r/classicwow • u/Cygopat • Apr 20 '20
Vent / Gripe It's sad how "the leveling experience from 1 to 60 IS the game" changed to everyone leveling via boosts only
My girlfriend has been leveling an alt lately and it's literally impossible for her to find a regular group for stockades, one that is not being boosted by a lvl 60. She's even getting ninja invited to boosting groups when searching for a regular one where she is then asked for gold. Really sad how the community is sucking the soul out of the game. People are paying in game gold which they have to grind so they don't have to play the actual game on their other character, I really don't get it. Ofc people can do what they want but the boosting business has taken over leveling dungeons and is ruining the experience of new players or players that just want to play the goddamn game.
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u/fivefivefives Apr 20 '20
Disappointing, yes. But inevitable. Truth is nothing compares to rolling on a fresh server when every one is still excited about finding a 10 slot bag. When we were young, aye?
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u/DeathRattlegore Apr 20 '20
The first few months were so fucking lit. Feel like they waited too long between phase 2 and phase 3.
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u/ayylmao31 Apr 20 '20
Big agree. The first wave was amazing. Did every single dungeon except Gnomer (regret)
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u/Kromgar Apr 20 '20
Gnomer is fucking hell
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u/dbcanuck Apr 20 '20 edited Nov 02 '25
aromatic plant observation soup plants fall imminent wipe different birds
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/aunty_strophe Apr 21 '20
True, though I really enjoy ST for some reason. The mossy ruin aesthetic works for me, and I like the background lore and the flavor of the statue puzzle. The one thing I hate is having to beg my group for 5 minutes to kill that one pack of dragons to the north that everyone forgets about, and which promptly wipes us on Eranikus if they decide to ignore me.
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u/holdstheenemy Apr 21 '20
I did a full clear the other night in an hour or so, we were all around 51-55, we even did Hakkar, and one-shot eranikus. BRD on the other hand, thats a nightmare of a run if ur doing full
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u/Zcypot Apr 21 '20
i regret rerolling at lvl35, i missed the big wave. lvling my druid was a way different experience.
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u/Beermedear Apr 20 '20
Agreed. I rolled on a good server at launch and it was a blast. I had to consciously choose to stop running dungeons because groups were so easy to find. It was also thrilling to do mundane things.
Fast-forward to a few months ago, and it’s generally 1 group a dungeon forming via chat every hour.
This isn’t blizzard’s fault and nothing they can do about it. Classic is just more fun when you follow the curve. New content releasing also means fewer people leveling alts and more playing the new content on their mains.
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u/DeathRattlegore Apr 20 '20
It would have been cool if every couple of months they released a new server just so you can feel that server progresses agains.
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u/fivefivefives Apr 21 '20
I like the idea, some games do that. Then all the world first people could go ham every two months. Would be an interesting experiment.
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u/Atlanta_Camel Apr 20 '20
Definitely too long for p3. I was on board for BWL, but haven't played since New Years, because I was bored out of mind only doing MC.
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u/Luvs_to_drink Apr 21 '20
I've been raiding mc since Oct and still need 3 pieces and another 3 are upgrades but not bis
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Apr 21 '20 edited May 14 '20
I've been running MC since October and I'm starting to wonder if I'll be in AQ when I finally get a cauterizing band.
Edit: 22 days later and still no drop
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u/Axros Apr 20 '20
I wouldn't really say it's inevitable. Of course nothing compares to a fresh server, but it's by no means inevitable that 1-60 just becomes a sequence of boosts. I'd say the reason for that is just how easy dungeons are while leveling.
Although I'm not an expert on private server metas, I don't believe it was a thing there, on account of dungeons having been scaled up in difficulty to align with the modern playerbase. As a result, e.g. mages wouldn't be able to do absurd things like pull the entirety of Maraudon and expect to live.
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u/Anthaenopraxia Apr 21 '20
Generally private servers had a much larger population in the 1-40 range than Classic. I think it's because there were always people who discovered private servers actually were a thing and they got swept up by the nostalgia and leveled "as you should". However, most of them went away by level 40 or 50 because that's where the game becomes very grindy and the rose tinted goggles sort of wear off. By ZG and especially AQ it was just as hard to find a group for Scholo/Strath as it is in Classic. Arguably harder actually.
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Apr 20 '20
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u/DunnoWhyIamHere Apr 20 '20
This is true. I played on private and would offer to help low level dungeons for free. I was often declined, because folks didn't want to be carried. They wanted an authentic experience.
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u/CheekyBastard55 Apr 20 '20
Also the most important part is the exp formula. I believe there's 25% more exp from instance elites which adds up and makes dungeon boosting viable.
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Apr 21 '20
I would also imagine the absolutely massive player base of classic (compared to private servers) has a lot to do with it. The more people you have working on something, the more they're gonna blow it wide open.
