Leveling 1-10

It's been a long time since I played a character at level 1. When Burning Crusade first came out, I tried out the Blood Elf starting zone and got hooked on playing a mage all the way to 70 - and that was the last time I bothered with low level stuff. When I read the BlogAzeroth shared topic for this week, I honestly couldn't remember what it was like to level from 1-10... especially not for Druids, the class this blog is ostensibly about. So I decided to try leveling a new Druid from 1-10 this evening in order to refresh my memory.

Well, I made it to level 5...

There are lots of little nitpicking things that make starting levels un-fun. Just one offensive spell, slow movement, no bag space, and so on. But for me, there one main thing that made the experience unbearable: cliffs. When one is bumbling along at the speed of an injured duck, and one can't get out of an ominously-lit ravine because one keeps running into steep cliffs, it really sucks the fun out of one's evening. Flying mounts were the best thing ever added to the game. When I get immersed in a fantasy world of high adventure, the last thing I want is to be stymied by a stupid wall and have to run all the way around.

I can understand not wanting everyone to have flying mounts right off the bat. They're a nice reward to look forward to for achieving a certain level. What I'd propose for starting levels is an ability to jump up terrain. Much like that quest in the middle of Icecrown, low-level characters would have to aim at certain spots and re-aim their jump target in order to scale mountains and cliffs. That way there's still some effort involved, but it's a lot more fun than cursing at the computer and doubling back across a large portion of a zone.

If that feature were made available, maybe I'd level my poor little druid from 5-10.