Those who play at a high level and want to try out another character in World of Warcraft are currently suffering. Because the system fails there.
World of Warcraft has evolved from a character-centric game to an account-centric game with “The War Within”. What you have worked for on the account should apply to all characters. This also includes many catch-up mechanisms to quickly gear up secondary characters. However, this only applies to a medium gameplay level. Those who want to tackle the hardest content must invest multiple times the amount of time to catch up a twink.
What is the problem? Basically, there are now quite a few and quite good “catch-up” mechanisms in World of Warcraft to gear up characters to a certain level. That precise limit is usually at item level 626 – the maximum achievable with “heroic” items.
- The actual possible upper limit is at 639, which corresponds to fully developed mythic items.
- The performance difference between a character with item level 626 and one with 639 is 10% – 15%. That is quite a gap that is difficult to close.
- Anyone playing at a higher level with their main character can basically only catch up secondary characters if they put in the same effort again.
Because just to collect the badges necessary for upgrading, one would currently have to complete about 100 dungeons on “Mythic+” with a minimum level of 8 or higher.
This amount of time is not all there is, because acquiring items that can even be upgraded so far is only possible through the weekly box in Dornogal or the mythic raid. Alternatively, gear can also be crafted at item level 636.
What does the community want? There are many proposed solutions and the ideas are quite varied. Most importantly, most want their time in the game to be respected. If one character is already well-equipped, it should be easier to bring a second one up to the same level so that one can play the same content as with the main. Some of the most popular proposals are:
- There should be 50% more badges dropping for upgrades until catching up to the best character on the account.
- Completed dungeons should grant more badges, even if the time limit is exceeded.
- A catch-up mechanic is needed for the weekly treasure chest. Those who did not play with a character from day 1 in The War Within can hardly catch up with items from the weekly box.
The topic is currently being discussed quite actively in the WoW subreddit. However, most seem to agree that it should be significantly easier to catch up secondary characters to the level of the mains. It can take some time, but it should be possible faster than it currently is.
Because although The War Within is already extremely “twink-friendly” and quickly allows for catching up secondary characters to a certain level – if one plays the hardest content in the game, it is currently almost not possible and takes far more time. Perhaps Blizzard will take inspiration from other games – just like with the most famous WoW symbol.
