There are several holes in the leveling process. One is the mid-30s, the next one from about 40 - 50. In these level brackets there are a lot of areas that are simply boring (I can't see Felwood any more).

Blizzard openly states that they don't care too much about the classic game content, with the exception of Naxxramas which they cleverly re-use in Wrath. They don't open up new zones in 20-60.

So, I wonder if a starter in WOW will truly enjoy the leveling process from 20-60 all by himself with the exception of a hunter named "cloudhappy" with his cat "cat". Even the gear reward - compared to gear rewards at 60-70 is mediocre.

I did it with my first char and loved exploring the new world for the first time; I leveled my second char and I had fun discovering some new quests. My third char I tried to get up to 60 as fast as possible, skipping content at large. I'd love to bring my Draenei Shaman from 14 to 60 fast, because I know all the classic zones by heart now.

WoW nowadays delivers more (mostly repetetive) content after reaching the level cap than before. If you use all options (Quests - Reputation - Instances - 10/25 Raids - Battlegrounds - Arena and daily quests for cash) you end up being rather busy. Even though I quest sometimes in between twinking, raids, cash grinding and raiding, I have not fully run out of quests with my main at lvl 70.
 

I'm on the other side of the level gap: my main is at level 33, I have levelled on another server up to lv44 and to me it seems that neglecting us 'newcomers' to the game by leaving the mid-level content unattended Blizzard is really showing the finger to us.

In a sense I can live with the fact that I started too late. but then again, I see something wrong in what tem said: "Blizzard openly states that they don't care too much about the classic game content..."

There is something woefully wrong in that. I, as the newcomer, would like to see more content, longer quest-chains and both solo and group playability. Now it seems that the instances of the Old World are neglected and the newcomers are forbidden to access that wealth of content.

Like I said to a friend of mine: if the neglect continues on the upper levels when WotLK comes out, Blizzard won't see my cc number in their accounting anymore.

How hard can it be to put level triggered quests or instances to the old content to 'enliven' the Old World? What if the old end game instances were needed for new content, and 70+ toons would be needed only 10 instead of 40 for AQ? This would leave enough room for 'tourists' of lower levels in there, giving them the chance a) to see the instances anew, b) to try to impress the vets and guilds and c) to level faster in the instances.

but as Tobold has seen, Blizzard notoriously takes the bad ideas to implementation, disgarding the good ones...

Copra
 

This move would be a great shame for people like me who are still playing through the classic content and thoroughly enjoying it (apart from the holes that tem mentioned).

For a start, I think you should only be able to speed-level up to the level you've already achieved at normal speed with another character. So if you've reached level 50 (say) with your mage, your other lower-level characters get an XP boost, speeding up the levelling process to 50.

But crucially, this should still be an option that users should be able to turn on or off, either at character creation point or during the game.

That would seem to give people the best of both worlds, for what I would imagine would be a fairly low development hit.
 

So many jaded players, so sad.

This news is probably from http://www.curse.com/articles/details/2842/ , but half the details are left out.

In addition to making leveling faster , they will be dropping the elite requirement on many quests, revamping Dustwallow Marsh to make STV hell slightly less hellish, and a few other things.
 

On boards and various other places, you see constant mention of the "end game" as if that's the only game in town. It's too bad that Blizzard and other companies listen more to that loud minority.
 

I am starting to get annoyed by Blizzard's neglect of old Azeroth. Why not just have everyone start out with a level 58 char from now on? They obviously have no interest in people playing the old content anyway.

More seriously though... A few weeks ago I rerolled a warrior after I got bored of my mage (raided up to SSC). And I really got interested in old Azeroth. Imo it has a much better story than Outland. It was really cool to get a quest somewhere between lvl 15 and 20 in Barrens that for the first time introduce you to the silithids. A story that doesn't end until you hit level 60. That made me think of a "classic" server, an idea not new to the WoW community. So I went to the suggestion boards on wow-europe and got highly disappointed. Numerous people have been asking for it and even more people supporting it. Blizzard's response? A copy-paste message from one of the developers made months ago that "it will never happen, we wish to focus on new content". Most of the threads just got closed though.

