So, what've you been up to?

Land in Howling Fjord.

Priority # one. Figure out a way to get to Dalaran. Ding.

Priority # two. Find a level 71 mage who's willing to experiment a little to help get you up there. Ding.

Priority # three. Blow all the gold. Ding.

So, what've you been up to since then?

Utgarde Keep. Verah Nice! Great starter instance, love the Viking feel to the place. Running with T4/T5 geared level 70's (and one 71), it was still Constant Consecration, although not quite the blow-away that heroics had become.

For about 15 minutes, the tank DC'd. Bubbles and our Warlock's Felguard proceeded to tank trash, since we've both got the T5 2-piece bonus. Not too much fuss 4-man-plus-two-uber-pet'ing through the place.

Two thumbs up for Utgarde.

The Nexus. Another big winnah! A step up in challenge level, taking a little more coordination and focus (and probably gear, but for us it was the same 5 folks). Still Constant Consecration, so we haven't truly reached the point where we must return to Old School 5-man tactics, but we had a Mage, Hunter, and Warlock, so if Crowd Control was needed, we were ready.

The real win in my mind for Nexus was the boss fights. None were too too hard, but each has a little twist. Personal favorite, the last dragon guy, keep moving or you get Deep Freeze and more or less die. So throw out your shot macro and figure out how to keep pouring out the damage on the move.

Two thumbs up for Nexus.

Questing in Howling Fjord. So far nothing feels grindy. Granted, nothing feels "break-through original concept" either, but I'm fine with that for now. Absolutely love the one in the Utgarde Catacombs where you get some Holy Bubble around you and you run through the sewers vaporizing all the nasty uglies down there. And, Zedd's Almost Dead, just because!

Returning to my roots. Shortly after blowing the wad on the Mini-Van, I came across some Northrend herb, moused over it, saw the red color of the text indicating I couldn't pick it, and died a little inside. So I returned to my roots and have been leveling Herbalism and Mining. Its good to be back, although my timing to choose to flip out and drop Maxed out Master level professions is perhaps silly, as I've been running around Dun Morogh, Barrens, Stonetalon Mountains, and Arathi at 70 while all the cool kids were dinging 71, 71, and 73 in Northrend.

To all the Herbs and Minerals....Daddy's Back!!!!