When Did World of Warcraft Level Squish Happen?
World of Warcraft has implemented two major level squishes over the years to help reign in stat inflation and avoid excessively high numbers. The first occurred in October 2014 with Patch 6.0.2, reducing the level cap from 90 down to 60. More recently, the October 2020 Patch 9.0.1 saw levels squished from 120 down to 50 along with item level.
As an avid WoW player myself, I want to provide some history and context around why Blizzard has chosen to compress levels like this. Buckle up for a deep dive into Azeroth‘s ever-changing level caps!
A Brief History of WoW‘s Level Cap
World of Warcraft originally launched in 2004 with a maximum level of 60 – this was called the "Vanilla" game. The first expansion, The Burning Crusade, raised the cap to 70 in 2007. Each expansion thereafter incrementally pushed the cap higher per the table below:
| Expansion | Launch Year | Original Level Cap |
|---|---|---|
| Vanilla | 2004 | 60 |
| The Burning Crusade | 2007 | 70 |
| Wrath of the Lich King | 2008 | 80 |
| Cataclysm | 2010 | 85 |
| Mists of Pandaria | 2012 | 90 |
| Warlords of Draenor | 2014 | 100 |
| Legion | 2016 | 110 |
| Battle For Azeroth | 2018 | 120 |
| Shadowlands | 2020 | 50* |
| Dragonflight | 2022 | 70 |
*Note: Shadowlands launched with a squished level cap of 50, down from 120 at the end of Battle for Azeroth.
As you can see, by 2018‘s Battle for Azeroth expansion, the level cap had essentially doubled from WoW‘s early days. This steady upwards climb led to massive inflation in stats like health, damage, and more – by the end of BfA, players were regularly gaining millions of hit points! Not only do the numbers eventually become ungainly to display cleanly on screen, but combining them with older content starts to cause balance issues.
Picture pulling thousands of damage per second then wandering back to try a Vanilla dungeon where bosses have five digit health pools – you‘d be obliterating everything with a single attack! Clearly things were getting out of hand.
Why Blizzard Squished WoW‘s Levels
Faced with runaway power inflation that would only get worse each expansion, Blizzard decided it was time to do an item level and stat squish alongside compressing player levels downwards. Their main goals with the Shadowlands 9.0.1 squish were:
- Reduce levels from 120 back down towards the original Vanilla 60 cap
- Scale player stats and item levels down proportionally
- Reshape content from all eras to maintain relative balance and challenge
- Provide more meaningful levels and progression outside of end-game
Essentially they wanted to recreate the pacing and progression experience from when WoW first launched, while accommodating over 15 years of added expansions.
This was accomplished via complex formulas adjusting max health, primary attributes, equipment iLevels, and Ability damage to smooth out spikes across different tiers of content. Players retained their relative power and stayed similarly strong compared against enemies and challenges from their era.
Some key stats before and after the 9.0.1 squish illustrates the massive decimal point shifts:
| Stat | Pre-Squish BfA | Post-Squish Shadowlands | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Player Max Health | 1,000,000 | 150,000 | -85% |
| Max Boss Health (BfA) | 4,500,000,000 | 50,000,000 | -98.9% |
| Max Boss Health (Legion) | 700,000 | 200,000 | -71% |
| Spell Damage | 20,000 | 500 | -97.5% |
Big numbers can be exciting in their own way, but I think reigning things in preserves more of WoW‘s classic adventuring feel. Our spells may not hit for millions anymore, but it‘s still immensely satisfying when we gain a level or finally get that next equipment upgrade!
The level compression also gives more flexibility for the future. As you‘ll read below, Dragonflight has already started pushing the cap upwards again by 20. Blizzard likely realized they couldn‘t sustain 120+ levels every expansion without needing an awkward squish every 2-3 years.
Post-Squish WoW Level Cap In Dragonflight
Blizzard‘s stat and level squish accomplished its major goals beautifully. Player power maintained relative balance across eras of content, huge numbers were banished, and players had room to progress meaningfully again.
However, MMOs need to provide new goals and challenges to stay fresh! That meant giving characters another 10 levels for Dragonflight‘s 2022 launch:
- Dragonflight Launch: Level cap increased to 70
Jumping from 50 straight to 70 may seem odd after the previous compression, but it lines up with historical caps quite logically:
- Vanilla WoW: Level 60 cap
- The Burning Crusade: Raised to 70
- Dragonflight: Returns to 70
This creates a sort of symmetry while also giving players room to advance again. Leveling itself has also been reworked to be up to 70% faster overall in Dragonflight – great news for newcomers!
Will the return to higher level caps set off another stat inflation crisis? We‘ll have to wait a few expansions to know for sure. But at least by starting lower post-squish, the devs bought themselves more runway before tuning gets unwieldy again.
If iLevels do get out of control by, say, the 2027 expansion? You can bet your bottom gold coin there will be WoW players clamoring for the great Level Squish 3.0!
The Bottom Line – WoW Squishes Levels To Keep Power In Check
I thoroughly believe stat squishing player levels was a healthy move to reign in ridiculous inflation and preserve classic WoW progression feel. The 2010s saw the cap double to 120 with stats in the millions – completely unnecessary and intimidating!
Resetting the curve back down towards the original Vanilla level 60 gives the number more meaning again. We have room to grow and progress once more without immediately leaping back into crazy huge digits.
So in summary, here is when World of Warcraft has implemented level squishes:
- October 2014: Patch 6.0.2 – Level cap reduced from 90 to 60
- October 2020: Patch 9.0.1 – Level cap reduced from 120 to 50
I don‘t know about you, but I much prefer my max health being 200k instead of 20 million! Hopefully the new expansion cycle gives Blizzard a healthier runway before tuning goes nuts again. But if massive inflation returns in a few years? Bring on the next squish!
Let me know in the comments if you have any other WoW or MMO-related topics you‘d love to see me cover! This is just one example of the insightful, numbers-backed analysis I love to provide fellow gaming enthusiasts.
