Kaet: Eight Levels Later
Sometime I just want to play. Sometimes I just have this overwhelming urge to log in and GO, you know? Sometimes for weeks at a time …
When we last left Kaet, she was level 29 and headed down to Stranglethorn Vale. As I type this tonight, she’s almost level 38 and is hanging out in Westfall. Wait, Westfall?, you say? Why Westfall? Because I’m trying to get my Stormwind reputation up just a hair more so I can buy a pony the minute I hit level 40, of course! And I just finished the Deadmines. But let me start at the beginning …
I ventured down to the Rebel Camp at the very northern edge of Stranglethorn Vale to start my adventure. (I will be much happier after the next patch when I don’t have to run from Darkshire every time I need to go back to town.) Even though I was a shade low level for the quests, I made good progress to start, picking up a couple of levels by knocking off panthers, tigers, and raptors galore. But pretty soon I ran out of yellow and orange quests that I could do without dying every three minutes.
So taking the advice of the wonderful readers here, I headed up to Southshore (and Alterac) until I was level 32. Then it was back to Stranglethorn for the next set of quests I could manage, then over to Arathi for another level, then back to Stranglethorn, then over to Tanaris for the level 35 cooking quest with a brief stop-in at Theramore to kill some turtles, and finally back to STV. I thought I remembered doing all of Stranglethorn in one pass last time, but I suspect I started the zone much later back then — it took me a while to really understand where I could go on my first character — and took it a good bit slower to boot.
But I was having fun pushing myself, even though Stranglethorn is sometimes a confusing place for me: Tibri and I took out Sin’Dall (the level 37 non-elite tiger) at level 32 without breaking a sweat, but I was almost 35 before I could reliably defeat Kurzen Medicine Men (32-33 non-elite healer types). They just kept healing! I found myself completing most quests when they were still orange, which is unusual for me. I’m usually too laid back to work hard at orange quests, but I was having a blast pushing myself (and dying over and over, of course). But I am feeling very powerful with my little crabs right now!
And I’m pleased to say that I’m not having any trouble keeping two crabs leveled up with me at this point. (Because blue crabs are available at level 40 but the other two go away around 30, I switched to leveling Tibri (the red crab) and Niffis (the white crab) for now. I’ll pull Frore out of retirement (i.e. tame a new blue crab) at 40 for my third pet and then hope like hell that Blizzard adds a way to learn new skills without taming.) However, I suspect that a big part of this is the fact that I’ve been playing so much that I haven’t amassed much rest experience. And I’m still a bit anxious about how this will work out after the next patch when more of my experience is coming from quests. I should be playing on the PTR to test that out, but when I’m in the grip of an obsession I just have to go with it.
Unfortunately I am running out of steam — my desire to just PLAY is waning as it usually does after a week or two. So it may be a while yet before Kaet actually gets her pony. But I did have some fun mixing it up with a Deadmine runs last night.
See, Kaet grew up in human lands and Stormwind is really quite fond of her, but her reputation isn’t quite Exalted yet — nor do I think it would be by 40 if I just keep on as I have been. Now with my other Alliance character, a Draenei who just got a gorgeous Night Elf riding cat, I started working on Darnassus reputation relatively late. But it was easy enough — I just went back and did all the Teldrassil and Darkshore quests. With Kaet, though, that’s not a valid strategy because she’s already done all the Elwynn and Redridge and Westfall quests since she grew up in those areas.
I thought perhaps that I could complete the quests in Dun Morogh and Loch Modan and get enough spillover to help my Stormwind reputation, but after testing out a few quests it appears that the Dun Morogh quests, at least, don’t give spillover reputation. So what was I do to? After some thought I realized that I hadn’t done all the quests in the human areas — I’d skipped the elite quests. And after completing the elite quests in Redridge, I decided to branch out into dungeons as well.
I’d never made it all the way through the Deadmines before. My husband and I attempted it with our ill-fated duo, but we never got past the big round room with all the goblins. Of course, Kaet was much higher level than those characters were! I was able to dodge many of the enemies before that room with Kaet since they were so far below me, but from Gilnid on I was killing everything. I used WoWWiki to help prepare for the boss fights and didn’t have too much trouble. (Yes, I know that that isn’t very impressive.) And I got some great loot, including a Cat Carrier (Siamese) and a Parrot Cage (Green Wing Macaw). I wasn’t expecting anything like that. Now Connie the Praire Chicken has some friends!
And so now I sit in Westfall. I might head back to STV now for another level or two of questing there. Or I might head into the Stockade. You know, I’ve never even been in the Stockade …
Table of Contents for Series: Kaet
- Introducing: Kaet
- Kaet: Northshire Valley
- Kaet: Goldshire
- Kaet: Level 10!
- Kaet: Taming the Crabs
- Kaet: Finishing Up Elwynn
- Kaet: Westfall
- Kaet: Redridge
- Kaet: Westfall Interlude
- Kaet: Finishing Up Westfall (Mostly)
- Kaet: Back to Redridge
- Kaet: Getting Disgusted
- Kaet: Duskwood
- Kaet: Where the heck am I?
- Kaet: The Post-Brewfest Blues
- Kaet: Eight Levels Later
- Kaet Gets a Pony!
- Kaet: On Hold
- Kaet: Where was I again?
- Kaet: Forced Playtime
- Kaet: Level 60!
- Kaet: Kill Command
- Kaet: A Quick Note From Nagrand
- Kaet: Level 70!
