The level 10 hurdle needs to be improved to attract new players

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
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This is meant to be a serious suggestion to smooth the transition for retail players to the game as well as ensure newer players don’t get discouraged and fall at the first hurdle. Don’t make the mistake the OSRS community did for the first 18 months and put your fingers in your ears, spam #NoChanges and then wonder why the game suffers a substantial drop off.

Hitting level 10 is going to be make or break for newer players. Level 10 is where you access your first talent point and experience your first real progression moment. This is the point where a new player will be the most likely to give up if there is no perceivable progression that has been made.

The reason why Hunters were so popular in Vanilla WoW was their level 10 progression. After slogging through 1-9 facetanking with Raptor Strike, the pet felt like a godsend. The immediate jump in power feels incredible and makes you feel like you’ve truly made progress. You’re enthused and inspired to push forward and it’s this that hooks people.

Blizzard know this and tried to replicate this exact philosophy in Cataclysm. At level 10, you chose your spec and gained a previously high ranking ability from that spec right from the get go. While good in principle, this was executed very poorly. The jump in power was so extraordinary, it trivialised early game content and if you give too much too soon, it has the opposite effect. People aren’t as inspired to continue to push if they already feel like they’ve ‘won’.

So how can Blizzard get this right?

The level 10 hurdle needs to feel just as good as it does for Hunters (and Warlocks), for everyone and I’m going to suggest how this could be done.

Druid

Druids have a miserable 1-9 experience. I wonder how many prospective Druids have quit upon reaching level 10 and finding their lacklustre reward in Bear Form. Your survivability undoubtedly improves but the pitiful damage is not going to enthuse many (other than veterans) to push forward. The prospect of the next chapter of your journey from 10-20 should feel exciting, not daunting.

Create a new quest in Mulgore and Teldrassil for Druids that unlocks Cat form at level 10, along with Claw and Ferocious Bite from the get go. Bear form becomes available at level 15 instead.

Warriors

Another miserable 1-9 that will put a huge number of people off pushing further into the game. Let’s reward them for their perseverance.

A level 10 blue 1H and Shield for completing the Defensive Stance quest.

Mages

A level 10 green wand in addition to their level 10 quest reward that sits somewhere between the first two green crafted wands stat wise + Evocation at level 10 as opposed to 20.

Shaman

Shamans have a nice progression at level 10 with their Searing Totem. I propose a level 10 green Mace and Shield in addition to this.

Paladins

Crusader Strike. Yes you heard me right.

This ability was actually in pre release versions of Vanilla WoW and scrapped from the release build. So yes, it’s still Classic, and no, it would not cause Ret Paladins to start topping DPS charts and dominating PVP. I propose that it is brought back, as was originally intended, to fix the glaring hole in a Paladins offensive toolkit.

Priest

Priests have a pretty good Level 10 with Mind Blast and access to Spirit Tap. I propose their level 10 quest also awards a level 10 green crafted wand that, like mages, sits between the first two crafted wands stat wise.

Rogue

Blade of Cunning is great, give them a ‘Blade of Deceit’ with matching stats as well (call it whatever you like) to emphasise and reward the fact they’ve just learned to dual wield.

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We don’t need to change the onboarding experience for Classic. If people want easymode, they should play Retail. Classic is meant to be how the game was in Vanilla.
There is no reason why we’d want new players who aren’t willing to push through a few short hours of early levels. What do you think will happen once those players get to the 30-40 slog, or run out of quests at 55.

Classic is not for the kind of players you’re thinking of.

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It’s not 2005 anymore. There is actual competition for new players in the MMO genre and the gaming industry as a whole. WoW is no longer up against an archaic, punishing EverQuest as its sole competitor. Bringing back a museum piece game does not work in the long run if it’s categorically resistant to any sort of change. This is a minor quality of life update that would take minimal effort to implement and make a huge difference in player retention, I firmly believe that.

Newer players are not going to be as tolerant as people who know the game inside out. A new player hitting 10 on a Druid or Warrior is likely going to feel discouraged and I don’t think that’s their fault. We can’t take the attitude of “well suck it up newbie, we don’t want you in our game” because that’s a one way ticket to creating a stagnant playerbase that won’t grow.

This is a helping hand as opposed to a radical reinvention of what makes Classic great and little things like this would help bring in and retain new players who would eventually learn themselves what makes it great.

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I dont get it, all classes have rewarding things at level 10.

Maybe you value pets so much because its bonding for so many hunters and some naughty warlocks? For example im still using the same boar I got at the beginning, wont ever release him. And im not an emotional guy.

Edit: Will obviously eventually stop using him though, but he will sit in that stable for ever!

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Lol, with my hunter char I also got very attached to my pet because we had been through so much together, I still have my char on retail and still have the same pet, in my hunter Styra’s case, a lvl 91 Cat called, hmm, Fluffykins.

