How will the level squish work?

As time is passing, the global release of Shadowlands is getting closer every day and we are all thrilled, waiting unwaveringly. 

Furthermore, it is useful to be up to date with all the changes and novelties this expansion is bringing, especially when it comes to leveling. 

Nevertheless, Blizzard introduced the level squish and we will show you what that means exactly and how will it work. 

Now, some players appreciate the level squish while others are worried that it will affect the gameplay in a bad way.

Let’s break those myths circulating and see what level squish actually is.

Why do they “level squish”?

First and foremost, level squish won’t affect your strength and power, nor will your character become diminished in any way.

Second, squish is a change that will basically lower the max level down to 60. Simply said, Blizzard is introducing a new scale to measure the player’s level and the new cap level becomes 60. Blizzard further said that the idea is to re-introduce the old-school style of play. 

Next, many of the complaints that came from the WoW community is the amount of time needed to level from 1 to max (whatever it is for the current expansion). To top it off, even heirlooms and other features used to reduce this time weren’t enough to break players’ dissatisfaction. Logically, we all know leveling can be a tedious process, often repetitive and off-point.

In that light, it will be significantly faster to breeze through 1-50 in SL relatively to the time required to get to 120 now. Precisely, 60-70% faster, which will certainly make those who hated to grind happier. However, 50 – 60 leveling will be harder and you’ll need to do side quests along with a dedicated campaign for that zone. 

Precisely, max level characters will become 50 and other anything lower than 120 will downsize from there, accordingly. 

How will the level squish work for the seasoned players?

Nonetheless, old, and new players will experience the abovementioned changes in different ways and leveling will noticeably be a disparate experience for both.

Hence, seasoned, and experienced players will have “more flexibility” than newbies, and they will get to choose where they’ll level.

Still, new players will need to level in Battle for Azeroth first and reach 50 there. At that point, they will be able to access Shadowlands and show their power while reaching 60.

Incidentally, the first stop for all players will be Exile’s Reach, which is a zone for rookies in Shadowlands. Its main purpose is to introduce new players to the new game system and how things work in Shadowlands. Therefore, the main distinction between new and old players, is that the old players will have a choice to skip Exile’s Reach and the new ones won’t.

Anyhow, to make it crystal clear on the effect of these changes on seasoned and new players, we simplified it.

New players:

1 – 10: To level in this range, newbies start in Exile’s Reach, no exceptions.

10 – 50: To make a transition to level 50, newbies will be locked with a limitation to only the Battle for Azeroth.

50 – 60: Now that they are experienced and that they have proven themselves, ex-newbies will gain access to Shadowlands to complete their leveling.

Seasoned players:

10 – 50: Seasoned ones will choose among all the seven expansions where they’ll continue their leveling

50 – 60: Like the ex-newbies above, they will now gain access to Shadowland’s content

Additionally, after reaching level 50, when creating an alt, you will be able to choose in which expansion you will level it. (We recommend World of Draenor for fastest leveling)

Important note: The Demon Hunter and Death Knight will start from level 1

Other changes

With the introduction of level squish, Blizzard also brought some new changes when we talk about leveling. 

Additionally, if you don’t like the fact your level will “get squished”, you’ll surely love to hear that you’ll get a reward for every “ding”. Yeah, Blizzard really wanted to make leveling more meaningful, to re-make it to be the core of the gameplay again. However, we’ll still need to remain patient and see what the rewards will be.

Riding and flying also experienced some changes. Plus, Blizzard removed Artisan Riding, so you’ll now save gold instead of buying it. Besides, riding and flying are now improved with every 10 levels. Concretely, expect to get the slowest form of flying at 30 and fastest at 40. You are only 10 levels away between Expert to Master riding!

Final words

So, here it is – everything you need to know about leveling changes and level squish. Some of us will like it, some won’t, but we cannot judge until we try it. Presumably, the squish will give players more time to focus on other activities, and also make that gameplay more enjoyable. We welcome their determination and actions towards facilitating leveling and making the first step to drastically changing some WoW’s core problems. Anyhow, we have some more reading material coming while you wait for the release.