End of Expansion Blues – Hardcore Ideas to Fight Boredom

by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

It’s always the same at the end of an expansion: you get super bored of pretty much everything there is to do in Azeroth. You are faced with farming the last raid tier for months on end, you have a farmyard full of max-level battle pets, the Warlords of Draenor beta is still nowhere in sight, and you can only sit around the Shrine watching the trade trolls for so long before you go crazy.  But what else can you do?

Of course, there is the usual “farm old raid bosses for transmog, mounts and toys,” but really, most of us are doing that already, and even that doesn’t take up too much time at this gear level. So what are the other things you can do to keep yourself from getting bored that are a bit out of the ordinary and definitely catered towards the more hardcore players?

Neutral Pandaren

Did you realize that you can level up a neutral Pandaren who never has to choose between Horde or Alliance?  This is not for the faint of heart, as you will be resigning yourself the leveling up through herbalism and/or mining alone.  Yes, all 90 levels.  Doubleagent is currently the highest neutral Pandaren at level 85.  At that level, you only get about 20-30 xp per node, and no, you probably don’t want to do the math on how many nodes it would take to reach 90.

If you decide to do this, level up with quests only until you get the quest The Passion of Shen-zin Su, as it gives you a speed boost that will last forever, provided you don’t turn in the quest, and you get to have Huo following you for company.  You can get rested XP at the Temple of Five Dawns, but be careful not to go right into the center, as the Huo quest will try to auto complete.

As a bonus, if you level a hunter, there are a couple exotics that are exclusive to the Wandering Isle that require Beast Mastery at level 69 to tame, Guardian of the Elders, a stone quilin and Water Pincer, a water strider.  Just be sure to spec Beast Mastery when specs become available, because while there is a stable master on the isle, there are no trainers to allow you to respec once you choose.

This can get boring (actually, boring is an understatement) but be sure to say hi in /1 to see who is on the same server via CRZ, as there are a surprising number of people who are doing this.

Iron Man Challenge

There are people who successfully managed to level up a toon to level 90, while never equipping an item that is above white (which also means no heirlooms), never choosing a spec or talent, never drinking a potion or taking a food buff, and all without ever dying.  Yes, leveling up to 90 without dying is hard enough, but the Iron Man challenge takes it to a whole new level.

Here are the full rules if you feel up to the challenge.  RP servers tend to be a bit more popular since it is easier to find white and grey gear off the auction house, and you definitely want to avoid a PVP server. Be prepared for many attempts before you succeed, and some will be heartbreaking deaths while in the 60s, 70s or 80s. Night elf hunters tend to be the most popular, because the pet that can pull aggro (and as you may have guessed, no pet talents are allowed either) as well as the overpowered Shadowmeld racial.  However, every class will have its challenge, especially when you consider you will have no stats from anything you equip, meaning mana can be an issue for casters and you will have 0 hit (unless a Draenei) which means plenty of misses.

Insane in the Membrane

The achievement Insane in the Membrane (which rewards “the Insane” as a title) has become infinitely easier since Cataclysm when Shen’dralar rep became unobtainable (although those who did complete it prior to the Shattering now have the Agent of Shen’dralar Feat of Strength) and when new Darkmoon quests became available at the newly-instanced Darkmoon Island. Prior to that, rep had to be obtained primarily by creating a crazy number of Darkmoon Faire Decks you turn in for loot.

But this doesn’t make the Insane title easy to get by any means.  Why?  Be prepared to spend hours of your life farming Heavy Junkboxes, which also requires you to have a rogue around level 60 or higher, or be prepared to spend a lot of gold buying junkboxes.  Since junkboxes cannot be placed on the auction house, your best bet is to hit up your realm’s forums to see if anyone is selling, the going rate is usually 15-30g per box, and you need around 1400 of them.

You also need to make yourself honored with Bloodsail Buccaneers (which bestows the snazzy Bloodsail Admiral title upon you), which requires many hours of killing Booty Bay Guards – be sure to use some Savory Deviate Delight to turn yourself into a pirate for extra fun, and so you can have the satisfaction of responding Yarrr whenever a lowbie asks what you are doing.  However, then you need to make amends with all the goblins again by becoming exalted with Booty Bay, Ratchet, Everlook and Gadgetzan.

Don’t forget your Battle Standard of Coordination for increased rep gains while you are killing mobs for reputation.

Okay, Really?

As I said, these are not for the faint of heart, but for those who love World of Warcraft but are finding themselves burning out on the “same old” every day.  They are definitely doable – I did Insane back in Wrath, am currently working on both an Iron Man toon and a neutral Pandaren casually.  And yes, especially when you lose an Iron Man toon to an elite rare that suddenly spawns at your feet, you will ponder what on earth were you thinking… then a day later find yourself restarting again.

I recommend sharing the pain though!  Team up with a buddy – or your guild – to work on any of these together (although for Iron Man, you can’t group up and share kills).  And be sure to lament about the pain of it to all your friends on Twitter – WoW has a great community on Twitter.  I have been surprised at the number of fellow Iron Mans I have discovered there, and many share their personal experiences with doing it as well.