Are you still on WoW’s leveling treadmill?

I have to admit, most of the Allied Race enthusiasm passed me by. Sure, having new races (and, more importantly, new customization options) was great… but was it really great enough to want to level another character from 1 to 110? Or to pay to boost it to 110?

Considering I already had characters of the classes I was interested in playing, starting from scratch just to get a visually updated version of the same character didn’t particularly excite me. (And then there was the fact that they have yet to add anything as adorable as Gnomes.) Still, I’ve unlocked all of the Allied Races and finally gave in and rolled a Lightforged Draenei Paladin. (I blame it on T’paartos. T’PAARTOS!) I have a max level Blood Elf Paladin, but this will be a Paladin I can play with my Alliance guild. It all makes a certain kind of sense. (Or so I tell myself.)

And now I’m back on the (new, improved) leveling treadmill, which looks a lot like the old leveling treadmill. Updating old world leveling to be like new world leveling, with level scaling and spec-appropriate gear rewards, was a massive overhaul to the game… and with these kinds of overhauls come quirks. The one that’s been plaguing me is professions, because while zones scale to your level, crafting materials don’t. Sure, you can go to any zone you want, whenever you want — but you have to go to the zones in their originally intended order if you want to gather crafting materials to progress. And the game no longer tells you what that is, and even I wind up googling to find where to pick up crafting materials. For example, at level 60 you can go to Outland or Northrend — but if you’re leveling tailoring, you need to go to Outland for Netherweave and then go to Northrend for Frostweave. The end result seems to be that you have choices… and you don’t have choices.

Of course, I could just be frustrated because, at level 63, my Paladin is making loops over the Blasted Lands for Thorium veins. Loops and loops and loops. I’ve reached the end of the zone’s scaling, but quests are still green so I’ve been getting in some questing, too, but that probably won’t last for long. Then to keep leveling, I’ll need to go from Outland to Northrend to Cataclysm to Pandaria to Draenor… just like I would have before the changes. (But it’s really my own fault for thinking I would level another profession.)

But enough rambling. Suffice to say that the leveling treadmill is go over here. I’m making good progress with this particular alt, but I doubt I’ll dig up the enthusiasm to level more Allied Races after this (and if I do, they are definitely not getting crafting professions).

And what of you, gentle readers? Are you still leveling your Allied alts, or is leveling so yesterday at this point? And if you are still leveling, how’s the process treating you?