Leveling Quick Fixes Appendix - Mechanical Learning Expectations

This article is part of a series. Click here to go to the intro article where a table of contents is available.

This article, as the title states, is meant to provide information on the mechanics I expect players to learn as they level to complement suggestions I make in the Leveling Quick Fixes article series and possibly more. The general idea of these learning expectations are that as the player's level increases, they are gradually introduced to additional mechanics and the overall difficulty of existing mechanics increases. However, the 7.3.5 changes to leveling have forced me to alter my original plans of having carefully designed leveling zones since it's easier for players to (unintentionally) avoid them by leveling in lower level zones.

Therefore, I have instead created four distinct leveling brackets from 1-90 and assigned each a pool of mechanical categories to learn and the level of challenge each type of mechanic provides. The level brackets are as follows, with an explanation for why I set each specific interval:

• Level 1-10
• I reasoned that levels 1-10 will consistently involve leveling through a starting zone. Not only does this make the experience a bit easier to design, but it also allows me to provide new players with some breathing room to learn basic gameplay like controlling one's character. To complement this, the expected mechanics to learn are fairly rudimentary.
• Level 10-60
• This level bracket covers the Vanilla WoW zone levels where players are introduced to a wider array of mechanics while maintaining challenge at roughly the beginner level.
• Level 60-80
• This level bracket covers the Burning Crusade and Northrend zone levels since all zones in these expansions were scaled to match this level bracket in 7.3.5. Mechanical challenge increases to the intermediate level.
• Level 80-90
• This level bracket covers the Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria zones since all zones in these expansions were scaled to this level bracket. Mechanical challenge increases to the advanced level to be consistent with Pandaria rare spawns.
• Level 90+
• I will not be covering any level beyond 90 in this article since by this point, I expect players to be adequately prepared for reaching level cap where they will face a new difficulty curve. If I had to summarize how leveling beyond 90 should be like, it should at least feature some semblance of mechanical challenge, preferably with some, but not all, content at the level of the 80-90 bracket

Each leveling bracket will list the mechanics one is expected to learn. This will take the form of categories and a description of the category along with a few examples. Categories will also be tiered to show when progression of a mechanical category starts and ends.

In addition, since I don't expect players to end up learning everything listed within a leveling bracket thoroughly, I will list the mechanical categories in each section in order of priority from highest to lowest. Doing so should give one an idea of how often players experience mechanics from each category within that leveling bracket. Higher tier categories should also occasionally feature mechanics from a lower tier of the same category to serve as a review.

Finally, it's unlikely I'll be able to accurately cover every type of mechanic that I would like a player to learn. This means that over time the article may see several revisions as I determine more appropriate level brackets to learn certain mechanics along with possible new mechanics. One revision I am thinking of doing in the future is to add some example mobs for each level bracket to provide an idea of expected mechanical complexity and power level.

Level 1-10

Mechanics to Learn

Ground Effects I: Low damage over time "fire" and beneficial effects. (Highest priority learning category)

One of the mechanics I would like to see players dealing with is the highly commonplace "fire" that should not be stood in. To this end, the visual effect of negative ground effects should be conveyed clearly with a colored circle that Blizzard has been utilizing more frequently recently since game settings do not always show other particle effects well. I also believe it's a good idea to differentiate harmful and beneficial ground effects early by showing which circular color corresponds to each effect. For example, reds and oranges would indicate harmful effects while blues and greens would indicate beneficial effects.

In terms of how powerful the effects are, harmful ground effects should be somewhat dangerous, but not rapidly lethal. I'd say 8 seconds before the player is put at critical health (or about 1-20% health) from full health is reasonable considering how new players at this level are. However, other detrimental effects can be used with fewer limitations such as slows and other crowd control. In fact, I strongly recommend using non-damaging harmful ground effects since they still convey to the player that standing in specific areas is a bad idea.

Beneficial effects, on the other hand, don't really need much in the way of limitation of power as long as the effects don't severely imbalance leveling content.

Debuffs I: The player can be afflicted with minor detrimental temporary effects. Debuffs are also shown to be a means to telegraph.

