This is how you get the best start: do the first quest normally, ( nothing special here ) pick the gladiator talents, once you open up the entrance to second town, go to the lower right corner of the map and talk to the NPC he will ask you a question, the answer is 15, You know have "shadowmourn" by the time you have this you should be around lvl 5 and you will be able to kill +24 mobs.