Improving the Leveling Experience.

[Chiefolga]

Greetings peeps! Olgah over here.
My English is terrible, it is not my first language so bare with me ;p

I was dead-set in having something to suggest, and I was wondering about the possibility to add lore-friendly spells, or more new mobs into the starting and mid areas for the most, Durotar, Barrens, Elwynn Forest, Westfall, Tirisfall, Mulgore, and so on.

I noticed the custom quest for the most part will re-utilize the existing mobs in order to be completed, which is good!
But it would also add a spark of uniqueness if mods tied to each zone's lore would be present for an unique leveling experience, for example, it would be nice to see stealthed low lvl scarlet crusaders in Elwynn Forest taking intel and having their little base of operations near zones that aren't really used at all... they could potentially be used for future quest and what not, like in Northsire and Durotar, players having to kill new enemies really puts a spark on.

There's a small amount of Kobolds living in the Thousand Needles, it would be cool to see them more abundant in the Barrens, given that the Centaurs do have an alliance with them, the Quillboar and the Harpies.
Even seeing Harpies in the human / Night elf / Dwarf starting zones would be quite unique.

Packs with centaur clans roaming the Westfall coast, and trading with the murlocks
Imps roaming the Northsire Abbey zone near the Burning Steppes mountains where the Defias are since it's the closest part where demonic activity seems to seep through, after all seeing more spell casters is quite the challenge for low lvls. There was warlocks among the Defias brotherhood, not sure why they just "Put the fireball mage there and repeat" instead of seeing more warlocks among them.

I could give more examples, that would be easy to add and be much more Lore-friendly in several zones.
Or simply putting more challenging rare-elites with long spawn rates with their own spells could of been quite an eye-candy, common loot of course, I seen the kobold rare / harvest rare / spider rare from each leveling human zone it was tiresome. (There used to be a Ghoul rare that spawns in a cemetery near the Westfall tin mine, but never saw it in this server, which made sense for being in said cemetery)

I was gonna suggest at first, adding lore-friendly spells to starting and mid-term mobs but I guess that'll be too much and probably may cause conflict (I have no idea about it, maybe not and I'm just overthinking it).

Like Demoralizing Growl for wolves, boars, Panters and anything from the starting zones reducing % Attack damage and spell damage. (Usually this would make perfect specialized pets for hunters in the end, although I guess once they get tammed they will lose these spells, the idea is just to make the leveling experience with a sprinkle extra of seasoning)

Shadowbolt / Mind Blast, for specialized Kobolds, murlocks, and Defias casters.

Quill Shot, or Snout Snort for Quillboars in which one is a bleed, the other a booger poison basically.

I guess the community can come up with better results that won't affect the gameplay at all, more than just giving it a rich and re-playable value when deciding to level up another toon.

Just the idea of seeing a Centaur or a rare Scarlet crusade mob roaming Elwynn Forest looks rather appealing, and as I said, it might end spawning more quests later on.

[Roxanneflowers]

For a long time, I've kind of wondered about the Ashenvale Outrunners south of Splintertree Post, who have to all be Rogue class with Stealth (because you can't move while in Shadowmeld). Always felt like a missed opportunity for a quest out of Astranaar or Forest Song to contact some of the Ashenvale Outrunners and bring back reports on what they've been observing in their part of the forest (near "enemy" lines of not only Splintertree Post but also the Orc camp near the pass into The Barrens) for the Alliance. Basically a step and fetch of intel reporting from Night Elves who are stealthed and patrolling south of Splintertree Post, and close to Felfire Hill.

[Axoc]

I like some of these concepts but I don't think all could be done in a balanced or lore-friendly way.
Why would centaurs be in Elwynn / Westfall? Why would harpies be in those areas?
I like the idea of more rares in areas that make sense (rare undead in non-player graveyards, for example).
Spells and other gimmicks (roots, stuns, procs, double attacks, etc) aren't added to as many low level mobs because player toolkits are so small at those levels. Warriors for example practically only auto attack for the entirety of the starter zone and struggle a lot against casters because of it. I don't think adding more casters to starting zones would be beneficial.

[Chiefolga]

I never said anything about adding spell gimmicks such as CC based spells, because I know low lvl players won't be able to deal with it, there's no difference in a shadowbolt from a lvl 19 mob, than a fireball from the same lvl 19 mob.

Asking for snares, roots, stuns and basically another set "Type" it's completely different, than a spell who deals flat damage but has a different school, which is the reason why every spell I said is basically a dot, or a tiny damage reduction debuff like Demoralizing Shout.

Now, new rares with these kind of ability type you said, I'm all onto for that, I would love to see more rares out in the wild.

I know Harpies won't be roaming Westfall, nor Centaurs, but that was basically an example, Duskwood would be more interesting if shirt-less humans with only leggins were wandering around all dazed in smaller areas, at simple glance we're all knowing they're Worgens who just went through a human transformation, same with more worgens to be seen in Tirisfal Glades.

And it's just a human model with two skills, nothing THAT out of the ordinary.
Like a Geomance Kobold would be as a Bane Kobold casting shadowbolt, a warrior will be struggling no matter what, if they struggle with a geomancer it makes no difference at all more than a "cosmetic" type of change.

Extending races of mobs through "Next" areas sounds like a more appropriate Lore-Friendly.
Like a malfunctioning Harvest in Elwynn Forest since they're in Westfall.
Kobolds in the Barrens.
Worgens in Tirisfal.
And so on, and on.

