Your experience on the new servers?

I started a High Elf enchanter last night on Combine. (Send Timm the
Enchanter a tell!) Now I expected to see, for the first time in
several years, newbie zones full of newbies scrapping up drops to sell
for spells or buy ore to make banded armor, etc.. But I had no idea
how many I would see in every stinking zone I visited. The first thing
I noticed was around 100 people in North Felwith. I see people
actually hunting the rats in the city and trying to do the exterminator
quest. I thought that this had to be a waste of time considering you
can kill the right mobs in GFay and get drops and experience faster
than you will doing that quest.

Wrong.

There was a reason these people were hunting inside a city, there were
no mobs in Gfay. With over 400 players between level 1 and 6 in GFay,
no mob lived for more than 30 seconds. Those guys in the city probably
had more luck XPing inside the city than anyone outside. So I don't
even bother, I start checking out other zones. I try LFay, also
massively populated. Nevermind that. Ok so back out and over to
Butcherblock. People everywhere. At least 300 in that zone. /sigh

So at level 1 I run the wall (avoiding those "high level" aqua goblins
along the way) to the translocator and head to Freeport. It's no
better. But I bind there and zone out to the desert just to see how
bad it is. I have never seen that many bodies, players, and dying mobs
on my screen at once, ever. Not on a raid, not in a newbie zone, not
in PoK, not in the bazaar. The entire screen was filled with tiny
little dots (you can see forever in Ro) as far as I could see and each
one was someone killing, being killed, looting, or laying dead. I have
been in a zone with more people but not with every single one of them
actually on my screen at once. I did find though, that I could get
some kills there and managed to hit level 3 after an hour or so of
fighting for each spawn.

What I did notice in Ro that I did not notice in the previous zones was
that lots of people were letting loot rot. I was really amazed
considering no one has any money. That bone chip or poison sack is
precious as far as I am concerned. A few poison sacks buys me a spell.
Save up more and I can buy some of the patchwork armor people are
looting and auctioning. How can anyone not need every single copper
right now? I started watching corpses and decided that if it was under
2 minutes, it was mine. I felt dirty but I also managed to buy a
toolbox and a few bags (always my first purchase when starting with no
cash) along with some useful spells so screw it, I'm a scavenger.

The next thing I noticed was that mobs move really slow. I don't know
if it's just the lag or if they move that slow on purpose but I was
kiting quite effectively as a chanter. I bought fear, tash, my level 2
animation, and some tiny daggers. I found I could tash a yellow-con,
wait until it hit me to get the pet on it, then reliably fear it. This
allowed me time to med enough to recast fear if needed. Pretty good
experience when you can find a yellow...

What I am wondering is how are the other newbie zones? Are they all
like this? I was thinking that maybe Everfrost Peaks might be less
populated since it is so far out of the way for most. Also I thought
this would be a great place to make myself some newbie armor (spiders
abound there). But I am worried about getting so far away from a
useable enchanter guild. Any Barbarians or Qeynos/SFG Humans have a
comment?

Also I'm thinking that tradeskilling might be a worthwhile pursuit.
I'd like to maybe get tailoring up some and begin selling armor to the
other newbies. I'd bet you could make a profit doing this for a long
time, considering the lack of any loot in the game at all. I also have
considered smithing but that would not benefit me directly. Jewelry?
Ouch not for a while.

Ah well, I better actually get some work done at work...

LOL ... running a halfling druid on Combine ... you are right ... there
were over 100 people in Misty thicket ... not quite impossible to get
MOBS, but tough ... and bodies EVERYWHERE ... shouts of group looking
for ??? Lvl 5+ in less than 12 hours after server was up ... saw a
fair amount of unlooted corpses, but most of it was the unsupported
newbie armor drops ...

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Submitted by: Michael Cumberlan
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