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World of Warcraft - Correspondent: Levelling in WoW
MMORPG.com World of Warcraft Correspondent Richard Turner pens this article on levelling in World of Warcraft together with some tips for the task for new players.
World of Warcraft has been the leader in all Massive Multiplayer Online Games for a few years now. Of course there are many reasons why this has occurred, but one of the more notable ones is how the issue of levelling your character to the highest level (70 here) is accomplished. Most quests are just: run here, kill that, loot this, bring it back, but the way they are put together eliminates the incredible grind session found in many other MMORPG’s today. What Blizzard has accomplished with this game is something that is both enjoyable for the hardcore or casual player, and will continue to propel their monster of a franchise forward into the not too distant future.
Although it is implemented incredibly well into the game, the levelling system can still be semi-mind numbing. Some players, new and old, still have trouble finding the right area to quest in for their level, and some still hold onto the old misconception that levelling their new character will take them months. All that has changed now though, due to Blizzard’s implementation of a patch that was released some time ago, patch 2.3 which made it so that once you hit level 20, the amount of experience needed to level becomes decreased by 15% per level. While this doesn’t sound like much, it makes a huge difference and makes the levelling seem to fly by. Also, level 30 players can now purchase mounts, which in turn speeds up the questing/levelling cycle by allowing the player to get from point A to point B at a much faster rate. So those of you out there who never fully levelled a character, or got bored in trial, give it another go. You may like it more now.
Another thing that can take the boredom out of levelling is to completely explore the areas you’re questing in. Blizzard has built an elaborate seamless world that allows you to explore and find all sorts of hidden goodies. Many players tend to forget this and just work on solely questing or grinding to level. By exploring you gain experience and get to fully immerse yourself in the Warcraft world. However, many people will find that unimportant and burn themselves out on questing and grinding.
If you ever feel as though you’re burnt out, there are ways to break up the monotony of questing. The Battlegrounds, such as Warsong Gulch at level 10, Arathi Basin at 20, Alterac Valley at 50, and Eye of The Storm at 70 are sure to bring a new experience into your game. There are also quests you can get from each of the “bases” for these battlegrounds. It’s a good excuse to take a break from the typical repetitive questing, and you still gain experience from it. Personally, I use this as a way of breathing life back into the game when I feel questing has gone stagnant. Another thing that allows WoW to stand out from the rest, is its class system. Each class brings an individual play style to the table, and allows you to tackle the game in your most preferred fashion. Whether you prefer brutal melee battles where no one leaves without limbs missing or a tactical bolt of lightning to electrify your enemies, WoW has it all for you. The classes all have their own strengths and weaknesses, and you should try them all to find the one that suits you the best.
Class balance is a crucial game play factor in a MMORPG, and can either make or kill a game. Since launch, Blizzard has nerfed or buffed the classes over what seems to be millions of times to create their idea of a more perfect equilibrium. They’ve buffed the classes to the point that no class is very hard to solo level with, and only a few, such as mage, would pose a slight disadvantage to the other classes due to their sheer dependency on mana for survivability. The best class choices for a newcomer to the game would have to be rogue and hunter, for their easy playability and their extremely high DPS output. Yet, it all boils down to what your goal is when coming into the game.
The talent trees for the classes in WoW all serve their own unique purpose. Some builds are set up for leveling, some raiding, and some for PvP. What I’ve done is compiled the leveling builds in order to help you, the reader, level. Of course, all builds are subject to change and everyone should try their own.
These builds are all designed to make it easier for the player to level, and have been proven to work.
While leveling, many players also encounter what is called the “awkward levels.” These are levels that require you to run back and forth between multiple zones, and attempt to find quests in order to level. For example, as a Horde character, once you finish the Shimmering Flats circuit in Thousand Needles, you are forced to run between Stranglethorn Vale, Tarren Mill, and the Arathi Highlands. All of which are very spread apart from another, creating an incredible amount of time wasted on merely running. For Horde, these levels usually begin anywhere around level 32 and do not cease till somewhere around level 38. For Alliance, they range anywhere from level 26 till level 41.
