Cut the cards

Inscription decks are left in the dust by gathering XP. The four Rogues decks I bought (fairly cheaply) were buggy until a recent fix, so I couldn't use them until they were gray. In any case, a Swords deck costing about 50G would only give me the XP of about three gathering nodes.

Again, phantom inflicted damage

Somewhere along the line, my pacifist inflicted 349,960 damage, including one blow of 45,154! Still no kills, but blizzard's weird damage bookkeeping strikes again.

The new quests seem more varied, which means more Horde quests that don't involve killing. I've advanced so fast that some quests I can do are gray by the time I find them.

The Need for Speed

Since a large chunk of my XP will come from gathering, I've been maximizing my move speed:
* Run speed enchant to boots
* Respec to Enhancement for instant-cast and faster Ghost Wolf form
* Mithril spurs -- looking for have enchant to riding gloves
* Mount (fast mount now at 40)
* Added Ghost Wolf glyph at level 25 for 5% more speed

I have also tested (on a very old Shaman alt) that the Earthbind totem does NOT tag a mob as mine, so I can use it to gather nodes more easily.

Level 22! +25 herbalism!

With gathering being a (pun warning) cash cow, I should be able to get a fast flying mount as soon as it's available...

Horde vs. Alliance low-level dailies

Each faction gets 1 of 5 different daily quests for fishing and cooking that are available starting at level 10; however, some of these quests can't be done as a pacifist (defined as getting no kills on your stats, so things like ordinary fishing don't count).

Alliance cooking:
A Fisherman's Feast
Feeling Crabby?
Orphans Like Cookies Too!
Penny's Pumpkin Pancakes
The King's Cider

I think all of the above can be done by pacifists.

Horde cooking:
Careful, This Fruit Bites Back
Crawfish Creole
Even Thieves Get Hungry *
Everything Is Better With Bacon *
Stealing From Our Own (either version)

The ones marked * require killing.

Alliance Fishing:
Big Gulp
Diggin' For Worms
Hitting a Walleye
Rock Lobster
Thunder Falls

Again, I think all of the above can be done by pacifists.

Horde fishing:
A Furious Catch
A Golden Opportunity *
A Staggering Effort *
Clammy Hands
No Dumping Allowed

The ones marked * require killing.

With a 100% vs. 60% advantage in daily quests, that's something like an 8 gathering nodes XP difference (each daily is worth about 10 unrested gathering nodes, so the average is 20 per day for Alliance, and 12 for Horde).

Already a close call

Started the Azshara quest Absorbent, thinking it might absorb some water if I just get close to a water elemental. It did -- but killed two elementals that attacked me! Luckily, I checked my stats and they didn't count as my kills. But I abandoned the quest anyway...

Now it's easy

Almost too easy; as Roguedubb said (in a comment), now you get XP from gathering herbs and ore, and there are low level fishing and cooking dailies (but pacifists can't do the ones that require killing).

Given the gathering bonuses, the balance has swung back to Horde, since Tauren get +15 herbalism and gather herbs faster than normal. Since the portals are gone from Dalaran and Shattrath, I figured a Shaman would be useful:
1) Astral Recall allows hearthing every 15 minutes (glyphed, 7.5 minutes)
2) Self-rez
3) Far Sight (and I've already bought an Ornate Spyglass) to look for gathering nodes
4) Ghost Wolf form (can gather herbs without changing)

Tauren gather herbs so fast, I can have 2 or 3 mobs beating on me and still get them. I have to be careful not to hit all the new tiny critters running around though, I almost hit one with my fishing rod.

To compare, Mainchenn took 1 week to get to level 10 20; Flos (Latin for "flower") hit level 20 after just 4 days, and she had very few quests she could do at the start. Level 1-5 was mostly from exploring XP.

She has the hard-to-find Herbalist's Gloves ready for level 22; with an enchant, she'll have +25 herbalism.

And, of course, the stereotype of a pacifist picking flowers all day works, too.

WoW Insider party

Lisa Poisso of WoW Insider (who published the WI articles on Noor et al.) invited me to the Wow Insider meetup pre-Blizzcon party if I happen to be near Anaheim that day. Usually I'm 1500 miles away in St. Paul, but I had already arranged to be in LA for the Firesign Theatre shows at the Barnsdall Theater (I'm a Firesign Theatre webmaster), so it's only 30 miles. So I'll see you there...