Blizzard plans to make leveling in the “Classic” areas of World of Warcraft more challenging in the future. Some ideas are already on the table.
The scaling system from Legion could fix it
The discussion surrounding the private server Nostalrius and potential “Legacy” or “Pristine” servers has drawn the developers’ attention to certain issues within World of Warcraft.
In an interview with YouTuber Jesse Cox, developer Ion Hazzikostas discussed many aspects of the upcoming expansion Legion, but also the leveling experience in the game’s Classic areas. Blizzard’s creators of WoW agree that the current leveling experience at low levels is not enjoyable. Enemies fall too quickly, and “you spend more time looking for objectives than actually fighting them.”
The reason for this fast leveling was that new players should not take too long to experience the “cool, fresh content” of the latest expansion. Numerous changes to the classes, combined with a reduction in the required XP per level, have made reaching the maximum level a very boring experience. Enemies typically live for only 1-2 seconds, and often it takes just one keystroke to send foes to the ground. Worse yet: Anyone wishing to experience a zone’s storyline is usually so high-level after completing half the quests that the area poses no challenge anymore.
With the level boost that comes with purchasing each future expansion, it is no longer necessary to rush players through the old areas.
A possible solution to the problem is the new scaling system, which is introduced with “Legion” for the Broken Isles. Here, the difficulty of enemies adapts to the character’s current level – you can go to any area at any time and always have challenging tasks (except Suramar, which is only for 110). According to the developers’ plans, the optimal combat time required for a single enemy should be between 12 and 15 seconds, says Hazzikostas. This would be a bit shorter than in Classic, but significantly longer than currently.
However, it is still uncertain whether this scaling would also apply to the old world. This will only become clear after Legion has been on the market for a while and players have been able to provide their feedback.
“As developers, we want to create a game we can be proud of. The game should provide an epic, fun experience at all times. Not just at level 100 or 110, but also at level 27. And at the moment, that’s not always the case.”
Mein-MMO says: It’s about time. Players have been complaining for years that they only rush through the old zones and that there is nothing left of the story and fun. Since the developers want to experience the effects of the scaling in Legion first, it remains to be seen when this issue will really be addressed. If they utilize the scaling, it could also anger some players, as “lowbie” areas would again be populated with mobs that permanently attack you. At least a few role-players would find that annoying. Let’s wait and see and beat up Legions.
For more news about Blizzard’s MMORPG and the upcoming expansion “Legion”, check out our World of Warcraft game page.