I think I may roll a hunter on classic and eventually get a big cat and call it Fluffy … why not lol

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There is no competition. There is only one viable MMORPG and it is World of Warcraft. Dozens of other games tried to achieve what Wow did, but none will ever do.

Classic was not made for new players. Dedicated people who have been playing this game wanted to return to a better expansion and once retail became what it is finally Blizzard gave in. Retail is bleeding money, so the old players got Classic.

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Also maybe the OPs issue is his own preference on classes. I have no doubt that people that really like druid, are happy to do the bear form quest and have that ability. Same with Warrior and defensive stance, big deal if you love Warrior.

I think early levels are fine, very smooth and rewarding.

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I never really had a problem with levelling my chars in vanilla, to me, level 10 was like a milestone which I was so proud to accomplish, and that became the start of everything, in my opinion

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I honestly feel it is fine the way it is.

People asked for a lot of the same thing in OSRS and it was shot down in polls, which really did show the draw of that “old school” feel that we’ve been craving for so long.

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Or they can spend 5 silver on one.

A few silver at the AH can get you one.

Any priest that doesn’t already have an enchanting wand by level 6 isn’t playing their class right.

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Why is it that whenever anyone tries to have a discussion around here the first reply usually is “go play retail” it’s f*ckin’ ridiciulous.

OP has some good ideas, rogues getting a 2nd dagger for unlocking dual wield would definitely be a good thing. Though the chance of Blizzard ever actually making such changes is very slim at best.

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Not really, by 10 I had 80 silver, more than enough to buy 2 AH weapons. AND it’s not a classic clone then is it?

You want it easy, go back to retail, (Hee Hee Hee)

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no
/10chars

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It’s not a clone already so what does that matter. Besides what’s wrong with a having a discussion about improving upon what we have? :wink:

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Maybe the fact they said Blizzard wanted a classic experience for people. Not Classic easy mode.

You still don’t understand, there is no way, ever, ever Blizzard will add anything like getting free weapons just because “It’s hard”. Just go to an AH and BUY SOME for 10 silver.

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Where do you see me or OP saying it’s hard? Hm? WHERE?!

Wtf are you even talking about with your easy mode nonsense… it’s completely irrelevant to the topic.

It’s just a discussion about a WHAT IF scenario. So if anything YOU don’t get it.

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Why else would you want better weapons? I get what the OP is talking about, but why isn’t getting the skill reward enough on it’s own?

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You think it’s fine because you know the game and how to play it, you know what’s coming and it’s familiar territory to you, me and other people who’ve experienced it.

You’re not looking at this through the eyes of a retail player who started in Cataclysm or a totally new player who is drawn to the game by the colossal popularity of the game on Twitch.

Even the most experienced people would tell you that’s simply not true for Druids and Warriors in particular. Doable, of course but FAR from smooth, particularly if you have the misfortune to have started late or find yourself on a less populated server. Even a level 10 Night Elf Druid or Warrior will struggle immensely to solo the Gnarlpine quests on Teldrassil.

It’s not so much a preference as it is an observation that there is no parity amongst the classes when crossing that level 10 hurdle. Hunters and Warlocks have that really noticeable boost and it feels great. Shamans and Priests have it to a lesser degree and Mages, Warriors, Druids and Paladins don’t really have it at all.

I think that’s a big problem and Blizzard themselves knew it. That’s the whole motive for their level 10 Cataclysm changes. Regrettably they screwed it up and it wasn’t tested thoroughly but the philosophy that change was made on was solid.

Dottie, we’re talking about new players who aren’t acquainted with Classic and the tricks we all know to smooth things out. You know exactly what I’m talking about here so drop the sarcasm, I’ve seen you post loads over the years and you’re usually far more sensible. The simple fact is that the progression bump that Hunters and Warlocks get is not replicated enough across all the classes. New players don’t have a main to dish AH blues and greens to them and they’re never going to get far enough to do so if they feel discouraged to continue because the balance at that initial first hurdle just isn’t right.

None of this is going to effect seasoned veterans (apart from Rets getting what they should have had from the very start and a minor DPS increase). This is a reasonable QoL improvement to make sure that retail/new players in 2019 just have a smoother transition into the game. None of this would effect endgame or tarnish the ‘Classic’ experience.

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Just report this troll and move along.

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Whilst the damage may be crap, Bear Form allows you to survive accidental pulls and is in no way useless. If I’m being honest, Cat Form is crap until you get Ferocious Bite and Pounce, which isn’t until the mid 30s.

My point is, you have things that are small or substantial quality of life improvements and those are your motivation for levelling up. (The increased movement speed talent in Cat Form is a Gods send for travelling)