wow Zone Scaling in Patch 7.3.5 & Zone Level Caps

[Stan 4,876]

Zone scaling is one of the highly-anticipated features of Patch 7.3.5. Check out the new zone caps in more detail!

Zone Scaling TL;DR:

• All starting zones scale up to level 10.
• World of Warcraft Vanilla (Eastern Kingdoms & Kalimdor) scales up to level 60.
• At level 58, players can choose between Outland or Northrend (capped at level 80).
• At level 80, players can choose between Cataclysm or Pandaria (capped at level 90).
• Zones still have a minimum level requirement.
• Quest rewards scale up to your level.

Starting Zones (1-10)

Eastern Kingdoms (10-60)

Zone	Level Range
Ghostlands	10 - 60
Loch Modan	10 - 60
Silverpine Forest	10 - 60
Westfall	10 - 60
Hillsbrad Foothills	15 - 60
Redridge Mountains	15 - 60
Duskwood	20 - 60
Arathi Highlands	25 - 60
Northern Stranglethorn	25 - 60
Wetlands	25 - 60
The Cape of Stranglethorn	30 - 60
The Hinterlands	30 - 60
Western Plaguelands	35 - 60
Badlands	40 - 60
Burning Steppes	40 - 60
Eastern Plaguelands	40 - 60
Searing Gorge	40 - 60
Swamp of Sorrows	40 - 60
Deadwing Pass	55 - 56 ?
Blasted Lands	?? - 60

Kalimdor (10-60)

Zone	Level Range
Azshara	10 - 60
Bloodmyst Isle	10 - 60
Darkshore	10 - 60
Northern Barrens	10 - 60
Ashenvale	15 - 60
Stonetalon Mountains	20 - 60
Southern Barrens	25 - 60
Desolace	30 - 60
Dustwallow Marsh	35 - 60
Feralas	35 - 60
Felwood	40 - 60
Silithus	40 - 60
Tanaris	40 - 60
Thousand Needles	40 - 60
Un'Goro Crater	40 - 60
Winterspring	40 - 60

Outland (58 - 80)

Zone	Level Range
Hellfire Peninsula	58 - 80
Zangarmarsh	60 - 80
Terokkar Forest	62 - 80
Nagrand	64 - 80
Blade's Edge Mountains	65 - 80
Netherstorm	67 - 80
Shadowmoon Valley	67 - 80

Northrend (58 - 80)

Zone	Level Range
Borean Tundra	58 - 80
Howling Fjord	58 - 80
Dragonblight	61 - 80
Grizzly Hills	63 - 80
Zul'Drak	64 - 80
Scholazar Basin	66 - 80
Icecrown	67 - 80
Storm Peaks	67 - 80
Wintergrasp	67 - 80

Cataclysm (80-90)

Zone	Level Range
Mount Hyjal	80 - 90
Vashj'ir	80 - 90
Deepholm	81/2 - 90 ?
Uldum	83 - 90
Twilight Highlands	84 - 90

Pandaria (80-90)

Zone	Level Range
The Jade Forest	80 - 90
Krasarang Wilds	81 - 90
Valley of the Four Winds	81 - 90
Kun-Lai Summit	82 - 90
Townlong Steppes	83 - 90
Dread Wastes	84 - 90
Valley of Eternal Blossoms	85 - 90

Draenor (90-100)

Zone	Level Range
Frostfire Ridge	90 - 100
Shadowmoon Valley	90 - 100
Gorgrond	92 - 100
Talador	94 - 100
Spires of Arak	96 - 100
Nagrand	98 - 100

[hDszzT 103]

This is honestly a better way to do it than I could have hoped, with the minimum level so that you cant just go to "high-level" zones right away.

[Oxygen 446]

That's interesting, but ultimately quite strange for someone like me who's always enjoyed engaging into world pvp while leveling. This'll certainly make leveling require less traveling around and quest hunting, thought it could be argued this is also a pretty big thematic downside. In the end, Blizzard isn't really interested in building an epic legacy anymore; everything feels more and more streamlined.

[MZLICH 43]

10 hours ago, Stan said:

 

• At level 58, players can choose between Outland or Northrend (capped at level 80).
• At level 80, players can choose between Cataclysm or Pandaria (capped at level 90).

Does it mean new players won't know full story of wow? And they just spend more time in one zone which may gets boring? And oh lol from vanilla to wotlk or from northrend into pandaria it looks like a joke.. less adventures less fun.. GJ blizzard

[Enhialus 3]

I for one welcome these changes.

[hDszzT 103]

1 hour ago, MZLICH said:

Does it mean new players won't know full story of wow? And they just spend more time in one zone which may gets boring? And oh lol from vanilla to wotlk or from northrend into pandaria it looks like a joke.. less adventures less fun.. GJ blizzard

Do you think current new players really get the full story of WoW right now lol

(If they get bored staying in one zone, this doesn't prevent them from heading to a different one, also.)

Your post shows so much disconnect towards the current state of the game tbh.

Also: in the same paragraph, you raise "not getting to see the full story of WoW" as a negative, but you also raise "staying in the whole zone" (which lets you see the whole story of the zone) as a negative, presuming that it is boring. Hmm...

