Today, most of the Blizzard fan base is firing up Diablo III and renewing the conflict with the Burning Hells, and I’ll soon join them, but first, I’d like to squeeze in one more Warcraft post before I become too distracted by zombie-slaying.

A warlock’s journey:

I’m not someone who views leveling as a speed bump on the way to endgame. For me, it’s half the fun of the game, and it provides a key way to grow attached to a character. Although I’m not really an RPer, I do tend to create rudimentary personalities for my toons, and leveling is where these personae develop.

As the leveling journey for one of my characters has just come to an end, I thought it might be interesting to chronicle her path to 85.

In the beginning…

I started a warlock as an experiment. I always loved the flavour and backstory of the class, but I found pets made questing (my preferred way to level) too easy, so I’d never leveled one far. But then, I got the idea to see what it would be like to level through questing without pets.* And so the grand experiment began.

*(Full disclosure: I still used pets for soloing group quests, dungeons and PvP, and on the rare occasions I grew very bored with a quest and just wanted it over.)

This helped establish her personality early on. I thought of her as someone who despises demons, and uses their powers only in the hopes of being better able to destroy them.

I made her a Blood Elf, of course, and decided to level through their native zones instead of skipping over to the Undead areas as I usually do.

I regret this. As much as I love Blood Elf storylines, I hate Burning Crusade quest design more. I still say Deatholme is a great way to end the zone, but it ain’t worth it.

Onward to Kalimdor:

Fleeing Burning Crusade quest mechanics, I moved onto Ashenvale. It’s not that fun as Horde — yet another Cata zone that paints the faction as the sort of people who kick kittens for fun.

After that came the Stonetalon Mountains, another “proud” moment for the Horde. At least its story was well-told, and it offered some of the most intense and emotional story-telling of Cataclysm, even if it still forces you to play as a war criminal. Even warlocks have limits. Well, mine does, anyway.

Then came Desolace, which was surprisingly enjoyable. I furthered my character’s persona as someone who enjoys tormenting the tormentors by enslaving all the demon mobs and forcing them to kill their comrades.

Later, I went to Thousand Needles, whose quests are ridiculous but very fun. This was followed by Tanaris, whose quests are unremarkable but whose soundtrack is second to none.

Beyond the Dark Portal:

Most of my leveling between then and level sixty took place via dungeons and PvP, but I did complete the Swamp of Sorrows storyline. By the way, the idea that the Alliance doesn’t win any battles in Cataclysm? Not really grounded in reality.

I then moved on to dreaded Outland. I’d leveled through the continent entirely through dungeons on my shaman and paladin, so I actually decided to brave the quests this time, mostly in Terokkar Forest. I like the ambiance there, if not the quests.

I also did the unthinkable and delayed going to Northrend to spend more time in Netherstorm. I always had a soft spot for that zone — partly due to how surreal it is and partly due to its importance to Blood Elf lore.

By this time, I was starting to think of my warlock as a kind of spiritual successor to my mage, also a Blood Elf. As he’d spent a great deal of time in Netherstorm, I thought it appropriate that my warlock follow in his footsteps.

This lasted until I got to the point where most quests required groups, at which point I continued my tradition of giving up in frustration and fleeing to Northrend.

The Roof of the World:

Burnt out from leveling other alts, I spent little time in the Howling Fjord or the Borean Tundra. But then came Dragonblight, and Northrend sank its icy claws into me once again.

I really can’t overstate how much I love Northrend.The story blows everything else from WoW out of the water, the environments are the perfect mix of beauty and intimidation, and the mythology buff in me eats up all the Norse influences. Playing through it on a Blood Elf just adds even more poignancy.

I completed virtually all the quests for Dragonblight and Grizzly Hills, two favourite zones.

I didn’t realize I’d be leveling another alt so soon, so I’d recently done a thorough play-through of both Icecrown and the Storm Peaks on my shaman. As a result, I felt a bit burnt out on these zones when my warlock came to them, even though they are probably my favourite zones out of the entire game.

I did, however, do a couple short chains in the Storm Peaks, and I spent enough time in Icecrown to complete the main storyline related to the various gates, as well as the Crusader Bridenbrad chain, which I loved even before I knew the story behind it.

I also made sure to complete all three wings of the Frozen Halls. Still the best dungeons ever, if you ask me.

The final stretch:

I leveled primarily through Hyjal and Uldum the rest of the way. I love Hyjal — it’s beautiful, it has great music, and its story can stand with the best of zones. Uldum is just the post-Hyjal Cataclysm zone I was least sick of.

