Watcha doin? I'm Runnin an Instance

Zully is 75 now and Zan is 22, up from 19. I decided to keep burning off Zan's rest bonus whenever I remember since I really do intend to max level a shammy. My enchanting is up around 400 and tailoring 390. Fishing is at 420ish. Cooking is stalled out for now until I get some more recipes. Haven't won the drop for the Heavy Frostweave Bandage yet. I also got exalted with the Cenarion Expedition doing the DEHTA quests, which gave me the Cenarion War Hippogryph mount and my 10th tabard for the achievement. I'm about halfway through exalted with the walrus men.

I was going to skip over Dragonblight over to the Grizzly Hills or something, but I want to get as many reputations up as possible so I don't have to go through the pain later. There's BC reps I will probably never max out, and definitely not the old world ones, except maybe Argent Dawn once I can solo Scholomance.

Part of what's speeding me out of the beginning zones is the subject of the breakfast topic:

Breakfast Topic: The new 5-mans

I wouldn't exactly say I've been an instance fiend. I've tried to run one a day but with my deep dislike of PUGs it doesn't happen all the time. However, I have managed to run the first four instances at least once: Uthgarde Keep, The Nexus, Azjol Nerub (Which I will probably be calling Abdul Jamal forever), and the Old Kingdom.

UK and Nexus are super easy for people with gear, which are generally the ones I run with. The scenery was cool, but those two seem like souped up RFC or Hellfire Ramparts. Straightforward paths and bosses with the same abilites that have been used before.

Azjol Nerub was basically three boss fights with no trash, which was an interesting concept and went very very fast. The one funny part was the last boss is down a ramp onto a circular platform. So Jr and I are hanging out just at the bottom of the ramp when the fight started. Apparently a wall appears to fence you in, and we got stuck behind it. So Zon and Krom are fighting their little plate butts off while Jr and I are trying everything we can to try and get through that wall. Then suddenly, Jr has aggro. Apparently some adds come down through that tunnel to help the boss. I start healing and dpsing the best I can and Jr is doing his best to keep his pet on the the mob, and another one appears, so we take that one out too. While this is going on the boss is buried and our three melee are standing there waiting for us to finish up so they can start again. This repeats again. And we won, with no deaths. It was hilarious.

After that we decided to try the Old Kingdom. It was AWESOME. I think part of the reason was that none of us had ever run it, which is unusual. Usually Zon has run at least one of his characters through it and knows where to go, what to mark, how the bosses go, etc. This time we were just kind of feeling our way through, figuring out the bosses, clearing all the trash, etc. The last boss was SO COOL. You kind of shift dimensions a ways into the fight and copies of all the party members spawn, but you're all by yourself. Then, once someone finishes all of theirs off they pop in and can help with yours. It's kind of hard to explain, but none of us expected it to happen quite that way. When I first saw the copy of Krom running at me, I thought it was more like a Mind Control where I needed to not hurt him, but I realized pretty quick I was by myself. So fun!

We had a few deaths but no wipes (well, except to the allies at the stone). I didn't get any wearable loot, but I did get a lot of Dream Shards, so I can't complain. With the long weekend coming up I'm hoping to hit 77 and get cold weather flying. That will help out with questing a ton, though the areas are so big I think I'll still be using the flyer to have some AFK breaks.