I was bored, the guild were closing in on "Stay Classy" I had ££s in my wallet and a 10 level 85s on Shadowsong. A lethal mix for an altaholic with a weird ass shift pattern (2 days 0700-1900, 2 nights 1900-0700 and 4 days off) that gives me too much time home alone.
I decided to ship an alt out to Agamaggan to join my other 85 alt, a warrior so that I could roll a new toon. The guild needed a Night Elf or Dwarven mage, a Night Elf death knight or a gnome warrior. The warrior was a non starter as I had 2x85 warriors already, the death knight was removed from the list as I really wanted to see some of the new revamped zones in Azeroth and that left me the mage options. Both races were new to the class and after as I already had done the dwarven starting areas since 4.0.3 I decided the NElf was the one for me.
I wanted to name my mage Evian,as it's a play on the name Evlyxx and Ian my IRL name and with Evian being a brand of bottled water I thought it went well with the class. Sadly some paladin had already laid claim to the name but not seen fit to level it past level 3 I couldn't have it, but a cunning plan to feminise it into Eviana was hatched and a female Night Elf became the the chosen one.
Homelands
Fully decked out in all the finest heirloms I set out to level my way out of Teldrassil, boy was that quick! Every mob just died in one shot or less (I'm sure some died at the thought of me casting spells honest!). The first 6 levels were as dull as they always were in the Shadowglen and the ones in Teldrassil proper were not much better. They had been changed but it wasnt the re-working seen in Northshire or Camp Narache let alone the troll or gnome zones.
Azerothian Adventures
After completing all the quests I elected to run over to the Eastern Kingdoms and level through Westfall because I wanted to see the new quests there, and while I found the story line rather nice the vast majority of teh quests were the same old ones just with a new reason. However, they were much better laid out and plenty of fun. I did enough quests in the zone to get the Westfall Quests achievement despite the last few quests being grey (a pattern which repeated itself often in Azeroth) before moving on to Duskwood, the Southern Barrens, Searing Gorge, Eastern Plaguelands and Winterspring. I completed all zones upto the zone quest achievements and found all exceptionally well done zones. The quests were very little challenge even very early in the zones which is a shame as it doesn't prepare you for instances, raids or even questing in TBC or Cataclysm very well.
Expansions
Going into Hellfire at 58 was a bit tough but the XP gains and gear upgrades make it worthwhile as you'll speed to 60 and then your heirlooms get the TBC treatment and it all becomes too easy again. Northrend was different because you can't quest there until 70 anyways by which time it too is too easy because of teh heirlooms.
I only quested in Hellfire as my GM boosted me through a few dungeons and completing the quests there gave some nice XP which I topped up with daily fishing and cooking quests as well as a fair wedge from herbing.
Northrend was duller than a dark damp day in Darlington and I only managed to complete quests in Borean Tundra while daily questing, herbing, instancing and trick or treating during the Halloween Holiday and soon I was entering Cataclysm and my first feeling of frailty.
Cataclysm
Even in heirlooms the upgrade in difficulty from Wrath to Cataclysm was overpowering. I was a relative weakling and the first few quests were a real challenge.I couldn't even enter the dungeons because the heirlooms counts as iLevel 1 items (or lower) which is rather silly meaning I had to resort to buying gear I could equip and carry it around with me.
I chose to quest only through Hyjal until I got far enough to open the Molten Front and then move onto Deepholm to get me access to the shoulder enchants. Once again the questing was done as filler between instances and daily quests and in no time I'd hit level 85, was revered with the guild, maxed out cooking, tailoring and herbing and had earned enough gold to buy my way into heroics by purchasing some craftable epic 359 gear and blue 346 gear. without draining any of my financial resources.
Conclusion
Overall it was a fun experience, and the Azerothian questing is awsome but needs to be more challenging and not have quests going grey before you finish a zone. Gathering professions need to give less XP to help counter this
Outlands questing could do with a freshen up but I doubt we'll see that anytime soon and Northrend needs speeding up (which is already planned) and the gear disparity between Northrend to cataclysm needs closing (which I believe is coming in 4.3).
Overall the report card for leveling in heirlooms is:
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