Thirtysomething

Noor finally hit 30, after over 2 days of /played at level 29. About half of her XP had to come from battleground dailies.

There were a few interesting instance quests I could solo.

First, I was able to do Blueleaf Tubers, but it was hard. I had to die for each of the 6 tubers collected, and worse, I had to return to Ratchet twice to get new crates because a lot of my attempts failed. The quest is to find tubers in Razorfen Kraul by releasing a pet Snufflenose Gopher and using a rod to tell it to find a tuber which appears and you then collect. However, he'll get one-shotted by any of the boars in the area that has the tubers, and there's no way to put him away. What I finally had to do is start the gopher, run ahead of it so the nearby boars would attack me so the gopher could live long enough to find a tuber, and then put out a target dummy so I could collect it. I couldn't even vanish afterwards, because the gopher stays visible, so he gets killed and then I get killed.

Second, I was able to justify doing Save Techbot's Brain!, even though I have to "kill" Techbot. Since he's (presumably) going to be fixed by doing this quest, I felt it was OK to do. It turned out to be a very close fight, even though he's no longer elite, because I had to use bombs and a fishing rod...

Third, I found out I could do A Fine Mess, even though it's an escort quest through Gnomeregan. I waited until Kernobee's random start location was near the clean zone, started the quest (which drew a bunch of mobs), and I ran into the clean zone and did Vanish. Some of the healing gnomes in the clean zone might put a stamina buff on you if you're fighting near them (but they don't heal you, for some reason). Strangest of all, every time I did a vanish in the clean zone, I ended up with a "tame" Mobile Alert System (or was it an Alarm-A-Bomb 2600?) following us around! I found out that Kernobee doesn't aggro the mobs, so as long as I was stealthed, we could move out past the clean zone to the entrance. However, the first time I got near the entrance with Kernobee, he says something along the lines of "we're almost there" and THEN the mobs attack! We had one mob, the one near the normal Gnomer entrance, but I couldn't keep Kernobee alive. The second time around, I got close enough to use my Mind Control Cap on the mob, and me, Kernobee, the "tame" Mobile Alert System, and the mind-controlled mob all ran to the entrance.

Level 30 brings a lot of changes:
1) I can finally wear Green Whelp Armor (thanks Ving)! This should be fun for WSG...
2) I respecced to have Preparation, so I can Sprint/Vanish twice in a row if need be
3) I can pick an engineering speciality. I chose Gnomish, made the BOPs Battle Chicken and Death Ray (that'll pacify 'em!), dropped engineering, took up Jewelcrafting, levelled it until I could make the BOP trinkets Golden Hare and Black Pearl Panther and some Heavy Stone Statues, then dropped JC and levelled engineering back up, going Goblin this time.

Here are the quests I did to go from 25 to 30:

Sully Balloo's Letter
Sara Balloo's Plea
A King's Tribute #1
The Howling Vale
Velinde Starsong
Velinde's Effects
The Barrens Port
Passage to Booty Bay
The Caravan Road
The Carevin Family
The Scythe of Elune
Answered Questions
Missing Crystals
Uncovering the Past
Fall of Dun Modr
Castpipe's Task
A King's Tribute #2
A King's Tribute #3
(explored a bit of Badlands and Arathi Highlands) (26)
Foreboding Plans
A Donation of Silk (Humans, Gnomes, Dwarves, Night Elves, Draenei)
Vile Satyr! Dryads in Danger!
Greatfather Winter is Here
Treats for Greatfather Winter
The Reason for the Season
The Feast of Winter Veil
WSG win (3 losses, 1 win) 2100 XP
WSG win (1 win) 2100 XP
A Noble Brew #1 and #2 (and it killed Lord Wishock! But Zardeth didn't say it would do that)
(explored some of Desolace and STV) (27)
Reclaiming Felfire Hill
WSG win (1 win) 2200 XP
AB win (1 loss, 1 win) 2200 XP
The Battle for Arathi Basin
WSG win (1 loss, 1 win) 2200 XP
Winter's Presents
Blueleaf Tubers
Save Techbot's Brain (According to the quest, Techbot will be fixed)
The Sparklematic 5200!
A Fine Mess
(got mining to 295)
(explored around Honor Hold and Shattrath City to find Fel Iron Ore, mined one node in Terokkar Forest at level 27 using +5 mining gloves)
(explored a bit around Booty Bay) (28)
Welcome to the Jungle
Investigate the Camp
The Missing Diplomat #1-#10
The Thandol Span #1-3
Plea to the Alliance
MacKreel's Moonshine
Rocket Car Parts
Hemet Nessingwary Jr.
The Weathered Grave
Morgan Ladimore
The Missing Diplomat #11-#12 (first 2 fights had passerby help, last fight kited mob to 2 guards, kited Hendel to the tower, guards did the work) (29)
Lonebrow's Journal
(hit 300 mining)
Soothing Turtle Bisque
AB win (2 losses, 1 win) 2350 XP
WSG win (2 losses, 1 win) 2350 XP
AB win (2 losses, 1 win) 2350 XP
AB win (6 losses, 1 win) 2350 XP
AB win (3 losses, 1 win) 2350 XP
WSG win (1 win) 2350 XP
(somewhere around here, I hit 325 mining, so I can mine everything except Khorium)
WSG win (3 losses, 1 win) 2350 XP
AB win (1 loss, 1 win) 2350 XP
AB win (1 win) 2350 XP (30)