13 Comments
You can a great amount of XP by running through an instance comparable to your level. I tend to get burned out on questing very easily. That’s when I hang up the old quest log and get a group together. Some of the best early loot is in dungeons, and along with it, an XP gold mine.
LMAO!!! I only wish I could do that. When I was single and childless it was SO much easier. I miss that time for just the occasions I want to log in, and run for days on end. …ah yes, …but I would not choose return to that time of my life and give up marriage and parenthood.
Wonderful blog. Keep it up.
Good luck with the rep grinding! My little night elf wound up in Stormwind at level six and I did all my questing nearly exclusively in the human lands… somehow I managed to be exalted with them at level 37, which made me quite happy because I’d had my heart set on the horse for a while. I’m still not sure how I managed to do it so quickly! But you can bet I was pleased.
I love Deadmines so much, it’s just ridiculously fun. I’m always volunteering to run the low-levels in our guild through it. Stocks isn’t quite so fun. But it’s a must-do just for the heck of it. =P
To help on rep grinding: Quests that give Stormwind rep and are up to level 42. You can tweak this any way you want, just fully use the filter options to suit your needs, e.g., add another one for Zone or simply sort by Zone, etc…
Things will be easier on 2.3 with the easier to identify quest givers!
Handy! Thanks, Someone. I’ve been using quests lists off of Thottbot and just scrolling down looking to see which give Stormwind rep — if Thottbot has an option for searching quests by rep I must have missed it. But this should help also.
Given what Kaet is, have you considered popping her over onto the PTR and playing around with her for a couple levels there, since you currently have a feel for her and the crabs, and to me at least the feeling of the shift in her leveling would provide infinately more information than just plain numbers on what exactly is changing. Just my two cents. Good luck whatever you decide to do! :)
~Cele
it seems like you i have crazy moments where i charge through levels with my characters and other times where for weeks i do not level , at the moment my hunter is sitting at 67 but i am having fun with my n.e. druid that i started all because i got the nice druid staff drop . the level 64 ” baraxxis’ staff of slumber ” i have got to level 29 and still have a long way to go and as she already has cat form i am farming stormwind rep to get a horse ride , i also started a draenei hunter now at 26 which of course is going to get a cat ride , so most of the questing i am doing is all nice and green in quests
in part i am waiting for the next patch and have been having great fun on the test realm and have seen most of the nerfed mobs up to about level 29 that on the present patch create a little challenge like ” oakenscowl ” in the n.e. starter area in the cave by the lake , he used to be a real challenge to beat down with his health but now he is just another level 9 timberling , so i can see if they keep it as it is the next patch will see loads of high level characters that have got there so fast they will still not know how to play when the going gets harder .
on 2.3 the mini maps so much more useful now no more wondering where to get ammo or repairs , no more hidden quest givers unless they are far to low a quest , and i cannot wait to start to level my hunters and other characters or may even start again as i love the far smaller dead zone and of course the other characters all have little tweaks that will make them better to play , but i am having fun with farming and getting things like leatherworking and enchanting up to a decent level anyway , and getting more than enough gold for the high level flying mount for my hunter at 70 all in all although at times my characters do not level and sometimes i cannot be bothered to play i still go around the lower mobs and kick them around as they once kicked me around
“I’ve been using quests lists off of Thottbot”. Time to make a change! I like WoWhead more because:
1) Format is nicer, taking advantage of my wide screen instead of using up half-screen estate;
2) Data seems to be less littered with old trash;
3) Comments, since there are fewer, seem to be generally more useful than in thott;
4) Very cool filters for just about everything you need, from racial spells to professions to mobs, zones, gear, weapons, etc, etc;
5) LightHeaded uses data from there.
So I made the switch and that’s what I recommend all my friends, be those RL or just online! :)
Once you get used, there’s no turning back!
Stockades can give you a lot of reputation with Stormwind. Some of the quests there are also in conjunction with Deadmines because of Defias relations. You should have picked up a letter quest item from VanCleef that will eventually lead to Stockades.
There’re 6 quests there if I remember right. Can be done in 1 run. Hope that helps =]
Really enjoy following the story of Kaet, keep it up :)
Pitty that wowhead does not have a filter for mobs that give rep with faction XX! ;) And Stockades, at 38, will only give rep from the quests, not from the mobs as those are >9 levels lower…
Question about the crab pets – I can’t remember if you already discussed this – but are you training them with the same resistances, armor, etc.? Just wondering – sometimes I’m curious just how helpful it is to put training points in for some of the resistances for the lower lvl pets. I’m sure it’s dependant on what types of fights you deal with more often, but just curious.
Oh and my 50 gnome is trying for the epic elekk at 60. Hard to find any Exodar quests that she hasn’t done now, and she’s only Honored. It’s an older character though that I lvl’d to 40 prior to BC – randomly a gnome created more recently I lvl’d in the Exodar starting area and she’s already Revered. I wish they’d give the poor “old timer” characters a little help to equalize that – seems a bit sad that there’s such a difference for those two characters. Oh and I found extra quests via both Thottbot and Wowhead – I’d say use both and compare, just to make sure you don’t miss anything.
Just a small tipette for extra rep:
Go to the Draenei starting area and do as many quests there as you can. They DO have spillover rep, as you may have spotted with your own Draenei… My Draenei hunter dinged Exalted with Darnassus the same moment she dinged *30*! Couldn’t have happened without the quests in the Isles – there’s some quests there that offer IF, SW, and Darnassus rep as well, and they also spill over to other factions.
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