Leveling the Old Fashioned Way.

I remember leveling my main. It was fun, interesting, always felt like there was something to do, and it was long.

It used to take 10 levels to get through a zone, and I'm talking vanilla WoW, and now BC.

You know what? I really liked it that way. I realize that I am probably in the minority these days. I hear a lot about how great it is to bring up alts really quickly, at least to 68.

But...

This is my dilemma; I am raising a new "main" so to speak, on a different server. My horde toon is 65 and I have stopped playing her over the last week because I've run into an issue or two.

I would like to move through the content progressively and be able to see all the story-lines and lore available. That is the main reason I created a horde toon to begin with. Right now I feel like I've skipped a great deal in Old World story and am now in BC and hitting the same problem. I have completed Hellfire Peninsula and have moved on into Zangarmarsh, but as I said I'm 65. At this rate I will not get to see all the BC content either before it's time to head to Northrend. I'm bummed about that.

Second is professions. My leather working skill is so low that I will be spending a huge chunk of time simply grinding out leather. I do hate farming.
I had decided to do the Venomhide mount quest for the Venomhide raptor mount and took that time in Un'Goro to get my leather working at least to 303 so I could begin in Outlands. What am I going to do but farm to get out of BC? I am not looking forward to that.
Cooking didn't seem to be much of a problem but my fishing is STILL around 27.

Third is gold. Being this is my main toon on a new server I have no other toons to give me a leg up. I do not have regular flying skill and am just reaching a point where I will be able to afford it soon. I do have to say though, that I distinctly remember there being a gold shortage the first time around. Azeroth it seems is broke, or at least very cheap when it comes to paying their heroes. But in WoW's defense, the first time around we didn't fly until we were 70. By that time you had the cash.

All these add up to a not so great experience with leveling. Had I started WoW now, during this expansion, I don't know if I would have enjoyed the leveling process as much as I did way back in the day. All my friends would be even further off in the distance than they were then. 80 seems really far away when you're 14 or 27 or even 52.
The experience of going through all the zones and seeing everything has been so decreased you can literally skip whole areas of content and still level. Whole story-lines and ideas are just missed completely.

So that leaves me with my question. What do I do? Do I just continue, level and say screw the story and the content I want to see so badly and "start over" in Wrath? Do I continue leveling through BC as normal? At that rate I will be 75 by the time I move on to Northrend. This dilemma has stopped me short and I have not been able to decide where to go from here. I understand there is a great story in Nagrand so should I skip the rest of Zangar? What about Terrokar and Shadowmoon Valley? All those quests in Shattrath? Aldor or Scryer?? OMG!!

Ok...take a breath...in with the good out with the bad...

For me a great portion of the game is about playing the entire game not just end-game content. I bring up alts to explore new areas or to re-explore old quest lines I enjoyed or had forgotten about. I do not bring up alts to do heroic dungeons at 80 or to help my guild down a boss in TOGC. I am a firm believer in playing a toon for it's own enjoyment and not necessarily how much you can contribute to a raid group. Don't get me wrong. I know that that certainly has a place in the game and I enjoy my raiding. It is just not all there is to the game for me.

I still don't know what to do, and my toon still sits in Swamprat Camp waiting for me to make up my mind. /sigh
Nothing is going to get done this way.