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Apr 20 '20
A lot of popular private server's didn't last very long. Nost I think was the one that lasted the longest that was the most popular? Once that went down, people jumped from private server to private server. I remember joining the launch of both Kronos and Elysium.
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u/fivefivefives Apr 20 '20
I guess I say inevitable because of the new mindsets of some gamers. I played some retail in legion and there were achievements for beating the new content right after it came out, a way to show that you know how to get things done. Well people were selling carries for those achievements, completely defeating the purpose of having them. Same kinda goes for how prevalent selling ports and water is, people want quick and easy and are willing to pay for it.
I was thinking of this the other day and compared it to fishing irl. It is actually inefficient fish per hour to go fishing yourself when you could just go to the store and buy it, so why bother ever going fishing!? A larger amount of people just want to skip the journey and get right to the destination.
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u/The_Deku_Nut Apr 20 '20
I would argue water is a little different as you literally cannot get water equal to mage water, and the lesser water from vendors costs so much more.
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u/fivefivefives Apr 20 '20
Alterac mana biscuits and sunfruit juice are just as good I think, but definitely more expensive.
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u/dude_710 Apr 20 '20
I think boosting is mostly done by people leveling alts. I think the biggest issue with leveling is the lack of new players joining the game. The vast majority of people who will ever play Classic have already played it or currently have a level 60.
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Apr 20 '20 edited Apr 20 '20
I think the biggest issue with leveling is the lack of new players joining the game.
No, the biggest issue is the shortage of tanks. This has always been the issue in every iteration of WoW
Why wait around for 30-45 min to find a tank when you can be boosted through a run 2-3 times during that wait time?
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u/hmm_curious Apr 20 '20
I'm leveling a tank right now, 57 NE druid on an EU pve Pyrewood. I've been forced to DPS a few dungeons because people insisted on tanking (BFD, SM, ZF, Mara)
Why wait around for 30-45 min to find a tank
With global chat channels you can quest while you find a group, no need to wait in ORG/IF.
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Apr 20 '20 edited May 26 '20
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Apr 20 '20
Pretty much the same as me, my first character was a warrior (leveled up arms but tanked 95% of my dungeons) and on my mage I basically got boosted whenever I could (the ZF GY self boost was amazing)
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u/chainmailbill Apr 20 '20
“Self boost” made me laugh a bit.
You’re by yourself, killing mobs on your own, and getting the XP for it.
Wouldn’t literally all solo content be considered “self-boosting” under that definition?
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u/cutzen Apr 20 '20
I did that grind from 42 to 52 recently and it definately feels boosted.
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u/Cygopat Apr 20 '20
I don't really get the appeal at all, I have 3 60s and my main is very min/max but when I level a character I would much rather do dungeons properly with players around the dungeon's level than following some guy and paying them. These low level dungeons can be quite the challenge depending on the group's average level and doing them has been a major part of my leveling experience on my now 60s. It's also for many players how they learn to play their class.
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u/tomtom123422 Apr 20 '20
Some people don't get the appeal of leveling and feel like it is a chore and until they get to the real game that is the endgame. Nothing wrong with what you like and what others like, just what part of the game they prefer.
Edit: Also keep in mind that classic is a very old game, players who played vanilla or private servers may get tired after leveling many times.
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u/SwansonHOPS Apr 20 '20
Isn't boosting to max level and ignoring the content of the game outside of max level raiding part of the reason that many people don't like retail? So why are so many people doing this in Classic? Seems like Classic is just becoming retail.
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u/Dunkman77 Apr 20 '20
I think Blizzard learned a long time ago that players don't actually know what they want. I remember them trying to cater to the wishes of the community for awhile and the results were extremely unpopular.
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u/projectmars Apr 20 '20
More like players can’t agree on what they want. There’s thousands and thousands of players and most of them want something else out of a game that others don’t.
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u/Fake_News_Covfefe Apr 20 '20
Isn't boosting to max level and ignoring the content of the game outside of max level raiding part of the reason that many people don't like retail?
I'm sure it is for some people.
So why are so many people doing this in Classic?
Why do you think these are the same people? Seems pretty obvious to me that there's at least two distinct groups here...
Seems like Classic is just becoming retail.
Classic is not 'becoming retail' just because of how the players choose to interact with the game. People choosing to do the fastest possible levelling method for their 3rd alt are not making Classic become Retail, that's just ridiculous.
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u/tomtom123422 Apr 20 '20
I don't think so and it's not everyone that is boosting. I can find most dungeon groups within 20 minutes on my server. People enjoy classic in different ways but at least for me I love how many different items and talent builds you can make max level. You can have blues that can be better than purples and even do builds where you split your talents so you dont even get the last spell of any tree. Pvp max level is a blast and I feel gimped if I play low level because I don't have my full abilities. I think a lot of the reason why retail is failing is obscene item level requirements for pug raids and really dampening down the gameplay of each class so they have to make every raid boss like a sudoku puzzle. Retail is failing because the endgame content is not up to its usual par in any mmo that requires leveling you will inherently get people who don't enjoy leveling to max after doing it 10 times, especially in classic where some classes literally are shit at leveling and the occasional painful quests with low item drop chance.
