Just as I started levelling my Rogue, I stumbled upon an article on Blizzard Watch that asked how best to power level an alt.

Now I had no plan to power level her, but there was an intriguing strategy outlined that involved using the 300% XP boost granted by an Elixir of the Rapid Mind in combination with having all Gorgrond bonus objectives one step short of complete. Having found two Elixir’s as part of Winter’s Veil, I decided may as well give it a go. The article comments¹ also tipped to polish off an Excess Potion of Accelerated Learning for an additional 20% boost - making it 320% total.

Gorgrond is particularly great for this plan as it has nine bonus quests and they’re all relatively close to each other. And the whole endeavour is only possible if you can fly in Draenor, so this only really works for your alts. I was already level 93 heading to Gorgrond thanks to treasure hunting in Frostfire, and in the process of getting all the bonuses to tipping point I levelled to 94. One tip is that some bonus areas only unlock after opening your Gorgrond Outpost, so get that done first. The Elixir lasts 15 minutes, so you need to make the most of it.

I decided to also prep the three Frostfire bonus areas, in case I had time to spare. This turned out to be a bit of a waste, as there are only three bonuses, they are spread out, and because they are lower level it wasn’t worth as much XP. If you have the level or skill, maybe try the Talador bonus quests instead.

With everything ready, I checked the most efficient flight route, rehearsed the finishing move for each objective, took a few deep breaths, and went for it. When I started I was level 94. 11 minutes later I was 97! It was great. Approx 300k XP per bonus area, and the levels flew by. Very entertaining, the only frustration was finishing everything with four minutes to spare and nowhere to spend the XP. A small price to pay. In summary, if you want to try this:

1. Acquire an Elixir from the AH & Potion from your Garrison Quarter Master;
2. Get your Outpost built in Gorgrond to unlock all nine possible bonus objectives;
3. Complete all but one item for each bonus - I’d suggest leaving the easiest possible thing waiting (normally a ‘click once to do something’ chore instead of a kill);
4. If you get over level 94 doing this, go and grab some bonus objectives in Talador (instead of Frostfire/SMV).
5. Drink down your potions and fly like the wind!

Good luck and good levelling.

Levelling my Rogue alt - and first ever toon - I’ve rediscovered the joy of pick pocketing. Stealthing through Ogre camps and picking the pocket of each and every mob is enormous fun, especially now you loot fun flavour items like Magma-Infused War Beads as well as a few loose silver coins. And discovering that in the entire camp, only the loincloth sporting Ogre Chef didn’t have pockets made me laugh out loud.

For the Rogues out there, just create a simple macro that adds a pick-pocket to all your stealth attacks and you’ll be looting your way to glory in no time. For example, here’s an Ambush macro:

#showtooltip Ambush

/cast Pick Pocket

/stopcasting

/cast Ambush

I have no idea if you can ever pick things like pets and actual loot, but it’s entirely fun and a great class perk for the lonely & misunderstood Rogue.

Whoa so levelling in Draenor with flight is entirely different. I hopped on my Rogue, built my Garrison, and headed out into Frostfire Ridge. And realised I could just fly straight to each treasure on the map. XP-a-rama. And fly to the rare spawns. And skip the trash mobs before the quest objective.

It’s a different game altogether, far less immersive, and I’m super glad we were forced to do everything on foot first. On the ground I learnt the world, and felt part of it. Having done that makes flying above it rewarding too, but if we had have flown from day one, the detachment flight grants would have really detracted from the sense of place. But it’s brilliant for alts. Pick and choose how and where you want to level, and avoid the grindy parts. Thanks Blizzard!

The mysteries of flight have been revealed - I can fly in Draenor.

In the end it wasn’t too bad - once enough Baleful gear dropped, the Tanaan quests passed relatively fast, especially if you knew which to favourite. The quickest zones I found were The Iron Front & Zeth’gol. The respawn rates are high and there are plenty of bonus items to speed the completion of the bonus quests - especially the warlocky blood bubble things in Zeth’gol. The rep quests were roughly in sync so they all dinged with in a day of each other. Which was nice.

Doing the weekly Rumble in the Jungle made the Saberstalkers super quick, not to mention the bonus Apexis gain as a result. Unseen Influence was probably the trickiest, as once you run out of Treasures it’s only rares that drop Fel-corrupted fragments. But there are also chests and the like that drop them, so it was ok in the end.

For the treasures, HandyNotes and HandyNotesDraenorTreasures are indispensable. Naturally it was the Securing Draenor quests that were left outstanding, but buying the missives from Sergeant Grimshaw put an end to them quick smart.

In the midst of all this, I finished off Tailoring, Cooking, much of Archaeology (just from the Garrison mine fragments), and First Aid. And now I can fly, Archaeology will be a cinch. Rising into the skies again is lovely, and it’s a nice reward for effort.

Following in the footsteps of MAME, there’s a pleasing resurgence in fan-crafted MMO emulation projects. From Star Wars Galaxies to vanilla Warcraft to Warhammer Online, it’s great to see these worlds being preserved. Even better to see people like John Smedley giving them the thumbs up.

Even if they can never be the same as they were - the lightning-in-a-bottle communities are impossible to recreate - it’s important that the history and joy those worlds represented aren’t lost. I briefly tried a Vanilla Warcraft server, and it was amazing to remember just how far things have changed. Hunting with ammo, pet happiness, minimum range, weapon skills - and the possibility of dying in starter areas¹.

And despite the small numbers, there’s every chance the emulated games will generate unique communities of their own.