Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsBlizzard comments on Outland and Northrend leveling in Cataclysm
by Mathew McCurley 
Mar 31st 2011 at 8:00PM
Naethera -- 1-60 AWESOME leveling but...
Quote:
I have been leveling this warlock past few days and the new quests are more than superb, I have been enjoying leveling like crazy. I started in the human zone and right now Im in Redridge, the story is incredible and fun. This is the first time I level without even noticing which level I am and without even looking to my exp bar.
My point is that, sadly, the fun ends at 60 and a horrible tedious journey starts, especially from 70 - 80, it is a boring nightmare.
Blizzard, is there a way you could make leveling from 60 - 80 as fun as the "new" leveling? Or anyone know if there are plans to do this?
I have heard that 80 - 85 is also very fun, but I dont know because I havent reached there yet.
I have been leveling this warlock past few days and the new quests are more than superb, I have been enjoying leveling like crazy. I started in the human zone and right now Im in Redridge, the story is incredible and fun. This is the first time I level without even noticing which level I am and without even looking to my exp bar.
My point is that, sadly, the fun ends at 60 and a horrible tedious journey starts, especially from 70 - 80, it is a boring nightmare.
Blizzard, is there a way you could make leveling from 60 - 80 as fun as the "new" leveling? Or anyone know if there are plans to do this?
I have heard that 80 - 85 is also very fun, but I dont know because I havent reached there yet.
We know that for many who have gone through Outland and Northrend before, it may not be as fun as the first or second or even third time you've gone through it. We understand but also believe that in general, the quest flow is much better than what was available in original World of Warcraft. Between that and the increased rate of experience gain, you should be able to go through these areas relatively quickly. Would we like to update Outland at some point in time? Sure. It's a possibility. But it's not on our immediate radar. There's still a lot more to be done in World of Warcraft.
Naethera -- 1-60 AWESOME leveling but...
Quote:
MId game is broken. Blizzard know but they happen to care more about doing nothing that actually working on something players are requesting.. sad blizz.. very sad
MId game is broken. Blizzard know but they happen to care more about doing nothing that actually working on something players are requesting.. sad blizz.. very sad
Broken implies that it doesn't work at all. This word is thrown around quite a bit, but just because something doesn't work how you feel it should, does not mean it's broken.
We definitely aren't doing "nothing" since we are currently focused on getting patch 4.1 worked on and moving on from there to more Cataclysm content.
We do appreciate those who have given constructive feedback on their feelings on leveling from 60-80 and as I mentioned earlier, we do have accelerated experience gains for these levels. As someone else mentioned earlier in the thread, getting flight early on also helps with getting around these areas and completing quests in a more efficient way if that's what you're looking for.
To make any other changes to the way the leveling zones and quests work within Outland or Northrend would take a significant amount of additional development time and isn't a simple undertaking as many have seen with Cataclysm and the changes brought about with it. If and when we feel the need is there to revisit the content in Outland and Northrend we will (again as we've exhibited in our willingness to address "old" content with the changes to Azeroth itself), but now is not the time for that.
While I agree that the Outlands and Northrend leveling experiences are less engaging at the moment versus the absolutely amazing Cataclysm content, it is mostly because Outland suffers from second-child syndrome and Northrend is still too fresh in my mind. The content is hardly broken, however. Nethaera is right about development time -- look at how long and hard Blizzard had to work on the original world to get it up to snuff.
I recently completed Outland and Northrend on an alt and did not spend much time, really, in either place. The increased experience gains and relatively easier time due to heirloom items made leveling a breeze and only required completion of three zones in Outland and four in Northrend. Any content is going to seem dated and repetitive if you just ran that content. Maybe this is the double-edged nature of the amazing leveling sword -- such compelling content engages the player so well that they speed through it, and 1-60 doesn't last as long as it should.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.
Filed under: Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 6 of 6)
Eldoron Apr 1st 2011 9:49AM
Wow why are some people so whiny, especially the second poster ( the "MId game is broken..." one)
Thomas Higgins Apr 1st 2011 10:19AM
Maybe because they are right. I don't know, kids these days etc.
Eldoron Apr 1st 2011 10:33AM
You know people can express themselves a bit better than shouting "BLIZZ FAIL ROFLMFAO THE GAME SUCKS YOU ARE DOING NOTHING"
Thomas Higgins Apr 1st 2011 10:35AM
The Typing Police called. They want to take away your Caps Lock privileges.
