Alteriffic

Well my time loving the 3x XP boost is now over, and I loved it.  As I said in my previous post, I’m going to hate going back to  normal XP in Azeroth (Outland\Northrend isn’t an issue as you don’t get any bonuses past level 60) and thus my Hunter will only be played with Rested XP.  Which reminds me, I should’ve really logged out in an Inn when I finished playing last night !!

I was very surprised to see my baby Hunter sitting at level 43 after I had finished gifting levels to her from my Mage.  I was thinking it was going to be high 30’s if I was lucky but 43 was a very pleasant surprise !!  It also means that I have more incentive to play her for a bit, as I’d like to get her up to level 49 (with some instance twink gear) for BG’s

I also played Gears of War 2 for a couple of hours last night – and loved it.  I’ll prob be found chainsawing Locust Scum between now and WotLK release

So with my R.A.F. association almost at an end, I feel I should reflect on my experiences a little . . .

Firstly, I think that anyone wanting to get some alts into Outland should take the opportunity, even if it means just buying one copy of WoW and using the free month, you will easily (if you are the sort of person that is thinking of this then I’ll take it as a given that you play WoW a lot, and thus have the time to put into levelling alts) be able to duo toons to 60, and 30, which with the gifted levels will give you 2 more 60’s on your main account, and 1 level 60 and one level 30 on the referred account.  I think this is pretty good value, but it all depends on how much you value your time.

If like me you only get a limited amount of time to play WoW, and have levelled to 70 on a couple of toons before this then it’s the best way to get a couple more alts up to 60 with the least hassle.

I’ve now got an additional level 60 Rogue and Warrior on my main account, and also a level 60 Priest and a 45 Mage on my 2nd account.  I’m going to transfer the Priest over to the new account, but the Mage is going to be forgotten about.  I will use her levels this evening to gift them to either my Hunter\Pally\Druid – depending on which one I think I’m going to have the most fun with in BG’s (as I can only see them being played very occaisionally).  As for which I’ll go for, I’m not sure really.

Pally – is the highest level at 29 – so would probably get up to the low 40’s with the levels I have left.  I can possibly see healing in BG’s being fun with this toon, or maybe if Ret ever gets it’s power back I could try some DPS.  I would also be able to offer instance assistance if any guildmates are running the low instances (which I like the idea of)

Hunter – is level 24, and a toon that I can see myself enjoying as a solo toon.  Then again I have a Rogue that’s an awesome class to solo, as is my Warlock.  That being said I do like what they’ve done with the pets, which will probably be a deciding factor.  I could possibly try to power her through SM a few more times to grab another level or two before gifting the levels from my Mage,  but this is pretty unlikely to happen to be honest.  Still the levels will take her to around level 36 (I think) which will mean I could boost myself through a few instances to make sure I had some decent twink gear for the BG’s

Druid – I’ve got a 70 Shaman which can heal or DPS, a level 60 Warrior I can take to 70\80 if I want to Tank, and a 60 Rogue that can Stealth.  While none of these classes can do it all like the Druid, I don’t see having a Druid as a class I would bother levelling up.  Like the Pally, I can see it being fun in BG’s and low lev/el guild instance runs, but is that enough to convince me to go with that as my main Azeroth Alt?

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All in all it’s going to be horrid going back to normal XP from the 3x XP that the RAF provides, and as a result I will only play in with Rested XP for anyone outside of Northrend.  This means that there will be more time to spread between my toons in Outland, and I should be able to rotate the Rogue\Priest\Warrior so they stay in Rested XP when I’m not playing my Shaman or Lock.

Chunder (Shaman) is going to be the toon I focus on in Northrend, and I’m thinking of possibly changing up professions to make him a skinner (but this is probably not going to happen, as I can’t be arsed to level it in the next 2 days), and I would probably drop mining if this was the case as I like the Herbalism HoT much more than 500 HP.  His gear is nothing special, he’s got no epics, no loot from level 70 5 mans, no crafted rare\epics so I’m looking forward to changing up his gear pretty soon after entering Northrend

Who knows, I might even manage to sneak in a few hours of Gears of War 2 before WotLK hits

Well I managed to get through ZF a couple of times last night, and although Boogie had no problems, I need to work out the safe spots for my alts to park, as I had a few needless deaths from not paying attention to them as I went off rounding up mobs.

