Thon over-tall elfy git told me he wis gettin’ tae the peak o’ his game. I told him he still was a long way off of that, no matter whether he had finished his trainin’ or not!

“Bah…. no motivation to level my hunter… he’s 10% into 69 and it’s taken months to get here from 60…”

“I’ll give you ten gold if you beat me to 70!”

“How far into 69 are you?”

“60%”

“… … …”

*LEVELS*

It honestly was so much fun! I never did beat him (there wasn’t much chance) but I did only have three bubbles left to go by the time he got to 70! A few hours later and my little baby hunter became a little grown-up hunter. Yipes.

Good Intentions

Dryn has had a bit of an odd ‘life’. I started him with the sole intention of being a gatherbot for me - I needed a herber and figured I’d take skinning too, to make some gold. His journey to 70, though, taught me a few things about what I like and dislike in WoW - specifically regarding levelling.

1-58 I levelled Dryn as I had levelled most other characters - running quickly through quests with a vague eye on Jaime’s levelling guide (I prefer to deviate as my play sessions are often shorter or I don’t like a quest hub etc. etc.) However, I knew once I got to 58 I could, theoretically, be a reasonable gatherbot already!

Grinding vs. Questing

I had decided to only level through quests in Hellfire and then level via grinding to maximise gold from quests, later, and to maximise the time spent herbing / etc. on the character. I spent a long time grinding bog lords - reading whilst auto-shotting, herbing, retarget, send pet, auto-shot etc. and got utterly, utterly bored. I cracked and blasted a level or two via quests. I think Iwas about 65 - I decided to go to Nagrand and grind there for shadow motes. Same thing. Bored.

Now, I can happily grind when I know the outcome will benefit me mats wise etc. but it seemed that adding the element of levelling made it seem more painful - I figure, possibly, this had something to do with the fact that XP gain through levelling is so damn slow at that level.

Anyways, I had been doing this on and off, long phases of grinding interspersed with small bunches of quests until the above conversation. I had not enjoyed my hunter in a long time but, in those few hours, I really did.

I prefer questing. I prefer blasting through goals in smaller chunks which make me move around a bit and keep me from being bored whilst watching the XP creep up. Stacking quests - doing a number which coincide goals-wise with each other - and then handing them in all at once is a real pleasure and works well with WoW’s usual habit of rewards for time spent.

Gathering vs. Crafting

The one thing I had done different to usual as I levelled to 58 was take dual gathering. Never again. Half of what I love in WoW is the crafting side of it! I dropped skinning before I hit Outlands and power-levelled Engineering. Again. Ugh. But! It brought about the benefits of healing + mana potion injectors (I’m woefully low on bagspace) and got me Goggles + Zapthrottle Mote Extractor. i.e. > Another farming tool with a crafting profession. Win-win, in my opinion.

I know a lot of people prefer to grind or instance than to quest but personally I love it when I’m in the groove and blasting through quests - only stopping to get some recipe or craft some upgrade or maybe to grind enough rep for a non-combat pet!

In General

Blizzard seem to be trying to make some more quests which are deviations on the norm - unusual mechanics or npc interactions have been sprinkled quite frequently through new quest areas (including those added to Dustwallow). I’m thinking I might do a few posts looking at interesting / unusual quests and quest lines.

Still, some quests just seem a waste of time, boring or badly designed (I have to be hit by mobs to gain electrical charges for this quest? As a BM hunter!? Wut?). Even so, I find them more interesting, on the whole, than grinding. Going to stop rambling now at it’s 7am and I’ve not slept yet!

p.s Shortly before hitting 70 Dryn ’switched sides’ in more ways than one due to his first transporter malfunction! <3 Engineering!

/sandwich