Ding! Another 80.

Okay, I know I said I was going to do it on the weekend but 76 to 80 is so stupid easy and quick and I had nothing to do so I went for it last night.  I did some work on it on Monday night before raid time and finished it up last night.

If leveling is Cataclysm is anything like 76-80 I expect to be 85 less then 1 day of game play time at most.  This is a feat that I never thought I would accomplish.  Rogues, in all kindness, suck ass.  They really are hard to level.  Maybe it is because I suck at being a Rogue, maybe it is because I really do not like melee to begin with, maybe it is because they are so freaking squishy for someone that is fighting a battle hand to hand.

Either way I rode recuperate to 80.  Go in hack hack stun (if I can), hack hack kill recuperate and move to the next target.  Never needed to stop and eat after battles, no worries about finishing moves unless it is going to be a long battle.  Just hack and recuperate made for a constant flow of movement.

Rogues basically went from kill one or two and eat to kill, kill, kill, kill, no stopping ever.  That is what got me back to leveling my Rogue.  I hated having to eat after every freaking fight because they get the crap beat out of them so easily.  The Rogue was my second character believe it or not and it took forever to get it to 80 (real time wise, not game time wise).  It feels like a huge accomplishment to get it done being as bad as they are to level.

A few notes on Recuperate that others that hate Rogues but want to punish themselves by trying to level them should know.

1) Use it whenever something dies with combo points on it.  If the time of the buff will be longer then the buff you are currently working on is then it will give you the max time for it.
2) It counts as a finishing move which means it procs Relentless Strikes which in turn can make it almost free and there is no reason not to take a free heal.
3) It can be used in stealth.  So if you need a break in the action you can vanish and use it before getting back into battle. Or stealth instantly after the fight and do it before moving to the next target.
4) You do not need to target the target to use it.  Two mobs?  No Problem.  Mow down one, target the other to start auto attacking it and use it to get the combo points off the dead one.
5) It has a nice range.  You do not need to be on top of the target.
Some things I read just recently but never personally realized...
6) You can get a small but free heal by using premeditation on anything and then recuperate to start the heal.  It will not start battle and it will not break stealth.
7) It stacks with Quick Recovery which ups the healing to 36%
8) Improved Recuperate brings it to 50%, 60% when paired with Quick Recovery
Honestly I never even noticed those things...

All in all, I would still have a level 60 something Rogue if it were not for this little baby that heals you.  When 4.0.1 dropped I had 2 characters sitting in 60s that I had not worked on.  My Mage and my Rogue.  The patch made Mages gods that walk on earth when it comes to damage which made leveling super fast.  The patch made Rogue less annoying because they no longer needed to stop and eat every 30 seconds.  Both those character from 60something-80 took me less then 1 day play time each to get from 60-80. 

I wonder if I can do that with my Warrior as well.  Just got to 60 with only 2 days played so far.  Imagine leveling to 80 in only 3 days while leveling engineering and jewel crafting as well to max.  That would be impressive.

Thank you 4.0.1.  For every bit of Hunter hate that patch spewed in massive amounts it seemingly gave huge love to every other class out there.  Now, can I get my Warrior, Lock and Paladin to 80 before Cataclysm comes?  Hell no.  But I will try to get my warrior there at least, if only because it is my only Engineer.