To me old WoW has a story and atmosphere that TBC is completely lacking. I still enjoy the game, but I hope WotLK will have a better story and atmosphere. I liked Karazhan because it has a good sory to it and the place got a good atmosphere. Same with Magtheridons Lair (and I still remember how awesome it was to see Maggy the first time I went through normal Blood Furnace). Gruul's Lair was...meh. But that is probably because I didn't do a single quest in Blade's Edge. SSC and The Eye are disasters when it comes to atmosphere. A pumping station and a space ship? Eew.

If the story/atmosphere in Wrath is just as bad I pray that Blizz opens up classic servers.
 

I have a lvl 70 druid, a lvl 60 warrior, a lvl 70 hunter and am currently levlling a bloodelf mage. While so far I have been able to play in one of the new zones I already dread the time I have to move on to Hillsbrad, 1k needles and STV. I have done all the possible quests at least twice and in many cases 3 times. When I levelled my hunter to 60 (this was before Burning Crusade) I already skipped most of the elite quests and dungeons. For me the interest is in end-game dungeons. I might just wait for Wrath to level beyond 20 to take advantage of the speed-boost.

I understand many people like the levelling game (although you're all weird :p) so making the speed-up optional might be a good idea but I won't complain too much if everyone is forced to level faster.
Heck, no one is prohibiting anyone from doing a grey quest or going to an instance that's designed to be done 3 levels earlier. You'll still not be able to solo that and the experience gain from grey quests is drastically lowered so levelling junkies can still do every single quest there is in their own time.

I'm sure someone will violently disagree with me but there you go.
 

I have to agree with stonebreaker, after having leveled three toons to level 60, and now having two of those at level 70, I find it very hard to actualy log on to my lower alts and play.
First, there are many things for me to do as a level 70, second, there are zones I just don't like, so I end up playing the same places several times. As much as I love my low level toons, I wouldn't think twice before doing /level would it be available.
I see myself as "a level 70" player. What I mean is that, this is where my interest stands. Doing the level 70 instances, grouping up with the level 70 toons of friends, maybe even joining a raid with an alt from time to time. Allowing me to play my alts at this level without the months it will take me to level up, would increase the variety and fun I currently have in the game. Say one night I'm not in the mood to tank and instance, no problem, a friend of mine can take his alt tank and I go as a healer instead.
 

Two things. This "speed leveling" will go live before Wrath. 2.3 looks to be the sweet spot for many of those mentioned changes regarding the leveling process.

As to why not start with level 58 in general? Have you any idea, how overwhelmed a new player would be, with full blown out 58 characters? There is a reason why skills get unlocked overtime, so you get the chance to actually learn how to use them. This is why instant epic character are a no go. You will experience this by yourself when they launch Death Knights. Instantly you will have to handle dozens of new skills. Fun times.
 

I'm a total casual- I've only been inside MC once, and that was at level 65 or so for a doomed "classic" run with twenty people- and I'm really excited to have faster leveling. I played my main, a Priest, up to 70, and now there's nothing for me to do but run the same instances over and over for... what? Aside from a couple of items, he's as powerful as he's going to get without raiding.

So I turn to my alts, and as it turns out, there's big chunks of the 1-58 that I can't stand. I loved Outland- I did every quest available in the zones I played (skipping BEM for being boring) and it was amazing. The old content simply doesn't stand up in a lot of places, and I'd love to be able to get through it at the rate that Outland seems to offer.
 

I'd be happy if they'd bring back XP gains from BG's. That was the only way my alts ever saw an increase in XP.
 

I might have misphrased my first reply. I find TBC totally silly. The game mechanism still compels me but storywise I think TBC is short of a disaster. How I LOVED to see the storyline evolve around the classic content, to be prepared as a young dwarf that there are evil darkiron dwarves out there, threatening our kingdom! How I was intriqued first and shocked later to see the Silithids crawling out of their nest. How I loved to support the Argent Dawn in their epic struggle against the Scourge! All these storylines evolved over dozens of quests in great dungeons and later on in raid instances.

