I don't have the expansion yet. I decided to wait a little while and make sure my kids had the best Christmas I can manage. However, I am leveling a new mage. I already had one, but she's been through some of the old leveling content, also, she's decked out a little in stuff supplied by my main, and she's holding down a guild bank.
So I decided to start fresh. I thought I would at least have to send the new mage some gold for a mount...not so. She has no professions, yet from quest rewards and vendoring absolutely anything that wasn't a gear upgrade, she was able to get a mount as soon as it was unlocked. At level 37, she has about 60 gold now. She has done no auction house selling, my main has given her no gold.
The new questing zones are nice enough, but it feels like something is missing from the experience. There are regions within the zones that I used to visit while leveling in the old content that has gone totally without a glance now. There are other things are being left unexplained. For instance, the whirlwinds in Westfall. None of the NPCs seem to have noticed them suddenly appear out of nowhere and that they aren't going away.
The Rambo experience in Redridge was interesting, but I think they laid it on a little thick. And what was up with the bow reward? Throughout the questline Keeshan "Rambo" is seen with a really awesome-looking bow, but the reward wasn't that remarkable at all. Yet they called it Keeshan's Bow. Meh. I suppose it's possible that it really was the bow and the hand thing that I thought I saw attached to it was really just a separate gauntlet.
Darkshire was nice, as usual, but the change to the music took a little of mood away from the experience. The general tune is still there, but they've added some stuff to it. In the case of a place like that, less is more. By adding the extra musical tones, they've placed too much into the sound.
Stranglethorn. Wow. It always was a huge zone and it still is. But it is much easier to level in now. I used die there a lot, but not so much now. I made a couple of dumb mistakes and could have died less, but still, my record was the lowest yet. I almost feel bad for anyone supplying their new alts with heirlooms and other stuff from their mains. This new mage is way overpowered with no help whatsoever.
The ease of leveling though is a good for the game, I think. I came into online gaming from the Balder's Gate and Icewind Dale era, and I came to those straight from pen and paper gaming. So I used to expect games to be punishingly difficult. But that was a long time ago, and younger players generally don't come with those experiences.
Still, I think there might be a few too many flight paths these days. But don't think for a moment that I haven't taken advantage of them.
Looking forward to getting the expansion, but I actually hope I don't get around to it till this mage is much further along.
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