119473-your-thoughts-on-wildstars-leveling-content

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After having fairly recently leveled my second level 50 (one Dominion and one Exile), I thought I would ask the forum-going community about what they thought about the leveling content in the game.
 
I bring this up because I hear a lot of mixed things about the leveling experience in general (both inside and outside the game). Admittedly, I have mixed feelings about it as well. I felt that some questing areas seemed a bit more tedious than they could have been. Not that I thought that the leveling process was too long necessarily but rather how it felt. To me, It seemed a touch monotonous, linear, and repetitive at times. Now, Wildstar is hardly the only game to have this issue, in fact, this is pretty typical of modern MMO quest design. I suppose therein lies my issue, I would have liked to see a little more of a change from the traditional formula. Not a massive, dramatic overhaul or anything but maybe a bit more variety in the types of quests, different quest paths, etc...
 
That said, being the massive lore nerd that I am, I did enjoy the story aspects of each zone. I really enjoyed many of the characters, as well. Although, I think that they could benefit from a bit more voice acting to breathe more life into the story arcs. Perhaps, I've just been spoiled by Journey into OMNICore-1. :P
 
 
Anyhow, these are just my opinions and I would like to hear yours. :)
 
 
Did you enjoy the leveling experience? If so, what did/do you enjoy about it?
 
If you did/do not enjoy it, how do you think it may be improved?
 	
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I loved the leveling experience.  The quests are repetitive sure enough, but that's par for the course in an mmo.  What I liked was the detail in the game world, the conversations you overhear, the random comments from NPCs (lopp and chua especially), and most of all the combat.  Big bads, little bads, many bads at once, strings of bads, all kinds of bads to beat up with one of the coolest action combat styles I've ever played online.  It was fun.
 
Then I hit level 50.  Well.... balls.  I guess I have to raid now. Or unsubscribe.  Neither one is very fun, but one is cheaper.
 
The only bad thing I have to say about leveling is that there is only one zone path per faction - every alt does the exact. same. thing.  Cuts down on replayability quite a lot.	
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			I don't see this as a WS issue but rather due to overall MMO burnout. I certainly felt it with past MMO's which led to an extended break. When I returned to MMO's with WS, well I really enjoyed the leveling experience the first time around. Now I'm at level 30 on an alt and still loving the leveling experience!	
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			My main beef with the leveling content is how little variety there is in it. Each faction gets two zone options to start, which then merge into a single, linear leveling path. And eventually the two factions even end up with identical quests/stories. Hell, Carbine even straight up copy-pasted entire sections of zone between Dominion and Exile. @.@ It makes me shudder.	
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Levelling is one of the things i enjoy the most in an MMO, and In WS the process has been quite funny indeed.
Excellent music, amazing art style, electrifying combat mechanics and interesting NPCs are definitely the strong points. Loved the first quests, so full of drama to "lit up" the Exile/Dominion rivalry. But the real blast came with Farside. I just loved that place and its enviroments. And then there's Drusera, when you really start to realize what all the fuss is about.
 
If you throw in some "distractions" like challenges, rare mobs and paths, i don't really remember another MMO with such an enjoyable levelling experience.
 
I have just one little complain, not sure if it's a matter of camera or anything, but sometimes i just feel myself "tiny" compared to my surrondings (and no, i don't play chuas), but maybe it's just an artistic choice by Carbine.
Two thumbs up for the levelling in WS.
 
Captain out.	
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			My thoughts are that there is a lot of it and it's mostly very good, but it's all transient and stagnates once everyone hits endgame, like every friggin' theme park MMO these days.	
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I enjoyed the levelling experience the first time as an Exile. After the second time I reached 50 (with a Dommie) I lost my desire to level any of my other alts. Why bother? I've been visiting the exact same locations as both factions after level 23 (and let's not mention that I have to do the reputation grind all over again). I've been killing the same things. Seeing the same storylines. Seeing how those storylines play out exactly the same no matter waht side you are on. I'll just get my alts into housing and never bother with levelling farther than that. Maybe once my memory of the levelling experience fades I'll be willing to level one of them up. But for now? No, thanks.
 
