Early Game Kinda Sucks In WoW Right Now... (But Here's How To Make It Better!)

Have you leveled a new character in World of Warcraft recently? Well, you might've noticed that it pretty much sucks and needs some MAJOR overhauling. And this is a shame too because if Blizzard Entertainment wants to draw in more players to World of Warcraft, they can't have their introduction to the game be so lackluster. From gear that isn't rewarding, a broken storyline, irrelevant professions and more - this video goes over everything we feel is WRONG about World of Warcraft's early game and what Blizzard can MAYBE do to fix it.
Keep in mind that this video is entirely opinion based and we'd love to hear your feedback in the comment seciton below. Let's help Blizzard, through our feedback, make the best version of World of Warcraft possible for current, as well as future players. Thank you all for watching and see you guys on the Dragon Isles in Dragonflight!
USE Zygor TO UPGRADE YOUR WoW EXPERIENCE TODAY
⚔️ tinyurl.com/r645u8ak
LINKS
👕Nixxiom MERCH: tinyurl.com/34ute5c4
🖥️ SOCIAL MEDIA STUFF: wlo.link/@Nixxiom
💬OUR COMMUNITY DISCORD: / discord
🎉BECOME A CHANNEL MEMBER (Earn Rewards): tinyurl.com/5n738rsb
VIDEO MADE WITH
🏪 My FULL Storefront - amzn.to/3lTFEsJ
🎼 My Music - tinyurl.com/ykye2669
😎 Animation Effects - tinyurl.com/yeyw2hbx
🎤 Microphone - amzn.to/3shoYMV
🎚️ Soundboard - amzn.to/2Vh5hbX
🎛️ Mixer - amzn.to/2Lrclyi
🖥️ Sony Vegas - amzn.to/2WEimfg
💻 Adobe After Effects - amzn.to/2WknBl6
YOUR NEXT VIDEO:
🎲Dragonflight Endgame FULLY Explained - • Dragonflight Endgame f...
#worldofwarcraft #dragonflight #warcraft

[@NixxiomOnYouTube]

This video has gotten a LOT of really positive feedback and engagement so far. Thank you, everyone! Glad to see I'm not alone in caring about the new players to the game.

[@NahaleGuitar]

Tutorial island but with lore?

[@johnsimpson9859]

I really hope blizzard sees this. Seems they’re working towards the right path and I think this could be a great part of it.

[@revanth4184]

I got 2 of my new friends into expansion and their experience leveling has been terrible for the most part. The dungeon queues are insane for almost 30 mins to get 1 because the player base is divided across different timelines, all of the dungeons should be pooled together . There are dungeon finder bugs when you queue as a group you pick your role but nothing happens the icon does not appear at the bottom of the screen. "Recruit a friend" has quests to receive badges and marks of honor but you can't progress the quests because its bugged. And the biggest most annoying thing we have faced is my friend made a purchase and it took a whole day to go through but he reached 60 before the order completed and he was locked out of all the dungeons except BFA dungeons unless a low level friend party sync and queue's with him which I did because I was leveling a new character but for some odd reason it works for every expansion except shadowlands (I checked online blizzard says the bug is fixed but as usual its not fixed) Why aren't all the timelines accessible to someone who is lvl 60 and does not have the latest expansion but only subbed this only means that they want you to buy the game or you cant play any old dungeons through RDF. Very disappointed with the experience overall if you are buying the game its going to be a shitty experience until you reach the new expansion. This game should not be charging a sub fee if all it offers is the latest expansion. The sub is to get access to all older expansions but clearly you get locked out of it when you hit 60. This is not the kind of service you expect paying a sub fee every month.

[@saulbeauchamp3382]

I'm a new player I've been having a lot of fun but I was mad when I played battle for Azeroth And hit the dragonflight quest line. All my friends told me to leave azeroth and come join Dragonflight. This led me to watch a 3 hour video on wow Lore too understand what's going on.

[@Ordo1980]

I think the problem is return of investment. The only way how this issue could be solved if they redesign the old zones in a way that they became relevant for high level players as well. And with a big change like that maybe there would be enough additional resource to redesign the leveling experience as well. But after seeing the problems with Cataclysm, probably they wont be brave enough to do this.

[@henriccarlsson9052]

A long quest chain via the main stories from lvl 10-60 using main events from all expansions would be frigging amazing!

[@UltimateGamerCC]

the thing is can you really tell those expansion stories in that small a bubble? you'd get like a bite size sampler if anything, i cannot say that's really BETTER than how it is now.

[@Burlehmangus]

Yea, how could it be long when 0-60 can be done in one short night.

[@kylesmith987]

​@@UltimateGamerCC I think you could very easily tell those stories in more bite sized ways. I mean think about it. 90% of the time you are leveling you are doing filler content. You are running around and killing things for rando npcs or gathering things that have basically no effect on the the greater story. You could easily cut out all the filler content and have dedicated quests that is specifically the major plot points of each expansion and you can tune the xp gain to have it finish right at the current expansion content. Hell you could even argue that this might be a better way of telling the story because it would be more focused and have less pacing issues.

[@verdeuno]

I think this is probably the most common sense solution I've heard to date. That being said it is a pretty challenging solution. I think that using the cut scenes of the prior expansions to ensure that the player gets the "meat and potatoes" story line of said expansions as they journey to level 60 could be a way to ensure that the key parts of thos expansions are not lost. Again it would be challenging but I think that it would ensure that the new player understands why the game is where it is at in its current expansion.

[@getbelkedon994]

Wrong Information overload for new players.. i have friends i've introduced to the game and they are FARRRR from interested in 10 years worth of story

[@Rustyjamesman]

I really like the idea of Khadgar/Chromie showing you different zones and storylines that visit past expansions for new players

[@m00rtin4]

yeah like pandaria scenarios but call em "story chapters" for the expansions leveling up or something

[@Connman07]

Maybe 10 levels per expansion would be awesome

[@TkKid1990]

And each one starts with the cinematic of the expansion your about to play.

[@Raviis]

agreed!

[@Ivanus59]

I'd rather have some more organic introduction to the game. I mean, why would Khadgar (a rather important person in this universe) spend his time giving free tours to random "adventurers" around Azeroth lol? He ain't got better things to do, he bored, too much free time or maybe he just lost a bet?

[@willprotector]

"The Story of Azeroth" sounds like a great way to improve the game. Take the new player through some of the most important moments in the WoW timeline and then drop them into the newest expansion. It would allow them to level throughout the whole world, but gets rid of the old questlines. I tried to play WoW a year or so go and it was just confusing after Exile's Reach. I wanted to explore the world, but it wasn't relevant anymore--of course neither was Shadowlands.

[@UnitedFan2]

Like the timewalking which for some reason is locked off until level 50😢

[@camilladucatti]

Idk if Im the only one on this but I love the intro questlines for each race. It gave me reason to create other characters and learn the lore of these races inside ally or horde. I would really like a race quest revamp and a guild revamp too so it would give ppl even more reason to stay playing (like renown for guilds maybe) and harder content out in the world that either need profession itens to boost you or the need to play with other ppl to overcome those challanges

[@Konuvis]

yes but I'm afraid we are not the majority my friend :)

[@the_grim_gamer3039]

Then maybe to expand on this idea. Maybe instead of khadgar you have your race leader do that. And alongside the expansions. They could explain the lore of your race. Maybe with the help of chromie taking you through time to witness events. For example let's say that a new player made an Orc Hunter right? So you'd have Thrall and Chromie go through the quest line with you instead of expansion order. Chronological order. As a new "champion of the horde" it is important you know your history as a sort of final test before you join the warfront as an elite soldier for the horde. Or some sort of lore explanation like that. So thrall and Chromie take you to ancient draenor where you see the beginnings of the orcs. You see the arrival of the draenei, the arrival of the legion and the drinking of mannoroths blood by grommash hellscream. You see the major events of first war, the major second war, the rise of thrall as war chief, the major events of the third war. Then thrall takes you through all the expansions where you do some stuff there. Then after that your level 60 and can go do dragonflight content.

