Congratulations to Ironbonthree for reaching max level and making them the 37th Dragonflight Iron Man Challenge champion. This is Ebon’s first max level Dragonflight Challenge Champion. Ironling’s journey was 99 days, 7 hrs, 55 min, 33 sec, with a /played of 25 hours, 17 min.
What class/spec did Ebon choose to go with for Ironbonthree, and were there any specific reasons for that choice? Ebon said, “I have always wanted to be able to say I’ve completed this challenge, though only had proper attempts at it during Dragonflight. 
This was my first max level, though I have attempted this challenge during Dragonflight on a Mage and Hunter, only to miss a kick or have something hit much harder than I expected and die around the Level 63 mark. This kind of killed my motivation to go again, but recently I completed ‘Tower Overwhelming’ – complete every single Mage tower challenge for every spec – and it renewed my motivation to try again. I went with a Human Paladin. Human was mostly just a random pick, but I felt I’d have a solid shot as a Paladin due to all of the emergency toolkit they had. I was kind of indecisive about Ret/Prot. Ret was faster but more dangerous, whereas Prot was slower but safer. In the end I was Ret for most of 1 – 60 but swapped to Prot for 60 – 70 due to things getting much spicier.”
What path did you take to level, and were there specific reasons for those choices? Ebon said, “Mostly I just winged levelling, as crazy as it sounds. I just followed the classic zones – Elwynn into Westfall, Redridge into Duskwood, then went up to the Western and Eastern Plaguelands, I did venture into the Shadowlands and WoD intro at this point for a bit of a change but since I’ve done those many times already, I only ended up doing the intro before going back to the classic zones due to boredom. I ended up finishing up 1 – 60 at Swamp of Sorrows and Blasted Lands. Upon reaching 60, I grabbed the best grey items from the AH and headed over to the Dragon Isles, and pretty much just did the main storyline and a couple side quests to try and maintain 2.5 levels for each zone. The 1 – 60 was fairly chill outside of when I got greedy with large multi-pulls, butPpaladin has a great toolkit for when you are in trouble. Dragon Isles things definitely turned up a notch. Things hit much harder and had a fair chunk more health and I was constantly sweating as Ret, prompting the change to Prot. After that things were fairly chill. Paladin just seemed like such a breeze compared to my Hunter and Mage attempts.”
Did you have any close calls while leveling this character? Ebon states, “I did have 2 major close calls. The first was in Swamp of Sorrows. A ship that you need to go to for a quest had pretty wild hyper spawns for mobs that were not even part of the quest. In the base of the ship, somehow Divine Storm/Consecrate pulled through the ceiling and I had like 10 mobs barreling down on me, thankfully bubble and double divine steed saved my bacon. The second was in the section of Thaldrazsus questline where you go back in time to the Black Empire section. A single elite mob hit me for a good 40% of my max health even as Prot spec, which was far more than I expected, and I panicked a little bit, and I had to pull out some real kiting shenanigans while throwing hammers at it. This was especially nail biting as I was halfway into 69 at the time. Outside of that, anytime things went sideways, or I accidentally pulled one too many mobs, Bubble and Lay On Hands were there.”
Do you have any advice you would give to someone else thinking of trying out the Iron Man challenge? “Advice for those attempting the challenge is just have fun with it. Trying to be serious is what killed my motivation originally. This run was honestly just something I was working on non-raid nights for fun. Same with my “Tower Overwhelming” progress. Don’t take it seriously and as they say in Classic HC ‘Go Again!,'” Ebon states.
Are you working on any other challengers, or do you plan on taking a break for a while? Ebon mentioned, “Undecided if I will try another challenge, or another Iron Man on a different class in Dragonflight as of yet. But I will definitely go for War Within Iron Man when it rolls around!”
Congratulations once again to Ebon on Ironbonthree becoming our 37th Dragonflight Iron Man champion, and best of luck with your future challenge adventures.