The level squish of World of Warcraft is not quite working yet. Many players are struggling with quests they could previously handle easily.
Just yesterday, on August 27th, the release date of World of Warcraft Shadowlands was announced, but the pre-patch 9.0.1 is still being tested on the PTR. Things are not running as smoothly as Blizzard and the players would like. Many characters feel too weak and are no longer able to master content that they could handle before. However, this is expected to change.
What is the problem? With the pre-patch 9.0.1, all player characters have their levels reduced. Those who were previously level 120 are now only level 50 after the patch. The big level squish is part of the new features of Shadowlands. All numbers will shrink, but the relative strength of a character compared to creatures in the game world is expected to change little.
However, that is not the case currently. While in the live version of the game, you can easily complete content from Legion with a character at level 120, that is no longer possible on the PTR with level 50. Players are struggling with raids like the “Emerald Nightmare” and even old dungeons are now hard to master.
Accordingly, there are many complaints in the official forum or on the subreddit of World of Warcraft.
This is what Blizzard says: Game Director Ion Hazzikostas then spoke up on Twitter. He explained that the work on the patch is not yet complete. He said:
“The work is still ongoing. When it’s done, you will probably feel a bit weaker due to the removal of corruption (content from 8.3 designed around corruption will be adjusted, but the rest of the game was not designed around it), but otherwise, you should be able to handle solo what you could also do at 120.”
What will be changed? Although there are no specific details, it is likely that Blizzard will particularly tone down the difficulty of the Legion content. Many creatures, especially elite opponents, still have as many health points as numerous enemies in Battle for Azeroth. This is probably also because the relative level gap of players to these enemies has decreased. Previously, the difference was 110 to 120, now it is 48 to 50 in patch 9.0.1.
If the balancing does not work as desired, players may have to wait several weeks in the worst case. Because as the character level rises from 50 to 60 during Shadowlands, the old content will likely become simpler by itself.
Do you think Blizzard will manage the balancing in time?