Players should be introduced to debuffs in the form of extremely minor negative effects. These should generally not be lethal since the player won't have the tools available to counteract debuff effects but should instead serve as a tutorial to tell the player the effect exists and as they level, negative effects will become more powerful. This means it's likely best to use non-damaging effects that don't hamper a player's fun too much such as by having a debuff decrease stats instead of slowing or periodically stunning the player.

Debuffs meant to telegraph can be used more as a tool that has no negative effect on its own but the player is expected to react accordingly. For example, the player may get a debuff indicating they are about to get hit by a powerful ranged attack unless they leave the enemy's line of sight. Players should be given ample time to respond so they can mouse over and read the debuff, though it doesn't hurt to use other visual cues as well. At this level, I'd say 5 seconds to react is about appropriate assuming that failing to react isn't lethal.

Casting I: Telegraphed usage of abilities, including channeled abilities.

In addition to enabling casting bars for targeted units in the Interface options by default, I think it's important for players to have a grasp on the concept of cast abilities early since they are quite common. This should be easy enough to do since some enemies already use spells with a fairly lengthy cast time even at lower levels. To further improve the tutoring aspect, cast abilities can be combined it with other mechanics such as something in the Ground Effects category. Doing so will give players even more room to avoid harm.

Buffs I: Provides enemies with minor beneficial effects or serves as a means to telegraph.

While players won't have the tools needed to deal with some buff effects, showing the enemy can have buff effects provides an indication of another area on the screen for players to keep an eye on and mouse over for information. To this end, buffs on enemies at this level should generally provide relatively minor effects such as small stat buffs or flavor text. In addition, buffs could also have text indicating an incoming mechanic that shows up some time prior so players can get ready.

Target Switch I: Low priority target switching such as to adds that would typically die to incidental damage or apply non-lethal effects.

In my opinion, target switching is more of an advanced mechanic that should become important to master later on during leveling. To prepare players for that point, it's not a bad idea to introduce add spawn mechanics that as are non-lethal as possible. For example, adds that provide a shielding effect to the summoning enemy like in the Troll starting zone would be one useful way to show players the importance of switching targets

Level 10-60

Mechanics to Learn

Ground Effects II: Fire that deals moderate damage over time.

Building upon the foundation learned from the previous level bracket, harmful ground effects should now be more powerful but not so much that it's overbearing since players are still in the early stages of the game. To this end, players should still have a long window of time to react. Specifically, players have at least 6 seconds to leave the area before they end up at critical health from full health.

Casting II: Some abilities can now be interrupted with a low priority.

Since most specializations gain the ability to interrupt within this level bracket or at least use hard crowd control to stop a cast, they should have some opportunities to try to practice interrupting abilities. To build on the previous tier, cast times for abilities should remain fairly slow but the power level of abilities can be increased to make them more dangerous. However, no fewer than four successful 3-second casts should put the player at critical health from full health, if not more.

Target Switch II: A new target spawns that may require up to a moderate kill priority.

To put it simply, this tierof target switching is the equivalent of accidentally pulling additional normal mobs while in the middle of killing some. This means that creative methods can be used to spawn adds including the usage of abilities that call a couple nearby wandering mobs to join the fight. Note that a couple adds of this power level should be the maximum for a single encounter since due to recent leveling changes, players within this level bracket can easily be overwhelmed by multiple enemies.

Debuffs II: Some debuffs can be dispelled with a low priority.

This category is like Casting II except it's targeted at healers, who will be learning dispel abilities within this level bracket. However, since not every class has a method to dispel themselves or counteract the effects of the debuff at this point, the negative effects should remain fairly minor. In some cases, this just means using debuffs appropriate for the Debuffs I category and making them a Magic, Curse, Disease, or Poison effect if they aren't already.

An alternative to having enemies throw dispellable debuffs at players is to produce encounters where allied NPCs are afflicted with debuffs instead. In this case, debuffs can be much harsher and potentially kill off or severely cripple allies if left unchecked. This in turn helps to test a player's ability to assist allies in more ways than using dispels such as by using healing.

Buffs II: Some enemy buffs can be dispelled or removed.

