Forum:Are you ok with the new level flow?

As you all know, the old world has now a new level flow. Some changes are good, but some are not.

Here you have a complete classification of all the zones by level as of the revamp: And the original classification, too:
 * Zones by level
 * Zones by level (original).

Personally, I dislike some things about the new flow:

Felwood and Winterspring
They're 45-50 and 50-55 now, which makes no sense at all. It's completelly isolated, and there's no way to connect it with the rest of the flow. You're supposed to go there after Thousand Needles or Eastern Plaguelands. Yeah, great.

Forcing Badlands -> Blasted Lands progression
One of the worst things, in my opinion. First, having Blasted Lands a 55-60 is not right, because it "destroys" the purpose of the other 55-60 zones, and it's not fair. Second, by forcing this, we have to go from 3 zones to 5, reducing the level ranges. I wouldn't have any problem with this, only if the new level flow didn't lack so many key zones already.

Overload at Ashenvale and Stonetalon Mountains
Hell, it's one of the worst things of the flow. A total number of 7 races meet here, 2 more than the number of races leveling at Eastern Kingdoms. This is just wrong, even more if we consider humans are all alone in their flow. Ashenvale, I can understand it's not fixable, but Stonetalon Mountains, too?

Stranglethorn Vale
Stranglethorn Vale feels completelly out of place. After finishing it, your next zone must be Feralas, Dustwallow Marsh or Western Plaguelands. Yeah, awesome.

Lack and excess of level ranges
Aside from the already mentioned "forced Badlands -> Blasted Lands progression", we have some other flaws around:


 * 25-30 has only 3 zones, needs 1 more.
 * 35-40 has only 3 zones, needs 1 more.
 * 40-45 has only 2 zones, needs 2 more.
 * 45-50 has 3 zones, with 2 would be enough.
 * 50-55 has 3 zones, with 2 would be enough.

If you notice, most of the problems above are directly related to this last point.

My suggestion for fixing this
You have a graphic version here: User:Lon-ami/Zones by level

Now, let's explain the main changes:


 * Felwood 25-30: this would help divide the load of Stonetalon Mountains, while keeping with the worgen and druids storylines. Once you finish the zone, you could be send to Desolace through a portal, to keep fighting the demons.


 * Swamp of Sorrows and Blasted Lands 35-40 and 40-45: this would give Stranglethorn Vale a continuation, while avoiding to give Blasted Lands a 55-60 leveling preference because of the Dark Portal.


 * Badlands, Searing Gorge and Burning Steppes 45-50, 50-55 and 55-60: this would match better with the setting of these zones, and would avoid using more zones than necessary for these 15 levels. It would be in tune with Blackrock Mountain instances, too.


 * Winterspring 40-45: the zone is still isolated, but it could work well for an alternative to Thousand Needles. A possible solution, seeing the Eastern Plaguelands rocket to Badlands, would be to add some sorts of teleporter from Mudsprocket, and then once you finish, take a teleporter from Everlook to Gadgetzan.


 * Switching Duskwood 20-25 with Cape of Stranglethorn 30-35: This would solve the Stranglethorn Vale isolation problem, while balancing Alliance/Horde number of zones and giving a direct path to Swamp of Sorrows from Duskwood. Players would start at Booty Bay after arriving by boat from Ratchet or Stormwind Harbor. Additionally, Stormwind would have a boat to Menethil Harbor, too, for players wanting to level at Lordaeron, and even another boat to Theramore Isle, if they come from Duskwood and want to level at Dustwallow Marsh instead of Swamp of Sorrows.

Comments
Well, that's my take on it. Opinions? Feel free to add your problems and solutions as well.--Lon-ami (talk) 21:36, 27 November 2010 (UTC)