[@camilladucatti]

@@the_grim_gamer3039 That's actually a great ideia ngl. I would love to play an adventure like that and it would be a major improvement to new player experience

[@starejcintal1374]

My friend returned to the world of Azeroth after a long time. He wanted to play the Kul Tiras race and I was really surprised how much a "new player" has to go through to get access to these races... Definitely character leveling needs a change.

[@kcjgs5831]

Yeah, I've been thinking the same for over 2 years. I started playing with my GF, she was new to WoW, all she wanted was to play the nightborne or Void E races, but ofc she couldn't lol, that really disappointed her, and the same happend to a friend of mine that wanted to create an Highmountain Tauren/ Black Iron dwarf.

[@Formerspaceglider]

Don't even get me started about the races thing lol. I spent a month with a friend unlocking the nightborne because we could only play for like an hour or so a day and it was just sooo much stuff to do, at times we thought about just playing another race because of the hassle.

[@kcjgs5831]

@@Formerspaceglider I feel you

[@multivitamin425]

Well duuh imagine you have to play the game to unlock exclusives

[@dude555413]

@Boo Was this recent? You don't need to be exalted anymore with anyone. Not even close.

[@Treebeerdz]

For the old world feeling empty, I've been saying forever they need to add things like copper randomly to new recipes or different stats or something. Make current use for old matts. Will make the world more used randomly and will make lvling your lower level skills more profitable.

[@Formerspaceglider]

This would make the game feel like a real world.

[@MrkraZzz]

The world is empty because Chromie time is not in the same phase as max level players.

[@druidic4353]

Warmane wow

[@georgewashington7982]

@@MrkraZzzand that is blizzards fault for implementing that system I hate ffxiv now, but I like how they made all the zones feel full of people, cus there’s content in all zones, resources in all zones (resources that you’ll need for max level recipes), events/crafting stuff that are strictly in previous zones etc. I love wow alot cus of the pvp (new player here), and won’t leave anytime soon, but I can see how it suck’s for people that love pve lol

[@Spunky.Streams]

Yes yes yes! Everything should be relevant, stop phasing things out- keep it all and expand on it!

[@DotOfBard]

Honestly the idea of having a sort of tour through the time lines is such a killer idea. Gives the new players a chance to see the full story of which ever expansion peaked their interest the most, gives old players something new to try out, and helps boost them through leveling alts a bit. All around it seems like it would be a win win idea

[@notNicholasCage]

That's actually an amazing idea, specifically for new players. There are a TON of new players for DF and showing them the previous expansions and their stories in a fashion you mentioned, like being on a tour with Khadgar and/or Chromie would be an amazing idea. They learn the gist of Azeroth and the recent history and are then prepared for the current events of DF, or whatever future expac. Blizzard legitimately NEEDS to get on this.

[@getbelkedon994]

Wrong Information overload for new players.. i have friends i've introduced to the game and they are FARRRR from interested in 10 years worth of story

[@NGBH]

@@getbelkedon994 i doubt theyd be interested in the most recent story then as well. sounds like they are more gameplay focused?

[@neminesnonsense4881]

I love your ideas concerning professions and the curated quest line. Even as just a new player starting in TBC Classic, I still feel like I missed a lot of the Vanilla story and context, even after I completed leveling to 60 in the Azeroth. Certainly there was a lot to learn and it was pretty easy to get easy to overwhelmed by the amount of content even just with TBC and Vanilla available. I can imagine how much more disjointed it could be in retail with 9ish expansions. Thank you for sharing and hopefully Blizzard sees this and considers some of these ideas!

[@DeeFourCee]

A custom levelling experience which takes you through key places, experience key story and defeat key enemies. It could he via the Lorewalkers and Chromie. Taliesin thought of something like this. Similar to how the 15th Anniversary worked with the World Breaker Mount and the boss rush raid thing a tailored levelling experience to fights like that. Could introduce the infinite dragons too as they interfere with you.

[@getbelkedon994]

Wrong Information overload for new players.. i have friends i've introduced to the game and they are FARRRR from interested in 10 years worth of story

[@DeeFourCee]

@@getbelkedon994 it’d just be like doing a massive starting zone but from 1-10 below cap. Maybe even make it 10-10 below cap and they still do exiles reach. Point is a tailored full story way to experience the past and get an idea of where you’re going instead of 1.5-2 zones of BfA then forcibly teleported out for the next expansion. Also declaring it as wrong is wrong in of itself. Nothing I said was factual nor presumptuous. You don’t agree that’s fine but the idea is not a wrong idea.

[@porkncheese1789]

@@DeeFourCee I think he's a bot lol. I see him replying the same thing in everyone's comment

[@TheRealChinOfKimJongUn]

Some kind of "Path of the Curator" thing (as Tali calls it) is honestly one of the best things that could possibly be added for new players. Honestly, even though I've been playing for a good long while now, I wasn't there for all the story and stuff of those earlier expacs and would love to go through that myself. Even though I am generally aware of the lore of previous expacs, being able to actually play through it would be so much better, since I never really get very far into any of the Chromie time stuff before I get bored of not being able to do the current content surrounded by other players instead of all the old stuff that just feels off with basically no one around. Not to mention the fact that afaik you don't really get to do the whole story of the expacs, just generally the base patch content. Being able to take a new character through a curated experience of all the lore and important story moments leading up to wherever the current content is would be so nice. Then your idea of having Chromie tell new players along the way that they could come to her to experience the full thing is great. As Blizz goes forward, I just hope they keep up the good momentum with Dragonflight with regards to base/fundamental systems (like the Path of the Curator would be) and away from the borrowed power. The part where I do agree on a fundamental level, but disagree on the implementation is your idea of the extra dungeon challenges. I do definitely agree that new players (and let's be honest, many current players too) need to get a good understanding of mechanics and how interrupts, swirlies, buffs, debuffs, and other things like that work, but as shown by how awful some of the dungeons post-Legion are to do with lower level characters even disregarding the wack tuning of many of the numbers, it may be a better idea to include some of that in the Path of the Curator thing instead. It could even be implemented as simply as while going through the path, it has you queue up for a dungeon, but there is an AI or two in there with you and the other players also doing that dungeon for the first time that can help fight with you and demonstrate the mechanics as the fights go along. After the person does that dungeon once like that, it could be left like normal dungeons are now, ideally with the numbers still fixed, though. Obviously, this would be pretty annoying for returning players, so options to skip things like that should definitely be made available. Oooh, those ideas about the Explorer's League and profession stuff sound like interesting concepts too. I really hope Blizz continues the recent trend of finally listening to players and adds some of this stuff in in upcoming patches/expacs.

[@toreadum8ass]

This is why I appreciate Classic a lot. Early game in retail is suffering from a lot of problems and is given very little attention from Blizzard because they've made it so quick and easy to get from 1 to 70 that it doesn't really matter. Classic still retains that idea of the leveling process being a journey, or at least it would if a large number of people in the Classic community didn't focus on boosting.

[@Romanthony2007]

I do like the idea of a Big Questline, Where Khadgar shows you the events that happened through the world, ending with Chromie, It sounds great to me!

[@getbelkedon994]

Wrong Information overload for new players.. i have friends i've introduced to the game and they are FARRRR from interested in 10 years worth of story

[@wamporeycidulgb]

@@getbelkedon994 It doesn't have to be the entire expansion worth, just a taste of each. Onyxia double-crossed Stormwind! Illidan is amassing an army in Outland! There's some creepy stuff going on in Northrend! Do you remember when Deathwing changed the face of the world? A previously unknown continent has been discovered! With talking pandas! Umm, there's a time travel portal that takes you to Draenor's past! Oh! Another previously unknown landmass, and now The Burning Legion is attacking again! Sylvanas is evil! The Horde and Alliance need reinforcements! Hey, what do you think happens after we die? Look, ANOTHER previously hidden continent! With DRAGONS!