Another thing that can help you through these awkward levels would be Jame’s Leveling Guide (All rights belong to Jame and Wowpro, I in no way have any affiliation outside of using the guide myself.) Jame has wrote both a Horde and an Alliance version of his leveling guide, each with circuits and maps to help you level your fastest. These guys have saved me countless hours on leveling. You can access the Horde leveling guide here, and the Alliance one here. Two add-ons that can greatly increase your leveling efficiency as well would be LightHeaded, which can be found here, and TomTom, which can be found here. Once again, I had nothing to do with either of those add-ons, or the guides, I merely found them to be invaluable resources in the quest to reach level 70.
While this article was mostly geared towards newer players, I hope those of you who are seasoned found some bit of usefulness out of it. Thanks for reading, stay classy.
It's spelled "leveling."
Sorry, but I hate coming to a site that looks professional only to see 5th grade spelling in the title of an article.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/levelling
Before you insult, learn your language
P.S. Stradden, a question of curiousity, how long does it take for correspondent pieces to get published from the day they are handed in? Thanks :)
Sorry, I don't live in Britain.
I have a couple issues with this article:
"If you ever feel as though you’re burnt out, there are ways to break up the monotony of questing. The Battlegrounds, such as Warsong Gulch at level 10, Arathi Basin at 20, Alterac Valley at 50,"
The battlegrounds, if you want to have a good time are only accesable at level 19, 29, 39, etc. If you attempt the BGs at say level 10 or 20 you will be wasting your time, because you will get slaughtered. Even a 3 level difference is enough to make the BGs unnaccessably fun to players and I'm not even going to go into the twink issues.
Also, it's leveling.
Did the world really need another leveling in WoW article?
This has been done to death.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/levelling
Before you insult, learn your language
P.S. Stradden, a question of curiousity, how long does it take for correspondent pieces to get published from the day they are handed in? Thanks :)
hmm..
what about this?
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/leveling
looks like he was right ;)
Seriously, you have way too much time on your hands to worry about a simple spelling mistake. I suppose you have never done this?
Glad we have so many teaching professionals on these boards, god only knows how bad things could be if we didnt.
Leveling is a verb, as used in the title of the article. Levelling is an adjective or adverb, used in a phrase such as, "I'm using a levelling plane or levelling instrument in this task."
I concur with the opinion that the article title contains improper spelling. However, other than THAT....nice article! :)
hmm..
what about this?
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/leveling
looks like he was right ;)
You can spell it levelling too. Therefore he was wrong.
Leveling as we use it in games is not represented by the dictionary as we use it as an action of gaining higher level. The term levelling is used in conjunction with the definition pertaining to keeping somethign level, in balance, etc... so using it with 2 L's is wrong when pertaining to a gamer gaining levels.
It has never been proper American English to use a consonant when adding an "ing" to words. Americans have simplified the language into a more efficient form by just requiring "ing" at the end of the word to be modified.
But no matter the spelling, the end result is this article has failed due to a blunder in communication.
Call me elitist, but I laughed at the warlock build.
I liked the allusion in the article to all these people in a tremendous hurry to level and missing the point of playing the game while they're doing so.
Actually most people are in a hurry to level. Especially those that currently have a couple of level 70's.Since BC came out the best game content combined with the best quest rewards really does begin when one is able to access the outlands at level 58.
It varies by article and how much ediyting it needs and when the coordinator submits it to me.
Let's all be grown ups about this (the comment about my elementary spelling abilities aside). There are indeed two correct English spellings of the word. I chose the double "l" because the single "l" didn't look right to me. Like with many words, it depends on where you're from. Canadians and Brits (and come to think of it most of the english speaking world) spells it one way, but American English is a little bit different. Since this is an international website ;et's compromise and say we're all right.
That being said, WTF is up with posting just to insult me without even double checking that I was wrong. Not cool.
It varies by article and how much ediyting it needs and when the coordinator submits it to me.
