WoWGrrl's World

Bluehairmage was a mere level 23 when Burning Crusade came out, and has recently reached level 60 in the Outlands, while questing with a few strangers in Hellfire Peninsula who happened to be working on the same things I was, all three of us at level 59. I had decided to hold out until 59 before jumping through the portal with this one at 58, just in case that extra level would help me much in terms of reducing my aggro range, since one of my vocal guildmates had made a big deal of his clothy getting swarmed by mobs with a "mile-wide aggro range".

I found it was much easier this time than it was when I brought my Warrior in (she who is still at 61 and is not played often), and while the fights were probably about the same with my Hunter (who entered the portal the day after the release, with 2000 other lvl 60s), the familiarity and complete lack of competition made this Mage's trek a lot easier.

I only finished enough quests to get me to 60, so I could return to Azeroth and to Sen'jin in Durotar in particular, to train for my Epic Land Mount (540g) and buy a [Swift Olive Raptor] for the actual ride. Yay for faster feet!

Epic Land Mount also makes the Outlands a lot more bearable, simply because it's a lot easier to outrun all of the aggro on faster feet, and there are beasts and humanoids and flying things EVERYWHERE out there. Very few spots you can find that have the empty barren landscape like used to be found regularly in Azeroth.

Neat Trick - Sheeping Bonechewer Raiders

[edit, I've read in May 2008 patch notes that this has been fixed, anyone test? :) ]

While working on the very first quests one obtains in Thrallmar, I found a rather neat thing with my Mage, in terms of taking down the Bonechewer Raiders.

You see, Bonechewer Raiders are the Bonechewer guys who are riding around on a wolf mount, and who patrol the side of the Path of Glory that is nearest to Thrallmar and most likely where players will be collecting Bonechewer Blood.

If you start battle with them when they're on their mounts, they dismount and both the raider and the raider's mount head towards you for battle. The mount doesn't despawn when the raider goes down, so you need to take them both out.

That is, unless you sheep the Raider before engaging in battle. Then, the mount completely disappears and when the sheep wears off or is broken, only the Raider remains!

Simple to kill that way, and who really needs the few scraps from the Mount, if he even drops any??!

Related posts:

1. Mounts, Distraction, Outlands Questing Team, Outlands Instances
2. Planning Reputation Gain: Mage
3. Warrior Hits 60, Buys Very Fast Ride