Horde Leveling Addon - Zangarmarsh

Deedlet has conqured the marsh, thanks to the addon version of Jame's Horde leveling guide, Zangarmarsh! I also made a few minor corrections to the guide as I went, adding a few more coordinates when it would be useful, but it was already at a very high quality.

I also got to tank my first instance! My good friend came along on his level 80 enhancement Shaman, Bloodcrowe, and healed. My other friend came as the only DPS, with his 80 death knight Nodonn, naked! It was the only way I would hold aggro from him :P Tanking is hard, but fun, and I'm glad I have guild-mates who will help me learn!

Moving on to Terokkar forest, and Deedlet is already level 67!

The Adventures of Mokrana - Chapter 2

Mokrana goes to the Barrens! I used Hosho's Barrens Guide (level 12-20) to navigate the savanna of Kalimdor.

Hosho's Barrens Guide 12-20: 9h 43min
= 69 min/level

Previous Chapters:

• Zerinj's Durotar Guide 1-12: 4h 14min - 21 min/level
  

Total /played at level 20.5: 13h 56min

Overall, I am am pretty disappointed in these results. It's crap ton slower than Jame completed the same level range (his total /played was 9 hours compared to my almost 14 hours!). I'm going to give a few reasons why I think this is so:

• The Guide: Hosho's guide needs some reworking. There are places where the mobs are just too tough to deal with. He knows this and is working to fix it. As soon as he releases a revamped guide, I'll give that one a speed test and update here.
• The Class: Shamans are, from what I have head and experienced, a bit difficult to level during the early levels. I ran out of mana constantly, I had a lot of trouble with multiple mobs, and I just didn't kill things very quickly. However, I think part of this also had to do with me being unfamiliar with the class. As I played, I began to die less and deal with things faster. Still, another class would probably have been faster. I also finished up a totem quest during this time. The good news: later on, enhancement shamans are OP!
• Time Wasting: I must have spent almost an hour leveling cooking and herbalism and fixing mistakes in the guide as I went. I've decided from now on I'm not going to take any major time out for professions, so most probably my cooking and herbalism will languish, but my skinning will continue.
• Dying: Not really a cause in itself but a result of number 1 and number 2 on this list. I must have died 3 or more times every level for the first half of the guide. It got better as I went, but it was probably the most frustrated I have ever been while playing WoW, mostly because I couldn't relax since I was trying to test for speed!

Some good things about all this:

• Money: I mailed all the semi-useful stuff Mokrana found to an alt, who auctioned it. So far she's made 30 gold, which funded two netherweave bags with some left over as a cushion for skills. Hopefully she'll be able to fund her mount this way by level 30.
• Flight Paths: Mokrana picked up flight paths in Ashenvale (that run alone probably takes over 15 minutes) and Stonetalon. This will help out during Jame's guide, where you would have to get those if you didn't already have them
• No Grinding: I didn't have to grind any extra than what was done while questing, so I got to skip the periodic grinding sessions Hosho allows for in his guide. Yay!

While the XP rates for this part of the guide were not great, I am confident that they will improve as I go. Mokrana will be heading off to test the first Horde chapter of Jame's leveling guide next!

Here's the story in image form:

Level 12 - Mokrana heads into the Barrens, looking for adventure...


What a nice loincloth I found! Smexy!
.... The funny thing is I got wtfpwned by a patrolling centaur and his little doggies right after I took this picture.

Level 17 - Prowling the Oasis in my new loincloth

Level 19 - Almost to the end!

Escorting this completely idiotic NPC back to Ratchet. Worst. Escort. Ever.

Level 20 - Yay, almost there!

Ended the guide at 20.5. And I got some pants, finally!

Hope you all tune in for the next chapter!

Horde Leveling Addon - Hellfire Peninsula

Deedlet has officially completed the Hellfire Peninsula portion of Jame's leveling guide! As I went, I made a few revisions to the guide, but all were superficial - adding more arrows (to flight paths, for instance), breaking large steps into smaller ones to make things smoother.

Next stop, Zangarmarsh!

Also, I'm about half-way through the Barrens Guide with Mokrana, so an update on the speed testing will come soon. Unfortunately I'm not to happy with the results so far, but you'll have to wait for the details on that.

Horde Leveling Addon 51-60

I have officially completed the first draft of the addon version for Horde level 51-60 of Jame's guide. You can download it here. I feel pretty good about it overall, though there were some unexplained hiccups in the guide as I went (some things auto-completing when they shouldn't, mostly) so it needs more testing.

I also created optional guides for the Searing Gorge and the Burning Steppes, which the user can select if he or she chooses (it's also explained in the main guide at the points where those guides would branch off. Additionally, I made a separate two-part version of the Hellfire Peninsula guide to help folks who want to go there at 58, then come back to Azeroth to finish up the rest of Jame's guide after getting a few upgrades and training professions.

Feel free to post here or on the Addon Works-in-Progress page with questions or comments!

Spring Break at Last!

Woooooo freedom!

Thought I'd let you all know that I'm finally done with winter term and it's time to get some hard-core WoW-ing done! Here are my goals for spring break:

• Get Deedlet to level 80! (Ambitious I know, stay tuned to see if I make it!)
• Speed test the next section of the Horde leveling guide: The Adventure of Mokrana, Chapter 2!
• Revise the next section of the leveling guide with another character, so it's ready for speed testing later on.
• Complete my maps and images with GIMP guide (yes it's long overdue I know!)

This is a hefty list, so we'll see if it all gets done, but it should be a fun week! I'll post here when I complete sections on this list.

In the meantime.... For the Horde!

Addon - How to Contribute

I just finished my revamp for the "How to Contribute" page for Jame's leveling addon. Hopefully this will help people edit the addon and improve it. I also included Jame's standards for the addon, so this can guide those who are revising it.

Horde Addon - Level 41-51

Hey folks! I just finished updating the Horde 41-51 section of Jame's Leveling Guide, addon version. It's not perfect, but there were a LOT of mistakes that have now been fixed. You can download it here, from my google site. I'll be working on the Horde 51-60 section next, and plan to make it perfect before I'm through!

Big Update - Tree Guide

At long last, I've made a big update for my tree healing guide incorporating all the wonderful and useful comments the WoW-Pro users have given me over the past month or so. You can find the updated guide here.

In this update:

• Added more enchanting options, with the goal of easier access and cheaper alternatives in mind.
• Added a few pieces of gear that were suggested.
• Revised "Leveling as a Tree" section to describe the barkskin/hurricane strategy.
• Revised Nourish usage notes, the spell is actually pretty nice for quick spot healing or emergency heals - Regrowth should still be used when you have more time though.
• Added macros!
• Added innervate as a spell and usage notes
• Changed description for the Subtlety talent, to indicate it's use in PvP.
• Added Celestial Focus talent description
• Updated haste information for new data on GotEM.
• Added notes about HoTing before or after a pull.
• Updated one build to include Celestial Focus.
• Added note to Replenish - slated to effect Wild Growth as well in 3.1.0

Things not included:

• A bunch of extra shoulder enchants. Really, this would be like including all the low level other enchants. I threw the easier Sons of Hodir one up there, but I'm not going to include the others.

I'll be pretty busy in the next few weeks finishing up this term of college, so I may not be as active as I have been. Don't worry, I'll be back after finals!