The Daily Quest: Expansion musings
by Anne Stickney 
Dec 8th 2010 at 2:00PM
WoW Insider's on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.
How about that new expansion? Have you immersed yourself in the new content? Have you hit 85? Cataclysm is easily World of Warcraft's largest undertaking; the new zones are breathtaking, and between new and old, players ended up with thousands more quests than any prior expansion.
But what about the Shattering, the moment when the world changed forever? Today, we've got some posts from around the blogosphere talking about the Shattering, the new expansion, and the new 1 to 60 leveling experience.
But what about the Shattering, the moment when the world changed forever? Today, we've got some posts from around the blogosphere talking about the Shattering, the new expansion, and the new 1 to 60 leveling experience.
- Player Versus Developer talks about the guided tour bus feel of old-world content.
- Big Bear Butt discusses the jarring nature of the transition between pre- and post-Shattering Azeroth.
- MMOmeltingpot also has a few things to say about the implementation of the Shattering.
- Spinksville ponders the link between leveling and how we learn.
Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we should be following? Just leave us a comment, and you may see it here tomorrow! Be sure to check out our WoW Resources Guide for more WoW-related sites. 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Worc Dec 8th 2010 2:10PM
Ugh I despise opening these articles about other articles. Redundancy at it's finest.
Josh Poulson Dec 8th 2010 2:32PM
You can say that again.
Johnny Dec 8th 2010 2:23PM
In the editorial about the shattering by Johnnie Ingram he touched upon something which many people, as well as myself have been irritated by. It is the fact that the events of this monumental shattering were not covered in-game but rather in Christie Golden's "The Shattering". While I want to stress that Christie Golden probably wrote another gripping and enjoyable novel, the content was meant for the flagship of the franchise, WoW itself. All subscribers should be able to have the knowledge and/or easily find out what happened. Instead, those who didn't buy the book feel as if one of the major points of Azeroth's history flew over their head.
Krytture Dec 8th 2010 2:26PM
I would have loved to see Carine & Garosh's fight in-game, the book made it quite epic.
Noyou Dec 8th 2010 2:37PM
Well said. So many major lore changes and we get the "oh by the way". Either they assume most people who like the lore buy the books or they want everyone to go and buy the books. Either way you are correct- it should happen in game first and then you can go and get more detailed version at your local bookstore :)
Krytture Dec 8th 2010 2:24PM
Did I win a new video card?
Hal Dec 8th 2010 2:51PM
I think PvD touched on something that has been bothering me a bit.
It isn't difficult to outlevel a zone before you finish. I've been trying to figure out why this is, and I think it has to do with resting and gathering.
It seems as though the zones are designed for XP gains to move you through with the assumption that you don't have any rested XP bonuses (also assuming you don't have heirloom gear equipped). Top that with gathering XP and you can quickly start earning more XP than it is assumed you would.
For example, leveling my new gnome through Dun Morogh, the Ironforge Airstrip quests (the last for the zone) were all green for me. I'd taken up herbalism. My girlfriend, leveling a warlock with me, was about half a level behind because she'd taken tailoring and skinning, neither of which offer XP gains.
Tirrimas Dec 8th 2010 3:01PM
You're not the only one noticing this. My Tauren Pally, with no heirlooms, is already green, only halfway through Ashenvale. He's a skinner/herbalist. Toss even a couple of dungeon runs in there and the XP gets ridiculous.
Krytture Dec 8th 2010 3:03PM
tailoring and skinning both usually mean you have to kill mobs to get to the mats. Which grants xp.
Adding it to mining and herbing is just evening the playfield. My rogue had to kill a bunch of mods not needed for questing, just to get leather. Which gave me more xp then the zone was supposed too.
Krytture Dec 8th 2010 3:06PM
If your in it for the story, outleveling an area makes finishing up the story there much faster. If your not their for the story, then you get to skip right on up levels faster.
I don't get this whole "I level too fast! OMG!" It doesn't make any sense. Enjoy one shotting mobs as you finish off a zone instead of grinding out just to get to the next zone and grind more.
Tirrimas Dec 8th 2010 3:17PM
@Krytture:
I understand what you're saying, but I'm playing a class I've never tried before. I want to learn how to play it consistently well, and welcome a challenge. Right now, I can get off an Exorcism and a Judgement...and the mob's dead. I'm a mage in a can, not a melee class. :-/
I think I might make use of the "stop XP gains" option soon.
Hal Dec 8th 2010 3:19PM
@Krytture
I think it's partly principle, and partly concern for the new player (who will notice such gameplay discrepancies). If you're rocking full heirloom gear, you're probably not going to care about blowing through zones.
Take that new player, though. He's playing through the game, learning the ropes and taking in the story (maybe). He's partly leveled through a zone when he returns to his major city of choice to empty his bags, maybe drop some stuff off at the bank or learn some new crafting recipes. "Hm, a new quest? Oh, now I'm supposed to go to Eastern Plaguelands? But I still have half a dozen quests in Western Plaguelands . . . oh well, that's weird."
The entire idea was to smooth out the leveling curves so that, by the time you were finished with a zone, you'd be ready for the next one. The problem is that the math is working out funky, as many players are ready for the next zone quite a bit before finishing the current ones. Even with the recent XP reductions, dungeons throw that completely on its head. You can typically gain an entire level from the mobs and quest in a single old-world dungeon.
