Congratulations to Elfster for reaching max level, making her our 3rd Dragonflight Iron Man Challenge champion. She’s also the 1st Rogue to make it to max level as an Iron Man in the Dragonflight expansion! Elfster started playing this expansion when the DF expansion was released on Nov. 28th of last year, so roughly 50 days of calendar time and 2 days of /played time.

When asked to describe this Night Elf rogue, Ster said “Elfster who reached level 60 in Shadowlands became my main Iron Man challenger to level up in Dragonflight. I’d take this Outlaw spec’ed Elfster out to figure out which DI zones, quests, mobs, and the like that were doable. At the same time, I’ve been leveling a scout too.”

“Looking back on leveling Elfster, I learned some stuff about Dragonflight (DF) that will help future challengers. First, scout, Scout, SCOUT! Did I say scout? When you are exploring a new expansion, there’s only a little bit of information about safe/dangerous spots. There are DF minerals/herbs that you can pick even though you have not trained in those professions. I recommend a strong do NOT. Some are fatal, such as any mineral that is also ‘molten’. The buff from molten ticks down so fast, no heal can save you. Xaya and Ferre created excellent forum posts – one on paci safe quests, another with tips, and issues, and another about mobs/quests to avoid.”

But what about Elfster’s leveling journey? “Here’s what I did… your results may vary since a Rogue has a very distinct advantage over other classes. Like what? Well, unlike the Hunters who have a pet to tank and kill NPCs in their journey, let’s face it, a Rogue can not fight and win. So a Rogue does what a Rogue does best – explore, sneak, ninja treasure chests, tag along with other player mobs, and do world quests that are not too dangerous.”

“Hint: in the forum post that is titled “Paci-safe quests in Dragonflight” – these are generally safe for the other challenger classes like Rogue. Next tip: on a non-challenger toon, maybe your main or scout, go do all the DF Campaigns. Skip the other non-campaign quests for now, go get to 70 on your scout/main AND collect all the Dragonflight glyphs. This gets you two things: 1) all your toons, including challengers will have Dragon Riding with 6 bubbles of vigor. Makes dragon flight easier. 2) Now all zones are open to your challenger at level. Don’t try to do the above with a real challenger, many of the campaigns will kill a challenger easily.”

“Here’s another tip. Just like the past expansions Battle For Azeroth and Shadowlands, your challenger could continue to gather chests, do safe World Quests, explore, etc. before heading out to the newest expansion. The same is true for DF! I remember I didn’t go thru Shadowlands’ The Maw until I was level 52 or 53. Well, I didn’t go over to DF until I was 62. Squeeze out as much XP in the old worlds as you can before heading over. Speaking of BfA and SL… the chests that spawn daily in BfA continue to provide decent XP, though by the time you’re 67ish, the numbers drop. And – look over the zones in Shadowlands daily – some of those quests that say “Bonus Experience” – while not all are doable by a challenger, the ones you can do pay full XP – all the way up to level 70. Who knew?”

“So you can’t go wrong picking a Hunter as an Iron Man – let the pet take it in the face as you fight mobs. But Rogue is a decent non-fighting Iron Man, can’t beat Stealth, SAP, and Vanish.”

“What’s next for me? Oh, just working on the Iron Catster, currently at level 67 and a contest Pacifist.”

Good luck with your other challengers Ster and congratulations once again on Elfster becoming our 3rd Dragonflight Iron Man champion!