Prepared? We'd like to think so.

Everyone in my small blogosphere seems to be in a tizzy about Wrath, and honestly, I can't blame them. Sadly, I'm at work this second, and will have to work Thursday evening (just couldn't manage to wrangle getting it off, too), so my adventures into Northrend won't begin until Friday morning.

Honestly, I think this is a good thing. I can already tell there's gonna be so much server congestion, chaos, and insanity that trying to hit the ground running on day 1 will be nigh-impossible. It puts a massive kink in my plans of being the server first Grand Master Engineer, but I'll live.

But I've made preparations. Oh have I made preparations. In short:

• Made sure my UI was unified and locked in for 3.0.3/Wrath (and backed it up!)
• Cleaned out non-essential items from my bags (primarily, the meat I used to carry for my meat-eating pets - I abandoned the last one I had yesterday), and organized my bag some more
• 12 cans of Monster energy drink, since once I get Wrath, I'll have a full WEEK to play uninhibited. The less time I waste sleeping, the better. (Don't look at me like that!)
• Took a stock of what items I can purge immediately (ALL of my Motes/Primals/Outland gems) as soon as I log in
• Printed out a map of Cobalt Ore spawns in the two starting zones
• Put a full tank of gas in the Roflcopter
• Printed out a decent 375-450 Engineering guide

There's other stuff I would've liked to have done - getting Oona to 70, getting my Scales rep to Honored, getting my Scale ring, getting 2-piece T5... Meh. I'll be coming into Northrend with a set of gear that should last me to 76, so I feel that I should be fine.


Now, for all you fellow Marksmen out there, I wanna do a short overview of the things to do and not to do on your quest to 80 (IMO).

DO:

• Use a Gorilladin, for the love of god
• Use a castsequence macro for instantaneous switching between (Dragon)Hawk and Viper so that if you're not actively killing a mob, you're in Viper. Downtime = bad!
• Sacreligious, but don't spam Chimera unless it's tough single-target fights (like elites) - for most things, Volley + Gorilladin = low-downtime grinding with minimal ammo expenditure. Remember, until you get to level 75 (or 72 + 415 Engineering), you're gonna have to bounce back to Shattrath to get ammo, and it sure as hell ain't cheap!
• In that mind, get your 28 slot ammobag and quiver the SECOND you hit 75! I don't care WHAT the Leatherworkers ask you to do, DO IT.
• Bind in Dalaran as SOON as you can. Dalaran's portal selection is the same as Shattrath's AS WELL AS a portal TO Shattrath!
• The second you ding 77, drop WHATEVER THE HELL YOU ARE DOING and get your ass to Dalaran to buy Cold-Weather Flying. No questions asked, just GO.

DON'T:

• Try to burst the living crap out of everything. I'm guilty of this too - single target fights when farming, I act like I'm fighting Illidan or something. This will end up stripping aggro from your Gorilladin, making you take longer to grind, blah blah blah.
• Avoid town unless you just absolutely have to. Less time spent riding on a 100% land mount back to a town = more time grinding = faster run to 80. Especially once you get out of your starting zone - remember, if you're going back to town for arrows, you have to go to Shattrath until you're 75 (or 72/415 Engy). Long way back to Northrend from Shattrath.
• Don't delay trying to find an Engineer with Saronite Razorheads or Mammoth Cutters. You can equip them at 72, and they're stronger than Timeless ammo, compared to the vendor crap which requires 75 and is only as good as Mysterious. Get 'em ASAP!
• Don't forget that you have a guild and friends trying to do the same hard-ass 74G5 group that you're doing. Hunters are phenominal soloers, this is true. But don't let that power stop you from helping your friends! If a guildie who's a Holy Priest needs a hand, your Gorilladin is a formidable tank, even as MM (mine tanked Ring of Blood and Durn yesterday), and can easily overcome hard quests with just one "real" healer (i.e. not you).

And best of luck to everyone. See you in Naxxramas!