Leveling in World of Warcraft is currently a chore. Now even the developers admit that they have no idea what has gone wrong.
Anyone currently playing a new character in World of Warcraft continues to face problems. The battles last a long time, as many enemies have large amounts of hit points or hit significantly harder than before the patch. While a small portion of the players enjoy the changes, there is mainly criticism and complaints. Defeating enemies during the leveling phase takes much longer than expected, and Blizzard admits: “No idea what went wrong!”
Blizzard admits ignorance. The developers of World of Warcraft acknowledge that they cannot identify the source of the error. They had squished values and item levels and ensured that all changes were “neutral” – the actual duration of fights should not change. However, looking at the “raw data” has shown no errors and met the developers’ expectations. Yet, when actually playing a character, the problems are clearly felt.
Troubleshooting is difficult. So far, Blizzard has failed to identify the exact source of the error. While particularly noticeable issues are fixed in hotfixes, the team is searching for the underlying problem. Since they might want to repeat the item squish in the future, such an error must be eliminated to prevent it from happening again next time.
Temporary solution: reduce HP. The developers agree that the current state cannot persist for long. They do not want players to experience a game of poor quality for an extended time. This is particularly frustrating as many new players or returnees are currently looking back into WoW and might be deterred by the buggy leveling. As a temporary solution, Blizzard plans to simply reduce the hit points of all enemies in the leveling phase if they cannot identify the error soon.
Level range from 60 to 80 will be improved. There was already significant criticism with patch 7.3.5 regarding the leveling experience. Once players reach level 60, leveling becomes slower and noticeably tougher. The developers now officially confirm this impression and explain that leveling here takes about 15% longer per level than before or after (so level 80+). In the future, the required experience in the range of levels 60 to 80 will be reduced.
What is your opinion on this matter? Do you enjoy the slow leveling right now? Or are you not touching a twink until Blizzard resolves it?