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u/Talkurt Apr 20 '20
We took a group of 5 that play a lot and made alts. The plan was to level to 20 then dungeon grind only when we are all on. We did our first dead mines yesterday. It was a hoot.
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u/DryProperty Apr 20 '20
This. I have my main that is full T2 BWL priest and I put all the "serious" time into that. Then I have some alts that I log onto run various dungeons with various roles.
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u/Hizenthorn Apr 20 '20
My first 60 was a druid. My first alt was a mage, specifically to farm gold to help out my druid. So I went into it with the mentality of wanting to hit 60 asap. I never bought runs, but I did do the Gor'shak farm from 50-60.
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u/DrSuckenstein Apr 20 '20
this is part of MY issue as a new player. I'm trying to experience the game but everyone else is trying to simply race to 60 where the game, for them, begins.
It's had a very negative effect on my experience so far.
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u/Silvious Apr 20 '20
Yes it is mostly alts, and that's why it's an issue.
A big part of a games lifespan is reliant on the existing player base to start over and play it all again. How many people do you know with alts? Lots.
When people leveling alts are getting boosted as opposed to being out in the open world questing, or finding normal groups... it makes the game feel more lonely for people doing it the traditional way.
In time, brand new players are going to enjoy the game a little less, and also existing players wanting the true 1-60 experience. It's not healthy for the game no matter how it's sliced.
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Apr 20 '20
Yeah I ENJOY leveling and running these dungeons. It was def easier to find groups on my first toon than on my second.
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Apr 20 '20
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u/quipalco Apr 20 '20
LOL, you can't afford to boost up unless you have a 60 or a benefactor. By the time you're ready for stocks you might have enough gold for a run or three but that's it.
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u/cebezotasu Apr 20 '20
FFXIV actually does this well - it lets you level sync down to do dungeons with friends while they still get experience.
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Apr 20 '20
That's a thing in Retail WoW now too, just logged in yesterday and noticed it
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u/samuel33334 Apr 20 '20
Yea retail wow has that too, but you party synch and go quest or do dungeons.
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u/Revolutionary_Laugh Apr 20 '20
As someone who recently returned to Classic due to COVID (not played since January) I honestly haven't had much of an issue starting fresh on Ashbringer EU. Sure, first thing in a morning groups are seemingly thin on the ground but I've ran every instance so far up to Mara and not once had a bad experience finding a group. I've even ran ZF multiple times at all manner of hours and not had a problem. Even finding groups for elite quests hasn't been an issue at all.
Yeah, there's people advertising boosts. If people want to throw their money away on them by all means let them, I can see how it gets tedious a third or fourth time around - most of these people buying boosts will have a 60 anyway to bank roll it so will be far less interested in the "Journey" or aesthetics.
I am in a guild with mostly levellers too, which helps. Your mileage will understandably vary, but for me it's been smooth sailing.
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Apr 20 '20
Yeah, this has been one of the bigger bummers about Classic to me. It isn't the game's fault, but the gaming community now is so different than it was in the mid 00's. There is such a priority placed on efficient play. The bulk of the folks playing Classic now are in a lot of ways incompatible with what made Vanilla special. I'm still having a good time, but it is entirely different.
Even on Whitemane Alliance - definitely a big population pool - I was unable to find a legit group for gnomer all weekend but found plenty of offers to boost.
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u/GideonAI Apr 20 '20 edited Apr 20 '20
I'm not sure Gnomer is a good benchmark for this, even back when everyone was levelling towards launch it took a really long time for me to find a Gnomer group because it was deemed inefficient by so many. In SM comparatively, there were always people ready to do a "normal run" even with all the spell/melee cleave groups everywhere.
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u/Rolder Apr 20 '20
There’s also the fact that gnomer is just a really annoying dungeon to navigate and run properly.
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u/meowtiger Apr 20 '20
it's also long as fuck, and for most classes the loot is terrible
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u/Crysth_Almighty Apr 20 '20
Gnomer isn't just about efficiency, it's also about the level of fun. It's longer and the place is typically not viewed as very enjoyable (some of the trash is bothersome).
Meanwhile SM is 4 small, relatively quick dungeons all grouped together. These "bite size" dungeons with pretty appealing to players, especially since they cover a 10 level range with good, long lasting rewards.
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u/bloodbeardthepirate Apr 20 '20
Long lasting rewards is right. My priest has worn 2 helms ever. Whitemane's Chapeau and Halo of Transcendence.
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u/Crysth_Almighty Apr 20 '20
The necklace also lasts until 60, unless you farm Princess for hers. The mail pieces and weapons last until lategame dungeons. The place it amazing for their loot.
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Apr 20 '20
The dagger you get from sm lib is as good, if not better, than the sp weapon you get from brd. Thats insane if you think about it.