Val Apr 1st 2011 10:31AM
All these ideas about combining Outlamd & Northrend into an integrated zone & "updating " the storytelling to reflect the current story sounds a lot like what Blizzard would call (& rightly so) an expansion.
Thomas Higgins Apr 1st 2011 10:39AM
Well Blizzard might do, you are right there. Most players would not. Particularly after being sold the biggest bug-fix patch in recorded history dressed-up as an expansion. They would call it a rip-off instead. I would too.
And sales figures would go south so fast not even the most hardened polar explorers would be able to keep up.
Matthew W. Apr 1st 2011 11:56AM
I don't why get people are lumping Outland & Northrend together. Outland is a clunky, boring, tedious mess that you walk out of looking like a garish clown. (Which I mostly avoided by mining, leveling Archeology & doing randoms.) Northrend's quests, rewards, and overall flow are a lot closer to what we have in Cata.
Wolfwings Apr 1st 2011 11:10AM
I agree that the 1-60 and 80-85 experience is awesome (DEATHWING WAS IN THE SUN), and that Outland is simply horrible. Even when outland was new it was sorta... eh. It had some revolutions in it's time but that time is long gone and it is more then a burden. I love leveling toons but it dies miserably into the 60's cause it is just not enjoyable (not to mention outlands still seems so glitchy and broken).
Personally I really enjoyed WotlK and think those quests are fine and are holding up to cata. Are Cata's better? Yes. But Wotlk is still alot of fun- leaps and bounds over BC urrrgh. So even if they just fixed Outlands that would be great.
Wolfwings Apr 1st 2011 11:11AM
*70's. Derp.
Wolfwings Apr 1st 2011 11:12AM
No it is 60's. ARRGH *leave and eat oranges*
mrdragonfell Apr 1st 2011 1:45PM
I really don't feel that these areas are broken but I have a suggestion on how to improve these areas.
1. Get rid of any non-epic quest chains off the main story.
2. Further adjust xp and achivments so that players can complete all the zones or at least half of them in the time it takes to get from 58-70 this is is important because players are missing out on netherstorm and/or shadowmoon valley two of the most epic zones in outland.
The changes need very little effort really, but right now players can get to wrath before they even finish zangermarshe so you have half a dozen completly empty useless zones. The change to xp that was made is actually what makes it so boring!
Blizzard doesn't need to rewrite the quests just assign one guy to getting rid of 75% of the lame non-essential quests and bam people will get to go to all of the zones before they hit wrath adding some consistency to the leveling experience.
Val Apr 1st 2011 2:32PM
'To Hellfire and Back' in 13 quests. Loremasters rejoice.
Angrycelt Apr 1st 2011 2:15PM
Didn't know on the cloth, and it was the transmutes like mana to fire for the leveling up crafting (not the big fancy stuff) that I was gnashing my teeth over. But you're right, that is a big deal on the primal mights.
Angrycelt Apr 1st 2011 2:18PM
Err, mis-replied. But I still hate no Khorium transmute :(
Realmreaver Apr 2nd 2011 8:54AM
Seriously pay me like 300 bucks and I will just update the quest lines for outland and Northrend.
Examples: Outland's main objective is the fact demons still comming through gates. redo text to support that and make 'rift' like events to stem the flow of demons and everytime people defend say the main faction homes of the zones then temp close the gates is rewarded with a low end purple or blue level 70 item.
Example: Northrend. The undead still stirs but there is a mass of them and they still need to be runs to stem the tide. Apparently there is a new Litch King actually ASKING for help to keep them in line. *GASP* Events would be a Litch representing a 'Rift' is randomly placed in an obscure location people must find and defeat for a low end blue or purple item relative to your char. The litch sends out undead to attack because it's an independant thinking mob.
Dungeons and raids ignored cause you want content to blow through NOT experience again.... least not with this quick fix.
Philster043 Apr 2nd 2011 2:20PM
I think Blizzard shouldn't completely revamp the Outlands and Northrend, and in fact I think Northrend is fine as it is for the foreseeable future. The story is there in Northrend in an understandable and wonderfully engaging way if you take the time to follow it. I don't believe anything at all needs to be changed for that continent. Yes, it's now out of tune with the rest of the main story, but at the same time it can easily be imagined a side-journey to take care of some faraway villain before getting back to the main quest.
