The Big Two Oh

Finally hit level 20, just head down levelling on Azuremyst Isle and keeping the trade skills current as I went.  As it is now with the levelling curve not all quests in the zone were mandatory.  Another change from Vanilla and BC WoW.

Biggest change on the way to 20 was getting shoulders, for me getting these items completes the character.  You feel somewhat incomplete without them.

Also these particular shoulder pads actually look pretty decent on a gnome, other caster characters they look like an after thought but on Earle the sit very nicely.

The other trappings of level 20 include a new mount, and free riding skill, the only one I will get so I should feel lucky.

Here is a picture of Earle on his flamin’ horse :

Ah well sure beats running around till 40, the tail is a bit odd with a noticeable gap, but Earle is not complaining given the cost.  It also made the next task a lot easier.  Off to the barrens they said, I mean why make it easy to get your next demon.  Go talk to some guy in the middle of nowhere which would have been “fun” to find before the quest tracker on the map I expect.

I decided the quickest way would be via Booty Bay, with only one death later and all was fine with the world.  Picked up my quest to go click on some tree, all well and good except said tree was surrounded by evil Warlocks (Earle is a good Warlock, you see), and some blue grey coloured dwarves (probably meant to be evil ones as well).  I get my Heartwood and do what any self respecting Warlock would do and Hearthstone straight back to Stormwind, fighting my way in was worth it but not out again.

Down to the summoning circle I can never find, here’s hoping for 30 and with trusty old Thoknar on aggressive I proceed to snooze through the Succubus taming, er.. I mean binding.  We head up to learn the spell and get a nifty 12 slot soul shard bag that is going to be phased out in Cataclysm so I need to enjoy it while I can.  Earle also lucks out with the random name generator again, so lets say hello to the lovely Mirna.  We so need to get a trailer.

What a lovely couple, ready to take on all that the twenties can throw at them, but Earle really needs a new dress.

And to commemorate this blog my lovely wife has hand crafted a couple of signatures pixel by pixel, which she should rightly be proud of.  Part of a theme, which we will expand on when we can think of stuff.

A /facepalm moment

Levelling to 16, after the excitement of looking for dungeon instancing, I made the classic mistake of leaving quest items in the bank

Ah well, luckily it was a quick trip back to Exodar and now Earle is fully equipped in uncommon or higher level items (Armoury). That is, after completing the mushroom quest.

However, it allowed Earle to stop by Exodar and once again look forward to the future.

As we now start the push to level 20 and a free mount.

Looking for Dungeon

Time to brave the waters of Looking for Dungeon, at my level the best option is to queue for the random classic dungeon, given a guaranteed rare reward from the satchel of helpful goods.

I expect to get Ragefire Chasm as this is yellow at level 15 in the finder tool, but who knows we may even get Deadmines.

Queuing is where the fun and games begin, I have queued as DPS on my 80 mage when the tool was first released and know what DPS wait times can be.  I have queued as a healer at various levels as well as max level and queue times are pretty quick.  The only constant at high levels is waiting on a tank.

Now when I queue as a tank on my level 30ish horde Paladin it seems the other way around, me and three DPS are waiting on a low level healer.  As low level DPS is seems to be the same.

After about two to three minutes the Enter Dungeon window pops and we get this lovely text in chat.

 

Yep our low level healers are being finicky today, as we see here.

 

This happens a couple more times, before we say an unsurprising hello to Ragefire Chasm.

Not much is said, seems to be the norm on these runs, a “hi” at best and straight into the action.  Paladin tank is doing a great job given they don’t get Consecration till level 20. Hunter seems to be pulling a bit and the healer is doing great as well. We have a druid healer so Heal over Time (HoT) spells are the order of the day.

As good DPS all I need to do is dps the same mob as the tank and behave, well as best a Warlock can.  Things are going down faster than I can Damage over Time (DoT) things up with curses etc, so I fall back to trusty shadow bolt and put Zornik on defensive so I don’t need to keep yelling at him to attack. I am lowest on the meter, but need to remind myself I am not as twinked as I could be.

At least the healer is not out dpsing me and no one has said anything nasty.  Just wait till Seed of Corruption then I will have my revenge, muhahahahah, etc.