Cyrus Dec 8th 2010 3:36PM
"I understand what you're saying, but I'm playing a class I've never tried before. I want to learn how to play it consistently well, and welcome a challenge. Right now, I can get off an Exorcism and a Judgement...and the mob's dead. I'm a mage in a can, not a melee class. :-/
I think I might make use of the "stop XP gains" option soon."
Or just go to a slightly higher level zone. The hero's call board or whatever it's called gives you a quest to a zone that would have yellow quests for you, and if even yellow isn't enough, just run ahead to the next town and see what's there. I think most breadcrumb quests aren't mandatory.
"The entire idea was to smooth out the leveling curves so that, by the time you were finished with a zone, you'd be ready for the next one. The problem is that the math is working out funky, as many players are ready for the next zone quite a bit before finishing the current ones."
I see how this can be a problem, but I don't think it's anything new. I remember having a few gray quests in my log at all times on my first character. That was way back in vanilla. There are ALWAYS more quests than one person can do before out-leveling them.
It's funny; back when every city had quests sending you to six or seven different zones and dungeons in the same level range, it was probably supposed to be obvious that you didn't need to do them all. So most people just did the ones that seemed most interesting and I was just one of the slow learners. Now that leveling has been streamlined, each city might have quests sending you to only two or three zones. That makes it look like you can do them all. Even though you can't.
Sorcha Dec 9th 2010 12:20PM
Very much so. My plan was to make four new characters: 2 Alliance and 2 Horde, each levelling on one continent to get the whole story. On my troll druid with mining who levelled in Kalimdor, no heirlooms or other XP boosts and only 3 dungeon runs from 1-60 I was vastly outlevelling zones as I was in them. By the time I cleared Northern Barrens the quests were grey and Ashenvale only moved from green for the final 20 quests or so. Stonetalon started yellow but turned green by the end, then Southern Barrens started green and turned yellow. I wanted to do Feralas, so I doubled back and did Desolace (obviously all grey) and Feralas (started green and stayed that way) before hitting the Needles. From then on, I went Needles -> Felwood -> Winterspring and all quests were yellow to me, but I actually ran out of stuff to do and got stuck at 57 in Winterspring.
Blacksheep Dec 8th 2010 3:00PM
Hit 85? I am still trying to get to 81 lol. I have no time off so I've gotten to play maybe 3 hours total since it came out unfortunately. While I was in game I kept seeing "so an so hits 85" or "so and so is a wizard or archaeology!" Makes me jealous. But then I realized that those people probably do not have jobs and stayed up for 24 hours straight to do that lol.
At this rate I'll be 85 in January and never mind my professions, I haven't had time to find the trainers yet, ugh.
Tirrimas Dec 8th 2010 3:12PM
One thing I'm REALLY enjoying about the new leveling experience is that transportation from one hub to another. I was so glad I didn't have to find that unmarked path around Astranaar so my lil level 25 butt wouldn't get speared by those Sentinels.
However, as someone else has mentioned, the XP seems a little high - particularly when you have mining or herbalism. I'm easily adding a couple of levels every play session.
Something I'm not really enjoying is having to run back to a capital city every couple of levels to train one or two spells.
And Blizz? Can we have portals back? Please?
cyanea85 Dec 8th 2010 4:12PM
Then don't? Only a few times do you get abilities that define a class or change the way that you level (Kill Command for low level hunters, for example). The majority of the stuff you get every other level, you can live without for a few levels. So go back every three or four instead of every other and train them all at once. I went ten levels without Flare and Aspect of the Pack and Tranq Shot, etc.
There are no more skill ranks, and skills adjust their damage by level, so there's no more need to run back and train up the new ranks to just keep up with damage.
The changes to questing flow through the zones ensure that you're never more than a two or three minute flight away from a capital in order to train, and there are places where trainers appear at questing hubs. So the portals aren't necessary.
Jay Dec 8th 2010 3:23PM
Well i cant play the xpac till friday because i had to order online to get the delux edition so i basically hate all of you:P ok not really but i am jealous.
cyanea85 Dec 18th 2010 9:51PM
I dunno. I think it's somewhat...pointless (I can't think of a better word) to complain that the Shattering didn't happen LIVE and IN GAME. Blizz dedicates their design resources to things that the majority of players are going to see for as long as possible (raids, zones, quests, dungeons, etc). I can't imagine that they would tackle the sheer COMPLEXITY of altering the entire world simultaneously with thousands of people logged onto each server for an event that would happen once...that no one would see again.
That said, a cinematic to show the world beginning to rebuild as we return from Northrend would've been nice, but I'm enjoying the new world too much to really care.
Hob Dec 8th 2010 4:10PM
This article should be linked with a Breakfast Topic from a few days ago, "Elementals vs. Zombies -- Which event was better?"
People HATED the zombie invasion. As in, "Canceled their accounts and furiously complained on the official forums" hated it. And it was only four days. I think it's safe to suggest that the anger of a certain player segment led Blizzard to take events like a full-blown "Shattering" completely off the table.
If Blizzard had implemented a four-day Shattering, some players would miss their favorite zones being destroyed and rebuilt, either because they're at work or school (or whatever), and people who are playing but don't want to be disturbed are going to treat it like they did the zombie invasion ~ quit / complain. The end result? Forgettable pre-expansion events, and directions to read the book.