Congratulations to Topa for reaching max level and making them the 54th The War Within Iron Man Challenge champion. Topa’s total journey was 757 days, 2 hrs, 2 min, 17 sec. 
Is this your first max level challenger? If you’ve had others could you please refresh our memory with who they were and what challenge they were in? Topa said, “This is my first max level challenger. This character was created on the 6th of January 2024, and I dinged 80 with a total playtime of 1 day, 11 hours, 25 minutes and 45 seconds. This character was stuck at Level 71 for well over a year (I dinged 70 on 18/12/24) and I picked it up and finished after the stat squish of the Midnight Prepatch.”
Why did you choose this challenge to play? “Because I wanted something challenging to do while working on Loremaster for old expansions. With modern gear, and all the stat squishes/scaling done to leveling, world exploration and questing in older expansions has become pretty trivial in Retail WoW because you burn though zones super fast. This way I got to enjoy the old content a bit more ‘the way it was meant to be played back in the day’. To make sure I didn’t mess up the gear rule I also decided to never take off my starter gear, I completed the entire challenge in the robes I spawned in.”
What race/class/spec did you choose to go with and were there any specific reasons for that choice? “Human Warlock. My very first character also was a Human Warlock and I’ve been maining that one for over 15 years now,” mentioned Topa.
What path did you take to level and were there specific reasons for those choices? “Like I said above, I created this character for the Loremaster achievements mainly the ones in Kalimdor. I don’t remember the exact route because it’s been a while but I completed tried to complete the zones from the top down. I think I did Darkshore, Ashenvale, Stonetalon Mountains, Southern Barrens, Dustwallow Marsh, Feralas and Thousand Needles. After that I dinged Level 70 and had to move to Khaz Algar. With all the experience buffs this was also pretty doable as long as you avoid caves.”
Did you have any close calls while leveling this character? Topa said, “A few, there are a bunch of pirate ships along the coast of Kalimdor that tend to pull mobs though the floor. Setting up a Demonic Circle before entering any tight space or cave has saved me more than once.”
Do you have any advice you would give to someone else thinking of trying out Iron Man challenge? “During pre-patch it’s really easy to do the last ten levels. Try to avoid tight spaces or always think on an escape plan before entering them as things can rapidly go south when you accidentally start to butt-pull mobs.”
Are you working on any other challengers or do you plan on taking a break for a while? “I am currently not working on any other challengers. I’m now first going to focus on Midnight on my main and once the wait for Patch 12.1 starts I’ll maybe start leveling this toon to 90. ” said Topa.
Congratulations once again to Topa on becoming our 54th The War Within Iron Man champion, and best of luck with your future challenge adventures.