Newbie Zones: Ready for Launch?

[Chryorn]

I created a Troll SK yesterday. I was the only player in the swamp and I had to run around and search for mobs. It took a long time to reach level 3. Most of it spent running around, searching. At least I got 4 bone chips for the Rusty Two Handed Sword while still at level 1. But even at Level 3 I had only managed to get 1 tadpole flesh and no froglok meat. No chance to get the 2 tadpole flesh and 1 froglok meat for the Rusty Two Handed Battle Axe. Not enough fungus spores for even 1 patchwork armor quest either. It didn't help that Zimbittle was up as well. She and the roaming guard competed with me for the few mobs around. - And I even made it all the way to South Ro in hopes to find mobs. Frogs one level above me were much too hard though, with just 4 pieces of cloth or netted.

3 days ago I made an Ogre SK. Lots of running around in Feerrott as well, but at least there were more mobs around. Much better than the swamp. It was easy to get a set of cloth armor and lots of lizard meat for the weapons quests. Lizard tails for the armor quests were less common. But by level 4 I was fully clothed, most of it cloth, with 4 patchwork pieces and enough plat for a full set of Large Leather Armor from the vendor.

The week before that it was Rivervale. Halfling Cleric. No real newbie quests, not many mobs that even dropped a few copper or a silver. By level 3 I still hadn't managed to get enough coins for all the useful level 1 spells and had 2 pieces of cloth armor. It didn't help getting dressed that parts of the cloth armor dropped by the skeletons is not halfling wearable. But at least those 2 pieces were valuable, compared to the animal parts.

After Rivervale I tried a dwarf. Much better. By level 4 I had most of my level 5 spells and was fully dressed in patchwork and tattered. Much less frustrating than Misty Thicket. The Bone Chips quest helps a lot with that.

Of course my two test chars in Qeynos and Freeport had no problem at all to have lots of mobs around them all the time. Lots of armor and rusty weapon drops as well.

The differences between the newbie zones are huge, both in gear and cash drops. I had the most fun with the Ogre SK, despite the running around. The Troll was the most frustrating. Grobb has lots of newbie quests, it just was not possible to even find the mobs. Most kills were snakes. The poor Troll was thankful to find something to kill at all.
I was planning to start a Halfling Cleric on Green. I like the look of female Halflings in plate armor. But Misty turned out to be a bad place to start, even without competition. Not being able to afford even the basic spells is frustrating. My Halfling managed to loot a cracked staff. But it is the best weapon available for her, can't just sell it. The Ogre had no such problems. 4 lizard meat for Sword or Axe plus a few silver for sharpening stones took 15 minutes. The cracked staves he got went straight to the vendor. The Dwarf Cleric is not tempted to sell her cracked staff. Getting dressed and buying spells was no problem anyway. The Troll has heard of cracked staves, but believes them to be a myth.