Peter's Blog

My normal realm (Aerie Peak Europe) was down so spent the evening with my Human Mage on Darkspear.

In a couple of hours got him from level four to level eight.

Observations:

• First eight levels seem much easier with Mage than they were with Paladin. Not sure if it is because the ranged attacks are much more powerful or because I just know the enemies better. Since you attack from a distance as enemies run towards you, you already have a head start in damage. The only ranged attack the paladin has is against undead monsters and this does make raiding much, much easier: you shoot one guy and he leaves the pack to smite you. Usually as paladin you have to take on the whole pack at once, if there is a group of, say, three you have to give up.
• Trained the Mage up in skinning and leatherworking just to try those professions out. Skinning does look like a quick way to make money, skinnable animals all around.
• Since I was still a level four I started off in a noob area (Northshire Abbey). This guy comes up to me and says 'If you give me all your money, I know a spell to make you level 14'. Gimmee strength, reminds me of the wallet inspector in the Simpsons.

I contemplated moving my Paladin to Darkspear so the Mage can be a legitimate alt character and can, for example, send the Paladin free leather. However the free transfer page on the blizzard site is broken (UPDATE: you only get free transfers if the server is full and they want people to jump ship) and a paid transfer costs £15 and takes a few days during which you cannot play (horrors). May just leave them separate for the occasions where Aerie Peak is down and Darkspear is up. I could move the Mage to Aerie Peak but I have no great love of Aerie Peak and £15 is a bit steep. I could create a new character in two or three evenings.

I have no cross-dressing tendancies but you very rarely see female dwarf characters in WoW as they look a bit matronly. Could be worth it for the exclusivity. Doubt I'd be invited on many raids though, it'd be too much like inviting your mum. UPDATE: as luck would have it, saw female dwarf dressed in a bikini the very next day.