53, Searing Gorge and Alterac Valley

I should have played more yesterday than I did however I’ve been caught up in the Olympics and stuff. I also should have leveled more than I did, but I’ve been caught up in the Alterac Valley Olympics as well. I’m close to hitting Exalted with Exodar and Darnassus with all the games I’ve played.

I did hit Exalted with Ironforge since you get much more reputation from Alterac Valley turnins with them than any other group. I went a bought a Ram too. I programmed this macro in to randomize my mounts:

#showtooltip
/castrandom [nomounted] Gray Elekk, Gray Ram
/dismount [mounted]

I did manage to get to some leveling in Searing Gorge. I cleared out the majority of the quests there in one circle, killing Golems, Dark Iron Dwarves and Lava Spiders. I also got to do the Incendosaur quest which yields a lot of nice Thick Leather to sell (plus they are easy to kill). I’m also half way to 54 after all the quest turnins.

I also hit Revered with Stormpike Guard as well and got the fourth Alterac Valley trinket. It’s a decent item to help regain health while questing. The Frost resistance is almost worthless however, unless I’m fighting Frost Mages. While getting the trinket I got to experience some ganking as I got camped by a 70 Horde Druid who killed me five times before I could finally turn in the quest, get the new trinket and hearth out of there. I think he was mad because I tried to kill him when he was killing the Stormpike Guard in front of the Alterac Valley cave.

All in all, I’m very impressed with the 50-60 Alterac Valley bracket. Due to the excruciatingly long wait times (sometimes 30 minutes) I only played about 25 matches, but won 24 of the 25, giving me 73 Alterac Valley marks, well above the 50 that I needed for the Season 2 Arena gear. I also picked up my Insignia of the Alliance. It was 2800 honor that I would have rather saved, but it’s too useful of a trinket to pass up.

I figure I’ll work on Alterac Valley a little bit more to try and get Exodar and Darnassus to Exalted (I can get a kitty mount to go with my Elekk and Ram) and then go back to leveling to 54 and beyond. My goal is to hit level 60 before I go on vacation next week. We’ll see.