Shadowlands Plans – The Climb #571

Tuesday 15^th September 2020

It’ll come to no surprise to anyone who knows me that I have planned to take 2 weeks off for the launch of Shadowlands.

As I have done with most of the expansions, I use up holiday so I can play solidly on launch and level up my character to max. I usually combine this with a writing project, using the two weeks off to also get a new draft completed.

This time, I’m thinking something a little different.

You see, ordinarily I’d take my main, play through the nights and get them to max level. I’d then try out a bunch of max level content but otherwise, stop there. This time, I’m thinking more of a grind.

It looks like it takes about 10 hours to get a character to max level. What if I did one a day? Or even better, what if I used rested XP and swapped between alts? I’d still focus on my main initially and power them through upon launch. But then I could take a group of the alts and rotate through them – together with any professions work on my main – to then level another 5 or 6 over the two weeks?

I’m still salty about the Brontosaur and the fact that I make the same mistake every expansion… I worry about making gold at the end when it’s at the start that there’s money to be made.

Having a bank of alts is definitely a good thing, but I’d like that I’m not trying to level them and get their professions up 18 months after an expansion launches. I’d much rather have a big burst at the beginning, get the rest done slowly over the following couple of months and then be at the stage say by Easter next year where pretty much all my alts are max level with all professions.

There’s some prep work that needs to be done.

I’m hoping pre-patch will prove a good time to level up a few more alts. After the level squish it should be easier to get those sub 120 alts up to the new pre-shadowlands max of 50. If I could get them all up and geared ready for shadowlands I’ll then have more alts than I’ll ever need (although think of the solo raid runs I could do!)

There’s also some professions work I could do. I need to look into some of it over the next week or so before pre-patch and ensure that my alt’s previous expansion profession leveling is looked at and prioritised.

I also want to try and not go crazy. I’d like to have a fun and busy time with the new expansion, but with the view that little and often will be the mantra going forwards. With a bit more xbox gaming happening, I want to be realistic about the time I play.

Just like my writing though, it’s about productive play rather than just amount of time. That needs to be fun and varied but with a bank of max level alts from the outset, that will help facilitate that.