Yes, we fast-fowarded through level 40 and went straight to level 50!
Well, what actually happened was that it was a hard week of being out and about with family things and the occasional crippling hangover (cocktail parties = pain), but Melof and Leesah have managed to fit in some more power-leveling and on Saturday night reached the big Four-Oh.
Then, we played all day on Sunday, and dinged level 50. Our /played is now about 30 hours. That includes mucking about in cities and extra herbing time (we keep getting behind zones in our herbalism).
The twenty levels from 30-50 were mainly split between Thousand Needles, Stranglethorn Vale, Arathi Highlands and Tanaris. I've always enjoyed leveling in Thousand Needles since it's such a stunning area, but while STV is visually beautiful, I've done those same quests too many times to call it an enjoyable place. In Tanaris, you get to do the pirate quests. 'Nuff said. The fast part came after level 40 when we spent all our money on fast kodos! I had no idea they had lowered journeyman riding to level 40 - it makes areas like Tanaris seem ridiculously easy to get around.
Achievement-whores
We spent a lot of time in these levels waiting around for things to respawn. It seems that so many high level players are doing the Loremaster achievements, the lower level areas are full of people trying to kill the same named mobs. Booty Bay was a disaster area with loads of people killing quest npcs on their way to the Bloodsail Admiral title.
At least the flowers were pretty while we waited.
Shadowfang Keep
On our way running from Undercity to Tarren Mill we decided to stop in at Shadowfang Keep, just to remind ourselves what it looks like before the new heroic version supposed to be coming in Cataclysm. The place is a bit of a maze, with bosses tucked all over the keep, so if they keep the current bosses and layout it will be different to most other heroics currently in the game. There's also a lot of trash and many of the mobs are linked, so it's easy to accidentally pull a whole room of guards (similar to Scarlet Monastery's Cathedral). Should be an interesting one on heroic!
The final boss is the Archmage Arugal, and after we killed him we nicked his dress. Any level 20-ish magic user would love it - it's just a shame Leesah was about level 38 at the time! Still, she hasn't seen any better and doesn't expect to until Outlands.
Talents and Moonkins and Kitties, oh my!
Leesah's talents went into Balance up to level 40 to get Moonkin form (hooray for Owl-Bears!), then the next 10 went into Restoration so I can work my way up to Omen of Clarity. I've mainly been aiming for mana-efficiency talents that help me have minimal downtime between fights, but after level 40 when we both got Innervate, Leesah rarely struggles for mana anymore. Her gear is still rubbish but with Outlands looming soon that won't last too long. Healing on occasion is going well but to be honest everything is dying so quickly at the moment we rarely need healing! I am using the healy glyphs of [Glyph of Healing Touch] and [Glyph of Rejuvenation], as I don't feel the balance glyphs are really worth it for duo-leveling.
Click the image to embiggen-ify.
Melof's talents have all gone into feral - he is the kitty powerhouse and occasional bear-tank. Low-level quest rewards all seem to be agility-leather so he is happy. Leesah has to be content with wearing mostly cloth!