[@hzfranke]

I have something in mind for the timewalking experience as well since I'm not really enjoying doing the same quests over and over again. And to offer a bit of variety to the system we could have us players select an expansion to level through and either choose the regular questing experience (that exists today) or a new one that offers a new quest chain to see what the expansion was actually like. So it could work like a more linear progress like exiles reach with quests that focuses more on the story of the expansion. So for example WotLK with a quest line to seek out yogg saron, or killing the lich king. And at the end of each questline there would be some kind of mini ish version of a raid like Icecrown citadel and it could work as the dungeon in exiles reach works with npc raid group. And of course it wouldn't be very hard to do the raid and wouldn't be very long but focusing on the most important fights which would also bring new players into the raid perspective of the game.

[@ShutterSnapped]

I think a major major positive about your special dungeon idea is that it could be an opportunity for more advanced learning about playing the game. The intro island is a great fun introduction to ease you into your class and the world but it only goes so far. I absolutely love the idea of having a challenge-like dungeon for levelling players and I think it should also be taken as an opportunity to teach new players these mechanics. Having one week with CC and maybe interrupts being key to surviving would be a good way to teach new players these mechanics but also marrying the concept of that challenge/learning with higher rewards IE: greater incentive. Again like a lot of what was said and self-admitting that this is a more complex problem, I still think that philosophy is sound and a good foundation to make *something* akin to these ideas and I think the game would gain a lot from it. (Also I would love to see some sort of Healer and Tank 101s. Idk how to implement that but it'd be great to also get maybe a role-focused quest line with rewards that gives you a low-down of the role.)

[@ButtslammerBob]

Don't think the goal should be really fast xp. There should be a single, cohesive story thread to take new players (or alts that choose so) through all of the main storylines. It would require a whole new experience. All of the main storylines could be easily condensed, all of the actual good events and plot points can be focused on. Vanilla pre-cata should also be included in this, as well as in chromie time, cause like, why not? It should also include solo experience dungeons and raids that are important to the story, such as Black Temple, ICC and its little sub-dungeons, Siege of Org, etc. It would take a lot of dev time, but having an actual solo-friendly MSQ that brings people through all of the story they would otherwise not even be hinted at would be tremendous for new players, and for old players who want to experience TBC but without the awful questing experience.

[@keithb6344]

After playing through FFXIV, if they ever did this it would have to be optional. Going through that long MSQ was horribly boring.

[@ButtslammerBob]

@@keithb6344 FF14's issue is ARR is extremely slow. The rest are pretty well-paced. I'm not saying WoW should mimic 14, it should take inspiration from 14. It should have its own cohesive story to play through, but it shouldn't be 200 hours long. More like 60. And it should focus on what Blizz does well: spectacle. Have the cool and still well-done CG cutscenes in there, have solo content that teaches players their class and role, have all of the important parts and all of the cool parts. It's very, very doable, and if they're as interested in evergreen content as they appear to be they'll make something akin to 14's MSQ.

[@belp8679]

For me the worst part of the experience as a new player were the dungeons. You're thrown into difficult dungeons that people have been running for years and you get kicked out in a couple minutes because you don't know the mechanics. Seeing how the kicks are so quick, I'm surprised that any players follow that route. In classic, we can learn our class and progress by stepping up dungeon content as we go. Would love that in retail.

[@barzulbinks]

Blizz changed that with BFA. Before you were able to do the classic, bc, wrath… dungeons with the finder.

[@Clavitz1]

they could give you an AI team for dungeons so that you can learn from them in that way.

[@jnl8081]

These a really great suggestions, Nixxiom. I have been away from the game for a year and a half now, and part of it had to do with the disjointed leveling experiences and lack of classic dungeon challenges. I think implementing even a couple of these proposals would be a huge help to the game for we veterans who like to jump back into old lore.

[@clogs4956]

I’m not unhappy that new players don’t do Cata; I find it lovely and quiet down in Vash’jir when levelling alts. I do think that Khadgar as a guide through old content would be tight!

[@Mr19awsome92]

you WANT to do underwater content? you okay there?

[@joekickass2728]

@@Mr19awsome92 Vash'jir is one of my favorite zones. I do not get all the hate for it. I never had a problem targeting and knew to stay alert all around me up and down too. Just wish there was more content there. I main a hunter to and never understood the complaints of other hunters saying their pets pathing is weird underwater. My pets always just moved in a straight line. Maybe a zig zag sometime but nothing that is game breaking.

[@Avrelivs_Gold]

Same. Along with Bloodmyst Isle, Vash'jir became my favorite zone of all. These two zones just ignore everything Blizzard does for last decade. And it feels good. It's timeless and quiet. You can just enjoy the views.

[@chukky1124]

@@Mr19awsome92 Vashjir was amazing. really good and well made.

[@actingapple3607]

My friend sent me this video as he is trying to see what a new players thoughts are on the game (we’ve just gone through most of the leveling of Dragonflight) and honestly, your idea where the player gets a tour from Cadgar of the history of Azeroth and then you talk to Chromie to play through the expansion you find interesting is exactly the sort of thing I was talking to my friend about. The early game sucks if you don’t just use a level skip, and with all the expansions being abandoned like they are makes it hard to get invested in them, especially seeing as you’re just thrown into one of the starting cities and are told “hey, check out the board and do an expansion, they will be scaled to your level” is kinda underwhelming and probably very confusing if you play them out of order.

[@Charistoph]

Honestly, I think an "Azeroth Reborn" recycle would be good for the game. As you said, have them quest through main story beats while "hiding" side quests as trivial until you've cleared the area.

[@christographerx64]

Wow I think you are on to something Nix! Having a new player going through curated "moments" across all WoW expansions to reach max level could be fun idea.

[@getbelkedon994]

Wrong Information overload for new players.. i have friends i've introduced to the game and they are FARRRR from interested in 10 years worth of story

[@christographerx64]

@Get Belked on You have information overload today. What new person to wow is going to know which expansion to play let alone what the expansion is about Going through specific events to introduce them to the lore of the game they are looking to play is nothing but positive. Throwing them directly into to end game zones is going to be overwhelming as well so something needs to be put in place to introduce systems and mechanics.

[@Konuvis]

Totally agree with your new player experience idea! Having a summary of events so far would be amazing for new players and having them introduced to the Chromie system make s a lot of sense. Each expansion could give you like 10 levels and you'd get caught up by the time you reach current. The only issue I see is that this experience would have to be updated every single expansion so it may be complicated.

[@GhostLP799]

The idea with Khadgar taking you through the events is really good. Lost Ark kinda does this too, if you take a "boost" with goodies for fist-time clearing.

[@sakevanderwal3471]

The 1st char quest that take you through all the previous expansions sounds awesome, they can make it a much better experience than what new players get atm.

[@TheProZoneGaming]

you hit so much right on the dot, i have been recently trying wow and trying to get into it coming from osrs gw2 and other games. i came searching for videos to see if this experience is my doing or really just how it is.

[@twistdkarma7400]

I definitely like the idea of leveling characters through professions - like where you mentioned mining herbing for leveling, but also w/crafting things too!! Not everyone wants to go through the stories and "Champion" experiences I'm sure, and as someone who has played since TBC and when I want to make and level a new alt, I'm not interested in all of that anymore, but I absolutely enjoy farming materials and working on professions - that could ABSOLUTELY be a way to make Archeology come back in full force and be relevant again!!!! 😄

[@Ceebz39]

Another crybaby. People like who doesn’t care about lores nor game itself just wanna jump through to endgame. Pathetic

[@dazaran714]

I think that a world tour quest line is a great idea, but I don't think it should get you to level 60. Really it should just get you to level 30 when you get your flying mount. That will make your questing experience much more enjoyable (assuming they remove pathfinder flying from old zones) and give the characters a solid base for their talents and rotation.

