Power leveling: Good or Bad??

Discussion in 'World of Warcraft' started by Tinkerbelle, Jan 14, 2016.

  1. Tinkerbelle

    Tinkerbelle Member
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    I have a ton of friends who power level. For those of you that do not know what this is, it's where you gain level extremely fast and get to the max level, whether that be a profession or your actual toon level. I personally do not power level my toon, but I admit, I do it often with my professions. I am one of those annoying players who will drop professions depending on what I want to do, so I use guides and add-ons to make the leveling process faster. My friends choose to power level their actual toon itself, which in my opinion doesn't make for an enjoyable experience. You miss so much of the story line if you just focus on getting to the max level. There are guides out there that tell you exactly which quests to do and what mobs to kill and you end up skipping the side quests, which are for me, an important part of the story itself. What do you think? Do you power level? If you do, why?
     
  2. Alaire

    Alaire Member
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    At first I thought that by power-level you meant using the automatic Level 100 Character Boost feature they recently rolled out with.

    It's hard for me to imagine anyone having a problem with the method that you described. By the time most of us are power-leveling our next characters, we've already had the new player phase, and we've already taken our time to explore how things actually work in the game. There are too many good reasons to power-level to get to max as soon as possible:
    • You don't like the story, or you've done the hard part already
    • This next class suits your playstyle better / you're just better at it than your previous one
    • The first character was a trial phase and you want to really go the distance with your next one
    • Your friends need you to fill a role at max level as soon as possible
    But I totally get what you are saying about missing the story if you're power-leveling your first or main toon. But not everybody plays this game to take part in the story, or they just decide to leave that until a much later time. There's nothing inherently wrong with that either.

    My opinion is that one should jump into WoW fresh, for the very first time. Explore everything, make mistakes, learn how professions work. Friends can wait -- if you don't like it from the very start, then it's just going to feel like a chore if you hit 100 tomorrow and you just do all the things people tell you to do.

    The most important thing (and I think almost everyone will agree) is to learn your class. And that's something you won't get if you roll a fresh new class using the character boost option. I took both a warrior and a priest to level 100 from the beginning and I loved it. But I haven't the darndest clue how to play a rogue, and so the last thing I want to do is have a rogue at 100 and just wing it. That's when I think power-leveling is efficient, as it'll be both fun and beneficial to learning how to play it, plus I'm quite familiar with the lore and the lay of the land already.
     
  3. Cereus

    Cereus Well-Known Member
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    Before really getting into WoW I knew that everything was endgame so I power leveled to be able to participate. That being said after I got my main leveled up and in raids I made a few alts to take my time and enjoy the game a little more. There's ways to enjoy the game depending on what your focus is. If you don't care much for raiding or the endgame experience then by all means take your time. There are plenty of quests with really good storylines that do get overlooked initially but most players in WoW go back to enjoy them later since they're not nearly as strapped to hit level cap to have fun in raids, ect.
     
  4. Nytegeek

    Nytegeek No namby pamby hand holding over FUD. EXTERMINATE!
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    I don't understand how it would be an issue. I have characters that I have leveled rather quickly and characters that I took my time with. It depends on how you want to play the game and what you get out of it. So long as you aren't botting or paying a 3rd party company to do it for you who cares?
     
  5. AmenoKaji

    AmenoKaji Well-Known Member
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    There is nothing wrong with powerleveling. Not counting the fact that blizzard has added means to WoW to be auto powerleveled. I used to power level regularly, I think I did about 25 characters from 0 to 80( i think that was the max level in WOTLK) as a part of my leveling services for people that wanted alts but didn't have the drive to level up anymore.
     
  6. Nytegeek

    Nytegeek No namby pamby hand holding over FUD. EXTERMINATE!
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    If you were charging money for this I hate you. If so you are part of the reason WoW is in such bad shape.
     
  7. AmenoKaji

    AmenoKaji Well-Known Member
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    Oh, I definitely was charging for it. $150+ a character. WoW is in such a bad shape because Blizzard is greedy and tried too hard to cater to casuals. Just something you'll have to deal with unfortunately. The game has always been easy to level up in, and they made it progressively easier with each expansion, as well as decreasing the amount of levels and the general curvature of the game so that new players weren't stuck in old dead content. Even if I wasn't doing it, having been a hardcore raider from vanilla through WOTLK I have come across hundreds of people who have no grasp of their character, and they leveled themselves. Someone having a max level character and not knowing how to play the game isn't related to it being power leveled. They are just incompetent players.
     
  8. Nytegeek

    Nytegeek No namby pamby hand holding over FUD. EXTERMINATE!
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    Sounds like you deserve a perma-ban. You are one of the worst kind of players.
     
  9. Clayton Wolfe

    Clayton Wolfe Member
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    I really miss the challenge of leveling. Although I must say, with the way the leveling system is now I have stopped throwing my face into walls. I understand that by power leveling you miss so many side quests, and for a new player they should try to get to those side quests. I still power level anyways though. I do this because I have done a lot of the quests in the world of Azeroth. I am no newbie. I am sure there are plenty of quests I haven't done yet, but I will not go hunting them down. Therefore my answer is if you are new, don't power level. If you are a veteran and know what is happening, go ahead and power level.
     
