Still going strong

I've done well in Winterspring, so I've nothing much to do there now. I have to decide where next I should go - I could head for Silithus or to Burning Steppes, though I'll probably head to the latter for easier XP (and I heavily dislike the silithid :)

The yeti were as satisfying as I'd remembered and went down without too much trouble.
I was very lucky with the quest drops this time around, only having to kill twice as many mobs as items to collect (for the yeti quests anyway).

Somehow, in Winterspring I think I've found my rhythm and it's becoming hard to see how talents would make any difference. I'm still taking down mobs 5 levels above me without any real trouble - I did the Guardians of the Altar escort quest and never once had problems keeping up or protecting Ranshalla. My hope is that this means I'm getting very good at basic tactics, defensive trapping, keeping an eye on the scope to avoid adds, crowd control, pulling and the rest.

Hunter tip:

Unless I have a specific use for a trap (e.g. multi pull crowd control) I'll generally keep my traps in reserve to get out of trouble. Freeze trap if a random add joins, frost trap if things get out of hand and I just need to run the hell away (out of hand means FD has failed as well - I hate it when they don't believe me :)

Level: 55
Location: Darnassus
/played: 5 days, 6 hours, 51 minutes
Theme: Get a Life - Soul 2 Soul

Look at the loverly snow

I'm getting Steady Shot worked into my routine - my dps is now around 50% higher.
For those of you looking for hunter tips, the rotation with AotH is something like:
Serpent Sting, Arcane, Steady, Steady, Arcane, Steady, Steady, Arcane etc.
though obviously it depends a lot on aggro, any adds that come in, mana usage and the like.
If mana gets too low I'll switch to AotV and basically spam Steady Shot. It's slow to take them down and the extra mana used reduces the rate you regain it but it keeps up a steady pace and I mostly use it as an alternative to downtime - I hardly ever do downtime, I'd rather spend a few extra arrows in an extended fight than sit and drink for 30 seconds.
Bear in mind I'm 0/0/0 spec, my rotation may not suit your clearly totally OP spec :)

Winterspring has been really good fun. At the beginning of the level I spent an hour or two levelling up mining and engineering again (mostly in Arathi), which went well but still isn't up to the zones I'm in so I'll be doing some more soon.

"Are We There, Yeti?" is one of my favourite quests, even without skinning (though the skinning really does add to it :). For some reason yeti slaying is just much more satisfying than a lot of other mobs. Don't ask me why, it just is :)

I spent the last hour of the level flying around both continents handing in remote quests as parts of chains started elsewhere. Not highly entertaining, but it gives me time to work on other things while I wait for the flights. Apparently I should be playing bejewelled :)

Then I logged out and in to get my free Baby Blizzard Bear.
It's very cute, has an oversize head and everything!

Level: 54
Location: Everlook, Winterspring
/played: 5 days, 3 hours, 56 minutes
Theme: MC Hammer - Can't Touch This

Plaguelands and beyond

Perhaps I went to plaguelands too early, but I found it plain horrible - 10% of a level in three quarters of an hour. I like having a stack of quests I can go and do, combining several and handing in said stack. The Plaguelands have quests all over that chain but don't really overlap - though it is the first time I've quested there and my level may mean I'm not picking up as many quests as I would otherwise. I'll probably try again later.

Either way, I made 52 in a little over 3 hours.

I moved on to Felwood, which was a good move and I enjoyed that a lot more.
I really like the Jadefire demons, they're interesting to fight, requiring slightly different tactics for each type, and of course taking care sneaking about in case there's a shadow stalker around! (which there usually is, if not 3 or 4). I wasn't impressed when, having fought my way to Xavathras, some random person waltzes past me as I'm taking out the last one between myself and him and takes him down. I logged out on the spot rather than sit and wait for the respawn. Had to fight my way back out again but it saved me getting back in.
One thing I hate about Felwood - make that two things - is the lack of an Inn and the lack of ammo. Wait, make that three. Three things - Lack of an Inn, lack of ammo and how long it takes to get from one end to the other, and how long it takes to get there either on foot or by FP from anywhere else. Hold on, that's four things. Yes, this is the spanish inquisition and we do have shiny red uniforms.

I finished the Timbermaw Hold Honour quest to get access to Winterspring with 28 arrows remaining. That's enough for around 1.5 mobs, so I'm feeling very lucky on that one :)

I made decent progress but the time I wasted in plaguelands really didn't help, over an hour in total. I never did get that boost but I'm hoping to later today, this time in Sunken Temple.

I'm now 53 and have just entered Winterspring. Even though I don't have leatherworking I'm still looking forward to Yeti slaying :)

In case you can't place it, the pic is the IF->SW tram. It's not especially relevant to where I've been but I really like the way it looks and I happened to use it today :)

Level: 53
Location: Stormwind
/played: 4 days, 22 hours, 7 minutes
Theme: Kaiser Chiefs - Time Honoured Tradition

Un'goro for the w

I've just handed in the best part of a level-worth of quests in Un'goro and made level 51 - including lar'kowri's head. I have to admit I'm very happy with both the levelling time of a little over 3 hours and in particular taking out lar'kowri as he's 6 levels above me and pretty tough anyway. More than anything it's because it shows me I can make up for the lack of TPs.