We all stumble through the instance like a weirdly dressed pub crawl out for a brawl, aggro being pulled left, right and centre. I help out a couple of chums and even dps down a mob hitting on the healer.  Well what can I say I need to protect anyone in a dress.  Seems to go unnoticed but par for the course as we continue our bee line for the last boss.

As instances go nothing changes here either, we don’t seem to be going for drops any more, just that bag o’ goodies at the end.  Same thing happened when I tanked Scarlett Monastery:Graveyard for the first time, straight to the boss was the groups request.

We get to the last boss Taragaman the Hungerer, and he goes down fast.  The rogue gets the rare sword that drops, lets hope he is combat specced, I get to loot some linen cloth off the boss too so everyone is happy.

A few of us get the achievement and our bag of goodies, and then the party meanders down a ramp, we kill some more mobs and I start thinking, “yeah we can go do this whole place” when

pops up, well when the tank says “cya” you know that is the run done, so I say my thanks and port out by also leaving group.

With the run done it is time to open my sack of goodies

Given this is my first I wipe a small tear from my eye and proceed to delve inside.  Well wadda you know the game gods like Earle and we get:

A decent belt for my level and it boosts my spell power to a whopping 14 (this is with the pants and staff he already has).  The run was quick and uneventful, not sure how stressed the tank and healer actually were, but this seems to be the template for low level runs. 

Just do a bee line for the end boss and hopefully no one screws up.  Deadmines should be a doddle then as it is linear and we have to go through various bosses to get to VanCleef.  Still it was a good run, no drama and everyone just did their jobs.  Can’t say all will be like this one but it is a good start.

Levels 10 - 15

Logging back in to find the copper had sold, I was the proud owner of two whole gold, and some miscellaneous silver.  Green items are going for a few gold so no option for an upgrade, but looks like a good way to generate cash once I start getting green drops of my own.

Now at level 10 time to replace Zornik, he can have a rest until I need him for instancing.  What I need is a tank.  The trainer sends me off to get a necklace back, and given we have a lot of characters levelling I need to wait in line.  Thankfully only one gnome Warlock ahead of me then my turn.

A high level human mage loiters around as I start my go so I tag the quest mob just in case. Yay for dot tagging (note to self, don’t over abuse this). The nice mage helps by randomly using Arcane Explosion while I try not to die from the mob and her two body guards. Thank goodness for fear.

Back to Stormwind and the lovely Slaughtered Lamb, down into the crypt below.  I mean who would not build a pub over a crypt, totally logical to me.  I turn in the quest and find I need to summon and subdue a Voidwalker, so I proceed to run around trying to find the summoning circle.

As luck would have it I find it just after that gnome Warlock from Elwynn, woo I feel like a stalker now.  Wait my turn again, and use fear on the Voidwalker, totally cheeses the quest and up I go to get my own shiny new Voidwalker Thoknar

Again I seemed to luck out with the random name generator.

A quick stop by the Stormwind Auction House to check on gear and to be spammed by a Swedish guild charter to sign.  Now I would normally just let these invites sit on my screen till they expire, but this one was cutting in to my valuable Auction House time.

Picked up a nice Sturdy Quarterstaff of Healing with a whole +4 spell power, but given I can’t get the one from the last Draenei only quest this was a good investment at 1g.

Next priority is bag space, getting really sick of “Inventory is full”, so off to find Old Blanchy some Oats.  I run from Stormwind to Westfall via Elwynn, I steel myself for Goldshire.  Noblegarden is in full swing, add that to the RP and duel spamming that is native to that area and you have a truly scary experience.

I survive Goldshire, seems a gnome is too small to be noticed by the duellers, but this reminds me I need to get an addon to auto decline duels.  Into Westfall, stumbling over characters.  There are a lot more in the human starter areas than in the Draenei so levelling in AzureMyst was the right choice.

I pick up the Poor Old Blanchy quest for an eight slot bag and then proceed to run around for a while collecting oats.  Run to Sentinel Hill as I know I will need to come back later to get the pre quests for Deadmines, and grab the flight path.

Get asked by a level 10 Warlock where I got my Voidwalker, explain they need to go talk to the Warlock trainer in Stormwind or Ironforge, but get a reply asking “wat is triener” and get the distinct impression I would need to lead this Warlock to the trainer and probably do the quest for them.  Helpful I am but there are limits.

