Newcomers in World of Warcraft were bullied at level 30 and robbed of their gold. This is finally being addressed and should significantly reduce frustration.
Update, 03/17/2023: Blizzard has moved up the date for this change! As of Patch 10.0.7, you can fly in Battle for Azeroth starting at level 30 without having to complete the lengthy achievement.
Original report: New players in World of Warcraft have to endure quite a bit, which would immediately be a reason to quit the game in other MMORPGs. They are literally having gold pulled from their pockets for something they wouldn’t have purchased otherwise. It was about time Blizzard fixed this – and finally with Patch 10.1 Aberrus, the Shadows of Neltharion.
What is Blizzard changing? With the next major update (Patch 10.1), Blizzard is finally removing the restrictions for flying in Battle for Azeroth, that is, Kul Tiras and Zandalar. So far, it has been necessary to complete a Pathfinder achievement for this. After the release of Patch 10.1, this requirement will be permanently removed. It will then be sufficient to purchase the riding skill to be able to fly in Kul Tiras and Zandalar and complete quests much more quickly.
Why is this even a problem? New players are “forced” by World of Warcraft to level their first character in Battle for Azeroth. This is the smoothest player experience and offers a solid story with modern quests to quickly reach level 60 and then travel to the Dragon Isles. Later characters can then level in any other expansion using Chromie’s time – but the first hero must go through Battle for Azeroth.
While new players level in Kul Tiras and Zandalar, they receive a quest every 10 levels to return to the riding instructor and learn a better tier of riding each time.
Particularly, level 30 is an important moment because heroes are promised that they can ride flying mounts through the air in the future. Learning this skill is quite expensive for a fresh level 30 character (almost 300 gold) and will likely consume nearly all the gold that this character possesses.
All the more frustrating was it to return to Kul Tiras or Zandalar after buying the flying skill, only to find out that the flying skill cannot be used there. Because those who want to fly in “Battle for Azeroth” must first complete a very long Pathfinder achievement. This achievement is so time-consuming that new players can only receive it at a point when they have long passed those areas.
Worse still, WoW does not even clearly state why a character cannot fly despite acquiring the ability. New players feel cheated out of all their gold and confused. Especially in the “Newcomer” channel, there are always confused and then angry questions about what has happened.
Or to put it briefly: WoW expects new players to invest all their gold into a flying ability that they cannot even use at the location where they are playing.
It was about time that this finally became a thing of the past.
