Hello internet, how are you today?
Several months ago, shortly before the MoP expansion was
released, I decided I wanted to be the first Paladin to reach level 90 on my
server. Being an achievement-wh… err, enthusiast… the idea of getting an
achievement that no other person on my server could get sounded like an awesome
idea. The prestige, the fame, the night elf women… all would be mine if I could
just be the first Paladin to reach level 90.
In preparation for my feat, I recruited a friend to level
with me and scheduled a full week off of work. When MoP hit I was totally ready
to hit the ground running and power through to level 90.
As soon as the server rolled over to 12:00am I dove right
in, taking the hot air balloon from Stormwind all the way to the newly discover
Pandaria. In the starting zone there was fierce competition for quest
objectives, and the first few hours trudged on, waiting for respawns and
getting annoyed with people.
Then, we started to pull away from the pack and we
discovered new areas in the Jade Forest. I was excited by our questing pace,
but when I looked at our XP progress I was wholly discouraged… we had only done
about half a level in almost 6 hours… Feeling defeated (and exhausted), I made
an executive decision that we should go to sleep and resume the next day.
I woke up refreshed about 12 hours later and we resumed our
quest. At this point, a lot of players had already hit level 86, and some had
even reached 87. Knowing how far behind we were, we forged ahead trying to make
up ground. Unfortunately, MoP turned out to be the “grindiest of grinds” as my
friend described it, and neither of us could stomach the questing experience
much more. So, with much regret and annoyance, we gave up.
It was right around this time that I started to see server
first profession achievements for some of the more annoying professions
(alchemy, tailoring). But to my surprise, there were two or three achievements
still lingering… including, server first blacksmith!
Newly invigorated, I smelted all of the ore I had collected
while leveling and quickly churned out some green quality items. Unfortunately,
my half-hearted ore collecting left me well short of my goal… so I turned to
general chat for assistance.
10-15 thousand gold later, I had a few dozen stacks of ore
and I started working the forge like a man possessed. But the stress and
pressure proved to be worth it, when I became the server first zen master
blacksmith.
So, while I wasn’t able to cement myself as the best Paladin
on the server, I was able to claim my title as the best blacksmith on the server.