One of the things I found curious is how Paths are a missed opportunity. If Path missions also granted class experience like any normal quest, then players would be able to have greatly different experiences when levelling up thanks to the possibility of skipping tasks. Instead, both an Explorer and a Soldier who want to reach level 50 will experience the same levelling content in the exact same way. The only difference will be that they will have different Path missions, but since they don't reward class experience, you can completely ignore them and not suffer for it. Quests, though? That's less experience. And did I mention they are the same for all classes, paths and factions after Galeras/Auroria? Because that's what really accelerates the stagnation of the levelling process.
 
So, overall, levelling is fun the first time. The fun will fade at some point of the second time.
			
				
	Edited December 5, 2014 by Ildur	
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I actually enjoyed it for the most part.  It is pretty much the same thing as most mmo's as far as leveling goes.  But  I really liked the graphics, the atmosphere, and being different from midevil type theme.  At parts it felt more grindy then others but it happens.
 
I have to say though, ToR has the best leveling system I have played.  I don't really play it anymore, but it was the first mmo I actually enjoyed and leveled more than 5 alts to max. 
 
But overall, my leveling experience here was pretty good.  I wouldn't have a desire to make an alt though and do it all again heh.	
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Lots of great responses so far, everyone. :)
 
Overall, I enjoyed the experience, mostly, seeing as how I went through it twice. The art, great looking characters, and story are what I enjoyed the most about it. :P	
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I've played TOR, Wildstar and WoW in that order.  TOR >>>>> WoW >>> Wildstar.  The gap between WoW and Wildstar would be much closer if Wildstar had more than 1.25 levelling paths.  WoW would still beat Wildstar due to presentation and Wildstar's proclivity of dumping major lore on you in the middle of a freakin' fight.  I don't care that you can go back and review it: Ship. Sailed.
 
IMO, TOR's missions are just that much more engaging.  The faction missions are distinct and the class stories bring enough variation.  In many many cases you have options on how to complete a mission.  Here?  It's "why yes! I love being a psychopath!" or not do an entire quest chain.
 
All three have their grindy parts, but WoW and Wildstar take it to a much further extreme than TOR did.  What Wildstar does well is that taking on tougher mobs counts more towards completion.
 
All that said... The first time to 50 I did in a levelling group the first month since the start of Early Access.  My second 50 took me 2 or 3 weeks from 25 where I had parked her.  It seemed to go easier the second time around in part due to lack of competition for mission objectives.  I might try the "no tasks" technique next time around.	
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			I enjoyed leveling. I take my time, enjoy the quests. Between quests, do my path objectives and shiphands and normal dungeons and adventures so it doesn't' get monotonous and of course Challenges!	
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In my opinion the leveling content is good as there is no lack of quests, the world is new and fascinating.
Anyway the level 50 content is for me the best compared to other MMO as adventures are pretty interesting, dungeons are awesome and raid is great.
 
I do not have any reroll but can understand your POV on the 2nd, 3rd time levelling	
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I really enjoyed the leveling experience, but then again I get a lot of variety out of the paths and classes since I vary those pretty wildly and played both factions.  Now that I'm kind of locked into Exiles, I lost a bit of that quest variety.
 
However, the combat in this game is so varied and quick that what might have otherwise been fairly domestic questlines became exceptionally entertaining.  There are additional modes you don't always see in other games tossed in regularly to keep us on our toes:  holdouts, platforming, and the odd standalong quest involving a vehicle or rail.  So I'm still not bored of leveling yet.
 
The best thing I can say is to try all the paths and make sure you're always doing your path quests and challenges.  It keeps the game switched up; I imagine blitz leveling through regional storylines would be pretty pedestrian.	
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It's quite good IMO. I'll agree that SWTOR was better. Better storyline and more engaging. But there's little wrong with WS's leveling content. It got a bit grindy from time to time, although they changed what was IMO the worse ones in the game. In Wilderrun Had to collect feathers, and each kill was like 3%. I stopped doing it, and went on to other things. When Drop 3 came out, my completion went from 50 odd % to 84% I think, and it only took a few more kills to finish it.
 
