Cataclysm: Guards in starting zones buffed to level 90
by Fox Van Allen 
Nov 5th 2010 at 9:00AM
The change, which guarantees you'll be at least five levels lower than the guards, takes advantage of existing game mechanics to protect lower-level players from mischief. NPCs that are five levels higher than you are exceedingly difficult to hit (spell casters will suffer a 39 percent chance to miss) and frequently wallop you for higher-damage-causing crushing blows far more often. The guards will also have higher health pools as well. This contrasts vividly with guards on the live server, who are prone to dying if a level 80 character accidentally sneezes on them.
Level 90 guards are better suited to protecting newbie players from max-level griefers. Note that only starting areas will see these high-level guards. The guards in major cities are now level 85 -- dangerous, but soloable.
Players who are upset by this change are encouraged to stop being jerks who grief newbies.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it; nothing will be the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion (available Dec. 7, 2010), from brand new races to revamped quests and zones. Visit our Cataclysm news category for the most recent posts having to do with the Cataclysm expansion.Filed under: News items, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 9 of 9)
Piisuke Nov 5th 2010 3:17PM
Awesome stuff. GG Blizzard. Getting sick of griefers killing quest npcs in starting zones, just because they're jerks/bored.
RetPallyJil Nov 5th 2010 3:53PM
Honestly, they should have done this from the beginning. What sort of candy-assed loser gets their wahoos annoying level 2s?
Bob Nov 5th 2010 4:29PM
IMO Blizz should have done this long ago. I guess it took them a couple of expansions to realize there are jerks out there who have nothing better to do than to grief newbs.
The Long Man Nov 5th 2010 4:44PM
Thank youuuuuu blizzard.
now starting a new character wont be such a massive pain in the ass.
REDMJOEL Nov 5th 2010 4:48PM
Griefing, unlike regular world pvp is one-way fun. It shouldn't be possible, even on a PVP server, for someone 10-50 levels above you to 1-shot then camp your broken body for hours on end.
Rohanzig Nov 5th 2010 6:38PM
I disagree. On a PVP server, you're inside a constantly dangerous world. I love fear of the unknown. Should I take a straight path and risk running into an enemy or should I zig zag inside a forest and risk running into dangerous mobs? When I first started playing WOW, my first trip into Stonetalon Mountain was a fatal one. I was finally vulnerable to attacks and was killed by a Rogue who I had no idea what class it was at the time. I rez and ran up a path into a placed called Sishir Canyon which literally freaked the hell out of me. Stonetalon, with it's windy ambient and dangerous mobs was my first true taste of terror on a PVP server. The Grimtotems gave me trouble upon entering the area no less but I found an alternate route that ran above the lower path. I remember seeing a warrior rode by and I breathe a sigh of relief. He was nice enough to escort me into Sun Rock Retreat. On my way out, I ran down a path and saw a Gnome near a campfire and I thought it was an ally so I logged off. SUPER NEWB MOMENTS but I was still new to the game so it was okay and there weren't that man people who showed me the rope. I learned everything mostly from trial and error.
Rohanzig Nov 5th 2010 6:25PM
There isn't that many people bored enough to go bother a level 1-5 zone but they will bother the level 6 on up zone and that's pretty much any area right outside the grace period. You can't attack the quest giver in a starting zone. Lowbies in those area will just ignore you or laugh at you. But I don't think most players are out there to grief anyone in a starting zone. You may think they are attacking the guards but most often, they're just trying to get the guards to back off as they try to earn their exploration achievement. I've had this problem when I rode into Coldridge Valley and I had to dismount inside the tunnel and emerged fighting out the other end. Seeing as how annoying it is to try and mount when guards keep rushing me so I did what I had to do and kill them. On my way out the tunnel into Dun Morogh, I was greeted by two 80's Allys (Pally & Mage) who made quick work of me.
scottishblast Dec 16th 2010 6:14PM
However, not all of us play on PvP or even RPvP servers, so we hate being bothered.
I am curious on how a non-dwarf gets the exploration badge for the dwarf starting area if the area gets sealed?
dsauto Nov 5th 2010 7:08PM
Horde players would always go on a killing spree in Southshore. Alliance would then go & do Taren Mill. The main difference was as Alliance we would leave the flight master alive so more victims could fly in. hehe.
This is not to say I condone griefing. I leveled a pally & warlock on a horde dominated PvP server back in vanilla wow when we ran until 40 but it sure improved my PvP skills when I reached the cap.
Another fun game back in BC was to kite the Fel Reaver into Thralmar. ;)
BigDamage Nov 5th 2010 9:30PM
I was talking about guards' levels being increased to level 90 in the future. Back at ya
Scunosi Nov 5th 2010 10:57PM
Any word if places like Moonglade or Silithus have gotten the buff, too? Silithus doesn't really matter at this point, but I hated going to train my lowbie Druid in Moonglade only to be camped by an 80 who did nothing but laugh at the packs of guards attacking him.
Negatron Nov 8th 2010 8:39AM
@Arjunas
LOL good read! i never took the time/ found the need to become a pirate so i am completely unawares of what a nuisance being in bad standing with the goblins can be.