Congratulations to Ashflys on becoming our 38th Shadowlands Iron Man Challenge champion! Ashflys’ Iron Man journey took 177 days, 22 hours with a /played time of 5 days and 38 minutes to complete. 

This is Ash’s 2nd Iron Man champion and his 3rd champion for Shadowlands.

Ash chose to play the Iron Man Challenge because he says he was always a traditional Iron Man player and the only other variant he has tried was the Pacifist Challenge.

Ash used the following leveling strategy for Ashflys: “Starter zone until level 5 then pick up the explorer docs in Loch Modan. At level 10 swim over and open the garrison up. After that just do the easy starter quests in old world zones until level 29. Turn in the docs for a level and get flight. Hit Chromie and start doing dailies in Northrend and Pandaria until 50. Chest hunting and exploring helps with those 20 levels. At 50 I did easy BfA quests, chest hunting, and exploring until 51. Then came the Maw, ugh. Once thru that, I picked a coven and started WQs in SL. You can still run thru BfA chest hunting daily until hitting 54 then the points aren’t worth the time. I tried something different this time and held onto the 4 main quests you get for the covens until I hit 59. They are good for 80% of a level and it sure helps with the last 59-60 stretch.”

“I followed about the same path the Hunter(Gotashed) took since that seemed to work. I had a druid in flight when SL came out but killed that one off at level 58, was rough. Once I find a safe route I don’t deviate.”

Did Ash have any close calls while leveling Ashflys? “This Druid had smooth sailing, I was able to skip the Maw entrance to SL but that did add some extra WQ time. The Maw was good for about a level.”

Ash has the following advice for those trying out the Iron Man Challenge: “Best advice I could give to a noob is to read the leveling guides on the forums. The old hardcore players have compiled quite a mountain of knowledge.”

What’s next for Ash? Will he be taking a break or is he off to work on the next challenger leveling attempt? “I do have a level 50 NE Rogue in progress, Ashsteals. When I hit 60 with that one (hopefully) I’ll probably wait on starting another until the expansion comes out this fall.”

Congrats again on Ashflys becoming our 38th Iron champion and good luck with your Rogue!