Blizzard has chosen to reduce the leveling process of World of Warcraft of Shadowlands, but this new leveling experience has lost what made the game special. Instead of feeling like a world World of Warcraft feels more like a Warcraft island. New players don’t experience this big game full of 18 years of story in the same way anymore, but spend most of their time on a few islands. While the number of levels is much more inviting, it feels like something is missing.
Blizzard will further alter the leveling experience when: dragon flight launching later this year, but it just feels like it’s just making the problem worse. New players can enter their entire time Battle for Azeroth before we leave for dragon flight. They will skip all older expansions and even lose the current expansion Shadowlands. This is a strange choice that only makes the world smaller, and one that needs to be changed.
The World of Warcraft leveling experience explained
Before the release of Shadowlandsnew and experienced players had the same exact leveling experience in World of Warcraft. They started their journey in the start zone of that race and embarked on a race-specific introductory story. These race start zones were scattered throughout the game’s world, and players would spend most of the first few levels there before venturing to the greater Azeroth. Players who chose to play as Death Knight or Demon Hunter would have a very different starting experience starting at a higher level.
By the end of Battle for Azeroth, World of Warcraft had 120 levels that players had to go through before they could participate in the maximum level content. That would take some time to achieve, and was very discouraging for newer players or those who just wanted to play a different class. Blizzard tried to combat this with: Shadowlands by significantly reducing the number of levels and streamlining the leveling experience. Anyone who was 120 was reduced to 50 and the whole process of getting to the new max level was changed.
Now new and experienced players have a completely different level experience. After new players choose their race and class, they are placed on a new kind of learning island called Exile’s Reach. Instead of playing through race-specific starting zones, players learn the basics of the game and their class on the same island until they reach level 10. They are then sent to the Battle for Azeroth story for levels 10-50, and they skip 14 years of content to play the latest parts of the game. Once they reach 50, players come in Shadowlands until they reach the new maximum level of 60.
Veteran players, on the other hand, gain much more control over their World of Warcraft trip. After selecting their race and class, they will be given the choice to start their journey in the race-specific start zone or in Exile’s Reach. Then they can select the specific expansion they want to level up to level 50 before being sent to Shadowlands for the last 10 levels. This allows players to shake up their leveling experience so it’s not the same every time, but something is missing from this new experience.
Blizzard needs to refresh the current experience
While the new leveling experience was a welcome change, it needs some work to really make it right. Currently, new players spend much of their time on the islands of Zandalar and Kul’Tiras. There’s a huge world out there, but new players can only really experience these two islands for most of their time. They also don’t get the story of their race, because they all start on the same island instead of the specific start zone of their race. They spend much of their time on a few islands, which makes them miss most of Azeroth.
World of Warcraft is built on the concept of a big world for players to explore, filled with 18 years of content, but new players can’t see that. 60 levels is a lot less terrifying 120, but streamlining the leveling experience has taken a bit off from what was made World of Warcraft especially to start with. The game just feels smaller, but Blizzard needs to make it feel bigger.
World of Warcraft is now available on PC.
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