Thoughts on my Boosted 90

 

I pre-ordered the Warlords of Draenor. I even got the collectors edition so I could get the upgraded Dread Raven Lord mount and Dread Raven Hatchling battle pet. The pre-order also included a free boost to level 90.

I decided to use the boost on Sucan, my brewmaster monk.  I'd been haphazardly leveling him up with the dungeon finder since Mists came out. So he had reached level 58 already.  I ran him through a last few 5mans so he would be 60 when I put the boost on him.

By waiting until Sucan was 60 to boost him I got the added bonus of boosting his professions. So for just another run or two through LBRS I was able to immediately have both Engineering and Blacksmithing at 600 skill.  Of course I'd learned none of the recipes, but I didn't have to go through the pain of getting all the intermediate materials and skilling him up.

As a level 90, my Brewmaster started out with a full set of 489 greens. I pretty quickly upgraded his gear with a bunch of stuff from Timeless Isle.  It's not the best gear, but 496 purples are much better than 489 greens. And I've got so much leather crap from Timeless Isle that I've saved almost a full set of gear in case I get a Burden to upgrade it. 

I also ran through a few scenarios and 5-mans with Sucan tanking and Faebane as damage.  It wasn't hard, because even with 489 greens we massively out-level the heroics, but it was challenging to hold aggro against the raid geared mains who were in the 5mans. It was also very odd to compare the quite different monk tanking to my usual DK tanking. I do have to remember that not only am I less geared with Sucan than Morn is but I do not know the button sequence or cooldowns nearly as well.  So I doubly need to be careful and not over-pull.  Not that it is a serious concern in a 5man, but still it's something to keep in mind.  

I've also had to embark upon a couple of personal quests with Sucan. His Blacksmithing and Engineering skills were boosted to 600, but as I already noted that came without any recipes. So I've taken some time and gone back to get Jeeves and make what I can for the Engineering mounts.   I should have Sucan run through MC and BWL and SSC and TK to get the recipes from there.  Perhaps there are even some nice transmog items.  

Darkmoon Eye!

This past week the Darkmoon Faire was in town. Well, their portal was in town. The island I assume doesn't actually move, but is closed to the public for 3/4 of the time. Anyway, I parked my little monk, Sucan, at the faire for the week and faithfully logged him in to battle Jeremy Feasel every day.

I had almost given up for another month yesterday, but the fight is a tidy chunk of XP for Sucan so I logged him in to send the pets forth to battle Saturday morning. The last day of the faire, and I get the eye in the Darkmoon Pet Supplies. I am not embarrassed to admit that I did a small dance when I saw the eye in the bag.

Why, yes, I did name my Darkmoon Eye Sauron. Really, what else could I have possibly named it?

DraNgNon saw and heard my Dance of Joy, and remembered to log in her own parked Faire alt. Thranba, the little troll hunter soundly trounced Mr Jeremy Feasel, so much so that he gave out a second Eye.

Random Monk Screenshot

Sucan, my lowbie monk, was up in Peak of Serenity doing his daily quest for extra XP. This was the panda I challenged that day.

Monk

When Mists of Pandaria was released I rolled a monk. An Orc monk to be precise. Little Sucan was always going to be a brewmaster monk. Because tanking is fun, and really with his name he must be a brewmaster.

Anyway, I'd gotten him a few levels here and there since Mists came out. But being little is tiresome. You have no mount and, even with the Cata streamlining, everything is far away. At least the Monk skill Roll makes that a little faster.

Last week, while DraNgNon was out of town, I took some time to get Sucan more levels. I was questing him up through Northern Barrens. Because of Cross Realm Zones it was mildly painful. There was a fair amount of competition for quest kills. But, even worse, there was some jackass level 90 ret pally flying around killing the quest givers. Fortunately I hit level 15 before too long and could queue for a random dungeon.

Sucan ported in to the start of Ragefire Chasm. The group grabbed up all the quests and stomped our way through the dungeon. It was fun and weird to be an at level tank in RFC. Especially since at that level I had very few of the actual tools of Monk tanking. Basically all Sucan could do was throw beer and kick a little bit. But once I got the hang of it I found it's really nice to pull with beer. Just throw beer everywhere and all the mobs are mad at you. It's ranged, and pretty cheap to use.

After that dungeon was done I queued and ran a bunch more. Between the heirloom shoulders and staff that Sucan had I was level 30 before the evening was done. Also, starting at level 20, Monks can go to the Peak of Serenity in Kun-Lai Summit and once a day get a +50% xp buff. It's pretty spiffy and the extra xp is kinda ridiculous. Anyway, there were some good groups and a few ridiculous ones that were utterly confused about what to do and where to go, but for the most part it was pretty good.

By the time Sucan was level 30 I actually felt like a tank with some basic tanking tools. In addition to throwing beer I can now set people on fire if they are covered in beer. I also have short and long CD damage reduction abilities and a self heal. Oh, and I can make people charge into me; Clash will force someone to charge into me as I charge into them, and it stuns enemies around where we meet. It gives brewmaster Monks a more mobile and dynamic feel than Blood DKs.

I do think that before I run anymore dungeons I need to take a bit of time and have my Leatherworkers make Sucan some gear. The instances weren't hard, but there was always either a rogue or a druid who outrolled me on all the leather agility gear that dropped. So I got a few quest item upgrades, but missed out entirely on any dungeon gear. And now that I'm level 30 the greens I got for questing at level 15 are not really cutting it.