I could finally smell epic shield when I hit about 3k reputation in the Revered rank, which required 21k to top off to hit Exalted. Nothing to motivate you like a good tanking shield that might take quite a while to drop while raiding, right? I mean, it’s a sure thing as long as I kept up doing my dailies to the tune of 1-2k rep per day.

I ran one Magister’s Terrace all the way through and a highly unsuccessful second run a week later that only saw us through the first 2 bosses. I even got all the way through Karazhan with my greens and blues as I equipped purples as we went last weekend (still writing that amazing post - check back Monday).

So, I bought my tabbard and decided to finish up the other quests in my log and see where they lead. I think it’s time to start doing heroics now that I have an epic mace, epic shield, and 470 defense with 2 open gem slots. 492, here I come!

If you want to become exalted with the Night Elves and get your own kitty mount it is going to take a lot of time and sometimes a lot of gold.

There are four repeatable quests to gain reputation with Darnassus.

1. Pristine Yeti Hide from Pratt McGrubben (30, 42) in Feathermoon Stronghold for 250+ Rep. 1 each Pristine Yeti Hide. The drop rate for it is very low. I did not have one to turn in at 64.
2. Morrowgrain to Darnassus from Mathrengyl Bearwalker (32,8) in Darnassus for 50+ rep. 10 Each Morrowgrain. At 64 I was getting 82 rep.
3. Morrowgrain to Feathermoon Stronghold from Quintis Jonespyre (32, 43) in Feathermoon Stronghold for 25+ rep. 5 Each Morrowgrain. At 64 I was getting 28 rep.
4. Additional Runecloth from Raedon Duskstriker (63, 23) in Darnassus for 75+ rep. 20 Each Runecloth. At 64 I was getting 83 rep.

All of those will take considerable time and effort to gain the necessary reputation to become exalted, and reputation gains will vary depending on race, current reputation, and level.

So I recommend that you do what I did.  I did this with a level 64 Human Warlock and still received full reputation gains.

What you do is go to the Starting area for the Night Elves, Shadowglen, and do all the quests like you were a level one toon.

The quest givers won’t show up on your map, but just talk to the Night Elves around there and in all the low level areas if you are not familiar with that area. So basically just follow the path of progression the game gives you and you will gain a tremendous amount of rep.  You will still need to do the repeatable quests, but it won’t seem as daunting as before.                  

Follow my advice and in no time you will have your very own kitty mount.

Alliance Quests

The Blackfathom Deeps is a level 20-30 instance located in the northwestern corner of Ashenvale (14, 14). For the Alliance there are 5 quests you should get before heading to the instance.

1. Knowledge in the Deeps from Gerrig Bonegrip at the Forlorn Cavern in Ironforge (50, 5)
2. Researching the Corruption from Gershala Nightwhisper in Auberdine in Darkshore (38, 43)
3. In Search of Thaelrid from Dawnwatcher Shaedlass at the Craftsmen’s Terrace in Darnassus (55, 23)
4. Twilight Falls from Argent Guard Manados at the Craftsmen’s Terrace in Darnassus (55, 23)
5. Blackfathom Villainy from Argent Guard Thaelrid in the Blackfathom Deeps

Now that you have the quests it would be a good time to stock up on food, water, and any potions/elixirs that you can afford. I would recommend that once you put yourself in the Looking for Group channel for this instance you try to get a Warlock. They have the spell Underwater Breathing, which is very useful in this instance. If your group does not have a Warlock you will need to pick up an Elixir of Water Breathing from the auction House.

Now make your way to Ashenvale or get summoned there if there are people already at the summoning stone. Once you and your party are ready make your way down the stairs to the pool below. Swim under the wall and up to the other side and you will now make your way through the cave to the instance.

The mobs on the way to the instance are Levels 17-21. Once inside the instance the mobs are levels 22-28 Elite. Your tank should be at least level 24, if not 26, especially if there are higher level dps classes in the group. A tank will be hard-pressed to keep aggro off someone, say an uber warlock, if the warlock has 3-4 levels of spell/gear advantage over them. Trust us on this.

