the home stretch is ahead!

...For my druid, I mean! Yes, I have finally hit 70 (and Northrend).

I had been sitting at 68 for a little bit while I was leveling in Nagrand, and it wasn't until today that I remembered - "OH YEAH, I CAN GO TO NORTHREND NOW. OOPS." So I took Mayari down to Stormwind Harbor to make the journey to the land of iciness and undead things.


...To be honest, I wasn't sure if I would end up in Howling Fjord or Borean Tundra (LOL ALLIANCE NOOB) , but at this point I didn't care. I just wanted to level, dammit!

Eventually, I learned that the Stormwind boat goes to Borean Tundra.

It's a statue of King Varian Chin Wrynn!

Then I quested my kitty butt off, until FINALLY:


Whew.

...Only ten more levels to go.

a good night for leveling

I am a fantastically slow leveler. I don't think that my decision to level holy is the main reason why, I think I just really am that slow. But I'm getting there! I went on a questing spree in Borean Tundra last night and finally hit 74!

Shut up, yes I know I should be 80 right now. WHATEVER DUDES. Just direct your attention to the following picspam!

First I went to explore Wyrmrest Temple and met the Dragonqueen Alexstrasza. I love what you've done with your horns, Alex.

When I first heard about the fabled turtle boats of the Kalu'ak, I knew that I had to see them for myself. And they were everything I ever dreamed of and more. Come on. Giant turtles are immediately For The Win. Also, lol @ the giant [Carrot on a Stick].


I love the Tuskarr. They seem like they'd be the most awesome faction to hang out with.


I kinda wish that I could have my own pack mule following me around all the time. Then I'd never have to say, "Oh crap, guys, I left the quest item in the bank!"


Say what you will about adult murlocs, but baby murlocs are friggin' adorable. (Taken during the quest Oh Noes, the Tadpoles!)


No words, really. (Taken during the quest Surrender...Not!)


Chillin' with the penguins. (/groan)


The D.E.H.T.A quests made me a little sad. I was tempted to not turn in this quest, just so I would be able to continue saving the mammoth calves. Poor little guys!


As I found out, though, it's all good. This little guy will take care of them.



After doing this quest, I kind of want my own mammoth mount now.


Can I keep him?

After I finally hit 74 on Illythia last night, I decided to take a break and level my druid since she was halfway to 46 anyway.


First things first: Off to get a Shave and a Haircut! Sadly, her new hairstyle didn't last long. It was cute, but her original hairdo is where it's at...yo.

Okay! Nooby story time! So I was off in the Badlands doing the questing thang when I decided to finish up the Tremors of the Earth questline. I had just hit 46.

Now, I did not read the Wowhead comments on this quest very thoroughly, just enough so that I knew where to find the items that I needed to complete it. Unfortunately I completely skipped over the part that said that once I turned it in, two HUGE, HONKIN' DRAGONS would IMMEDIATELY spawn with the urge to DESTROY. But more on that later.

So I walked up to the Seal of the Earth, ready to turn in all the jewels needed to...to do what? I'm not sure what I was thinking would happen at the time. I turned in the jewels, sorta stepped back for a moment, thinking I was done, and then...wait, where'd those dragons come from...AHHHH WHAT THE HELL?!

A quick glance told me that the two drakes were, thankfully, non-elites. But both of them were level 50. Both of them had just decimated the poor undead mage who had been sitting nearby at half-health. (Sorry, dude!) And now both of them were after me. GASP.

I thought I was done for, but I decided that I wouldn't go down without a fight.

And it was a long, long fight, spent mostly in bear form. And I had to blow all my cooldowns. And I went out of mana from having to heal myself up so much, but a quick Innervate fixed that.

AND THEN: VICTORY!


That's right!


I was pretty damn proud of myself. And I even scored this: [Blazewind Breastplate].

(Now that I think of it, if I had read all of the comments, I probably would have been like "Oh, wow, two level 50s? I can wait a couple levels until I attempt this so I don't get owned," and then I wouldn't have gotten my shiny new armor.)

