#1 - March 2, 2016, 12:59 p.m.
I have encountered threads here about the ironman challenge, but never about the pacifist challenge, and so I thought I'd give it a go.
I am writing this to inspire others to try it, and share tips and tricks with each other. The pacifist challenge is another level of difficulty above the well known ironman challenge.
While most of the same rules apply, there is one major difference. The challenge is to reach max level without killing a single thing. Unlike the ironman challenge, you have the added benefit that you are allowed to learn professions.
If you are interested, you can read more about the challenge here: http://wowchallenges.com/index.php?Show=PacifistRules
They also track the statistics of your character on the website, so you know when you broke one of the rules.
[Quick story about the game difficulty.
Back in the earlier days of WoW, pre Cataclysm times, I made the habbit of creating level 1 bank alts where I would mail all my loot to in order to auction or bank.
And i remember perfectly that I always made a warrior human character, that started in Northshire, and I was on my way to Stormwind.
Each time I chose to go through the forest instead of taking the long way around, the road.
The level 5 defias mobs roaming the forest were a real challenge to avoid because all they needed was two hits to kill my level 1 warrior.
I ended up corpse running about 2 times just to reach Stormwind with that character.
Now I've run that experiment once more, I made a level 1 human warrior and started my journey towards Stormwind.
One of the level 5 defias mobs, the Cutpurse, started attacking me, and I stood there to see how many hits it would take to kill me.
24, it took twenty four hits until he managed to kill me.
I think that says a lot about how the game difficulty has changed, leveling can hardly be called a challenge anymore.
It is beyond easy difficulty, it's reached a level of screensaver difficulty for lack of a better name]
At the moment when I started writing this thread, my pacifist character has reached level 13, and it has been a hell of a journey.
I don't think I've had this many episodes of panic this whole expansion, as I had when leveling this fella.
I also can't explain how gamechanging it was for me to learn [Sap] at level 12.
You may be wondering how on earth one gets to max level without killing a single thing. Well there are a lot of ways to do that:
[Quests]
Yes you can do quests, however you can't do all of them, only the ones that don't require you to kill things.
You'll find your self traveling from town to town, all over the map looking for that ellusive quest that you can do.
I'll be honest, this will hit many of you as nostalgia, it used to be a common thing back in the days for those of you that had the privillege to play WoW early on.
Traveling all over the world looking for quests, right now normal leveling just sends you into a linear path through a single zone, each quest hub you finished sends yo to the next hub and so on, gone is the need to search and explore.
[Chests]
Opening chests gives experience, lot of it! A change that has been made during Cataclysm, these chests are littered all over the place, however they have way longer respawn times, hours and hours.
But the moment you run into a chest, is a glorious moment. Unless it's in a cave surrounded by 3 mobs that even if you manage to sneak between and try to open the chest they will instantly aggro (how chests work), and you end up running for your life, and almost dying as those mobs decide to go ranged on you. Yes I've had a couple of moments like that, and they are breath taking.
A list of chests that you will find in the game (click a different map to see where it spawns there)
Silverbound Treasure Chest - http://www.wowhead.com/object=207472
Dark Iron Treasure Chest - http://www.wowhead.com/object=207496
Silken Treasure Chest - http://www.wowhead.com/object=207512
Sturdy Treasure Chest - http://www.wowhead.com/object=207484
Runestone Treasure Chest - http://www.wowhead.com/object=207533
Maplewood treasure Chest - http://www.wowhead.com/object=207520
[Exploration]
Exploring new zones will grant a decent amount experience, expecially at the start of the challenge.
So don't be afraid to turn up that game music and start runnin'
[Gathering]
Gathering will be what fills the gaps of experience, it's what you'll be doing as you walk from one place to the other.
Herbalism and Mining are the primary professions that can reward experience when used, and luckily they can be learned at level 1 now.
Once you've reached level 20 you're able to learn Archaeology, which is going to help mix things up a bit, and provide decent experience.
Gathering is part of the reason why I chose this challenge over the ironman one. While the challenge it self provides difficulty, gathering mats can be a great way to make gold. And I know that once you hit level 60 and you can fly, there will be a lot of gold makin' happening.
[How do I start?]
Depending on the race that you picked, you may or may not have the possibility to do any quests at the beginning.
Start looking for the professions trainer, once you reach him I advise starting with herbalism.
If you didn't manage to do any quest, you'll be able to get the 10 copper you need to learn herbalism by selling your starter gear.
Run around and gather some herbs, and vendor those herbs to buy back that gear you just vendored.
Note: You don't need a mining pick anymore to gather ore
Thank you for reading and good luck to you all!
I'll be coming back here to share ideas and things you will want to avoid.
EDIT:
Image for clarification: http://puu.sh/nsppB/2443be8ea1.jpg