[@BigbossShoshka]

I am definitely a fan of the idea of a proper leveling campaign. Something timeless and world spanning that really shows off some of the coolest looking zones. I also really like the idea of expanding avenues of play that serve as routes to level. Things like pet battles, and professions should also be lucrative ways to level. Just to sort of encourage exploring those forms of play. In DFs leveling, it really feels like you can level however you want. It should feel the same way 1-60. They could add a bunch of thematic, but simple world quests around the whole world to add in some dynamic play. Events in other games have done a good job of funneling players in large zones to the same area.

[@noduj]

Great video, i also had the same idea, it would be nice for players to travel through all xpac's, drop some quests here and there and fight the raid bosses (atleast the last boss through a scenario), would be alot of work to do, but i think in the long run this is necessary.

[@jarrettwheeler5063]

Your idea about the questing through expansions is awesome I hope blizz sees this ! I think for the professions bring back the profession bonuses like the belt buckle from black smithing & the extra gem stat for jewelcrafting

[@playerx825]

Honestly, I would update many things with the leveling. For example: when you start a new character (with the old starting zones), you're introduced to a cutscene, explaining the lore and story around the race. Let's use Humans for example. When you start a Human, it explains lore and details that happened in *Cataclysm.* These events happened 10-12 years ago, meaning the cutscenes are extremely outdated. I believe that the early questlines need updated as well, such as Westfall. In the Westfall story, it focuses on the Defias Brotherhood, who've been defuncted since Cataclysm. Minor things like that break immersion very quickly, and I do believe a new, fresh storyline for new players will boost the morale of the early game.

[@hyenawolf147]

The old zones should be reworked as the same level of dragonflight zones, this can be done in like patches, I do agree that professions could’ve been more useful in lower levels for it takes along time to level professions up so it could be nice to be useful early game.

[@byrdmaan6171]

Another perk that could be added, especially for alt leveling, could be the game recognizing quest chains you haven't completed offering more experience than quests you have run through previously.

[@Brunnen_Gee]

This is something most MMORPGs go through as they age. Old content is abandoned, the new player/leveling experience is gutted, everything is converted to catering to the veteran crowd who don't want to go through the process of leveling their 45th alt. Even without boosts, leveling is turned into a race to get to max level, then you end up with a large population of players trying to do end game content who have absolutely no idea how to actually play, because there was no time for them to really learn their class or game mechanics. I hate it. My favorite part of MMORPGs is the leveling experience, I always get quickly bored and burned out when I hit the end game, because at that point all you have to do is the same stuff over and over every day. I like the challenge of taking a new character through the world, finding and doing things I didn't do on a previous character, actually have some sense of danger, that you could mess up and die if you get in over your head. That's largely removed from most games.

[@HiddenEvilStudios]

What do you mean, right now? It has for over a decade. There's still systems on top of systems on top of systems running under the hood that you'd know nothing about unless you played at the time they were implemented, not to mention the complete cluster of a story.

[@HiddenEvilStudios]

@York Hunt I do. Phasing, sharding, random gear upgrades, legacy loot, War Mode, not to mention Artifact, Azerite and Anima power that new players would only interact with tangentially before they are complete discarded. There are many more examples like these, and next to none of them are explained in the game. The same goes for current content, incidentally, where almost none of the Dragonflight unlocks, lock-outs and limitations are explained to you. Think what you will of Final Fantasy XIV, but that game explains just about EVERYTHING to you the first time you encounter it and also comes with a designated tutorial mode for the basics of group play.

[@HiddenEvilStudios]

@York Hunt Ah, I see. So that's how we're playing this game. You see, friend, I wasn't just pointing these things out that you so nonchalantly brushed aside to shill for my new forever game, but to offer some perspective by someone who's spent the better part of two decades on Azeroth. I didn't just try the game in Shadowlands or Warlords briefly and hated it, no. I've been there since a few months after original EU launch, when I was but a wee babby, barely old enough to play this PG 12 game.

[@HiddenEvilStudios]

@York Hunt New players would definitely still encounter Azerite armor and the Heart of Azeroth. As a first-time player, you are FORCED to go through Exile's Reach and then on to BfA. Unless Blizzard recently changed that, that problem still persists. You could fix the majority of these problems by either adding a more in-depth tutorial or more of those little blurbs that pop up when you open a new screen.

[@HiddenEvilStudios]

@York Hunt Also, how the hell are the technical aspects of phasing, sharding and War Mode self-explanatory? All three work differently, and often at the same time.

[@HiddenEvilStudios]

@York Hunt How do you get a first-time player who just picked up jewelcrafting as his very first profession to understand that the majority of his profession is now dead in the water thanks to sockets only being added to items by chance instead of being designed with them from the get-go? This game has had so many design inconsistencies over the years that were just heaped on top of each other along with the aforementioned systems that the game resembles a medieval town built upon ruins more than the carefully planned-out and resplendent city it could be if Blizzard bothered.

[@Dkmachine]

I love that idea of doing a massive questline going through all the expansions. I think that's something they should've done back in BfA.

[@Penzig]

Great idea. Fully support it! I have played casually, on and off, all expansions since vanilla. Ive brought some friend on with me from time to time. It takes me a lot of work towards adjusting their experience into anything that makes sense. Because a new player all on their own, wont get a good experience indeed. Creating a questline - perhaps even mandatory for a new account - that makes you go through a super recapped version of all previous expansions seems like EXACTLY what the base game should be doing. Jesus, Id like to do that myself at this point - as there is too much history too long time ago - to really feel like I get the whole story. Im not big into lore and wow history, but I wouldnt mind a little. Right now, there is none. Or there is glimps, which just confused you more than it does any good.

[@jani14jani]

Best leveling experience from 1 - 60 would be mandatory solo torghast.

[@CodyMerritt]

I'm a returning player and I'm LOVING leveling ALTs. I pick an expansion for each ALT and have had a blast with each very different adventure

[@jonasmlgbucket420]

I think the problem is that most people dont have the time to level that many alts. Especially if you are brand new to the game and dont have heirlooms yet and dont know what to do when.

[@DarkkLestat]

Here's an idea. Month long events for leveling in a specific expansion, with lets say bonus rewards cosmetics and bonus XP like 10-20%. So one month would be Burning Crusade era and you get X amount of extra xp from quests and dungeons, and better scaling loot.

[@buttlerubbies747]

That’s a great idea

[@getbelkedon994]

bad idea... no one wants to do BC... no one wants to be encourged to go somwhere they don't wanna be cause it'll be faster and even with it in place some expansions would STILL be faster than BC if BC had a 40% XP boost

[@DarkkLestat]

@@getbelkedon994 Giving people the incentive to go and do that content would work. Regardless if it’s for Tmog or maybe mount rewards. It would work

[@DarkPoisoneer]

In lost ark they have this when you boost a character for the first time, you go to a timeless place where you experience all the story so far till the start of the endgame story areas in short where you go through some text, images, voice lines and narration, cinematics and also play some major events as well as try some spells you earn along the levelling path till that point. I had an idea about having the levelling experience be similar to that and when you brought up the idea about an NPC like Khadgar taking you through the starting of each expansion in a chronological order to get some context added to the idea I had so we can have it in a similar way but instead of going through just blasted lands or something you get specific existing key story quests, not the boring kill and collect ones, alongside narration from Khadgar about why we got here and how it happened especially when transitioning between zones and expansions and the XP you get while doing the levelling experience is enough to roughly get you to level 60. And during that levelling experience you get to do some key dungeons that tie into the story alongside the cinematics of the stuff that happened, and these dungeons can be done with players or be like in exiles reach when NPCs accompany you to clear them instead. For the raids that have context you can just skip to specific fights like killing the Lich King for example where you either witness or participate in the fight and it can be done with NPCs dressed in appropriate gear, similar to how the Illidan quest, where you get to experience his fight from his PoV fighting the NPC raid. The technology to do that is present in the game as it has been done before like in Illidan's quest and also the Thaldraszus questline where the NPC can be Chromie or any time dragon instead of Khadgar or even it can be multiple main NPCs who had big roles in the expansion or zone you are experiencing.