Bonus: LOL CHAT.

my first character

Adenine at 60, rockin' the [Robe of the Archmage]

Before she was relegated to the position of chief farmbot/lowbie instance-runner, my mage was my main character. She was the first character I created back when all I had was the 14-day trial account. She was the only character I focused on until she hit 60, hell, until she hit 70. She's (for the most part) decked out in tailoring/PvP welfare/Karazhan epics. So why was she demoted from "main character" to "main alt"?

Adenine at 70

Probably a number of reasons, actually. I (for reasons unknown even to myself) refuse to spec her fire, thus gimping her ability to be an effective raid DPS-er. Also, when playing her in PvP situations, I'm, well, not very good (which is to say, I kind of suck). But! I don't mean to say that I hate playing her. She's quite fun to have around, and does enough damage to make farming on her kind of fun. If farming can be considered fun. However, the main reason for abandoning her for my priest was that I was just burned out, and healing was something fresh and exciting and I actually felt that I was good at it. Also, when I first started playing (and for a long time afterwards), I was a clicker. Yeah, that might have had something to do with my ineffectiveness as a mage, haha.

But anyway, on to reminiscing!

• The first-ever time I went into an instance, I didn't actually know it was an instance. I was leveling in Silverpine Forest when I came upon the entrance to Shadowfang Keep. "Hmm," I thought as I stared at the swirly instance portal, "I wonder what that is. It's shiny!" So of course, I ran through the portal, was momentarily confused by the loading screen, and then I was utterly destroyed by a pack of elite wolves. I must say it was a rather appropriate way to introduce me to the world of instances: "Welcome to instancing, young, noobish, oh-so-squishy mage. First lesson: this is what happens when you get hit by elites - you die. Horribly."
• I honest-to-God did not know there was another continent, which led to much confusion on my part. Orgrimmar? What's that?
• Speaking of getting lost in major cities, I didn't fully grasp the concept of Undercity in my first venture to the Forsaken capital, and spent about half an hour trying to swim through the sewers in the Ruins of Lordaeron to try to get to this (what I was beginning to think was imaginary) place, before I decided to follow another character and realized that there are elevators.
• Ah, level 40 mounts! Remember those? Of course you do. I farmed the Deadmines constantly for [Wool Cloth], which was going for 2 gold per stack on the auction house at the time, and bought my [Blue Skeletal Horse] two levels before I could actually use it. Oh, and I was thrilled that I had the Sergeant's discount.
• Also, having to spec into Improved Arcane Explosion in order to make it instant, and Evocation. The SECOND I had instant Arcane Explosion, I ran around town spamming it furiously.
  
• LOL, oh, talent points. When I first realized that I had them, and YAY places to put them (which was around level 18 or so - what! I was new), I put my points in everything. Yes, I did put one in each little box, across all three trees. You can all stop laughing now.
• I randomly chose my professions (enchanting and tailoring), but that was one thing that didn't end up biting me in the butt later. I'm rather glad I chose them way back when I was a level 5 lowbie and knew absolutely nothing about either.
• My first encounter with Alliance: A random dwarf hunter challenged me to a duel; of course I lost, and a minute later she killed me. I have no idea how. Oh, and I also tried talking to her, but was rather offended when she didn't answer back. I mean, seriously, how rude, right? It wasn't until later that I found out there was a language barrier. Oops!
  
• Adenine's love of non-combat pets was started by a [Cockroach]. And I was so afraid of it dying, or losing it, that I would put it away whenever I had to take a flight path or whenever I thought it was going to get killed by some mob. I still have a fondness for my first non-combat pet, but hell if you're ever going to get me near any cockroaches in real life.
• PvP! Once I hit 60 it was pretty much nonstop battlegrounds for Adenine. I grinded her all the way up to Blood Guard before they took away the ranking system. Okay, so it wasn't the leetest rank, but I was pretty proud of myself for getting that far.
  
• Last but not least, old-school raiding! The first time I raided on my mage was in Molten Core. I scored not one, but two epics that day: [Mana-Igniting Cord], and the [Azuresong Mageblade], which I had first seen as a level 20 on another undead mage who was standing around Orgrimmar. The moment I laid eyes on that weapon, I knew that it was what I wanted when I finally made it to 60. And when it dropped that night off Golemagg, and the raid leader master looted it to me after I made my bid...it was nerd ecstacy.

Oh, Adenine...all I have of you are fond memories. Whatever happens, you will always have been my first main character. <3