TBC? I call it the "blood elves from outer space" addon. No story worth mentioning from level 60 to 70. The only worthwile storyline is eternally bound to an eternally hardcore raiders dungeon, the black temple. *sigh*

I also found many middle level quest to be the best / funny ones. Who remembers the necklace found in Arathi basin that led over a long quest to the fight against an elite giant princess? Who loved the "diplomacy" questline, which you played from around 25 to 35? Why did the rogues questline in Ravenholdt never get completed? I truly loved the Duskwood questline, even though you had to travel endlessly there.

So many questlines that could have been filled wwith intrigue, mystery etc.?

I think that the original quest designer simply left Blizzard and have never looked back. Blizzard focused on the "high level end content" i.e. raids, triggered by Evergrind Raidboss Tigole who does not know how to tell a story.

Kick Tigole out of the team, reactivate Metzen and some of the original Warcraft III storyteller designers. Until this day comes - and I doubt it will happen with the megaseller WOW anymore - we are all bound with the content as is. And honestly, I don't want to play the old content again and again and again. Even if they build in some new quests. I will focus my playtime for the future on enjoying the addons quests & story (I PRAY that Wrath will have a decent storyline from beginning to end!)

Even with my forthcoming draenei shaman, which I stopped leveling at 14 because I dreaded the levels 20-60 to come - I will play the more enjoyable quests but will enjoy getting through the 20 - 60 content quicker than before. 60-70 isn't that bad if you focus a bit on quests & instances.

Lastly, making the speedleveling optional would be nice. In the end, you can slow down leveling by not logging out in a tavern or town.
 

If you want to level slower, don't log out in an inn or capital city. You can skip the rested xp bonus.
 

Heres a post I recently saw on the WOW forums by SAIKAN.

Several of these Ideas are great. I especially like the idea of increasing EP for instance runs that would actually encourage group play while leveling and maybe some of these new players would actually understand how to control aggro and play in a group when they hit end game.

0. Don't make basic grinding XP faster for 1-60.
Instead, use alternatives.

If you lower the XP needed to level, all you're doing is catering to farmers, botters, and powerlevelers.

Try some of these suggestions instead:

Increase the XP gained from 1-60 quests by 200%. Flag many of the quests as repeatable, instead of just once (such as "go gather x from x and bring it to me" quests).

Increase the XP gained inside 1-60 instances by 200%, promoting "instance-leveling", which is very rare if even practiced now.

Increase the amount of XP that instance bosses award. Instead of just being a regular 500XP kill, have each boss award something like 3000XP.

Make discovering new areas award 500% the amount of XP they currently do. "Discovering" a new area and being awarded experience equal to one 15 second kill is pointless. Why is this "feature" even in the game anyway? Make it worthwhile!

Increase the rate that players EARN rested experience while logged out pre-60. It accumulates very slowly right now, and caps out at 2 levels. Give players more when they log out for the night. When they return the next day, it shouldn't be one minor bubble of experience waiting for them, making it a few bubbles. They still have to earn the experience, they just get a bonus for not being a 24/7 leveling farmer.

Increase the rested experience bonus period. 200% -> 400%, or something similar.

Remove the absurd raid-experience-penalty from the game. We all know raids are even harder to form and function than groups, why do you penalize players for specifically using them? Are there farmers somewhere powerleveling in raids? I don't think so.

Restructure 1-60 instances SLIGHTLY so that they are less time-consuming. No, do not lower the difficulty of these instances, just make it so that it doesn't take 4 hours to clear Maraudon. Change many of the elite junk groups to regular non-elites, so players can actually group up and clear an instance in an hour, much like BC, giving them satisfaction. As instances pre-60 currently stand, many of them are very frustrating, especially for newer players, as "veteran" and elite players now just bypass them due to drops that quickly become outdated, or are comparable to FIVE GOLD auction house purchases.

