Monday was a holiday, so it was a great time to work on leveling that pesky cooking since my rogue hit level 68 and I could get the heck out of Outland.
I had sadly neglected my cooking skills (about level 172) so I had to “catch up” to take advantage of the Outland/Northrend daily cooking and fishing quests when I hit level 70.
Levels 60-68 are painful. I’d been through Outland recently enough to know which quests to skip, especially the “get 20 bear butts” quests with horrible drop rates.
I would probably enjoy Outland a lot more if I didn’t have to kill 40 mobs to get 5 quest items. If I have to endure the low drop rates, at least give me mobs with pockets to pick!
Blade’s Edge Mountains is particularly painful.
“Go kill 30 ogres.”
Okay, I can do that since I’m going there anyway to steal some brew and crystals.
Here’s your brew and crystals – anything else before I leave?
“Ummm…yeah…go kill 30 more ogres.”
I don’t suppose you could have told me that the first time I went there? Sorry, gotta run…I hear they need some help over at Toshley’s Station…
“Take this gizmo then use it on the eggs to get some stuff and keep using it until you get the one you need and hopefully you won’t get killed before it changes and blah, blah, blah…”
Sorry, too gimmicky – gotta run!
The only thing that gets me through Outland without screaming are the Ethereals. I’ll do their quests simply because I love they way they look and I would absolutely kill for an “authentic” Ethereal transmog outfit!
So…I wasted the entire day leveling up cooking. Running all over to get skill-up recipes, fishing and hunting for cooking mats but I finally got cooking to 360 and fishing to 391.
While I was killing raptors for eggs in Wetlands, I found another Matriarch, Matriarch’s Nest with a Razormaw Hatchling and a Treasure Chest!
Razormaw Matriarch and Nest
I even caught Mr. Pinchy.
Mr. Pinchy
But I didn’t get the pet! First time I haven’t got the pet on the first wish – I got Benevolent Mr. Pinchy. Ugh. Hope I get the pet so I don’t have to catch him all over again!
I bid a fond farewell to Outland, picked up the starter quests in Borean Tundra and finally made it to level 70.
Level 70
I wasn’t doing too bad in Northrend. Completely forgot to switch to Combat to better handle multiple mobs that would aggro from a few inches away from me, but I didn’t die much.
Until I started the quests in Coldarra…
I’d get a bunch of mobs on me and would die every time. Not sure what I was doing wrong but I couldn’t kill anything fast enough.
Eventually I got most of the quests finished, so I went back to Dalaran to vendor trash and that’s when I noticed I was still wearing my Fishing Hat…
Oh well.
I now officially have 5 characters stuck in Northrend. It’s not that I dislike Northrend, it just seems a very long, long road to level 80, and everything is suddenly “serious business.”
I plan to push everyone through to at least level 80 – if not level 85 – before MoP is released since I want to level up professions as well.
Northrend is just where I seem to hit the wall…
On the bright side, my divorce went to court on Friday so I can officially disenchant my wedding rings and find a nice, well-geared tank to run some dungeons…err….I mean I can put away my wedding rings and find a nice man for dinner and movie…
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February 21, 2012 at 10:56 am
koalabear21
Grats on the divorce proceedings (I think) and double grats for the level 70 achievement.
When I hit the Northrend wall on my rogue (the last toon to visit such a place) I decided to level via Arch and mining. It took me a little longer, but it was worth not dealing with NR again. Especially since I had just leveled my DK through it like a week before.
I don’t envy you.
February 21, 2012 at 3:47 pm
ReversionLFM
I almost forgot to ask… how well do the profs work for leveling? I did do my hunter most of the way from 80-85 with just Arch. Would it be possible to get from 70 to 85 with several professions? I might do that.
February 21, 2012 at 11:07 am
wolfgangcat
I might try the Arch leveling since I really don’t like running the Northrend dungeons and it might push me through the more boring quest zones.
I think I got her Arch all the way up to level 4 so far
I’m not too worried about gear since I doubt she’ll be a “raiding” character – rogues seem to become very complicated at max level and although she’s a lot fun, I don’t think I’d become good enough for end game content.
February 21, 2012 at 11:34 am
Tyler F.M. Edwards
Playing a rogue at max level is kind of weird. It can be very demanding, but it’s also very simple — at least if you’re combat or assas. Not counting CDs, my rotation as combat is really only four buttons: sinister strike, revealing strike, slice and dice, and eviscerate. You just gotta be quick on the keys and watch your buffs is all. I’m told assas is even easier — spam mutilate and alternate rupture and envenom. Switch to backstab for execute phase.
Sub is complicated. I never really had the courage to try it.
As for Northrend, my toons stop leveling there, too. Because I love it so much that I can’t bear to leave.
Keep in mind that they did nerf the XP you need 70-80 by a pretty huge margin in the last patch. I’ve already had to turn off my warlock’s XP to avoid outleveling Dragonblight, and I’m not even halfway through the zone yet.
February 21, 2012 at 1:44 pm
repgrind
Look, if Sorak could play a raiding rogue it can’t be *too* hard …
also, lmao @ yet another Mr. Pinchy. That is too awesome!
February 21, 2012 at 1:32 pm
Troutwort
Outlands > Northrend if you ask me. I know, I know…that’s weird to say, but I just like it more…Outlands still had the mentality where you could pick and choose most your quests, it wasn’t very linear. That starts to go away in Northrend…and Cataclysm is painfully linear.
February 21, 2012 at 3:36 pm
ReversionLFM
When northrend came out I ranted up on side and down the other about how much better the quests were and all that… then it turns out ‘memorable quests’ equals ‘boring replay’. I have three alts stuck in northrend. Before MoP I hope to get a pally and a DK up so I can have all 4 tank types…but I just can’t seem to get going on those. Maybe I will level a third druid instead.
February 21, 2012 at 3:49 pm
Troutwort
Changing classes doesn’t change the quests Rev! LOL
February 21, 2012 at 3:50 pm
wolfgangcat
The saving grace of Outland is the ability to pick and choose quests without breaking something further down the road.
I really don’t like the linear Cataclysm quests. Some quests are horrid and I’d just skip them if I had a choice.
The best thing about Outland is unlimited Mr. Pinchys
February 21, 2012 at 5:41 pm
Tyler F.M. Edwards
I like linear questing. Makes me like feel part of a story, instead of some random mercenary collecting bear asses.
February 22, 2012 at 9:56 am
ReversionLFM
I totally agree!! … the first time through. And maybe the second. After I want to pick and chose and not being able to drives me nuts.
February 22, 2012 at 10:38 am
Tyler F.M. Edwards
I’m the sort of person who can watch a favourite movie a dozen times and not get bored with it. Same principle applies to quests.
February 22, 2012 at 11:12 am
wolfgangcat
I don’t mind reading the same story, it’s just collecting 20 bear butts over and over again that gets old really fast