Journey's End... And Beginning

Well, this happened:

If only the light would chase away
the gloom around here.

Yes, Cardwyn has reached L68, grinding her way there without having set foot in Outland.

I was planning on sitting on this until I could spring it on my questing buddy as a surprise, but the stinker had the Guild Roster Manager addon and so she already knew I hit L68 without me telling her.

(Have I mentioned before that I hate addons like that?) 

***

Before anybody brings up the obvious, yes, I spent the time after Cardwyn got her Frostsaber mount (a little bit into L66) until now grinding in the area outside of Karazhan. So yes, people who would be "yes but" about her grinding in a zone that had its mobs adjusted to an "Outland" type of level --from L60 to L69-L70-- making this moment possible, I will say this: I'd be here outside of Karazhan whether or not the mobs had their levels adjusted. Once you get up to L66, your opportunities for finding L60 mobs shrinks to very few locations: Silithus (Staghelm Point and Silithid caves), Winterspring (the Giant area in the south), and outside of Karazhan.

I did spend a few bars' worth of grinding in Silithus a couple of days when the crowd outside Kara began to grow when people dropped by to farm greens and Netherweave cloth*, and while yes, it can be done exclusively in Silithus and Winterspring, it would have taken about 2-3 times as long to level from L66 to L68.

That being said, while the "issues" I had training seem to have gotten fixed by the time Neve hit L64 --I was unable to train at all from L60 through L64 for some strange reason until the trainers suddenly allowed me to at L66-- I refused to update my talent tree at all. Therefore, my talents were exactly the same as they were at pre-patch at L60. That was a deliberate choice, because while I hoped I could utilize the mobs outside of Kara to level I wanted to compensate for that advantage by not utilizing other talents available to me. 

***

When I arrived outside of Karazhan at L66, I was uncertain whether I'd even have a chance at downing mobs 3-4 levels above my own. Much to my surprise, however, I was able to clear the mobs without dying once. There were plenty of times where the mobs resisted my attacks --oh boy, were there plenty of those-- but I was able to down all of them if I took my time and ate/drank after every other pull. 

I will also freely admit that if I tried to do this grind on just about any other toon, I'd likely have not been able to make it to L68. Part of that is due to the glass cannon nature of a Mage, but also the fact that I had a full T3 set at the end of Classic. The T3 set has been surprisingly good all the way to L68, and at this point I see no reason why I should replace it with anything BC related at all while we're counting down to Wrath.

***

A few other notes about the journey...

While I proved that this can be done --and one guildie mentioned to me that they'd never heard of anyone actually pulling this off-- this grind is not for everyone. 

All of those people who did quests at L60 for extra gold would have been severely hamstrung in trying to do this, because I got two levels worth of the grind completed because I did all of those L60 quests that I never bothered to do on Card. Another level came from completing Fire Festival quests, and three levels came from the Frostsaber grind. So... if you were a completionist --or gold/mount hungry-- and did all of that before TBC Classic dropped, well, good luck with that grind. 

Yes, I was able to hit L68 and technically will be able to go to Northrend when Wrath Classic drops**, but were it not for the mobs outside of Karazhan that'd probably be the upper limit Cardwyn could attain. The only mobs that are available for Card to grind right now for XP are those that are a minimum of L60, which makes the grind much much worse. Any zone you'd be considering grinding at would have at least half of the mobs not granting any XP at all, and I don't think you'd be able to get very far at all before Wrath Classic dropped. However, since the L69-L70 mobs outside of Karazhan exist, I ought to be able to grind Card all the way to L70 before the pre-patch for Wrath Classic.

***

This completes one of the three main goals I had for TBC Classic. At least this one was a goal I could achieve without the aid of others, which is why I was able to finish it. The other two, which were to get a full set of one of the T4/T5/T6 gear for Brig, and to finish Phase 2 for Brig with a Kael'Thas kill so I could get the achievement/title for doing so, are going to be unresolved at this point. Nobody does Gruul/Mags anymore, so my closest shot at a full Tier set (T4) isn't going to happen. And nobody does Tempest Keep either, so the closest I'll have gotten to a Kael'Thas kill was when we got him down to 10-15% the week before I had to stop raiding.*** Even if there was a TK run available, my gear is such that it would feel like a carry, and I positively HATE being carried. I wanted to earn those goals, not have them handed to me as a charity case. So no, if offered a chance to go at this point --even in a pug-- I would give a hard pass. And I don't care who knows my feelings on the matter.

I'll still be putzing around in TBC Classic at this point, but not because I have any real goals to achieve. Mainly just to play around, I suppose. While I tend to be a private player, I also tend to be social in the right setting. I'll just continue to seek those situations out and work from there.

*I've been surprised and pleased by just how much Netherweave drops outside Kara. Having watched my questing buddy level Tailoring more than once, and seeing just how much Netherweave she went through each time... Yeah, it's a good thing to know.

**The looks Card would probably get after disembarking at Boring Tundra while wearing her T3 gear would be worth it. If I were on an RP server, the "Hey, who's the fossil?" commentary would have been really amusing.

***My replacement was there at Tempest Keep the last week of January when the Monday raid finally downed Kael, but she had already been locked out of SSC so she couldn't go. Since I had moved myself to the Bench so that she could go to the raid, I filled in for her on the SSC portion of the raid. And the fact that we couldn't down Vashj with me there as opposed to her being there for TK is all you need to know about the difference in DPS she brought to the table.

EtA: Corrected grammar issues.