Increase the stats on QUEST and INSTANCE awarded items. As stated in the previous point, it's absolutely ridiculous that a group can struggle for hours to clear Blackrock Depths, only to be awarded with blues comparable to 5-gold junk in the AH, and only recieve a total amount of XP they could have gained in half the time soloing.

Award experience to players for crafting RARE items, or reaching new profession levels.. Reached Artisan Engineering? Congratulations! 10,000 XP. Expert Jewelcrafting? Good job new player! 7,500 XP. Just gathered all the materials for The Shatterer? 12,500 XP award when you craft it. This wouldn't be exploitable since it would be impossible to have an endless-stream of materials, yet it would also give players that actually PLAYED THE GAME benefit as opposed to just power-grinding to 70. They would still progress forward in levels, while feeling like they are also helping build their character in multiple directions.

Experience rewards for completing objectives in battlegrounds PRE-60 (with an option to disable for twinks). Captured a flag? 2% of level awarded. Captured a node in AB? 1% of level awarded. Blizzard could find the balance and amounts that suit them.

Random useable "nodes" in the gameworld that give a ONE-TIME experience bonus. These nodes would give any character that activated them a one-time (per lifetime) bonus of experience to a player. They could be placed anywhere in the gameworld, have lore tie-ins, and encourage players to do more than just grind one spot, but rather get out and explore. Put one at the bottom of the ocean in Desolace. Put one deep in a cave in Ferelas. Hide one on a mountain in the Barrens. Make players feel interested in discovering, not just seeing another blank piece of land with the same repeating models and sprites.


Using even just a FEW of these suggestions would help increase the leveling rate pre-60, without subtracting from the essence of the game by catering to powerleveling. Players would just naturally progress faster, but feel like they were genuinely accomplishing something while doing it.
 

Damn that's a good list of ideas. It's too bad Blizzard probably won't use it.

I seem to remember everyone around me saying/implying that the game doesn't actually start until 60 (back in the day). Now Blizzard seems to be publicly supporting that mentality. The irony is that there are also now players who ignore the endgame, and only play at lower levels, either just lvling tons of alts, or twinking.
 

[b]Nevertheless I feel that this change is somewhat strange. I always considered leveling up in World of Warcraft as "the game". But Blizzard now tells me that leveling up is "the obstacle before the game", and kindly offers to help me get past it faster.[/b]

The tipping point. It's all downhill from here. Another developer just not getting it. Why not just develop a mmorpg devoted to raiding from the very beginning, since that's where they all end up anyway.

Blizzard has officially turned their back on the one part of their game that was leaps and bounds better than any other mmorpg.

SOE should be ecstatic - EQ2 no longer competes againt the old WoW. Now it's simply one end game competing against another and SOE might screw everything else up, but they do know how to do Raids.
 

Ack, that first paragraph should be bold!
 

You need < > brackets to make text bold, not [b] square ones.

But at least your second paragraph was a bold statement. :)
 

I know. I forgot )
 

I'm not sure it's a matter of getting bored with the old content. In the past, I was happy to level up many alts. Now, I'm spoiled by:

1. Dungeon runs that only last 1-2 hours
2. A lower level spread of dungeons; so the early part isn't trivial or the latter part isn't impossible (Uldaman is the most notable offender here.)
3. Bosses that are more than just tough trash mobs and require strategy
4. more quests that give usable rewards, so I can keep my gear current entirely with questing
5. Quest chains that don't require me to stop and level to complete them.
6. More interesting quest mechanics than "kill X mobs" or "collect Y items that drop off mobs"
7. rep grinds: another way to gear up without the randomness of drops
8. world PvP integrated into the zone


All of these are significant improvements that came with Burning Crusade. Blizzard has raised the standard, and the 20-60 game doesn't measure up. (Notice it's always 20-60; no one complains about the dranei or blood elf starting areas. These areas are up to BC quality.

The better solution would be to redo the quests and dungeons up to the new standards, but Blizzard is reluctant to do that. I'll settle for being able to reach the best content quicker. Until someone does it better.
 