I was just going to abandon the quest completely before they changed it. Other than that, there's been few quests I've really disliked or found to be overly grindy...
 
And like Vic above says the combat is so much fun a little grind doesn't bother me too much.	
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It's quite good IMO. I'll agree that SWTOR was better. Better storyline and more engaging. But there's little wrong with WS's leveling content. It got a bit grindy from time to time, although they changed what was IMO the worse ones in the game. In Wilderrun Had to collect feathers, and each kill was like 3%. I stopped doing it, and went on to other things. When Drop 3 came out, my completion went from 50 odd % to 84% I think, and it only took a few more kills to finish it.
 
I was just going to abandon the quest completely before they changed it. Other than that, there's been few quests I've really disliked or found to be overly grindy...
 
And like Vic above says the combat is so much fun a little grind doesn't bother me too much.
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Good lord, yes, I remember that feather quest. I'm glad they changed it. xD
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I liked the quest content for the most part, in spite of the absence of options.  One thing that really bothered me about the quest content, however, is that doing the zone story and ignoring the Tasks is optimal, to the extent that the more quests you complete, the longer it will take you to gain experience.  Don't get me wrong - I like that they're negligible - I just hate that neglecting them is strictly better than doing them.
 
I get that they want to avoid the WoW effect, where if you do all of the quests in a zone you outlevel the area before you've done all the story quests.  I like that the most efficient way to quest is to play through the main story.  I just wish the Tasks quests had some reward other than experience, so that doing them wasn't counter-productive.  The fact that they reward experience fools players who don't analyze or research the gameplay into thinking they're working toward a goal that they're working against.  It leaves a bad taste in my mouth.	
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			I love the content, Id like the leveling not to take so damn long :( Also the attunement really turns me off from ever doing that again :(	
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I'm going to go ahead and write out what I think went well and not so well with the levelling experience.
 
The Good:
Zones are wide and have plenty of explorable areas; generally with something worthwhile in them.
Plenty of quests for each zone which means you're never forced to do mob grinding to level up.
Challenges are a fun and refreshing break from the regular questlines; the reward system is great in theory but is ruined by the random stats on rewards.(which I'll get to later)
The engine is fast and it's very easy/fun getting around with mounts that can jump high and mobility skills. (like urgency/leap)
Aesthetics; The zones are very well crafted and look beautiful. The music is great as well and really sets the mood.
The Bad:
Some quests require you to kill far too many mobs to the point of tedium; the hunt quests in Wilderrun are probably the best example of this.
Some challenges require you to complete more objectives than is reasonable in the given time. This usually happens in areas where the mob density is sparse or more than one player is trying to complete the challenge at the same time.
Random itemisation; While I'm sure that the developers are aware of this one; completing an objective only to be rewarded with a piece of gear that is literally useless for all classes is just not fun. All gear should roll with stat and rune variance, but the stats should make sense for a class that can wear that armour. (ie: Brut and Focus regen should never be on the same piece of armour, ever.) There should be checks in place which encourage the game to drop gear that is suited for the class that an individual is playing.
Lack of incentives to do dungeons and adventures means that most players reach endgame without having done a single one. These should be shoved down your throat daily with massive XP rewards, like they do in every other mmo.
Little incentive to re-visit shiphands; I'm hoping the next drop will address this.
The not so sure:
Quest XP in relation to level; Alot of people know by now that if you do quests that are 2-3 levels higher than your characters current level; you can level up considerably faster than if you were to do quests the same as your current level. Obviously the downside with this is that you forfeit the reputation gains since you'll be outlevelling zones quickly.	
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Also the attunement really turns me off from ever doing that again :(
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I've been pretty critical of Wildstar's leveling in the past. My first run through definitely felt grindy— in particular I disliked the accidental primal pull deaths, also the amount of visual stuff was overkill— but I was also playing to get to max level ASAP, so there was a push. I don't regret playing that way, because discovering endgame's potential is always critical to my MMO play experience and I really needed the gold income only a level 50 can get (housing addiction, oh yea). So I didn't really approach the content as worthwhile.
 