Thanks Stradden.
I was just curious cause I'm looking forward to my piece being put up here in the news section. It's always neat to see youre first piece get published.
Ahh, the wonders of the internet. I'm glad a few of you at least enjoyed the article. It was pure opinion, and very little fact. As for the spelling blunder, leave Stradden alone. As previously stated it's not an official word, because MMOs aren't taken seriously in the dictionary world. As for constructive comments on where the article is headed, those would be quite appreciated. Either way, thank you for reading! Glad some of you enjoyed it.
---edit..
it is an official word, BUT not in the way we use it. Most people don't go about town, "I'm going to level my grocery shopping skill today! Omfg, 375." So, yeaah.
“The contents of this post do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com and its management.”
QFT. I laughed at first, then cried when I assumed it was a serious build. I'd like to see the numbers behind this build making it better than grabbing the end of one of the useful trees.
First off, complaining about spelling is about as lame as you can get. Many of the posters in this thread should be ashamed of themselves.
Yeah, got a chuckle from the Warlock build. Some games you can play a jack of all trades type, but it usually does not work out well in Wow, as the upper end skills are much better than the lower level ones.
I think that leveling in Wow is far easier than it used to be. I personally like a bit of challenge. I absolutely hated AoC because of it's fast leveling. Why does a developer even take time to do all those leveling quests if you are going to let them zoom through the content?
There has to be a happy medium between the huge grind in many of the asian games and what Funcom did with AoC. Their fast leveling cost Funcom more players than anything else because they got to end game content so fast Funcom did not have time to get the content in game. Probably one of the dumber moves by a developer in some time.
If a developer wants to cater to those players that want instant gratification, they are looking at a very short time in game for many players. Like shooting yourself in the foot.
'Blizzard has built an elaborate seamless world...' I think we've all been in enough seams to know this as a lie. And it was used as a verb, leveling, in this country at least.
As far as leveling goes I always had more fun in City of (Whoever) series just because I play MMORPGs due to there being real live people in it. With WoW it feels like a chore to level with someone, meaning that the 10 items on a 1 in $%& you drop rating may as well be 100 for just a pair, and 'kill yourself' if you dare to bring an entire bloody group. Leveling should be a fun learning experiense as well as an oportunity to meet new people playing the bugger who are not complete $%& in the @$%es and whom you can maybe see yourself not killing in the near future, if but for the sake of useing them for all they are worth.
You've got to be kidding.
The guy writes a long and pretty detailed article and all some of you can take from it is the spelling of "leveling/levelling" in the title.
Unbelievable.
Some people really just need to stroke their own self-esteem that desperately I guess.
Also, I've seen a comment or two to the effect of "we've already seen these articles before, why do we need another?".
Well, the answer, if one drops their conceit and looks beyond their own nose, is very obvious... There are others who may *not* have ever read an article like that before and could find it useful/informative.
Very good article and it touches on some things that, to me, are a problem in many MMOs.. particularly the "getting so caught up in the grind that players forget there are other things to do". Those are usually the ones blowing past 70 levels of "other stuff to do", then complaining about lack of content.
So... Very nice article overall :).
In the spirit in which this article was writing I thank the author. Please don't mind the gramar police. Based on the new patches and changes to WoW you wished to inform gamers of the positive changes to an already great game and for that I thank you. Call me a fanboy of WoW... it doesn't change the fact that an already great and enjoyable game has improved many aspects of it's game to help out new and returning players. I believe this was really the reason for the post and not how the missuse of one word could completely side track sooooooo many people! So understanding this to be the meaning for this post I do not believe it has been played out. Many changes and additions have been released in WoW over the last few patches and it was enjoyable to read about them.
i guess the article is ok (i would have to agree that it is leveling not levelling--maybe someone should start a website for proper gaming terms/spelling to solve these issues, lol). hopefully it'll help some people who are new to the game, it didn't really give me anything worthwhile but i've been playing wow for a long time.