I can't say the same about the quests in the Outlands, however. While the same imagination of taking a break to battle a distant enemy can be applied to Illidan as Arthras, the quests do not shed much light on what's going on, especially the three most frequent stops, Hellfire, Zangramarsh, and Terrokar Forest, and the average player will not enjoy the Outlands. All in all, the Outlands simply seem like a place "on the way" that has nothing to offer except tedious quests with which one can level with instead of giving players an engaging story to enjoy - which I guess Blizzard is now asking its players to treat them right now, and so as storytellers, Blizzard fails here. Instead of forcing players to suffer in the Outlands, I do believe Blizzard should have provided some areas in classic WoW for 60-70s to quest as well, to give them time to update the Outlands accordingly.
What can be done about the Outlands? Not a lot has to be done. I don't see any need to change the terrain of the areas (though as mentioned before, a little more color would definitely help in some of these areas, especially Hellfire and Zangramarsh - the other areas are fine) but the questing needs to be addressed. Neither new or veteran player can really make any sense of what's going in the Outlands, and none of us particularly enjoy the first three areas anymore. It's sad that the most enjoyable areas of the continent - which I consider to be Nagrand, Blade's Edge and Netherstorm - are now virtually ghost zones, and players have either the choice of enduring the drudgery that is Hellfire Peninsula, Zangramarsh, and Terrokar Forest, or leveling quickly in dungeons. I am a questing fanatic, but even I had to dungeon queue rather than move thru these areas anymore.
NOT a lot has to be done - simply make the quests more engaging in these areas. Give the Outlands one linear but engrossing questline that a player can move through ALL the seven areas in a smooth path to the end of Shadowmoon Valley, one that fully introduces them to Illidan and the rest of the Outlands supporting characters. I'm not saying cut out the majority of the quests that are available there, not at all, but simply leave them alone as alternate quests that players can choose to do or don't do. Choice is key to a successful RPG. But I don't see a problem with providing a linear questline to enjoy and have reason to travel through all the areas on the way to Northrend instead of always having to speed through the first three areas and doing every quest in them or dungeon-crawling.
For players moving through the Outlands on this questline, Blizzard might need to nerf the involved enemies and subsections of the last four areas accordingly so that the player doesn't have to do all the other quests to be on the same level (though of course they can do that too if they want). Actually I wouldn't mind seeing the last four areas overall nerfed to level 64-66 instead of 67-70, since most players will be moving on to Northrend by level 68 anyway.
Still, I don't see doing all this as being as intimidating as having to revamp the whole of Azeroth, it would be a few modifications and yes, it WOULD take work, and good writing, but all in all, I think the Outlands would be left alone for the most part and players would still enjoy it better this way. I understand why the Outlands weren't addressed in Cataclysm as that expansion/revamp did require a ton of work already, and I can also understand why Blizzard doesn't want to go into "revamping" mode again for the next expansion. Still, Blizzard should keep a few things in mind that they could do to resolve these problems better - namely, add a few areas of similar levels to the Outlands to give the players a choice to go elsewhere. Just as Azshara is now an enjoyable alternative to the Barrens for many players at level 20, which was a brilliant move, by the way.
Well that's my two cents.
zyrcona Apr 3rd 2011 3:49PM
I like Outland. :-( Not Hellfire Peninsula (overwhelming orangeness of it all and how nearly all the mobs are named with 'fel' prefixes), but Nagrand is cool and Netherstorm is one of my favourite zones -- the way the quest chains lead you around the areas on the different islands makes questing very efficient too. I love the instances in Outland and the armour sets you can collect in the normal and HC versions.
On the other hand, I'm really tired of Northrend (with the exception of Sholazar Basin), but I think this is more because the zones lack strong visual differentiation and are rendered in such dingy colours (the landscapes, the mobs, and the armour you loot are all shades of brown and grey). I don't think that changing the quests is the answer.
What I would prefer to see is more flexibility about where we can choose to level. Blizzard nerfed the xp gain for old school areas after 60/70/80 etc. Now the rush to reach max level is over, wouldn't it make sense to return things to as they were before? This way people would have the choice to enjoy the high-level areas of the old zones and dungeons rather than being forced into the early areas of the next expansion pack.