Experience needed per level for 71-80 soars in Wrath Beta
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Aug 14th 2008 at 1:00AM
One of the more unwelcome changes in the latest Wrath Beta build is pretty simply explained: It now takes nearly twice as much experience (80% appears to be the exact number) to level. This has hit a few us on the WoW Insider Beta team by surprise. Both Zach and I, for example, were about 2 bubbles each from our next level, and now find ourselves only halfway through instead.
Of course, this is the Beta, so one can hardly complain about one's leveling time stretching. However, 80% is a very significant jump. It would imply that either Blizzard was intentionally keeping leveling experience incredibly low so they could get testers to max level quicker, or they felt that testers were leveling far too quickly and required a massive amount of slowing down.
I doubt leveling will be slow as it was in the bad old days of games like Everquest, but if it's so slow that players need to clear both starting zones to level up enough to progress further, it seems like that defeats the whole purposes of having 2 starting zones in the first place. Hopefully Blizzard monitors this new changes and adjusts it downward again if needed.
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, News items, Expansions, Leveling, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
somebodyelse Aug 14th 2008 1:07AM
I believe they want it to take long enough for you to level that you should have completed all the quests in the zone and maybe one or two instance runs. Now that they have some data they are recalculating the amount.
Asep Aug 14th 2008 8:49AM
In various beta and alphas before they have always increased the experience modifier to artificially enhance the speed at which people level. It is a good indicator of the progression of the beta if they are already removing that.
Mayhew Aug 16th 2008 1:27PM
Actually, in BC beta they went the other way, near the end. I never dinged 68. I logged out half-way through 67 one day, and logged in the next day well into level 68. There was also a large xp gap between Terokkar and Nagrand. You could start at level 60, do all the quests in HFP, Zangarmarsh, and Terokkar, and still not be high enough level to start questing in Nagrand.
Durante Aug 14th 2008 1:12AM
Would it really be a bad thing to have to quest in both starting areas? I always thought it was a pity that all of my Blades Edge and Netherstorm questing came after hitting 70. I still have Old World content I've never seen; I started played just before TBC came out so other than the Plaguelands, I've never seen any other 55-60 zones.
Ace Aug 14th 2008 1:51AM
You really should have spent some time in the 55-60 zones, they're some of the most intriguing in the game (Winterspring, Both Plaguelands, Felwood, Silithus etc)
Daxaar Aug 14th 2008 1:47AM
Same here. I hit 70 before even seeing several areas including Netherstorm and SMV in their entirety.
Cruumash Aug 14th 2008 1:22AM
I think the point in having 2 starter zones is to spread the load, not that you are supposed to skip one altogether. Think Hellfire Penninsula on opening day.
dan Aug 14th 2008 4:53PM
You are correct. That's the stated reason from blizz anyway. Even if you did "have to" hit both it wouldn't effect the load necessarily.
STereo Aug 14th 2008 1:32AM
I like the higher xp levels. I felt like the game became glutted with 70's too quickly in TBC. Plus, leveling is really a lot more fun to me than most of the end game stuff when you're looking at new content and new quests. I was actually disappointed when I got my main to 70 and had to move on to the end game stuff - I leveled another 70 but it's not as much fun when you've seen it all before.
Realmreaver Aug 14th 2008 1:45AM
Yeah prob with that is if people have to solo content without a quest with it just to hit 80 they will have broken fundenmental aspects of why WoW is so grand. It had something for just about everyone. Now they are punishing casuals cause this change really only effects them.
STereo Aug 14th 2008 12:56PM
Your post makes sense. I consider myself a casual altho I would play a lot more if I had the time (once the new content comes out, and assuming they fix my class). I think they should implement a 2nd level of the tired mechanic to slow down the pure grind leveling technique.
rick gregory Aug 14th 2008 1:30AM
Well, the first couple of levels were pretty much the same XP needed to go from 69-70... but all of the quests were giving 20k XP and mobs gave me 1800 per. People were dinging 77 in 3-4 zones.
Ametrine Aug 14th 2008 1:38AM
I'm in favor of it. Gets more folks to stick around and enjoy all the hard work Blizzard's done in fleshing out and detailing zones, instead of the whole mustgettoendgamefasterfasterfasterNOW!!1! zerg-rush that they did when TBC hit, where people would get from 1-70 before a week was done then start whining how bored they were and how they had nothing to do.
OnniHopeDream Aug 14th 2008 3:01AM
I'm welcoming increased XP to level cuz it wasn't too hard to level in beta so far, but this is WAAAAY too much. Maybe like a 25% increase or something, I mean this is just huge!
PimpyMicPimp Aug 14th 2008 1:43AM
I don't understand why they would nerf leveling in the beta; if anything it should be buffed.
I don't mind (and hope for) a fairly slow leveling session in Live Wrath, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me to do in beta.
Greengiant Aug 14th 2008 1:46AM
Come on guys, You guys always make the changes look like they are bad. THIS IS BETA! As a beta tester you should know better that things are they way they are for testing purposes. Their will likely be a wave of beta invites going out soon to get a new group of players to lvl and test the new xp gain. I am 100% certain that this will change and they will likely settle in between somewhere.
Tuhljin Aug 14th 2008 1:46AM
There were threads on the beta forums saying that leveling was too fast, and most (though not all) people commenting seemed to agree. I haven't done much post-70 leveling myself yet so I wouldn't know.
Greengiant Aug 14th 2008 1:49AM
It was a bit fast, I was able to grind out 2 lvls a night while casually playing the beta.
Thecla Aug 14th 2008 1:43PM
I was very unhappy with the change to leveling xp - I want to level faster, so I can go everywhere and see everything. I was halfway to my next lvl before this change - now there is a long way to go again. I am very disappointed.
I think the folks who think this change is a good thing have waaaay too much time on their hands.
Vellesta Aug 14th 2008 1:48AM
Glad I hit 77 last week. :P
I can understand an increase in XP, as I skipped many quests in each zone and was leveling super fast (with rested XP mostly). I got to pick and choose what quests I wanted to do and which would take too much time/effort. I figured that way, some stuff will still be fresh and new for me when it goes live.
If this XP increase sticks, I'll definitely get a chance to do each and every quest I skipped. -_-