[@BeTeLGeuZeX]

TBH My main suggestion would be for Blizz to make Exiles Reach a sort of Chromie/ Norzdormu zone for players to be briefed by each expansion and main events in WoW but through the early leveling experience so it flows naturally for new players picking exiles reach or choosing to run the ol fashion exploration way. Exiles reach could have mini zones that symbolize each expansion on that mini island.

[@palwatcher6903]

I like the Khadgar tour idea...problem is I can't think of an execution that would allow new players to get what's going on in just 5 or so levels. Exile's reach = 1-10 Classic = 11-17 BC = 18-25 WTOLK = 26-33 MOP = 34-40 WOD = 41-48 Legion = 49-55 BFA = 56-63 SL = 64-70 DF = Exclusively endgame

[@pepepicapinto543]

1 hour of gameplay per expansion (8-9 hour campaing) is enough, maybe less in some like TBC and classic as they... don't have much to tell. Just spread the levels evenly to match that cadence

[@Annatar_Lord_of_Gifts]

Agreed with this. Not only for new players, but I just hit level 60 while in Draenor chromie time. I hit it doing the literal last quest of a zone which I wanted to complete for an achv and the game literally yanked me out of the quest and straight to org to start Dragonflight. Like what the hell game let me at least finish what I'm doing

[@DiamondOrPoor78]

I started in Legion, and I personally loved playing through every expansion, it really helped me understand the world and since leveling took a lot longer then, I got to experience so many different zones and it was truly great! I do wish however that if they brought this back, they added a mechanic to where you need to do the final raid of the expansion or something for a really cool bonus reward and a ton of xp or something cool like that!

[@Scribby87]

They could do what Star Wars the Old Republic did in a later expansion. It reworked it's quests seperating the Story of the game from the side quests, making the Storyline quests of each area give a huge amount of XP while all the sidequests were there as just extra stuff to do, minor xp, with some minor rewards for crafting, side gear, etc. You could tell the difference between the two by the quest indicator on NPCs. For example they could make the "!" in WoW be yellow for the main story and some other color for side quests. That way new players could zoom through the streamlined story of each expansion while skipping the fat. With 70 levels it's hard to fit it all in though.

[@noenken]

The Explorers League idea is brilliant, combine that with a rebalancing of XP between dungeons and open world questing and I bet the old zones were a lot less empty. I would also like to see Blizz cut out many of the chore quests out of the main story questlines. Or combine cut down versions of those into todo lists. Instead of kill 12 of X, next quest kill 8 of Y and next quest gather 20 of whatever, just combine those to "kill 2 of these, 2 of those and get me a sample of that" in one quest.

[@ZoeLycan]

They should make an entire sub expansion for new players that is basically a linear tour of each expansion in order. Basically an extension to the tutorial island Maybe just have Chromie narrate a super general story of each expansion on their own phased Zones. Each resembles 1st Zone of each expansion so new players get a taste of what each expansion means and holds for them. Draenor could even just be the intro up to the garrison. Legion is just up to pick up your artifact. (Just skip ShadowLands. No player needs to suffer that ever again) It's some work, yeah, but it makes it so new players get hooked to the game and makes them go back to those expansion and see more content. And helps them understand what is going on in the current expansion.

[@getbelkedon994]

Wrong Information overload for new players.. i have friends i've introduced to the game and they are FARRRR from interested in 10 years worth of story

[@ZoeLycan]

@@getbelkedon994 sorry for you friend

[@jorgebellidolavado6382]

The problem is shadowlands is important to understand why ysera is back to the living world and why there is another elf tree

[@vladporc]

A big questline involving different zones and a mandatory dungeon from each expansion would be an interesting idea and I think people would like it.

[@JoaoJMatias]

And yes, after exile's reach you should be able to go to Dragonflight. Old content should be optional.

[@FireL88]

A short version of all expansions, where you reach 60 at the end would be really nice for new players. even i might do it once again just to see all of it again ( as long as it takes maybe 4-6 hours and you are done )

[@Jacobaebh]

4-6 hours? Thats almost the avg time to go 50-60....id expect it to be more like 12-24 hours, especially if its aimed at new players to WoW. Not to mention the vast amount of content/Lore from all 9 expantions, I can only imagine it would take some time to tell.

[@getbelkedon994]

Wrong Information overload for new players.. i have friends i've introduced to the game and they are FARRRR from interested in 10 years worth of story

[@MissMeyer.]

This would be an amazing idea for a guild to do for an annual Recruiting event. Have guild members all over the world giving newbie’s “quests” to do to go find other guild members, NPCs, etc. sort of like a scavenger hunt, but for leveling.

[@nevoyu]

Who's gonna volunteer for that?

[@charlesdobronxcharlesdobro4660]

Nixxiom opinion is wrong but that’s okay

[@codyjensen9101]

You could always do a questline for each patch that would lead you to a modified raid tier, as a 5 man raid E.G. - Chromie talks to you and explains the events that have happened all through 3.1 and then you do some questlines showing what happened maybe have a solo dungeon or two and some open world content and then you que for Ulduar set as a 5 man dungeon instead of a raid. So more less gives you 10 short questlines to get through some of the key lore and characters of the warcraft universe.

[@ericandresen680]

Hello, than you for a nice video explaining some of the thoughts i were having, I haven't played since forever only some on and off in different expansions. And were just creating a new character to get back in to the game. And got verry conflicted with the new introduction island and then i were introduced to BFA? I think? Made another character and just did the normal starting zone and were not trough in to the BFA expansion? But Chromie is able to teleport me in to any expansion, but if i stick to the "normal" one that is BFA? If i just want to lvl as normal in the old days i could just go out and explore Azeroth in the "current" time zone? Or how do i pick the "vanilla" questing?

[@justsomekidd]

I think Stormwind/Orgrimmar and their respective zones need a visual revamp too, like what they did with Arathi in BfA. I feel like going from the stunning, high-res Exile’s Reach to Stormwind’s 2004 graphics might be a bit jarring haha

[@getbelkedon994]

Why? players don't spend time there... why tf should blizzard waste their time there

[@daxster25]

@@getbelkedon994 ??? I'm constantly in stormwind, what you talkin 'bout

[@EdyGlockenspiel]

First off, on the professions thing. Nixxiom, are you aware that, with the recent ilvl changes, enchanting and other professions that add enchants to certain items like scribe for shoulders ect is impossible to do now? All enchanting is capped at ilvl 50 for items pre WoD, and a lvl 10 player can obtain item lvl 59 epics. This makes the whole profession 100% worthless. BFA enchants cap out at 140 ilvl, with lvl 50 players having ilvl of around 180+. This has been an ongoing problem for the twink community since the change and blizzard has NO intention to fix it. Do you *really* think, they are going to even attempt to make the early game any good? Next, for the overall concept, like I commented on another of your videos, this would require them to PAY a team of devs to work on revamping the leveling system, which they simply can not afford, being a small indie company. They have most of their resources put into union busting efforts and ensuring Bobby Kotick gets his 12 100k bonus checks. They can't afford to hire on a team of like 6-12 people that could work on making the leveling actually FUN. It takes millions to do all the union busting they are doing and hire such expensive union busting teams like the one Amazon uses to keep their slaves in order. No mater how many times you bring it up, bitch about it in videos, they are NEVER, *N E V E R* going to make leveling at low levels fun in any way, shape or form. I genuinely don't understand why you don't get that yet.

