The YouTuber and analyst leaves little good to say about the current leveling experience in World of Warcraft. However, Blizzard is so close to getting it right.
Even if many still haven’t accepted it: Leveling is no longer the core element of modern World of Warcraft. While it is still a significant part with a new expansion, it is no longer the particularly time-consuming endeavor it was in Vanilla (or Classic). In modern WoW, the focus is on the endgame, which you can tackle with friends – you don’t want to wait weeks to catch up to those friends.
However, despite the leveling phase being relatively short, it currently has massive problems – and it has nothing to do with speed.
What is the problem with the leveling phase of World of Warcraft? You know the YouTuber Bellular for his lore and analysis videos about World of Warcraft and the gaming industry as a whole. In one of his latest videos, he addressed the leveling phase of WoW and pretended to be a new or returning player.
He acted as if he wanted to return and play the new, shiny specialization of the Demon Hunter, the Devourer. But that’s where the problems begin.
What is the problem with the Devourer Demon Hunter? Like no other specialization ever before in World of Warcraft, the Devourer is only truly complete in the endgame, that is, at level 80 and above. Until then, the specialization only functions to a limited extent or is extremely boring because you primarily use two of three active abilities that you spam almost continuously.
Moreover, there are some details that Blizzard apparently overlooked. You can already learn the Void Metamorphosis talent at level 12 – but you simply do not get the ability. The Void Metamorphosis replaces the normal Metamorphosis of the Demon Hunter, but he only learns this at level 20.
The leveling phase has even more problems
A buff is the quick fix: Currently, there is the buff “Winds of Mysterious Fortune” in WoW. This is a temporary event where you receive additional experience. The most important aspect of this event, however, is that you are showered with small treasure chests while questing. These almost always provide suitable equipment for your character, tailored to the level.
As long as this buff is active, leveling works really well. But when the buff disappears on February 25th, the flaws become apparent. The rapid scaling then becomes a problem. Sparse quest rewards fail to keep the character’s power at a solid level.
The result: Your character feels weak while leveling, and especially between levels 60 and 80, you may fail against individual enemies because there hasn’t been new equipment for a long time.
Bellular believes that newcomers will be discouraged
Ultimately, Bellular believes that Blizzard is currently quite close to offering a decent leveling experience in World of Warcraft – but the developers are still failing. There are too many problems that accumulate and are so frustrating or complicated that newcomers or returnees will simply give up. Or, as he summarizes it as a closing statement in his video:
If [new players] experience this, they will think the game is a joke. They will think that the quality simply isn’t there and other companies definitely release much more polished products. (…)
It seems that Blizzard has almost something that really works. But they just can’t manage to carry it across the finish line.
Cortyn says: Unfortunately, I can only agree with Bellular on most points. Especially the leveling experience as a Devourer Demon Hunter is absolutely dreadful and clearly shows that the specialization is intended for the endgame and not the leveling phase.
When you combine this with the complexity of the leveling system, including things like Chromie Time, ten different expansions for leveling, various phases, and the peculiar scaling of enemies and rewards, you can easily come to the conclusion: Something is seriously wrong here.
The problem is particularly massive for newcomers or returnees. Veterans already know how to deal with these systems and are unlikely to encounter problems on the way to max level – but not everyone is a veteran.
World of Warcraft needs newcomers. But if you really want to win them over, Blizzard needs to address the new player experience once again. And this time, it should really be good. Because WoW needs new players. That would be good for everyone, because maybe then you can finally get the ongoing tank shortage under control.
