Leveling Since 2.3

Since 2.3 was released I've taken more interest in some of my lower level alts that have been mostly shelved lately. To summarize how well the new leveling changes work, here's a timeline.

Date: 11/13/2007
Bliz Releases WoW 2.3
/dohappydance
After patch applied login to 1K+ latency
/dounhappydance
Read support forums and find out I'm not alone
/dohopefuldance
Fail to correct problem after every imaginable change
/dopissedoffdance

Date: 11/17/2007
Figured out -nosound is now needed for my client to have < 1K+ latency
/dopartiallysatisfieddance
Start leveling the Shaman on a limited basis. He's currently 33.
End of day Sunday, 11/18/2007 he is 37 with still some rest bonus remaining and limited questing. Very nice...

Date: 11/21/2007
Thanksgiving holiday starts with more play time. Let the leveling begin. I hit 39 with no effort but rest bonus is gone.
All night conference call (I'm on-call) limits play and I become nastily sick so almost no play on 11/22 and 11/23.

Date: 11/25/2007
Start working on the shaman again with some effort. I roll from 39 to 44. Along the way I get dual wield and get some nice 1H maces with fiery enchants.

Date: 11/30/2007
Decided to focus on playing the shaman. I roll from 44 to 48 with no rest bonus most of the way.

Overall, from 33 when the patch came out until now at 48, I think I'm averaging about 90 mins per level. At 48, I think about 2 hours per level when I have a good set of quests in front of me. My overall impression is that the changes rock. I can't imagine the "easy to level toons" now, like a hunter.

60 Minute Tankless Sethekk

I was a mere 900 rep shy of being revered with Lower City on my priest. Eyeballing a pair of Lower City Prayerbook trinkets, I mentioned this to the guild. Hearing rep opportunities, we had a quick 5 together - lock, mage, priest (me), hunter (Al), and our level 65 rogue that has been trying desperately to catch us at 70 for instance fun. Since Sethekk isn't THAT high and with some 70s to back him up, he came with us. Using the hunter's cleverly named pet, Wolf, to tank for us, away we went. The result? Four deaths total - 1 for the priest, thank you to the charm totem hitting the ludicrous burst damaging mage and, 1 for the rogue who was out of LOS of the healer when his guy became unstunned, and then the rogue and mage on the boss fight - you must listen to me about the LOS rule on that last boss, really. Even with all that, we knocked this out in just a hair over an hour - my PoF buff wore off during the final boss fight. Some lewtz were claimed:

Bands of Syth - vendor
Band of Dominion - mage
Deathforge Girdle - vendor
Greaves of Desolation - hunter

The rogue got a few green drops that will upgrade him once he hits 66.

So the lock and I got no drops, but as Talon King Ikiss hit the ground, I see "You are now Revered with Lower City" blink across my screen. So I'm now packing 2 LC Prayerbooks and around +1670 healing when only spirit buffed.

Botanica Revisited

We re-visited Botanica last night with our now much more dps-heavy mage, warrior tank, season 2 healing mace toting priest, shadow priest and one of the 417 hunters in our guild; we call him Al. Melee lewtz commenced in falling from the sky making our warrior say "not sure it's an upgrade, but I'll try it out."

Commander Sarannis:
Revenger - warrior love

High Botanist Freywinn:
Aegis of the Sunbird - warrior love

Laj:
Mithril-Bark Cloak - warrior love

Thorngrin the Tender:
Ring of Umbral Doom - hunter love

Warp Splinter:
Greatsword of Forlorn Visions - warrior love
Netherfury Cape - trash that our mage scooped up thanks to his many aggro-pulling deaths

Oddly, we had 2 wipes on mob pulls that got more than we bargained for, a few individual deaths when aggro was pulled (ahem, mage?) and 5 bosses all 1-shot.

Heroic Flop

We attempted our first heroic tonight. We went with Ramparts even though that isn't considered the easiest. We figured it was small enough it would be a good start. We appeared poised to have an interesting problem, especially for our little guild - we thought we'd have too many 70s on. Some folks would have to sit out. We had our pally tank, pally healer, my hunter, a new 70 hunter, and lock on. Our shadow priest, mage, and normal raiding hunter were all expected on as well. In fact, our hunter even said "start without me if you have to, but I'll be on around 9:00 and would love to participate." Well, we never saw any of them. Kind of disappointing considering we were trying our first attempt at a heroic. Well, it was a pretty strong failure. The 2 mobs nearest the entrance were pulled and the pally tank falls before the first mob. The pets are able to tank enough to let us finish it off. Then we do the solo pull of the pat on the bridge. Pally tank drops again. We do the pull around the corner and we lost 1 or 2 on that one. I believe all but 2 pulls resulted in a death on our side. Those guys hit amazingly hard, but we have to figure it out. There aren't tons of gear upgrades available to most of us now in normal instances, so the gear isn't getting tons better. We must learn to CC better, dps better, heal better ... basically do everything better if we expect to start running heroics with some regularity. I was very disappointed.

Since the heroic was a bust, I went out and fished up my
Weather-Beaten Journal. So that nifty new tracking menu on the minimap has Find Fish in it. I can spot schools of fish on the minimap like other resources.

At least the night wasn't a total waste.

