Design-wise, World of Warcraft Dragonflight is definitely a step in the right direction. Not only did Blizzard remove tedious systems like time-gated content behind long campaign quests and borrowed power but players also got updated talent trees and Dragonriding. However, there’s still work that needs to be done.
If anything, WoW Classic Hardcore has taught players a valuable lesson that both the journey and the destination matter in MMORPGs. While Dragonflight has polished end-game content with Mythic+ dungeons, raiding, Solo Shuffles, and Arenas, leveling is, undoubtedly, the worst part of the game.
True, there’s Chromie Time, a feature that allows you to revisit old expansions and level at your leisure, but what difference does it make when you end up all alone on that continent, queueing for dungeons with Heirloom gear to get to level 70 as fast as possible? The old world, Pandaria, Northrend, Outland, you name it, is left empty because all the action happens at max level, and you have no good reason to stick around.
I am no better than anyone else—I spam dungeons when I have to level up a new character because I just can’t be bothered with full-blown RPG leveling, like in WoW Classic Hardcore. I’d be needlessly torturing myself when I could just breeze through it and get back to playing the game.
Blizzard hasn’t looked at leveling and old content properly for years. The Chromie Time update made leveling a bit more streamlined and logical so you don’t jump from one expansion to another every 10 levels or so, but it didn’t fix the biggest problem—irrelevance. Everything you do when leveling has no consequence in the end game because the fun only starts when you ding level 70. Only then can you start farming collectibles, gearing up, and enjoying PvP and Mythic+ dungeons.
I don’t have a solution on how to fix it, but I know it needs to be looked at because it makes up for a huge chunk of the game. Years and years of content development are going to waste, with Blizzard evidently having no clue how to bring players back to the old continents and revive the fantasy elements.
It would be ideal if the journey was as equally important as the destination, especially because newcomers could be turned off by how leveling looks and that first hour of gameplay is important to hook players in.
It’s possible the next expansion could bring a world revamp, and once again make WoW a full-blown MMORPG adventure, but only time can tell.
