The Adventures of Mokrana - Chapter 3

Mokrana levels yet again! This time, I used the first chapter of Jame's Leveling Guide (level 21-31). It took me from the Barrens, to the mountains of Stonetalon, the forests of Ashenvale, to Thousand Needles, and even across the sea to Hillsbrad.

Jame's Leveling Guide 21-31: 14h 49min
= 1.48 hr/level

Previous Chapters:

• Zerinj's Durotar Guide 1-12: 4h 14min - 21 min/level
• Hosho's Barrens Guide 12-20: 9h 43min - 69 min/level
  

Total /played at level 30.5: 1d 4h 45min

Again, this is pretty significantly behind Jame's rate, who at this same point is at 19 hours /played and averaged 1 hr/level during this section. Again, he is playing a paladin, who level a lot faster.

On that same note, I want to let you all know that I went ahead and bought Mokrana some gear. It was all purchased with her own money (though she's been making serious buck with her herbing skills). She now has several blues, including a [Cobalt Crusher] that I found for relatively cheap. I've definitely noticed a serious improvement of both her speed and survivability, and am enjoying playing her about a million times more. My advice for anyone leveling a shaman - find a way to get some decent gear, it really matters for these melee classes.

Mokrana and her new mount and new gear, ready to take on the world!

Now, on to the analysis!

My only complaint is that I got a bit behind the guide in several places and was forced to grind. This was especially bad for the first half of the guide when I have bad gear and wasn't too fast at killing things. In particular, I was behind during the Hillsbrad Foothills section, and had to grind on humanoids there for a long time to catch up. I also ended the guide half a level behind, but chose to move on rather than trying to grind my way to catch up.

I have heard several complaints about folks getting behind specifically in this section of Jame's guide. I think this may be due to changes in quest drop rate causing less built-in grinding. I know Jame plans to add new quest circuits as he goes through the addon, so I hope this is one section that gets some new runs added to it.

Towards the end of the guide, my inner engineer started showing through, and I made a little spreedsheet to track each quest circuit and it's average hr/level time. I think this will be really useful info for Jame if he decides to tweak or optimize these guides. Here's the results:

• Stonetalon Mountains (27-28) - Harpies Threaten circuit - 1.41 hr/lvl
• Stonetalon Mountains (27-28) - Bloodfury Ripper optional circuit - 1.26 hr/lvl
• Hillsbrad (28) - 1.88 hr/lvl
• 1K Needles (28-30) - Pacify Centaur circuit - 1.55 hr/lvl
• 1K Needles (28-30) - Highperch/Grimtotem circuit - 1.35 hr/lvl
• Ashenvale (30-31) - Felfire Hill circuit - 1.93 hr/lvl
  
• Ashenvale (30-31) - Never Again circuit - 1.97 hr/lvl

Next up, I'll be revamping and revising the 31-41 section on my warlock Tirrigeth, in preparation for Mokrana's next journey!

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 Speed - Chapter 1

After consulting with Jame, I have decided to do my own series on leveling speed with the new addon, but for the Horde side.

Today I tested Zerinj's Durotar guide on an orc shaman, who happens to be named Mokrana (Mokra, my usual shaman name, was taken >.< ). While leveling, I'm also following Trollvink's Shaman Leveling tips. The end result:

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

I was actually within a few XP of dinging 12 at this point, but so close that someone could easily have made it to 12 had they killed a couple more mobs. I tend to avoid non-quest mobs like the plague, so I figure it's okay to assume level 12 at that point.

After seeing Jame's results, I was actually very dissapointed with this - it took over an hour longer than the human starting area. There are several possible reasons for this:

• The human starting area may be simply a better place to level. I know there are some pretty irritating quests in Durotar, such as the Echo Isles, Dark Storms, and the Skull Rock quests.
• A Paladin may be easier to level from 1-10 than a Shaman. I did take about 15-20 minutes to do some shaman quests, but the paladin probably had paladin quests to do too.
  
• Jame may just be a better player than me!

Like Jame, I tried to make this character as realistic to what someone would actually be playing as possible, but also a "worst case" sort of character. To this end:

• I started on a fresh server, with zero twinking of any kind.
• I purposefully logged out outside of an inn, so I had zero rested XP.
• I played like a reckless noob! I actually died several times, mostly during the Dark Storms and Skull rock quests.
• I leveled two gathering professions as I went, and also cooking. I actually want to use this character someday and I don't want her professions gimped! This seems reallistic enough as well, and probably added a decent chunk of time to my leveling.

Here are some screen shots of Mokrana in her journey to level 12:

Level 6 - Valley of Trials Complete
38min

Level 10 - Achievement
2hr 32min

Level 12 - Durotar Guide Complete
4h 14min

All in all, this isn't bad, but it isn't really as good as I had hoped. I disliked the bit of grinding that was required by the guide at certain points, and I know there is a little of that in the Barrens guide as well. We'll have to see how that goes.

I hope to do a speed test of the Barrens guide next, but that won't be for another couple weeks.