On a Clear Day, You Can See L40

Okay, it's not quite that bad.

Card is wearing gear really meant for someone
in the upper L20s, but those bonus Frost damage pieces
have no equal until much higher Tailoring skill is obtained.
The levels as of Tuesday, June 24, 2025.

I mean, everybody is at L34, so only 6 levels to go. I suppose that you could argue that L40 is the true midway point in the leveling process due to how difficult it is to level the higher you go up in Vanilla Classic, but paradoxically more quest areas open up once you get past the mid-30s and mid-40s doldrums. 

I've kept myself busy by fishing for Nightfin, which has come in handy as that gold I've made has now started to go into leveling Blacksmithing and keeping up with all of the toons' ability training. At least two of the toons I'm leveling will get their mounts automatically at L40, but that means I have to pay for 6 mounts in the not too distant future.

So... I'd better have something like 600 gold lying around for that, right? Probably more, given that I want to have a cushion so I'm not totally broke* and that I'll still likely have to pay for the basic riding ability for those other two toons anyway. And then there's all those nice L40 abilities you have to train for as well...

Yeah, I think I'm gonna be mount poor for a long time after L40.

Back when I was originally leveling Az in 2019/2020, it was at this point in the leveling process that her gear was getting pretty long in the tooth --most of it came from The Deadmines, so at L20 or so-- that I began purchasing some items off of the Auction House to replace the oldest pieces. I've held off from doing that for now, but when your daggers came from random drops in Westfall, trying to kill things in Desolace with them doesn't really cut it. 

***

That does lead into an interesting paradox with leveling: I frequently will take gear drops I find in the wild and send them to my other toons to help them out. For example, I don't think Hoots has gotten a bow for herself since Darkshore; instead she's gotten bows as hand-me-downs from other toons that found them out in the wild. The same thing goes for my Druid, Taldanifal, and his items. It's a pretty rare occasion when my three Leather wearing toons find useful gear out in the wild, especially after the embarrassment of riches in Westfall and The Deadmines. All those leather drops there led to what I kindly call "the expectation of riches"; after all, we got a lot of gear early, so why won't that continue in later levels? Well, Vanilla Classic (and life) don't work like that. 

You know the disclaimer: past results do not guarantee future performance? Well, Vanilla WoW is that saying come to life. To be honest, it's much better that it happen in a video game, as opposed to happening in real life with your finances. While you can't depend on gear drops, you can make some educated guesses. And in my case, just prepare for the worst, because that's how my luck rolls in MMOs.

Still, I can enjoy the sights...

Winging by Grom'gol on my way north from Booty Bay.

*Back when I was leveling in TBC Classic and had at least made it to Zangarmarsh (the swampy zone in Outland), one of the guys I knew on our raid team who had pushed ahead and was busy doing all the things had wiped out his entire stash of gold to pay for a fast flying mount, something like 5000 gold. The move shocked me, but he said it was totally worth it.

To be honest, I think that decision to essentially bankrupt yourself in pursuit of a fast flying mount is what turned me off from getting fast flying on any of my toons in TBC Classic and Wrath Classic. I've lived my entire life on a paycheck-to-paycheck basis, and blowing everything for what is pretty much an extravagance simply isn't in my system.