GamesMMOWorld of WarcraftWorld of Warcraft: The War WithinAs World of Warcraft: The War Within paid early access ends, Blizzard makes leveling slower in the MMO’s new expansion, and the community’s not loving the timingWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesMMOWorld of WarcraftWorld of Warcraft: The War WithinAs World of Warcraft: The War Within paid early access ends, Blizzard makes leveling slower in the MMO’s new expansion, and the community’s not loving the timingWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Blizzard)
World of Warcraft: The War Within is well and truly out now, but it’s technically been playable since August 22 via the pricier edition that came with early access. As the rest of the MMO’s community piled into an expansion that many players,including our friends at PC Gamer, really seem to like, Blizzard announced a change to the early game experience that would make the new level grind a bit slower, and while you can reasonably argue that the change is a healthy one, the post-early access timing of it hasn’t gone down swimmingly.
In anAugust 27 forum postpromising changes for today, August 28, community manager Kaivax explains that WoW players coming into The War Within with tip-top gear were “extremely powerful relative to that initial content.” Kaivax stresses that, yeah, “it is entirely intended that effort put into gearing translates into a significant combat advantage at the start of a new expansion,” but notthis much.
In other words, lower-level enemies will be a bit tougher, meaning killing them and grinding levels will take a bit longer. According toWowhead’s data mining, at level 70 enemies got a whopping 123.2% HP buff and a 116.2% damage buff, with these buffs falling off dramatically with each level down to just 5.9% HP and 5.2% damage at level 77. At level 78 and 79, mobs actually seem to have received minor HP and damage nerfs.
(Image credit: Blizzard)
There’s fair debate to be had over the importance of the leveling grind in a new MMO expansion – that is, why not let players get to the good stuff a little faster – and the church of player retention in live service and MMO metrics. Some players are also understandably concerned over what this change means for players and characters whoweren’tsporting high-end gear and will now slog through buffed enemies. But it is also true that games can get dull or outright crumble on a systemic level when they’re just too freakin' easy. If mobs are dying to my setup rotation before I can even pull out the showstopper skills, what am I doing here? Fighting flies with hammers?
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