Leveling in Shadowlands

Shadowlands will see a major "level squish" to World of Warcraft, reducing the cap all the way back to 60, where WoW first began. But it's not like all the pre-existing content is going away. So how is this going to work?

Apparently, like this: new characters will begin at level 1 as usual (not sure where hero classes or allied races are going to work into all of this) and there will be a new 1-10 starting experience for new characters. Following that, players can then go to any of the expansions' zones and level all the way to 50 through them - supposedly, you can just pick one and get all the way there, which is actually rather remarkable given that Northrend, for example, originally had content for only 12 levels (with a two-level overlap with Outland), not 40.

But they also say that leveling will be faster, so if you really can level all the way up in a single expansion, it means you'll be dinging several times in each zone.

But what about endgame?

Here's the really interesting thing: mains and alts are going to have very different experiences.

The first time you journey into the Shadowlands, you'll be on a set, specific and sequential path through its four leveling zones before going into the max-level zone, the Maw. Monsters will not scale, meaning that returning to older zones will make you feel stronger, but you also need to be wary of threats that out-level you.

You'll work with each of the four covenants, but you won't actually pick one to join until you hit the new cap, which is 60.

However, once you've done that, subsequent characters will be able to pick a covenant from the beginning, and they'll also be able to do the zones in any order.

I assume what we'll be seeing is level scaling used only after you hit max level on your first character.

It's not clear whether the older content for new characters is still going to use level scaling or not. Frankly, I liked scaling when it was introduced in Legion, though I also see how it does create a bit of a power treadmill.

I'm very excited at the notion that alts are getting a true leg up this expansion - having a catch-up mechanic is nice, and for those of us who are altoholics (see the name of the blog) it's going to probably make leveling up a lot of characters feel better.

Likewise, being able to level up in any expansion - not just segments as it is now - is pretty cool. I imagine I might hold off on leveling, say, my Vulpera or Mechagnome until I can go directly to the Broken Isles.