I launched myself in to Mists of Pandaria at the worst possible time. I work at a university, so the middle-end of September is the start of the new year. One of my colleagues is leaving, so I’m trying to get to grips with his workload. My university degree started on the 19th of September too. However, fully excited buzzed about the whole caboodle I threw myself into levelling in a totally different way to last year. There was no power levelling this time (I actually spent launch night in Guild Wars 2) and I have levelled at what is, for me, an incredibly slow pace. I am currently about 10% in to level 89 and aiming to be 90 by the end of tomorrow night.
I know everyone has read these “what do you think of Pandaria” blog posts already but you know….oh well.
So.
Things I’ve Loved About Pandaria So Far:
- The Questing – collection quests. I’ve been questing with Adam (the boyfriend) and we’ve found that a lot of previously annoying quests that involved collecting things (6 snake heads, 12 murloc eyes, yadda yadda) have been changed so if something drops, it drops one for each of us.
- The Questing – AoE loot. This surely needs no describing. It’s freaking awesome.
- The Questing – The NPCS. I’ve met some fantastic characters, ranging from the amazing Chen, to the Texan Mudmug, to the Grummle, who tell me how I’m smelling every time I wander past. I also LOVE the Jinyu, and am so glad we got those and not the icky hozen! Any race, however, that use the word “ook” instead of “fuck” on a regular basis do get massive upvotes.
- The Farming – God. This is awesome. It really is. I love this. I have no idea if I’m in the minority or not but frankly I don’t give a damn. It’s just GREAT.
- The Scenery – it’s beautiful. It’s absolutely beautiful. I love the scenery, the different types of zones and the different things I’ve seen.
- The plethora of vanity items – in my bag, I have a turnip punching bag, racoon, puntable marmot, orange paint gun, constant beer keg, fan shaped off hands, incense and…good lord. Everything. I have no bloody bag space, void storage space or bank space so I’m really going to need to rethink my storage. I may actually need to get rid of some old gear because I just don’t have the space! Or my tabards. Serious question here chaps. Should I just bin all these tabards? I can rebuy em back right?
- The Gathering – my aim for this expansion was to be totally self sufficient. I no longer want to spend a fortune on mats and enchanting and gems and god knows what else. So I’m not going to. I had every profession at 525 last expansion, so I want them all at 600 this time – but for free. I want to spend NO money on professions. So far – I’m doing pretty well! I have maxed out Alchemy, Inscription and Engineering, as well as Mining, all for free. I’m hoping by the end of October to have maxed out Enchanting, Leatherworking, and Blacksmithing as well, and by the end of November, Tailoring and Jewelcrafting. I can coast of Adam’s jewelcrafting til then. By the end of Christmas, I want *all* of my 85 alts to have maxed all of their professions (quite a few of the later alts are dual gatherers).
- The World Bosses – we did the Sha of Anger, with 40 of us, and it was great fun! I also managed to get a set of tier gloves – which is awesome. I wonder – will they upgrade them each tier to higher health and new gear? I do hope so, it’s great fun.
- The Lore, the Vanity items, the rare mobs – oh my so AWESOME. There are so many wonderful things in this continent to find and to explore and to enjoy.
- The Instances – I’ve really enjoyed the cutscenes, stories and lore and the bosses, trash mobs and run throughs of the dungeons I’ve had. I can’t wait to do them at heroic and it’s really, really nice to be challenged. I’m enjoying it!
- The Pet Battles – so much FUN. So, so so so so much fun. I could wax lyrical about them and I will do in other posts, as well as my naming posts.
Things I Don’t Like (I tried to use hate but I don’t hate anything about it!) About Pandaria So Far:
- The Questing – speak to so-and-so quests - how is it possible that they improved collection quests (always the bane of group questers) but ruined “speak to so and so” quests? Now, both myself and Adam have to talk to an NPC, release an NPC – the non collection-ey ones that used to be shared are no longer. Most frustrating.
- Err. That’s mostly it. I…can’t find anything at all else I dislike about the expansion so far. The only problem I’m having is time! I have none of it! I need more time.
My Plan For The Next Few Months:
- Get Elsen to level 90, gear her up in heroics and get her raid ready.
- Get my shaman (Mining/Skinning) up to 500 mining (I already have a 600 miner but I fancy a 2nd one) and get her in to Pandaria so I can grind out the leather and ore I need to max out Leatherworking and Blacksmithing, and Jewelcrafting. In the process, get her to at least 86 (so she can access her farm) and then get her to 90.
- Get my worgen priest to level 90, finish maxing her herbalism, her mining is maxed already.
- Get my warlock to level 90, including her professions – she’s currently has no professions at all so I may make her an alchemist (so I can spec into a different transmute) and a herbalist, and farm up the herbs to get myself
- Max out the rest of my professions.
- Finish mogging my warlock.
I’d like four of my chars up to 90 before Christmas, which is goal point number 1.
This will leave, after Christmas, ideally before this time next year (pre-Hallows End so I have multiple chances to grind the mount, basically):
- My night elf priest, maxed to 90, mogged out (she has no mog right now)
- My hunter, maxed to 90, mogged out – she just needs a bow. Rest is kitted out.
- My paladin, maxed to 90, mogged out (I’ve chosen honor gear for her, so it’d take a lot of honor farming)
- My mage, maxed to 90 – she is fully mogged already.
- My DK, maxed to 90 – also already fully mogged.
- My 2nd druid, maxed to 90 (currently 72) – will need mogging (no idea about a look for her)
- The horde!
I have enough to do in World of Warcraft to last me at least 18 months, and that’s not even including PvP, old content, raiding, titles, achievement points, achievements to hunt, things to collect, pet battles…
I think maybe I’ll get to them some other day…
You don’t need to be 86 to start farming, just 85. If you have a friend with a 2-seater flying mount they can fly your alt to Halfhill and start your farm. Or if you have three friends, one with a warlock at Halfhill, you can have an alt summoning party. Or you can just do the initial quest and then run overland to Halfhill; I managed it with just 1 death, and that was just because I got stuck in the scenery.
Those 4 extra farm plots add up fast.
this….is awesome news. For some reason I thought you had to be 86. I will get my friend to fly all 8 level 85s out there tonight!!!!
Actually, it’s possible to run yourself out there all on your own. The mobs along the way aren’t any higher than 86. Just stick to the road and maybe wait for things to path away from the road if they’re close and you don’t feel like fighting them! All of my level 85 alts are now happily residing in Halfhill, farming away until I feel like leveling them.