Yup. Scarlet Monastery is a bitch for Alliance to get to. Then again, Gnomeregan is a bitch for Horde to get to (I know there’s some sort of goblin transporter that goes there, but I don’t know the requirements to use it).
I am dual-wielding one-handed weapons with my hunter just for amusement (since I picked up a couple fairly cheap; hand weapons for her are mainly about the stat boosts since I don’t use them much) and it was hilarious when I scooted her up close to a mob (in this case a scorpashi in Desolace) and she began to flail about wildly with her two swords.
There’s a quest that starts from the Engineers in Orgrimmar. Don’t recall it completely, but it takes you to Booty Bay to get the transporter device that makes the transporter work.
Personally, I think the allies get the short end of the stick, Gnomeregan is one of the most annoying old world instances, with an awkward layout, painfull trash, and low rewards. (Comparable with Wailing Caverns, which like Deadmines, I won’t enter again after farming them to twink a hunter). OTOH it’s also the first place I tanked on my pally, which I recall fondly.
Scarlet Monastrey has several short instances, with only a couple of bad trash pulls. That it begins mail and plate drops for the classes that upgrade their armor is icing on the cake.
It doesn’t help that SM gets the Hollow’s End boss, and has several books for one of the reading achivements, while Gnomer got an achivement to…finish Gnomer. The Scarlet Crusade have continued in lore, while the troggs have been left behind. Maybe in the next expansion?
Admittedly, I don’t play alliance, I just can’t get into their lore, or the feel of their races.
That actually is something that may be left for a future expansion. Isn’t the whole “origin of the dwarves (and gnomes?)” thing still a big mystery. It was the major impetus for all of the dwarven excavations all over the planet back in Vanilla Flavor. Admittedly, there were a lot of Earthen in Northrend, but I was kind of flying through the levels up there and may have missed something.
Go to Storm Peaks.
[spoiler] Nothing about the gnomes, but the whole Brann set of quests ending with all the stuff at the Tribunal in Halls of Stone pretty much lay to rest the origin of the dwarves.
I’m working through the area again on my pally (and it’s really painfull not having epic flying). [/spoiler]
I think the race that needs the most attention is the Tauren. They’re simply not invovled in anything. The Forsaken have had a major spotlight, Orcs, Humans, and Night Elves all have rich backgrounds, instances, and new lore. Trolls seem to get a raid every expansion. Gnomes are at least in place here and there (Mimi). Tauren have one zone, and get to take care of the Taunka.
I thought the Mechanognomes dealt with the origins of the gnomes.
It’s a quest chain. I did it AGES ago on my Orc.
[spoiler]Kinda, but you still need to do the whole Brann thing in Storm Peaks to get the whole curse of the flesh story. Unless there’s more in-depth lore that only the allies see.
I really want to get to Alagon to see the culmination of it. The whole Uludar lore is just awesome.
I’d like to see how the Old Gods relate to Sargearas on a time line. [/spoiler]
I just started doing Outlands and Northrend fishing dailies (didn’t have time to level up my tradeskills while I was leveling period), along with some specialty fishing. Last night, while doing the shrimp daily in Zangarmarsh, I fished up a crate with a weather-beaten journal in it, so now I’m an official Fish Finder!
I was also doing some fishing in the highlands lakes in Terrokar and got 2 (count 'em, TWO!) Mr. Pinchys. Unfortunately, my first wish was the Benevolent Mr. Pinchy rather than the magic crawdad. Damn 2-day cooldown…
Jay! You’re riding???
Lord, I hope I don’t step in any of the “horse apples” you and your steed leave behind! 
I’m still on foot, but when would I be able to get a horse?
Or can I buy one?
Thanks
Q
Flying, too, where appropriate (you can only fly in Outland and Northrend).
You can get a mount at lvl 30, but unless you’re a warlock or a paladin, you have to buy it and also buy the riding skill. Your mount depends on your species…I know you’re Alliance and I assume human, so your mount is a horse. Night elves get big tigers, gnomes get mechanical ostriches, dwarves get rams, and draenei get elekks, which are kind of like elephants, but not as cool.
On the Horde side, undead get skeleton horses, orcs get big wolves, trolls get dinosaurs, tauren get kodos, which are like giant rhinoceroses (actually, more like some sort of prehistoric giant hoofed mammal) and blood elves get [del]chocobos[/del], er…gaudy ostriches. Warlocks get a flame-hoofed skeletal horse, paladins get a very stout and armored horse, and death knights get a kind of undead horse that’s quite unlike the regular undead skeletal horses.
Then you get into flying mounts and special mounts that you can buy from factions outside the main ones, and the turtle mount you can fish up in Northrend.
You can buy a horse - well, a mount - at level 30. You need to buy riding skill separately, too. (Warlocks and paladins get a free horse at 30, but still need to buy riding.)
Humans get horses, dwarves get rams, and so on.
Thanks, martu!
I don’t know how this is for all of you, but when I’m in Wow, I am Wolkenlaufre, and I love it there! I guess a shrink would tell me it’s not a good thing to live a “fantasy-life” (I think about my toon a lot when I’m not on-line, even) but what I would say to him is this: “I’m 59 with Alzheimer’s. Who are you to take any kind of pleasure I can still experience away from me?”
It was my neurologist, who suggested I should begin playing, anyway…
And as far as levelling… Hell, I know it takes a long time (I became a 17 without even realizing it last night), but it’s so nice to be able to come here and ask my questions.
And you are ALL appreciated for your answers and advice! Please keep this thread going! I just wish (as I have said before) we could encyclopdia-alize
the whole thing and make it a search engine.
