Barely more than 24 hours after the release of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, the game has its first level 80 character.
The second expansion to World of Warcraft increased the character level cap from 70 to 80, enough of a leap to keep normal players, and even normal hardcore players, occupied for awhile. But a warlock by the name of Nymh who plays on the French PvE server of Drek’thar is clearly not normal: He hit the level 80 ceiling just 27 hours after the expansion went live on European game servers.
Nymh describes himself as 21 and employed in an interview on MMO Champion, and says he took a few days of vacation so he could spend some quality time with the expansion. Prior to that, he had experimented with different leveling strategies during the Wrath of the Lich King beta, and had come up with a plan he believed would powerlevel him to the top in as short a time as possible. “The biggest problem was to find a spot with enough monsters to grind without too much downtime,” he said. “I spent some time on beta servers and eventually found the crypt in Drakil’ji Ruins (Grizzly Hills), I think that’s one of the only place in Wrath of the Lich King where monsters repop in about 30 seconds, mobs here are also neutral and it makes grinding a little safer.”
Nymh said several players “helped a lot” with his achievement, including a healer named Pavelomm who stuck by him and kept him alive during his quest for level 80, as well as the characters Ardanell, Bro and Zhazha, who traveled to Grizzly Hills to teleport him back to Ironforge so he could train his new spells without losing much gametime.
Congratulations to Nymh on the accomplishment, but I have to admit the whole thing leaves me a little bewildered. Is it possible to really enjoy and appreciate the game when you blow through it at warp nine? To each his own, I suppose.
Published: Nov 14, 2008 06:05 pm