New XP changes on beta to lengthen level times.

[Kiljaedon]

I was just reading up on the beta forums about how they increased the xp required each level by roughly 80%. And from my understanding a good portion of quests are collect. From what I have read its a huge number of quests compared to what it use to be. 40% or so of all solo quests are now collect. I honestly feel that a boxed team might hit 80 faster then normal players if you spend your time in the dungeons. From my understanding there are easy dungeons with linear 1-3 man pulls that can be burned down might let us have the advantage over hitting 80 before the others do. It will be glorious not having to fight for spawns the first few months of the game with the swarm of people trying to tap monsters first before you do. I guarantee you I will be in all instances while the fray are outside slaughtering each other for collections safe and snug.

[Biz]

Yep yep. I've been on Operation Gear Tank for a bit now.

[Syro]

Proof please....

[Kiljaedon]

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=8991469352&sid=2000&pageNo=1

Seems like proof enough for the xp changes.

Unlike the Burning Crusade Beta I was in when they changed the xp curve so that they could test level content without everyone jumping to the 70 mark the blues posted on the reasoning of the changes. But once they ultimately tweaked the near final numbers on what would be pushed to live with the Burning Crusade Launch all of the blue posts mysteriously vanished. Almost like it has now. The post has been live a little while now without a single response so my magic eight ball suspects that will be about the change they plan to make. According to alot of beta testers right now it is around 13-14 hours a level and requiring them to clean out nearly every zone to finish level range the area was made for.

[BobGnarly]

I've haven't went past 71 yet, but it's not 14 hrs per level. It is slow, and I'd say slower than BC, but it's not that bad (yet).

[Aradar]

Instance grinding from the get go eh? Good idea. :)I did this BC and it worked out perfectly, as I reached honored with each faction I moved on to the next group of faction instances but if you had to grind even past getting rep, that would suck.

[Stabface]

Eh, 14 hours/level = ~6 days /played from 70->80. A bit slower than the initial TBC 60->70 but to be honest not that bad.
I pushed pretty hard in TBC, a Rogue geared with full T2 + TF, and solo it took me around 4 days /played or so.
I just recently finished casually leveling a Warlock solo on a new server with some RL friends and it took 6 days /played total, wasn't that bad at all.


My biggest concern is that there are 8 instances from 60-70 but currently only 5 between 70-80. Maybe they will implement more, I'm not sure what's planned... but time is quickly running out if they aren't going to slip the release date.

[Kiljaedon]

Yes but the point i was trying to make was the huge increase in collection based quests when boxing. Plus the first few weeks most areas are crowded with the rush from 70-80. I am thinking instances will be the way to go to hit 80 unless there is a huge gap in instances like you were speaking of.

[mikekim]

Lets not also forget that when the XP cap moves to 80, the existing dungeons will give easy XP :thumbsup:

[Los]

But as always the newer instances would give more xp, same difference when tbc started.

How did i see a gm put that, he had compared it to water, its the same water just more of it to get ;).

[Seraphaw]

Well I am looking forward to really experience the new zones and quests and not just rush it and get to 80 fast so I can begin instancefarming for gear -_-. For all we know this is the last expansion we will ever get so lets savour it :)

[Tonuss]

I would assume that they change the exp curve a lot during beta. First to allow people to level quickly to test content, then to tweak it until it is where they want. I got into tBC beta pretty late (about three months before release) and they changed the exp curve two or three times while I was in beta.

The information about instances sounds very promising. I was thinking that they might try to make 5-mans more complex and challenging, which would make it tougher on multiboxers. But they seem to want to get away from stuff like Shattered Halls with the enormous pulls (each having two or three ranged classes that would AoE or CC random party members). If most of the trash in 5-mans is 2-4 mobs at a time, and if they really are tuning them to be more forgiving, it could make WotLK a real bonanza for multiboxing.

[Shuri]

the first few months of the game with the swarm of people trying to tap monsters first before you do.
This is the exact reason I won't be playing for the first two weeks of expansion. I'm going to activate my key, park my characters in an inn and soak up the rested XP. I should have the run of the place once I'm 3-10 levels behind everyone. I refuse to spawn camp a named only to have some asshat hunter instatag the mob I've been waiting on for 20 minutes from 41 yards away.

[Kyudo]

People keep repeating this, but "it's a beta" it's there for testing.

This increase in XP per level is part of that testing. There is no clear indication as yet as to whether the current values per level are what will exist in the final version. When Beta was first released people were QQing that there were too many quests and it was too quick to level, now the opposite is true. My guess is that the eventual XP per level will end up being somewhere in between the two, a level that allows you to skip around 20% of quests when running solo and still level to 80 after about 9 of the 10 zones, therefore a slightly higher threshold than present, but not much higher. By the sounds of things at the moment you need to complete all quests and a few dungeon runs to keep pace with quest levels and ding 80 at the same time as you finish "normal" quests.

Another commenter in the Beta forums also commented that part of this change might also well be to evaluate the gameplay effects of having a server population that is spread out in levels and its impact on PvP etc. As it stood before everyone was levelling to max level superquick and it wasn't a fair representation of what a real server's progress is like.

[Crucial]

As someone who is currently in the beta and ignoring the fact that this change may or may not be final, as it currently stands the increase in XP required does not make it enjoyable to play. Keep in mind I don't care for questing to begin with but when you're getting no gear upgrades from the quests and the XP bar is barely moving at all, it's just feels like a grind. Personally I would rather see the XP required be low initially with a sharper increase the closer you get to 80.

[Drizzit]

Personally I would rather see the XP required be low initially with a sharper increase the closer you get to 80.

