So, I finally get some spare time and log onto Maidofiron. I enter the game world, head to Sen’jin Village and grab all the quests. I gather the Crawler Mucus (the drop rate of which still annoy me), and I kill the Northwatch Lugs and smash their crates (though I’d rather be fighting centaur again).

I hand these quests in and get the next two in the respective chains. I take a few steps outside Sen’jin Village when I get asked to empty the washing machine. Since I’m still near the village, I figure I’ll be safe.

How wrong was I?

It turned out that I was far enough outside the village for the guards not to respond to active threats – namely the scorpid roaming nearby. As I was AFK, I was clearly an attractive target for the little gits.

So, that’s the end of this chapter. I deleted and went to create a new character. This time I decided to go with whatever race/class combo I was randomly issued with, as happens when you create a new character.

And that’s how Maidofiron became a Gnome Warrior. New post coming soon.

I started off by assisting the people of Astranaar with their furbolg problem. It soon became apparanent to me that Thistlefur Avengers are really quick attackers. Which didn’t do my health pool any good.

After killing the furbolgs and handing in the quest, I decided to skip Ashenvale and go into Stonetalon Mountains. So, off I went to Stardust Spire.

Painmaster Thundrak certainly lived up to his name. I ran out of mana during the fight. Thankfully, I had a wand (which I went all the way to Stormwind for). So I just kept putting up Renew and Power Word: Shield while I wanded him to death.

I had another close call with Chief Bombgineer Sploder. So, I used the same strategy I did for Thundrak. It barely worked. I only had 89 health and 0 mana left when Sploder dropped dead. Phew!

On the way out of Silverwind Refuge, I had yet another close call. This time from one of the Goblin Technicians in the area. All of my spells kept missing!

While killing the Befouled Water Elementals in Mystral Lake, I saw a rare called Eck’alom. So, I attacked him. ANOTHER close call!

An hour or so later, I was in Stonetalon properly. And I was at the Windshear Mine. While killing a peon for his ore, I got him to exactly ONE health. I hate it when this happens. I decide to melee him … and miss. So, I ended up Smiting the last bit of health from him.

It’s a pity that this didn’t happen while I was fighting this Overseer. Also, why has he got a smile on his face? Is he happy to be dead?

Later, I found myself at the water wheel, to gather the BD-816 War Apparatus for ‘Mr. P’. While I was up there, I got a quest to kill a traitorous gnome. I took one look at Gerenzo The Traitor and abandoned the quest. He had twice as much health as I did, and I didn’t want to risk dying. Of course, this didn’t stop me running in, using Psychic Scream on the enemies who were attacking me (Gerenzo included), grabbing the Apparatus, and jumping off the water wheel.

Anyway, that’s me at Level 27. Will I make it to 30? We’ll soon see.

Until the next time, folks!

Here’s another progress report for you all, once again written from a bulleted list.

With the animals of Darkshore protected from further corruption, the time came to destroy the menace behind it all. Yoth’al the Devourer proved to be a poor opponent. He ran out of mana, and rather than get out of the water to melee me, he just sat there while I smote him to death.

I couldn’t help but notice that Earthen Ring is a rather laggy server. I was getting over 850ms (world). I only get 47 on Vek’nilash, where all my non-Ironman characters are located. So it has to be Earthen Ring.

After retrieving the Horn of the Ancients, the time came to destroy the Avatar of Soggoth. I was worried that he would kill me before the Ancients arrived to help me give him a beating, but thankfully I survived.

With Level 22 came the relief that I was finally done in Darkshore. I headed straight to Ashenvale to assist the Night Elves in driving back their enemies – namely, the Horde invading from the Barrens and Azshara.

It was weird seeing Talen as a Level 21 elite. I remember when he was a puny Level 17 who the Horde would kill when they passed him. Now that he’s got a Flight Master nearby, only Level 85s would be brave enough to attack him.

While gathering Ancient Statuettes, I was thinking to myself ‘There are far too many naga, and not enough Ancient Statuettes!’. A few minutes after thinking that, I found the last seven I needed in one area.

I learned, to my dismay, that Wrathtail Wave Riders are more dangerous than they look. Their Whirlpool ability often hit me for nearly a quarter of my health. Thank goodness for Power Word: Shield!

I was forced to abandon Ruuzel, due to the fact that she was hard. Very hard. Her constant use of knockbacks, as well as pulling me towards her, made casting damn near impossible. To top it off, I got knocked into a group of Priestesses and Myrmidons. I was barely able to make it out alive, thanks to Shadowmeld. Not to worry, though. Once I’m a bit stronger, I will go and get my revenge.