WoW wasn't an immediate hit because of their raid game. Beta testers (at least not the majority) knew nothing about the end game. It didn't exist yet.

WoW was a runaway success because of the PVE experience. Because beta testers got a small taste of Westfall, Duskwood, and The Barrens, and were blown away at the level of quality and polish.

Blizzard is turning their backs on the very thing that made WoW the biggest NA mmorpg ever released.

Blizzard is turning their backs on the very thing they do better than any other mmorpg developer.
 

I read these last 2 comments and I see two people talking about the same game, but one thinks BC is just like the original game only better (to paraphrase) and the other sees Blizzard turning their back on what they originally did so well. Interesting.
 

Blizz needs to leave classic alone. My best friend put it best when he said:

"Complaining about a game you already played through is futile. You enjoyed it once. You can't expect to play the same game again and enjoy it more. Playing WoW, or most MMORPG's for that matter, is like reading a good book. The book has been written. You read and enjoyed it. If you want you can make a new hero and read that book again. You may get some more stuff out of the second read, but don't expect the author to keep rewriting the story for your entertainment."

As someone said earlier, I think too many WoW players are Jaded. Of course Blizz is gonna screw things up along the way, but I think they have done far more things right with this genre, then wrong.

As for the older instances, I am absolutely positive I have the fix for this. FIX THE LFG SYSTEM. If I could farm mats on my 70 priest, while being in a list for my 48 Mage for ST, groups would still form. No one wants to use the LFG system? Fine, take away the /invite command. If player A wants to invite player B, player B needs to sign into the LFG system. Then and only then will player A be able to invite him. If people are too stubborn to change, you take away the tools that allow them to avoid it. Change the LFG into a bulletin board that allows you to list what character you wish to bring, and a relog is all it takes to get that Dire Maul run going.

Anyways, that's my two cents.
 

=##=, if you don't like WoW, move on. There's lots of great single player games out there, or try another MMO. But don't declare it's the tipping point for WoW just because you're burned out or don't like raiding.

People complain all the time about old Azeroth being dead, but in fact the reality is much different. I'm on Norgannon, and I can tell you people are rolling alts like there's no tomorrow. I see others, many of them, in every single zone. Tonight...ran into 7 different people while questing in Feralas. The other day, there were no less than 3 groups outside ZF waiting to start their run.

Just because you're ready to move on doesn't mean WoW is in the decline or anything else. It just means that right now, YOU would probably have more fun elsewhere.
 

Those of us who saw EQ go down this same road have seen what happens. It's the result of a publisher thinking quarter to quarter, instead of long term. You can't treat an mmorpg like other business models. It didn't work for EQ and it won't work for WoW.

I read this blog because Tobold's insight on this issue very much mirrors my own - and plenty of other old school EQ players. The similarity to EQ's predictable and completely avoidable decline are both obvious and frustrating.

Fortunately, these concerns are being voiced by a growing chorus of both current and ex subscribers. The declared changes to exp are a reflection of that, though the absolutely wrong solution. Still, it's a good start.
 

Blizzard has raised the standard, and the 20-60 game doesn't measure up. (Notice it's always 20-60; no one complains about the dranei or blood elf starting areas.

The obvious solution to this is new level 20-60 content which is of the same standard as the other new stuff. It doesn't matter much whether the old 20-60 stuff is as good or not as good as the new 1-20, 60-70 stuff, because it is inherently disadvantaged by being old stuff that people already played through several times. That's like giving people a choice between a fresh cinamon and raisin bagel and a four week old sesame bagel and then saying "people don't like sesame".
 

Someone already mentioned it, but listen to Jeff Kaplan in the Interview on Curse.com

There are not only more XP you will get ,but other measurements:

- new Goblin Town in Dustswallow Marsh, with new Quests
- Many former "Elite/Group" Quests, such as the one with the Ogers in Alterac or the whole Stormgarde Keep Quests ,will be made Non-Elite.

