Alternative leveling - part the third of 3

Part 1 covered pet battles, archeology, and PvP while part 2 covered dungeons, material collection, and profession quests.  So far, I'd say dungeons seem the most feasible with mat grinding second.

Perhaps the final day can bring more?

Holiday Events Only

I would probably include the Darkmoon Faire.

Good - Some holiday events can really give a lot of XP so some would have a lot of leveling.

Bad - While some holidays give lots of XP, others give nothing or almost nothing, so there could be long droughts between leveling. When holidays with lots of XP are up, I'd have to truly dedicate time and energy to playing this character - which real life often limits anyways.

Grinding Only
Just killing mobs.  The very essence of grinding.  Obviously I 'd have to do some quests to open some areas, but beyond that, just mobs.

Good - Getting into a good grind groove can be fun and go quickly if you have a good area or good character for it. Good grief, could I have put "good" into that sentence more? Might get some of those rare world drops if I'm grinding out 99 levels of just fighting.

Bad - Grind. GRIIINNNDDD. No real reputation accomplished. I already have to grind out for collection quests or kill count quests so it's not like this would be new ground to cover.

Combination

Rather than just doing only one thing, perhaps limit it to some small number of the above.  For example, Pet Battles, Archeology, and Mat collection only.  So I'm out in the world but not there fighting mobs, but experiencing all of the rest of it.

Good - More sane leveling. Less grinding. More options.

Bad - Seems to steer away from the challenge aspect of things a little bit.

Quests Only

I can only do quests to level.  I included this one just to counter the grinding only - just looking to the other extreme. But, to some extent, isn't that just playing the game?  What would be excluded?  If allowed at all, no dungeon more than once.  Do the quests for that dungeon and then no more.  No grinding for mats or rep or tokens or whatever.  This one feels out of place, so I think I'll skip the good and bad.  I won't cut it out entirely, since I mentioned it before, but I don't quite see what it would be to do quests only.

___


So what was the point of all of this?  What do I get out of this?  Well, for me, I think this misses what Kamalia did with the Underpowered Death Knight.  It was interesting for me to think about but I don't think it provided me with spirit of the challenge I was looking for.

In re-reading the limitations that the Underpowered Death Knight was based on, I think I'm going to craft something more like that.  It keeps more in the spirit of what I enjoy about these games, which is coming up with characters and their stories.  Even if only in my head.

I think I'll take a few days or a weeks and ruminate some more.  Here are my seed ideas that I might combine or refine as I think about this.  I'm not sure if I like all of these but they are a starting place:

The survivalist - avoids cities (and even towns) at all costs

Racial purity - only take quests/interact with characters of the same race (that just screams elf or blood elf)

Vow of poverty - character will keep some minimal amount of coin.  Any thing else will be "donated".  Options to donate - Just giving to random characters; buying stuff off auction house, reposting for very low;  Give to guild. This might be good fit for a priest or a monk.

Backpack only - no additional bags or perhaps allow one 1-slot penny pouch and one of the 6-slot pouches.  Basically, something that a person could logically carry, as opposed to the 1 backpack and multiple giant bags we have now.

Greedy - The character will be given a gold goal for each level and they cannot level up until that gold goal is reached.  XP will be locked until then.  The money to lock XP would be given for the first level but then it would need to come from the character directly.  Given how long it takes me to make money, this would be a long challenge.  They've upped quest rewards so I'd have to look, but I'd say, you have to earn your current level x 100 gold to level.  So to get past level 1, 100 gold.  To get to level 2 you'd have to earn an additional 200 gold.  To get to level 3 it would be an additional 300 gold.  VERY slow start and not easy in the vanilla range, but it would get considerably easier as time went on.  And if successful, over a half million gold upon 100.

No repairs

Only crafted items - the challenge here would be that by the time you collect enough mats for some gear, it wouldn't have much, if any, use.

Snob - Epic items only.  If there isn't an epic item that fits that slot, it is empty or you wear the old stuff until you get one for that.  Given my bad drop rates, I'd be in empty slots or 20 level old purples.  Could consider lowering it to Rare if impractical.  At times would be very easy (cruising on purple) but challenging between drops.  No heirlooms allowed.

Only common or poor quality items.

The cloth tank - protection warrior or paladin or a blood death knight that can only wear cloth gear

The thinking warrior - warrior that can only equip weapons and armor with intellect or spirit.  Would need to decide if agility and stamina can be overlooked a high levels since I'm not sure pure single stat gear exists anymore