A Gnome for All Seasons

Greatboo was recently rescued from oblivion. She was abandoned on the Kilrogg Realm which was hugely overpopulated with waiting times at peak, it was just absolutely chaos in Stormwind and Lagforge. Having missed the free move to Anachronos, I bit the bullet and took Bob and Flimsy over on the Paid Character Transfer. 6 weeks later I was missing my Alts and went back for Greatboo and Dumpyrustnut.

Dumpy as previously stated was my first Toon, and although I bored quickly of the simplistic fighting action of the warrior, he became invaluable as "the banker". Frequent trips to the AH, Dumpy clocked up hours of game time and must be longest leveling of a lvl20 in the history of WoW. Bob was able to buy his mount at the right time due to the spiv* activities of Dumpy.

Greatboo on the other hand was the strangest Toon in history. Having already clocked up 4 professions Leatherworking - Skinning - Mining - Blacksmithing, I decided I needed an Enchanter, and due to the Rogue being of a Gnomish persuasion, I utilised the innate ability to do Engineering.

Enchanting and Engineering are the money pit of WoW professions, and to make matters worse I was dependent on another toon to share the Metal Bars and Jewels that he unearthed. Despite this I was able to level Greatboo's engineering up to 240 with the help of a lvl50+ mage who needed Mithril Casing and other items for a quest. He took the level 20 Rogue to Tanaris as a bodyguard destroying everything in Greatboos pathway. Tanaris is the home of Buzzek Bracketswing (Master Engineer) who was able to train Boo in the ways of the Engineer.

So Boo was a Level 20 Rogue with 240 Engineering and a very poor 100 Enchanting. The only problem with Boo was that I hit a wall leveling her at 24. I was able to do bits of Redridge and bits Wetlands but struggled to find PuGs for the group tasks. Hence Boo became covered in dust and very much unloved, until now that is.

Boo threw away the Enchanting and gave mats to a new Alt and set off to Darkshire with a pick in hand. Darkshire was too low a level but the Ore was very plentiful, a dash round Deadmines, Stockades and Ashenvale and Boo is invigorated and now sailing at lvl26.

Meet Greatboo - http://armory.wow-europe.com/?#character-sheet.xml?r=Anachronos&n=Greatboo







*Spiv is a British slang word for a person (invariably male) who makes a living by shady dealings, usually by selling goods of dubious provenance.

Birthday Run through Dead Mines

Flimsystone, for a birthday treat xx years old yesterday was given a choice what to do for the night. The result was a race through the Deadmines. Bob, Flimsy, Fuzzy and Rhienne lined up at the instance, entered alone and then joined a party to help with communication. Bob had the advantage of 12 levels on the other 3 and handicapped himself by taking on 2 quests that he had previously missed as the Noob that I was. The quests for the record [Collecting Memories] & [Oh Brother. . . ].

I also started off without the aid of Bobcat, but quickly changed my mind. A Beast Master Hunter without his faithful companion is as much use as a Chocolate Teapot.

Bobcat was released onto the unsuspecting miners in aggressive mode and quickly tore through the instance. Bob was unable to keep up with the ferocious onslaught and missed out on lots of Twink loot.

Flimsy was the first to the WWE wrestler Rhahk'Zor aka The Foreman. Bob made short work of The Foreman and moved swiftly past his bodyguards who did not Aggro when a Level 63 Dwarf, armed to the teeth ran past with Aspect of Cheetah.

Bob and Bobcat got quickly in their stride and even killed the Rare spawn Miner Johnson and collected the Miner's Cape for the slight detour.

The carnage continued with Bobcat taking out the Goblins and in particular the Shredder on his own. As usual it was difficult to target Sneed but just in time I made a striking blow to maintain a share of the loot.

I was easily ahead when I headed downstairs to fight the Goblin Engineers. I cleared the room unnecessarily because at the end of the day this was a race. Flimsy at this point asked how my quests were going. Damn, drat - a deal was a deal, so off back into the instance I went back to find the Union Cards and the Explorer Badge.

5 minutes later, and back at the entrance with a mound of dead miners, I decided it was time to continue the race. Everybody was attacking Mr Smite by this stage. I raced down picked up the dynamite and blew the door, but I already knew it was too much to catch them up.

After a particularly slow death of Mr Smite, Bob and Bobcat took alternative pirates. But halfway up the ships ramp, the game was finally up, and the Birthday Girl had killed Van Cleef bounded over the side and out of the Instance.

Some minutes later a dejected Bob emerged into the sunlight in last place. Rhienne broke the news that my quests were in fact outside the Instance. Thankfully the language filter &*$£ &*$£ &*$£ &*$£ managed to block out my true feelings.

Hellfire on Fire

Hellfire Peninsula has been slow going for Bob. Ok, I have bashed out lots of quests and gained 2 Levels, killed more Deranged Hellboar than you can shake a sharp polearm at, but last night Bob was on fire. I completed 13 quests in a 4 hours averaging 50K xp per hour. The quests in no particular order were:

Digging for Prayer Beads
The Exorcism of Colonel Jules
Trollbane is Looking for You
Invasion Point: Annihilator
Deadly Predators
The Longbeards
The Arakkoa Threat
Rampaging Ravagers
The Path of Glory
The Temple of Telhamat
The Pools of Aggonar
Cleansing the Waters
Looking to the Leadership

I was impressed with this performance, but others might want to know what I have been doing with my time in the Outlands.