i personally would do several of the leveling builds differently though--honestly as other have said WTF warlock build?!
rogue--i prefer a good hemo/shadowstep build myself, i originally switched to a hemo/subtlety build because mobs kept seeing me stealth near them. for that reason and the fact that hemo is a fairly easy way to play a rogue i'd say it'd be good for beginners:
www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/rogue/talents.html
paladin--been forever since i leveled my paladin, but the main thing i remember and i tell this to every new paladin who asks me for advice on a build..ALWAYS PICK UP SPIRITUAL FOCUS IN THE HOLY TREE!! in my opinion it is the most important talent for leveling, especially in the lower levels. several times i can recall being attacked by 3 mobs or more and if i could've only healed myself i would've been fine except i couldn't because the spell would take forever to go off. also i never felt that sanctity aura was all that great, also i'd put another point into pursuit of justice:
www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/paladin/talents.html
for druids i'd probably drop intensity and pick up feral instinct instead--again the mobs seeing through stealth issue which is a pain in the ass when you're trying to get the jump on them or sneak past them.
hunters--it looks like you've got a decent lvl 70 build there, but it's not as good for leveling in my opinion, before i'd suggest putting 2 points into pathfinding, but since you get a mount at 30 now that's not as important, but animal handler is still good--one of the most annoying parts of leveling is traveling as you pointed out in your article making it a bit easier is always good. also improved revive pet is very good to have.
www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/hunter/talents.html
warlock--what the heck were you thinking?! lol, for leveling i'd either do an affliction build or a demo build--personally i'd level affliction and respec to demo (felguard) at level 50 or so.
affliction:
www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warlock/talents.html
demo:
www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warlock/talents.html
for priest i'd probably drop a couple of the holy talents and pick up shadow focus, i remember when i leveled my shadow priest a long time ago that it was disgusting how many resists i'd get, picking up that talent should keep that from being too much of an issue.
I think it is a great write up. What many people here fail to realize is that not everyone who reads these boards 'knows all'... as many of the posters (posers) like to troll, flame, and profess to.
A new player (or even a potential WoW player) may look at this guide and find some positive information or opinions/input here.
I know some people stray from games that have been out for a while because they fear they are too far behind veterans. Blizzards has helped new players out a lot. I think the article helped lay that out fairly well.
Other players say that the journey 'from level one through done' in WoW becomes 'boring' or tedious after a while. The author pointed out BG's as a way to break up the 'grind'.
Every article isn't written for the uber, the high-exalted, never-faulted, all knowing, all pwning, +1, 1 up, my daddy can beat up your daddy, my soccer mom is hotter than your soccer mom, Chuck Norris endorsed, super-awesome-kung-fu-grip featuring, and 'elite' gamer. While the article was posted in a place that all can view and all can read, it doesn't mean that the subject matter is useful for 'all'. But, there are some people who would find value in that write-up.
If you read the article and found it to be 'elementary' or simply 'beneath' you or your level (should I add another L??), then just move along and don't flame. If you thought reading the post was a waste of your time, then why waste more of your time by flaming it?
Anyway, leave Brit Spears alone while you're at it, too.
But seriously, a lot of the ego's need to be checked at the login, imho. Think before you type. People spend too much time slathering forums up in 'you're dumb/I'm smart'.
So, to the OP/author... nice work.
Maybe articles and guides should be rated? Advanced for the uber (veteran, skilled, and educated). Beginner for the noober (new or potential gamers). And maybe another rating in there for 'average' or 'all'.
15% less exp to level. Now that is interesting. Does this mean that there are alot of players now quitting, saying that they found the leveling process too boring? Or does it mean they dont want low level newbies to feel afraid of leveling 80 times?
Everything happens for a reason.
I don't think you will find many people leaving the game you just find that the veterens that have a couple of 70's under their belt are bored and tired of the long grind to 58 so they want to shorten the time it takes to get there.So really it's about retaining the populace they have.My personal belief is that while BC was a really great expansion pack it killed the game for players below level 58 that can't access the outland. There is hardly any gear on the AH for levels 15-58 that is not priced below a level 58 item since no one really 'farms' those areas any more. So there is no real joy in the game below level 58 except for getting your mount. Just my personal oppion, but the game really only begins now when you can access the Outlands.