I say screw this and make me instant 80. I done the grind to the cap too many times the 71-80 is going to be another bore. I got my first taste of raiding and I love raiding. :P

[Temor]

My biggest concern is that there are 8 instances from 60-70 but currently only 5 between 70-80. Maybe they will implement more, I'm not sure what's planned... but time is quickly running out if they aren't going to slip the release date.


When is the release date? I've not seen anything in regard to the date so how can it slip? You know something I don't it appears. :)

[Jaese]

Release is between Oct to Dec.

They have plenty of time.

[Temor]

Release is between Oct to Dec.

They have plenty of time.

Is there any proof of these time frames any where from a Blizzard rep?

[Tonuss]

http://blue.mmo-champion.com/1/9023786097-when-is-wotlk-coming-out.html

They haven't set a definitive date. I would expect that they'd like to release it in time for the Christmas shopping season, but they probably wanted to do that with the Burning Crusade. Knowing Blizzard, we may be waiting until early 2009.

As for dungeons, are those single dungeons or winged dungeons? In other words, are there only five instances that we will be able to run from 70-80, or will they be like tBC? Hellfire Peninsula was three instances, Coilfang Reservoir was three, etc.

[jsrealpm]

Release is between Oct to Dec.

They have plenty of time.

Is there any proof of these time frames any where from a Blizzard rep?


There is from Mike Morahime himself

[BobGnarly]

Click here ('http://wow.zuggaming.com/2008/08/01/wotlk-release-date-announced/') if you don't believe wotlk will be out this year.

Back to beta xp, it sucks. It's still not 14 hrs/level, but it's too much atm. I'm not too upset yet, because this is beta and they're probably playing with it a little to get it right.

I will say that some of the quests are pretty darn cool. They've done a fair job (in Howling Fjord, anyway - not so much in BT) of trying to NOT just make it more of the same.

I also haven't seen anywhere near 40% collection quests yet, either.

[Revith]

Ok, a bit about leveling on beta (from a 73 ret paladin on beta)

Leveling times DO seem long, but I think it's a combination of being slightly undergeared (my paladin had only holy gear before, almost no str gear at all, so I'm using quest greens), and that we're used to leveling up even Burning Crusade characters while already knowing exactly where to go and what to do, with no wasted time.

Even with those two factors, questing from 72 to halfway through 73, I was managing roughly 10% of a level every 50 minutes, or just over 8 hours a level. Note that this was all with rest xp. Instance xp also seems enormous, so we're putting together an instance grinding group on Sunday to see how well that works out.

As for collection quests... they don't seem to be any more of them than in Burning Crusade. It seems about the same ratio of kill x mobs, kill this boss guy, destroy x buildings with a torch, collect x whatever, with the occasional neat new quest like operating a mechanical suit/mech for cutting down trees and killing harpies, or flying a gryphon to rescue fleeing villagers. It's basically the same as burning crusade with possibly better xp in instances, though how much better, I won't know for sure until Sunday night.

[Kyudo]

They just cut the XP requirement by around 20% in the latest patch release: http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/08/21/level-80-and-other-major-new-highlights-from-the-beta/

[boxblizzard]

they will speed up the xp as blizzard will have to meet the casual player requirements.

i think the expan wont be out in time tbh, too many things need doing!

cant wait tho!!

[Gadzooks]

I have mixed feelings about the leveling speed - I'd like them to slow it down, as we'll be waiting a long while until the next expansion, but I don't want it TOO slow, which makes it painful. I hope they're looking at it that way, because i do feel BC was tuned too fast, and too many people had nothing to do until the major patches brought new instances, and content.


I'm thinking I'm going to wait to start the Wrath content, too. I've been through it twice, with the original release, and the BC expansion, with over-crowded zones, bugs, and server instability. I'd wait more than two weeks, however, I'd wait until after the Xmas holiday, if it's released at Thanksgiving - just waiting for the kids to go back to school will make a huge difference.

I am glad to be out of the raiding/gotta level fast! loop, though. I'm looking forward to Wrath, and taking my time, I'm not reading any previews, the beta forums, or anything else, so it's truly *new* when I get there. I'm just working on setting aside the cash for 5 boxes!

[mickske]

Any information (other than OPs statement) on the amount of collection quests yet?

[Kyudo]

Any information (other than OPs statement) on the amount of collection quests yet?This is what a google search popped up:

http://vnboards.ign.com/world_of_warcraft_general_board/b19789/108120721/p1/

[Bovidae]

Over the past few months, I have been trying to form allegiances to as many prot pallies and healers as possible. Hopefully some of them will keep instance friendly specs, and not opt to become "DPS" classes, so they can solo.

Farming instances has many advantages that I would like to exploit: blue gear drops, higher kill xp, no world pvp (I'm on a pvp server), and you get to save the quests for a time when you're overleveled to them, thus making them easier to complete (and possibly giving you bonus gold for being at the level cap 80)

Another queue I will be taking from my TBC launch esperience is; I will be mounting up and running from flightpoint to flightpoint getting ahead of the leveling curve, and will only quest in those areas not innundated by nubs. On TBC launch, I ran straight to Zangarmarsh, and quested there, because my gear allowed me to leave behind the traffic jam called Hellfire Peninsula.

Anyone who is boxing should have the firepower/survivability to kill mobs/do quests that are 2-4 levels higher than they are.

[Suvega]

I'm making quest guides for myself through zones.
I've finished my borean tundra one, which got me a 1.8 lvls. Probably 2-3 collection quests that woudl suck?
Not sure on instance grinding, but it has always been slower, and I don't expect that to change now.

I'll keep you updated on my way up to 80.