I soon found myself in Astranaar. Putting out fires was boring. Shooting down Wind Riders with a Glaive Thrower, however, was not. Though I have to say that the speed the Glaive Throwers move was rather annoying. They’re so slow!

Well, that’s all for now. I will soon start work on crushing the Horde and driving them from Ashenvale.

For the glory and honour of the Alliance!

To make up for only advancing two levels prior to my last post, I advanced seven more today. I’m Level 21 now, and I’m still not finished in Darkshore.

Anyway, I started off by gather reagents from animals. Trouble is, I couldn’t kill them. While sneaking up on a sleeping Moonstalker to pluck out one of its whiskers may seem like a laugh – I can assure you that it isn’t. I was always worried that my face would be torn off.

When it came to choosing a blessing from the animal spirits, I choose the bear spirit. 10% less physical and magical damage taken? Yes, please.

Despite my best efforts, Volcor didn’t make it. I felt sorry for Grimclaw, but at least he found a new companion in Cerellean Whiteclaw.

I loved blowing up murlocs with the Decoy Bot. Enough said.

One thing I learned today was not to touch Cat Figurines until at least Level 18. I was Level 14 when I first did it, and I got attacked by a Level 19 Ghost Saber. Thankfully, I was able to lure it back to camp, whereupon the guards quickly took care of it for me.

Once I hit Level 17, I headed off to Darnassus for new armour and a new staff. I also bought a stack Melon Juice. Though I went through it all within half an hour of buying it. So now I have two stacks.

When I hit Level 19, I was thinking to myself that I should really be in Ashenvale. However, I don’t like leaving quests unfinished, so I’ll stay in Darkshore until I am absoloutely sure that I’m done there.

I couldn’t help but notice that the icon for the Panther Figurine looked like a purple rat. Perhaps it’s just me.

There are a lot of bears in southern Darkshore. So it’s just as well I took the Bear Spirit’s blessing. Without it, I’d be fighting a bear every few steps.

I was glad to see that Prospector Remtravel still hasn’t changed. I love that silly old fool. Also, building a murloc hovel made me laugh, especially when all it did was attract more and more of the pesky little buggers.

As soon as I hit Level 21, I went to Darnassus for my riding training. Then I logged out to type this post and get some dinner.

Until the next time, folks. See ya!

I logged onto Maidofiron, eager to get levelling. First thing I did was rescue survivors of the devastation at Auberdine. While I was doing that, I also destroyed several Vile Spray. The noises those things make creeped me out a lot.

I was surprised to see that the Buzzboxes were actually analysing the items you brought, instead of turning them into booze. Looks like Wizbang Cranktoggle finally decided to use his scientific mind to help the animals of Darkshore, rather than using it to find new ways of getting himself tanked up.

While killing Thistle Bears for their guts, I managed to pull three of them at once. I promptly ran out of mana. Just as I was thinking ‘oh no, I’m dead’, one of the bears died and I hit Level 13 – which refilled my health and mana. Thank goodness for that then! I killed the other two bears and went on my way.

I fell into the Maw of the Void and got sucked into a cavern underneath it. Let me tell you now that Telarius Voidstrider is tougher than he looks. Especially when he keeps using Spellbreak to lower the damage my spells do to him. If it wasn’t for Shadowmeld, I would have died on my first attempt. I barely managed to kill him on the second. At least he dropped a quest starter.

One other thing I learned was not to kill Corrupted Duskrats. The AOE that spills out from their corpse hit me hard. Again, I nearly died.

I hit Level 14 after handing in all the quests I had. I then learnt Power Word: Fortitude from the trainer. This will come in very handy indeed.

And that was that. I then had an overwhelming desire to play Half-Life 2: Episode Two. So I did. Dog vs Strider is the best thing ever.

Until the next time, folks!

The first quest I did in Shadowglen was the old classic to kill Nightsabers. This got me believing that the Night Elf starting quests hadn’t changed much in Cataclysm. Thankfully, I was soon proven wrong. I enjoyed learning about Night Elf history from the spirit at the Moonwells. This is a great way of introducing new players to the lore surrounding WoW.

Before I left Shadowglen, I was given a buff which made getting this achievement so much easier.

As I approached Dolanaar, I saw that Zenn Foulhoof was up to no good, as usual. I was pleased to see that his quest required two of every reagent, rather than three. However, I soon found out that the drop rates on these reagents are still as annoying as they were pre-Cataclysm.

