LV 58 to 68 goes WAY too Fast!

To Hellfire and Back again .... As a Shaman

The speed at which quests stack up and bonus XP accumulates is staggering. I took a portal to the Outlands at level 58. Racked up the two level s quickly to 60 and got my flying mount. This opened up a wealth of opportunities. Collection quests just became 50% easier when you can swoop in and grab whatever you’re after. The back and forth travel got faster. Can I afford an epic flyer? Yes. Probably. I can’t physically get it till I break the level 70 cap on 225 Riding. I’d certainly purchase it for 4200g at Honor Hold. Who WOULDN’T take the 800g tax break? Plus, most people take flying into Shadowmoon Valley like going into Bangladesh, Darfur, or Tiajuana. Avoid it if you can.

I hit Lv64 before I left Hellfire Peninsula. There are THAT many quests in the zone. You can’t avoid making a couple of levels and my drop rate on some of the “kill these for item x” quests were pretty good. I hit 66 wrapping up Zangarmarsh. Get the 30 min buffs to spellpower and attack from the Treant guardians in Cenarion Enclave. Even hybrids can benefit from this cheap and easy buff.

Cenarion Faction. I’ve done this several times and it’s a huge boost to Cenarion Expedition faction gains. DO NOT take any quests in Zangarmarsh without collecting / buying up 200 unidentified plant parts. Ideally the max number is around 300, but the turn ins for the plant parts are repeatable. Grind your faction up to Honored thru turn-ins. Then any quest XP will guarantee your character reaches Revered with the Expedition. All of the tradeskills have one or two good patterns / recipies with this group. Why not max out your faction early? The swamp was going green as the mob level was falling below mine quickly. I needed the faction with the Kurnei in Nagrand as well, so I decided to stick it out. This was also setting up some important quest chains.

Terokkar forest. Not much to say. I hardly knew ye. There were no significant blue drops. I did a few quests and stopped when the rest became green or instance quests. No time to mess around with Auchunei crypts or Mana Tombs. No one goes to those places any more. Off to Nagrand. I got into the zone after hitting Neutral / Friendly with the Kurnei. This is a must. Then you can get the Ortor my Old Friend quest + Sunspring villiage cleansing + Murkblood corruption + another quest. This gives you 5 quests for the same spot. All 5 involve burning or killing something in the area. You can just go to town. The whole carnage took 5 minutes. The flight there and back was more tedious. Shamen don't get AOE, but we can chain lightning rather quickly with Malestorm weapon. We also get wolves and elementals to summon. Too easy.

Gear Upgrades

I gemmed out the Helm from Zangarmarsh and the blue cape from the goblin + Jump-o-Tron . Using a flying mount on the Jump-o-Tron is priceless! I was so over-geared, the Windrock Matriarch was beat down quickly solo and I got the blue DPS cape. Quickly, getting a +22 AGI enchant and crossing cloaks off my list. Both the Old crone and Zelgor the Wise died in seconds. Even 20 minions were trivial matter. Elites like the Felguards and the Demonic Engineers are painful. Luckily, I tagged along with a very nice 80 Paladin and a pair of DK’s at level 69. We did the Ring of Blood and the first Forge Camp: Hate quest chain. Easy 80k xp there plus some gold, potions, and a blue 2H Axe. Am I gonna use the axe? Probably not. I’ve been selling off or replacing my caster set since level 40.

I have the Relic 2 set for Caster Mail Armor. No big. I’ll dual spec Heals at level 70 or 72. This is just to multiply my Raid viability at Lv 80. For leveling, I can stick to grinding out Enhance Shammy dps and shredding anything I meet. Durn the Hungerer? Not quite. Everything else - Yea. It’s toast. I'll ride along with my blues till mid 70s. I've seen 80s with green gear in pickup runs. I plan on being light years ahead of them.

I hit 68 last night . The upper 60’s as a Shaman are just rockin’ good. Level 60, Spirit wolves. Every minute I get to call them in for 15 seconds. I don’t use them enough because, I can’t get mana back from Shamanistic rage. You get that from hitting things. The combined dps of the wolves + myself + totems is too darned high. That’s right. The wolves just tear up stuff for 15 seconds and I have nothing left to hit for mana. 1 minute cool down is quick. Nothing survives long. Mob density is rarely high enough to warrant using them all the time. If I’m in a confined space with enough creatures to absorb all the dps, I’ve screwed up or I’m facing an elite mob alone.

Level 64, Earth Elmental with 10 minute cooldown. Level 68, Fire Elemental with separate 10 minute cooldown. Level 70, Heroism with a 10 minute net cooldown. That’s a lot of dammed power available for oh-shit moments. What shamen don’t get? Aggro reduction. Once I win the threat war, I get to tank. I did a crushing amount of DPS compared to the others in an instance run because I’m a shameless twink. My gear is ugly powerful. However, I don’t get to drop threat. At all. In any manner.

Aggro Reduction

Hunter – Feign
Mage – Invis
Warlock – Soul Shatter
Rogue – Vanish
Priest - Fade
Pally - Bubble

Warrior - ?
DK - ?
Druid -?
Shaman - ?

I can’t think of any way these classes can drop agro. The top 3 classes have Tank specs. Warriors / DKs / Feral Druids can handle a beating. Kitty Druids, Fury Warriors, and Blood DKs get hosed, but I kinda see how that spec is a choice and agro reduction shouldn’t be a guaranteed ability held by all classes. Pure DPS should get aggro reduction. Healers should get aggro reduction. Hybrids…. Meh.

We get Reincarnate. Lol. 100% Guaranteed to drop your threat to 0 every time. Usable every 30 minutes without glyph. Repair costs are at a variable rate for use.