I also think that "Speed-Leveling" is the wrong word. I'm sure the changes in XP will be Minor (maybe max. 30%) ,but still give the people a bit of the feeling of not being Stuck at some Levels.

Als for new Players, the old Azeroth is still a great place. Of course they might sometimes be missing Players who are not available for groups, but then, it's hard to control that issue for Blizzard.

Actually with those Changes the attractiveness to re-roll an Alt are much higher, then now. Which then would be also again good for any new Player joining in.

Of course, there would be real new Zones from 20-60 it would be much better for all, but then Blizz has alot of work ahead, and i kinda agree that it's more important to satisfy the level-70s, then any Alt-Player or New Player first.
(Even i'm a dedicated Alt-Player)
 

I always considered leveling up in World of Warcraft as "the game". But Blizzard now tells me that leveling up is "the obstacle before the game"

I think you're right, but I also think it's more that Blizzard are telling you 'Wrath of the Lich King is the game'.

Levels 1-60 are an obstacle to enjoying all the new and current Outlands content, and so many people have noted or complained about the lack of presence in Azeroth that it's clear that the game is currently The Burning Crusade.

When WLK is released, that becomes the new game. Specifically, levelling from 70 to 80 is 'the game', so you're right that levelling is the game, and you're right that 1-60 is an obstacle. It seems that Blizzard are making a good decision here.
 

What these changes mean is that WoW is now definitely aimed overwhelmingly at experienced players, not new players. This, in turn, indicates that Blizzard no longer expects any appreciable growth in new players, and concentrates its efforts on retaining as many of the existing players for as long as possible.
Bored existing players have an interest in creating alts and experiencing raiding and PvP in a somewhat different role. New players have much less interest, as they will miss much of the content because they “outlevel” many of the quests.

I don’t think this is a “wilful” decision by Blizzard though. I think they are very much aware of the life-cycle of mmorpg’s and, while they still have a pretty good run, they probably feel that WoW has reached or even passed its peak (I am really, really curious about exact player numbers, especially in the western markets on which WoW primarily depends, now that the impact of the TBC expansion is probably waning).

Concerning any new players, as the number of WoW servers stabilises (already has stabilised?), the servers’ character populations become concentrated at the top. There will be fewer active characters in the low- and mid-level content, and many of those will be alts racing through it, who will be of little use to newbies (except perhaps in the case of the minority of experienced players with the “mentor” mentality). By making it easier for new players to reach “endgame” levels, Blizzard somewhat reduces the risk of them getting bored (through what is effectively loneliness) during the journey and quitting early.
 

I'm *really* hoping that they allow us to switch faster levelling on and off.

Sometimes I don't want to level that fast, for various reasons.
 

This comment is surely a little late (almost a month), but while reading the comments here I am moved to, ahem, comment.

While there are possibly hundreds of ideas on how to improve the 20-60 content short of, or in addition to, increasing XP gains, the fact remains that there is to be an expansion catering to higher-level players. It almost appears that Blizz has decided that enough time has been spent getting people to level 70 that they are ready to take those players to level 80 and wrap up a large story arc within the game.

To call this catering to the "end game" may or may not be accurate, but it is what most players will call it. In fact, it strikes me as odd that Blizz would even aim for such an expansion given that their pre-BC content had a few years to mature. I am hesitant to speculate, but from the outside looking in, it seems that Blizz is forsaking the core of it's game, content which would continue to draw and keep players engaged, in order to satisfy players who have reached "the end" and are clamouring for more.

The more conspiracy theorist side of me wants to say that Blizz is aiming for higher-level content soley to satisfy large raiding guilds who have consumed the content so far and want more. Is this too far fetched or are we seeing something akin to "Blizz Sleeping with Nihilum" coming?

Personally I would prefer to see the mid-game content to be improved by applying some of the more "intelligent" design aspects BC brought to the table.

Outlands and the new Draenie and Blood Elf zones brought new types of quests beyond the "kill x creatures" quests of old. To new players this was probably unnoticed unless they rolled and leveled different races and compared.