I'd like the thanks the op for his time and laugh at all the spelling heros (I dont want to use the n**** word)
I decided to dip back into wow as iv quit aoc and im waiting for war, wow as a game is ok, its the people, like the elite here who dont need any help and they want the game tougher because everythings too easy for them.
Its like they have became too good for wow or mabye they just like to talk the talk.
in game yesterday some guy lvl65 is asking for a guild, hes laughed at by 3 or 4 people called and noob and told to lvl up, no decent guild is going to take a lvl65. now its not true that no guild will take him but there are whole guilds of players who think anyone under 70 is inferior.
I don't think you will find many people leaving the game you just find that the veterens that have a couple of 70's under their belt are bored and tired of the long grind to 58 so they want to shorten the time it takes to get there.So really it's about retaining the populace they have.My personal belief is that while BC was a really great expansion pack it killed the game for players below level 58 that can't access the outland. There is hardly any gear on the AH for levels 15-58 that is not priced below a level 58 item since no one really 'farms' those areas any more. So there is no real joy in the game below level 58 except for getting your mount. Just my personal oppion, but the game really only begins now when you can access the Outlands.
I think they're making leveling so much faster for the new player, because....Blizzard isn't good at adding ANY lower level content with expansions or patches, at least thus far, so to give you a reason to BUY said expansion....they have to make it more attainable for a new player that is below lvl 58....to hope to PLAY soon.
Perhaps, instead of making leveling easier, they could have just added more lower level content TOO, in addition to the high level content. I'm not a huge EQ2 fan, but to their credit...when they have an expansion, it adds things for both lower AND higher level players. WoW just pretty much keeps beefing up the "end game" crowd.
Let's say you were a new subscriber to WoW. Well...the old world instances are pretty well abandoned now, other than enchanters farming for mats. So without the xp boosts, it WOULD probably take longer to level that it originally took. WE could run instances over and over. I know some lower level players spam trade chat for DAYS just trying to get ONE Scarlet group put together. WE didn't have to do that.
So...Blizzard is, in my opinion, trying to help the newbies catch up, so that they'll have a REASON to purchase the expansion. Otherwise...what's in it for them? New haircuts? Pffft. That's hardly worth spending 40 bucks.
that's not entirely true, they did redo dustwallow marsh a little while back, which made it much better--adding in new quests & quest hub. but you're right, they do not add in nearly enough low level content. which is a shame because in my opinion the main thing that blizzard did right was making leveling enjoyable--i'm about to have my 10th lvl 70, so i obviously have enjoyed it plenty, but without new content it makes leveling up new characters a pain in the ass now because i've done it so many times.
eh, they added in a little content with Ghostlands, along with easy-to-get blues and a sweet twink cape with Tranquillen. Then there was the addition of Mudsprocket later on, but I agree. There needs to be at least some new content for leveling, theres only so many times you can go through an area before getting sick of it.
Oh well, they did shorten the exp needed to level, moved mounts to 30, and added triple exp friend invites with free zebra mounts to the inviter, guess that counts somewhat to helping, eh?
Main thing I'd disagree with though, is referring players to guides and addons, I consider almost all addons nothing more than something to supliment or replace skill, and guides take the fun out of exploring.
Hell, a week or so after Sunwell came out, I decided to try Magister's Terrace, and I was stuck with a group of Addon-dependant sadsaps who moaned and groaned cause their precious addons werent working, tank couldnt hold aggro if he was beating the enemies mothers, and the rest were pretty sad too.
What.. effing.. game.. are.. you.. playing?
I am not interested in the leveling of this bad game.
Why does mmorpg.com have a correspondant dedicated to this POS?
Shesh.
Here's a wacky idea - instead of relying on the community to make a game fun, how about laying the burden on the DEVELOPERS.
