Level 70 is the new level 85

My paladin finally reached level 70. It wasn't with as quite a great ding as 60, which had followed the completion of a quality quest chain. But I was at least in the middle of an AoE pull in Shadow Labyrinth, so that's something.

Now I had a few tasks ahead of me. Most important was to turn off experience. I'd hate to accidentally hit level 71 from a stray mining node. Unlikely, but if I were to procrastinate and then forget... After that I figured I'd set a new hearthstone. Ammen Vale is pretty, but let's face it, the draenei starting zone isn't in a particularly convenient place. In fact, given that it is in a no-fly zone on the continent opposite Stormwind, it is possibly the least convenient place. I'd done this before, never changing my hearthstone on my rogue, all the way to 85. So this was easy. But the stranger thing, I this I don't understand, is that I also seem to have none of the quests done in the starting area. All of them are available for pickup and the achievement shows no quests completed in Bloodmyst Isle, the draenei second area. I'm sure I remember doing those, and I can't imagine I skipped the entire starting zone. Though I didn't enjoy it very much... So maybe; I've done crazier things. I think it must be some sort of bug, because my overall quests completed are 482, and yet I have no zone quests until Duskwood, excluding a single one here and there.

Anyway, once all that hearthstone stuff is sorted out, I have gear to pull out of my bank, level 70 gear that I can finally wear, giving me a very important 15% cheaper consecration. That that used to be a pretty nice set bonus. Now the set looks a little silly, having tanking stats with intellect. Some ret gear had that happen too, with old stats of strength, intellect, and spellpower getting bundled up into intellect. When I saw these legs drop I couldn't quite remember what they were for, since these days they look like healing legs. They used to be for DPS, with the spirit being mana/5, a useful stat back when our regen was heavily based on judgement of wisdom (hit mob for mana).

You might be wondering why I'd turn off experience at level 70. That's not really a BG twinking bracket, nor is it "The Level Cap." But what it is, is the level cap at the era of WoW that I enjoyed the most. I don't think I'm going to magically be back in the days of BC. But I do think I'm going to be able to run a different sort of content, with a different sort of crowd. I'll see how it turns out.