that don’t have so much gold to get free game time, we pay monthly without interruption as we don’t get bored and take a break waiting for content. We, the story players are your steady subscription base. Not the players with 10 gazillion gold that play for free. It’s my money that keeps those end level players playing WoW. And for that Blizzard, we can certainly ask for more respect towards us from your development team regarding bugs.

It’s a long text. But Shadowland worries me a lot to be honest. And for heaven’s sake. For a billion dollar company, how much effort can it be to set up a team of 10 people that work with us together, us the old content story players, to get those quests fixed. Broken for many, many, many years. Broken since 2008, 2010, 2014 you name it. And it would take 10 min to fix each one of those.

Thanks for reading.

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Yeah, I agree that Blizz should work with a handful of people who are willing to test out the leveling in depth, once Alpha/Beta starts. They usually send out invites to streamers, but they usually only play/test the new stuff.

I think it would be a good idea to have a handful of people invited specifically to test out the questing, and report on issues/bugs etc.

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There were a lot of us in BFA alpha that were not streamers.

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Yes, and how many of you did a in-depth testing on the 1-110 leveling brackets? I mean they should invite a couple of people with the sole purpose of testing out the leveling, nothing else, and report on it, especially now that it’s getting revamped.

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Also there were even some who complained and said nobody was even invited to participate in the beta which was not true of course because I have beta tested the horde side of BFA and I loved it not to say there weren’t any bugs there were alot back then.

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I did test, each quest had a feedback button on it and a section for comments about bugs.

I had an email from Blizz after beta was over thanking me for my reports.

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