The End is Nigh

I haven't reported for a few levels, and yes, they were important levels. I haven't felt like there was anything much to say as regards any of it - well, anything that I haven't already said before. Different locations, same hard slog.
More than anything it's become a hard slog to the end, more a test of my endurance and will-power than anything else. At around 10 hours a level (more in many cases, and oddly only 8 and 6(!) in the cases of 78-79 and 79-80) 70-80 alone has been around 100 hours.

After over half a year of this, I'm literally at the finish line - I haven't crossed it, I'm saving that for tomorrow night.
I'm both savouring the anticipation and putting off the end.
The plan is this: I will ding, I will run an instance, I will finally (and for the first time) use my Talent Points, I will rerun the instance with the same party.
Then, with all pomp and majesty (what a bizarre phrase) I'll report back, here.
And it will all be over, completed.
I know it's just a game, but I have to admit to having mixed feelings about finishing; I feel elated at reaching the zenith of this task, achieving the final goal; I feel a little sad at reaching journey's end.
On the whole though I feel good about it. Lith will finally get to play with all the 80s that are forever having fun running instances; she'll be able to get reputation (and a mount that fits through doors); she'll be able to put out actual dps, rather than appearing just above the healers (actually there have been dps below her, but for their sake we'll pretend she was last).
I haven't decided what I'll do with the blog - I'll no longer be untalented (I heard that laughing, you, go and sit in the corner, now face the wall) so I don't know if it would make sense to continue with any more posts. I suppose there will still be opportunities to show progress and talk about differences between untalented and, well, talented, from the point of view of someone that really knows the hard way. So it's not quite over yet, just the hard part.

I'd like to thank those in the Elunatics that have been a major source of support throughout, particularly Astrantia, Otoritakeo, Hamek and Emmit, plus Ameliorata and Gwynce on the US servers (I hope they don't mind the mention :)
I'm hoping the first four (Astrantia et al) will be able to help me on both my final and inaugural run tomorrow :)
(final as untalented, then first as talented).
For those wanting to know, I'm going survival. I can't believe how much it's changed since I was playing my other hunter with talents. It's going to be fun relearning :)
For the record, Astrantia, no healer comes close, and Oto, no hunter either, you know your stuff.
Ham and Emm, you're just funny, but you can kind of play too :)
Am and Gwynce; thanks for everything, it's a shame it's not possible to transfer between US and European servers :)

Level: 79.9999999999 recurring (seriously, one kill and I ding).
Location: Dalaran
Theme: I think I've used it before, but - Life on Mars - it's the best track ever written.
dps etc.: tomorrow, for comparison before and after.

Or Down You Fall

That was a pretty good level. I've now got the quest-completion achievements for both the Fjord and the Tundra (130 quests in each). I have to admit I'm pretty pleased with that as I normally wouldn't get those achievements - but then I don't normally struggle so much with the following areas and have to come back and finish up :)

Last night I got the Foldragon Hold cut-scene and, hey, that's pretty good - okay so the graphics are basically better rendered versions of the in-game ones, but the camera work, story and audio made it.
I had no idea there was a scene there so it took me by surprise when my screen went blank at the beginning!
Also, the Undercity run with Wrynn was entertaining once I got used to being basically invincible :) The only issue I had with it was the bit where he runs off and Jaina doesn't - I stayed with her - thinking I was making some kind of choice - only to find nothing happening and almost missing the action I should have been following.

On a more untalented note, I'm finding the gap between what I would be and what I am to be growing rapidly - more so than at any other point during the game.

To explain:

For every level you gain, you get a certain amount of improvement from inherent addition to your stats (Agi, Mana etc.), and then on top of that you get a TP (Talent Point) which you'll generally use to add a couple of percent to some stat either on yourself, your equipment, your pet or your skills. Glyphs seem more designed to change play style by shifting stats around (reduce something here, add it there) or increasing something inconsequential (area covered by frost trap, for example) - so I won't worry about those. Pet TPs also make a difference, so that's another couple of percent here and there that I'm losing out on.

Obviously when I was level 10, it was a tiny difference. 1 TP. Something like 1% difference in one stat. Now - 66 TPs later - I'm missing out on at least 66% (to say that's a rough estimate is a misunderestimation, it's practically made up). But I think now that the value of each TP is greater than at lower levels. One of them there spreadsheets for calculating these things might be in order, so I can experiment and see how much 'real world' difference they make numerically.

Level: 75
Location: Dragonblight
Theme: KT Tunstall - Hold On
hit/crit/dps/ap: 104/14.09%/~800/1649 (dps includes damage from riding a dragon around dragonblight, so somewhat meaningless).

Pet slaying!

Thanks to my guild I got to run SSC for the first time. It was fun :)
Anyway, while I was there I noticed that Quest Helper was recommending that I slay someone's pet wolf for the Fibrous Worg Meat (0/10). Personally, I think it's hilarious!
The wolf next to it wasn't the right type, no drops from that one!
For the record, I'm off the bottom of the recount window. Being level 74 with no talent does not good DPS make :)

Oh, and Bernard (my wasp) is currently 71. I can't wait for him to catch me up!

The Levellers

I got Blacksting, ain't it pretty? :)

Sadly though I was getting Blacksting with the expectation of being able to bust Archie out of the stables while out and about, then I eventually discover that "Call Stabled Pet" is a level 80 skill. Bah.