[@yankokassinof6710]

yeah, even if discussing ideas is fun for me in videos like these coz i dont usually do this, i must admit, the real life perspective of the industry just as you stated answer much more and speak much louder...very true, i also dont think they will ever realistically gonna do a good early game

[@cdsteig]

Honestly, I think this is where FF14 has a major advantage: Its MSQ. You are required to play through the entire main story, and you have to go through the dungeons and trials to progress. And there's a utterly token xp gain for the quests in the Patch Content, minimizing the overleveling problem WoW suffered for years with. I'd argue WoW would greatly benefit from this, but it would require a massive overhaul to the questing, dungeon and raid system. This could be an opportunity to update the Old Worlds (I'm looking at you, Blood Elves and Draenei zones), and better integrate Allied Races as well. Determine if a zone storyline holds up still (Ghostlands, sure maybe; Silverpine Forest, yes). Weave an MSQ to include those, while making the obnoxious side quest (Fetch/Kill X of Y) optional (most are corequisite quests to progress the zones). •While FF has a single MSQ, WoW could easily support several across Kalimdor and EK, and take faction or even race into consideration. •Mandate dungeons. Do the Silverpine chain as Horde? You're going into Shadowfang Keep. Do the Gilneas chain as Worgen? You're going into SFK. FF's slowly making all MSQ dungeons solo friendly with AI support; the dungeon in Exile's Reach has this as well, so just adapt all subsequent dungeons. An AI team could be the player's alts, too, which could mitigate MSQ replay issues. •(Alter Timewalking so all MSQ dungeons are available if unlocked and scale down higher level players with bonus rewards [player housing items?] if players are running the dungeon for the first time to encourage foster friendly multiplayer play) •Disable xp gains once an xpac level target's been reached (like 80 in LK), but keep a small but notable power progression as the player finishes the relevant story which should build to the next expac. Suramar comes to mind. •(MoP: Finish Siege of Orgrimmar, the quest chain deals with the aftermath, with cinematics featuring Garrosh's trial to properly set up WoD, for example) •With AI support and proper player scaling, this could help make older raids more relevant (the amount of trash mobs really needs to be scaled down though), though given how well LFR is... x.x This idea certainly has some shortcomings, particularly given an MSQ weaving through 9 xpacs and most of their dungeons and raids - even if all the fat's trimmed - that might be a long ask. But that's what buying a WoW Token and purchasing a skip from Chromie's for right?

[@galacticmoonwolf8462]

This is a big reason why I couldn't get into wow. Exiles reach? I loved every second of it. After it though, I just got lost. In both story but where to go, I knew going in it didn't have a main story and that wasn't the drive. I knew that going in, the real game is the endgame and only for the combat so I held my expectations to not expect any story But getting drips of a story through the equivalent of side quests made it iffy for me. For one, didn't know which I had to do or not had to do as my mates gave me multiple different answers when I asked. Also, I got confused where to go and what to do for said quests. I think I'm doing the side quest chain in BfA equivalent to a main story? But I have no idea and honestly I keep thinking to stop thinking of it as such It's just, tricky for me to focus on what to do and get invested in the world. Combat can only sell the game to me so much, I want a drive. A story of some kind to learn the world, the people and to know why I'm doing what I am.

[@shinzotori8958]

Hello there, new player here that actually joined during Dragonflight! I got convinced by a friend to try wow out and I was curious enough to give it a shot. And I can confirm everything that was said. It is very frustrating for me to be forced to do Grinding just to get to some actually good stuff. I enjoy the Battle system and interaction with other people, that's why I played a lot of dungeons, however it gets very repetitive very fast even if you have all dungeons in rotation, especially with the bigger dungeons that drag out very long. For me the Game is just a grind but I am motivated to keep on grinding because for example I would love to go to some raids. Plus I have a friend to keep me kompany wich helps a lot.

[@markagrippa4018]

I found by starting to level in Broken Shore and doing the Legion artifact quests/class hall quests is way better than just going from zone to zone in the original continents, you dont have to level through BFA although they make very easy to fall into it, go to your war board in Ogr/Stormwind and you can select Outland, Broken Shore, Nothrend, etc I just think the Legion questing is by far the best especially for new players, having everything centered in your class hall or dalaran city makes it easy and its pretty populated vs the other zones

[@trokolisz3702]

What i think would be the best, is if after doing exiles reach you would go to your class trainer, and do a series of quests that teaches you how to play your class, and would show you your place in tge world (for example a rogue could get a quest chain of infiltratiot and espianage, and a mage to do stuff with laylines and elementals, or even just helping out in the world) and these quests should make you lvl 60, as it is already really fast to lvl to 60, and even in a normal pace (questing in draenor) , can be done in an afternoon. So it would be kinda like the legion quests, but merged with what nixxium said. But in the end it would take tons of effort for blizard to make it, and it wouldnt really be justifiable as most people would never interact with these quests, or only do it for 1 class. But if we dont want to add in new stuf, bfa is defenetly the best expansion to throw a new player into, its clear and lineral but has a bit of exploration, it is designed for not having flying, and even if it doesnt make too much sense in the lore if you just end it after doing only the 8.0 stuff, and never the 8.1-8.3, that is true for every other expansion, and while it would kinda make sense for them to do cataclysm tonget familiar with the dragons, i wouldnt wish for anyone to lvl through cata (even if the low lvl zones are some if the best wow has to offer)

[@pigtaku4276]

Just started vid so don't know if u will cover this but immediately by title I agree and I think one fix would be to not initially lock dungeons behind whatever timeline you pick to run. I know if wait is long it gives you option to expand to all but that should be a standard option on dungeon finder for sake of time.

[@LowlandTenrec]

I really expected you to talk about the issues with scaling for lower dungeons for characters of different levels. They would have to fix that before they do any dngeons changes like you suggested. I've had a harder time with bosses in classic dungeons than I have had with +7 mythics on boss week

[@iTzSinnis]

As a alt player; holy hell. Leveling in bad scaling dungeons is a nightmare. There's actually some dungeons tuned so bad they can't be completed by most group. I find alot of people getting them and instantly leaving.

[@MavFair]

I like the idea for going through all the content or going on tour through the timeline in wow. Funny enough has been done already in Lost Ark in which it goes through an abridged version of all all the events leading to level cap you already went though on your first character for all alternative characters and sets up with starting gear before the gear grind.

[@KollectingKaos]

As someone that enjoys questing I still think that the level squish was a stupid idea, If you want to get to max level quickly use a boost. I find it really annoying that after playing a few hours in the lower level zones I am suddenly one shotting everything and apparently can't be killed (unless I fall off cliff, which I have done more times than I can remember.

[@Reps1991]

4:32 That was my first Idea too when i think about how leveling could be better 4 new players. A condenst questchain through all expansions that narrowed down all Stuff that happens, maybe a szenario Bossfight at the end where you dould teach them how to respond to Bossmechanics for later on. Kadgahr and Chromie would be the perfect choice as guidens. and at the time you're done, you hit the level to join the new expansion

[@bosssavage3325]

I would also like to see an update to “Timewalking” by having Chromie scale down players to a specific expacs level and Ilvl then put you into that expac to progress through just like you were playing that expac. This progress can be saved per character and toggled on and off whenever you want so you can enter the main timeline continent as an op character or go in as a timewalker. Timewalking for a specific expac can happen for 1 month total rotating. When Timewalking is enabled and you enter the Specific Timewalking Expac, you are scaled down and restricted to that expacs content only. You can’t bring any gold, gear or items with you, as you have entered another timeline. You enter the Timewalking with green gear at a few levels under that expacs capped level and need to quest to level and get gear. Main timeline gear, item and stats and timewalking gear, items and stats separated Only that expacs professions are enabled and the auctionhouse is separated from the main timeline game. Everything you do in timewalking should reward timewalking currency Timewalking rewards should be vastly expanded to include decent item rewards (gear, mats, gold) in the main timeline or even buy time saving coins to lock your timewalking gear to bring to the next timewalking event. Gear looted in timewalking counts towards tmog in the main timeline Tied into this, there should be new stat next to ilvl which is called “knowledge” This knowledge is a number adding all of the world bosses, dungeons and raids together which you have completed as current expac content. Having 3 color coded numbers showing the individual boss completions Bronze = normal Silver = heroic Gold = mythic Number = how many bosses downed These numbers and colors can be accumulated through current expac content but also through the time walking content.