Shattered Halls

Our guild did a nice Shattered Halls run with our warrior tank, pally healer, my hunter, another (newly) 70 hunter, and mage. Pretty good. No wipes. A few deaths, but not to bad. Lots of CC was applied, and we did it well for the most part - dual chain freezing traps, dual pet tanking, and sheep kept our tank rarely holding more than 1 but occasionally two. The loot:

Bands of Nethekurse - vendor trash
Firemaul of Destruction - vendor trash
Lightsworn Hammer - pally healer has it, so vendor trash
Demonblood Eviscerator - new hunter took it

Shadow Labs... Again

We took our warrior tank into Shadow Labs last night. The group consisted of my priest, hunter (not me /cry), shadow priest, and mage. The tanking wasn't quite as smooth as with the pally, but of course the warrior isn't equipped with the same aoe aggro generating skills. We relied more on crowd control however, and we did fine. We had a couple of deaths, but in general, the runs was pretty good. In fact, we did through the first boss with just 4. Our shadow priest showed up after that.

The phat lewtz:
Ornate Boots of the Sanctified - vendor trash for the warrior
Adamantine Figurine - warrior upgrade
Plans: Felsteel Helm - warrior crafting love
Hallowed Pauldrons - shadow priest took for possible healing options later in life
Robe of Oblivion - shadow priest upgrade
Sonic Spear - phat, PHAT lewtz for the hunter... but not mine :-(

Guild Gear Upgrades

I will use this post to outline the level 70 toons in guild and what gear upgrades exist in normal 5-man instan

Edit: Revised based on feedback and better format provided by Veradas.

Shattered Halls
Grand Warlock Nethekurse
Pattern: Spellstrike Hood - Gingerdemon, Comehither
Telaari Hunting Girdle - Temtress, Sabrehunter

Warbringer O'mrogg
Runesong Dagger - this one should be an upgrade, bu

- Warchief Kargath Bladefist
Beast Lord Handguards - Temtress, Sabrehunter
Figurine of the Colossus - Veradas, Siluzza
Gauntlets of the Righteous - Veradas
Greaves of the Shatterer - Siluzza
Hortus' Seal of Brilliance - Deaderndead

Steamvault
Warlord Kalithresh
Ring of the Silver Hand - Veradas
Beast Lord Mantle - Temtress, Croretnuh, Sabrehunte
Pattern: Battlecast Hood - Gingerdemon, Allbetter,

Sethekk Halls
Darkweaver Syth
Libram of the Eternal Rest - Veradas

Talon King Ikiss
Incanter's Trousers - Comehither, Deaderndead
Sethekk Oracle Cloak - Comehither, Deaderndead

Shadow Lab
Ambassador Hellmaw
Dream-Wing Helm - Temtress, Croretnuh, Sabrehunter

Blackheart the Inciter
Adamantine Figurine - Veradas, Siluzza
Brooch of Heightened Potential - Gingerdemon, Comeh
Wand of the Netherwing - Gingerdemon, Comehither, D

Grandmaster Vorpil
Breastplate of Many Graces - Valcarrie
Jewel of Charismatic Mystique - Gingerdemon, Comehi

Murmur
Pattern: Spellstrike Pants - Gingerdemon, Allbetter
Greatsword of Horrid Dreams - Gingerdemon
Shoulderguards of the Bold - Siluzza, Veradas
Sonic Spear - Temtress, Croretnuh

Mechanar
Nethermancer Sepethrea
Manual of the Nethermancer - Deaderndead

Pathaleon the Calculator
Abacus of Violent Odds - Temtress, Croretnuh, Sabre
Beast Lord Helm - Temtress, Croretnuh, Sabrehunter
Baba's Cloak of Arcanistry - Gingerdemon, Comehithe
Dath'Remar's Ring of Defense - Veradas, Siluzza
Telescopic Sharprifle - Temtress, Sabrehunter

Botanica
Commander Sarannis
Libram of the Lightbringer - Valcarrie

Thorngrin the Tender
Pattern: Battlecast Pants - Gingerdemon, Allbetter,
Arcane Netherband - Comehither

Warp Splinter
Bangle of Endless Blessings - Valcarrie, Allbetter
Beast Lord Cuirass - Croretnuh, Temtress, Sabrehunt

Arcatraz
Wrath-Scryer Soccothrates
Emberhawk Crossbow - Temtress, Sabrehunter
Ryngo's Band of Ingenuity - Comehither

Dalliah the Doomsayer
Lamp of Peaceful Repose - Allbetter
Nether Core's Control Rod - Comehither?, Deaderndea
Thatia's Self-Correcting Gauntlets - Veradas
Pattern: Whitemend Pants - Gingerdemon, Allbetter,

Harbringer Skyriss
Breastplate of the Bold - Siluzza, Veradas
Elementium Band of the Sentry - Siluzza, Veradas
Lamp of Peaceful Radiance - Comehither, Deaderndead
Shiffar's Nexus-Horn - Comehither, Deaderndead, Gin

The Black Morass
Chrono Lord Deja
Burnoose of Shifting Ages - Siluzza, V

Temporus
Hourglass of the Unraveller - Temtress, Croretnuh
Millennium Blade - Siluzza
Star-Heart Lamp - Deaderndead

Aeonus
Helm of Desolation - Croretnuh, Temtress
Latro's Shifting Sword - Siluzza
Legplates of the Bold - Siluzza, Veradas
Legplates of the Righteous - Veradas
Mana-Etched Crown - Gingerdemon, Comehither, Deader
Scarab of the Infinite Cycle - Valcarrie, Allbetter