World of Warcraft: Dragonflight has several new world events coming with this latest expansion and includes Community Holidays…
WoW Shadowlands Leveling Changes
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With the new Squish level in Shadowlands, the level system has been completely overhauled.
This update has simplified the interaction between all expansions and helped new players experience the latest part of WoW history without having to go through additional cycles. Level 1-50 in Shadowlands is roughly 50-70% of the distribution of levels from 1 to 120 in Battle for Azeroth.
Levels 1-10: new starting area added Exile's Reach . Exile's Reach, located off the coast of Stormheim, will serve as a training area where new players will learn the basics of WoW. Exile's Reach will have its own storyline that will culminate in a mini dungeon that will teach you the basics of WoW dungeons.
- New players will go through Exile's Reach in their very first WoW playthrough.
- ➤Veteran players will be able to choose between completing Exile's Reach or repeating the starting zone experience of the chosen race.
- Demon Hunters and Death Knights start at level 8. They continue to play using their initial experience instead of Exile's Reach.
Levels 10-50: after completing the start zone experience, players will arrive in their capital cities for the next step of their adventure.
- ➤New players will be sent to levels via Kul Tiras or Zandalar , as Battle for Azeroth was the last expansion. This will help new players feel like they're not left behind, and they'll be able to experience the very latest part of the WoW storyline without going through extra loops.
- ➤Veteran players will be approached by Chromie, who offers players the opportunity to level up in past expansions! You'll be able to choose which expansion you want to level up into and change it at any time if you need a change of pace. This function, called Chromie Time , also scales zones from past expansions to level 50, allowing players to complete story quests as if they were scaled to their own level.
- Allied Race characters will start at level 10 and will be able to travel directly to Kul Tiras or Zandalar, or speak to Chromie to experience past expansions.
Levels 50-60: how Once players reach the new Battle for Azeroth level cap, it's time to start leveling in Shadowlands. For the first time, players will follow a linear storyline through all of the main areas of Shadowlands.
- ➤After leveling up a character to 60 for the first time, subsequent characters can be leveled up either by repeating the Shadowlands level storyline or through a new feature, Threads of Fate , which allows players to level up Shadowlands content by completing tasks such as world quests, much like Diablo III's adventure mode.
Shadowlands has a strict level for anyone who plays this expansion for the first time. Unlike the previous two expansions, which allowed you to start the game in any of the available zones, all players will start by leaving the maw and moving on to Bastion Island. This will start the main story arc and introduce the four ruling Shadowlands Covenants in their main realms:
Bastion (Kyrians > Maldraxxus (Necrolords) > Ardenwald (Night Fairies) > Revendeth (Venthirs)
After beating this story arc and reaching level 60, players will have to choose one of four covenants to join. This is an important decision to make as it will inform every part of your endgame experience. Each Testament presents its own campaign with unique quests, abilities, benefits, and rewards.
You will be able to change the Covenants if you are unhappy. Although details are not yet available, it has been hinted that it will take time to earn the trust of the new Pact, so it is unlikely to be a quick or easy process. Needless to say, you will lose the powers and privileges of the Covenant you left behind.
Once one character has completed this story (level 60 and joined the Covenant), any alts entering the Shadowlands at level 50 will not need to repeat the linear quest line. They can immediately join any of the four covenants and start working on world quests, covenant-specific quests, and endgame objectives. Players can certainly return and complete the quest in any of the four main Covenant realms if they so desire, but this is not required.
This makes Shadowlands much more alto-friendly, allowing the player to contribute faster.
Class Changes and Leveling
One of the main thrusts of Shadowlands is the concept of returning to class. Several recent expansions have focused more on talent specializations (specs), even assigning a default spec at level 1 that might need to be changed at level 10 (e.g. level 1-10 with no talents as default obedience priest but then having a huge change in available abilities when you want to change to shadow or light). Added not only new abilities, but also many others. While this can be annoying for experienced players, it can be confusing for new players who are suddenly faced with a ton of abilities they didn't experience at ten levels.
Blizzard is reverting to some base class abilities removed over the past few expansions and removing spec restrictions for others. The idea is that players will start playing as inexperienced and gain core abilities common to any of the three talent specs. Upon reaching level 10, talents become available, players choose their own specs, and they gain new abilities to support that choice without losing access to those main class abilities.
A good example is Mages: in Legion and BfA, Ice Bolt, Fire Blast и arcane explosion limited to Ice, Fire and Arcane specs. In the Shadowlands, they will be returned to all specs as core class abilities and will most likely show up in those first 1-10 abilities.
How to Prepare for Shadowlands Level Changes
To have more options in the new leveling system, you need to get one character on your account to level 120 before Shadowlands comes out. If you're thinking about getting a second account, now is the time to do so and get your max level character.
While we don't yet know what level you'll need to fly in the new expansion, you can complete any of the unfinished Pathfinder (flying) achievements. You can simply choose not to level up in areas where you have not unlocked flight. Alternatively, you can choose to complete the Pathfinder achievements in zones where you have not yet unlocked them to give yourself the widest choice: Draenic Pathfinder, Broken Isles Pathfinder Part 1/Broken Isles Pathfinder Part 2, and Battle for Azeroth Pathfinder Part 1 /Battle for Azeroth Pathfinder, Part 2.
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