[@chriscoats262]

As a solo world content player, I LIKE that older content is 'dead', player wise. Other people get in the way, steal kills, steal quest items forcing you to have to wait on respawns and hate the overall experience because of how much of a bunch of dicks other players are to you. 'Dead' content is amazing. A nice, peaceful, chill levelling experience that you can enjoy is MUCH better and having levelled 26 characters (13 on each faction, 1 of each class) ive come up with a PERFECT levelling arc to follow for fast but fun solo levelling 1 - 60 and I never tire of it even after 26 characters. :)

[@alexandria9749]

Love your idea of new beginner quest chain !

[@Dkcwong1109]

I picked up retail, purely to try out the "new" classes, having only played Classic. I really didn't like how I had to do the BFA camapign and half the time I didn't know where I was going or what the story was so far. It was just follow the quest bubble on the map, kill the mobs and turn in. Would've been nice to play the TBC/Wrath leveling with the updated graphics and spells/abilities, just having Chromie Time availiable right from the start I think would fix a lot of things.

[@Z3ROR]

With the fact that you can't get a fully unlocked legendary weapon anymore at your class order hall, i would like to see a revamp of that system. Where you can go to your class order hall right after completing the starting zone. And use that class order hall as that faction where you used the explorers league for.

[@Valwego]

I think they need to make something kind of like Exile's Reach, that summarizes an expansion. By the end of it it gives you enough xp to get to the next. So Exile's reach is 1-10, Classic is 10-20, BC is 20-30, etc.

[@cmurph187]

I think the only way to really fix it would be to redo the entire world cataclysm style. That’s would probably take a lot of dev time though. Maybe a king main storyline and even class story quests like in ffxiv

[@jordi5316]

For me, i just dont know what to do. Exile reach is straight forward. Go to quest, do quest. But when ur done with that, there is suddenly a ton of quests everywhere. And idk which ones to do.

[@victorcamara2155]

They should just do what they did in thaldrasus at the end, a super quick segment of each area briefly explaing the story for every 10 levels, like 1-10 exiles reach 10 -20 vanilla story 20-30 bc and so on.

[@zelderonsgameroom7319]

I would love to see while leveling whatever expansion you choose if you pick random run Q it should be any dungeon and of course give the ones that don't want the option to opt out and choose normal random run in there expansion

[@paneth8466]

Goblin tours. One of the neutral goblin factions take new players (Both Hoard and Alliance) to each of the expansions for a tour. This would happen after Exiles Reach as the 'Heroes' need some down time after all that happened there (Remember they were basically recruits so they are not use to all this stuff) so they book a Tour from one of the goblin factions looking to profit for said down time. The goblins however are using a Time device 'Borrowed' from Chromie (don't ask how they got it, it involved an exploding sheep, jumper cables, and a tub of butter) and are using this to cut costs on their tours by showing the heroes some of the most exciting locations through history, only they have no idea how it works and its just goes all sideways and drops them into some of the outskirts of the major events that have happened through the years and have to fight/figure out a way to move on to their own time (of course getting slapped into a small portion of each expansion, should be about 10 or 20 minutes per jump) until they get to their own time. When that happens Chomie will show up to take her device and offer the players a ride to the current expansion where they would have to complete a quick side quest (Getting an item or something to fix all their blundering through time) before offering to dump them into a time period (Expansion) of the players choice.

[@Dan_Dan_Ruu]

I think some zones of Azeroth (maybe 4-5 on each continent) should remain timeless and/or gated (at least during the leveling experience) so players can level up those zones until they are able to jump into the latest content. That way, leveling would always feel like an introduction to WoW, and the storyline wouldn't be as confusing, you're just training so you can help in whatever the newest campaign may be.

[@minette36]

This is a GREAT idea. You're absolutely right, the new-player 10-60 issue is a massive oversight. Even those who do play through BFA--they end the leveling story and then.. that's it? it just cuts off, no resolution (because dungeons/later patches aren't included in the leveling experience, of course) and they're sent in to current content. It's a huge problem, I really hope Blizz addresses this in some way!

[@robhunter4038]

An idea I have had for any MMO that doesn't force you to start at the beginning and work your way through all expansions is to have something that all characters got through at their creation. Similar to the map mentioned here and also similar to what was suggested about going on a tour of events across the world, but still different. Time travel and portals. The lore already deals with this and portals are used as well. What I would suggest is now blizzard creates a new instance that all new characters go through; they are ripped from wherever they were and placed in some outer plane location. Where you have to rescue some new character from something. You learn they accidently did this to themself accidently and is trapped here now; they can never return to the normal planes but you being special; the eventual champion of azeroth, can travel freely back and forth. After completing this mini tutorial of sorts of basic gameplay you are led to a central chamber where there are different room with portals in them. The first room you enter has portals leading to each of the starting zones for each of the races; faction specific of course. In the center would be a portal designated for Orgrimar/Stormwind. Then have a hall that leads to another room. This location would then have portals to the expansions. Each expansion would have its own portal and would send you to where it starts. Now obviously you can choose which you want to start with and so forth and can always come back here by going to either Orgrimar/Stormwind. They would be placed in chronological order. Perhaps have it 6 sided and mult-leveled. Each side on the first floor would have its own portal. Starting I believe with Cataclysm as i don't think you can play the original 2 expansions anymore; could be wrong; new player here. So it would go Cataclysm to your right ending on Legion. Then go upstairs and go the next level where you would have Shadowlands and Dragonflight with inert portal spots for future expansions. They could even have stairs leading down with the same layout. Doing it this way would allow players who want to experience the lore in chronological order that option. Could even have numbers over each portal; like Roman Numerals or even just regular numbers, indicating which is the first and so forth. And if you're able to do Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King in modern WoW then obviously they'd be on the first floor and that make up would then end with Warlords of Draenor, and the next level would start with Legion and go to the current expansion. This person who you meet could be Chromie or Khadgar or someone completely new as I suggested. Either way the only place they can be found would be in this new location; which could be accessed at anytime from Orgrimar/Stormwind. Could also make this location a faction-free location so a good place for those who are on opposite sides to meet up to do quests together that they can do. And i think this idea works well with established lore of other planes of existence and time travel and portals and so forth so it's not too farfetched to think this couldn't happen in WoW.

[@melissa7777]

Sometimes you just want to play old content and not new on wow, especially if your an old time player. Forcing us to play new expansions and skip all old content we intentionally restarted a new character to play would be a super disappointing experience. Best thing you can do is allow us to play old content and ignore new stuff, so lvl caps are great addition and not being forced to go into new areas would be a must.

[@DeKeofDeKe]

something I like to do since I love to explore expansions for their stories is level to shortly before chromie time ends and cut my EXP so I can just finish it, I know its a bit pedantic but I am just like that I like to do that, never really do dungeons as I never get gear anyways no matter how often I do them. So I'd like to have a better focus on the expansions again even older ones outside of the timewalking stuff

[@Nanox0]

You practically described the ALT. Boosting method used in lost Ark, here play this KEY scenario level up, get this reward gear, and repeat till ding to current expansion min. req. level.

