Do you think the leveling now is as it was back then when the original game launched?

I hear many people say that the leveling was nerfed and became much easier. I wonder if it actually did, or just past experiences and the help of addons from day one simply made it way easier than it used to be.

What do you guys who played vanilla back in the day think, is it only the addons and the experience, or is there really less exp needed now?

I know the poll is kinda niche since prolly very few people are here who actually played 15 years ago or will have voters based on private server experiences, so take it with a side of salt.

Been there since late 2015, can't say I caught many of the struggles before the progress the installment itself had gone through by the time I joined, however I do remember that we didn't even have wowhead to begin with. There was thottbot, and even though widely known, I still had to point it's existence on a daily basis to other players, so to alot of people (myself included) noting the other person hadn't read the quest felt weird cause how else would you do it? I remember I preferred to use thottbot mostly for trade good and profession knowledge rather than to questing as well, unless the quest was really difficult or too redundant. While quests felt like riddles at times that were fun to solve, they were easily memorable the more "burdening" they were in time, detail or difficulty, which made leveling my first (and only) alt a bit faster (albeit not easier). And the usage of addons like questie bypasses that "struggle" that is by itself extremely time-consuming.

Making dungeons wasn't the daily thing as well, I remember that while I was leveling I would add to my friend's list pretty much anyone who I had formed a group with to some extent of time, while questing mostly. And whenever I felt like I wanted to do a certain dungeon, due to finding quests about this place, I would check in that list if there were suitable candidates to help me out and start whispering.

These were people that I would frequently meet about in the world (due to having similar progression patterns), or that I simply invited to quest with even if they were far away and either person would travel over. This to say that, alot of the social aspect also added to the speed factor. I know there are players around who still play like this (I know I probably fail to some extent at going back to those old roots), but the trend of the min/max and progress focused gameplay is very common which also makes things go faster before you even start the game.

So yeah, the perception is definitely altered. Which logically alters the experience as well as how we feel progress. Not only from my personal PoV but for everyone who has played this game before really. Unless you've never played wow in your life, and do not make use of addons that facilitate those xp gains, will you take as much time to 60 now as you probably would if you were back at those times.

And the obvious point: Alot of websites (like thottbot and even wowhead) recorded the data necessary to contest any discrepancies between then and now, I think we would have seen something by now in the bug trackers about this.

TL;DR: Both the knowledge and the focus changed. So while the community of 1.13 is alot closer to the roots than retail's, the vast majority doesn't have the same stance as they used to back in the days, which made progress-facilitating addons a broader reality.

I didn't really notice a difference in the experience, but my memory of Vanilla leveling is hazy anyway. It did take me longer to reach 60 in Classic despite prior experience and Questie because I'm now an adult with significantly less free time.

Experience is as it should be in all facets.

I think anybody claiming that it actually requires less experience might want to remove their tinfoil hat. Blizz has explicitly stated that they used the same data, so things as simple as the amount of xp required per level around absolutely remain unchanged. Whether or not it takes less time to get that required amount of experience is a totally subjective thing that would be different for each player.

Unless you are implying that you think blizzard is explicitly lying about using the same data, in which case any conversation about this is pretty pointless because everything is a lie.

I didn't pick up WoW until TBC, when the 1-60 XP squish had already happened. It definitely feels slower than I remember, so it probably is about the same.

Can i get a revote I misread the question.

playing since closed beta, casually though - i feel like its easier (the leveling). not more/less exp needed as in xp to lvl up, but i think you mean if it feels that mobs hit harder back then. i think so, subjectively it feels easier now. always were an avid gamer, played games before and after wow, and always had an approach to read guides etc. so yeah theres a part of me that asks myself "was i really that of a noob back then that whiped many times?" i played other games competively and part of me doubts that i sucked that much, but chances are i indeed did.

I feel like it is a bit easier, but still a very good leveling speed. I really love classic leveling though <3

I feel like it's way easier than it was back then. I can remember struggling to level my 1st character (a rogue), only to discover the server was overcrowded with rogues. So I rerolled a mage, and I think I stopped playing when my mage was about level 50. In my memories, it took me ages.

On WoW Classic, leveling was really straightforward. I do not use any kind of add-ons (imho add-ons feels like cheat, and I *hate* cheating in all its forms - but that's imho). I checked a few quests on varions DBs though.

Feels the same to me and I don't use add-ons. The game gives me all I need and more.

PeonStyle wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I feel like it's way easier than it was back then. I can remember struggling to level my 1st character (a rogue), only to discover the server was overcrowded with rogues. So I rerolled a mage, and I think I stopped playing when my mage was about level 50. In my memories, it took me ages.

On WoW Classic, leveling was really straightforward. I do not use any kind of add-ons (imho add-ons feels like cheat, and I *hate* cheating in all its forms - but that's imho). I checked a few quests on varions DBs though.

Are you insisting that blizzard is lying about using the original data in order to make classic?

My main character in Classic, Beardozer, hit level 60 in around 14 days /played. This is around 330 hours. I didn't feel like I wasted much time - I didn't spend time exploring or leveling professions. I didn't follow any levelling guides either, just did whatever dungeons I felt like at the time. I also stuck around in dungeons after I had already out-levelled them so I could bring friends I met along the way with me. It can be done much faster than this, but this is about how long it took me to hit 60 back in the original game. I attribute people being able to level much faster than my slow 14 days /played to better information and knowledge available for speed leveling that wasn't there the first time we all played this.

vanilla 1.12 lasted what, 5-6 months before bc released? so there where 2 years of different patches before that, with lots of talent, skill and gameplay changes etc. so i guess the older versions of vanilla where harder and thats what we remember when we think about "vanilla" 2,5 years of playing - if you started with the release of vanilla wow you experienced the leveling during the early versions: harder. by 1.12. most of the players allready were 60 so comparing the experiences is not that easy.

beaty wrote: ↑

4 years ago

vanilla 1.12 lasted what, 5-6 months before bc released....

I think this is the answer, when we played vanilla most likely you were not leveling or starting your journey in 1.12 (I know some people did), most people leveled in the previous patches. I wasnt thinking about this when i saw this thread but @beaty is right.

Also since video recording/streaming was not really a thing back then, engaging this question based solely on memory will have mixed results from player to player. Our memory will be very hazy on a game we played 15 years ago especially your leveling memory of the game because it was a new to you. Most videos created were at max level for pvp/pve videos or funny content videos...

Also when we first started we were clueless of the game in general aka i had to read the quest multiple times to find where i needed to go and what i needed. Now leveling in classic, i have leveled so many time to 20-30 that all the quests I can do off of memory and run to the cave or whatever it may be...we didnt have guides back then..

Basically what i am saying is I dont think we can get a true answer to this question...short answer though would be easier/quicker than vanilla because of experience but still...