Posts with tag level-cap

Getting to level 90 may seem like old hat this late in the expansion cycle, but I bet you all remember just when and where you first (or last) hit the level cap. For my part, after skipping out of WoW for all of Cataclysm, I decided to play all the way through each Cataclysm zone with my monk before moving on to Pandaria. The result? I hit level 90 pretty early in Valley of the Four Winds, before even getting around to doing any of Hemet Nessingwary's grind-tastic -- and experience-tastic -- quests. Though after that, I wound up jumping over the wall into the Vale in order to train flying because I'd not yet done the gate opening quests... so it's probably not a leveling experience I'll repeat.

Now that I've shared my level 90 story, how about yours? When and where did you hit level 90?

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Let's talk alts, people. How many 90s are you altaholics running these days?

I guess it's pretty interesting to poke around for big, flashy totals -- and yeah, it would be cool to recognize the player with the highest number of 90s -- but I'm really more interested in how and why you pushed all those characters to the cap in the first place. Are you chasing the whole concept of one level-capped character of each race or class? Perhaps you've been building an empire of craftspeople. Or maybe you just really, really, really like the leveling game. What drives you to level 90 again and again?



Are there any of you out there who've actually leveled an entire character select screen full of characters to level 90? If you have more than a handful of 90s, what's your motivation for level-capping so many characters?

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Blizzard community manager Zarhym is having a grand old time on Twitter this afternoon answering players' various questions about the game. One user asked if Blizzard will make any improvements to the time it takes to reach the level cap in preparation for the next expansion. The answer is ... yes!

Zarhym

We'll be decreasing the experience needed for levels 71-80 in patch 4.3. That's all I have for now. ;)

source

Whether you love Northrend or hate it, it's becoming more and more common to hear that Northrend is where alts go to die, even from some of us on staff here at WoW Insider. Leveling from 1 to 70 moves so quickly nowadays that the enormous leap in experience required to go from 71 to 80 is rather jarring. 71-80 may not have been a slog when we all first worked through it in Wrath of the Lich King, but that leap in XP required can certainly make it feel that way nowadays, especially when all you want to do is try a new class at the level cap.

Reducng the XP required to get through Northrend and smoothing out that leveling process will be appreciated by many, we're sure.

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Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Look at what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!

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This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.

If there's one thing most WoW players have in common, it's a max-level character. It may have come at 60 before The Burning Crusade came out. Or maybe it came after that, at 70, or even at 80 with Wrath of the Lich King's release. The reason I say "most" instead of "everyone" is because like all things, there are exceptions -- though how many there are, I'm not entirely sure. What I do know is that up until a few weeks ago, I was one of those exceptions.

I've been playing WoW since it launched but never had any max-level characters until last month, when I dinged 80 for the first time. I won't go into details about how that sort of thing happens, mostly because I can't spare the word count, and will simply state that it was caused by server-hopping, altoholism and six-month-plus breaks from the game.

Seeing the game evolve from a constantly lower-than-max-level character was quite the experience. I never got to see what it was like raiding in T2 gear, not to mention never even getting dungeon 1 set. Sure, I experienced some cool world events like the two Scourge invasions, but all I ever saw when the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj were opened was a server message announcing the start of the event. Going through the Dark Portal for the first time to explore Outland? That happened when I re-subbed after one of those extended breaks this past June. I was faced with the challenge of getting from 58 to 80 before the next expansion released.

Of course, it went a lot faster than I expected, and now my account has its first 80. He's more than prepared for the upcoming Cataclysm. Having finally reached the level cap, I finally get to enjoy the next expansion's high-level content from the start, and I finally get to take advantage of WoW's endgame. Holiday quests that were nigh impossible for anyone under 80, the Argent Tournament, raids, heroic dungeons, and all of the other content now available to me. The driving force behind my journey to 80 over the last couple of months was Cataclysm's impending release, and I want to ask my fellow players: What was it that drove you to hit 80, 70 or 60 for the first time?

This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com.

Your fingers ache from the constant play while sweat beads down your neck. Your eyes become unfocused, the colors and background blending together until they resemble something akin to a Monet painting. Clicking at a furious speed, you slay mob after mob, all the while watching the XP progress bar as it inches towards your final goal: the level cap. Time flies. You ask yourself, "Has it really been 13 hours? No, surely it couldn't have."

You open the drapes, staring at the stars and moon with a challenging look. Their day, too, will come. No matter. Neither man, murloc, nor the perpetual spinning of the earth about the sun will stop you this day ... er, night. Pixilated blood shoots from your prey. Their cries warm your soul, adding another notch to your symbolic belt.

Then, whether expected or not, it happens. Your character is engulfed a soothing light, and the game changes forever. You've done it. After days, weeks or months of work, you've hit the level cap. You can stare proudly at your once-lowly character and proclaim your might to all of Azeroth. You're the new tough guy on the block, and nothing can stand in your way.

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.

Today's edition of The Queue is one part off-topic and two parts on-topic, but each and every part is worth it. Trust me on that one. Oh, and there's a couple more bad words than usual. You have been warned. I hope none of you are too scandalized by it.

Windswept asked...

"There is this girl I like that works at the mall, I want to ask her out but I don't know how. What would YOU do?"

Boubouille of MMO-Champion has posted the details of the upcoming expansion, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.

Head over there and take a look. But be forewarned, there are significant spoilers in the post. So don't look if you care about such things.

After the break we'll take a look at some of the major points Boubouille has reported on.

Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan posted several new changes that are appearing in the Wrath of the Lich King Beta tonight. The highlights include:

• Level cap raised to 80.
• Less XP required for 70 to 80*
• Storm Peaks zone available, Icecrown unavailable.
• Follow dungeons available:
• Halls of Lightning
• Halls of Stone
• Caverns of Time: Stratholme
• The Occulus
• Utgarde Pinnacle
• Heroic Nexus
  

Tigole also notes that premade characters will be made available at a later date on a different server. It looks like they'll actually be doing this now. More changes and analysis of the latest Beta patch to come throughout the evening. Stay tuned.

*We did some rough calculations. Daniel's Hunter was approximately 50% of the way through level 70. His hunter is now 60% of the way through level 70. Thus, the XP required to level was reduced by approximately 20%. These are just rough estimates, and no official word on the percentage has came out yet.

Update 11:49 p.m. EDT: Zarhym has said that patch notes are still being compiled. We'll have them up as soon as Blizzard releases them.