Finish the quest and get my wonderful Old Blanchy's Feed Pouch with 8 slots of goodness and hearth to Stormwind, remembering to get the flight path there.  Back to AzureMyst and hopefully some green level upgrades.

Zip through a few quests, get some Kurkenstoks with that cool beach look, and a few more green upgrades, sadly the Farmhand's Vest does not look as “flattering” on a gnome as it does a female Draenei, well at least I have flip-flops and a purple shirt on now.

After a few greens and level 13 I head back over to Westfall, yes I know I hate myself, but there is no getting away from needing to do the Deadmines pre quests.  Grab the kill and bandana quests from Westfall and proceed to go play the who can tag the mob faster game, well they give decent green upgrades so off I go.

Gryan Stoutmantle decides to send me on a wild goose chase to Redridge and other places, given I don’t have the flight path yet I need to brave Goldshire once more.  I come through unscathed again, but on my way to the mountains of Redridge I encounter my second lovely guild spam.

Bear in mind this character was just standing at the side of the road, nothing said or whispered just spamming an invite.  Now if you are starting a guild it is a good idea to at least talk to the people you are looking to invite.  It’s just good manners, now I am not talking about an interview or application form the hardcore raid guilds use, but just a bit of courtesy to the human sitting at the keyboard.

So my normal thing of leaving it up till it expires worked this time.

I get to talk to Wiley about the Defias Brotherhood and while I am there I get to find Hilary’s necklace.  A quest I always do when I get to Lakeshire.  Blizzard should really make a rare or epic version of this drop somewhere, just for nostalgia.

I get to fly around to Stormwind and back to Westfall and finally get the quest for The Defias Brotherhood and a reason to queue for Looking for Dungeon.  Completing the escort quest was a breeze given how camped the area is on this server, the only thing that was slightly disconcerting was the naked 80 human mage on the motorcycle in Moonbrook, well he did have his helm on but that was about it.

I level to 15 and the ability to queue, you may also notice from the screenshot above that I am wearing a dress.  A lucky drop a bit earlier from Westfall, so things are now on a roll for old Earle, almost 4g made and mostly green gear.  He is pretty much set to sample the fun and games of Looking for Dungeon.

Levels 6 - 10

On arrival in AzureMyst Isle, a quick stop via Exodar to pick up the mining skill is needed. Earle is still too cash strapped to buy a mining pick along with the training, but hopefully that will change in the hours to come.

Gathering professions are the best for making money and I can only afford one at the moment so mining it is.  Not sure how the servers economy is either but I can check that soon enough.  Herbalism would also be a good choice but the mini map can only have one tracking up at a time. There are addons to get around this, but for the moment the jury is still out on whether we go for herbalism or not.

Then it is off to Azure Watch and a quick stop at the inn, I had forgotten to set my hearth to Stormwind as this is the closest trainers I can think of, but at least Earle can get a vision of the future in the Innkeeper of Azure Watch.

But these are good space goats, I mean Draenei. He will need to wait till 20 to get a seductive minion of his own.  Zornik is on fire to quest so out we go.

Only one quest open at level 6 and that is to kill Moongraze Stags, so off to the slaughter we go, thankfully Blizzard seem to have made the tenderloin drops 100% now.  After a quick turn in and a flash of inspiration we figure that the fishing quest at the ford between the starter islands should be available.  After swimming around and spamming a net while killing the occasional angry Murloc I get my fishing pole and some experience along with a quest to take back to the village I was just at.

Luckily I had enough to train the fishing skill. As I am also to create a fully rounded character with all the secondary skills I proceeded to fish the ford to get my fishing up to a skill level of 25.  This is where the first nice surprise came.  The junk that you fish up sells for a decent amount of silver, enough to buy a trusty mining pick.

So all you new low level cash strapped characters I would recommend taking up fishing as soon as you can.

Back up to Azure Watch to turn in the quest and then down to that enclave of weird alien creatures, or as we natives of Azeroth know them Dwarves, Humans and Night Elves.  But lets not spoil it for the Draenei yet.

While questing around the DwarHuEleven encampment I came across something I have never seen before and I have levelled my share of Draenei on other servers, a Draenei Youngling.

Checking Wowhead they appear to be for a Draenei only quest

Youngling Quest

That along with Ending their world are only open to you lucky Draenei characters, so bye bye to a decent low level caster staff for good ol’ Earle.