More recently I created an Exile alt, chose Soldier instead of Settler, and basically tried to run the character as a completionist. Did all the quests, including path stuff, the challenges, read the dialogues (mostly), the lore, etc. And it was a much, much more enjoyable experience, at least as far as I made it... about level 11.
 
This leads to my now primary criticism of leveling. it's not really about the experience, it's about the lack of QOL for alt characters in an MMO game. I don't want to grind all the reps again, couldn't possibly get all the decor I own on my main, etc. For me, playing an alt and having fun with it takes way too long. I don't want to feel like every time is running a main again, as far as what's required to get to where I want to be.
 
So overall I think the leveling play experience is good, and I would enjoy more characters, but there needs to be a lot more freedom between them before I'd ever consider treating leveling as a primary part of my game time with Wildstar. A good start would be shared crate across all characters for decor... it's absurd how many expensive items my main has that simply don't suit her plot. I've probably got about 40+ plat going to waste right now and that is a big oversight. :(  Attunement and AMPs/APs shared across account would also be great. I'd also like it if the leveling experience from 1-50 was faster, just so I can continue playing it with the intention to experience everything I come across. It's super fun, but it would take forever for one character to hit max that way.	
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My one character is only 16 at the moment but so far, I'm absolutely loving the content. I've actually gone back to get quests after they offered almost no XP compared to what I need to level. I plan to take my time and continue leveling that way and I hope they never speed up the leveling process. Frankly I wish it were harder. Remember when just getting a level after a certain point in an mmo was an accomplishment?
 
IMO that's what the genre has been lacking lately. Nobody feels connected to their character anymore because it's all about rushing up endgame. So, people max out in a week or so then wonder where all the content is. These are the same cupcakes who post questions like "What's the fastest way to get to lvl cap?"
 
I can't speak on leveling alts yet but that's one more reason I'm taking my time. Hopefully by the time I'm ready to they'll have new content.	
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			I will preface this by saying I generally don't like leveling in any MMORPG as I find it is just a grind until I can get to endgame group content.  I also played in closed beta so already did the leveling process (I played opposite faction to try to keep it fresh for my main).  Like most areas of the game, Wildstar's combat makes up for a lot of shortcomings in the leveling process.  The leveling process is entirely linear after ~20, which is a major problem with the replay value.  The pocket of efficient leveling is too narrow, which again limits choice in terms of players wanting to finish certain zones/questlines and skip as much as they can in others.  Early zone travel time can get a little excessive at times, but the rental mounts certainly help.In terms of individual zones, Whitevale is too slow, especially with it mostly being a whitewash snow zone and the difficulty increasing with certain classes not really blooming until a bit later, and while I like Lopps, there are too many quests for that marriage.  Wilderrun also tends to drag, especially if you do the Nesingwary...I mean Big Game Hunt tasks (I made the mistake the first time, but avoiding it the second time).  The rest of the zones flow decently, although there are quests in every zone that are too grindy and out of balance with reward, so knowing when to drop those helps.   I generally enjoyed the challenges, and I never found getting bronze to be a challenge anywhere, and enjoyed the challenge of layering as many challenges and quest objectives as possible.  I didn't mind the RNG of the loot drops since there was plenty of gear from story quests and the gear was rapidly replaced, it was just a nice bonus.  The shiphands were great and a nice break, but again suffer from replay value.  The path quests got boring fairly quickly especially since so many of them were the same gather/kill/locate quest types you were already doing for leveling, which added to the feeling of repetition/grind.  As other posters point out, it was a missed opportunity to increase replay value with a more unique leveling experience.  There were some fun and interesting path quests, but they are few and far between.  Overall, the intial leveling experience was decent, but was mostly propped up by the combat, and subsequent leveling is tedious.	
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For me this is a case of indifferent. I don't think it's bad, but I definitely don't think it's anything worth mentioning. I like the lore presented in the game and the setting is gorgeous, but it's pretty much "Kill X amount, collect etc" as usual. Only few quests in the game stand out like Drusera vs World Destroyer and the world story questline. 
 