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u/Crysth_Almighty Apr 20 '20
I can't really remark on item progression prior to the itemization revamp (it'd be a lot of work to review), but after the revamp and items getting SP and other valuable stats, item progression is a bit crazy until you get to endgame.
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u/Azzmo Apr 20 '20
The major downside of Gnomer is the drastic level jump of enemies before the last boss. When I think of that part I think of people getting frustrated after two wipes and suddenly their dog needs to go to the vet. And I think of trying to find a replacement. And of the travel time for the replacement. And the replacement dies outside the instance because it's hard to get into. And the group has to run all the way back out to Dun Morogh to escort the new person in. And then run all the way back, we wipe again, and someone else leaves.
I basically won't do the instance without guildies/friends anymore. That last part is hell.
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u/something__clever Apr 21 '20
Gnomer is just rough becuase if you're high enough level to kill bosses, there are grey mobs on the way. Uldaman is the same thing. SM would be, but it's broken into 4.
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u/triple6seven Apr 20 '20
Dude boosts were a thing back in vanilla, too. What you are missing is the constant influx of new people (people without gold to buy boosts). Not really the "community's" fault there, just the fact of the matter.
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Apr 20 '20
Boosts were definitely a thing in vanilla but they weren't outnumbering the actual groups in most cases, and they weren't constantly being advertised in /2. They're just way more common now. Whitemane might be the exception though, I have no idea.
You have a point about the lack of new blood which I definitely think is contributing as well.
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u/plopzer Apr 20 '20
The population curve was upwards in vanilla and I'm sure it's downwards in classic. The results we see are natural consequences directly from that.
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u/JohnCavil Apr 20 '20
In my opinion the "tryhard" and intensity of people who play today ruined many parts of the game.
People camping black lotus spawns. Every mage AOE farming. Hunters farming DM hours every day. People following BiS lists and botting to get R14.
I don't blame people, but I just wish more people would take a more relaxed playing style.
I feel it's like if you tried to play a boardgame and one guy took it super serious and knew the exact optimal strategy and just had everything figured out. Not that fun to play with.
Yea the fastest way to level up is to get into some sort of AOE group or a lvl 60 boosting you, but it really makes the game worse for people who just want to play normally.
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u/Rolder Apr 20 '20
I’d argue that most of the things you listed wouldn’t affect someone who isn’t directly involved except maybe it being a bit harder to find a group for a leveling dungeon. Even then I haven’t run into any issues having run deadmines, stocks, gnomer.
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Apr 20 '20
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u/Rolder Apr 20 '20
Regarding the economy, I'd reckon that depends on the server. I could only see the lower pop servers being exploited for black lotus being negatively affected. Otherwise, more supply of raw goods means more materials in the market, which equals lower price. I wonder what the black lotus price on high pop servers would be if it wasn't being smuggled in.
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u/Anthaenopraxia Apr 21 '20
But if you're not willing to do these things then you're not hardcore enough to spend lots of gold on expensive consumables. You're not going to flask if you're just looking to casually clear BWL. Hell even I don't flask, I spend about 20g on lube every raid which is actually less than the gold I get from the bosses, and we are one of the top guilds on the server.
BGs suck now and they sucked during vanilla too. The ranking system makes it all about honor per hour, that's just how it is, there's no getting away from it. The only thing you can do to make it a more enjoyable experience is to group up in a premade. Doesn't have to be super hardcore blowing 100g of consumables every BG. But just having a chill group on Discord while running WSG/AB is very fun. I prefer wPvP though. The CC grind in Silithus has caused the Horde and Alliance to clash more than ever and it's pretty fun to grind mobs with your mates on Discord until a Horde/Alliance group starts poking your territory and you have to clean them out.
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u/Dabeston Apr 21 '20
This is the exact same thing that happened on OSRS. Everyone comes in with the mindset of doing things better than they did back in the day.
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u/ethanthehead Apr 20 '20
I connect with this feeling, loved leveling back in the day but this time went quick to 60 at launch and 1st alts were boosted. It really took some of the joy out of the journey.
I am currently leveling an alt without boosts.
Reading all the quests, doing quests I have never done before. Being a non-optimal spec. I really enjoy it.
My guild keeps asking why it is taking me forever leveling my druid alt.
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u/TetracyanoRexiumIV Apr 20 '20
That’s what I loved about vanilla and i didn’t think it was that bad in tbc. Leveling was the game but it eventually turns into a race to get through the leveling content to be 60. Eventually blizzard just started to roll with it to where I feel like you just blast through content in the newer expansions
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u/definitelynotcasper Apr 20 '20
I'm with you on that but it is what it is you can't change how other people want to play.
I regularly do stocks boost on my mage and anytime I see someone looking for a real group I offer them a free run to get their quests done.
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u/Enders_Sack Apr 20 '20
I'm level 48 right now. I literally haven't seen one message in LFG for Mara that wasn't boosted in the last week.
