For the second time, I started a Draeni Protection Paladin and managed to hit level 18 with her. My path for questing goes from the Draeni starting zone, garnering level 6 or so, before moving her to Stormwind to pick up the human quests. Why this route? The quest rewards are better generally speaking in Cataclysm and I want to improve my reputation with the humans to get a better deal with mounts. Also, a nice little added bonus is that by completing the human starting zone, you’ll be level 7, giving you a slight edge as you quest in the Elwyn Forest.
Since this is my second real time doing the quests in this zone, I came to notice a few things in comparison to the Horde. First, there’s a LOT more mobs packed together closely. My guess is that there’s an expectation that more people will quest together as Allies. Second, there’s a horrible amount of walking. The Westfall zone was terribly put together. I can’t be certain, but it felt as though some of the quests might’ve been leftovers from Vanilla. For instance, the treasure finding quests. That was ridiculous in having you scour the map to try picking up all the different pieces. Yes, I understand that it’s a “treasure finding quest” but you had to do an immense amount of walking that just felt unnecessary.
Next, there’s not a lot of fast moving aids compared to the Horde when moving from one spot to another. One thing I like about the Horde now is that the amount of walking in many zones has been drastically reduced by introducing elements that will take you to the next questing zone. I can’t comment about the other Ally races since I’ve yet to try others. But I certainly hope that Blizzard has introduced mechanics like that.
Another thing is that Stormwind is just HUGE. Orgrimmar feels pretty easy to get around once you get used to it. But Stormwind feels incredibly large by comparison. Not as easy to access some areas compared to Orgrimmar, where everything practically is at the front of the gate or in the rear.
Not sure how anything else will compare. I might try leveling up a Death Knight afterwards just to make me some quick gold. However, things will be tough considering I’m starting from scratch again. Not having any gold, bags and missing professions make things a real challenge. But I like the fact that everything is new.
Already, I started focusing on making gold as I level by taking up mining and selling ore or linen cloth. Copper bar and linen sell quite reliably on servers. However, I definitely need to get a faster mount if I want to do any significant farming. Either that or start my Death Knight sooner and start farming things like cloth, copper and whatnot