Eight days

Aeven's been in Northrend for eight days now, real time. Last night, she just dinged level 72, in her first quest outside of Howling Fjord. Yep, she's a murderer, a thief, and now a kidnapper, too. What can I say? Those Tuskarr just love them some Wolvar pups!

Seriously... I just try not to think about it.

Anyways, as I said - level 72, in 8 days, or about 4 days per level. At that rate, she'll ding 0 in another month or so. She's just making her way out of Howling Fjord, but will probably return there to wrap up a couple of last quests before taking her final leave of the zone. I'm thinking that the Borean Tundra would be good for another level or so, at least... then maybe on to Dragonblight and Grizzly Hills before hitting the Nessingwary All-You-Can-Skin buffet in Sholazar Basin. I understand they're giving away a free saronite node with every blood-soaked skin you rip off of a dead animal these days.

Overall, Northrend mobs haven't been overpowering. Aeven is still able to handle 3-4 level-appropriate mobs in her retribution spec, assuming she's prepared - sealed, buffed, and at/near full health and mana. One thing that's really interesting about playing her is that a Runic Mana Potion or a Runic Healing Potion is pretty much a "back to full" consumable. Couple that with Lay on Hands, and she's effectively able to heal herself to full, instantly, twice a fight. If she's fighting a single mob, she can also toss off a Hammer of Justice and get herself to near full by using a Frostweave Bandage in the 4-5 seconds that the stun gives her.

That's not to say that even one mob is easy to kill. They don't hit exceptionally hard, for the most part; but they do have a lot of health. In some cases, even a single mob can take 10-15 seconds to down. During that time, Aeven is pulling out all the stops: judgements, crusader strikes, holy storm, consecrations, you name it, when it comes up, she's working it into her rotation somehow. I'd say that about 1/3 of the time, when she's low on mana, her single mob attack sequence looks something like:

Judgement of Widsom - auto-attack for 8 seconds - Judgement of Light - Flash of Light - auto attack moar - Judgement of Wisdom... lather, rinse, repeat until she's ground the mob down and she's left with about 3/4 health and mana. Top off, loot, head for the next mob.

Tonight, I'm going to take a look at the Northrend 5-mans. I was supposedly able to queue for Utgarde Keep at something ridiculous (level 67, I think), so presumably, a level 72 tank should be able to handle things, even in white gear. We'll see. If I wait a few days, I may be able to rope some guildies into coming along. It will be interesting - these are the most challenging 5-man instances in the game for my current level, but unlike a lot of the old world and Burning Crusade content, I know these instances really well. Some of them, far too well. So while I may still be a bit wet behind the ears as a tank, I can at least find my way through the instance without getting lost. Which will, sadly, be something of a novelty for me :-)