  10. Maelalove

    Maelalove Well-Known Member
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    I think it depends on the situation. On one hand, I usually play a mage or a priest, and have made dozens of them, always hoping while leveling that I could be powerleveled through them because I already know all of the quests and the class itself. However, I do feel like the downfall of powerleveling, is that people have become impatient, and end up not really knowing their class when they get to 100, because they didn't try to really learn it on the way up. It's a double edged sword.
     
  11. LadyLotus

    LadyLotus Member
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    I think it only causes a problem if a new player NEVER actually plays the game at least once. I think you need to level a toon just to get out there and see the world. Learn the map, get to know important locations and understand how to play the game. Once a person has played the game all the way through, then they might as well go straight to level 100 with the next toon, rather than waste time power leveling. You can always learn the spec an class once you get there, and dedicate some time to becoming proficient.
     
  12. Azrile

    Azrile Well-Known Member
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    I power level all my characters now because even after the changes with Catacylsm, I have seen all the zones storylines. And to be honest, after seeing them, even for new players most of them can be skipped. The lore is fine, and it is nice that they wrapped each zone in it´s own little story, but most of the zones are forgettable.

    As far as new players ´learning your class´.. that is a bogus excuse. The level cap is currently 100. There is almost nothing you learn pre-90 that matters. If you start off at lvl 90, you will completely learn that class by lvl 100. Yeah, you will probably suck a little at lvl 90, but even just by lvl 91 or 92 you will be completely caught up to someone who played lvl 1-89. The reason for this is so much of the way you play the game early on does not translate. And even worse, the way you do group content from 1-90 is drastically different than what you do in the latest expansion. In fact, stepping foot in a lvl 90 dungeon as someone who level 1-89 using dungeons probably puts you at a disadvantage because you are more likely to be sloppy.
     
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  13. Nytegeek

    Nytegeek No namby pamby hand holding over FUD. EXTERMINATE!
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    Lower level toons have different abilities, talents and uses, and gear. The way you play a lower level toon doesn't show you how to play the same class at max level. The best setup and spec for leveling has little to no resemblance to setups on the same class end game. Leveling doesn't teach you to play a class.
     
  14. Cereus

    Cereus Well-Known Member
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    ^ This. If you played Horde side and Alliance side at least once you've pretty much seen all there is story wise honestly. Past that it's all the same quests/lines and leveling a bunch of alts- it's all about getting past those areas.

    I agree that leveling doesn't really give you much to learn your class because you'll always have the optimized builds for your class at end level posted with the most optimal rotation posted somewhere. Most of the other abilities won't matter as much unless they're situational or if you're someone that likes to tinker and explore possible alternatives which isn't much honestly. When I was playing all the time it boiled down to buffs, food, gear, enchants, gems, skill tree, ability rotation and CDs for situations at max level.
     
  15. LadyLotus

    LadyLotus Member
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    That is true. Often when you spec as a lower level you do not realize a later talent might give or take effects. Maybe you smarties pay attention to that. Me, I have to respec a bazillion times. I still think people need to learn the map. I think, being a total newb for life, that when you have NEVER played an rpg, or mmorpg, then you would be introduced about the class and its spells as you letter. Although you may understand the relationships between talents better if you go straight there (an actually read as you spec).

    Maybe I am ocd, but I am obsessed with the map in every MMMORPG I play. I am probably overcompensating for being a little slow to understand the relationships and concepts between various talents/spells ect. I think I really need to work on my vocabulary, that is where I get caught up.
     
  16. mauricioq

    mauricioq Well-Known Member
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    I don't care it about it at all. For instance, I do enjoy leveling up but if I didn't maybe I would take advantage of it. It's not like it's ruining my game experience.
     
  17. Verity Darkwaters

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    I don't really think it is good or bad. It really depends on the play style of the character. Personally, I do not care for it. I enjoy taking my sweet time with leveling and enjoying the story. Plus, I just enjoy the satisfaction of doing it myself. Some people do not care about those things so more power to them. Play the game the way it makes you happy.
     
  18. FuZyOn

    FuZyOn Well-Known Member
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    I love taking my time with leveling and experiencing the story, but power leveling isn't the worst thing in the world if you're in a hurry! Depends on the person!
     
  19. UnslaadKrosis

    UnslaadKrosis Well-Known Member
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    I, for one, hate power-levelling. I think the whole game is made so that people can take their time and enjoy everything that it has to offer, all the while travelling through its world and levelling up as they experience new adventures and take on new monsters. If reaching the highest level is so important that you grind it out without even knowing (and caring) about the story and what the game has to offer, maybe playing an MMO 'RPG' is not for you.
     
  20. Onyxian

    Onyxian New Member

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    I prefer to power level due to the fact that I've leveled so many characters that I just don't care for the original content anymore. I'd rather just get to max level where all the good stuff is. I don't think it has anything to do with not caring for the storyline in general, but if you've done seen that content over 20/30/40 times, it's like listening to the same song for a week or two and just that one song.