Gold, Guts, and Glory

So... after a weekend's worth of activity, Aeven sits about halfway to level 50, and she's still going strong. She's finished off the Scarlet Monastery, run through the first wing of Marudon (purple stones) already, and will be queueing up for the other wings soon, with Zul'Farrak to follow soon after.

Getting to 50 was interesting. I never gave it much through, but while I was running around, I realized that there are a bunch of mid-40 quests in Tanaris, and a bunch of higher-level (50 or so) quests as well. In between, you get a couple of quests that will conveniently take you out to the Hinterlands, where there are more level-appropriate mobs for the late 40's. So by the time you're done with those quick quests, you're now high enough level to start tackling the more difficult chores when you return to Tanaris. Very nice.

On the way to 50, Aeven managed to max out her skinning skill, and pick up Master Of Anatomy (Rank 4). That's a +12 to her critical strike rating, yeah! She's plugging along with her other profession skills as well. Her mining skill was in the doldrums for a while, until she hit the Hinterlands (mithril and truesilver), and ventured into Un'goro (where she got to mine thorium... a lot of thorium), so now it's pushing 300 as well. First Aid and Cooking are both at Artisan levels, and dishing is... well. Let's just say that, more than half the time, she is able to correctly identify a fish as being a fish with only a few minutes of contemplation.

Now, ask her about deviant fishlike monsters, and you'll get an earful. As far as regular fish go, though, Aeven's pretty much convinced that they are somebody else's problem, thank you very much. Just make sure hers comes with an extra side of chips and she'll be happy.

I mentioned venturing into Un'goro, which turned out to be interesting. I ran around a bit, mined a bit, picked up the flight point, did a couple of quests... and, oh, yeah. I died.

A lot.

There are some nasty critters hanging out down there in the southwestern part of the crater. It was immensely fun, though, whomping on something until I noticed that hey... is he healing himself? He's back at full health! What kind of dinosaur heals... himself... oh. A level 55 dinosaur. Pardon me, a level 55 elite dinosaur. Of death. I'll... be running away now, then?

Aside from the whole death thing, it was nice. I've always liked Un'goro and it's Northrend twin, Sholazar Basin. Two wonderful areas, especially if you're a miner... and if you're a miner and a skinner, like Aeven is, then well. It's a veritable gold mine. Thorium mine. Whatever, it's money money money everywhere you look!

On top of that, I realized that the crystal widgets you can get in Un'goro by collecting crystals off the ground - things like the Crystal Charge - are all white items. Which means that Aeven can use them! I have a feeling that I'll spend a lot of time running around Un'goro to collect crystals. Which will be more than OK, because while I'm doing that, I'll be mining and skinning and generally just letting the money roll in.

Which is good, because I'm eventually going to need that cash. I just realized that, by using a sword, I've been forgoing the 5-point expertise bonus that Dwarves get for using maces. So I really need to sidegrade to a mace, and then pick up a crusader enchant for that weapon... not cheap. Fortunately, selling everything I've come across - and I mean just about everything I've come across, including that really sweet world drop of Pattern: Comfortable Leather Hat - has managed to net me close to 1500 gold.

Yep. She's well on her way to my epic flight training. Or maybe shelling out for dual spec to go prot/ret, and picking up that really sweet Glyph of Seal of Vengeance in another level or so. Her actual gold in hand is about 1200 or so. She's had some expenses, you know, getting things enchanted and buying her own armor instead of looting it fro the still-warm corpse of her enemies. Still, on the minus side: having to pay for your own armor and weapons. On the plus side: no stubborn ichor stains. Overall, it's a net win, I think.

Oh, and when I said I was selling just about everything? I meant "just about everything except the materials I've been holding back to eventually try and power-level engineering." If I had really been selling everything, and working hard to make the best profit (instead of just undercutting on the AH by 10-20% to get things to sell quickly), then I think I would probably have closer to 2K gold.

Next up: level 50... and beyond!