On the eve (literally — the night before) of hitting 85, I did Icecrown Citadel and got my Kingslayer title. For a quasi-RPer like me, this is an important thing for a Blood Elf character to do, and it carries a certain sense of catharsis. Salama ashal’anore.

At last, my warlock has reached 85. Leveling is always fun for me, but I enjoyed leveling her more than most. It’s an engaging class, avoiding pets made things much more perilous and exciting, and her personality really came to life for me.

I’ve come to see her as a kind of demon hunter — not in the Illidan sense, but simply in the sense that she hunts demons and other monsters. Her dark powers are the result of a “fight fire with fire” philosophy.

I now move ahead to the gear grind, Dragon Soul, and eventually Pandaria.

But first, Diablo.

Drunk tanking:

I’ve probably mentioned this before, but I’m not big on tanking. I do it occasionally on my paladin, mostly for Call to Arms satchels and the amusement that comes from my Captain America shield, and I’ve dabbled in blood tanking on my rarely played death knight, but it’s always been my least favourite role.

So when it comes to monks and the Mists of Pandaria beta, brewmaster spec wasn’t really on my radar. I was far more interested in the DPS and healer specs, as those are roles I know I enjoy.

But still, what’s the point of playing a beta if you’re not going to experiment with crap you’d never normally do? So I figured I might as well give drunk tanking a try.

I have since tanked instances at both low and high levels, and I have to say that it is stupidly, ridiculously fun.

Yeah, I can’t believe I said that. I enjoyed tanking. Not only that, it completely blows the other two specs out of the water in the fun department — at least for me.

You see, tanking is all about control, but I never feel like I have control when I’m tanking on my paladin or DK.Both classes are highly limited by cooldowns or resources, and I feel my abilities are never there when I need them. They also have fairly poor mobility, so I always end up running back to the healer (in slow motion, seemingly) after a bad pull, struggling to reach an enemy to hit with hammer of the righteous because avenger’s shield is on CD again.

I’m sure a more skilled player than I knows how to avoid these issues, but I feel very helpless when I’m tanking.

Unless I’m a brewmaster. Brewmasters aren’t often limited by CDs, and although they’re a little chi-starved right now, you can still use your energy abilities, so I find resources are not as big an issue as they are for, say, death knights.

Roll makes for incredible mobility, so I’m always where I need to be, and if by some miracle I’m not, my main area of effect threat builder, dizzying haze, is ranged and almost infinitely spammable, so I can always regain control no matter how crazy things get — and trust me, they did get crazy. That room before Ozruk in the Stonecore… *Shudder.*

And then there’s clash — an ability that combines a warrior’s charge, and DK’s death grip, and a Tauren’s war stomp stun. Oh, clash, how I love thee. I foresee many a “Come at me, bro!” macro.

I don’t feel helpless when I tank as a brewmaster. I feel in control. I feel like the kung fu master I am. I feel like a badass.

Plus, you can’t deny the aesthetic appeal of killing people by smashing them in the face with kegs of booze.

Of course, beta is beta:

That’s not to say brewmaster tanking is perfect right now. It’s beta; nothing’s finished.

(This character is actually a level twenty male Undead monk. Seriously. Beta’s fun, eh?)

Mainly, survivability is a huge issue right now. Brewmasters are all active mitigation and no passive mitigation. Basically, if you don’t have shuffle up (an ability that costs half your chi and only lasts five seconds), you end up as a smear on the boss’s boot.

I’m sure my healers hated me.

Even with all that stress, though, I’ve never had so much fun as a tank. Shockingly, brewmaster may end up as my monk’s main spec when Mists of Pandaria goes live.

In other news:

I haven’t done that much else in the beta as of late. When you’re avoiding the new continent, there’s not a whole lot to do, and I’m struggling to get my live warlock to 85 before Diablo 3 distracts me.

However, demonology warlocks got an overhaul recently, so I had to try that. I was greatly relieved to find that the spec has been largely fixed. There’s more than one button worth pushing in metamorphasis now, we’re back to multiple DoTs, and it feels like playing a warlock again.

What was once a trainwreck is now probably the most enjoyable warlock spec in the beta right now. The issues that remain are largely just a matter of tuning: demonic fury fades too fast, soulfire costs too much mana, chaos wave costs way too much fury, etc.

It’s also probably the most visually spectacular spec in… ever. Between dropping enormous black meteors on people, unleashing tempests of hellfire, the ridiculously badass new soulfire, the army of imps following you around, Illidan form, the shadowbolt glyph, and the new demon models, every aspect of the spec is a feast for the eyes. Not to mention dark apotheosis…