WotLK, continued.

Rob & Ryan1 were the Dorks To Watch in the race to level 80. I actually don't know who hit it first; I'm thinking Rob but I'm not sure.

I'm not sure I hit 70 before they hit 80.

I still had a ton of quests in Nagrand. I decided to level in Nagrand during the day when Phil wasn't on so that when Phil did log on later, we would still both have the same quests. I ended up doing most of my Nagrand quests, & catching up to Phil at 70, even getting a little ahead of him. Phil's schedule & my schedule didn't match up all that much. But the xp kept rolling in.

I received a call from Ryan2 while I was at dinner at my parents', informing me that if I logged on I could get a panda. I immediately jumped on my sister's computer & logged in. Well. It was a polar bear cub. Not a panda. But still cute. And when you click on it, it makes that same weird Eraserhead Baby noise. I love it.

During this time I was beginning to suspect that I found playing a hunter boring. Perish the thought, said my corehound & my devilsaur. But only too often did I find myself nodding off, or zoning out, as I sat here on autofollow.

But there are dangers.

As if aggroing every Shoveltusk Bull we came across was not sufficient, Phil killed me a few times. I would have thought he was just checking to see if I was awake except that he died too.

Another time we received a quest that required us to swim to a spot across the water, & instead of riding down I decided to just jump off the cliff into the water. Only, the edge of the water was a little farther than my calculations had determined.

Phil rode down.


Then there was the day that I was chatting with Ryan2 about various events, & I began getting an annoying constant pop up error. I continued to chat with him, trying to ride through Nagrand while dealing with this stupid box that kept popping up.

The error message said something about "wtfroflthis" & I was fearful that it was some kind of insidious prank, so I decided to ask the guild if anyone knew anything about it. At the same time, Ryan2 also said he was getting the same error.

And then I thought, "This is like... a chat STD."

I ended up downloading an error frame mod from Curse while I tried to figure out what it was. In the end, Bryan convinced me to do what you're supposed to do, & I disabled all my addons & turned them back on one at a time. Turns out it was due to using an outdated version of Carbonite.

What I get for using cheater mods.

I don't know if using a mod like Carbonite or Questhelper ruins the discovery aspect for me. I guess it does. But frankly, I was so ridiculously bored playing my hunter that I didn't really care enough to gauge my experience. You see me speaking in past tense but just be patient; we'll get to my mage eventually. I've still got a lot of screenshots.

Howling Fjord is beautiful.


Bryan's birthday is November 26. Since this year Turkey Day fell on the 27th, I had to do something else to celebrate.


And then there was the thing with Fishing.

I level Fishing on just about every character. There's always a character I roll that I say, "No. On this toon, I'm not going to do fishing. I don't need to do fishing on this toon. It's such a big timesink. All my other toons can fish, so I don't need to do it on this one. Just this one. No fishing. No. Don't talk to the trainer. Walk away."

Sometimes I can hold out for many levels. Sometimes as many as 40 levels.

It's Steamwheedle Port in Tanaris that will get me. Or, if I'm really, really strong, sometimes I make it as far as Azshara.

And then I go train fishing. There's no getting past Azshara without going fishing. Seriously. I should probably take Azshara completely off the itinerary for any leveling because it takes me so long to get out of that zone. All I do is fish. It takes an hour to finish a single quest.




And does anyone remember this reference, from my very first blog, now lost forever since I deleted my MySpace account? Who is Joc?



At 72 Phil & I needed The Nexus. And our wish was granted, with Travis tanking on his Death Knight & Rob healing. In addition to that, we had 2 locks - Phil & Tako.

So my first trip through The Nexus was extremely quick & everything was very pretty. I don't know if I'll ever experience an instance with a group the appropriate level.

Oh well. I'll live.




Sheesh, I had no idea I took so many pictures in there. Sorry.





Phil & I got a quest which required us to collect doo doo from bats (not from RFK.). After pooping, the bat would attack us & we'd have to kill it. To circumvent this, Phil figured out that calling the bats down to a raised surface caused them to poop but be unable to attack. The bats would reset & then we'd call them back down for some more poop.

One of the things about running around with an overpowered class (yeah, listen to the hunter saying that) is that outside of jumping off cliffs we don't die too much. It's also nice to watch a little gnome running around with 10 mobs on him while I informally shoot at them.

I knew Phil would level faster without me, & I actually was really missing my mage. So at 74 we agreed to just solo upward.

Thanks Phil! And watch out for that axe.



And then there was the little discussion between Tako, Darren, & Phil. The server was about to restart, & they were discussing other players asking Darren about his lifetime pvp title. All it took was a little suggestion to really get the conversation heated.

You guys are such dorks. I love it.



I tried to get the last 15 seconds but failed. For the record, it was Phil.