I'm game with more rares tho!

[Mac]

For a long time, I've kind of wondered about the Ashenvale Outrunners south of Splintertree Post, who have to all be Rogue class with Stealth (because you can't move while in Shadowmeld). Always felt like a missed opportunity for a quest out of Astranaar or Forest Song to contact some of the Ashenvale Outrunners and bring back reports on what they've been observing in their part of the forest (near "enemy" lines of not only Splintertree Post but also the Orc camp near the pass into The Barrens) for the Alliance. Basically a step and fetch of intel reporting from Night Elves who are stealthed and patrolling south of Splintertree Post, and close to Felfire Hill.

Pretty sure this is what they're investigating considering they're all around that Forsaken camp.

[Steyr]

Greetings, Olgah.

Thank you for your ideas. It is always great to see people trying to improve the server, make it more unique and enjoyable. And since we're in discussion section of the forums, I will answer your wall of text with mine.

Warcraft has a long line of lore, and even though Blizzards rewrite or add to it in every new release, there are certain events in earlier games that cannot just be shrugged off and are considered canon. That means that certain factions are effectively tied to geographical locations and to their alliances / hatreds. In that light, there is just no way centaurs (that are nomadic tribes of Kalimdor) could end up in human kingdoms, or Scarlet Crusaders, that are basically remnants of nation of Lordaeron would send their forces as far south as Elwynn forest.

Having said that, I really like the idea of unique leveling experience. Grinding through same 10-year-old quests one has done countless amounts of time grows old and boring on everyone eventually. Those custom quests from Elwynn forest (the only ones I have seen so far) make a huge difference in terms of playing motivation and enjoyment. I have earlier posted a list of suggestions, one of which was making a rotating sets of quests for some (all?) zones that would swap after a while, so the players would get different quests / maybe monsters depending on when they head into the area. (FULL TEXT HERE )
The idea of utilizing unused areas for adding custom content is great, that would stimulate exploration. And having new content to do is always a plus. I just hope the content added would not interfere with vanilla lore (those worgen in Duskwood are not humanoids afflicted by lycantropy).

As for adding new spells to monsters at starting zones, I am not so sure. There is a certain learning curve to starting zones in the game and people that are not very familiar with the game might struggle against additional effects. That demoralizing shout might not do much against warrior’s attacks, but a low-level priest that has to go into melee and barely does any damage at all might be hampered severely by that. I honestly think that low-level zone difficulty rather comes from monsters pulling in large numbers, rather having some particularly strong attacks. As for swapping fireball spell for shadowbolt spell of same damage – sure, if having a warlock caster fits the faction lore.

All in all, I do agree that vanilla asks for more content – especially in mid-level range, between 25 and 50. This is the usual gap of burnout for most people returning to the game.

[Steyr]

For a long time, I've kind of wondered about the Ashenvale Outrunners south of Splintertree Post, who have to all be Rogue class with Stealth (because you can't move while in Shadowmeld). Always felt like a missed opportunity for a quest out of Astranaar or Forest Song to contact some of the Ashenvale Outrunners and bring back reports on what they've been observing in their part of the forest (near "enemy" lines of not only Splintertree Post but also the Orc camp near the pass into The Barrens) for the Alliance. Basically a step and fetch of intel reporting from Night Elves who are stealthed and patrolling south of Splintertree Post, and close to Felfire Hill.

There are certain npcs utilized in one faction quest chains that are friendly to another faction, which has no quests with them at all (like Hillsbrad). This is a great opportunity to add custom questlines, but players of different factions will constantly run into one another, and it's never nice to see your quest npc being slaughtered by someone, after you just spent an hour doing his quest.

Still, locations like Hillsbrad, Ambermill, Dalaran ruins or Greymane's wall are just begging for alliance quests.

[Roxanneflowers]

Still, locations like Hillsbrad, Ambermill, Dalaran ruins or Greymane's wall are just begging for alliance quests.

Agreed.

[Chiefolga]

Thank you all for the replies, I'm glad it's quite well thought over, even before being said!
Makes me excited to eventually level up another toon.

Mobs for the sake of seeing a much brand new view of the game, quest are mostly secondary by this idea, but eventually they could spawn questlines for such.

There's plenty of un-used areas in the game that could be used for some low-lvl / mid lvl grinding, like that chunk of Elwynn Forest in between the gate and the lower left barracks where everyone just goes through to grab the Hogger and the gnoll bandana quest, that's a big chunk of land with a few defias that nobody even cares for, few wolves here and there hunting rabbits but that's about it.

Taken by general information about classes here's a few
A blood mage Defias? that'll be cool to have around early.



A Mage Barbarian quilboar! (... The hell is that?)


Or even warlock murlocs


But you all get the idea, it's just a much variety of things to see that won't really impact that much gameplay-wise, but be a much memorable and enjoyable type of thing as we cleave through new-ish type of enemies in lower level areas.

Like that example I'm sure there's so much free land to add a variety of (re-skinned) mobs and classes fitting to the lore, potentially giving a much appealing view of the world as we level through.
Basically doing this at the unused lands


Nothing too complex, but everything is about examples that could be used as a base,
But hey, if there's simply more roaming rares with unique skills, I'm all sold already.

Thank you for taking the time in reading and attempting to understand my broken English ;p

[Balake]

Those possible character classes are for modern WoW and Hearthstone. Being a warlock is a big deal,i dont think murgl-murgl is up for it