Am I addicted? Maybe a little. In the last 7-9 days I have managed to take my mage from level 16 to level 21 (half way to 22). Some of the quests are harder playing solo, but I have managed to hook up with some helpful folks. I have also ran into some of the unhelpful sorts.; typical juvenile behavior.
In the last few days I had a couple of fun moments. Fist, I sold some swiftthistle on the auction house for 4.75 gold. I have no idea what it is used for, so I have no idea why it is so in demand, but with 34 gold in my pocket, I feel rich.
Another fun moment was watching a Tauren enter Dun Algaz as I was traveling to the Wetlands (Menethil Harbor). I decided to follow this nut to see what would happen; I was kind of curious to see if this was the type of player that triggers all the ‘local defense under attack’ messages. I think Tauren got tired of a Gnome following him, so he started intentionally drawing orc towards me by firing arrows in their direction. After I decimated a couple of orcs, the Tauren grew tired of the game, and left. Good stuff.
Tonight I decided to visit the Elves (or at least I thought I was going to visit the Elves), so I took a boat from Menethil Harbor to Auberdine. After a couple of quests and a jaunt in a Cliffspring River cave that resulted in my death and ultimately some satisfying strategy to escape and complete the quest, I started traveling. I finally called it a night in the eastern area of Ashenvale after I kept seeing 27+ level nasty things. I just looked at a map and realized that I should have taken another boat to see the Elves and I was fairly close to Orgimmar (I assume life would have been hell if I made it that far).
All in all, I am having a great time with the same seeing what is next. I think I need to find a guild that has a lot of players around my level, because I am not sure how much harder the game gets without having someone around to help.
JC – it’s pretty easy to solo your way into the 50’s. My fighter was lvl 48 and had done about 95% of the quests/grinding as solo.
Once you get into the 30’s, Stranglethorn Vale has lots of opportunities.
Dave – could be all me, and that I do not know how to play my mage very well. I am going to keep pushing on just to see what comes my way next.
Sorry, been on vacation with the occassional internet connection. You should reeally do all quests and grinding solo when at all possible because you maximize your XP. A guild can help you with additional info and some assistance for the more difficult elite quests, but most will want you to grind through the levels. Once you get to the 50s, then instances need to be run and that’s where guilds really, really help.
Chris, right now I am not so much into ‘grinding’ as I am into the experience. While I say that, I do find myself farming and gathering just to gain money and items for the Auction House. Not sure how much cash you should have per level, but my mage is starting to put some in the bank.
While it may give me less experience to play as a group, I am find that a lot more fun than going about it solo.