My multi-box trio is about to hit level 40. It’s happened very quickly in my opinion. So much so, that I stopped trying to complete each zone. I started skipping around to the quests I remembered liking most and have only farmed mobs here and there for crafting materials. My Warlock does tailoring for the trio to fill in their gaps in gear. When I needed silk to make them all new boots and sashes, it was easier to have the trio farm the cloth so they’d get XP for the effort as well as the materials. I like seeing big fat ogres go boom, as they drop with an earth rumbling thud at my feet.
Scarlet Monastery (SM) is one of my favorite instances. For me, it was the first of the lowbie instances you run multiple times for the rewards – gear for yourself, cloth for crafting or to sell, sellable Bind-on-Equip items for the Auction House and vendor trash (gold). It’s the first introduction to what end gaming raid feels like in World of Warcraft. It’s the first time I recall needing to know the intricacies of each instance wing. It’s the first piece of instanced content that has an attunement of sorts – you need to loot the Scarlet key from the box in Doan’s Chamber, to gain entry into the Cathedral and Armory wings. And it was the first time as a Warlock, I was told to cast certain de-buffs (Recklessness) on the mobs to prevent them from running away and returning with additional combatants. The instances before SM were pretty much spank-n-tank. SM is the one I recall waking me up to how instanced content, as well as the coordination and planning required, manifested itself in WOW.
I visited SM with my trio just to complete the content since doing 5-man content is my goal. I boxed in a level 43 Paladin I had abandoned on Whisperwind a few years ago, as the 4th player. The first time through, I divided up the BOE loot and gave all the BOPs to the Mage since she’s the trio’s tank/DPS. She came out of that first run looking pretty good and I called it a day. Later in the week I decided that the run had gone so smoothly that I’d run it twice more, in hopes of getting the same drops for the two priests. Favor smiled on the two runs and by the time it was all over, my trio was back to looking like triplets. I must admit that I enjoy it most when they are dressed identically – down to the weapons. *Smile*
With the trio nicely geared, I decided to bail on Southshore, Hillsbrad and Arathi Highlands. I’d already done the slay quests I liked. I’m a fan of killing Defias and Pirates in WOW. I tucked my head into Dustwallow Marsh while doing a couple of Mage quests but wasn’t enamored of that zone either. With the XP coming easy and no need to complete zones to level, I went to where I wanted to be next, which was kicking more pirate-ass in Stranglethorn Vale. I’m not an admirer of STV per say, but yeah, I love the pirate quests so that’s where I’m calling home until they’re all dead, the dirty bastids.
After parking the trio in the Booty Bay Inn, I jumped on my Druid to go farm up some gold for mounts. It took three different sessions to mine, skin and cook my way into enough Auction House revenue to purchase the three mounts. It was three different mini sessions to get it done. All in all, in a couple of hours I had 250 gold to send to the mage, who shared the earnings with her two sisters. I’d never rolled a Draenei past Westfall so I’d forgotten that I’d be getting that big Elk mount. *hehe* They sure do look pretty cute trotting their way across Azeroth.