Now that you are inside the instance just go straight ahead, once you reach the first cavern you will need to swim straight ahead to make it to the above water area. You will have to do some jumping to get to the other side. Now follow the path a little ways and you will come to the second cavern and your first boss, Ghamoo-ra, a level 23 Elite. He will be on the island in the middle of the cavern; he will be surrounded by level 22-24 Elites, but they remain yellow and do not need to be engaged, so don’t attack them with any AOE or sweeping attacks. The fight is mainly a tank and spank, but he does have a blockable AOE spell called Trample. Another point of interest is that hunters of the same level can tame him. Cool, huh?

Now go back to where you first came into the cavern and take and immediate right. Swim under water in the little alcove and that is where you will find Lorgalis’s Manuscript for the Knowledge of the Deeps quest. From here swim right again and go to the next alcove, swim under water and come up on the other side of the wall. In this cave is where you will find the next boss; Lady Sarevess a level 23 Elite. She will be surrounded by level 20-23 Elites.

Leave there and continue swimming right, skip the next alcove you see and swim under the second. In that cave you will find Argent Guard Thaelrid, he will give you the quest Blackfathom Villainy. He is a gray-ish, wounded night elf lying face down on the ground. On a side note you can do these quests anytime as I did, they offer a great deal of Argent Dawn Rep. Now leave there and swim… wait for it… right, the next alcove is where you will continue on in the instance.

Follow the path until it comes to an intersection, straight ahead is the next boss, Gelihast. He is a level 24 Elite and is surrounded by levels 20-24 Elites. He is a dual-sword wielder, so make sure your tank has a shield and relatively high block/parry/dodge rating because of his devastating Attack Speed. Next to Gelihast is a table with a orb on it, click on it and you will receive a buff called Blessing of Blackfathom. From there take a left and in either the first or second cave on your left will be the next boss; Lorgus Jett. He is a level 24 Elite and will have level 22-24 Elites around him. He’s an easy caster that has shaman spells, but falls rather easily compared to a heavy-hitting melee mini-boss. (Note that he may appear in other parts of the instance, his spawn is random.)

Now continue on down the path until you come to the next cavern. The first left down the path offers a locked chest at the end. Now from here I recommend you clear the area of all the mobs, when you are done with that go back to the circle pillar in the middle of the room. From there look at the entrance to the Temple door and jump into the water heading in that direction, go under the water and swim into the underwater cave. In there you will find Old Serra’kis, a level 24 Elite. Finding him is definitely harder than fighting him. You might want to kite him out into the cave and fight him on dry land.

Now get back up to the path and head for the Temple. In there you will find Twilight Lord Kelris, a level 24 Elite. Be sure to clear the entire room before attacking him. If you don’t, whatever mobs are left will attack you as soon as you attack him. Around the Shrine wear he was kneeling you will notice four unlit fire bowls, called The Fire of Aku’mai. To get the doors open you will need to light these. WARNING: Only light one at a time. Once one is lit you will be swarmed by a lot of mobs, so only light one then kill all the mobs and then light the next until all four have been lit.

The doors will open and you can proceed on. Follow the path until you come to Aku’Mai. He/she is a level 24 Elite that is able to wipe out a tank who is not properly protected with gear and buffs and an unattentive healer. Poison effects whittle away at the tank’s health even more, but it should also be noted that fear and traps can be effectively used to buy time to heal.

Now that Aku’Mai is dead go to the end of the cave and receive another blessing, at that time a Dwarf named Morridune will appear and offer a port to Darnassus. If all of your quest objectives are complete, take the port and go turn in all of your quests.

Blackfathom Deeps is an instance that can be ran through very quickly if you have the right group and there is some pretty nice loot for all classes. For High level Enchanters it also can be a very nice place to stock up on a lot of blue items to disenchant.

After I had enough to almost guarantee hitting 300, I ran up the hill to the campfire and started cooking away.

