BFA, instead of, SL...interesting. I guess it makes sense when SL is a cosmic expansion rather than an Azeroth expansion...but it is still confusing unless the pre-patch/intro of DF has a smooth transition with both expansions which would lead one to assume SL is actively being scrubbed from the lore in a meaningful way.
Odd call, but since BfA was "important" leading in to Shadowlands, it "had" to be the progression, but since in practice that didn't work (new players pretty much reach level 50 and head to Shadowlands just from 8.0's levelling zones and never touch the Sylvanus betrayal reveal) and the implication that nothing important from Shadowlands is carried over in to Dragonflight's narrative, I get why they wouldn't waste time placing new players into the realm of death for such a brief time.Oddly, from the choices of Legion, BfA and Shadowlands, BfA's levelling narrative is the least disruptive. Legion is so focused on the Burning Legion that leaving that expansion during 7.0 content just leaves you wanting to experience the rest of it. Same with Shadowlands. BfA, however, the levelling narrative is very much "get to know the locals and befriend them". The stronger Horde vs Alliance narrative really kicks in from 8.1 content and some of the 8.0 campaign, so while some of it is unavoidable, the most powerful moments happen long after new players reach level 50/60, so they wont really be left hanging, but they will be left with the understanding that there is no peace between Horde and Alliance and that might conflict with what we get in DF's levelling.The better choice would obviously be a better "greatest hits" levelling experience from Vanilla to current so new players get a lot more story context, but that is (apparently) more work than Blizzard are willing to do, and, if you condense the important moments from every expansion in to a 10-60 level range, that would be a very intense and possibly exciting experience, only for you to hit Dragonflight's calmer and slower paces 60-70 levelling that we're all used to might just a bit too jarring. Worth a try though?
lets be honest almost no one cares about lore in any game when the game play is good so IMO SL would be way, way better than BFA or any other expansion 4 the new players so they can learn the game better.
"In the meantime, we also want to focus on making sure that the experience you get tomorrow is as good as it can be, and not necessarily hamstring that for the sake of solving the 6 years from now problem. 6 years from now doesn't matter if this year isn't fun."This feels like the same lack of forward thinking that got them into the whole level-squish issue in the first place. I wonder if Ion will be saying very similar things when 11.0 and 12.0 roll around?I mean, I can recall actually laughing when, after reaching level 100 in WoD, they announced Legion would have another 10 levels to grind. It just seemed so lazy. Then they made the surprised Pikachu face when the enormous level grind was turning new players off.I don't know what the answer is but then I'm not a game dev. It seems to me people who are should have a better grasp on these things. However, I'm confident I can look forward to another good laugh when expac 14.0 arrives and announces another ten levels on top of the 100 we would have by then.Good times.
*Wishes I could post that Steve Harvey GIF of him saying "Thank you Jesus" here.*
There goes my hopes and dreams i was hoping i could level 1-60 in this patch now, after awhile the same thing starts over where people will ask for chromie time leveling 1-70 but no wait for a god damn another expansion.
I guess we will still get kicked out of Chromie time at level 60 and won't be able to use Chromie time at level 60-70, by scaling both char and content to 60.It would be such an easy system tweak to give players lots of content at max level to do.My biggest wish for wow leveling/questing is however a more dedicated revamp than in SL:- any world content, dungeon and scenario scaled for 1 to 5 players (at any level from 10-60) with the option of a heroic difficulty- any legacy raid or warfront scaled to 5 players or more (at any level from 10-60), while you can also solo them with 4 AI NPCs- heroic questing means: quest progress counts to normal but not the other way, mobs like classic, rares/named mobs with mage-tower like mechanics, tagging a mob makes it unattackable by others, some rares create barriers that only affect those in combat with it, ...- New meta achievements with rewards: Ultimate Loremaster (completing all zones and instances on a single character with appropriate scaling), Heroic Ultimate Loremaster (same but all in heroic difficulty), Undefeatable Loremaster (same w/ heroic, but you did not die even once)
i wish we could level 1-70, yes, 70 in any xpac
how about not kickin players right away from 'time walking exp' when they hit certain lvl %like% 50? blizz pls - let us finish 'ouer' story with no 'oboslete quest' and sh$
New player experience is confusing and underwhelming.Sure let players pick an expansion second time around, but I didn’t even know where/what chromie was.I also got weird lore snippets. Like others said tho, why can’t we queue for all dungeons. I like leveling thru dungeons.First timers should get a ‘best of’ tldr quest line, with a clear campaign path, lore summary, spanning top best of xpac moments.Otherwise you do random side quests, in random zones, not knowing what is optional vs core, just trying to get xp to the latest xpac.You end up knowing about your race, and odd particular bits and pieces of the wider wow.Then you’re expected to care about the latest xpacs story, with chars you know little about.Needs a rework, imo. A lot of potential. To be clear, I like Exciles Reach. Efficient and quick, then ported straight to the city.Then second time around chromie needs to be explained better… hand fed in a way.
New players go from Exile's Reach to BFA's leveling content to Dragonflight.Can't wait for new Horde players to go "Hey where'd that cool lady go?"
what about the equipment you get in BFA or the other zones, it was set to lvl prior to Chromie time. I would make a craftable item and not use it for like 20 levels. Should be the level you make it, you should be able to wear it.
As someone who's a guide in Newcomer Chat, the new player experience is mostly confusing and disappointing, especially since a chunk of "new players" are people who played in the golden era who want to revisit that nostalgia, then get frustrated that they can't actually run the dungeons they want to run. They just get stuck in Freehold for 50 levels, getting shot up in the air repeatedly because the tutorial prioritized poorly teaching people the emote system over interrupts.That said, it's probably better that they're skipping SL for the new player experience. Imagine being stuck in SL for 50 levels ... Literal hell.
Okay, so... I'm a veteran player. What I want to choose to create a new character to put through Exile's Reach? I don't exactly want to continue to be shoehorned into a specific expansion just because I wanted to put a fresh character through it. The dracthyr, I completely understand however. But I don't intend to just have a fresh character shoved into the Fourth War after bringing them through the new start experience.
One significant change I'd like to see to Chromie Time:When you reach the level cap of Chromie Time, whether it be 50 or 60 (in Dragonflight), it should NOT kick you out of Chromie Time automatically. You should simply stop gaining more XP until you manually turn it off (by again speaking with Chromie in Stormwind/Orgrimmar).An example here being, if you're currently playing through Chromie Time, and you're at level 49 while running a Dungeon. As soon as you hit 50, you are automatically kicked out of the Dungeon and the Group you're in. This NEEDS to be changed, as being automatically kicked out of a group in progress, especially as a Tank or Healer is very detrimental to the rest of the group.