[@alexl8864]

I think you are right about the long chain quest for new players that gives you an overview of the expansions up to this point, I think there should also be some sort of incentive for doing the old raids for people who want to experience them, and not just timewalking raids. Timewalking raids are great and all, but they are very specific and available for very limited amounts of time. If you miss the "window of opportunity" when any given expansion first came out, everyone just ignores it and it's not possible to go back and experience certain raids. At least in my experience. This isn't everyone's experience; if you have a guild that is friendly and everyone wants to help each other (a guild that is very tight knit) then anything that is still available in the game you could potentially still go back and experience. But from my experience there are very few guilds like this that exist, and even if they do exist you can't just join one and expect to be immediately treated like the people who have been there for years, that'd be ridiculous. So there is a TON of content that is just locked for a lot of people if you haven't been around since the start of WoW's life time and stuck around, playing hardcore for the entire lifetime of WoW.

[@tortinhafofinha8537]

currently going through bfa campaign as a new player, I noticed that dungeons are much better for leveling but I'm avoiding it so I can explore more of the world I'm liking the campaign quests, they make you engage into different game mechanics and find myself learning something new every few quests. I'm already looking forward playing the other expansions with a different class. I'm taking my time and enjoying it

[@Booley95]

The rest of the zones of Azeroth drastically need to be more interesting for leveling players. I was leveling my mage and wanted some nostalgia and level through Northrend, but the questing was so slow and spamming dungeons was way more rewarding. A ding per dungeon and good items. I would love to see dungeons being buffed up. That you have to level through the world to get gear and more talents before you can just do any dungeon. I still remember that I joined a UBRS group in WotLK and I was drastically weaker than the rest if the group but I helped out with a lot of CC so that was cool. It was a real dungeon crawl but I'll never forget that run. Challenge us, the player

[@jaredcullum117]

Around a year or two ago I started playing WoW so I could play with my GF and I did exactly what you described and didn't use any leveling boosts and just decided that I wanted to explore the world doing quests and clearing areas. The issue was by the time I got to the point where the game sent me to my first expansion I was already bored and there wasn't really anything difficult about it. It was just one long endless grind where I would simply repeat the same combo of attacks over and over again with no incentive to try out different mechanics - like professions and whatnot. Of course the world also felt completely dead like you said, but on top of that I don't feel like the game did a great job telling me where to go for major story beats.

[@Leeroi132]

I just started playing again after quitting in 2013/14 somewhere in MoP and I was so confused as to what timeline I was in and where I was. I’m trying to level in the classic zones that were appropriate for the level but I just outlevel them and they all cap out at like leve 30 so I’m basically doing it for the nostagia I guess. The only way I’ve been leveling is through dungeon spamming like you said. I’d like to play the story linearly and catch up on everything I missed while I wasn’t playing but they’ve got me in 3 different expansion’s storylines and I don’t understand wtf is going on lol. Even old dungeons and raids I can solo when I shouldn’t be able to so I’m very confused. I’m still having fun exploring and reliving parts of my youth though.

[@Sassafrass95]

Even me who put wow down for a few years got SUPER overwhelmed by the amount of quests I had and the amount I'd need to do to catch up in the other expansions... it got so to the point I had quests I needed groups of people but almost no one was going into these areas so I had to drop said quests and move on

[@kylercraigen7698]

I do agree with giving a little background to each expansion to newer players. I started playing wow on re release of classic and I've always struggled with the "lore/story" of everything bc honestly retail does a poor job of giving a play by play story. You tend to only figure out most of the story from the most recent XPack. Or with chromie but i think your idea about a little story from each xpack would be an amazing idea!

[@getbelkedon994]

Wrong Information overload for new players.. i have friends i've introduced to the game and they are FARRRR from interested in 10 years worth of story

[@kylercraigen7698]

I mean some players are? I feel like that take is pretty much individual player based not overall player base centered….

[@Gimpo925]

I played the game from 03-16, and then am just returning now. I find it hard to use my old characters even though they have hundreds of days played because I have no idea about the rotations and such so I've been working on a pair of new characters and it is confusing on what I should be doing. Also having to do content I've definitely done on my old characters is really weird.

[@bicxyhayinya8501]

The time line thing is a good idea you would just have to have fixed xp to have it a little slower vs other toons

[@joehansey8349]

I like your idea of the story catchup with Chromie/Khadgar. It would be a great way to showcase the story of all past expansions for new players. But instead of dropping them into Dragonflight immediately, why not start them in updated starter zones that take place in the current storyline and not forever frozen in time back in Cataclysm.

[@shinou110]

Yea i'd really welcome some kind of fix of the old stuff for new players. I brought 4 of my friends to WoW with the DF expansion and leveled with them. Everyone at different times and it was a sore to somehow make the leveling process seem to be fun by guiding them at the right pace and showing them the cool stuff. Explaining everyone the jump from nothing to a free Talanji who why and what is going on kinda is awkward without saying "ye the devs were lazy here" or "They dont expect new players to be able to free her yourself" which would also then leave to spot open of why we go there in the first place ( to free Saurfang? ) I suggest they make a small story Quest that guides the players through all the mayjor events of the expansions and make some character like Chromie, Kadghar, Thall, Silvanas, Garrosh or Tirion first introduce themself and and taking them more or less by the hand or kick them into the cold water of battle and intrigue to make their personalities known and after each chapter make a dungeon or scenario where u fight a Lich king, Illidan, Yogg or even recycle old scenarios like the bombing of Menethil. There would be even something in for max lvl players to join those scenarios/dungeons by giving them a chance to obtain the mount of each of those baddies or other time walking stuff.

[@rsmith8113]

I think your idea is good, they could set the reward to be X amount of levels each expansion catch up event gives (for example: finish Classic story with Kadghar and Chromie for level 5) That would be pretty cool so Blizz could guarantee new players will catch up with the story and reach the required levels for the new expansion by the end of the quest chain. They could also add a reward at the end of each expansion(Tier set recolours, weapon mogs, mount recolours etc), that would make it a good time for players who are not new but want some achievement and other cosmetic stuff. Hell, it could have a Challenge mode too that would award you more stuff.

[@sucraloss]

Another issue with leveling with quests is scaling. If you’re leveling through low level Cata zones you’re going to get terrible gear and get destroyed unless you get some dungeon gear or hop over to a more “traditionally higher level” zone like Shadowlands or BFA. I was trying to get an alt up through Tirisfal but by level 14 I was taking so much damage from everything because my gear was white quality with like 1-3 green items. Not sure the solution but it does suck having to abandon a questline because normal mobs are destroying you and you can’t get decent gear from the quests. Maybe have some kind of baseline gear you can get in a level bracket?

[@Kaffeane]

nice work as always !

[@aliriks8974]

One thing, that I really really miss from Classic era (up to WotLK) is class quests. I also missed the talent system because it really felt like you were developing something throughout, which was kinda reintroduced in a pretty decent way (imho). However, class quests. Legion did it really well to be honest but I really miss for example the druid quests to learn your forms, travelling the world to learn it. I wish that almost all spells were taught this way (would also be great for new players). Small quests like even the mage level 10 quest that doesn't give you a spell but just a useful staff, where you have to fetch water for the mage trainer in Stormwind etc. This is really really great, I also liked how in Classic era, u felt like a nobody in the beginning. Now it feels exaggerated how "important" and strong you are, but I guess that also has its merits. Still, learning to be that powerful mage, paladin, druid, warrior, whatever, is something I really miss from the leveling experience, learning how to play a new class etc. My proposal: You get a whole new "primary questline" that takes you across the world (either just the classic world or even through all expansions?) based on your class. For example, as a mage, having to visit Dalaran for something specific, then having to fetch something in Kharazan etc. Making this the primary story quests like how it is in Dragonflight, and all the quests in the open world then become secondary, exactly how it works in new expansions. You could still in theory level "the old way" but this would give you a more streamlined experience where you go through most of the world, based on class fantasy.

[@cypher0124]

one of my biggest critiques of the low game is that the XP for losing a battleground despite the time invested is close to nothing. Discourages me from queueing pvp on alts. I queued for some on my dk recently only into the 60s so I would have enough for some max level honor gear.