Blizzard decided to take their amazingly well-designed engine and world and fill it with pointinless, idiotic timesinks because a bunch of EQ raiders took over as leads of the game. Kaplan talks about the importance of trash mobs in dungeons to get the 'timing' right when 'timing' is just another word for tedious timesink.
Instead of looking for solutions to the problems these Developers created for their game, I prefer to look for a game that doesn't have them in the first place. It's taken a while but we're finally seeing upcoming MMORPGs that are evolving out of those wretched, old-school mechanics.
WoW showed the world that MMORPGs didn't have to be mind-numbing garbage but Blizzard didn't go far enough, it will be up to others to carry the torch now.
The rogue tree is generally in the right direction, going with the combat tree. But EVERY rogue, no matter focusing on pvp, pve, or leveling, grabs 5/5 malice in assassination.
Here is a more accurate rogue leveling build.
www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/rogue/talents.html
I
Nice thread.
One thing though, Eye of the Storm can be started at 60.
As for builds, to each their own!
This post really hits the nail on the head. WoW is not good at adding expansions that offer much new content to lower-level players so, at least with WotLK, fast-leveling workarounds are a must.
As for the "levelling vs. leveling" discussion, as an editor I have to weigh in. Both forms are correct (i.e., British vs. U.S. spellings), and it is the editor's decision which style is chosen as long as it is consistently applied, which it is.
Nice article, well written..Good job.
Thank you all for the constructive comments, it's wonderful to see people are reading past the title. As for the builds, I only put down what I used. Each to their own, as you can level without using any talents period, it's just a lot more difficult. But thank you all!
You fail.
"You" is the subject. "Fail" is the verb.
Well thanks for that.
I could really care less about the spelling ,
The warrior build is the one i took a look at. While its a nice fury set up at 70, while leveling i would go down the arms tree untill you get duel wield. Then respec into fury.
When starting out its best to just run around with a 2 hander and then switch to your one hands once you get the duel wield skill. ( cant remember what level that is, 30 i think.)
For pvp most will go with a MS 2handed spec down the arms tree. But for questing and raiding as a dps warrior i would for sure go with the duel wield fury spec. In a raid enviroment it will provide you with the rage to do what you want when you want without having to take the hits to build it up.
The Oxford English Dictionary disagrees with you. It is 'Levelling'. Perhaps you know better than the OED's executive commitee (which contains twelve Nobel Prize Winners).
Spelling nerds..pfft. Both words are correct, all depends if your used to UK english or US english. Anyway, I think that WoW kinda fails on the lowbie area. People, even those new to WoW rush past most the content before Outland, which is sad. There are some dungeons in WoW giving you quite the challenge while you level and its also a great place to learn how to play your class. I've seen way too many people not knowing their class at all at 70.
Another thing WoW utterly failed with their expansion is that the old endgame dungeons stay mostly empty now. Everything from Blackrock Depths and on is a ghost town. Even more fail from Blizzard was when they made Naxxramas and just after that released TBC, meaning that only the most hardcore raid guilds saw and completed Naxxramas before the expansion hit. Now its empty and sits unused, like all the other endgame raids pre-bc.
Game is way too gear-based. Skill doesnt matter much if you got better gear than your opponent in pvp. Its impossible for a toon in questgreens to kill another toon in pvp epics, even if the the latter only use auto attack. They somehow made pvp boring with introducing long grinds to get pvp gear. Many prebc players think battlegrounds killed WoWs pvp, I being one of them.
Still, WoW is, with all its flaws, an incredibly polished game, fun to play and highly addictive. Its the best mmo out on the market at the moment as none of the other even come close to how well put together it is. All those other mmos got their moments themselfes(I'm still a fan of Anarchy Online and play it from time to time
) but compared to WoW they really show their inferiority.
WoW raised the bar skyhigh for mmos and they need to be quite good to even be taken seriously nowadays. We got enough flops already. There are some promising titles in the horizon but only time will tell.