I've been levelling Bernard up, he's still 3 levels below me and I'm not far from 75 myself.

This has been a much more entertaining level. As levelling was proving incredibly slow I headed back to the Fjord to complete more quests there. This was a very good idea, and made levelling both more rapid and more enjoyable - I think to some extent it was Bernard being level 68 when I tamed him that did it.

After struggling with 'level appropriate' content, I had a few Fjord and Borean Tundra group quests which of course involved killing Elites. I thought I'd struggle with them, especially as Bernard was still 69 or 70 at the time. First there was Jonah Sterling (70 Elite), he wasn't too bad, then Hozzer (71 Elite), more difficult but got a bit low on mana towards the end. I was pleased I managed to solo them.
Heading across to the Tundra there's Ned, the Lord of Rhinos, a level 72 Elite on a non-elite 71 Rhino called Lunchbox. Having googled I now know I'm not alone in this, but seconds after killing Lunchbox and Ned jumping down to fight, Ned respawns right on top of me with another Ned on his back. Both confusing and alarming. We killed Ned 1, then we ran. If I had vast reserves of mana I may have been able to take him again, but I was down to very little.
Then, Harold Lane, also 72 Elite, we took him out and were home in time for tea.

So I feel quite chuffed at that.

Thanks to Trenn for helping out on most of the Gjalerbron quests, particularly Glacion - that was one 71 Elite I didn't have much chance with, though I was lower level at the time and so was Bernard.

Tonight we (The Elunatics) ran Maggy and Gruuls, so I got those achievements and died a lot. I really need to practice instances :)
It was a good night, everyone had fun, and there was much loot.

Level: 74
Location: Air-borne between Dalaran and Nexus (Dalaran corrupted my sound and I had to log out).
Theme: It's impossible to tell, Dalaran killed my sound!
ap/crit/hit/dps: 1746/14.87%/89/600+ (dps from raid, so doesn't really count)

There's Something About Northrend

Well I made 73, got Kill Shot, and it's all good.
I'm currently installing the patch and want to test out 3.1 - but mostly vicariously as most of the interesting changes are end-game content or talent changes :)
That said, I am considering testing out 'call pet', so I may yet head to Zangar to fetch Blacksting :)

It's been a bit of an uneventful level, right now I'm really really looking forward to 80!
I do like some of the things they've done with Northrend, riding on the back of the horse, the silly harpoon surfing and the like - I'm just finding it a lot slower than 60-70 pre-wrath.

This level I spent a lot of time levelling my cooking skill, I figure it'll be useful when I get to 80 to be able to make buff foods. Mmm, food.

Short entry this time. I'll let you know if I grab Blacksting :)

Level: 73
Location: Northrend
Theme: Theme from annoying kids TV programme.
ap/dps/crit: This patch is taking a very long time, I'll check when I get the chance.

The Trouble with Travel

The 3.1.0 patch is downloading, release can't be far away!
I think dual-spec is the most eagerly awaited change in it, though I'm finding it hard to justify 1000 gold for dual-spec untalented. Still, it'd be funny - well it'd amuse me, so ner.

I've finally gone to Dalaran, made it my home and got the flight point. This follows having to travel from the middle of Northrend to the Ring of Blood to help Hammydin out. I may have been low on the dps chart, but I'd like to think that the 20 minute wait while I travelled was worth it, and that they couldn't have done it without me ;)

Level 71-72 was still not quick - around 10 hours - but it certainly felt a lot quicker :)
I'm now expecting the rest up to 80 to be on the order of 10 hours each, getting longer towards 80.

I need to go to the hunter trainer as I keep forgetting again. I should have already had Kill Shot at 71. I'm looking forward to getting it - as it has the "only useable under 20% health" clause it's more than just another shot for the rotation so it should help make kills a bit more interesting (and hopefully faster!).

In other news, I've been on a Nexus run with my guild (The Elunatics, and thanks!) and you can see how much difference that made to my stats above. I replaced 4 items on just one run and significantly upped all of my stats! Curiously, Armour and Intellect gained most.

Level: 72
Location: Dalaran
Theme: Carl Douglas - Kung Fu Fighting
dps/hit/crit/ap: 365/44/17.35%/1525

A møøse once bit my sister...

Weeeelll, it's been a while, but I haven't been slacking.
No no, I have indeed been getting my mining up to Northrend levels, followed by the most tediously long level in history ever.
It took around 16 hours of running about Kalimdor to get my mining up (Engineering didn't fare so well and I'm not caring right now). 16 hours. It's so dull.
Following that I ran off to Fizzcrank to finish the quest chains there and around there (occasionally mining the occasional node I might happen to find, don't you know). It took something like 16 hours of that to get to 71. So approximately 32 hours of tedious - I'm just glad I had a guild to talk to and keep me sane. Thanks go to the Elunatics for this valuable service (not that most of them know it, but that's nothing new, they help anyway :).
I figure the extended levelling time was due to me trying to do quests of an overly high level, having done most of the lower-level quests between 68-70.
So I've moved to the Fjords, which are sadly lacking in møøses.
I have to say it's really helped, basically doing quests intended for 68-70 rather than 71-72. They go much quicker and give just as much XP!

Level: 71
Location: Westguard
Theme: Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's dead
dps/crit/hit/ap: 320/17.49%/38/1319