Congratulations to Ferresfrost for reaching max level, making her the 40th Dragonflight Iron Man Challenge champion. This is Ferre’s nineteenth Dragonflight Challenge Champion. She also has two other Iron Man challengers, five Working Man challengers, eight Pacifist challengers and three Green Man challenger – all max level Dragonflight Champions. Ferresfrost’s journey was 206 days, 37 min, 18 sec with a /played of 3 days, 12 hours and 9 minutes. 
Why did you choose this challenge to play? Ferre said, “Ferresfrost participated in the ‘Classic Iron’ contest, held in August 2023. Iron Man was the contest challenge. Humans were one of the available ‘classic’ races permitted.”
What class/spec did Ferre choose to go with, and were there any specific reasons for that choice? “Ferresfrost is a Frost Mage – Mage being one of the allowable classes for the contest. Frost has always been my favorite Mage Spec, (despite a brief foray into Arcane many expansions ago on a raiding toon). Frost Mages have access to a great collection of utility spells that offer damage protection and mobility. These are really important since a Mage’s cloth armor doesn’t afford much damage protection and they have no healing spells.”
What path did you take to level, and were there specific reasons for those choices? Ferre said, “Ferresfrost reached Lvl 40 during the contest, finishing in 4th place overall. Since she was trying to level reasonably fast in the beginning, she followed my time-tested leveling path, with the exception of starting in Elwynn Forest, (being Human rather than a Night Elf). So she quested in Elwynn, a tiny bit of Redridge, and Loch Modan, before moving to Kalimdor until getting flight, (Feralas, Felwood mostly).
Then it was off to Northrend, (some questing in Borean Tundra, Howling Fjord and the Argent Tournament), and then Pandaria. Those two expansions, with their dailies and treasure hunting, got her to 60. Shadowlands, (Threads of Fate), offered non-violent WQs, (preferring those that gave bonus experience). And she took full advantage of holiday quests and DMF turn-ins.
Did you have any close calls while leveling this character? “Ferresfrost was able to continue doing combat quests until she was in her late 50’s levels. The wake-up call came with a particularly annoying vermin on her farm in Pandaria. Whereas she’d been able to kill them up to that point, suddenly she was scrambling for all of her cooldowns. Time to find another line of work! Or at least some less violent quests!”
Do you have any advice you would give to someone else thinking of trying out the Iron Man challenge? Ferre said, “Always keep in mind that you are fragile compared to a regular toon – that grey/white gear doesn’t offer much protection. And pure caster classes (like Mages), NEVER get any weapon better than their Lvl 1 starting weapons, since they rely on having Intellect as a primary stat, and Irons never get more of that than they’re born with! So fights can start to take a long time due to low DPS, making it important to be able to pull single mobs without adds and, often, to be prepared to kite them around. (Mages are good at that, fortunately). And be mindful of using any AOE that will aggro neutral mobs or critters. You don’t need that! Check out potential talent points carefully before picking them – many of them add AOE or multi-mob effects to otherwise useful spells. Have fun!”
Are you working on any other challengers, or do you plan on taking a break for a while? “Ongoing Iron Mans, Working Mans, Green Man and Pacifists challengers,” Ferre states.
Congratulations once again to Ferre on Ferresfrost becoming our 40th Dragonflight Iron Man Challenge Champion, and best of luck with your future challenge adventures.