I don't have much to say about it other than I hope they deviate a bit more from Kill X, Collect X kind of quests to more jumping puzzles, puzzles, boss encounters, mini dungeon esque quests. 	
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I don't have much to say about it other than I hope they deviate a bit more from Kill X, Collect X kind of quests to more jumping puzzles, puzzles, boss encounters, mini dungeon esque quests. 
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If I find a Simon at a yard sale, I will buy it. Then I will place it in front of my car and drive over it....repeatedly.
 
 
and no....I will not go home first.	
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Great feedback so far guys! :)
 
 
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I'm going to go ahead and write out what I think went well and not so well with the levelling experience.
 
The Good:
Zones are wide and have plenty of explorable areas; generally with something worthwhile in them.
Plenty of quests for each zone which means you're never forced to do mob grinding to level up.
Challenges are a fun and refreshing break from the regular questlines; the reward system is great in theory but is ruined by the random stats on rewards.(which I'll get to later)
The engine is fast and it's very easy/fun getting around with mounts that can jump high and mobility skills. (like urgency/leap)
Aesthetics; The zones are very well crafted and look beautiful. The music is great as well and really sets the mood.
The Bad:
Some quests require you to kill far too many mobs to the point of tedium; the hunt quests in Wilderrun are probably the best example of this.
Some challenges require you to complete more objectives than is reasonable in the given time. This usually happens in areas where the mob density is sparse or more than one player is trying to complete the challenge at the same time.
Random itemisation; While I'm sure that the developers are aware of this one; completing an objective only to be rewarded with a piece of gear that is literally useless for all classes is just not fun. All gear should roll with stat and rune variance, but the stats should make sense for a class that can wear that armour. (ie: Brut and Focus regen should never be on the same piece of armour, ever.) There should be checks in place which encourage the game to drop gear that is suited for the class that an individual is playing.
Lack of incentives to do dungeons and adventures means that most players reach endgame without having done a single one. These should be shoved down your throat daily with massive XP rewards, like they do in every other mmo.
Little incentive to re-visit shiphands; I'm hoping the next drop will address this.
The not so sure:
Quest XP in relation to level; Alot of people know by now that if you do quests that are 2-3 levels higher than your characters current level; you can level up considerably faster than if you were to do quests the same as your current level. Obviously the downside with this is that you forfeit the reputation gains since you'll be outlevelling zones quickly. 
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I love the content, Id like the leveling not to take so damn long :( Also the attunement really turns me off from ever doing that again :(
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Absolutely love leveling. Questing, right? No more warzone leveling.
 
Only problem, after ark ship you gonna grind same quests, lucky if you got different path, you will get 5% some different quests. Challenges help to get feeling of something different. 
 
I hope lately they will make several more zones, so you could level somehow different. SWTOR, mentioned earlier, is kinda same grind, except class story, like from level 25 to level you supposed waste time on this planet. But you can dodge this there because of pops of battlegrounds (warzones) and dungeon ques. WoW would be icon because for every level you can pick like 3-4 zone with quests to go though.
 
But hey, I'm leveling new character and find a lot of new stuff I missed before. Memory leaks or they changing some quests, not sure but having fun with all lore stuff, datacubes, challenges.	
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This leads to my now primary criticism of leveling. it's not really about the experience, it's about the lack of QOL for alt characters in an MMO game. I don't want to grind all the reps again, couldn't possibly get all the decor I own on my main, etc. For me, playing an alt and having fun with it takes way too long. I don't want to feel like every time is running a main again, as far as what's required to get to where I want to be.
 
 
 
 
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Confirmed in the latest 0 to 50, there will be an item for alts to automatically get attuned as long as your main is attuned! (It won't be in the next drop though)
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Yeah from the last boss in GA and you can bet it will be100+ plat....id rather just do the atonement ROFL!
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My biggest complaint about the questing content was how fast it went by
 
97 hours
 
What a huge let down when somewhere long before they said they'd make it 250 hours.
 
