Ding 8

The Tauren race in World of Warcraft are very spritual people. Part of their questlines sometimes involve things of this nature. After Talthinar had gathered the ingredients, one of the tribal leaders made a drink which would allow Talthinar to have a vision. Drinking the liquid, Talthinar had a vision of a ghostly wolf leading him somewhere.

After following the wolf (and fighting off beasts trying to eat him), Talthinar came across a seer with, of course, another quest. Killing beasts of the wilderness for a quest gave Talthinar enough experience for yet another level and new spells

Ding 7

At level 6, Talthinar gained rank 2 of Wrath and a new spell called Thorns. Rank 2 of wrath is simply an increase in damage and an increase in mana costs. Thorns is a Damage Shield (DS) spell castable on the druid or another ally. Using it covers the person’s body in thorns (hence the name) which does damage to whoever is hitting him. Since Talthinar is getting hit quite a lot, it’s a very cheap way of doing damage.

So things are as before, except with the thorns buff on and more damage done with wrath. The druid is having a hard time at the moment. it may be due to the lackluster melee of the druid at the moment or simply because he’s killing humanoids which have the tendancy to run away when low on health, running into their friends who then come and attack. It feels like slow going but the quest is completed and it’s time to hand it in…and gain a level.

Ding 6

A belated trip to the druid trainer and Talthinar has two new spells to play with, Moonfire and Rejuvenation. Both of these spells are instant cast spells so are useful when things are hitting you (spells with a cast time can take longer if someone is hitting you).

Rejuventaion is a Heal over Time (HoT), it slowly heals an amount of health every few seconds for a while. Moonfire is a nuke plus Damge over Time (DoT) , once cast it does a small amount of damage and then recurring damage for a few seconds.

With these two spells fighting changes slightly. Talthinar begins, as before,  with a cast or two of Wrath, followed up with a Moonfire. Once the fighting starts, an instant cast of rejuventaion helps to keep health topped up because the enemies are starting to do more damage. Before long, Talthinar gained level 6 which means there are more spells to get…

Ding 2,3,4,5

Okay the first levels go really quickly so there’s no point having a post for each one. In the beginning there’s just one quest available which is along the lines of “So, you want to be a hero? Okay nature loving druid, go out there and kill some animals and I’ll have some of their body parts please.”

Even before the quest was completed, I managed to get level 2.

Returning back to the start area they were pleased with my progress and I gained the Mark of the Wild buff. Then I was sent out to hunt a fiercer foe and once more the few kills were enough to gain me the next level.

A few more quests were added now, not just the one quest at a time method to ease new people into the game. This is where TourGuide really comes into its own, having a full quest log of 25 quests might be overwhelming but TourGuide will keep tabs on the quests so you do them in a logical order. The next few quests were all in teh bristleboar area, a race of evil humanoids, so it was off there to kill some and gain level 4.

At this point in the game, fighting strategy hadn’t changed from that very first level. Stand away from the mob you want to kill, cast a wrath nuke spell and then another one or two as the mob runs towards you and then whack it with a big stick. The only time I needed to use my heal was if another mob ran up to me while I was still fighting the first. Things would have changed slightly at level 4 thanks to new spells (new spells in World of Warcraft are gained every even level) but I was away from the trainer and it would have been a waste of time to run back.

Oncve the few bristleboar quests were done and their leader slain, it was time to head back to the starter area and get the rewards. Talthinar gained level 5 and was sent on his way to Bloodhoof Village.

Preparation

So here we go on this little experiment. First up we create Talthinar, go through the introduction scene and then get rid of the default UI. There’s nothing wrong with the default UI, I just prefer things a little different. The base look and setup of the UI is based on Caith 10.4 found at http://www.bellum-potentiae.de/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3674

The two add  ons which make this possible though are extras and need to be downloaded.

TourGuide is a great little addon which is an in-game guide to levelling. It keeps track of your quest objectives, tells you where to go and when to go in order to facilitate efficient levelling. It also plugs into other addons so you can get directions.

DingRecorder is an addon which automatically takes a screenshot when you level.

So with that all done… let’s go!