Is Leveling Dead in World of Warcraft?

GOOD MORNING AZEROTH! (Thank you Robin Williams) The upcoming expansion “Warlords of Draenor” gives every player a boost to level a character straight to level 90 when they purchase the expansion for their account. With this new feature, you can free up a fair amount of in game time if you are not interested in leveling a character or learning the lore. The question you will have to ask yourself is “how much time you are really saving by doing this?”

 If an experienced player levels a new character, they can do it in about five days (/time played). The quickest I have personally leveled a character to 90 is in three days. This method involves a lot of grinding, not reading the quest descriptions, or taking the time to really interact with the non-player characters. Content will go as fast or as slow as you want it to. When you start to play ask yourself “What do I want to get out of this play session?” Everyone plays differently and WoW is made to accommodate the majority of players. This will let you know what you are willing to sacrifice and what kind of player you are.

 Overall, it really does not take a lot of time to level a new character to 90. There are also other options that already exist to speed up the leveling process: such as the “refer a friend” program as well as Bind on Account gear that will give you bonus experience. Bind on Account gear takes time to earn and is most often used by experienced players to level alternate characters (or non-main characters).

 When Warlords of Draenor releases new and returning players will be able to jump head first into the new content. Leveling may look daunting when you first start playing or come back to the game, but I promise it is not that bad. The question is how much content have players missed during their time away from Azeroth?

 For example, let us say you last played during Burning Crusades (1st expansion 2006). Well, since that time we have seen the reign of terror by the Lich king end. A psychotic former protector of Azeroth loses it and try to destroy everything & everyone (Deathwing). Last (but not least) we cannot forget about the Pandas who were hiding on a giant turtle and shrouded in the mist all this time.

 Each expansion has had its highlights and the content laid out over the course of two years. When you start playing WoW, you have to buy the World of Warcraft Battle chest which includes Vanilla through Cataclysm, then you have to purchase Mist of Pandaria and Warlords of Draenor separately. Finally, you have to pay a subscription fee of $15 a month. Why would you not take advantage of all the content you are paying for?

 For me, $60 is not worth my character being an instant 90, not as long as I am paying a monthly subscription. Leveling or paying for a max level character will come down to your play style and your feelings on the cost. I will always want to level my characters from start to finish to see the old flow into the new content, and to experience the lore.

 Chris Metzen said “Mist of Pandaria was like a vacation”. Well, I can tell you this was one hell of a vacation with the moral decisions made throughout this expansion. How many of you wanted Thrall to kill Garrosh? I did, but in the end who makes the right decision? Everyone has a different point of view. If this is a vacation, I cannot wait for what is next! Please leave your comments and question below. Thanks and I will keep bringing the BOOM!