On the weekend, I took the plunge and rolled a Worgen priest. Since my character slots are all full for Proudmoore, I chose a new server to play on. A new toon with no support, starting from scratch. It's awesome! Feels so fresh.
So far, my priest has reached level 14 and I have started scratching the surface of Darkshore - the changed Darkshore. Since the Cataclysm, I haven't quite explored the entire world. Sure, I've seen a lot of it (maybe most of it, at a glance) through flying around doing Archaeology with Gaiwyn (which incidentally is at 515 now, though no Staff of Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan in sight. Might help to actually gather Dwarf fragments...). But questing in the changed areas just adds to the freshness and coolness of playing through the game again.
I picked up two gathering professions: Skinning and Herbalism. Hopefully they will boost my gold reserves in the long run. It may even be well within my interests to head through Darnassus to the greater Night Elf starting area to level my herbalism a bit; since Peacebloom and Silverleaf seem to be far from common in Darkshore.
It was great to play through the Worgen starting zone - even though I had, unfortunately, already experienced the entire thing through TotalBiscuit's beta videos. At the end of the starting zone, when I was safely guided to Darnassus, I was finally able to put my goblin skills to use: I quickly looked through the auction house and put up whatever was in my bags and wasn't in abundance on the market. I really should turn auctioneer on for my new toon to better gauge things, but for now I'm taking things slowly and at a relaxed pace, without worrying about the minor details.
Well, suffice to say, I had good fortune. The next time I logged in, I had around 6g sitting in my inbox. From 97s to 6g in 24 hours for a level 12 toon on a fresh server is pretty good. I then bid on some 8-slot bags for 10s each, and the next day grabbed those out of my inbox, too. I will upgrade to 12-slotters when I get the chance, in order to better collect leather and herbs; then we'll see how well such lowbie reagents sell.
I guess I owe a big thank you to the guys at the JMTC community, because without being a part of that I would never have thought to attack things head on from the get-go. 6g is nothing in light of my main's stockpile of 65,000g; but I was still pretty stoked at this wee victory - and it's all the gold I have on my new server. It is actually really neat to start afresh. It has really put things into a new perspective for me. And I totally look forward to levelling this fresh toon to level 58, and experiencing the new quest chains and altered zones.
And who knows: if I end up making it to level 58, I may well push to 60, leap into Outland and keep on going, one quest and one instance run at a time.
If I can get patch 4.1 installed without too much hassle at lunchtime today, I may just have a little time to continue questing in Darkshore. Have I mentioned just how relaxing it feels to be levelling a brand new toon in a brand new place? I would recommend it to anyone who has become disillusioned with the game recently. Although, of course, with a new patch having just landed, there is now a lot more for people to sink their teeth into. I have a lot of original content (4.0.1-4.0.6) to wade through still, but I'm sure there are a lot of not-so-casual players out there itching to belly flop into the added flavours.
Since I don't have all that much time to play, before rolling my first Worgen, I was focusing on Gaiwyn. I did a few normal instance runs when I could fit them in, and got a few gear upgrades - boss drops and Justice Point purchases.
I weighed up how I was progressing and decided to try and hit up heroics. So I did a heroic, and it went really well. My first heroic was Throne of Tides. The other four party members were from the same guild and I managed to hold my own while learning the encounters. There was even a point where the tank went down and this hunter and I ended up kiting the big guy around until he dropped. It felt... exultant.
My second heroic, and the last one I managed to do, was Lost City of the Tol'vir. It was a ten-minute run for me, since I warped in at the second to last boss. We one-shot him, and proceeded to womp the last boss. Ironically, the one drop I got was an upgrade from Mantle of Master Cho to Mantle of Master Cho. :)
All that remains is balancing my time spent playing my mage (currently questing in Deepholm) and playing my little protégé, as he struggles and triumphs through storyline after storyline, zone after zone.
Peace.
Gaiwyn of Proudmoore
