WTF, Leveling is Fun?

It’s a whole new mindset.

It feels odd feeling going through the starting area without killing.

Not nearly as easy as just plowing my way through the starter quests for the quick XP.  I have been to Elwynn Forest, Azuremist Isle, Stormwind, Darnassus, Exodar, and Darkshore so far for one thing or another.

Oh, and Teldrassil, lets not forget Teldrassil. My first achievement came last night at level 4 when “Explore Teldrassil” popped up on my screen. I am pretty sure Deck is my only character that ever got that one.

 

Before I started this I already knew it was not an original idea. I knew others had done it before. I even remembered (vaguely) reading about someone hitting 70 without killing. For the life of me I could not remember who. 

Courtesy of  Bash in yesterdays comments I now not only know that the person doing it made 80 and even better has blogged about his journey. Check it out at Pacifist Undead Priest / Gnome Rouge, It’s worth the read.

 

So here are a few observations so far.

• Wowhead’s quest by level/zone is my new best friend.
• I don’t know when it was changed but apparently all night elves can now feign death. Well, they call it shadowmeld but it drops me out of combat. I even bound it to the same key feign death has on my hunters.
• I can heal through far more than I ever thought I could with the spells at my disposal.
• Gear matters, but not nearly as much as I thought it would. Int, Stam, and Spellpower are my stats of choice.
• I am glad I chose a Druid for this. The combination of self buffs, healing, and survivability is nice.
• I have taken about 8 times longer getting to level 5 than it normally would have, on the other hand I actually had fun getting there.

In short I am finding that actually having to think about what I am doing is a lot more enjoyable than simply going and killing 837 boars simply because someone offered me a shiny new pair of boots if I go collect enough boar guts.

The game has actually become fun again.