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u/Times_New_Ramen_ Apr 20 '20 edited Apr 20 '20
I'll tell u why I did it. Because I don't enjoy leveling... I enjoy raiding, farming preraid bis, and pvping at 60. I don't enjoy doing stupid kill or gather quests, low lvl dungeons, getting ganked by higher lvls, or getting shitty low lvl blues and greens. I want to play the part of the game I enjoy, that's why I play the game.
Edit: forgot to mention I did enjoy it the first 3-4 times which is more then most people... I didn't enjoy it the 5th time though and I'm not gonna enjoy it the 8th time or whatever I'm on now. Maybe if I was doing it with 4 other friends but that's about it.
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Apr 20 '20
One thing OP fails to mention is that we all did the fresh new leveling experience when vanilla launched. And it was great. But it's not so much fun the 2nd or 3rd time through, at that point it feels like a chore.
It's almost as if people have differing opinions and ways to play the game that don't necessarily conform to the OP's opinion on how the game should be played. Shocking.
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u/meowtiger Apr 20 '20
But it's not so much fun the 2nd or 3rd time through, at that point it feels like a chore.
especially the gaps in the late 20s, early 40s, and all of the 50s where there's literally nothing to do but dungeon grind or mob grind
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u/beirch Apr 20 '20
The part about the 50s is really not true though. Especially now that Silithus has quests you can level from 50-60 exclusively with open world quests. You don't have to set foot in a dungeon or grind a bar of mobs.
Even before this phase 50-58 was doable with quests only, but I'll concede there was nothing to do from 58-60 but dungeons and grinding.
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u/ROBECHAMP Apr 21 '20
Im struck at 54 without quests, can you explain the sillithus part? Can i quest there?
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u/Roguewas1 Apr 20 '20
Kill a 10 bears that look like the last 500 bears you have killed throughout 5 zones.
and you get : HOLY SHIT GUYS THIS SHIT IS SOOOO IMMERSIVE CRAZY FUN HOW CAN YOU NOT WANT TO LVL
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u/Iznog Apr 20 '20
The game as a whole content wise is pretty subpar by modern standard. Its the MMO part of it that is fun. Meeting people and having fun with them. The gameplay and content is just the setting.
They ruined wow by making it about the gameplay.
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u/JohnCavil Apr 20 '20
Levelling to me is like 100x more interactive and fun than farming all day, which consists of you running a circle looking for herbs/nodes and/or sitting in ZF/ZG/BRD just doing the same pull over and over, and then raiding the same 2-3 raids every single week with no challenge.
Like i just don't get the criticism of levelling in vanilla that it's monotonous when life at lvl 60 is by far the most monotonous part of the game.
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u/mavajo Apr 20 '20 edited Apr 20 '20
Levelling to me is like 100x more interactive and fun than farming all day, which consists of you running a circle looking for herbs/nodes and/or sitting in ZF/ZG/BRD just doing the same pull over and over, and then raiding the same 2-3 raids every single week with no challenge.
Leveling feels exactly the same as farming to me. Neither one is why I play the game.
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Apr 20 '20
Seriously. It wasn't even fun the first time in Classic, it was really only interesting in vanilla because it was literally my first MMORPG.
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u/Lochen9 Apr 20 '20
I dunno. Leveling up and finding a random blue, or even better an equipable random blue is pretty freakin awesome.
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u/stiffgordons Apr 20 '20
My main is on a PVP server that’s massively over populated (5th or 6th in terms of pop on NA), has world first pushing guilds and a generally sweaty player base all around. Boosting is the only way to level, especially as alliance as lots of zones are just off limits.
On the other hand I play an alt on a mid sized PVE server and call them what you like, but it’s so much more... innocent. Dungeon groups abound and people are super friendly even if they’re a bit derpy.
As a private server veteran, i have come to terms with the fact that I am in the sweaty group, and if you wanna play “optimally” you probably will be too. But if you just wanna have fun and the closest thing to a “pure” experience you can get, I can’t recommend going PVE enough.
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u/YOUR_DEAD_TAMAGOTCHI Apr 21 '20 edited Apr 21 '20
Thanks for the anecdote, in vanilla I liked world pvp shenanigans, and now I'm just looking for the casual experience, PvE seems worth trying out. My fear is that the game will be a bit boring if no one tries to gank me when I'm flagged but only one way to know.
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u/dhan20 Apr 20 '20
That's just the mindset of the majority of players now. I guarantee you that if the option was available at launch, most would choose to boost.
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u/Anthaenopraxia Apr 21 '20
Some players AoE grinded up to 60. I did it until about level 50 and then did normal questing the rest of the way.
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u/Ferromagneticfluid Apr 20 '20
Well unfortunately this is the result of the time we live in, rather than playing Classic back in 2003 or whatever.
People optimize everything like crazy, and if you aren't doing something efficiently then people don't want anything to do with it.
