The Long Road to 70
My name is Haggis. I live in San Antonio, Texas, and I’m an Orc Warrior. For the HORDE!
Of course it’s no secret that i’m an avid addict player of the Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game World of Warcraft. In fact I’ve been playing the MMO off and on since it came out.
I am attempting a milestone in the game, a first for me. The games level cap, or maximum level, is 70. I am currently 1/3 the way through level 69, so I decided to live blog the event.
I have vowed to reach level 70 before the new year, which is as the start of this article, 20 hours away. Since the company I work for is so awesome, I’ve got the next two days off to do nothing but play this game and ring in the New Year.
I stopped at the store and got a 24oz Mocha Cappuccino, a bag of Doritos, two bags of peanut M&M’s, some Sour Nerds (which are awesome, by the way), and a 12 pack of Coca-Cola.
If I don’t die from lack of sleep or go into a diabetic coma, I should be able to achieve this modest goal.
So here goes.
2:00am - Been playing for 2h 36m already, gained 119k experience from about five quests. Stopped momentarily to start this article. I am currently 6 1/2 bars out of 20 from leveling. Yay!
2:10am - I mention the liveblogging on my guild channel. I get accused of spamming. (He was kidding). I keep forgetting to buy ammo.
Haggis running for his life
2:20am - Died. I did take two with me though. I’d like to take this opportunity (while I run back to my corpse) to explain why it’s taken me several years, off and on, to bring one character to the level cap.
I am the slowest leveler ever. I am extremely casual with the game, so I do what i’m having fun with. If I’m getting killed all the time by high level enemies, i’ll do something else like try to level up my fishing skill for a week, or another week flying around getting rare cooking recipes. I really did this. I don’t care if I should be getting xp, I want to experience everything the game has to offer, and I think I’ve done very well so far.
I am looking forward to the endgame content, which is coming very soon. Ok, back to grinding.
2:45am - Died once more from the elite you see in the pic above. Did finish the quest. Small break for bio (ie refreshments and/or bathroom).
3:00am - Writer and fellow WoW addict Smokin is joining me to help me knock out a few quests faster with his uber level 70 mage skills. Should help knock out a few more knotches. 64% left until level!
3:35am - Sleepy eyes are hitting me, but i’m still all hyper from the cappuccino and all the sugar. Pausing to adjust my iTunes playlist for more upbeat music to smash things to.
“What the hell am I doing awake?”
5:00am - I can’t believe I’m still awake, and still slightly coherent. I’m more than halfway now, with 43% to go. I’ve gained 332,684 since I started at 11:30pm, not bad for 5 1/2 hours. I think I’ve actually caught a second wind, and I’m gonna keep on for a few more hours after a quick stop to the Shattrath to drop stuff off in the bank.
5:35am - Back to the grind. Smokin is out, he’s about to fall asleep at the keyboard. I need another soda. I submitted this story to WoWInsider, hopefully I’ll get some kind of honorable mention. Probably not. 
5:37am - Here’s the link to my character on the WoW Armory: Haggis on Mug’Thol. And for those curious, my total /played time so far is 24 days, 3 hours and 35 minutes. I don’t think that’s terrible overall, right?
Haggis takes a dance break in the Ecodome. God I’m delirious.
5:51am - Okay so I just spent 15 minutes on taking a screenshot of me doing the Hammer Time. I think it was totally worth it.
I got bored with my music so I turned on the TV and found the original Star Trek series on TV Land, followed by Night Court. Awesome.
6:10am - Okay, I remember Markie Post’s hair being bad, but not that bad. The intro song is just as great as I remembered it.
6:40am - Wings is on now. It’s amazing so many of these people went on to much bigger roles, especially Tony Shaloub. I just died twice in a row, but the second time was my fault. I was trying to sneak around to get a quest item, and I forgot that Warriors aren’t too subtle. 5 1/2 bars to go.
7:19am - Dear god, the sun is up. I am out of my mind.
7:30am - Submitted to Digg. I’m definitely out of my mind.
8:12am - Three bars left! OMG! The Today Show is boring.
9:03am - Thanks for all the support and blog mentions, it’s keeping me going! Not that I have far to go, with 7.3% left, or 1 1/2 bar! Gah I’m so tired.
And in response to Horns, I am a casual player, but I am also a bit of a nut. I haven’t been playing the whole time. I played for about 8 months then quit for over a year, till about three months ago. Not so bad I guess.
10:04am - I’m still here! Somehow. I have 14k remaining, and I just finished two quests. Prepare yourselves! XD
10:16am - DING! I did it!
Here’s a few statistics for this play session:
Total time played: 24d 8h 22m
Total time played this session: 10h 50m
Total XP Gained this session: 649,810
Total Gold Gained: 215gp 57s
10:49am - Yes, I’m still awake. Had to borrow a hundred gold or so for my flying mount, and picked up my first piece of Season 1 Gear, the Gladiator’s Plate Gauntlets. Flying to Shadowmoon at this moment.
10:55am - Okay, I’m about 200gp short for the skill, so I’m calling it a day for now. I’ll get the rest later, I’m just happy I finally made it.
I hope everyone has enjoyed sharing the experience with me. It’s certainly taken me a very, very long time to get here, but I’ve enjoyed (almost) every step of the way. I think Terrokar Forest, Tarren Mill, and Stranglethorn Veil were my least favorite zones in the whole game, the ones that almost made me quit.
Thanks again for everyone’s support, especially my friends and fellow guild mates:
Oldrengrim/Smokin for helping me grind through those tough parts when I needed a lot more damage done.
Grimish & Gruelosh for cheering me on for 2 1/2 years and keeping me in every guild that you belong with.
Tyla, Nathran, Bourban, and Lumas for making all those instances lately a blast. You guys are the reason for my no Pick Up Groups rule, why would I want to go with anyone else?
Everyone else in Warlords on Mug’Thol, and everyone reading this blog entry last night/this morning. I’ve had a lot of fun doing this, but I’m going to sleep now and not waking up until it’s dark again.
Woot!
Link: The Long Road to 70
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