While I'm not sure if anything beyond Magic buffs will become dispellable again, it never hurts to provide players with the ability to do so with the opportunity to practice much like with dispellable debuffs. Also much like dispellable debuffs, these effects shouldn't be too punishing if left unchecked since some players will have absolutely no way to deal with them especially at this level range.

At a broader level, introducing additional unconventional ways to remove buffs, such as by moving the enemy to a specific area or fulfilling another special condition, could also be added sparingly here to give players a taste of more complex mechanics.

Gauntlet I: A series of fights against enemies with timed breaks in between every fight.

While later iterations of gauntlets are meant to be more of an endurance test, the first tier is intended to highlight the usefulness of consumables by pitting players against waves of enemies with small breaks in between. This gives players time to eat and drink to restore resources while also resetting potion cooldowns. Providing breaks also allows for longer encounters overall without being unfair since in-combat self-sustenance is limited at this level range, but out of combat sustenance is highly accessible at all levels.

I prioritized this category lowest because these types of encounters should be used sparingly so that players don't feel like they have to commit large blocks of time to progress, especially since dungeons are already an option.

Level 60-80

Mechanics to Learn

Ground Effects III: Variant levels of damage over time within a specific area.

Before increasing the damage of harmful ground effects further, I think it's important to introduce various other ways that ground effects can damage the player over time. This includes but is not limited to damage being done in a single burst after a short time, damaging attacks being done to random smaller locations within the area, and so on. By introducing more types of ground effects now, players won't be as surprised when attacks at higher levels suddenly put them at critical health or don't seem to do much damage at all. Variant damage also coincides pretty nicely with another mechanical category in this level bracket.

Aside from that, damage levels should still be about the same as with Ground Effects II, so those sudden bursts of damage and the like can't put the player at critical health unless they fail to react in at least 6 seconds.

Casting III: Abilities that can be interrupted now have a moderate priority.

By this level bracket, every specialization has an interrupt or a crowd control ability to stop an enemy from fully casting an ability. Therefore, the power level of such abilities should increase and no fewer than three successful 3-second casts should put a player at critical health.

Defensives I: Enemies feature attacks that may require the use of defensive abilities to prevent the player from losing more than half their health.

By this point most players should have at least some defensive ability that'll help to reduce incoming damage. Some enemies from this level bracket should have the ability to deal unavoidable damage that is intended to be mitigated. While some of the damage sources can be burst, it is recommended to use damage-over-time effects too since sustain, while not a form of literal defensive utility, is important for personal survivability. 

Note that this mechanical category needs to be done carefully since fighting multiple enemies with abilities in this category is an unfair death sentence for leveling players. To that end, the damage shouldn't be too high and some should be combined with other mechanical categories such as the previous two. 

Offensives I: The player has to do more than a specific amount of damage within a set amount of time or a moderately detrimental effect will occur.

Most players in this level bracket should have some offensive cooldown and many of their offensive abilities. This means it's a good time to introduce mechanics that test how optimal the player's damage output is. These should not be stringent by any means to account for players leveling as non-Damage Dealer roles, but should require the player to specifically target and focus fire an enemy with several abilities to prevent the detrimental effect from occurring.

As for detrimental effects themselves, they can range but should clearly fit the thematic of failing to beat a timer in some way. For example, an explosion that deals damage in an area after failing to beat an enemy before it self-destructs is a fitting detrimental effect.

Target Switch III: The player may need to exclusively focus on defeating an enemy or stopping their attacks on an enemy. 

This level of the Target Switch category complements the Offensives category since an add could be given an effect that is moderately detrimental that goes off if left unchecked. For example, a miniboss-style enemy could spawn adds that are eaten after a short time and heal the miniboss.

More advanced methods of encouraging target switching can also be employed such as effects that deter a player from attacking a specific enemy. For example, enemies could put up a shielding effect that converts all damage taken for a short time into healing.

Death Effects I: Enemies can cause a relatively non-lethal effect when they die.

On-death effects have become standardized in a sense in WoW in the form of certain affixes in Mythic+. While they were around prior to this, it never seemed to be all that common and I think that's a shame since death is a common occurrence for enemies, making it a great place to put various mechanics. Since these effects are being introduced to the player at this point, I think it's better to telegraph that the effect exists so that they can be prepared at higher levels for when on-death mechanics are more lethal. Examples could include crowd control, such as an area stun, or displacement, such as players getting pulled to the area of the dying enemy.