BTW, are any of Y’all getting tired of hearing Ozzy proclaim himself as the “Prince of Darkness”?
"SHARON!!!"
Love you Guys
Quasi
IIRC, you may purchase your first mount at level 30. Cost should be 10 gold for the mount, 35 gold for the riding skill, unadjusted for rep. (You only have to buy each tier of riding skill once.)
Orcs buys wolf mounts in Ogrimmar (Valley of Heroes ?).
Trolls buy raptor mounts in Sin’Jin Village, Duratar.
Tauren buy Kodo mounts in Bloodhoof Village, Mulgore.
Undead buy Skeletal Warhorse in Brill.
Blood Elves get the Hawkstrider mounts (look like an ostrich to me) at Thuron’s Livery, east of the entrance to Silvermoon City, in Eversong Woods.
Humans get horses in Eastvale Logging Camp (Elwynn), Menthil Harbor (Wetlands), and one other place that I can’t remember.
Dwarves get a Ram mount in Amberstill Ranch, Dun Morogh.
Gnomes get a mechastrider in Steelgrill’s Depot, Dun Morogh.
Night Elves get a Sabrecat mount in Darnasas.
Dranei get a Elekk (elephant) mount just outside Exodar, Azyremyst Isle.
You may purchase a racial mount of an allied race once you get to exalted with that faction. (For example, a human who wants a mechastrider must attain exalted with the Gnomes (called Gnomregan).
Warlock, Paladins can get their class-only mounts (spells, essentially) from the class trainer.
Death Knights get theirs doing a short chain of quests in the starting area.
Thanks also for the replies about riding!
For right now, I’ll just keep fighting the “good fight” and level up as I can. I’ll probably pick a “swayback” mare and dazzle my enemies with my swordplay!
Sound like a plan?
Thanks
Q
Unfortunately, mounted combat does not enter the picture until, only most recently, a few special quests in Northrend.
Mlees,
Thanks for the very detailed reply! Guess I have some more killing to do, huh?
On my way!!!
Q
I decided for the time being to just park my paladin next to Old Man Barlo while I work on other toons. I’ll log in once a day to see what daily quest he’s offering, and do it if it’s one I haven’t done yet. So far he keeps offering Crocolisks in the City, Felblood Fillet, and Bait Bandits. I want the other ones so I can get the achievement!
Of course, I guess it’s worthwhile to repeat the ones I’ve already done, since the stuff in the bag is pretty useful and often valuable.
I’m making another try at a hunter, an orc this time. Yay, I can see around him 
I thought orc hunters started with guns, but I guess not. I was fooled by the fact that every orc hunter I’ve encountered in the past had a gun rather than a bow. Just logged in my old tauren, Chimtahna, for a minute to check a couple things. He makes me really glad that quivers have been rendered obsolete, as he was really hurting for bag space because in addition to the quiver another spot was occupied by his Leatherworking Bag.
Anybody else have this problem/bad habit I have of accumulating too many different kinds of food & drink and other health/mana replenishment consumables? I’ve realized that most of my toons have an entire bag dedicated to consumables. For example, my paladin has a 16-slot bag containing her hearthstone, 98 Symbol of Kings, 3 Pungent Seal Whey, 20 Purified Draenic Water, 14 Telaari Grapes, 6 Salted Venison, 40 Sour Goat Cheese, 14 Oronok’s Tuber of Strength, 20 Frostweave Bandage, 39 Heavy Netherweave Bandage, 5 Super Healing Potion, 5 Major Healing Potion, 5 Super Mana Potion, and 5 Major Mana Potion. My main issue is that I tend to hang onto older food/drink/potion items even after I’ve graduated up to the next level of consumable. My logical reasoning is that I keep them for when I have lesser wounds, because if I’m only down 4000 HPs I feel like it’s a waste to use a consumable that replenishes 7500 HP. But food & drink are cheap, so I don’t know why I have such a hard time just vendoring the lower-level stuff. And I definitely don’t need to carry around four stacks of potions. I hardly ever use potions!
Nice!
The easiest way to do it is to meet a friend there. Run (or ride) down to the hot springs, and then turn each other into bunnies. Stay in one spot until you lay and egg, and hearth out.
I wish there was a role-playing server where everyone joined it to role-play. I quite enjoy doing it as well, but it just blows the feeling when you have a bunch of asses arguing politics and telling Chuck Norris jokes on trade chat.
By the way, I’m turning 51 in a couple of weeks and quite a few of the people I play WoW with are older than me, including a couple in their 70s.
Everybody’s in for something different. If you’re really enjoying playing, don’t let people guilt you into feeling you should be leveling faster. The last new character I started was a dranei holy priest (almost 3 years playing WoW and I’d never tried a dranei). I took my time and did every single quest up to level 20–actually read the quest text and paid attention to the lore. It was a blast. Every other character I’ve started I was trying desperately to catch up to (or keep up with) friends who had far more time than me. It was “Level now! Don’t take time for that–it doesn’t give much experience!” Now that my main is level 80, I’m enjoying doing things with him I missed first time around, too.
Play it, enjoy it, and don’t let anyone else tell you how you should be experiencing it!
I finally broke that habit.
I have a bank toon, and when I “outgrow” good potions and buff foods, I send them off to him. Next time I have another character in the right level range, he gets to use them. Water and “non-buff” foods just get vendored. If I have six different foods, all good for the same amount of health, I’ll dump all but one and buy a stack or two of that one.
My mage can make his own food, but I still tend to carry a few different buff foods, depending on whether I need spell power or stamina or whatever.