Hellfire is rich in quests, but in my opinion still has crazy respawn times due to the initial mass appearance of thousands of Level 60's finally let off the leash. In particular I am thinking of "Invasion Point: Annihilator " - which I part completed by Slaying Arix'Amal, taking the Burning Legion Gate Key, but not having the time to step in the Portal to find out how to close it, before Arix'Amal and all his buddies are back and ready to pound on my head. I received some help in the form of a minder from my guild - Lifebane, who bought me enough time to deactivate the portal. I am still unsure exactly how I did it because I was so busy left and right clicking buttons whilst moving around looking for a cog to appear. This was not a very accomplished performance but a very easy quest with help.

I had the same respawn problem previously with Cursed Talismans and Warlord of the Bleeding Hollow Level 58 and 60. I can imagine on Day 1 of The Burning Crusade that there were more Alliance than Orcs in this camp, but now you are more likely to be on your own.

Also I have spent several hours grinding on Hellboars and Ravagers. Hellboars due to the close proximity to Honor Hold and Ravagers for the Ravager Flesh to make tasty Ravager Dogs. So, large amounts of cooking, skinning and leatherworking and not much questing.

Back to last night, in researching this piece (WOW readers are normally very pedantic about facts and opinions) I noticed that my methodolgy for completing The Exorcism of Colonel Jules was a little unusual. The correct method seems to be using the Prayer Beads to kill the slime/pea soup vomit. I on the other hand was fortunate to have Bobcat and Explosive Trap for AoE. I can safely say I had no idea what was going on, and the lesson learned is Allakhazam is my best friend.

This is also true for Cleansing the Waters, and without the co-ordinates I might have been going round Aggonar all night slaying Terrorfiends and Slimes looking for some bones which I never actually found.

The only downside of the night was my search for the Longbeard Dwarves. In trying to be smart and riding around the edge of the ravine I was mobbed and killed twice by the Stonescythe Alpha/Ambushers which is a terrible confession and then a further slaughtering at the hands of the Haal'eshi Windwalkers/Talonguards. In hindsight it may have been easier to take the Ressurection Sickness and start again.

Profile

21st March 2007 - The wild ramblings of a WOWhead.

As an introduction to myself and my WOW addiction http://armory.wow-europe.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Anachronos&n=Bobflintston

A level 62 Dwarf Hunter with no special knowledge to pass on, just an attempt to document my WOW activities.

I am still a relative Noob to the game having played for about 9 months now. Bob is my main with a handfull of Alts setup, to help distract me from the task of fully leveling in the shortest time. There are hundreds of ways of playing this game, and mine is about trying to round off my Toons with as many skills as possible. I originally setup enough characters to master all the trades/skills and this can be a time consuming activity, spending hours at the postbox and the AH.

My first Toon - Dumpyrustnut was the simplistic Warrior - charge - crash - kill or be killed variety. I dragged him to the low 20's and then created Bobflinston. I read about the Hunter having a pet and thought that this must be a bit more challenging. My wife who is not usually interested in Computer Games - took an interest and also created a Hunter - Wilmaflint.

The Roster soon looked like this:

Bobs Team
Dumpyrustnut - Dwarf/Warrior - Mining/Blacksmith
Bobflinston - Dwarf/Hunter - Skinner/Leatherworker
Greatboo - Gnome/Rogue - Engineering/Enchanter
Buffster - Human/Lock - Herbalist/Alchemist

Flim's Team
Wilmaflint - Dwarf/Hunter - Miner/Engineering
Flimsystone - Night Elf/Hunter - Skinner/Tailor

This created a nice created a nice little production line where nothing went to waste. As a Noob, I wanted to do everything inhouse, not realising that this is where a good Guild comes in very handy.

It was Flim who discovered the joys of a good leveling Guild, and Bob was soon drafted in to enjoy the banter and the free assistance/gifts that came with the Guild. was one big happy family, and Flim was starting to get as addicted as Bob to WOW.
The biggest problem was that we were sharing one computer and fights were starting to breakout in the Bob household. After 4 months of this unhappy situation it was decided that a second computer might not be such a bad investment.

During this time Flim became a serial - grouper and Bob became a lonely solo hunter (In my opinion this is how the Hunter should be played). Flim also suffers from Altism, which is a most debilitating disease, affecting the ability to level the main Toon.

Bob and Flim remained 10 levels apart for several weeks and so grouping was not so much fun for Bob, playing the minder. Being a Noob and a solo Hunter, I tended to only do the instances when Flim was ready, this of course meant easier quests and less XP.

When Bob hit Level 50 - The Burning Crusade was released. The mass exodus of Level 60's who had previously been helping people to level, doing endless instances, disappeared overnight. Bob discovered that Felwood, Winterspring, Western Plaguelands, Un'goro had become deserted. The Noob was left to grind his way up - leveling every 3-5 days.

When I finally hit 58 whilst doing the quest chain for the Fallen Hero of the Horde, it was too late jump through the portal. So off to bed on a high, with a day at work to read about what awaited me in the Outlands.

In the end I rushed home from work, jumped through the portal, ran to the Gryphon point, flew to Honor Hold, obtained the Master levels for Skinning/Leatherworking/Cooking and flew back to Azeroth to level up to 60.

My logic being that everybody else had gone at level 60 with Tier armour and weapons and that a Noob 58 Hunter was just cannon fodder for the Legion and the Horde. Having been squashed several time by a Fel Reaver I was probably right to do so.

Anyway up to date, I am now Level 62 and just about to complete most of the solo quests in Hellfire. It's time to find some friends/guild/PuG to bash the Horde into oblivion.