An Update On World of Warcraft Shadowlands Level Crunch

With the new Shadowlands expansion for World of Warcraft comes some big changes to leveling and leveling system, including existing characters. This is in response to reports from the development team that said that the feedback they were seeing was that the leveling system becomes very unsatisfying once you reach the upper levels. After a decade an a half of expansions, it kind of makes sense that the robust 120 level cap might not only seem daunting to some but also unrewarding to others. The development team says this rework was designed to make every level seem like a reward for the player’s hard work. While this sounds appealing, we can understand why these drastic changes system so fundamental to game-play would make long time players a bit nervous.

            So what exactly is going to be different. Well, to start, everyone who has hit the level 120 cap will be squished to level 50. We have updated all our WoW accounts for sale to reflect this new level cap.  Now before you start understandably freaking out about your main, don’t worry. No one’s existing characters, or future characters, is seeing a sizable power reduction. Everyone's stats are staying more or less the same, just being represented numerically different to make the levels seem more significant. In addition, the leveling time is being decreased by less than half. Players will reach level cap faster than ever now and is just as powerful as they would in the old leveling system. So, on paper at least, these sound like solid ideas.

            But what does that means for individual characters and players? And what are the greater implications of the Shadowlands expansion on our character’s levels?  How will this affect prices when selling WoW accounts?  We can tell you what is known so far.

            Players at level cap now will still see a power boost with the expansion since 120 now equals 50 and the new level cap is 60. The numbers aren’t exact in translation but this would be between 140 and 150 in the old leveling system. New characters will have a couple of options for getting from 1 to 50, mostly tied into to old expansion campaigns. Once 50 is reached, all players will then begin their journey through the Shadowlands expansion campaign. The campaign has a set course that brings the players from 50 to 60 and moves through four different story-lines, one for each of the covenants that you can join once you hit the level cap.

            You do need to play through the campaign of Shadowlands at least once to access the covenants and the rest of the content. The good news is that once a play through has been finished, any other level 50 character that you have can skip the campaign and immediately start by selecting a covenant. Also, if you want to, you can still choose to play through the campaign again.

            With all of this come some other mechanical changes to how experience works, too. First off, the mechanics for heirlooms will be altered. They can no longer offer XP buffs with the leveling system, and instead, the new heirloom sets will offer a series of alternative bonuses dependent on the number of pieces you have equipped. Additionally, XP potions will be seeing a major performance overhaul. Elixir of Ancient Knowledge, Elixir of Rapid Mind, and Excess Potion of Accelerated Learning will all become inert and unusable once the changes go live. The Draught of 10 Lands will retain its 10% XP buff but will have its new cap adjusted to level 50. Additionally, and unsurprisingly, the item Insightful Rubellite will be renamed to Nascent Rubellite and its buff changed to a 5% increase to swim speed.

            Of course, these are some big changes and a lot of people will need to change how they play, even with the promise of no reduction in power. But what should players be doing to prepare for the change in leveling and XP mechanics? Well, there are several steps you can take to ensure you aren’t getting left out in the cold when the change over happens.

            First off, if you have any characters you wanted to max level, now is the time to grind it out. To get the very most from the update and transition, you are going to want your favorite characters to be at 120 before the patch. Not to mention that most XP boosting items are going to be worthless after the update, so you want to use them up now. If there was ever a time to take the dive and get a 2nd account, it is now. Get your characters settled and secured before the squish happens if you want to ensure you have the most control and versatility during the transition.

            The other thing we are strongly suggesting is getting any characters you have that are close to level sixty over the threshold and have them learn to fly. The reason for this is simple. In the new leveling system, level 60 characters will transition to level 25, and in the new conversion, characters learn to utilize flying mounts at level 30. So if you manage to get your characters over level 60, you are essentially getting to teach your characters flying 5 levels before other characters, and this is a wide advantage even with the new leveling system. The new expansion will also change where characters are allowed to fly in a lot of respects, so we recommend also focusing on having your characters get the necessary accomplishments before the changeover. Especially since the expansion will also change accessibility to certain campaigns, which means certain achievements might be a lot harder to complete, not to mention the impact level changes might have on that. One way or the other, you definitely want to get all your flying stuff sorted out before Shadowlands drops.

            The leveling system being cut in half is a bit a nerve-wracking change, especially with faith in Blizzard being what it is currently. If everything they are saying is true we can see this tightening up some key issues with the gameplay and leading to a more rewarding experience that we are excited to see be implemented.