One Year Later

Although Reinisch is only level 27, Noor has gone way ahead to level 61 (61.5 at the moment). I don't know if Noor can make it to 70 before Wrath of the Lich King comes out or not; it all depends on Strange Engine Parts, I guess...

Blast from the Past

Mephisston logged in on an alt and was surprised I was already level 61 (after about 38 days 19 hours /played). Plus, I met another WoW oddball, Triops, a melee warlock, who is now on the list of oddballs. Other bits of news, I finally found the schematic for the Flame Deflector on the auction house, and I just made it to 350 tailoring so I can make Primal Mooncloth (and do the quest for the specialization, which gives me some XP). I'll try to see if I can learn and unlearn Shadoweave tailoring first, to get 2x the XP, but that didn't seem to work for weapon/armorsmithing. Spellfire is out because I need to kill a nether-wraith to complete the quest...

Update: as I thought, you don't get another quest to change tailoring, you just change, so no additional XP. Oh well, I didn't need that 70G anyway...

Noor doing quest: Escape from Umbrafen

My usual method of keeping the escort healed up and letting them do the fighting. Some horde had cleared out part of the area just a bit earlier, and I used a Cenarion Expedition Flare at one point to get extra help:

Four battlegrounds, no waiting

Made 61, so there's always a BG daily I can at least attempt. Alliance in my battlegroup doesn't do well in Eye of the Storm, but they seem to do well in Alterac Valley. Unfortunately, my new level 61 quests only got me about 20% of the way to level 62.

Tailor/Engineer

I finally gave up mining and leveled tailoring to 300, so I can now use Netherweave Nets. Most useful in WSG, since they only ensnare someone for 3 seconds. I'm getting pretty good at using Rocket Boots Xtreme + Parachute Cloak to grab the Snowfall graveyard in AV as early as possible (though Alliance in my bracket almost always loses; fishing for Strange Engine parts is actually faster XP). I also use the same trick to grab the Gold Mine in AB at the start, but that's a bit trickier to get right.

I'll probably explore all of Outlands at level 60 to get to level 61 as soon as I can, for two reasons: 1) Alliance does a lot better in AV in the next bracket, and 2) I can start doing EotS and get a BG daily every day. I'm also getting my Argent Dawn reputation up to Honored so I can learn the level 60 "powerful anti-venom" formula.

Now begins the long slow grind...

After doing nearly every quest I can do at level 60, I still have more than halfway to go to hit 61. And since the XP needed is about 4x greater, but the XP you get from BGs stays nearly the same, I'll need about 25 battlegrounds to get to 61...

Part of the problem is that I can't do enough quests to get friendly with Honor Hold. That prevents me from doing a few non-combat quests. I also can't get Hellfire Fortifications, the PvP daily in Hellfire Peninsula, because of the prerequisite to kill orcs.

The next apparent seasonal quests are the Harvest Festival and Brewfest, but their previous incarnations only had one Harvest quest that gave XP. Maybe they've been beefed up like the Midsummer Fire Festival in order to get more people to level 70...

Smelting dark iron ore

What a difference 13 levels make. Here's Noor at level 59 smelting dark iron bars (boring stealth part sped up):

60 minutes

The Midsummer Fire Festival and Strange Engine Parts have really helped in getting me to 60 far earlier than I expected just a week and a half ago. I haven't dropped mining for tailoring yet (want to stock up on some dark iron bars), but I will soon. I'll post a video of how easy it is for me to smelt dark iron bars at level 59.

Here are the quests Noor did to get from 55 to 60:

Stealing Undercity's Flame (6100 XP)
More Torch Tossing (8150 XP)
More Torch Catching (8150 XP)
Strange Engine Part (#1)
Strange Engine Part (#2)
Strange Engine Part (#3)
Strange Engine Part (#4)
Strange Engine Part (#5)
Luck Be With You
Cache of Mau'ari (0 XP)
Winterfall E'ko (0 XP)
Bijou's Belongings
Message to Maxwell
Mother's Milk
En-Ay-Es-Tee-Why (56)
Kibler's Exotic Pets
More Torch Tossing (8450 XP)
More Torch Catching (8450 XP)
The First and the Last
Honor the Dead
Alterac Valley Graveyards
Flint Shadowmore
Mrs. Dalson's Diary (0 XP)
The Mark of the Lightbringer
The Eastern Plagues
Establishing New Outposts
The Blightcaller Cometh
AV (3 losses)
Kitchen Assistance
Report to Marshall Bluewall
Scouring the Desert
March of the Silithid
More Torch Tossing (8450 XP)
A Reliquary of Purity
Honor the Flame (Blade's Edge Mountains) (3800 XP)
Strange Engine Part (#6)
A Little Slime Goes A Long Way #1 (can use on oozes other people kill) (57)
More Torch Catching (8750 XP)
Mayara Brightwing
Secret Communication
Strange Engine Part (#7)
Strange Engine Part (#8)
(got Flame of Orgrimmar, will turn in later to maximize XP)
Capture a Mine
AV (3 losses)
More Torch Tossing (8750 XP)
More Torch Catching (8750 XP)
Desecrate this Fire! (Blade's Edge Mountains) (8750 XP)
Desecrate this Fire! (Nagrand)
Honor the Flame (Nagrand)
Desecrate this Fire! (Shadowmoon Valley)
Honor the Flame (Shadowmoon Valley)
More Torch Tossing (8750 XP)
More Torch Catching (8750 XP)
Captain Sander's Hidden Treasure #1-#4 (gray; 10% XP)
AB (2 losses, 1 win) 8750 XP
(did some AV, all lost; wasn't daily)
More Torch Tossing (8750 XP)
More Torch Catching (8750 XP) (58)
Through the Dark Portal
Arrival in Outland
Journey to Honor Hold
Force Commander Danath
The Legion Reborn
Know Your Enemy
Waste Not, Want Not
Laying Waste to the Unwanted
Zeth'Gor Must Burn
The Zapthrottle Mote Extractor!
A Bijou for Zanza
AV (2 losses)
Strange Engine Part (#9)
Dearest Natalia
Glyph Chasing
Kharan Mighthammer
Kharan's Tale
The Bearer of Bad News
Houses of the Holy (now friendly with Argent Dawn, opens collection quests (marked AD))
Bonescythe Digs (AD)
The Elemental Equation (AD)
Stealing Orgrimmar's Flame (6750 XP)
Savage Floraw (AD) (59)
A Thief's Reward (6950 XP)
More Torch Tossing (9300 XP)
More Torch Catching (9300 XP)
Binding the Dreadnaught (AD)
Strange Engine Part (#10)
AB (1 win) (9300 XP)
WSG (1 loss, 1 win) (9300 XP)
Strange Engine Part (#11)
More Torch Tossing (9300 XP)
More Torch Catching (9300 XP)
Attunement to the Core
More Torch Tossing (9300 XP)
More Torch Catching (9300 XP)
AV (1 loss, 1 win) (9300 XP)
The Battle of Alterac (60)