Comments on: Should pandas start at level 1? Blizzard’s MoP dilemma

By: kris

kris — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 00:13:04 +0000

you will and should level from level 1 … simple as that .. panda nor monk are a hero class like the DK – hence there will be no fast track leveling system. sorry to burst ur bubblez

By: jalindrine

jalindrine — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 22:28:20 +0000

I really don’t think it’d be as large an undertaking as it seems. They’re all about immediate leveling now, which shortens their task. Even just creating adventuring hubs within Pandaria with teleports to the old worlds would reinvigorate things a little.

So I’ve taken toons to 20 and my death knight just to 62 or so. The 20-30 zones and Outland are ghost towns. Putting in 20-85 quest lines in the expansion is the only way to make it worth leveling, imo.

Or, as a better thought experiment: What zones (and what corresponding levels) were enjoyable enough that you’d run them again without incentives?

By: Tesh

Tesh — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:50:08 +0000

I enjoy leveling, so it wouldn’t bug me if Pandas need to level… but I’m with Cyn, the Scroll insta-80 looks like a prototype for a leveling fast(er?) track. I think that’s smart, to let players only interested in raiding to get there ASAP.

By: kiantremayne

kiantremayne — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 12:31:15 +0000

It would indeed be awesome. However, the last MMO expansion I can think of that added content for the entire level range was DAoC’s Shrouded Isles, and that was what – 10 years ago? I don’t think Blizzard are committed enough to the levelling game to put that much work into it.

By: Telwyn

Telwyn — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 09:21:14 +0000

Some good ideas here. I agree with Matt, I’ve done Hellfire Peninsular about 4 times more than is good for my sanity – I cannot grind hellboars even once more! The linearity of questing introduced in Cataclysm also makes leveling through Cataclysm areas a real chore as well.

To be honest this question is fundamental to whether I play WoW at all in future or not (I’ll be in the beta for sure to make this decision before spending any more money) – I played WoW for the ‘World’ of Warcraft, i.e. to level characters, do crafting and the odd dungeon or heroic. I *never* played it to chain-grind instances via the dungeon finder. If Blizzard can fix the gear-progression / character power progression from 1-60 so content is at least vaguely challenging (without resorting to mini-games to sidestep the issue) then I’ll play a Panda through at least the first 1-60 levels.

I’m realistic enough to not expect changes to Hellfire and Northrend of course, but if I’m enjoying the new race (Pandas are a race NOT a class ) and am not totally turned-off by the new talent system then maybe I’ll buy it.

All that effort on rewriting the old world but they made leveling so light-speed fast that you could blink and miss whole zones :-/

By: spinks

spinks — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 06:56:00 +0000

I hadn’t thought of Pandaria covering 1-90 but that would be awesome.

By: jalindrine

jalindrine — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 01:40:48 +0000

Wow. I should really do a better job proofreading. Sorry. Wish there was an edit button.

By: jalindrine

jalindrine — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 01:39:02 +0000

I’d rather them simply put in the time and have Pandaria run from 1-90. Running a F2P alt, I’ve learned that the first 10 levels run by so quickly now you barely have time to blink. There’s not much class learning either. This also means it doesn’t take as much work to create a 1-10 or 10-20 zone as it used to. The zones can be horrendously sparse and we won’t even notice. As I ran another alt through Ashenvale, I noticed we were leaving a number of questlines unfinished. Old zones, even revamped zones, are over-XPed right now. Pare it down and give us options.

Matt’s comment is a good one — Outland and Northrend don’t make a lot of sense if you didn’t hit them at release, and feel like ghost towns. A 1-90 Pandaria also help there, and would also likely have mid level zones that are fairly well populated, if only by curious, recently dust-covered alts.

Careful planning could work new content in tandem with the traditional leveling zones. Maybe there’s just enough stuff in Pandaria to hit five out of every ten levels, but you have some means of essentially teleporting (dragon flights seem to be the recent favorite) from Pandaria to traditional zone and back.

This would also mean that you no longer would have to go from 20-85 as if you were on rails when you run a traditionally raced alt. Give us more options for *every* alt, and make Pandaria worth a sustained look.

By: SirFWALGMan

SirFWALGMan — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 20:06:39 +0000

I like the temple of enlightenment idea. However I think this is a non-issue. I will start a Panda (IF BLIZZ ADDS A SLOT WHICH I HOPE THEY DO BECAUSE I THINK YOU NEED ONE SLOT PER CLASS PLEASE!) and enjoy the Panda experience from starting.. and at the same time I will take my main and level him up through Pandaland and enjoy that experience too. If Blizz does not add a slot or if I decide that it is too boring to level my 20 panda then he/she will probably languish and die while my main characters enjoy the new content. Once we run out of new things to do I level alts and things like that.. or maybe level some for the professions…. Should be fun to have a ton of things to do on a bunch of different characters.

By: Redbeard

Redbeard — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 19:47:19 +0000

I suspect Blizz is expecting people to race change to Pandas if they want to zip up to the new zones. Pay money, get a toon.