If you try to level a new WoW character, you’re basically asking for mad deja vu. Ahead of the release of a new expansion, Blizzard is gonna let players change things up. A lot.
During the World of Warcraft “What’s Next” panel at BlizzCon, game director Ion Hazzikostas announced that level scaling—which was introduced as part of Legion and changes the stats/difficulty of enemies in zones based on your current level—will soon be expanded across the entire game. This means you’ll be able to choose the order you advance through zones and take on quests from the get-go.
However, you can’t, say, rush straight to Northrend and give Arthas a wedgie. Some zones will still have upper and lower limits, so as to retain a sense of progression. As an example, Hazzikostas said lower level Alliance zone Westfall scales from 10-40, while mid-level zone Burning Steppes scales between 40 and 60. He added that expansion content, once only doable in a set-in-stone order, will now present branching paths with both Outland (Burning Crusade) and Northrend (Wrath of the Lich King) scaling between 60 and 80.
According to Hazzikostas, game-wide level-scaling isn’t that far out. Blizzard will begin implementing it as part of patch 7.3.5, which will be on WoW’s PTR in “a few weeks.”