To old player rolling alts or leveling alts in these zones, it was a treasure to see fresh approaches to the level grind. I thoroughly enjoyed leveling my Draenei and Blood Elf in those zones and currently am leveling a Night Elf through the Draenei zone because it's much more of a rewarding experience than Teldrassil (purple should not be in such abundance!).

Anyway, that's my 2 cents for what it's worth. I'll continue to play until I either get bored or move on to something more interesting, but I still think there is a lot left to be had from this game and Blizz will perhaps get there some day.
 

The way I see this is that currently leveling 20-60 is considerably painful, more so for those who have leveled a few alts than new players. But it is painful for virtually anybody.

Reasons have been mentioned: Too few people in the same level bracket to group with, hence group quest and dungeon runs have to be skipped a lot.

Second is design. Indeed questing stucture of the new starter zones and 60-70 is much better than 20-60 (just compare the travel paths and the connectivity of level-related zones).

Personally I see this as a good thing. Blizz isn't removing the leveling game, just speeding it up. All the content is there to try for anybody who is new to the game. And it goes faster for the alt levelers.

Moroagh has blogged about this a while back quoting Pardo about the leveling curve. Problem is that you don't want to make leveling too long. So with a raising level cap you do need to make adjustments.
 

Again, simply creating a special server for low level characters would suffice. Once you hit max, you get a free transfer back to your main server.

Problem solved.
 

I read this whole blog and found some of the ideas very good but most just not possible. I thought the comparision of the 1-60 leveling to a book; once you have read it it isn't as good the 2nd or 3rd time around. However, what would be nice to see blizzard do is with an expansion add news areas for the lower levels. With TBC ALL the lands are for 60-70 toons, why not a couple of new areas for level 20-35 and or 40-55 this would allow new players to still enjoy existing content and veteran players to enjoy new content with alts.

That being said I still think there can be some tweaking of existing content specifically Instances. An instance NEVER changes, the mods are in the same places, its the same path and design every time you go in. Why can't instance be dynamic built as the group goes in; there are several options with this dynamic structure but not going to dive into that.

Just a couple of my ramblings but i think the best option for leveling alts is to add new low level content to the expansion packs.
 

Like BC, WoLK is going to add a ten level "end game" that current solo/ small group players that have hit the cap can enjoy. At least that seems to the the plan. Pre-BC I hit 60 and hit a wall. I don't really like raiding or PvP that much. Now, I've hot a similar wall at 70, save that "rep grind" has been added to my list of options. When I play WoW at all these days, it's mainly to screw around with alts.

More on topic, the "polish gap" between 20 and 58 that others have mentioned is quite real to me. Having taken two characters 1-60+, I'm finding it hard to get many of my others past the mid 20s. All of my alts have stalled out between 20 and 47 currently. I'm glad to see them do anything to address the mid game.

I prefer any 4 of the long list of suggestions given above to simply lowering XP requirements. I would also like to see additional quests added to zones that are currently empty, for example Ashzra.
 

I got hooked on WoW with all the lore and game content that we were introduced to, especially the dwarven area. Even when I started a human or nelf alt, I inevitably did quests in the dwarven regions hoping to dig up something new about the earthen and dwarf history. I liked the game being left as swiss cheese, with the hope in time of seeing the holes filled in, ie Grim Batol, Uldum & Ulduar, Hyjal, etc. And we saw a couple of those get filled in with the first big patches, ZulGurub, AQ, Naxxramas, etc. But then BC came, and we were treated to no more holes getting filled in, merely more cheese getting added to the table. Adding to the menu is a good thing, but if you leave the holes open in the original offering, then it just feels as if its being piled on top of, with the original content at the bottom getting stale. Yes expansion is good, and increasing xp accumulation helps to that, but if there isnt anything added to the actual original material, then even the quests that people once really enjoyed just gets dull, and soon people wont even want to make more characters to go through the 1-60 content. There is so much potential yet to be added to keep the 1-60 stuff vibrant, lets not forget that area in the interests of just piling on. I apologize if this seemed a bit offtopic but it felt a good place to share it.