Those who have not yet reached level 80 will find it harder in World of Warcraft: The War Within. Blizzard is increasing the difficulty.
Leveling in World of Warcraft: The War Within was too easy. Therefore, Blizzard is now intervening in the leveling experience after the early access and the release of the game. Enemies at the beginning of the expansion will be significantly stronger and will have more health points, allowing them to survive longer in battles. Many do not like this – as they now believe that this was another benefit that the “Early Access” characters could take advantage of. Something that cannot be entirely dismissed.
This is what Blizzard says: In the official WoW forum, Blizzard justified the change as follows:
While players have immersed themselves in The War Within and begun leveling, our data showed and we also heard a lot of feedback that characters in Khaz Algar with endgame gear from Dragonflight are extremely powerful compared to the entry-level content [of the new expansion]. […] The values we have seen are often so extreme that even normal combat rotations do not occur. This situation also led to strange experiences where characters at low levels could contribute drastically more than characters at level 80 […].
The hotfix will adjust the scaling of enemies in the leveling content of The War Within and will increase the strength of low-level enemies to bring the duration of battles more in line with expected WoW behavior. These changes are most pronounced at level 70 and have less impact the higher your level is. Enemies at level 80 and beyond will remain unchanged.
Why is Blizzard doing this? The reason is that enemies, especially at the lower levels of the new addon – in the range of 70 to 75 – fall extremely quickly when one already possesses strong gear from Dragonflight. Many classes are literally dealing “one-hits”, which means that there is no need for a rotation or to actually try out the new hero talents.
This has also led to Blizzard having to deactivate the level cap, allowing low-level heroes to level their counterparts to level 80 within a few hours. The effect is most pronounced at level 70 and fades continuously up to level 79. Enemies at level 80 remain as tough as before, so there is no change here.
This also means that leveling will take a bit longer, as enemies will survive a few seconds longer. The leveling experience is intended to feel a bit smoother because of this.
This is how the community is discussing it: As expected, the change is not going down well in the official Blizzard forum. The usual comments like “Fun Detected” are being thrown around, and generally, most seem to be rather angry that Blizzard is now making the leveling content a bit harder.
- “Shoutout to everyone who has already reached level 80, we don’t have to deal with this. Well done, guys.” – Nzhuv
- “As I understand it, everyone who could start ‘early’ had it easy, and now after the full release, the company has decided to make everything a bit harder. That’s just … wow.” – Evilperiod
However, some indeed see the necessity. Because while some overpowered characters had their fun, others fell behind:
- “It was absolutely no fun when a level 70 tank pulled half the dungeon and dragged along all the others who just couldn’t keep up.” – Vlädimyr
Cortyn says: Even though I belong to those who benefited from the “easy” mobs during early access, I think the decision is good. Especially the first levels from 70 to about 74 felt simply not exciting at all. I could hardly utilize my hero talents there because the effect rarely came into play when the enemies were already dead.
Moreover, the “loss of power” felt dramatically more pronounced the higher you leveled up. Both are effects that will be significantly cushioned by this change, and even though many are complaining, I think it’s great that leveling my alt characters will feel smoother in the future. In any case, it’s good that Blizzard is now implementing further adjustments – regardless of which content – before the rest of the content is unlocked.
