Experience needed per level for 71-80 soars in Wrath Beta
One of the more unwelcome changes in the latest Wrath Beta build is pretty simply explained: It now takes nearly twice as much experience (80% appears to be the exact number) to level. This has hit a few us on the WoW Insider Beta team by surprise. Both Zach and I, for example, were about 2 bubbles each from our next level, and now find ourselves only halfway through instead.
Of course, this is the Beta, so one can hardly complain about one's leveling time stretching. However, 80% is a very significant jump. It would imply that either Blizzard was intentionally keeping leveling experience incredibly low so they could get testers to max level quicker, or they felt that testers were leveling far too quickly and required a massive amount of slowing down.
I doubt leveling will be slow as it was in the bad old days of games like Everquest, but if it's so slow that players need to clear both starting zones to level up enough to progress further, it seems like that defeats the whole purposes of having 2 starting zones in the first place. Hopefully Blizzard monitors this new changes and adjusts it downward again if needed.
Recent Posts
- Wealth category removed from Armory statistics (12/03/2008)
- Debuff limit removed (12/03/2008)
- Ghostcrawler and Vaneras on the classes that GMs play (12/03/2008)
- Child's Play auctioning off a Warcraft Wolfrider statue (12/03/2008)
- Wrath Dailies: Preparing for the Worst (12/03/2008)
Debuff limit removed
Chinese MMO accused of stealing art from World of Warcraft, others
Realms up after extended maintenance
Downtime extended to 1 O'Clock PST
The Guild episode 2 of season 2 out now
Wrath Dailies: Preparing for the Worst
The Queue: Trinkets, sigils and death by Orcs
Encrypted Text: Emblem of Heroism rewards for Rogues
Guildwatch: "I'm a #(*$ing fantastic Rogue"
15 Minutes of Fame: Disabled player goes hands on with joystick
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
8-14-2008 @ 1:07AM
somebodyelse said...
I believe they want it to take long enough for you to level that you should have completed all the quests in the zone and maybe one or two instance runs. Now that they have some data they are recalculating the amount.
Reply
8-14-2008 @ 8:49AM
Asep said...
In various beta and alphas before they have always increased the experience modifier to artificially enhance the speed at which people level. It is a good indicator of the progression of the beta if they are already removing that.
8-16-2008 @ 1:27PM
Mayhew said...
Actually, in BC beta they went the other way, near the end. I never dinged 68. I logged out half-way through 67 one day, and logged in the next day well into level 68. There was also a large xp gap between Terokkar and Nagrand. You could start at level 60, do all the quests in HFP, Zangarmarsh, and Terokkar, and still not be high enough level to start questing in Nagrand.
8-14-2008 @ 1:12AM
Durante said...
Would it really be a bad thing to have to quest in both starting areas? I always thought it was a pity that all of my Blades Edge and Netherstorm questing came after hitting 70. I still have Old World content I've never seen; I started played just before TBC came out so other than the Plaguelands, I've never seen any other 55-60 zones.
Reply
8-14-2008 @ 1:51AM
Ace said...
You really should have spent some time in the 55-60 zones, they're some of the most intriguing in the game (Winterspring, Both Plaguelands, Felwood, Silithus etc)
8-14-2008 @ 1:47AM
Daxaar said...
Same here. I hit 70 before even seeing several areas including Netherstorm and SMV in their entirety.
8-14-2008 @ 1:22AM
Cruumash said...
I think the point in having 2 starter zones is to spread the load, not that you are supposed to skip one altogether. Think Hellfire Penninsula on opening day.
Reply
8-14-2008 @ 4:53PM
dan said...
You are correct. That's the stated reason from blizz anyway. Even if you did "have to" hit both it wouldn't effect the load necessarily.
8-14-2008 @ 1:30AM
rick gregory said...
Well, the first couple of levels were pretty much the same XP needed to go from 69-70... but all of the quests were giving 20k XP and mobs gave me 1800 per. People were dinging 77 in 3-4 zones.
Reply
8-14-2008 @ 1:32AM
STereo said...
I like the higher xp levels. I felt like the game became glutted with 70's too quickly in TBC. Plus, leveling is really a lot more fun to me than most of the end game stuff when you're looking at new content and new quests. I was actually disappointed when I got my main to 70 and had to move on to the end game stuff - I leveled another 70 but it's not as much fun when you've seen it all before.
Reply
8-14-2008 @ 1:45AM
Realmreaver said...
Yeah prob with that is if people have to solo content without a quest with it just to hit 80 they will have broken fundenmental aspects of why WoW is so grand. It had something for just about everyone. Now they are punishing casuals cause this change really only effects them.
8-14-2008 @ 12:56PM
STereo said...
Your post makes sense. I consider myself a casual altho I would play a lot more if I had the time (once the new content comes out, and assuming they fix my class). I think they should implement a 2nd level of the tired mechanic to slow down the pure grind leveling technique.
8-14-2008 @ 1:38AM
Ametrine said...
I'm in favor of it. Gets more folks to stick around and enjoy all the hard work Blizzard's done in fleshing out and detailing zones, instead of the whole mustgettoendgamefasterfasterfasterNOW!!1! zerg-rush that they did when TBC hit, where people would get from 1-70 before a week was done then start whining how bored they were and how they had nothing to do.
Reply
8-14-2008 @ 1:43AM
PimpyMicPimp said...
I don't understand why they would nerf leveling in the beta; if anything it should be buffed.
I don't mind (and hope for) a fairly slow leveling session in Live Wrath, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me to do in beta.
Reply
8-14-2008 @ 1:46AM
Greengiant said...
Come on guys, You guys always make the changes look like they are bad. THIS IS BETA! As a beta tester you should know better that things are they way they are for testing purposes. Their will likely be a wave of beta invites going out soon to get a new group of players to lvl and test the new xp gain. I am 100% certain that this will change and they will likely settle in between somewhere.
Reply
8-14-2008 @ 1:46AM
Tuhljin said...
There were threads on the beta forums saying that leveling was too fast, and most (though not all) people commenting seemed to agree. I haven't done much post-70 leveling myself yet so I wouldn't know.
Reply
8-14-2008 @ 1:49AM
Greengiant said...
It was a bit fast, I was able to grind out 2 lvls a night while casually playing the beta.
8-14-2008 @ 1:43PM
Thecla said...
I was very unhappy with the change to leveling xp - I want to level faster, so I can go everywhere and see everything. I was halfway to my next lvl before this change - now there is a long way to go again. I am very disappointed.
I think the folks who think this change is a good thing have waaaay too much time on their hands.
8-14-2008 @ 1:48AM
Vellesta said...
Glad I hit 77 last week. :P
I can understand an increase in XP, as I skipped many quests in each zone and was leveling super fast (with rested XP mostly). I got to pick and choose what quests I wanted to do and which would take too much time/effort. I figured that way, some stuff will still be fresh and new for me when it goes live.
If this XP increase sticks, I'll definitely get a chance to do each and every quest I skipped. -_-
Reply
8-14-2008 @ 2:15AM
Ichthus said...
One word: Beta.
Reply