Short level caps suck, means no long term leveling progression and mid/late game doesn't attribute to leveling. I hate that.
Of all the "hardcore" this game produced the lack of any real needed effort into leveling was a massive let down and too much casual for me to enjoy.	
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Great feedback so far guys! :)
 
 
 
I respectfully disagree with the notion of forcing players to participate in certain types content that they may not enjoy. Increasing incentives for players who would like to run dungeons and adventures, though? Sure. :)
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edit: another benefit of the daily roulette is that it encourages high level players to help lower levels with group content.
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It's not about forcing players to do content they dont wish to participate in; it's more about giving a massive incentive for people to do dungeons while levelling so that you don't have to wait in a queue for hours to get dungeon pops.
 
The daily dungeon/guildhest roulette on ARR is a great example of this. While levelling is a pretty dull experience on that game; dungeons are quite enjoyable and incredibly rewarding mostly thanks to the daily reward system.
 
edit: another benefit of the daily roulette is that it encourages high level players to help lower levels with group content.
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My biggest complaint about the questing content was how fast it went by97 hoursWhat a huge let down when somewhere long before they said they'd make it 250 hours.Short level caps suck, means no long term leveling progression and mid/late game doesn't attribute to leveling. I hate that.Of all the "hardcore" this game produced the lack of any real needed effort into leveling was a massive let down and too much casual for me to enjoy.
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There are plenty of Asian grinder mmos that fit this role. It's 2014 not the early 2000s anymore the demographics have changed
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There are plenty of Asian grinder mmos that fit this role. It's 2014 not the early 2000s anymore the demographics have changed
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			To me it was... extremely exhausting.  I'm only level 23, but after spending 25 /played hours alone, pressing 123 on legions of bizarrely-cute monsters over and over, I just can't take it anymore.  My WS career was rather short, I suppose.  Perhaps I'll try again in a few months.	
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To me it was... extremely exhausting.  I'm only level 23, but after spending 25 /played hours alone, pressing 123 on legions of bizarrely-cute monsters over and over, I just can't take it anymore.  My WS career was rather short, I suppose.  Perhaps I'll try again in a few months.
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			I'm not a big fan of quests but I love the shiphands they put in to them. Those are very well done. GW2 opened my eyes on leveling, they have the perfect system imo with the tasks and random events. c: such a shame WS is having such an old view on leveling with the quests. They couldve done so much more.But my biggest problem, that could just be me tho, is that the world feels so small! On every meter there is a mob trying to bite you in the ass. Now when the game is releasing a new patch/expansion I can understand the need for lot's of mobs. But atm you cannot turn your butt without getting in the face of another mob and it's annoying. The world feels very small because of it and I hope they will change that. Sometimes less is more. 	
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but I love the shiphands they put in to them.
 
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My main beef with the leveling content is how little variety there is in it. Each faction gets two zone options to start, which then merge into a single, linear leveling path. And eventually the two factions even end up with identical quests/stories. Hell, Carbine even straight up copy-pasted entire sections of zone between Dominion and Exile. @.@ It makes me shudder.
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Did not like: 
1)  Questing not group friendly.  I'm not sure if this was fixed, I haven't leveled a toon since the beginning, but most of the quests did not allow for members of the group to contribute to quests.  Me and my buddy quested together and on most quests we both had to click on this or that, etc.  Also, you had no way to tell who was on what quest (I really liked it when wow added that feature).  I suppose the only real advantage to group questing was renown.  
 
2) Need more questing paths, which I suppose requires a larger world.
 
3)  Questing in Farside ruined all leveling after that.  Loved the lowered gravity!  :) 
 
4)  So.  Many.  Challenges.  Almost distracting.
 
5)  No quests to take you into the dungeons.  
 
I loved:
1)  The humor.  Unfortunately when you hit 50, it's all business. 
 
2)  Shiphands.  	
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This, I enjoyed it the first time through, but it wasn't engaging enough to do it a second or let alone third time through, which is why i have 3 toons hovering around 30
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It's funny how adamant people are about the importance of factions when there is almost no difference in how the Dominion and Exile stories play out once you get past the starter zones. >_< They all encounter the same problems, make the same decisions, the same... everything. I don't want to talk bad about the quest designers, but it's... it's just lazy.
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Great to hear all the opinions.
 
I must also add that I, myself, enjoyed shiphands very much, as well. ^^	
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