A while later, I was in the Barrow Dens. Getting the Shaman Voodoo Charm only took me four kills, instead of the 15-20 it usually takes me. That was good. And the quest to kill 20 furbolg was also welcome. I don’t remember there being such a quest before Cataclysm came out.

One thing that bothered me was this. The Sentinel who accompanies you is handy for killing things. I also noticed you could ask her for directions to where the relics needed for the Awakening Ritual were located. The mist she placed was quite handy, but how are you supposed to follow it when you have to stop and kill something every five seconds?

Speaking of the relics, I found that they were still as annoying to find as ever. Even with the mist helping me.

I got to Level 12 eventually, and headed to Darkshore. I’m yet to start any quests there. That’ll be the next part of my challenge.

Unlike the other times I have done this challenge, I left the starting zone (Teldrassil) with all of my bag slots occupied. Mostly by 6-slot bags, but still. There were a lot of rares around which dropped bags, and a couple of quests gave a bag as a reward. Why can’t all the starting zones offer quests like this?

One other thing I noticed is that the Earthen Ring realm is rather quiet on the Alliance side. Maybe it was because of the time of day (mid-morning). Maybe most of the players were at work or school. Or maybe there’s just not many people rolling Alliance characters.

Whichever one it was, it was practically dead in the Trade channel. Even the chat channel for people doing the Ironman Challenge was devoid of life. I was the only person there. Someone did join me, but only for ten seconds.

Oh well, maybe things will pick up later. In the meantime, it’s off to Darkshore!

FOR THE ALLIANCE!

I finally started levelling Maidofiron again. When I logged on, I started doing the quests I had left. Attaching a tether to a dead Thunder Lizard is harder than it looks. I got zapped by one and lost half my health!

I then found myself with a Slavedriver, testing his ‘gladiators’. Those three quests were the easiest XP I’ve ever earned.

I got to Level 12 and found that I was pretty much done in Durotar. So, I headed to Azshara. It was so much fun running around in a Goblin Shredder, lobbing grenades everywhere. Once I killed the Ancient, I got out of the shredder so I could kill stags for their venison. I tell you, the number of slabs I was getting was awful. Pretty much every kill yielded only one slab. Though one stag did give me three slabs, which was nice.

I soon wished that I had stayed in the shredder, though. While fighting a stag, a Telrendis Scout decided to have a go. Then another one … and another one. So I was fighting four enemies at once!

… not that it did them any good.

Once I was finished with the Night Elf menace, I started the quests at the rocketway. I found it funny that even with his workers petrified, Horzak Zignibble was still trying to do his job, and make some money on the side. Then, when he realises his workers don’t make good bricks, he grudginly decides to help them. Typical goblin – money first, well-being second.

It wasn’t long until I found myself working for the Bilgewater Battalion. I had a blast shooting naga with the mortar (pun not intended). I was tempted to stay on it, even after I’d killed 60 for the quest. But if I did, I wouldn’t have got anything else done.

Also, I loved the flavour (yellow) text on the SFG. It made me laugh out loud.

Once I was finished with the Battalion, I was Level 14. Then it was time to help the Surveyor map out Lake Mennar.

Turns out that while I can take on three elves and a stag, I can’t handle a bunch of pissed off ghosts. Go figure. Oh well, time to delete.

But first, I might as well get rid of the money I’ve made. I go to Orgrimmar and decide to give my money to the first low level I see.

It doesn’t take long to find one, a Level 14. I should point out that this person wasn’t begging. If they were, I wouldn’t have given them anything.

And that’s that. I deleted Maidofiron after this. However, I created her again (to reserve the name). I’ll decide what race/class to roll, and try again.

Maybe I’ll go Alliance this time…

Maidofiron is now Level 10. I have to say that I was tempted to select Demonology, but not spend any talent points in it. That way, I could get a Felguard, and not break the rules of the challenge.

However, I thought about it and chose not to. It’s still speccing, after all. And besides, I’m not sure it would work.

Still in Durotar. Bored as hell.

I’ve completed all of the Silverpine quests, and am now starting out in Hillsbrad. I won’t give out any spoilers, but the final quest in Silverpine was fantastic. I was not expecting that to happen. BUT IT DID, AND I WAS AMAZED.

I’ve done the quests in Hillsbrad before. I enjoyed being a quest giver. But quite frankly, I’d rather be dispensing justice with my bow and bear.

So, LET’S GET TO IT!