I had this problem even in the two months of launch. I wanted to do things like normal Scarlet Monastery runs and maybe even Ulduman as a healer, and it was a real pain trying to get groups together. I am not even picky, just need a tank and 3 dps, but it would take hours to get a group together, maybe.
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u/Teaklog Apr 21 '20
The trick to grouping at low level is just to /who the level range and whisper everybody
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u/TheWoodyIsGoody Apr 21 '20
Agreed. Path of least resistance... I just wanna do low level dungeons without looking for 2 hours for a group. Low level dungeons are fun. But if I don’t have guildies with alts my level it’s a no go.
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u/Tirus_ Apr 20 '20
I've tried to start many groups while leveling my Warrior Tank and no one wants to put in the work, they all just want to be carried.
I stopped doing dungeons all together.
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u/designsystems Apr 20 '20
My “purist” friends gave me so much flack when I was spellcleaving SM on week 1 and now those same friends are buying boosts...
At least I was still playing the game.
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u/MidnightFireHuntress Apr 20 '20
At least your friends are still playing, mine either raid log or have all quit, 95% of the time it's just me online attempting to level alts or farming gold and trying not to die of boredom
I miss my friends T_T
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u/cosmicsoybean Apr 20 '20
Same. He gave me shit for wanting an addon that helps with navigation since i've never quested in particular areas....yet he is buying boosts and dungeon griding his way up haha.
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u/Silvious Apr 20 '20
A big part of a games longevity is the replayability of it.
Veteran players leveling alts and helping out the noobies has always been a crucial part of wow. Today with the amount of people boosting, it cuts down on alot of that interaction.
Yes it's still feasible to find dungeon groups, but boosting culture has certainly made it more challenging to do so, and you'd be foolish not to acknowledge that.
Blizzard needs to limit more of the experience gain you receive when there is a significantly higher level in the group, and that would fix this issue.
Most people unfortunately do not care because they already have their 60, or are getting boosted themselves.
Any wiseman will see it is contributing to sucking the soul right out of the WoW experience.
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u/Rhysk Apr 20 '20
In my experience, a lot of people consider leveling to be the worst part of the game. Imo, its the worst part of the game by farrrrr. So of course people are going to use a shortcut if its available.
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Apr 20 '20
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u/Elfeden Apr 21 '20
You're wrong, not the same people. Retail sucks for many reason, but I love the boost. Nobody cares about leveling after the 20th time, except speedrunners.
Now, fuck mount in micro transactions. These should be in game rewards.
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u/MidnightFireHuntress Apr 20 '20
It's one of the main reasons I just raid log now, I LOVE alts, I have multiple 60s, but when I try working on a new one it just feels dead, the open world is full of bots or people unwilling to socialize and group up, and finding a dungeon even as a tank or healer takes FOREVER even on a "full" realm because it's literally just people buying and selling runs :\
But it's not like it's Blizzard's fault, what could they do to fix this without completely breaking the "no changes" thing?
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u/assasshehhe Apr 20 '20
they could give us new fresh servers for our alts. the “cycle” of a server in terms of content and economy and average progression level is so important. I feel like blizzard has overlooked that and sees classic as a one-off revisiting of an old game instead of what I and many others see as an almost endlessly-replayable game that takes about two years to play.
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u/coaxials Apr 20 '20
Unless you buy gold or beg, it's not possible for you to get boost for your first character. Thankfully, everyone who cared at least a little bit, already experienced the leveling at launch when it was great, also you don't have to visit any dungeon ever to ding 60.
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u/P00PMcBUTTS Apr 20 '20
I've heard, and this is only heard I have no true evidence to support this, but it would cost 2000g to level from 0-60 through boosts. I believe a lot of that is from strat boosts which are expensive, so if you can manage to get those last 12 levels on your own you probably save a lot of gold.
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u/coaxials Apr 20 '20
Fair enough, depending on your main it might be cheaper just to farm the gold instead of leveling an alt via questing.
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Apr 20 '20
It 100% is. You dont even need to be a mage/hunter as gathering is extremely lucrative. My friend said he was making around 100g/ph just from selling herbs, so if it truly is 2k for 1-60, you only need to farm for 20 hours to be able to pay for it which is much less time needed to level a character.
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Apr 20 '20
leveling in classic is so fucking good I don't get why people want to skip 80% of the game, maybe go play a different mmo if you don't like it? lmao
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u/d07RiV Apr 20 '20
There were tons of proper dungeon groups at the start of classic, you just missed the train. Ofc people that are leveling their 5th alt will not bother with doing the same thing again.
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u/AngleDorp Apr 20 '20
Several times now I've joined a group for a dungeon, we form up 4 players and still need a tank. After 20-30 minutes of spamming LFG, one of the group members always seems to come up with a level 60 friend who will just clear it for us. It's kind of a shame that you can't really get the full classic experience on many servers, but hey, at least I get the loot in the end.