Edited December 1, 2017 by Ammako

[Sesyl91 3]

2 hours ago, MZLICH said:

Does it mean new players won't know full story of wow? And they just spend more time in one zone which may gets boring? And oh lol from vanilla to wotlk or from northrend into pandaria it looks like a joke.. less adventures less fun.. GJ blizzard

Well.. now with heirlooms you outgear and outlevel a zone pretty quickly and you really don't know what is really happening in that zone, raising level cap to 60 is the better way to prevent outgeared and outleveled player within low level zones, since the gear from both quest reward and dungeon scales with our level

[Dvanom 34]

4 hours ago, Sesyl91 said:

Well.. now with heirlooms you outgear and outlevel a zone pretty quickly and you really don't know what is really happening in that zone, raising level cap to 60 is the better way to prevent outgeared and outleveled player within low level zones, since the gear from both quest reward and dungeon scales with our level

Couldnt agree more, I miss some of the quest achievements for zones for my loremaster cause i outlvl them. I'm sick of lvling through outland for example, about 20 max character lvls kill the fun of some zones. I couldnt imagine the scaling to be better, I'm definitely skipping outland and pandaria with the new allied races i will lvl :)))

Edited December 1, 2017 by Dvanom

[Archimage 98]

Zone Quest achievements are also being changed. Instead of needing X amount of quests, you need to complete the main storyline in the zone.

[Sintharis 3]

Any idea when this will hit live servers?

[Syktris 36]

1 hour ago, Archimage said:

Zone Quest achievements are also being changed. Instead of needing X amount of quests, you need to complete the main storyline in the zone.

This looks interesting, nice Blizzard. 

[Pavnik 0]

Hmm, then we need lowlevel alts for XMog farming?

[Calysia 219]

57 minutes ago, Pavnik said:

Hmm, then we need lowlevel alts for XMog farming?

You'll still be able to go there with max level characters and lay waste to everything.

Edited December 1, 2017 by Calysia

[Orthios 271]

2 hours ago, Calysia said:

You'll still be able to go there with max level characters and lay waste to everything.

It's more that certain transmog appearance sets only drop from mobs within a certain level range.  Though what I imagine will happen is that the drops will simply be tied to specific mobs instead of level-ranges of mobs.

[PatrickHenry 293]

14 hours ago, Stan said:

• At level 58, players can choose between Outland or Northrend (capped at level 80).
• At level 80, players can choose between Cataclysm or Pandaria (capped at level 90).

Thank Jeebus

[krapmyself 60]

I guess this is alright. It worked for legion because it was just ten levels. But I guess it's a moot point for me, I only level up through dungeon queues.

[Harisun 0]

6 hours ago, krapmyself said:

I guess this is alright. It worked for legion because it was just ten levels. But I guess it's a moot point for me, I only level up through dungeon queues.

Dungeons scale now too. So it'll be the same speed or if anything, I think from the experience squish, questing will now be faster!

[Sesyl91 3]

On 1/12/2017 at 11:49 AM, Dvanom said:

I'm sick of lvling through outland for example, about 20 max character lvls kill the fun of some zones. I couldnt imagine the scaling to be better, I'm definitely skipping outland and pandaria with the new allied races i will lvl :)))

I'll be with you, especially for the outland part, I like Pandaria, at least lookwise

[MrPumpson 4]

I for one can't wait to spend the first 60 levels in Westfall.

[Savistik 14]

This is a great idea.  Previously, between resting and heirlooms, you'd see maybe 2 zones per expansion.  3 at "best" if you like content.  So due to the entry requirements to open up the area and quests, you'd see the same couple zones over and over contributing -- IMO -- a huge portion of the boredom of leveling a new toon.  And, if you decided to do some dungeons to add variety, you'd be dumped back into areas with too-low level content thereby exacerbating the problem.

That said, leveling in dungeon finder is way more fun that world quests, but it's not always as active as one would like.

[MrPumpson 4]

56 minutes ago, Savistik said:

This is a great idea.  Previously, between resting and heirlooms, you'd see maybe 2 zones per expansion.  3 at "best" if you like content.  So due to the entry requirements to open up the area and quests, you'd see the same couple zones over and over contributing -- IMO -- a huge portion of the boredom of leveling a new toon.  And, if you decided to do some dungeons to add variety, you'd be dumped back into areas with too-low level content thereby exacerbating the problem.

That said, leveling in dungeon finder is way more fun that world quests, but it's not always as active as one would like.

I've levelled a couple toons through dungeon finder and I'm over it now haha. 

There is definitely something to be said for just being able to shut off your brain and run around a zone doing quests.

Aren't there PVP changes coming too? Will I no longer be insta-ganked every time I go near Redridge Mountains?

[Violentravi 0]

On 12/1/2017 at 12:33 AM, Ammako said:

Do you think current new players really get the full story of WoW right now lol

(If they get bored staying in one zone, this doesn't prevent them from heading to a different one, also.)

Your post shows so much disconnect towards the current state of the game tbh.

Also: in the same paragraph, you raise "not getting to see the full story of WoW" as a negative, but you also raise "staying in the whole zone" (which lets you see the whole story of the zone) as a negative, presuming that it is boring. Hmm...

Rightttttt!!! I thought the same thing... I leveled on PTR today and w/o heirlooms & dungeons it took eons just to get to 25... there was never a point I was like “mannn this story line is rad” I was like “is it over yet?... when...I...110...

[Mendes 14]

7 minutes ago, Violentravi said:

Rightttttt!!! I thought the same thing... I leveled on PTR today and w/o heirlooms & dungeons it took eons just to get to 25... there was never a point I was like “mannn this story line is rad” I was like “is it over yet?... when...I...110...

Saaame! Either I boost or try to level it up... then I end in 60... and still, I end up boost just with professions. 

Haha, I need help.

But I like it.

[Magpie63 0]

Eastern Kingdoms - Deadwind Pass is levels 55 - 56.

Missing Zone - Eastern Kingdoms - Isle of Quel' Danas, part of the Outlands  - Level 80.

Eastern Kingdoms - Blasted Lands is levels 40-60.

Thank you for this post, its a big help. Now i can happily level my alts.