This was only possible through Fishing, which accounted for the last 25 points of skill for items that were just not available on the AH on Velen. That made the Fishing effort worth it. I ended the night early with 192 Fishing, I believe. Now I’m off to kill Timbermaw enemies to get through the pass a little easier to get the Owlbeasts. I ran it successfully once, but I’m too lazy to run back from the Irontree area to the flight point and fly to Winterspring. Rep is good anyway. I’m only a few kills or one quest away from Unfriendly.

I got all of my Blood Ambers up North and logged while killing the last of the Grizzlies that I needed and just got too tired to go on. Long, satisfying days at the office will do that to you.

Ding 66 - Got Shadow Fiend
Honored with Mag’har
Completed the entire Nesingwary questline with Zipthunk’s help
Logged about 20 world PvP kills, several 70s

With all of that to recap, we’ll see if I have time this sitting. I’m at home with the piano tuner dude because my wife’s work schedule changed. I’m making the most of my time.

Let’s see, Friday night, I started with a grouping with a 66 Druid that totally rocked until a few level 70 Alliance decided to make our lives miserable. The fun thing was that 2 of them weren’t enough when we were ready. They either waited until we pulled too many mobs or came in 3s… except one rogue who rocked our world. I’d go down first while low on mana, and then my poor buddy was singled out against a clear expert.

I spent most of my time Saturday just trying to kill things here and there and picking up quest items in Nagrand. Sunday morning was more of the same, with life as a 66 from the morning before to make me happier.

Things got rocking fun last night when I was on my way to Bloodripper’s area to look for help when I spotted a 66 BE hunter named Zipthunk killing the 2nd quest owls for the Nesingwary line. I greeted him and asked if he could help me with the elites if I helped him. He said he’d done all of the questline but would gladly help in exchange for healing with demon elites at Camp: Hate. Sure thing.

With that settled, we made quick work of Bloodripper and Bach’lor. We took care of his quest, twice (I didn’t realize I was ready for that quest, so when he turned it in, I picked it up), but we’d drawn attention from Alliance players several times. We eventually got done and agreed to take out any and all Alliance on sight and went on our way to find Banthar.

After about 15 PvP kills for us, we were ready to hunt down Tusker, but one of the guys we kept killing was hovering over Tusker on his flying mount… pissed. We figured that if he attacked in the middle of the fight, we ditch the elephant and go all out on his a$$. He never attacked, and I got my Nesingwary Safari Stick. Talk about an upgrade!

One last picture for the day… my ride on a netherdrake for Survey the Land:

In-game, I got Paladr to 18 before we went into The Deadmines and rocked that joint. Naturally, the Deathroom that was the goblin engineering room got us a time or two, but it was smooth sailing after that. Of course, dinging 19 helped a tad. I got upgrades of nearly every piece of armor, plus a sword.

I hit 21 this morning and Paladr is on his way to Sunrock Retreat. He got Dar’Khan before leaving Ghostlands Sunday morning, putting him at Exalted with Tranquillien. I love getting a nice blue weapon in the starting area. Not to mention the Exalted cloak.

Paladr is no longer going for a record pace after taking forever to do DM, but he is still scooting along at a far better than average gallop. His level 20 was 15h 25m. I’m going to enjoy playing a pally, and will still follow the guide’s track on quests, but experience all of the Paladin stuff, such as forging the weapon for the level 20 questline reward.

I have a ton of screenshots from the weekend, but a very hectic week coming up. I just got into the office, so we’ll see if nothing is happening. If we’re dead today, I’ll put them up and write more posts. If not, I’m sorry, but work is work.

I blew about 500g on Enchanting and Tailoring since last Monday. I’m actually improving my gear by doing so, making the expense a little more tolerable. My cloak has +120 armor now and my gloves, chest, and bracers all have nice damage or mana enchants.

Deadr is up to around 50% of the way through the level with nearly full rest still. I’ll continue questing in Terokkar and Zangarmarsh to finish out the level, although the only nice things about hitting 65 will be to put on a new piece of Netherweave and use another talent point.