Details on Leveling Improvements
Nethaera, a Blizzard Community Manager, posted a nice full set of details about the upcoming leveling improvements in Patch 2.3 on the WoW general forum today.
The post is pretty detailed and you should check it out if you have a chance, but here’s a quick summary:
- Levels from 20-60 will take about 15% less experience. (You won’t auto-level as soon as you log in, though — the first time you login after the change goes into effect you’ll be at the same percentage of the level you were at before. But from there on out you’ll need less XP.)
- Experience from quests is going up on average, with a larger increase as you get nearer to level 60.
- Many outdoor elite mobs are becoming non-elite so they can be solo’d. As an example, she mentioned Stromgarde Keep in the Arathi Highlands.
- They’re adding about 60 new quests to Dustwallow Marsh, and Dustwallow is getting a new neutral goblin town to boot.
- They are narrowing the range of dungeons so that the highest mobs and the lowest mobs are closer together. The goal: you should no longer enter towards the low end of the range and be unable to complete the dungeon.
- Pre-Burning Crusade boss drops are all getting upgraded to a blue (rare) quality level.
Of course, there is one big topic completely missing from this post: Are they making any adjustments to the way that pets level to compensate for the increased quest XP? I guess we’ll have to wait and see what it looks like on the PTR. I am hoping that Patch 2.2.3 goes live tomorrow and we get Patch 2.3 on the PTR this week.
Beyond that, I am pretty pleased with the rest of the changes. The dungeon changes don’t affect me much, and I’m ecstatic about new quests in Dustwallow Marsh. The only one that strikes me as a bit odd is removing the outdoor group areas (like Stromgarde Keep). I’m quite happy that I’ll be able to do those quests that I’ve never done before, and it does work well on a consistency level (dungeon = group, anything else = solo), but I do know some duo-ers whom I imagine won’t be completely satisfied with this.
Table of Contents for Series: Patch 2.3
- PTR 2.3.0 Information Here!
- WoW Forums: Egad! Drysc in the Hunter Forum!
- Details on Leveling Improvements
- Patch 2.3 News: STV Flight Point
- PTR 2.3: Later Tonight!
- PTR 2.3.0: Mini-Map Improvements
- PTR 2.3.0: Bear Mount … Pet?
- PTR 2.3.0: New Pets
- PTR 2.3.0: Other Cool Things
- PTR 2.3.0: Pet Circling
- PTR 2.3.0: Reported Issues
- PTR 2.3.0: No More Dead Zone!
- PTR 2.3.0: New Obsidian Raptor
- PTR 2.3.0: No Melee Range Change, Says Hortus
- PTR 2.3.0: PTR Updated – No More Sexy Bear
- PTR 2.3.0: The Dead Zone Saga Continues
- PTR 2.3.0: Pet Leveling
- PTR 2.3.0: Elite No More
- Petopia Updated for Patch 2.3 (then AFK)
- Rotams for Alliance
- Patch 2.3: Catching Up
- Petopia: More Patch 2.3 Updates
- Patch 2.3: Known Issues
- Petopia: Dustwallow Marsh Pets Updated
15 Comments
Then there’s the real difficult question: Do I level my alts, or sit around and wait, as it looks like 1/5 of the work will instantly be shaved off?
That depends. If the time it would take you to level your alt is 5x the time until the next patch hits or greater, then yes, it would be faster (as in, require less /played time) to wait.
If not, then you’ll level him faster by just grinding as fast as you can, both before and after the patch hits.
Of course, that ignores wanting to experience the new content at the appropriate level.
It’s good to see that Dustwallow will have some traffic again. It’s been kind of empty since Ony got obsoleted.
Pet-Tastic » Details on Leveling Improvements - October 8th, 2007 @ 5:21 pm UTC
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerptOf course, there is one big topic completely missing from this post: Are they making any adjustments to the way that pets level to compensate for the increased q uest XP?… [...]
Man oh man, I really hope they address the pet leveling issue- both leveling in general and bringing a lower level pet up to your level. I tamed Rak’shiri the other day and am trying to bring her up to 70. 57 to 60 was actually okay (thank you, Firewing Point mobs), but just getting from 60 to 61 has been an exercise in horror. On the plus side, I’m grinding for XP on clefthoofs…so I may actually hit 375 leatherworking soon.
I’m hoping we find out what happened at the shady rest inn.
I’m hoping the flattening of instances is a harbinger of flattening zones. Each of the outlands zones is specifically targeted to 2-3 level range, while old zones can span 10 levels, making ridiculous travel necessary.
Really good news though.
“but I do know some duo-ers whom I imagine won’t be completely satisfied with this” ????
Uh? Aren’t we talking about hunters?? We, hunters, CAN do elites our own level easy! Heck, my 61 hunter with a 60 boar almost managed to take down the 63 elites in HP (those that keep splitting into more mobs!), and, in fact, I believe I COULD do them with a bit more effort! I noted that the shardlings or such won’t aggro you if the big guy is already away enough, so it would be a simple kitting job to take the big one down! But I don’t like kitting, so I’ll rather wait until both me and pet are 63 and try them again in the “normal” way! Now I went to Zangarmash to get the spear! (Was almost forgetting about that when someone on my FL asked me why I wasn’t in Zangarmash yet!)
