Shared Topic: Levelling 1-10

Some folks have been concerned about the newbie levelling experience. I can’t say I blame them with levels 1-10 being very bland, and you don’t really have many class-defining abilities yet. Hunters don’t get pets until level 10, Shamans get one or two totems, Paladins pretty much are just auto-attacking. Some things have changed though, I remember way back when, warlocks had to do a quest for their pets. And they were reasonably challenging at the time if you were unfamiliar with the game.

The worst experience that I am aware of is the 1-10 hunter.  You have no pet, so you resort to melee, after pulling with your ranged weapon.  It’s almost surprising that hunters are (were?) the most popular class, since the introductory levels have almost nothing in common with the accepted playstyle of the class.  I see that they are planning to change this in Cataclysm and have new hunters start with a pet at level 1.  I hope they have some sort of mechanic or quest where the hunter has to learn how to use his pet properly, or we’ll be in for a real treat once he starts running instances.

The other classes that I have played at least give you a glimpse of what is in store for you at later levels.  Shamans get totems, Paladins get blessings and auras, Warlocks get their imp, etc. 

Another factor is likely the layout of the starting zones, with the exception of the Dranei and Blood Elf zones, there is a lot of running back and forth to get quest objecives. 

Now having said this, when I joined the game from Everquest (1), WoW was a breath of fresh air.  There was no loading screens between zones, and quests you could actually figure out on your own.  Unfortunately, as far as I’m aware, there haven’t been any changes to the starting zones since launch.  We certainly need an update to the starting zones, so WoW has a chance of competing with the new MMOs that are coming out.  Sure WoW is the 8000 pound gorilla in the room, but they will lose people and market share if they don’t make changes to keep up.

I’ve heard that the starting zones are getting a revamp in Cataclysm.  Let’s hope we can keep getting some fresh blood between now and launch, since I’m sure a lot of veterans will be taking some time off before Cataclysm.

TL:DR
With no updates to the starting areas in 5+ years, they need to improve the original starting zones with better quest layout, and possibly rework when some classes get abilities, so you can have a better idea if this is a character you want to continue playing.  It seems like this is coming in Cataclysm, so I hope Blizzard pulls out the stops like they usually do, and revamp the levelling experience.

Falross

Dungeon Finder

I know this is an old topic, but the blog is new, so here goes.  First let me say that I think the dungeon finder system is probably the greatest thing that Blizzard has added to the game since it launched.  Unfortunately, it has also brought out some very nasty behavior in people.  Through the dungeon finder I have met some great people who are patient and willing to explain the fights to a relatively new 80.  On the other end of the spectrum, I’ve been told my gear or DPS are crap, and promptly quit the group.

With Gravesaur (then Kitinara), I ran a lot of dungeons once the dungeon finder was implemented in December.  When I hit 80, Grav was outfitted with mostly iLvl 175+ gear, and he had a few badges saved up.  This let me get a couple of pieces of badge gear fairly easily.  I was actually shocked how fast I went from needing items in heroics to just running them for badges.   ToC and the ICC instances are pretty much the only instances that can provide upgrades for me other than badge gear.  I still enjoy running the instances, but I am getting a little sick of Halls of Stone, since it seems to come up more frequently in the random dungeon than the others.

Ikotar seems to have geared up really fats, but that may be due to the fact that I spent a bunch of badges on heirlooms for Nycterenne :P.   It also felt easier to get into the groove for heroics with Ikotar probably because I had already seen the content on Gravesaur, and the community for hunters is great with a lot of different resources for figuring out spec and priority lists.

In Nycterenne’s case, it’s been a bit of a mixed bag.  After running Northrend dungeons for awhile, you forget how complicated and long the old-world dungeons were.  This has been reinforced constantly with running Maraudon and Blackrock Depths.  I really hope that Outlands proves to be different, but I’m unsure, since I didn’t do many groups in Burning Crusade, since I found getting into groups painful as a DPS prior to the Dungeon Finder.

I’m hoping that with Nycterenne I’ll be able to run some of the instances that I really enjoyed from the original game.  Lower and Upper Blackrock Spire, Live & Dead Stratholme, and Scholomance.  There are probably a couple I’m forgetting, but I would be happy to see those while I can get experience from them.

As my warlock and hunter, the dungeon finder has motivated me to clean up my spec and rotations substantially.  I’m probably not doing maximum DPS, but mobs are dying, and I’m not pulling aggro (much), so something must be going right.

Well, the dungeon finder may not be perfect for everyone, but it is a huge step in the right direction.

Falross