App hit 43.5 and should make it to 45 once I do a quick run through the easy Tanaris Q’s (the Bandit\Pirate cove ones should easily get him a level and a half, as they’re all still orange\red to him.  I need to also get his lockpicking up, as it’s currently only at around 120 and I’ve got a stack of lockboxes that require 175 to unlock.

I think the lockpicking will probably be enough to take up all my playtime this evening, if I have time then I’ll prob head over to WPL to get the relevant FP’s ready for Stratholme

I’ll be taking App and Cizzle off to Zul Farak tonight to hopefully get them to 45 (should hopefully be possible) after a night of RFD got them upto 42.

RFD is now nice and easy, and I can do a full clear in around 25 mins, which was netting me around half a level at 40 – 41 factoring in the RAF bonus.

I might even venture into Stratholme with them just to see how well the XP compares if I can hit 45 tonight, I’m not sure how I’ll get on though, as the mobs will obviously hit a ton harder and thus it will probably be a lot slower going.  On the upside though, I might be able to score some gear out of it for App.

I think I’ll head on over to Strat anyway, just to see how I get on solo’ing the place.  I can always switch out Cizzle for Bandaid should I find that I need a bit of healing power to keep Boogie in the land of the living

Well the new plan is to just level App up to 45.9999 (5 levels to go) and then gift Bandaid’s extra levels to get him up to level 60.

Then I’m going to level up his defence\weapon skills and burn through Outlands as much as I can in the next week.

I’ve no idea how close I’ll get him to 70, but having given it some thought, I really want to play a Rogue as my DPS class come WotLK.  I don’t care how broken they are (according to the WoW forums etc), I want to go back to being a sneaky fucker!

(this plan might have changed by the time I get home )

So last night I logged onto my Warrior\Priest combo, and 5 mins later I logged off as I couldn’t be arsed.

I then logged onto my Rogue\Mage combo and took them through RFD with my Lock (well took them through the first part of it 3 times) for 45 mins, and got a level on both of them.  Then I logged off as I couldn’t be arsed.

I logged onto my Bank toon, put some things up on the AH and then logged off because I couldn’t be arsed

I then fired up the XBOX 360 for the first time in a while, and played some Quantum of Solice (a pressie from the wife as I’m unlikely to get to the cinema to see it), and a few races in PURE. 

I seem to have become a little burnt out with WoW over the last few days\weeks.  The pre expansion plans I had just don’t appeal to me, and I think I’m going to shelve all my alts (I’ll gift the levels to my Rogue and Hunter, then probably just spend 20 – 30 mins a night farming herbs\ore to sell once WotLK hits.  I can’t be arsed to get a full quest log completed to give me a head start levelling (as I know I’m not going to be exactly quick to 80), nor can I be bothered to seek out gear which will get replaced once I get to Northrend.  On the Gear subject, I’m looking forward to upgrading my stuff, and wouldn’t really want to go til the mid 70’s with hardly any upgrades, then again I haven’t really invested too much time in either of the toons that I’m going to be playing in WotLK, as if I had I would probably have a different opinion.

I’m not fussed about achievements, and I have about 7k gold (after getting Chunder his epic flying mount) plus a few bags full of herbs\ore which I hope will sell for a chunk of gold to all the new DK’s that want to power level their professions.

With Gears of War available this weekend, I can see myself playing through Quantum of Solace (as it’s supposedly not that tough) and then trading that (and the Force Unleashed) in for GoW.  GoW will then be played to death for a week or so until WotLK hits.

As such I may leave the blog alone until WotLK, then again in a few days I will probably be bored with the 360 and be back on WoW

Well as per the title, Chunder hit 70 and is now pimped out with Epic Flying Skill.  It was a bit of an anti climax, as I had read the XP needed wrong, and had an uninspiring DING from a random demon in BEM.  Oh well, at least that’s out of the way.

