Stormhold for a new player?

The only problem I have with Stormhold is that you can do all of the quests in a zone, and you still have to mass kill mobs to be powerful enough fo even start killing in the next zone. If you don't, you cant even get the quests, let alone kill the mobs the quests require.

Not entirely true. There are several zones per tier all with their own quests. The non-linear quest style of the two large cities is actually better suited to TLE in the first 20 levels or so. Then you've got Nektulos, Thundering Steppes, and Butcherblock to bounce between. After that you've got Zek, Enchanted Lands, Feerott, and Steamfont to bounce between. Lots of quests there. If you bounce back and forth doing them as they con even, you'll be fine. Hell, my baby zerker in Antonica has his quests go green often before he can finish them. That's also because I take the time to kill all of the various rat, snake, and gnoll camps to pop the named and rake in some really decent loot.

That's one thing that might be off putting. If you're used to spending all of your time in a single zone per tier being led from point A to point B to Point C in a predetermined order, and that's the experience that you're looking for, then Stormhold definitely isn't for you. Leveling on Stormhold is dependent on being willing to travel around a lot.

Well, also itemization is really wonky in some tiers. Like, really friggin' wonky. However, since the itemization changes were also applied to live, it's pretty wonky there now too.