Entries in making leveling easier (1)
PTR 3.3: Leveling To Be Even Easier
iTZKooPA on Friday, October 2, 2009 - 23 Comments Tags: easy leveling, holy trinity, icecrown citadel, making leveling easier, old world, patch 3.3, patch notes, ptr 3.3, ptr 3.3 patch nows 
All Dinged Up...Don't Know What To Do.
It's common knowledge that many, many, users return to MMOG when a large content patch comes out. The phenomenon is no different in the lands of Azeroth. Whenever Blizzard releases major content it is almost always joined by an influx of returning characters, thus a spike in subscription rates and server population. After a few weeks, or possibly a month or two, things begin to settle back to "normal" and life continues. Patch v3.3 and the upcoming changes to Azeroth, by way of Cataclysm, may throw a curveball in those assumptions. We may very well see more of the old world being re-populated by the nostalgic, or late-to-the-party players, eager to taste the untainted lands of old. Even if it is at a relatively Sonic pace.
Modifying leveling times began with the launch of The Burning Crusade, and continues to be tweaked with each of Wrath of the Lich King content patches. The largest being changes to mount level requirements and prices, and the invention of the wonderful Heirloom Items that can grant up to a 20% bonus to XP gains. Like the patches before it, Patch 3.3 is shaping up to offer new ways to make getting to the end game a far faster process.
Heartbourne posted the full PTR patch notes as soon as they went live. Below is the subset of changes that directly impact the leveling aspect of WoW:
- Default Equipment: Starting weapons are now more uniform. Rogues now start with a pair of daggers equipped. All other classes except shamans start with a 2-handed weapon equipped and the required skill already known. Shamans start with a 1-handed weapon and a shield, as they benefit more from the shield than they would from a 2-handed weapon.
- Health and Mana Regeneration: These regeneration rates have been increased by up to 200% for low level characters. As a player’s level increases, the regeneration rates gradually reduce, returning to normal rates at level 15.
- Spell Mana Costs: These costs have been reduced for almost all lower level spell ranks. In general, if a spell decreased in cost with a higher level rank in patch 3.2.0, that spell now has the decreased cost at all ranks. In addition, spells learned before level 20 with reduced cast times and/or durations have even further reduced mana costs, proportionate to their reduction in cast time or damage.
- Racial Attribute Bonuses: These bonuses have been recalibrated to even out the amount of starting health on the various races. All races start with a standardized level of stamina, except for orcs, dwarves, and tauren who now start with 1 extra point of stamina. For each class, bonuses and penalties to all attributes have been adjusted so that each race has an equal attribute total.
- Dual Wield: Rogues now know this ability upon logging into the game at level 1.
- Stealth (rogues): This ability no longer has multiple ranks. While active, the single rank of this ability (available at level 1) allows rogues to move at 70% movement speed.
- Summon Imp: This ability is now available from the trainer for level 1 warlocks and no longer requires a quest to learn.
- Victory Rush (warriors): This ability is now trainable at level 6.