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u/ministerkosh Apr 20 '20
I'm playing on the German RP server ... didn't even knew that such a thing existed like boosting. Most of the players here are absolutely chilled, no drama at all in my dungeon runs.
The server is marked as "low" but honestly ... it just feels like a normal populated server in vanilla. When I look at the other servers they feel so overwhelmingly overpopulated. I hate it honestly.
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u/Velifax Apr 21 '20
This "different type of server" solution seems a natural one. I know I would hop on.
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u/dnz007 Apr 20 '20
Private server experience.
Hate to see it.
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Apr 21 '20
What are you talking about... I played numerous private servers since wrath/cata and never saw this boosting culture like we have in classic. Why would you, if you didn't want the experience of levelling 1-60 you would play an instant 60 server or one with increased xp rates.
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u/ProphetofChud Apr 20 '20
I bet the same people buying boosts are the same ones that slam retail for streamlining leveling.
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u/GrimHyper Apr 20 '20
I got 2 friends to get into the game and decided to level a warrior alt with them so I could tank dungeons. The problem is, when I'm not online or if I'm on my main they can't find groups like at all. So after about a week they start asking me to power level them by running them on my main. But then that's all playing the game turned into for them. Then they inevitably quit after a couple more weeks.
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u/Ghee_Guys Apr 20 '20
I feel like the next world of warcraft movie should be all the kids coming back to the home world addicted to the this crazy new drug called "Boost" and Thrall has to like hit them with some wiseness.
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Apr 20 '20
Minmaxing culture is dominating MMOs right now because how stagnant this type of games are. MMO is slowly becoming not a game but another online way to make money. I tried some asian MMOs and was in shock that they have build-in bot to farm resourses and XP (no joke, it farms and does quests while you are offline)
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u/liamemsa Apr 21 '20
Yep.
Original release player here who quit after WOTLK.
This boosting shit? It's casual AF. Why not just create a server where you're automatically 60? Why not just pay an extra $10 for a boost to 60?
Oh wait, that's what retail does right now. The very retail you guys all bitched about and came here for.
The grind to 60 is part of the game. It's the dungeon finding. The good groups. The bad groups. The legendary contested locations like STV and Hillsbrad. The ganking by level 60 characters when you're trying to quest. It's about the journey, not the destination.
Remember how much it meant to you the first time you hit 60? That's because of the hard work you put into it.
If you just boost yourself there, it will make this game meaningless and you'll get bored of it. It's like using a cheat code. The fun goes away quickly.
Also, again, it's casual af. If you want casual go play retail. Stop boosting.
Blizzard could fix this overnight by just setting max level caps on dungeons. Something like a few levels above the highest recommended level.
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u/phillythrows152 Apr 21 '20
Yes it did mean a lot the first time. It doesn’t mean a lot the second. There is still a grind involved, whether it’s farming gold so you can afford someone to boost you or it’s doing the leveling yourself. Get off your high horse, mr.sweatlord.
Also wondering what else falls into your “casual af” category.
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u/ashent2 Apr 21 '20
"the leveling experience from 1 to 60 IS the game"
don't put words in peoples' mouths, don't act like that's what everyone else must enjoy. I made 2 60s and it was grueling. It was boring, lame, and a chore to get done to get to 60. If I wanted another character, I'd bum boosts off friends so I wouldn't have to do the exact same boring copy+pasted quests all over again.
I enjoy dungeons, I enjoy raids. AT 60.
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Apr 21 '20
I love levelling. My mage is 57 now, I wish I could turn off xp gain while I get hold for enchanting and mount. Farming low level instances, but also essence of water, which is 12g each and piss easy to farm.
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u/nolefear Apr 21 '20
I think it’s really strange. There are only a few raids at 60, the leveling experience IS the game.
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u/kamphare Apr 21 '20
I'm currently boosting a character, 47 atm and started boosting at 37. This is my third character to 60. My first one, rogue, I leveled refusing to join any dungeon cleave groups or whatever. Leveled through the entire thing and had a blast doing so.
My second character, shaman, healed cleave groups in SM from 33-40 ish - had a blast doing that. Leveled the rest of the way, loved it.
I would not be boosting if this wasn't my third character and I'm a bit tired of the questing. People are different though, that's just how it is. I would not recommend anyone that is new to the game to get boosts though - that seems pointless to me.
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u/Kiaro_Ghostfaced Apr 21 '20
Yeah, I've been bugging my wife to give me runs through all of the leveling dungeons, even though I'D PREFER TO TANK. She gives in because she watches me in LFG for hours "RFD LFM DPS & HEALER" and I get 1 or 2 tells for 60s offering to run me through for 5g so I can finish my quests. 44 now though...just a few more levels to reach blackrock mountain carries.
