Wednesday 15th April 2020

As I explained last week, one of my aims over the Easter weekend was to level up a load of Alts in World of Warcraft to level 120.  My plan is driven by two factors:  the first is a current month long double XP event.  The second is a timewalking dungeon event that awards good XP normally.  Coupled together, this past week has been an ideal time to level characters.

I’ve tried to mix up having one of each class with having a range of characters with all the professions.  Another consideration is those characters that are self-sustainable so they can solo various content areas for materials if needed.

I think I have a good mix.  The Death Knight, Demon Hunter, Warlock and Hunter, that are already at 120, are pretty good at soloing content.  But some of the characters I wanted to do this week were a bit more of a problem.

My original bank alt was a druid, and as much as I’ve tried, I’ve never really got the hang of druid.  Sure, I can look up rotations and talents, but I’ve never had fun playing them like other classes.

Likewise, I find my mage really squishy and die a lot when I play them solo.  I know part of that is how I play mobility.  I don’t like to kite mobs, instead, preferring to charge in and attack.  That doesn’t work too well for mage.  But I had one at 110 so I felt l needed to level it up this week.

My final level 110 was my priest.  I started playing this in The Burning Crusade when I was playing with a few friends.  Given they’d played the healer in vanilla, it made sense that it was my turn.  And so as a group, the dynamic worked really well.  I’ve continued to level them up out of nostalgia but I hate playing shadow.  I love the character but, sorry priests, I hate the class.

Those three were my main targets.  Below that I had a monk and rogue around level 80 and then a range of characters around 20-35.

I started with the 110s and actually blasted through them despite their squishy nature.  This was mainly done using the timewalking dungeons and took only a few nights.  I got them to 120, unlocked world quests and then left them.  Their gear is rubbish (due to the rapid leveling) but I figured that I mainly need them for their crafting so it’s something I can worry about later.

That left me with the Easter weekend and a number of low level characters to choose from.  I eventually decided on my level 34 warrior.  There were a number of reasons for this choice.  First I’ve not got a max level Warrior so it was a new class for me.  Secondly, tanky classes are more fun to play for me (even though I was specced into fury) and I’d just got my squishy alts to 120 so wanted a bit of enjoyment.  Finally, they had blacksmithing, which whilst needing to be powered up, was the only profession I think I was missing among my 120s.

Warrior allowed me to quest whilst I was queuing for dungeons.  I actually found that timewalking was little use.  The Cataclysm dungeons are slow so it was better to actually choose level appropriate dungeons and pick up any dungeon quests.  That changed a little as I made my way towards later expansions and higher levels.

It was fun to move from expansion to expansion and see the progress of the game.  Vanilla (even post-Cataclysm) was a little boring but I found myself enjoying the world with each subsequent expansion.  There was a small thrill as they unlocked their garrison, and then their class order hall.

I managed to get the warrior to 120 just after the timewalking event ended.  Like the others, I picked up world quests and turned off.

The double XP event ends in 5 days which is sooner than I expected.  I hope they extend it as it’s been good for the game, and a nice distraction for me from real world events.  I also find it’s great for allowing my ‘back brain’ to subconsciously process writing dilemmas.  I’ve made some major strides in the novel rewrite just by identifying a problem that needs addressing and letting it mull around in my head as I play and not think about it.

I’d like to get a few more characters up to max level.  I have the two level 80s that deserve their time in the top tier of my characters.  I also have a level 24 shaman and a level 20 Paladin that I’d like to play.  I still have a couple of boosts available (110 and 120) that I got as part of pre-orders.  I just have to be careful how I use them as boosting certain races will stop me unlocking the heritage armor.

I’ll probably level one character a bit more but won’t expect to get them to 120.  I have a Pokemon Go stay at home event on Friday and Sunday and I need to clear down my pokemon storage ready for that… plus play.

After that, the plan is to work on professions.  I’m going to start on BFA stuff and work backwards.  The idea is to set myself a target of 10 or so levels for a selection of professions each day, go out and farm mats, use half to level up and sell the other half.

The new expansion looks like it’ll be here October / November which means I only have to mid-September to raise the in-game gold for my mount.  I just hope this character and profession investment proves a good use of my time.

Past Issues: 417416 | 415 | 414 | 413 | 412 | 411410 | 409 | 408 | 407 | 406 | 405 | 404 | 403 | 402 | 401
Past Years: 2019 – The Year of Soldiering Through | 2018 – The Year of Priorities | 2017 – The Year Of The Offensive