Ding 50!

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With the group so close to 49 I decided that it was time to leap that hurdle and get 50 as well. Earlier in the week I soloed the key to Dire Maul so that I could enter the zone through the side entrance that is very close to Camp Mojache in Feralas. I did a run through Dire Maul East, and it went well (no deaths!). One very funny thing occurred when I engaged Zevrim Thornhoof. One of the things he does when you battle him is to "sacrifice" a random member of your party. The person chosen is teleported onto a small altar in his area, and is rendered immobile while a DoT drains his/her health. In order to deal with this I used a tried-and-true tactic-- I kept the group out of combat range so that he treated me as the only target. This worked, with a twist... when the time came to select a target for his sacrifice, he chose my Searing Totem! The totem was actually teleported onto the altar and destroyed by the first tick of the DoT. The next time I kill him I'll remember to FRAPS it, it was a really funny moment.

The run through Dire Maul got them to 49 and several blocks towards 50. So I went back to Scholomance, where I still intend to do a good amount of experience grinding. There I got them enough experience to ding 50, and then decided to call it a day. I got them their new spells and abilities and left them in Undercity, where they can soak up more rested experience.

I re-did their talents as well, trying to keep in mind their roles in a multi-boxed group. For the time being, I have the paladin and priest spec'ed Holy, allowing them to provide excellent heals as needed. The mage and warlock are spec'ed mostly for damage and group support, or at least what I consider to be those roles. Because I am just leveling them and not actually playing them, there is still very little that I understand about how their classes work. But I've got a crash course coming once they are level 60.

In the meantime, I've learned that I can't dawdle when I am running Scholomance. On the one hand, I have to be careful when I am clearing rooms with large concentrations of mobs, as that can lead to one or more deaths. But I can't go through at my normal pace, which is very lazy and leisurely, as some areas respawn very quickly (Jandice's room, for one). Well, maybe they don't spawn all that quickly, but when I last ran it I was going very slowly and the room respawned shortly after the group hit 50, and I decided that it wasn't worth it to go through another tedious clearing. Ah well, I will clear the place a good half dozen times (at the least!) before I'm done with it...