Congratulations to Tazura for reaching max level, making him the 41st Dragonflight Iron Man Challenge champion. This is Tazura’s first Dragonflight Challenge Champion. Tazura’s journey was 11 days, 16 min, 19 sec with a /played of 1 days, 16 hours and 56 minutes.
Why did you choose this challenge to play? Tazura said, “I’ve always found the Iron Man Challenge to be immensely interesting. I remember growing up and watching Slightly Impressive trying the challenge, and dying in crazy ways on his YouTube channel. Eventually, during Shadowlands, me and my friend Tyler, decided to try out some of the challenges on the website… and it was not pretty. Flash forward past a series of surprisingly hard hitting mobs in WoD, disqualification by equipping a cool blue staff, and many many deaths, I finally managed to get my Iron Paladin to 55… only to die to a dc. So many close calls and stories cut short by my terrible internet (haha). I was so bummed to have lost after getting so close that I decided to take a long break from WoW after that. Three years later, I had just graduated college and saw my friends were playing WoW again, so after getting a resub to play with them, I decided to give the Iron Man Challenge one more shot on Tazura.” 
What class/spec did Tazura choose to go with, and were there any specific reasons for that choice? “I made a Blood Elf Warrior and leveled in Arms spec for speed originally, until Level 61, where the Dragon Isles mobs were hitting me for crazy amounts of health. I remember reading a blogpost on another Warrior where they said Prot was really safe, because of the sheer amount of defensive cooldowns, and I can confirm that is absolutely true, but say goodbye to your damage lol.”
What path did you take to level, and were there specific reasons for those choices? Tazura said, “Tazura started out by hitting 10 in Eversong Woods before heading to Chromie. I then did the Warlords intro scenario, some Frostfire and garrison quests, and a few chapters in Gorgrond to get flying. Once I could fly, I followed that by completing Thousand Needles, Hillsbrad Foothills, and Zuldazar while also doing some miscellaneous questlines in Badlands and Azshara + Tillers Quests. Upon hitting 60, I didn’t want to go to the Dragon Isles yet and continued with Chromie time until 61 where it kicked me out. I then made the switch to Prot, (mentioned above), and actually completed the entire Waking Shores zone before relying on Dragon Riding, side questlines, and bonus objectives to get to 70!”
Did you have any close calls while leveling this character? “Oh yeah. There were a few… *cough* stealthed Syndicate in Arathi *cough*. But my biggest one was a dc in the Azure Span. At Lvl 68, I was doing a quest in the Azure Span to kill some Gnolls and my Wi-Fi completely cut out right as I was throwing my weapon at one to aggro it. It’s not a secret to anyone how terrifying those Gnolls are so I knew they’d shred through me as I was disconnected and unable to defend myself. It took me a solid five minutes to get back on and I fully expected to come back to a dead toon, just like my Lvl 55 three years ago. When I logged in, however, Tazura was okay, and standing back near the quest giver. The attack I was so stressed over had not gone through. Had I disconnected even 30 seconds later than I did, I would have died there to that dc with only two levels to go.”
Do you have any advice you would give to someone else thinking of trying out the Iron Man challenge? Tazura said, “While the difficulty of this challenge can’t be denied, zone scaling allows you the opportunity to level in the zones you know best and mix up your route on future character attempts to not get bored. That alone genuinely breathes so much life into this leveling process that I personally feel like it’s worth it to at least give this challenge a shot. Go at your own pace, take breaks when need be to avoid playing too much and disconnecting in combat, and stick to what’s familiar. You can do this.”
Are you working on any other challengers, or do you plan on taking a break for a while? “I’ve got a few other Iron Man characters that I’m leveling. Thinking about making a Priest.” Tazura states.
Congratulations once again to Tazura on becoming our 41st Dragonflight Iron Man Challenge Champion, and best of luck with your future challenge adventures.