Why do These 5 Levels Seem so Daunting?

When I log on these days I have continued to suffer from an odd feeling of restlessness. I don’t think its burnout, especially so early in an expansion, but something is certainly up. With only 5 character levels ahead of me I have had less motivation than ever to level my existing 80’s or even new characters beyond level 30 or so. This lack of leveling ambition feels strangely out of place given the new content and races and race/class combos that are now available. This should be the perfect time to start fresh – perhaps even on a new server and do it all over from scratch. So what keeps holding me back?

Whenever I have felt like this in the past I have just started a new guy and off I would go. This time around I have noticed that I stall out on all of these new alts once I began to get serious about their professions.  This expansion may have only added 5 character levels but the professions have advanced as if it were a full 10-level expansion.  With 75 more points and the addition of Archeology I have found that starting a new character seems like a more daunting task than ever.

This got me thinking about the next expansion and what it might bring. My guess is that the next and subsequent expansions will all consist of 5 levels. This seems like a reasonable expectation, especially if Blizzard is shooting for an 18 month development cycle for new expansions. Increasing the cap by 5 levels is probably more achievable with that time frame in mind.

I think the next expansion will also include a content update to Outlands and any remaining parts of Azeroth that haven’t been already done. However, I think the professions will continue to advance by 75 points each time. From this point forward I feel that a character’s leveling will be much easier to max out than their professions. This is especially true with Fishing and now Archeology. Both of these are pretty hefty time sinks to level up.

I think we may very well have seen the last of the 10 level expansions. I doubt Blizzard is in any hurry to have the max level reach 100. Stretching those levels out over the next three expansions makes a lot of sense.