Taking it to Nagrand

I did something I almost never do, I joined a group and knocked out some elite quests. Yes, surprising as it may be, I'm telling the truth, and it actually worked out fairly well.

So I showed up in Nagrand and was on my way to take out Banthar all by my lonesome. I don't usually pay much attention to general chat, and this time was no different, but I do pay attention when I get a whisper. All of a sudden I get whispered asking if I would heal to take down Durn the Hungerer. Being one of the quests I skipped on my first visit to Nagrand, and even though I'm feral specced, I said sure, and promptly got an invite.

I ended up in a group with a warrior, mage, and two hunters. While following Durn around waiting for our chance to strike with no adds around, one of the hunters says his 70 druid friend will tank for us since the warrior was a little low, so we sit around waiting for him to show up. Since that hunter had already done the quest and was just helping, he left the group and joined the new druid while we tagged Durn before letting him take aggro.

I like to think I did a pretty good job of healing, especially when the only way to see your tank's health is by selecting him, besides having to save the mage after he pulled aggro, and we made it through the fight fairly easily. Sure it's nothing compared to those instance bosses, but I was proud of myself.

After the fight we departed from the hunter and druid and our group of 4 decided to wreak some havoc on the legion camps for some more elite quests, which I had also skipped the first time around. I tagged along because there was pretty much no chance of me completing those on my own, and since I rarely join groups they would probably never get done if I didn't do it then and there.

I had a great time working with that group. I mostly tanked in bear form, saving the mage time and again whenever he pulled aggro, and we burned down the first couple quests in the chain. Then came the hard part as we were told to go to Shattrath for the next part of the chain and the warrior and hunter decided it was time to log.

So the mage and I pretty much duo'd the rest of the quest line, getting help only on the very last one from another group of 3 that lent us a hand in taking out the big bosses, the only part we were unable to do on our own. He was a decent player, but I think all my blog reading has really paid off in learning how to tank, even when faced with multiple mobs. I kept remembering stuff from BBB's blog about skills to use when tanking, and for the most part the mage never got touched, although without a healer I had to stun the mob and heal myself when it got tough.

We went on to take out two of the three elite mobs at the end of the Nesingwary chains, then parted ways. I soloed the last of the three right after then went to turn in everything. Most of the quest rewards weren't that great, but I had a great time teaming up with that group and getting through some tough quests.

I am now well into level 69 and have moved on to Shadowmoon Valley. At this point I may not even need to go to Netherstorm before I hit level 70, or at least if I do I won't have to do much there. This bodes well for my plan to still have some Outland quests to do when the expansion comes out so I can finish up there and be level 71 or higher before entering Northrend. I find my solo style of gameplay really works best when you enter a zone at a slightly higher level than it was designed for.

It actually looks like I will reach my goal within the next couple weeks, and with about 3 months before the expansion comes out I will have a good chance of leveling up some of my other characters a pretty good amount before then. Things are shaping up pretty well.