More questing around AzureMyst while mining any copper nodes I come across, I encounter the three most annoying words in World of Warcraft.

“Inventory is full”

Surprisingly no bags have dropped for Earle yet, after some thought and helpful linen cloth drops from the local Naga the second profession is chosen, that of tailoring.  I can make my own bags and helpful gear so while skinning or herbalism would have been the logical choice a miner/tailor I shall be.

Level 8 we head back to Stormwind, this time remembering to set our hearthstone, and train.  One of the trainers has a grey ! above their heads to encourage me back at 10 for the Voidwalker quest.  Then back on the long trek to AzureMyst.

A few more uneventful quests get me to 10, only high point is getting to be a tree, albeit a tree with an imp sheltering under it, but lets not shatter our suspension of disbelief here.

I also get to kill a fellow gnome, well I think I do until a Stormwind looking guard sprints from halfway across the island and one shots him for me, thanks for the help I did not need.

It is also good to see that the Draenei are keeping up a healthy population of low level Paladins, hopefully enough will survive to become tanks and healers, sorry retadins I am sure the spec is fun and all that.

At level 10 I chuck a couple of stacks of copper bars up on the Auction House and call it a night. Copper is only going for about 1g on this server, but that is better than scraping together silver from mobs and questing.  We will just need to see if it sells.

Levels 1 - 6

Levels one to six were pretty uneventful, with a large number of low level characters in the zone, it certainly felt like a new server. To quote Blizzard,

“Vek'nilash is recently converted from PvP to PvE. It is currently our lowest population PvE realm”

So we do not exactly have that new server smell, more of a refurbished one, this also suits Earle down to the ground as well, old is better.

Generally the players in Coldridge were well behaved and with not too much kill stealing or other acts of asshattery occurring.  Chat was pretty quiet with most players head down levelling like clockwork through the starter quests.

Imp at level 2, thankfully with a half decent random name “Zornik”, it certainly made the sprint to level 5 easier, The biggest shock came at level 4 and the training costs. The cost of 95c per spell was pretty steep and the cash rewards from quests did not cover this, so it was off to grind on some troggs for a few minutes.  I wonder if this was intentional by the Blizzard designers given we get a free mount at 20.

All trained up at level 4 and finishing the last few quests from Coldridge Earle levelled up to 5 so off to Kharanos in my lovely low level white gear I went.  On the run to that  Dwarven metropolis I got talking to the wife and we decided that The Burning Crusade starter areas have better itemisation. There was some thought about levelling in Elwynn Forest given easy access to class trainers but this was offset by the better gear in Azuremyst Isle plus the fact that Stormwind Harbour makes travel back and forth a breeze now. 

Sadly I could not reminisce about yet another Wetlands run, and all of us who played vanilla WoW will remember those, especially any Night Elf players, but some things do change for the better with each expansion.

So with that goal in mind I set off on the long trek to the land of our friendly neighbourhood interdimensional space goats via Ironforge and Stormwind.  It was encouraging to see a lot of lower level characters in these cities, Trade chat was well behaved as well.  As I move further towards the Draenei enclaves the number of players dwindled but I was hopeful that this would change as I got closer to the other starter areas.

The Project

After playing World of Warcraft for going on 5 years with minor breaks things start to get a bit samey. So to bring a bit of challenge back to the game and to see the content for the last time before Cataclysm “where everything changes”, the Earle Project was born.

The Rules of the project are as follows :

Start a new character from level 1 on a new or “new player recommended server.”

Play a class and race combination I have never played before.

No level 80 or Death Knight characters allowed to be transferred to or created on this realm.

I can only use my knowledge of the game to equip the character and make money.

The character also needs to be a well rounded character with all secondary professions learnt and levelled.

So lets meet Earle the Gnome Warlock, on the European realm of Vek'nilash :

In keeping with the evil theme of Warlocks Earle needed a sleazy look, given we get the Succubus at level 20 a comb over was a must, to complete the look of an aging cool dude mutton chops were also mandatory.

Getting a free mount at 20 is an advantage, however this is offset by increased spell training costs each even level.

So with my trusty Gnome Warlock created it was into Coldridge Valley to see how this new server would welcome it’s newest disciple of evil.