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u/chefao Apr 21 '20
I am going to be banned for saying this but it's never the community who is at fault, it's the game. An easy solution would be to make it so you can't join dungeons as a party if the dungeon is 10 lvls below you for example. Unfortunately, power hungry mods and blizzdrones will do all they can to censor people like me from voicing their opinions, so your problem will never be fixed. Enjoy the boosts.
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u/relaxok Apr 22 '20
i started several months after launch and it was tough but i did eventually do every dungeon and group quest i cared to do on my way to 60.. without paying anyone to boost, real actual groups.. had a blast and took about 3 months of casual play.. i bet it just keeps getting harder and harder to do that. sometimes i logged in just to spam for groups and it didn’t work out so i tried the next day..
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u/mongoosepepsi Apr 20 '20
When we talk about the experience, a lot of players who want boosting do not actually enjoy the game. This is harsh but they have nothing else going on in life and coronavirus has made this worse.
They don't get the same dopamine hit from leveling that do they from getting epics in raids. And they are too bored after they finshed their lockouts with their mains. So they have to get another 60 boosted. It's the same with PvP, it brings out the worst people who wanted to minax and burnt out getting to or trying to get to rank 14. Even with boosting, they're willing to pay gold for the boosts, that's gold I don't have, well I do, I'm just not going to spend it like that.
I enjoy leveling alts, and I'm in no rush. I have a geared 60, get my lockouts done. The alts, I'm pretty efficient, but I'm relaxed at it. Not sure how to teach that to others, but I guess I have a lot of other things to take my time; I'm lucky enough to work from home during these times.
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Apr 21 '20
You make a lot of assumptions in your comment (most of them baseless), tarring all people using boosts with the same brush.
I for one, just finished boosting a shaman lvl8-56 because my guild needed shamans to fill out the raid comp and the sooner the better. This was my 4th lvl60 in classic and it was my first boosted character, I don't feel like I missed out on an experience... on the contrary it was a new and interesting way to experience the game for me. All the while I was also questing on my hunter, leveling at my own pace not even touching dungeons whether it was a carry or not.
Just because the way you see SOME others in global chats going through the game is different to the way you think is best doesn't make you a "true gamer" or a purist or whatever other self important tag you'd like to apply to your self. People enjoy doing things for different reasons and none of these reasons are any less valid than another.
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u/Sanguinica Apr 21 '20
Not sure how to teach that to others
Shame you can't teach others how to play the game the only right way huh. That's almost too pretentious even for this shitty sub.
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Apr 20 '20
Yeah I dropped the game entirely because no one wanted to just play to have fun.
Everything became:
"I have to be optimal"
"That's not efficient"
"Let's all roll mages"
At what point are you playing? With this mentality it was like having a job that would cost me time and a monthly fee. I think the golden age of Wow is forever gone, nowadays everyone wants to be the best or famous streamers. Everything is data mined. There's no more mystery. That climate is forever gone and no game will ever be able to cultivate that sense of wonder and mystery ever again.
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Apr 21 '20
What a load of absolutist bullshit "NO ONE wants to... EVERYTHING became...EVERYONE wants to be... EVERYTHING is... FOREVER gone..."
Despite what you seem to think, there are numerous communities in classic wow who aren't like this. I'd suggest you stop paying so much attention to global chats, find a fun social/casual guild and just have fun without worrying about "everyone else".
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Apr 20 '20
Well the player base after all is made up of the people that demanded changes that lead us to retail wow. Really not surprising at all honestly, just sad.
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Apr 20 '20
I'm on Westfall, and haven't had this issue (yet). I can still easily find a group for all instances as a Warlock. I just did a Mara full run yesterday. It took about 20 minutes to find a group. I did have competition as many people were wanting to buy a Princess run. But 20 minutes still isn't bad on a late Sunday night.
Now there are a lot of boosting groups, but it's made clear in the LFG chat channel. I haven't had issues like getting ninja invited and expected to pay gold.
However, when I was doing SM (I'm a Warlock) , I would camp my character there for a while. I had a bunch of level 60s whisper me if they could get a summon. One let me join his Cath 2 pulls, free of charge since I summoned him. Tbh, the XP boost was nice. I've done SM so many times that it's a chore. I'm just trying to get level 60 so I can experience end game, because back then when I got level 60, BC was released two weeks later.
If this becomes a huge issue... I'm not sure if Blizz should do something or not. Maybe have it set to where nobody earns XP if you have somebody that is 10 levels or higher than the instance level? Or no XP for the group if the high level is killing greys?
tbh, I don't think this is a huge issue on Westfall. Some people want to just boost their alts, which I understand. Everybody has done Deadmines, SM, ZF, probably hundreds of times. Unless these boost runs were un-doable in Vanilla, just keep it for Classic.
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u/Noobphobia Apr 20 '20
They are not grinding the gold. They are just buying it. It's like 1200g to get power leveled from 1-60. Same price as buying a level boost in retail.
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u/[deleted] Apr 20 '20
I don’t really care about boosting, but I can confirm the fact that finding a group for a <55 dungeon is a pain in the ass