A faster treadmill is even harder to stay on

News from the WoW EU forums, because that's where you go when you want actual information about World of Warcraft. In the US, customers get to enjoy watching community managers get paid to post Chuck Norris jokes in blue text. Blizzard's metrics must be showing that a majority of accounts have one level 60-70 character and a bunch of mid-level alts. I know mine does, and there is one thing responsible for that: Stranglethorn Vale. If The Barrens is a cesspool because it has the absolute worst chat I've ever seen in any online medium, including Xbox Live, then Ganklethorn Vale is a cesspool because of the behavior exhibited there. Level 70's ripping through level 30 players is what you can expect as soon as you enter, literally. On a PvP server, Rogues will stay stealthed at the zone line and camp for hours and hours. I would rather slam my hand in a car door than go there with any of my characters ever again.

Good thing for me then, that this post has made the following announcement:

The first notable change was to simply reduce the amount of experience needed each level by approximately 15% between levels 20 and 60. Please note that when the patch is released, characters affected by this change will remain at their current level percentage. For example, if a character had exactly 50% of the current level's total experience before this change went into effect, the character would still have exactly 50% of the current level's total experience; only now fewer points would be needed to level.

Hey Blizzard, thanks for stealing XP from me. No really. You guys suck rock, hard. Right now one of my characters is Level 51. I have already earned 2,453,600 XP. After the patch, you F-tards are going to leave me with 2,085,560 XP. That's a loss of 369,040 XP that I have already f-ing earned. If someone was halfway through Level 59 before the patch, Blizzard will be stealing right around 600,000 XP. For a look at the full post and a chart showing how much you are going to be taking it from behind with no lube, hit the jump.

First the chart:

Level	Old XP Total	Old XP To Next	New XP Total	New XP To Next
20	167200	23200	142120	19720
21	190400	25200	161840	21420
22	215600	27300	183260	23205
23	242900	29400	206465	24990
24	272300	31700	231455	26945
25	304000	34000	258400	28900
26	338000	36400	287300	30940
27	374400	38900	318240	33065
28	413300	41400	351305	35190
29	454700	44300	386495	37655
30	499000	47400	424150	40290
31	546400	50800	464440	43180
32	597200	54500	507620	46325
33	651700	58600	553945	49810
34	710300	62800	603755	53380
35	773100	67100	657135	57035
36	840200	71600	714170	60860
37	911800	76100	775030	64685
38	987900	80800	839715	68680
39	1068700	85700	908395	72845
40	1154400	90700	981240	77095
41	1245100	95800	1058335	81430
42	1340900	101000	1139765	85850
43	1441900	106300	1225615	90355
44	1548200	111800	1315970	95030
45	1660000	117500	1411000	99875
46	1777500	123200	1510875	104720
47	1900700	129100	1615595	109735
48	2029800	135100	1725330	114835
49	2164900	141200	1840165	120020
50	2306100	147500	1960185	125375
51	2453600	153900	2085560	130815
52	2607500	160400	2216375	136340
53	2767900	167100	2352715	142035
54	2935000	173900	2494750	147815
55	3108900	180800	2642565	153680
56	3289700	187900	2796245	159715
57	3477600	195000	2955960	165750
58	3672600	202300	3121710	171955
59	3874900	209800	3293665	178330
60	4084700	494000	3471995	419900

And now the post:

As many of you already know we've been working on changes designed to improve various aspects of leveling for those making their way to level 60. These improvements, available in patch 2.3 will come in many forms and should significantly contribute to a more fluid and enjoyable leveling experience .

The first notable change was to simply reduce the amount of experience needed each level by approximately 15% between levels 20 and 60. Please note that when the patch is released, characters affected by this change will remain at their current level percentage. For example, if a character had exactly 50% of the current level's total experience before this change went into effect, the character would still have exactly 50% of the current level's total experience; only now fewer points would be needed to level.

Questing plays a very large role in World of Warcraft, especially while leveling and we felt that improvements to this front were necessary as well. Experience gained for completing quests (on average) between levels 30 and 60 is being increased. The increase becomes more substantial as you make your way towards 60. Additionally, many outdoor elite mobs will become non-elites, making many quests which were previously too difficult or required a group much easier and offer the same rewards (in some cases better!). A good example of this change would be Stromgarde Keep in Arathi Highlands, which will become a solo friendly environment when patch 2.3 goes live.

We've also added approximately 60 new quests in Dustwallow Marsh. This should help players who find themselves lacking quests in the 30-40 range. The Steamwheedle Cartel is building the new town of Mudsprocket in south-west Dustwallow Marsh, so you'll have to wait until construction is complete to learn more about these changes.

We're making other improvements to pre-bc leveling dungeons that players will likely find most agreeable. The level range for most every dungeon is being adjusted so that there is a much smaller range between the level of mobs found early in the dungeon to those found towards the end. For example, Shadowfang Keep is currently designed for levels 18-25 which means that right now, players who are towards the bottom of that range (18) will find it nearly impossible to complete the dungeon, while players towards the top of the range (25) will find most of the dungeon trivial. Using our new model (similar to what you'll notice with Burning Crusade leveling dungeons), Shadowfang Keep is being retuned for levels 18-21.

We also want to make running a leveling up dungeon more worth while. In addition to increasing quest experience for dungeon quests, we're also upgrading all pre-bc dungeon boss drops to blue quality items. Some examples are listed below:

Ragefire Chasm
Robe of Evocation old: +3 Stamina, + 4 Intelligence
Robe of Evocation new: +4 Stamina, +5 Intelligence, and +5 Spell Critical Strike Rating

Deadmines
Smite's Reaver old: +2 Strength, +1 Stamina, +1 Spirit, 11.1 dps
Smite's Reaver new: +2 Strength, +3 Stamina, +2 Hit Rating, 14.5 dps

Shadowfang Keep
Robes of Arugal old: +3 Agility, +5 Stamina, +9 Intelligence, +10 Spirit
Robes of Arugal new: +3 Spirit, +5 Stamina, +9 Intelligence, +12 Spell Damage

As you can see there is much in-store for the next major content patch, particularly a number of changes designed to benefit players who are leveling a character. Though we've given you a few examples of the things to come, we think everyone will pleasantly surprised when they see the full extent of the changes discussed above.