Ferrekessa – a Night Elf Rogue (subtlety) Pacifist, just hit max level after playing 22 days. Born in April of 2018, took 315 days to reach Max Level. Her path to 120 had four main sections as seen below:

Level 10 – 62

Herbalism and Mining, with some exploration: starter zones, Darkshore, Zoram Strand in Ashenvale (a long time there), and Dreamer’s Rest in Feralas (for a long time). Holidays. Very minimal archaeology (safe sites only).

Level 62 – 90

Added archaeology, picking lower density sites at first. Herb/mining/chest hunting, mostly in Northrend and Pandaria.

Level 90 – 110

Archaeology (mainly on Azeroth), mining/herbing in Pandaria and Cataclysm zones (specifically Uldum). Much fishing, especially in Tol Barad. Stockpiled materials for leveling alchemy.

Level 110 – 120

Archaeology. Dropped mining, picked up alchemy (Cataclysm & Pandaria levels plus old world alchemy up to 75 to get the Darkmoon Faire quest).

Darkmoon Faire

On this pacifist, she followed Fiveiron’s “DMF Super-Paci” profession swapping during the last Darkmoon Faire before dropping mining. During that Darkmoon Faire, she did the monthly quests for Herbalism, Mining, Tailoring, Blacksmithing, Engineering, Inscription, Alchemy, and Archaeology.

A Stroke of Luck

She had a bit of unbelievably good luck when one of the “Canopic Jars”, from Uldum archeology, contained the very rare recipe for the Vial of the Sands. She had kept them in the bank, unopened until she had leveled Cataclysm alchemy. She had farmed (or purchased) the fairly extensive list of mats for that recipe and did make the Sandstone Drake mount!

Worries, Concerns and a Near Death

Major worries were Blizzard-related issues like disconnects and avoiding a short list of dig sites that she considered too risky. She had one very close call at a site in Eastern Plaguelands, Zul’Mashar specifically, the first time she went there: She didn’t realize that the burial mounds on the ground would spawn a LOT of trolls if you step on them. She had thought it was over, surrounded by all those trolls, but thankfully vanish let her get away to a safe spot.

Ferre didn’t do archaeology in any zones beyond Cataclysm as she was worried about a) possible spawns and b) the possibility of shared proximity kills. She did tend to do most of her activity out in the world during night time hours.

Ferre compiled a google doc spreadsheet of dig site information. Please note that it is NOT complete – started it when she was in her mid-90s, and will be adding to it. Also, note that is just Ferre’s impressions of difficulty, mainly from the viewpoint of a stealth class.