[WoW] 2.3 Levelling changes - some details released

[Algol Devilstar]

actually spirit is supposed to be modified to be "worthwile" soon(tm).

[mek]

Great changes. 40-50 could use a new quest hub too though, zones like Feralas and Hinterlands could use some work. But we'll see.

[Dashal]

Cool, good timing since I just started playing again and my highest toon is 29. When will this be hitting live?

[Quineloe]

60% mount needs to be level 20

[Dis]

Originally Posted by Quineloe

Gimping elite outdoor quests sucks. They should buff the rewards instead. If the three Stormgarde quests each had 4 decent options, preferably blue level 45 items, there would be no problem getting people there.

Same with instances. BLUES FROM EVERY BOSS FOR FUCKS SAKE. TWO per boss! These items will be shit in 10 levels anyways, there's no reason not to throw them at people like there's no tomorrow. If every boss in SFK dropped two level 25+ items, Alliance lowbies would be crawling Silverpine.

Think about it this way, if you are a gaming company do you want people to just by vanilla WoW or do you want people to buy your expansions (TBC and soon WotLK) as well.

I applaud this move for several reason, and please note this is specific to Lothar:

1.) Getting a group (normal or herioc) is an act of insanity. Insanity being defined as doing something over and over again and expecting a different results (Einstein) Every day I go on the LFG as a healer, and maybe get 2 groups a week if I am lucky. So otherwise I end up two boxing my main/alt and farming mining and herbs. Gets pretty boring. This will provide me with something else to do besides farm, and it may just increase the amount of people LFG trying to gear up alts with epics from heriocs or just general normals.

2.) I did the alt thing, but after getting my druid to 46 I just said "fuck this" especially after leveling my shaman (new main) to 70 I was just burnt out on the tedious grind from 40-58, once you hit 58 it is like someone hit turbo boost and now the xp is flying.

3.) Gold! I have found that I am making the most gold when I am leveling up alts. So this is good for my character gold balance

[Quineloe]

Think about it this way, if you are a gaming company do you want people to just by vanilla WoW or do you want people to buy your expansions (TBC and soon WotLK) as well.

I don't see what this has to do with it

[Dis]

Originally Posted by Quineloe

I don't see what this has to do with it

You want people to spend money on expansions. Why would a casual pony up 30-50 bucks on an expansion that offers them nothing? They would if they hit the ceiling at 60 on multiple characters.

I would be curious what the percentage is of non-TBC accounts over the whole of WoW subscribers.

[Arbitrary]

This change should do a good job of bringing back some players in addition to helping retention rates.

I for one would be far more interested in resubbing and trying something new if I could look forward to a cut to leveling exp, a bonus to quest exp, and a little more variety in questing locations. 15%/15% isn't the most amazing upgrade ever but I'll take it. It'll probably be enough to get at least a month out of me at some point. FotM Ret Paladin here I come~

[Algol Devilstar]

I summon the Might of Makata to this thread!

Makata, God of Insipid Wit, Useless Drivel and Posting Oneuppage tell us what can we argue about here, oh wise one?

[Dis]

Originally Posted by Arbitrary

This change should do a good job of bringing back some players in addition to helping retention rates.

I for one would be far more interested in resubbing and trying something new if I could look forward to a cut to leveling exp, a bonus to quest exp, and a little more variety in questing locations. 15%/15% isn't the most amazing upgrade ever but I'll take it. It'll probably be enough to get at least a month out of me at some point. FotM Ret Paladin here I come~

Agree with that as well. I am highly interested in HellGate when it comes out, but I will admit this change is really making me conflicted in that even if HellGate is quite awesome, do I really want to switch games?

Reason being is I could only focus on one game at a time due to real life time constraints. I wanted HellGate to be good, but the idea of being able to level up some alts without the hidious grind is VERY appealing. So Hellgate (even if it is the next great thing since sliced bread) will be put on the backburner for sometime.

Edit: I concur with Quin as well about the mount

[Clericnon2boxed]

Originally Posted by Quineloe

60% mount needs to be level 20

good point, add a 80 pct mount at 40 then

[Makata]

Need to do sweeping changes to quest rewards, since individual cases is probably going to be too tedious. Since the req level + 5 model has been completely destroyed > 60, no reason to adhere to it religiously pre 60. Simple solution is to inflate ilvls of all gear pre-tbc by about 33% (making it so you're theoretically wearing ilvl 80s as you walk into outlands, which is about right), at least for greens and most blues. Next, for all cloth convert strength into +dmg, and agility into +spell crit. For all mail and plate, convert spirit into +crit, and unless it's obviously a paladin item convert +int into +ap. These changes will take very little effort and will make nearly all quest gear at least usable. Leather gear might have to be considered individually as speaking from a druid who's actually leveling balance (did feral already, wanted to try something new), there's no stat on leather that is useless. I'm actually loving how many sta/int/spirit leather pieces I'm finding.

[Quineloe]

Originally Posted by Dis

You want people to spend money on expansions. Why would a casual pony up 30-50 bucks on an expansion that offers them nothing? They would if they hit the ceiling at 60 on multiple characters.

I would be curious what the percentage is of non-TBC accounts over the whole of WoW subscribers.

You want people to subscribe for years I'd say. But I don't see how you'd hit the ceiling at 60 if the blue items were actually good you got in the 50s instances.

[Dis]

Originally Posted by Quineloe

You want people to subscribe for years I'd say. But I don't see how you'd hit the ceiling at 60 if the blue items were actually good you got in the 50s instances.

Exactly, hence if you hit a cap of 60, you would then be in an opportunity to buy TBC and get some use out of it. By doing so, A.) you make a box sale, and B.) you increase retention rate

[Flesseck]

This is fucking fantastic news. I might actually be excited to level that OP Warlock alt of mine and not feel like it's a chore.

Originally Posted by Quineloe

Gimping elite outdoor quests sucks. They should buff the rewards instead. If the three Stormgarde quests each had 4 decent options, preferably blue level 45 items, there would be no problem getting people there.

Nethaera posted on the US forums saying that a lot more changes are coming including buffing rewards and those elite quests that are changing to non-elite are still retaining their same rewards/XP or better, as she/he stated. There's more shit to come, so we'll see.