It's also worth mentioning that Death Effects are useful since they provide a challenge to players without having to make enemies damage sponges to ensure abilities go off.

Debuffs III: Debuffs have a moderate priority and "judgement call" dispels are introduced.

Debuffing effects get an upgrade here and while some have overlap with the Defensives category since they'll be damage over time effects that are meant to be countered with survivability abilities, others will continue to be targeted towards healers. In this case, dispellable debuffs will have harsher effects such as ones that reduce healing taken significantly. The power level of debuffs will also vary to emphasize the fact dispels are expensive to use, so players may want to counteract some debuffs with other methods instead of using dispels. Furthermore, some effects, when dispelled, will cause a moderately detrimental effect to the healer such as a burst of damage to make players wary of what they dispel.

Gauntlet II: A series of fights against enemies with timed breaks in between every few fights. Breaks also tend to be shorter.

Gauntlets will continue to be rare at this level bracket but still something players will run into at least once. The previous tier taught players to use their consumables aggressively and this tier reinforces that by providing fewer and shorter breaks. This in turn also shows that drinking regenerates Mana while in combat, but food typically does not restore Health in the same situation, which is especially useful for healers. In addition, the reduction in breaks may encourage players to use cooldowns to sustain themselves and/or attempt to reach the next break sooner.

Level 80-90

Mechanics to Learn 

Ground Effects IV: Fire that deals high damage over time.

At this point players should be well prepared to take on harsher ground effects and one that'll put the player at critical health within just 4 seconds seems reasonable. With that said, variable damage should give players more leeway since some, such as burst damage after a short period, are almost unfairly lethal even for this level bracket.

Casting IV: Abilities that can be interrupted have a high priority.

While some would say that by this point failing any interrupt should result in a player's demise, I personally find such a viewpoint unreasonable. Instead, the power level of cast abilities that can be interrupted should be high, but still allow for at least two 3-second casts before the player reaches critical health.

It's also strongly recommended to utilize other punishing methods that don't involve the player dying such as an enemy healing themselves for a huge amount of health or the like if a specific ability is not interrupted.

Death Effects II: Enemies can cause a harmful effect when they die.

In addition to making Death Effects more common, at this point they should also be capable of inflicting harm. By doing so, even more mechanics can be creatively used. Effects include but are not limited to add spawns, corpse explosion, and flinging the player into the air to deal some fall damage.

Offensives II: The player has to do more than a specific amount of damage within a set amount of time or an effect will occur based on how strict the requirement is.

For this tier of the Offensives mechanical category, players are tested in a variety of ways by implementing harsher and laxer requirements. To ensure all roles have a fair chance of being able to deal with the mechanical category in some way, the effects are weaker if the damage requirement is greater. Detrimental effects in themselves probably won't change all that much at this point since players should have become accustomed to a variety of effects by the previous level bracket.

Defensives II: Enemies feature attacks that may require the use of defensive abilities to prevent the player from reaching critical health.

This is much like the previous tier and the same rules apply. For instance, damaging attacks that require a defensive cooldown should not be particularly abundant on mobs especially if the damage is very burst-oriented. Avoidable attacks that can be mitigated are as always strongly recommended as well. The same also applies to damage-over-time effects that can be countered by more survival abilities.

Debuffs IV: Dispellable debuffs now have a high priority.

This is a simple power level bump to dispellable debuffs and while failing to dispel a debuff shouldn't result in instant death or something equally unfair, everything else should be fair game by this point.

Gauntlet III: Players fight a series of enemies with no breaks at all.

This tier of the Gauntlet is meant to serve as a form of preparation for Proving Grounds Endless and similar challenges such as those at the Mage Tower. Players have to endure for a fairly long time and make the most of all their abilities, especially ones that improve survivability, to make up for the inability to use consumables. Note that iteration time for gauntlets shouldn't be quite as demanding as the content itself and I think challenging players for up to 5 minutes will prepare them sufficiently.