ladies and gentlemen, I give you….

A new home.

SoulShards has moved, please be kind and update any links you may have to the new address.

www.soulshards.net

I am trying to re-direct everyone to the new address automatacly.

Thank you!

Yay! 40, now to get my mount….Wait, what?!?

Open for business 10 levels sooner.

Actually I did get my mount at 30 and don’t get me wrong, faster leveling is “always” a good thing. It helps out on most leveling aspects.

Blizzard has implemented several re-design game mechanics to the game.

• Elites being turned to normal mobs
• Experience increase from level 20 on up
• Mounts available at level 30
• Recruit-a-friend with 3x experience for you character up to level 60, plus some more benefits.

These are all great changes, of the top of my head I can come up with “hundreds” of reasons to justify it. Most important, they provide the “new” players with a chance to reach end-game content faster, but at what cost?

Leveling faster can “make” you miss some cool quests and events, old-world content is almost always discarded, there’s no need from players  to “seriously” upgrade your characters with all the Outland gear at such a close grasp.

The last changes Blizz’ Implemented were, from my point of view, not in favor of the new player!

I’m new at World of Warcraft, I’ve been leveling a mage, quest rewards are really cool, and I’ve had some good upgrades from them, gold is  problem though, it seems I never have enough. With all the spells, abilities and cool things I find in the Auction House, there’s hardly enough for the repair bills”

I know of no New player in a server that has close to 40G at level 30, that’s even less likely to happen if you are New to the game. So much to explore and so little time (read: gold) to do it! If you have experience in the game, it’s great. If you have a higher level character, it’s wonderful. There’s just no way around it.

I grabed some gold from double gathering professions, leveling to 30 in a breeze, and getting enough Gold from Herbalism and Skinning to get my mount at level 30 (yes, it is a big difference). But I had help! I never spent a single Gold coin on repairs. Niam, who gracefully grinded for gold in Outlands provided Dranzig with a “starter fund” for gear, repairs and level 19 enchants. In short, without my “sponsor” I wouldn’t have been able to ride at 30, maybe not even at 40, since my first character ever only got is mount at around 45-ish!

I wonder what are other players perspectives on this subject. Care to share your achivements? How soon did you get the Mount gold?