Whirlwind to 85

My recent interest in playing Mnium, a night elf druid, comes from having found the War of the Ancients trilogy at a used bookstore over the holidays. This is her 3rd race change, and by moving her to Feathermoon she's now on my chosen Alliance server. She took some gold and heirlooms over with her to help with leveling and purchasing odds and ends off of the AH, and thus prepared began her journey in Silithus with the Cenarion Circle. 35 or so levels, and then she would be off to Pandaria and perhaps my first Alliance toon to make it to level cap.

Although I usually hate Silithus, Mnium had a goal of collecting rep for the Cenarion Circle. She just dinged Revered as she hit level 58 and began queueing for BC dungeons. I like BC dungeons, as the gear rewards are some of my favorite. Since I took a lot of care with her appearance, I had Mnium use the starry boomkin glyph, so she only goes into boomkin form during her mecha laser chicken cooldown.

I like questing in BC zones too, also because some of the gear rewards are very nice looking.  Above is Mnium entering Zangarmarsh, still in her low level gear but carrying a staff from Hellfire Ramparts. She quested mostly in Zangarmarsh and Shadowmoon Valley, in addition to dungeon runs.

Here's her "Outland Veteran" outfit, as she left to begin questing in Borean Tundra. The chest and gloves are part of the rogue Bloodfang armor which drops from BC dungeons. The belt is the low level Hunter's belt and everything else is from the Clefthoof leather set.

Onto Wrath Mnium quested in Borean Tundra and Dragonblight before I got completely sick of all the snow. I'm gaining a bit more of an appreciation for the Wrath armor though. This leather set from quest and dungeon drops looks pretty cool, especially the staff and shoulders. I got the snail out just for the picture.

Burned out on questing, what to do. Druid can heal too! After a respec to resto and some helpful hints from folks on Twitter, Mnium was ready to heal through the rest of the Wrath content.

Yes I had to check out the treant standing in fire effect. Looks uncomfortable!

The first 2/3 of Wrath went smoothly, and then things started to really grind. Mnium did fine as resto, but levels 78-80 went very, very slowly. Everyone seems to be in Pandaria, as dungeon queues even as healer were 5-15 minutes.

Cata was even slower. Mnium quested in Hyjal from 80-82 and then hit the dungeons as resto once again. She got the Throne of the Tides staff and a cool leather dress from Blackrock Caverns. Overall though, 81-85 felt like a terrible grind, whether questing or dungeoning.

But she finally made it to 85, and is ready for Pandaria. I bought a full set of 415 blues for Mnium as a reward, both to make her a bit less squishy for the upcoming levels, and because I've always liked the leather gear for the newest expansion. She'll get a new staff from one of the first quests into Pandaria, and then she'll be good to go for awhile.

Now at level 85, I have a few goals for Mnium:
1. Work on Cenarion Expedition and Cenarion Circle rep for Guardian of Cenarius achievement
2. ENJOY five levels of Pandaria Alliance-side
3. Find goodies around Pandaria for the Relic Hunter achievement

Most of my gameplay revolves around my enjoyment of leveling toons. But this last experience has shown me that there are areas of leveling that are just not interesting for me anymore. The Wrath content became dull for me but I can see getting interested in questing in some areas of Northrend again that I haven't visited in awhile, for future toons. But I have been through the Cata zones and dungeons so many time, they're hard to bear.

But for now, I have 2 Alliance toons at 85, 2 Horde toons at 90, and 4 Horde toons from 85-87. That will keep me in Pandaria for a long time, until I'm finally ready to brave the lower levels again.