Improved 1-58 leveling

Current plans are for a pre-expansion change to the experience curve and gain.

Q u o t e:
This is just another way that Blizzard is de-emphasizing original release content and focusing on newer stuff.

Not only that but it's a slap in the face to everyone who "did it the hard way" for the past three years.

Nice one, developers.

I wouldn't trash it yet, it might help you get those last 6 levels.

Q u o t e:
Thankya you big evil leaky tree you!

I would like to see a way to improve attendance to instances on the way of leveling, perhaps more experience gain in groups/instances, perhaps cross battleground instances, but its getting pretty lonely in Azeroth dungeons. On my warrior alt, I stuck the queue up for BFD up as soon as I got in the level range for it, every time I play him. Only time I got to run it was because one of the two people I had gathered in the past 1.45 hours (I got a lot of fishing done plopped in Darnassus) knew a 67 Druid that would help us out. This was during 10:20-12:05 BTW.

Possibly, maybe, the very low population on my sever is to blame, but still I would like to do more instances and more readily access multiplayer content which I am paying for. Fixing the low population thing with more than a Recommended tag would be lovely as well. Thanks if you read this, many more thanks if you pass the info on up the Blizzard food chain.

EDIT: wrong digit. And I want my Strike of the Hydra =(

Probably not a horrible idea, but there already generally is more experience being given by mobs found in instances or killed by groups. The leveling adjustments would affect them the same way.

I think your biggest issue with your warrior is probably that you were attempting to find a group for one of the least attended dungeons in the game. There's a few others, like Gnomeregan and Uldaman that we'd like to take a look at ... refining (?) but I think once you get to your mid 40's or so dungeon groups are much easier to find, especially on the weekends.

Also making an experience change for dungeons probably wouldn't make a huge impact on how many people want to visit them. There's just not a ton of people at lower levels. There's only so many people rolling alts or new players per realm that could be in your level range in any given day. So, our first step is there to help lessen the time needed to get to a higher level, and if we still see a need to make more adjustments or incentivize dungeon/group play at lower levels then we'll definitely take it into consideration.

Q u o t e:
But because I was in no rush to max out my level, I did not get to run a lot of endgame stuff. No Onyxia or Ragnaros for me. Now, with the expansion out, no one wants to do these things anymore. Yes, it's partly my fault but it is also Blizzard's fault for not giving players a reason to want to run them again.

There are definitely players that were late to the game and didn't get to experience the higher end content of the original game. However, there are also definitely a lot of players who did. As I see it what it comes down to is do we incentivize old content, making players who may have been in those instances night-in and night-out for a year go back through it, or do we focus on new, exciting content?

All of the old instances are great, but I think moving forward we're making even better dungeons, better boss encounters, and better itemization choices and distribution.

The one straying point could be Naxxrammas, which has a strong possibility to just fly its way to Northrend in Wrath and see some more use, and that's because there's a lot of strong reasons for doing it. First, about two people actually saw the dungeon, but what those two people saw was a fun and well crafted instance. It makes a lot of sense to re-use Naxxrammas specifically and let everyone (and I mean everyone) who never experienced it before see it for the first time.

Q u o t e:
Now you're going to decrease the time it takes to get to 60 pushing everyone forward to the new stuff. This will just make more people ignore the old endgame. And I'll miss out.

I would disagree that there will be any fewer people that are leveling willing to do these instances now than there will be after the change.
0 + 0 = 0

Aside from the levelers out there, I commonly see people forming pick up raids for Onyxia on the weekends, guilds that run an old end-game instance on an off-night with whoever wants to. Sure it's not guaranteed, there's people that just want to focus on the prize, but it does happen, it's not impossible to find people who want to go. Maybe try asking in your realm forum if there are any guilds who are hitting old content every once in a while, and if you can attend.

Q u o t e:
On that note, I invite you to visit the Lightninghoof realm forums and do a search under my name and read the responses I got for asking to do the very thing you mention.

After you read that, come back here and tell me what you think, Drysc. I'm so willing to discuss this that I will personally send you $100.00 via postal mail to get back to me. And I'm not joking.

I think you did an admirable job at attempting to get some runs going, and it looks like you've had some success and even some interested parties. But I think you've made a couple mistakes that I might have suggestions for to help you in the future.

You stated in the bigger thread that I saw that would like to ultimately obtain Atiesh. Now, that could be a pipe dream for all I know, you may like to but not seriously expect to obtain it (I would like to do a lot of things, but I rarely post them on the forums), but even just throwing that out there is going to turn any small amount of doubt into a huge one. You've suddenly and swiftly turned a nonchalant look-see of old content into an extremely long and ambitious goal, which only benefits one person. A goal that would take a very organized and dedicated guild 2-3 months to complete. Your credibility comes into question immediately for anyone reading.

This then feeds into forum trolls and your dealings with them. Yes, there are going to be people that are going to tell you that it's worthless and you're wasting your time, and personally I would expect it, but your mistake is indulging them. You seem to have come to anticipating a certain response from people, you've been burned in the past and you're just waiting to let people know how wrong they are. You made nearly three pages of posts in that one topic telling people off instead of focusing on what you say you're looking for. It doesn't have to be dramatic, if it doesn't happen it doesn't happen, there's no guarantee. Just take it with an upbeat approach, it's a game, and if you're positive then people are going to be positive about grouping with you. If you're jumping all over level 3 alts for an entire thread then you're just showing people what it's going to be like grouping with you as soon as a pull goes bad. I mean, hell, the tone you've taken with me this entire thread makes me want transfer to Lightninghoof ... alliance. Just ease up, it may not be immediately successful, or it may never be successful.

You stated in that same thread that you joined a guild that intends to run old content. Great! Use them as an asset, reach out from within the game, attempt to get people the day you want to run the content. If it's a decently sized guild you may not need anyone else to at least get a decent way in. I don't dare imply that you haven't tried anything and everything, but guilds are a great resource if you're an active and friendly member.

Last, but certainly not least, you're not 70 yet. Bosses scale with the level of the highest player*, so you would effectively be nearly useless in a group that included even a single 70. And of course with that you're also missing important abilities, new ability ranks, rounded talent builds, etc.

Hopefully some of that helps. Good luck.

(*scroll down)

Q u o t e:
Wait, I thought bosses were always calculated 3 levels about your own, not 3 levels above the highest person in the instance?

So now we get confirmation otherwise?

wow...

Uh oh, you're making me doubt myself. I'll have to double check tomorrow. Thinking about it it would actually make more sense on a player-by-player level, rather than the highest in the raid, but I was immediately certain about that fact so I'm sure I'm not just making it up.

Well, even without the damage taken and mitigation on boss scaling point, being 70 definitely helps. :)