I have levelled maybe 50 characters to 15. In Ellwyn and everywhere else. For 7 expansions.
I have NEVER had anything like 200 gold at level 15. 2 gold, 5 gold, sure. 10 gold. But 200?? Not unless I sent gold from another character. Or unless I gathered and listed some Greens and did a little AH at low level, which is actually pretty effective at low level.
I dont know how much it was exactly, maybe 200 is a little much. However i definitely remember that at around level 14 (at the end of elwynn) the quests gave me around 1,8g each. Now nothing… not even a single silver. The first few quests in Northsire gave me something around 2 gold, after that nothing… i still have these 2 gold right now.
Update: Now in Westfall, same thing. The first two Quests gave me 3 Gold each, after that nothing more…
Maybe they removed gold from low-level quests. Getting a character to level 70 is now a joke, and then you get 800g per quest in the new expansion. You don’t miss much because, at level 80, you get that gold back in a few seconds. You are a paladin, so your mount is for free. - there was so many squish character level so far - on each squish you get 50% less gold (hihi joke) 5g - 2,5g - 1g - 30 silver and now 0 gold pure math (calculation don’t reduce gold by 50%)
Yeah, actually, I don’t know about the specifics, but the squishes did indeed squish gold as well. And the number of quests it takes to get to 10 or 15 has also plummeted. So that might account for some of it.
Anyhow, at any given level X, the fastest way to make gold within the game itself has always been to get to level X+1. As you say, gold at max level completely blows away anything you will make during levelling, even in this expansion, where they are extraordinarily stingy with gold from gameplay on Khaz Algar.