31

31 last night after a weekend of new things.

I now have an AH mule called Shpanda - that's an abbreviated form of Sexual Harassment Panda, for the South Park fans. I've embraced the name - if you see a near-naked dwarf running around the IF AH, it's probably me. At least, I haven't seen many other near-naked dwarves around. Guess I don't go to the right bars.

I'm still getting used to dealing with the mule, but it is very handy when, say, doing some leatherworking and needing to check if, say, Elemental Earth is available at the AH. I can quickly switch to SHP and get a price. I also gain his backpack and bank account, so I've almost doubled my storage spots which is useful for those rare patterns, gear and mats that I can't use yet but don't want to sell.

I won my first duel! I've totally sucked at PvP until now, but I pwned the guy good. Even better - he was also a rogue. Even even better, he was 2 levels above me! However, he either wasn't trying too hard or he was a bit of a gimp, because he didn't have poisons on and didn't use evasion at all. It started badly, he SS'd me before I could get into stealth, but a quick vanish and cheapshot had him on the ropes. He vanished but my DoT poison broke him out, so he missed his chance at a cheapshot - and I thumbed evasion and gouged, SS'd and eviscerated until he begged for mercy. It was gold. Favourite onlooker comment: "That was wrong". Representing the KoT, w3rd.

I finally took the big step and tried the Arathi Basin Battleground. Of course, the 39 twinks totally pwned me, but it was good fun. The XP from that and a bit of grinding raptors took me to 31. Out of 6 battles, the Alliance only won 1, which I am led to believe is fairly good going :) Why do the Alliance get crushed in the BGs? My theory is that the majority of people start with Alliance, whereas the majority of Horde players have played at least one Alliance character before. Thus they are more experienced.

My final pondering is regarding grinding; or more specifically, grinding for the purposes of levelling a skill (e.g. leatherworking). If I want to get my leatherworking from, say, 180 to 225, and the best patterns I have require heavy leather, would you say I would be better off:

a) grinding lv30-31 raptors which drop mostly medium leather (5 of which can be turned into a heavy leather), but sometimes heavy leather, until I have enough; or
b) running instances (e.g. Deadmines or Gnomeragan), selling the items I gain and using the proceeds to buy heavy leather (roughly 50s-60s at the AH per 20-stack).

I'm not high enough to solo the bosses in DM/Gnomer yet, so the greens would have to come from peons. Obviously doing SM with a buddy would be better for loot, but I'm looking for solo strategies here. Which would get me leather faster? Skin or buy?