wow Threads of Fate Issues and Solutions Detailed by DesMephisto

[Starym 3,800]

 

The Threads of Fate alt-leveling system is new with Shadowlands and is a pretty good idea - in theory. In practice it's a bit of a mess, as it skips the campaign and moves your alts directly into World Quests, bonus objectives and side quests to provide the leveling, but it turns out it a lot slower than just playing the campaign over again.

Speed leveler and leveling route/guide maker DesMephisto recently talked about the system, it's pros and cons and how he would improve it:

Quote

I've leveled 2 characters to 60, and have 2 at 58 in Threads of Fate.

First I would like to open up with the pros of this experience:

Being able to skip the RP of the campaign

Freedom to go where you want

Choosing your covenant

Aid Quests give Renown (but so do callings at max level, depending on how far behind you are this is a major plus)

Cons:
Leveling

Threads takes way too long to level in currently compared to the campaign.

World Quests

World Quests are almost entirely meaningless as they offer next to zero minimal gain outside of reputation. The amount of anima you acquire accomplishes next to nothing, the gear you get is equivalent to greens which feels bad when the entire system is designed around grinding leaving your character feeling weaker than it should.

Catchup

Literally none are present. I have no access to callings, mission tables, my end game campaign, NOTHING.

Rewards

Gear is far too hard to obtain, bonus objectives take far too long and offer miniscule XP in exchange compared to the campaign. This leaves the experience feeling like a painful boring slog rather than a rewarding experience.

Data:

On average, 6 minutes of campaign nets 36k of experience, whereas 6 minutes of Threads has netted me 50% of a bonus objective that gives 17k experience.

The perfect set up - Side Quest + World Quest + Bonus Objective only netted me 60k experience for 13 minutes of work. This is rare and almost non existent in most situations and even in the most perfect, it still falls short of the campaign.

Solution

Let threads characters have access to their mission table, callings, earn lvl 60 gear to use when they hit 60 (or introduce scaling gear? Nothing significant but allowing Threads characters to jump into heroic dungeons (155) seems useful), change the % you gain for killing mobs, and increase the experience reward for bonus objectives.

All of this would just enhance Threads to be an incredible experience outside of now which is "lol I just spammed dungeons and it was easy". If everyone only spams dungeons, it defeats the purpose of the world, ironic that that freedom I mentioned as a plus is forced into playing only one way to have a relevant experience.

The system definitely has potential, at the very least giving us another option when leveling, so if it gets some improvements it could really be a great addition to the game. Currently it's main function is to skip all the intro endgame quests, as players have been switching to it when they get to level 59 or so, just so they can go straight into the endgame, and today's hotfixes made it so you can do that at level 60 as well.

[Harvey 60]

This is why I choose to level up my alt the campaign way. I have heard from friends that without entering dungeons, the threads method is not much faster. By choosing the monotonous campaign route, at least I have prior experience to expedite the process . Also, there are times when my alt managed to solve some roadside puzzles that my main has failed to conquer, the locked chests, the infuriating chest on a ledge just beyond reach, that rare hidden in a cave covered by an inconspicuous bush, some roadside quests that I missed on the first run, etc. 

[durdyenglish 298]

4 hours ago, Harvey said:

This is why I choose to level up my alt the campaign way. I have heard from friends that without entering dungeons, the threads method is not much faster. By choosing the monotonous campaign route, at least I have prior experience to expedite the process . Also, there are times when my alt managed to solve some roadside puzzles that my main has failed to conquer, the locked chests, the infuriating chest on a ledge just beyond reach, that rare hidden in a cave covered by an inconspicuous bush, some roadside quests that I missed on the first run, etc. 

also don't tell anyone but I actually like the campaign and don't mind doing it again. it's all worth it for the voice line:

"Defy Revendreth? I AM REVENDRETH!"