But it would be nice to have pets level MUCH sooner: between rested bonus and the overall big XP from outland quests, I was almost 62 when pet dinged 61! Like 15%~20% away or such! Usually I’m 30~50% into a level when pet dings depending on how many quests I deliver…
Being an herbalist, after doing the rep grind quest for the spear, I’ll go farm some of those beasts that herbalists can “skin” and level the boar while getting XP, loot and extra herbs! :)
BTW: And a BIG TY for keeping us updated on those changes! I would never found them if not from reading your blog!
As part of a (non-hunter) duo, I say: It was hard enough to duo while they were Elites, so I’m not that unhappy about Stormgarde. ;)
For my solo-toons, I guess it will open up a lot more content.
Now all they need to do is make the dungeons solo-able ;)
As written i would seem to make leveling multiple pets even harder. sigh.
Couldn’t they just make an aspect or something to give all your earned experience to your pet?
Thank You Kindly,
Corwyn
for Kafsha and Shaelee
Someone: *You* can take down elites your own level solo to your heart’s content. And anyone else who wants to try it out can learn to do it too, I’m sure. But I’m still happiest most of the time puttering around plinking things in a lackadaisical fashion. *grin*
Yeah, I was actually thinking about this issue on my way to campus today.
I know that when I went there with my Druid, who was balance spec at the time, I was 1 level lower than the elites there and they not only resisted my magic, they whooped my a$$.
Someone – If you are a hunter and you can beat elites on your own, I’d expect it. Try it with a priest, druid, warrior or shaman and let me know how you do. Hunters often forget that they have a built-in tank with their pets. – When I duel my 70 MM Hunter friend with my 70 Feral Druid, I beat him every time he does not have his pet out, and he gets me almost every time when he does.
Are there going to be any changes soon to the pet types?? Some of the pets are still under used because they only have one type of attack and not even a special (exmpl. windserpent- light’ breath). There are some nice looking pets out there that just dont get used for this reason, like thise for exmpl. Spiders, hyenas, and raptors just got dash for gods sake.
Larry: I haven’t seen anything yet, but they might patch something in — I expect this patch to be on the Public Test Realms for some time yet.
I am a little annoyed that we can tame some things but not others. Owls but not eagles, spiders but not sandworms, scorpids but not wasps, raptors but not pteradons.
I’m not asking to beable to tame Wendigos or Devilsaurs…that’s absolutely retarded. I can understand why those things aren’t able to be tamed (too big or too smart). But when you have one creature so similar in size and species to another and yet unable to be tamed without any real reason….that’s just ignorant.
Clearly they aren’t afraid to allow a pet to be tamed if it has no special abilities…hello crab, crocolisk, and hyena. So that can’t possibly be a reason.
They FINALLY gave us back that cobra model from ZF in Shadowmoon Valley – thus eliminating my question “Why can we only tame -flying- snakes but not regular ones?”
WTB more pets. I’m sure Blizzard doesn’t like us all having a cat or a ravager. Wanting to add “pet diversity” was the reason they normalized all the damage of pets in the first place wasn’t it? It seems that’s not the case afterall.
i am not so sure the way they have made everything so easy will suit everyone , for example in the n.e. area there was oakenscowl by the lake , those that came up against him will remember how hard it was to grind his health down but not impossible to solo with care and now he is just a normal level 9 mob , to me that is a shame as i enjoy a little struggle now and then
there are a few mobs in different areas i would love to see non elite though like that flying elite in swamp of sorrows ,, was ganked a few times by that beast
or in un’goro darn elite there that killed me a few times
my favourite hated elite of course is the fel reaver in hellfire , i have lost count of how many times i have been fighting a mob and it stamped on me
i do very little group quests or i do them solo at a higher level as i find so many players worse than i am and getting killed all the time is not fun to me but i do like a challenge while i am questing , but from what i have seen at low level some of the fun has been taken away
as for pets i agree we need a few more different ones or at least some casters made non casters ? , or some untameable mobs being made tameable ? but more than anything i want just 1 more stable slot and at high level at least a faster pet levelling or at least the pet being able to use the higher growl so its not all melee while they catch up with us and anyway the truth is in the high level group instances it makes little real difference what pet we use , they get hit by several mobs =they die fast even the turtle dies from what i have seen
but the real truth is any new pet will be tamed by many as i guess we all like to be a little different , the exceptions will always be the ones deep in instances , but most of those have the same skins as their less elite kin , so to me not even worth going for . i have had several of the rare spawned pets like the white gorilla froom un’goro tried him and found him annoying with all the scratching he did , and i still have my ghost saber but i have even seen a group of horde hunters all with ghost sabers , so any different pets will soon become common with hunters
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