I wish you all a Merry Christmas (or whatever it is you celebrate or don’t). Please be safe and enjoy the season. We will catch you all in the new year with a new episode of the podcast on January 9. Until then, enjoy Winter Veil and this Iron Spotlight with Deidreven!

1/ Tell us a little about yourself – the player behind the characters!
I am a teacher IRL. A few of my students over the years have played WoW, so it’s been a fun way to connect with some of them. I have a wife and two daughters. One just became a teenager so I just bought my first shotgun 🙂 I’m 45 years old. The reason that I mention my age is that I’ve found very few people under the age of 40 seem to stick with the Ironman challenge. Something about being old I guess gives us the patience we need for this. Plus I think Ster’s jokes drive away the younger ones. (Actually they drive away pretty much people of all ages).

2/ How long have you been playing WoW?
I have been playing WoW since WotLK came out. I’m thinking that makes about 7 years. A friend of mine introduced me to Diablo a long time ago, and that eventually led me to trying WoW. Spent quite a bit of time raiding in the past, but now I’m pretty much just doing Iron stuff.

3/ How long have you been participating in the WoW Challenges and how did you get started?
Before the Ironman challenge started, back in WotLK, a warrior made it to 80 without dying. He didn’t have any rules on himself like the Ironman, but it was still a big deal. He was written up about on the forums and many of the blog sites. For those of you who leveled back then, you’d agree that it was much more difficult to level then, then it is now. So it was still very impressive that he did it. (Side note on this warrior that Irons can feel for. He made it to 80 and never died. He had engineering as a profession and used some kind of speed boost from engineering in Dalaran. Well it defected, shot him up in the air, parachute didn’t work, landed and died!! After he was already at 80 without dying!) Anyways, seeing this guy accomplish this gave me the idea to try leveling without dying. My main toon is a Pally named Neverdied. He tried, and failed, that challenge. So when I heard about this challenge when it first started, I was hooked right away. There was initially no board or anything to track people. When the first board got made, a guy named Kripparian was the first one to 80. He was a pretty well known hunters at the time, so it got some publicity for the Iron Challenge. I think I was like the 10th person to finish the Ironman.

4/ What type of WoW Challenge toon do you like to play? (ie – Iron Man, Blood Thirsty or Pacifist)
I’ve tried all 3 of the challenges. Been lucky enough to complete the Ironman challenge a few different times since the beginning. I currently have a Pacifist at around 25 and my Blood Thirsty toon is around 75. Iron is definitely more fun for me. The other two challenges, especially Blood Thirsty, can get quite boring.

5/ What class/race have you tried and what do you find has been the best for you so far?
I’ve tried every class but DK, and like most irons I usually stick with Nightelf for Shadowmeld. Hunter of course has been the easiest, but throughout the last couple expansions, different classes have been viable choices. I’ve enjoyed most all the classes. In MoP priest was very easy and fun to level.

6/ What are you planning to level next?
I’ve always enjoyed the leveling process, even on regular toons. I have lots of higher level alts, and that has carried over to this challenge for me. Currently I’m working on my lvl 75 Blood Thirsty hunter. For the regular ironman challenge I’m working on a lvl 79 rogue, lvl 69 hunter, and a lvl 65 druid. I play all of them on and off. The challenge can get boring at times for me, so having the variety is great. Plus I always have rested xp, and if one dies, it isn’t quite so heartbreaking because I have other high level toons to play. I have other classes between levels 30 and 50, but I rarely play those.

7/ What is your fondest WoW Challenge toon memory?
Probably being the first monk to finish the challenge. I told my daughters after I did it that I was the only person in the world to do this challenge on a monk. Anytime in life you can say you are the only person in the world to do something, it is kind of cool. My daughters thought I was the coolest dad ever 🙂
Also, the creation of the iron guild has been great. I love the friendships formed and comradery built from being in the guild and going through this challenge with other people cheering you on.

8/ What was one of the worst or embarrassing ways you’ve died as a WoW Challenge toon?
Most frustrating was my lvl 87 priest during MoP died to a D/C when he was 2 ½ levels away from finishing. That is especially frustrating because priests were actually very easy to level for Iron during MoP. I have since went back to them and they are much harder now.

Most embarrassing was when I had been leveling some horde alts on regular toons. I came back to Iron on my alliance toon and immediately flew into Thrallmar (the horde city) on Hellfire Peninsula and couldn’t figure out why they were attacking me  That has to be up in the record books of dumbest ways to die.

9/ What zone do you think is the most unfriendly to a WoW Challenge toon?
Most of the old irons would agree that Redridge is tough. I encourage all new irons to go to Loch Moden instead and skip “Deadridge” altogether. Hellfire Pennisula is also tough because it’s the first place in Outlands. Outlands is tough overall for irons and this is the first taste people get of it.

10/ What advice would you give to anyone wanting to try a WoW Challenge toon for the first time?
If you want to just come, have fun, and enjoy the journey, then pick any class/race you want and have fun with it. Join the guild on Wyrmrest Accord and have fun chatting and sharing the experiences of your journey.

If you really want to actually finish the challenge, then like I said earlier, I would definitely encourage any new iron to be a Nightelf Hunter. They are so much easier to play than any other class.

Also, be patient, throw your pride out the window and say no to quests you are unsure about. The second you feel things are getting bad at all run, don’t stand and try to fight it out. And ask questions. One of the great things about this challenge is the people and how willing everyone is to help one another out. Ask away and someone will be able to help you.

11/ Can you give us three helpful tips or tricks for doing a challenge?
When you get to the higher levels, ask a veteran iron about repeatable daily quests that are available. These are great sources of XP when you get to the tougher higher levels.

If you are a hunter, use this macro: /tar “petname” /cast misdirection
You will not lose agro with that, which is especially nice on some of the minibosses you will face.

Always left click NPCs. Many irons have died from the accidental right click on a NPC that will fight back.