With recent developments, and a lack of opportunities for my main, I’ve been working on leveling my Shadow Priest. (Whether I will stay shadow or go holy at some point is still up in the air…it might be interesting to see healing from another perspective, but I already HAVE a healer.) I hadn’t really played him that much in a bit, and he was level 52 when I started off in earnest again.
Now, when it comes to content, I have oodles of experience with levels 1-40. I’ve taken every path imaginable to get a character to 40, so I’m well familiar with all the different zones, and what my options are at each progression level. I also have plenty of experience with the BC 60+ content, I’ve run it with two different characters, and due to the way the Outlands are set up, there isn’t a WHOLE lot of variation to be had.
When it comes to content from about 40 to 60, though, I’m a bit hazy. I went through it all with my Hunter, as he hit 60 LONG before BC, but with my druid I pretty much blew through it as quickly as possible and hit the Outlands at 58, never looking back.
Now I find myself at 52, and exploring this old content that at this point still seems quite new. I spent some time in Un’Goro Crater, which is a pretty nice zone, though a little too spread out, and that dang elite Dino is still a pain in my arse. Why didn’t Blizzard un-elite him?
Next I headed out to the Western Plaguelands. I did all the quests in Chillwind, got an epic drop from a ghoul ([Wall of the Dead]) and headed on to the Eastern Plaguelands.
I quickly realized something. I had never really been there before. Sure, I had grabbed the FP in Light’s Hope with my hunter back in the day, but that’s about it. Looking back I realized that I dinged 60 in Western Plaguelands, and after that went right to nothing but instance runs and MC.
How exciting was this? The lay of the land was new to me, the music was new to me, I hadn’t ever done any of the quests. Wahoo!
So I wandered around, being a bit more of an explorer than usual, found a nice little quest for a ghostly girl which I knocked out pretty quickly. (I really like all the haunted and monster ridden towns in this area, and how basically everything is not quite right. I’ve always been a fan of horror movies (the classics) and this was right up my alley.) I got myself to LHC, and basically found out that everything else was too tough for my level 55 behind, and there wasn’t anything to do. Bummer.
This, I realize, is where the old world content fails. The progression curve is not NEARLY as well defined as in the BC content. In BC you can pretty logically go to the next adjoining zone when you’ve exhausted the quests in the present zone, and you’ll then quickly find a bevvy of new quests for your enjoyment.
Now, however, in order to progress I had to think about things. So, I took a look at the other zones that should be good for me. Winterspring sounded good, as I had a couple continuations from Un’Goro that led there, but then I’d have to get my butt all the way to the other continent, work my way through Felwood, and then have to get my Timbermaw reputation sorted to get through the cave. I could also head to Silithus, but I never really liked that zone. Too desert-y, and also on the other side of the world.
No fun. None at all.
And that is the other failing I found – stuff is just too darned spread out. It’s nice to have “options” as far as different zones to level in, but it’s irritating that they are so far afield. The added irritation is that I soon found out that I didn’t even have the Astranaar flight path, so I had to hoof it all the way from darkshore, through Astranaar, and then up to Felwood.
Oh, bother.
It makes me wish Blizz had revamped more of the old world content than for the 35-45 range, but oh well. It goes to show how much Blizzard learned about what worked and what didn’t. In the Outlands you still have options, you just don’t have to go out of your way to take them. While I WAS planning to squeeze as much out of the old world as possible, now I’m not so sure. It might be hit 58 and hit the portal again for me. We’ll see.
As it is, I’m at least enjoying myself. it’s interesting to honestly be on the trek to 70 again, as once you hit your mid-50s I figure you’re fairly dedicated to hit the max level again. I have a number of low 40s that I grew tired of, but if I get this far, chances are I’m going all the way. Now I just have to think about what to do when I get there…melt faces, or heal the masses?
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