In World of Warcraft (WoW) the new “Timewalker” dungeons cannot give players the same experience as back then. That’s what Blizzard knows.
10 old Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King dungeons have been chosen by Blizzard for the “Timewalker” program. This is intended to make the dungeons, which were designed for level 70 and 80 long ago, interesting for players who have long outgrown these levels and are now exploring Azeroth. Players will be scaled down to a lower level and are expected to receive interesting items.
The Timewalker dungeons will not be able to turn back the clock 8 years
But it’s not working out quite right. There are difficulties. The lead designer of WoW, Ion “Watcher” Hazzikostas, admits this as well. Players will not be able to play and feel like they did back then.
Players long for the game experience Shattered Halls from 2007 back, Hazzikostas wrote in a post to the fans: “The Timewalker dungeons will not be able to deliver that. Sorry.”
Because the experience back then did not result from the design of the dungeons, but from the limitations of the classes. Back then, a Protection Warrior constantly had to tab through enemies and build aggro. DPS had to hold back drastically due to the danger of “overnuking” and WoW back then was a completely different game than it is today.
To evoke that feeling again today, the dungeons would have to be completely revamped or player abilities significantly restricted: That is not what they want. The Timewalker dungeons are not designed for that.
However, the dungeons in WoW are supposed to be harder than they currently are
They are only supposed to offer more variety during leveling and show players the “old” dungeons. However, they are also not satisfied with the way they currently function. For example, pets are not properly downscaled and tear everything apart as “level 100 in level 70 dungeons” on the test server.
Overall, the dungeons are also too quickly over. Some enemies die before they could even show their mechanics. They will work on that.
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