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My tankadin turned 58 last night and took his first steps through the Dark Portal.

I had originally intended to fully clear Azeroth before moving on but as usual the lure of Outlands, new gear, rep, and big XP got the better of me.

I threw my mage out there as soon as she turned 58 but was planning on that. I’d all but given up questing on that toon as I was having more fun AoE grinding and instance running at the time. My shammy got to 58 in Winterspring (same as the Tankadin) and I took him through the Dark Portal right away to gear him up and ready for the switch to resto to instance run his way to 70.

It was tough to give up Azeroth as I had set a few goals for myself. I wanted to hit Exalted across the board with all major factions and to clear every zone (or at least quest in every zone) before moving on. I had ventured into Plaguelands on my main but never to quest, and my time in Silithus was limited to grinding essences to craft an Epic robe I wanted (and got). I’m assured I’m not missing much but that’s not really the point. I’ve paid for the content, seems a waste to bypass it.

I’m not too worried however as I have a druid sitting in the sidelines at level 36 I plan on maxing out to PvP with. My main aim with the Tankadin was to level him as fast, efficient, and as profitable as I could, which I have done I think… plus it makes sense to move into BC content ASAP as I can level faster out there than I can in the old 50 to 60 content and get some great gear to go with it. I’ve already replaced my epic shield, dungeon set gloves, Sapphiron’s boots, and random blue chestpiece with some sweet BC gear in just 3 quests and 2 AH purchases.

The druid will be levelled nice and casual I think. I’m in no rush to plough through all that content again. Much as I enjoyed it, I’ve been up and down Azeroth three times now.. I’ve been ganked more times in STV than I care to mention. Enough is enough I think.

The problem I have now is my mining never hit 300 in old world areas. Now I’m faced with the dilemma of going back to grind out the last 60 nodes I need to hit, or dropping the profession altogether for a crafting profession like Smithing. I make a nice wedge on the AH (see future post on Auction Flipping), certainly enough to power-level any profession I see fit to do so that’s not an issue. I’m more thinking of things to do at 70..

I originally had a plan all worked out for level cap… I planned to still play the AH heavily, to do the daily quests as much as possible, fly around farming mining nodes, and I have my fishing and cooking skills ready to be maxxed out soon which gives me more daily quest options to do the cooking stuff. I hear high level fishing can be fairly profitable in the right areas and cooking just makes sense for the great food buffs available. I have JC as a second profession that I hope to make some good money with by cutting gems. All this combined should make me some big coin but the mining is going to hold me back I think.

Everything else I can do as I’m levelling, gaining XP and loot at the same time. Mining is going to see me back in Azeroth doing laps around Burning Steppes or somewhere like that which takes me away from my goals for set amounts of time. I guess the alternative isn’t much better though as another crafting profession is going to eat into my pile of gold whereas mining costs me nothing but my time. Decisions decisions… For the time being I’ll stick to my original plan I think.

Anyway, that’s all for now.. check back soon for more Tales of a Tankadin.