I left Un'goro with only the harder gorilla-cave quests remaining (ame-01 and U'cha) because one thing I've really been struggling with is the vast numbers of mobs the gorillas bring down just as they're about to die! :)

I also have the Morrowgrain quest but I'm not counting that as it's just damned annoying if the only thing you're doing is finding soil.

After visiting a trainer for the first time in a couple of levels I've got Steady Shot! Yay! It'll be interesting to see how it changes my attack sequence. I imagine I'll drop multi-shot - mainly to conserve mana.

So I'm feeling pretty chuffed with how things are going again, it's not like I've suddenly hit a wall, just a bad patch. I now have to choose my next destination carefully, allegedly winterspring is from 53 so I'm not sure whether to follow the link quest - I'll decide tomorrow.

P.S.
Like my new spider mount? :) More Noggenfogger fun in un'goro.
mmmm. A spider mount. That'd be awesome. Ride a black widow into town.

P.P.S.
That reminds me, I demand mechanical hunter pets from engineering :)
That too would be most excellent.

P.P.P.S.
Ooh, new poll idea. Tomorrow.

Level: 51
Location: Darnassus
Theme: The Man Who Sold the World - David Bowie
/played: 4 days, 13 hours, 33 minutes

We're going to Un'goro...

I decided to get my mining skill up so I'd be able to mine the nodes in the levels I'm working, so spent an hour wandering around duskwood hitting bits of tin.
I'm now over 130 but totally failing to find any nodes at all in my range :)
I may have to do some more deliberate mining levelling :(

I spent some time in Blasted lands, which was incredibly dull as the only quests were the "kill any beast in sight and make random combinations of bits of them to make slightly okay guardian elixirs". I got fed up trying to get more than 1 vulture gizzard when I'd already got more than enough of everything else and still needed loads.

So now I've gone to Un'goro and I'm doing much better, and I've finally hit 50! yay!
however the level took 6 hours, including an hour or so for the mining.
I think most of the rest was Blasted Lands and travelling.

Tomorrow I hope to knock down a load of quests quickly, we'll see!

Oh, and mysql, pic especially for you :)

P.S.
I'm starting to wonder how my performance compares with someone that isn't talent-pointily-disadvantaged. I think the main difference is kill rates - I don't clearly remember levelling my 70 but I vaguely recall it not taking as long per fight. That said, everything's changed since then, no auto-shot rotation issues any more, differences in how a lot of things work, getting Aspect of the Viper earlier etc., not to mention the new pet talent trees.
The key to defeating mobs for me has been taking it slow and easy, keeping pet heal going, avoiding aggro, plenty of swapping between AotV and AotH. That's assuming I'm trying to keep a steady pace up with no downtime between fights.
If it goes pear-shaped and I've got more than I can handle with those tactics I have to burn through mana as fast as I can to pump out all the DPS at my disposal and hope I can take it down first.
That or FD and run :)

Level: 50!
Location: Un'goro retreat
/played: 4 days, 9 hours, 58 minutes
Theme: Jamie and the magic torch

Uldaman < 48

I really need to not do content that's so far below my level I get _nothing_ for doing it!
I got invited to a random pug and said yes. It was a good group ("hi" if you were in it :) but it took the best part of a couple of hours and I gained a couple of hundred XP in that time.
As a result that was a whopping 5 hour level which is a bit of a set-back as I should have been nearly 50 in that time. That aside, I am now 49!
And on the bright side I got to shrink giants, which is always fun, and then shrink myself with Noggenfogger, which is at least amusing and anecdotally increases DPS as well :)
Also, to make up for the Uldaman experience I'm being boosted through Maraudon (thanks Vik :)

I did some more questing in Feralas, the outhouse quests in Searing Gorge (oh I like them, they're funny) and a few other pieces.

The pic is from part of the Maraudon boost, we didn't finish so we're doing it again tomorrow.
I really need to get Noggenfogger-related pics just for mysql, I think she may have a fixation ;)

Level: 49
Location: Searing Gorge
/played: 4 days, 4 hours, 3 minutes
Theme: Chatting on vent

My other main is an alt...

I've made it to 48, I've got 50 in sight now!

So I've finally been to Searing Gorge, and it's alright - I was expecting more content like the Badlands.
After much messing about I found getting the key for Searing Gorge was a waste of time. You get a decent amount of XP for doing it but it takes so long travelling around and then you can use the FP to get in and out anyway!

I've been managing to keep to around 3 hours per level for most of the last 10, though that'll get longer as I go along, I'm sure :)
There's not much to say about the gorge, other than I had trouble finding some stuff (mostly the underground stuff) and wasted quite a bit of time because of it. I didn't have any trouble with any of the quests - other than through trying to be clever and sneak out of the quarry rather than fight. I couldn't find the Incendosaurs though, I have no idea where I'm supposed to be looking for those.

In reply to mysql - actually I reckon Lith's become my main already. I'm enjoying doing this far more than I've enjoyed the new Northrend content on my (still) 70 hunter.

Anyway, I have an early start and it's early already :)

P.S.
If you look closely at the pic, you might see *dramatic dan dan daaaaaaa* another player in the same zone!

Level: 48
Location: Iron Forge
/played: 3 days, 22 hours, 15 minutes
Theme: Garbage - The World is Not Enough