Not that I want to raid with her or anything much (although I have some friends brand new to raiding that I could join on this toon with, for sure), but just that I want to get her to 80 and have that part be done with.

I want to have her be one of the ones ready at the gate for the release of Cataclysm and its new 80-85 instances.

And who knows, she could be my next "main" raiding toon - depending on what the team I'm in currently values the most at the time.

Bear Won't Drop His Fish!

I know that sounds like I'm letting others decide what toon to play, but that's only partially true - if a toon makes it to 80, that means I have gotten significant joy out of playing it, and not just for a short period of time, either. When WoTLK was rolling in, I made a similar decision between my Mage and Priest and it was largely influenced by the fact that the guild I was aiming to get into for WoTLK (the one I'm in now) had lots of Mages and very few Priests.

Burning Off Rest Bonus

Since my toon has been largely only doing occasional dungeon PUGs (and none in the past 3 weeks at all), she hasn't advanced very quickly from level 70 when I first started into the Northrend PUGs. And of course, she's fully rested, and has a couple pieces of Bind On Account gear as well.

All this adds together to the fact that she has a billion quests that she can do - and many of them that are so fast to whip through because they're a level or so below her - and a lot of rest bonus to burn up.

I spent a couple of hours recently just questing with her, flitting from place to place, delighting in the fact that the last 3 toons that went through these quest series did it when flying could only be obtained in Northrend at level 77.

But then again, with all the flitting around, I'm not getting the incidental experience the others got just by having to battle their way through to the quest object, and then battle their way back out. Thank goodness for lots of quests, and rest bonus ;)

Right now she's at 74, soon to be 75. I only play her once or at most twice a week, however, so it'll take a while to get to that 80 point.

But she's on her way, instead of sitting around in Dalaran twiddling her Troll Toes.

What Toon Will You Play In Cataclysm?

Are you someone who's called the same toon "your main" since you started playing the game, or have you swapped around between characters?

Do you see yourself keeping your current "main" for Cataclysm, or do you think you might take the opportunity to switch to something new?

Related posts:

1. Advancing The Lowbie Shaman
2. Flying Through The Lowbie Levels With BoA Gear
3. To That Alliance Rogue I Don't Really Know…

Level 38 Paladin

Maybe just for friends, but maybe more, once I actually get into it.

Right now I'm right at level 40 with her, and if you looked at her leveling history, you'd see that I've been in no rush for powerleveling her up quickly. Checking her leveling history, it seems like she was "born" some time in November of... 2007.

So yah, no big rush with leveling this pally toon.

How I Level My Wee Alts

I've got a lot of alts. I mean, I've got two at 80 who are running heroics and raids each week, another one that is over 70 and slowly working his way to 80 (very slowly), and then a handful of toons under 50 that I continue to play now and then.

I decided long ago that with this amount of alts, I should never really have to play any of them without some type of rest bonus available to them. Rest bonus, of course, doubles the amount of experience gained from any one kill, and enables your characters to level more quickly in terms of total time /played.

It's a slow way to level in terms of real life days, however, because once you've spent all of your rest bonus, it takes a full nine days of sitting in a city or inn to get back to 100%.

So, if this is your one and only toon it's not a great advancement strategy, but if you've got a family of them and are in no rush to hit a particular level, this is a great way to "feel like" you're advancing "faster", especially in conjunction with the bonus of quest turn-ins!

Trading Dungeon Run-Throughs With Friends

Having lived on Zul'jin for a few years now, and having been in the same social guild for three? four? years, I've got more than a handful of friends who are similarly-minded to me in terms of advancing their lowbies.

So, on occasion on the weekends when we don't feel like Heroics or Raids, we'll trade off on dungeon runs that are beneficial to our lowbies.

Scarlet Monestary - The Armory - After Herod

In return, I hopped on my level 60 Death Knight and gave about 10 run-throughs of Scarlet Monestary between the two people who I traded for runs.

The Fun Of Running Through Lowbie Instances

I don't know about you, but I've PUGged every single instance Azeroth at least 50 times on various toons.

I've run the instances at-level with other players, both over and underleveled for the particular one we're in. I've zoomed through, and crawled through each instance. I've gone with guildies, I've gone with strangers, and I've nearly gone with a six-year-old tank.

I've solo'd everything up to Stratholme on my Hunter (although I didn't do a full clear on anything BRD+ by myself) and have given run throughs to friends.

And you know what? I still love doing it.

It's still fun to go through and see what the bosses drop, and to see what recipes I get, and whether the chests in the instance are unlocked or whether they mock me with their mystery contents by being locked.

And of course, it's always fun to exact revenge on a boss who killed me multiple times when I was a lowbie.

Who's powerful now, hey Herod??!

Related posts:

1. Making the most of rest bonus on Warcraft
2. Rest Bonus Burned Away… Wee Priest Experiences
3. Advancing The Lowbie Shaman