Leveling Wall

The Leveling Wall

I found that while leveling an alt, I tend to hit walls. I don't mean I constantly run into the side of castles or inns ( though thats been known to happen as well). I mean that there will be times where I, for seemingly no reason, completely run out of motivation to continue to level. Whether I'm able to overcome that wall, or something makes me overcome it, usually will determine if the character keeps progressing or stagnates.

Level 18-22
This is the first major wall. I've hit it on every character I've created, except for the first. The first because the game is new and you have no idea whats going to happen next. When leveling Hooff he stayed at this level for a few months, while I went back to leveling Bob. Waash didn't get blocked very long because his playtime was dictated more by when Fiance wanted to play Zoee. Hotplate started at 55, so she never hit this level range. Tempered, Classy, Huntry and now Onaara are all currently within this level range ( give or take ). Tempered and Classy are likely to stay at this level, I just don't have any motivation to level Horde-side. Huntry became my Glyph-Girl, though she does get some play-time every now and then. Onaara still has a chance, if I can get some motivation to get to 26 or so, I should be out of danger.

I think the reason people hit this wall is because this is the level range where they get out of their starting areas. This means that my Draenei get out of Azuremyst and usually head to Darkshore or Stormwind. This means leaving the logically placed, nicely clustered quest arrangement of BC and back to the sprawling quests of Vanilla. I can't even begin to describe the pain that was Duskwood, or worst, Westfall.

Level 45-55
This wall seems to change slightly, depending on when the character went through the level range. Quite a few factors keep the wall hovering around this level range. Previously, Level 40 was when you received your first mount ( now its 20). This meant that usually you would do your best to grind up to level 40, to get that mount. After getting the mount and using it for a few levels, you don't have anything "cool" to look forward to, until Outland. Now, its basically the same, except you get your epic riding mount at 40. Dungeons are also a problem, for the early part of this range you can run Zul'Farrak. That can get you to 50 no problem. Unfortunately after Zul'Farrak, dungeon choice gets sour. Maradon is an exercise in pathfinding, Dire Maul is deserted. Blackrock Depths, which still run by quite a few alts, is huge and if you don't have a tank that knows what they're doing, can quickly become a wipe-fest. Questing is no better, at this range you're a bit too high for Tanaris, so Un'Goro is a possible choice. The problem with Un'Goro is that, depending on your luck, you can get ambused by multiple high level mobs as well as a few roaming elites. Plus the quests tend to be drop-collection quests which get old quickly. Once you outgrow Un'Goro you need to make the 30 min run to Winterspring, hoping to finish off those last few levels until Outland.

Level 64-68
At this stage, the excitement of reaching Outland has faded. The quest make-up is a bit better, unfortunately odds are you still remember most of these quests from the LAST time you ran an alt through Outlands. At least the gear and dungeons are decent. Though expect to relearn a lot of CC abilities, or hope to find a tank that outlevels the instances you're running.

Level 75+
You would think that this range you would have no trouble getting the last 5-6 levels to 80. But by this point you feel like you've just ran Northrend on your main/alt, so everything feels like you've just done it. You still have 1 or 2 unlucky pieces from Outland, and you're pretty sick of the leveling in general. The prospect of some nice, shiny epics start dancing in your mind and all you want to do is knock out these levels. If you look too much at what your character "will get at 80", you'll end up stagnating and never reaching 80. Waash is still stuck in this level.

How do you get past the wall? Honestly, I don't know. I usually take a break from what I was doing. If I was questing, I'll run some dungeons. I'll try playing an alt. I'll try playing the AH. Sometimes I'll try playing a different game. After a while, you're not so burned out and leveling becomes fun again. Why play a game if it isn't fun?