Will day 1 be a total mess?

have a normal leveling, who cares about others taking MY elites xd

This, i will of course be fighting for tags if I do decide to lvl the moment its launched.. But I am strongly considering just waking up early and starting my adventure then!

Questing works if you log on instantly and get basically a 10 minute headstart by speeding thru quests like a robot while the average player is trying to find the auto loot interface option.
If you miss that window by a few mins then you might have time to skip quests and grind the nearest level 3 mobs before people start working their way there; you can stay slightly ahead by just grinding until you are high enough to get less contested quests around lvl5-6 if you are fast.
If you are too late for all that and the starring zone is still packed, just explore and get flight paths between starting zones while doing all the delivery quests and killing anything you can manage.

That's pretty much what I aim for on a fresh server. The hardest part for me is accepting that I should just not do the quess if I'm not fast enough at the first login phase. Some sick, stupid completionist side of me just makes me try anyway. Hard camping a couple spawns just to do a quest feels bad and if done wrong is super slow. Like level 3 in 1 hour slow as opposed to exploring and getting level 5 in 1 hour with a bunch of flight paths and possible player interactions along the way.

You can't tell yet how bad the first day will be.
I think the people from Europe have it a little bit easier, of course the servers will be full, but many people probably go to sleep after 3-4 hours because it comes out in Europe at midnight. (+/- 1-4h, depends on the region)

This will probably give the hardcore levelers a good lead before other people start playing again in the morning.

You can't tell yet how bad the first day will be.

Well, you can always go layerhopping and hope you find an almost empty one :lol:

We have no idea how good/bad it will be. On the one hand, every launch typically ends up as a disaster. On the other hand, they should have a good indication of how many users will be playing as we will all be able to reserve our characters prelaunch. As far as the difficulty of interacting with others, we're going to have to see what layering looks like. Layering will be the single most impactful variable to the challenge of leveling during phase 1, and we don't know the specifics yet.
what's your leveling "strategy" in first days of release?

Being adaptable and XP per hour above all else. Take your preplanned route, take your ideal quest route, take your theorycrafted mobs that have the lowest hp/armor for grinding and prepare to use ALL of that shit but also be prepared to disregard all of that shit. On launch on a PvP realm, you're going to get shit on by the wave of users and the biggest factor you will need to overcome for XP per hour is the potential to be locked down in PvP as you begin to enter contested zones.

Having a plan and being adaptable are the keys to success. You should have a general quest route and some valuable grind spots outlined. Most of all, you should be adaptable. The experienced players who have done this several times will have a distinct advantage. This is where the speedrunners and private server guys have an edge. We've done this before many many times... And we've done it in worse conditions. You think 3k players on a layer is tough? Awwww what about 5k? We're used to playing with 12k users.

Whatever launch throws at us, these private server boys have experienced worse. Guaranteed.

I will start with no rush, if killing mobs and doing quest is not an option then I will explore another starting zone and getting flight paths killing what I can along the way, leveling fishing up to 75 if necessary, till doing quest is an option again. Taking it easy

We have no idea how good/bad it will be. On the one hand, every launch typically ends up as a disaster. On the other hand, they should have a good indication of how many users will be playing as we will all be able to reserve our characters prelaunch. As far as the difficulty of interacting with others, we're going to have to see what layering looks like. Layering will be the single most impactful variable to the challenge of leveling during phase 1, and we don't know the specifics yet.

Well fresh private servers have always been fun, but not very productive in terms of lvling! I dont think launch will be as bad as some of the other blizzard expansion launches, I truly hope layering will help a bit on the first few lvls, and then I would like the to remove layering completely from lv20 or so..

Well fresh private servers have always been fun, but not very productive in terms of lvling! I dont think launch will be as bad as some of the other blizzard expansion launches, I truly hope layering will help a bit on the first few lvls, and then I would like the to remove layering completely from lv20 or so..

I was honestly so skeptical when I initially heard the announcement of layering. I outlined all of my concerns in a "worst case scenario" format with hopes that it wouldn't be that bad. Based on what we know, it actually is the worst case scenario which is a bit disappointing hahaha. That being said, we still have a LONG way to go until launch, and it sounds like the community is finally starting to catchup and see some of the glaring issues regarding layering (that were blatantly obvious from day 1 announcement). Hopefully that will put some pressure on Blizz to fix up the version of layering we will get. As you said, I hope that this only lasts a few weeks anyhow, but time will tell.

I'm hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. My guess is that it will be quite messy on launch. I hope I'm wrong thou.

As you said, I hope that this only lasts a few weeks anyhow, but time will tell.

Yes, would like it removed as soon as possible… It might be a very nice fix for initial lvling zerg, but other than that I much prefer a world full of people

As you said, I hope that this only lasts a few weeks anyhow, but time will tell.

Yes, would like it removed as soon as possible… It might be a very nice fix for initial lvling zerg, but other than that I much prefer a world full of people

Yea. To be fair, they HAD to do something. I just think they chose the worst option available.

edit: this layering talk relates to OP's post because layering has massive implications on day 1 AND if possible, I will spend the majority of day 1 manipulating layers and destroying because of it.

As you said, I hope that this only lasts a few weeks anyhow, but time will tell.

Yes, would like it removed as soon as possible… It might be a very nice fix for initial lvling zerg, but other than that I much prefer a world full of people

Yea. To be fair, they HAD to do something. I just think they chose the worst option available.

To be fair I think sharding as it was in Legion and still is in BFA is far worse.. But hopefully they will make layering better before launch, so people cant just jump from layer to layer as they see fit to farm stuff

I don't think it will be a total mess - quite the opposite actually.

EU POV: servers start at 0:00, you already have your character created and can start just after logging.

If you are in the crowd that can 'no life' you will probably be level 15-20 by the time the first morning logins come.

For me, who don't have any vacation planned for the release, it's logging at 18:00 in the best case and then the hardcore crowd will be already in the 25+ areas and the people with vacation will be at 15-20.

I don't think the 'retail tourist' will be there on release day, but I think the first two weekends, especially sunday afternoon will be quite crowded.

Also, as horde I could just grind to 12, get my def stance and do a couple of RFC runs, so I don't have to compete for zhevras and raptors in the barrens...

If you are in the crowd that can 'no life' you will probably be level 15-20 by the time the first morning logins come.

This is fucking spot on. Us no-lifers will ACTUALLY be using sun/moon cycles to judge what time of the day it is. "Huh, when was that, three mornings ago?" The morning crowd will come and go. The moon crowd will come and go... We will still be on. Grinding.