I’m not sure what to focus on next, I think I’m probably going to just take App upto 60, with Bandaid in tow, so that he gets the triple XP (although Bandaid will get no benefit), and then use Bandaid (and Cizzle’s) levels to gift them to either my Druid, Paladin or Hunter. 

I’m not really sure if I should focus on levelling my Warrior\Priest Combo up to 70, or if I should forge ahead with App, and then level him through BC with Bandaid?  I really like the idea of having a Warrior, but I have to say, the fact that my WoW time is going to be fairly limited over the next few months makes me think I should probably stop worrying about having high level alts, and just concentrate on one or two toons (namely Chunder and Boog) through WotLK.  I’m worried about spreading myself too thin.

I’ll post a bit more about the options I see myself having tomorrow, when I’m not facing a last minute deadline

Well about 30 mins after logging onto WoW last night, the ‘server restart’ message pops up, and tells me I’ve got 15 mins before the restart.  Rather than get booted in the middle of questing, I decided to log onto my bank alt, and bid on all the cheap stuff that has less than 12 hrs left in the AH.

Hopefully when I log on tonight I’ll have got some bargains

Looks like the last half a level will have to wait until tonight now

Well Chunder hit 69.5 last night, and it’s rested XP all the way (I’d forgotten that quest XP doesn’t eat up the rested XP) to 70 baby !!!

I’m in BEM still, and have just done the first lot of Quests from Ruan Weald (sp?), so I should make 70 while still in this Zone.  This will mean that I can pop over to SMV to grab my epic flying as soon as I hit 70 (I might even head there first, grab the FP so that I can get there asap once I ding).

I’m still planning on filling up my quest log with 25 completed quests, so that I can hand them in when I first log in after WotLK.  I think I’ll possibly do this on Boog as well, as I can dual box the quests and get them both done at the same time (before I transfer Boog back to my normal account).

(Title is a reference to an iffy rave choon from the Shamen in 91)

Well I’m now fully back in love with Chunder, after a couple more nights clearing up the majority of Nagrand Quests I’m sitting at level 69, having just done the first set of Ogre Quests in Blades Edge Mountains.  I’ve got 75% of the level as rested XP, so with a bit of luck, I’ll be hitting 70 either tonight or tomorrow!!

Once he’s 70 I think I’ll just go and get him his epic flyer, and then just using him to farm Ore and Herbs until WotLK hits (I might make a start on the Netherdrake Quests though, depending on how bored I get levelling up other Alts).  I will then concentrate on getting App and Cizzle up a few more levels so that I have App at 60.99 (after gifting the levels from Bandaid), and either my Driud or Hunter up to as high as I can get them with the rest of Bandaid and Cizzles levels.

I think that’ll be it then for my RAF’ing, as I really wont have time to bother with alts in Azeroth once WotLK hits.  I’ll transfer Bandaid across to my main account, and just leave Cizzle to rot unused (at least at this stage) as I’ve really not liked the Mage class at all.  This will leave me with the following

70 Shaman

70 Warlock

60 + Warrior

60 + Priest

60 Rogue

40 + Hunter or Druid

20 + Druid or Hunter (Which ever one I don’t gift Cizzle’s levels to)

This will leave me with a slot for my DK that I’ll make and that will be it.  The Shaman will be the main toon in WotLK, and the Warlock might just be used to DE stuff.  As for the others, I’ll probably level the Warrior\Priest\Rogue in rotation on rested XP, depending on who else is online in the guild.  I’d like to see if I can get the Warrior as near to 70 as possible before WotLK as having an tank would be pretty sweet.  That said I’d also love to have either the Rogue or Hunter as well as they’re great for Solo questing.  As I can’t see anything on the horizon that is going to take me away from WoW for a while (as the BioWare StarWars MMO is still a long way in the future) I’m sure I’lll get my chance to level all these toons.

I’m almost certainly going to level Chunder as Enhancement through WotLK, as it’s a ton of fun.  I do want to heal though so he’ll more than likely go Resto at 80.  By that time I will be levelling other toons through WotLK though which will be DPS spec (unless the Warrior is the one I go for in which case he’ll be Prot fo so)