Well... it ends in failure.

I am sorry to report that due to a foolish mistake I have to end my attempt of going from 1-85 without spending any money today. I had just gotten my Tyreal's Charger in the mail and along with it I gained Apprentice Riding for free. To celebrate the fact I can actually move faster than slow I was going to use the free flight from Org to Sen'jin to goof around on my new mount. But that happy feeling ended when seconds after clicking I realized I hit the wrong flight point and was headed to Ratchet. 94 c later and now my challenge has ended.

Thank you to everyone who read this blog and followed along as I attempted this. I know I've been really bad about posting these past few months. I might attempt this challenge again someday before Mists and the removal of most of the challenge. In the meantime I will keep leveling Kenyaku. He might spend some money here and there, but he is still going to be miserly about when and where he spends it. So, don't expect to see him decked out in the best gear unless he makes it or earns it himself.

Just a quick post to say I'm alive.

I know I've been away a while. Had a case of WoW burnout, but now I am back and I will start slowly making progress again. It is going to be a bit slower than before to help avoid the burnout I suffered, but I'll try not to disappear for almost 2 months again. Well, wish me luck as I try to hit 70 sometime in the next week. Only 2.5 levels to go.

Ding 60 and beyond...

Since my last update four days ago I have been very busy playing. In that time I have finished Felwood, Winterspring, and a good portion of Blasted Lands before stepping through the Dark Portal for a blast of the past that is Hellfire Pennisula. Before leaving Blasted Lands I dinged 60 while helping some Murlocs with a Naga problem. You almost feel sorry for them, till you remember how many times a murloc has ripped the face off one of your characters while leveling. On my way to the Dark Portal I was presented with a chance to do something Kenyaku has not engaged in yet, PVP. A flagged level 58 Night Elf Hunter at the Dark Portal gave me my first Honorable Kill. Happy with myself I quickly retreated through the Dark Portal and then through the port to Org. Mama didn't raise no stupid Warlock.

While having avoided Deathwing all this time has been pure luck, Hellfire Pennisula brought with it the horror that is the Fel Reaver (more affectionately known as the Ninja Reaver because of its ability to sneak up on you). To succeed at this challenge I had to avoid the Fel Reaver at all costs as too many deaths could cause valuable pieces of gear to break. With that in mind I cautiously made my way out into the burning wastelands. The first quests were rather simple, just having to mind my pulls to not get too many on me at once. And while none of them provided me with gear upgrades it gave me a little bit of confidence. From there I made my way through HFP, carefully plodding my way around so as to avoid the Fel Reaver and overaggroing.

I almost gave in to temptation to do the PVP quest a few times to get some gems for later, but resisted as with how slow I was it was unlikely I could cap all three areas without interference and there were too many alliance 85s around. However, I did do a couple of dungeons with guildies. Made out like a bandit too with several caster pieces dropping, plus dungeon quests giving me some nice pieces as well.

Sadly I did not finish Blasted Lands or HFP. With Blasted Lands it was the miniscule amounts of xp I was getting from kills and with HFP it was the lack of quests in general. Between pay walls, PVP quests, and group quests there just aren't enough quests to realistically get the 86 quests needed to get the achievement. So onwards to Zangarmarsh I go...

And before I forget, my current gold as of entering Zangarmarsh at level 63 is 849g 82s 69c.

Finally! An update!

I know it has been a while since the last update. I'm sorry for any wait. Since the last update Kenyaku has gone quite a long way and has reached level 52 and acquired 262g 83s 52c. The changes to pets in 4.2 and subsequent bugs have effected my progress a little, but not as much as feared so far. In the meantime let me fill you all in on my progress.

Since last update I have traveled through and mostly completed 6 zones (Ashenvale, Northern Stranglethorn, Cape of Stranglethorn, Western Plaguelands, Eastern Plaguelands, and Badlands) and have began working my way through Felwood. There were some bumps in the road, mainly in Badlands where I had to give up on a quest because it was causing too many deaths and close calls. "The Sorrow and the Fury" is an important quest for the overall story arc of the zone, but I just couldn't complete it so I will have to try and trek my way back much later just for the purpose of finishing it.

After all the improvements of most of the zones I've been in before I have to actually say I am disappointed by the changes in Felwood. Its a much more pleasant experience and much smoother, but it feels lacking as it has no encompassing storyline. Each area of the zone is self-contained and aside from combating the corruption, which you've been doing since vanilla, there is nothing to tie the areas together.

In other news, no broken gear yet. Yay!

Crisis

*Warning - Before reading any further know that this is at least partially a QQ post*

Well, 4.2 has released and with it came something I had not been paying much attention to, the changes to pet mechanics. I have no complaints about the removal of Aggressive as I couldn't switch to Aggressive even if I wanted to due to lack of a pet bar. But the change to how Defensive works and the addition of Assist has made this challenge almost impossible now on a clothie. The default pet stance is Defensive for anyone who has never played a pet class. Back before 4.2 that meant it would attack whatever attacked it or you and it would attack any enemy you attacked. When they eliminated Aggressive they also split Defensive Stance in two to create the new Assist stance. Defensive now only allows pets to attack when you or it is attacked and Assist has taken on the role of attacking the target you attacked. This wouldn't be so bad if they had made Assist the new default stance. However, they left it as Defensive which means I will have to be hit before my Felguard even thinks about trying to draw aggro.

Right now this isn't that much of a problem because I am actually a little overleveled for the areas I'm in. But later on I will have trouble not dying before my Felguard can draw off aggro. Right now it is looking like my only options are to quest in areas well below my level for survival reasons or giving up. For now I will soldier on, but it will be extremely difficult now.

Ding! Level 20

In my first update on Kenyaku's progress finds our frugal Warlock at level 20. So far the challenge hasn't been too difficult. I miss being able to use the AH and I am sure I will miss my ground mount soon, but flight paths are actually a bit overrated. He started out in the Darkspear Hold, but had to leave soon after because of the pay wall for the starting troll questline so he moved over to the Orc starting area. Right now I am making my way through Northern Barrens doing as many of the quests as possible to try and keep myself fairly well geared.

So far the only flights I have taken were the free flights back and forth from Razor Hill to Org for a delivery quest chain. Who knew that meat could have such an effect on a relationship *shrug*. I have avoided picking up any other flight points because it makes it easier to remember not to take them when the green exclamation point is still there.

I managed to do a Random Dungeon before I dinged 20 and while I didn't tear up any charts, not that charts matter at level 19, I did manage to get through without causing too much trouble and I even got two pieces of blue gear that will likely carry me for several levels. I would have a kill shot, but I died right after downing Lord Godfrey and because no one in the random wanted to rez me I couldn't get the shot.

An interesting note I found from doing that dungeon is that the statistics tab has one bug, it does not count money earned via the Random Dungeon Finder towards your gold acquired count and Blizzard has not updated the boss kill stat to count Lord Godfrey kills for regular SFK.

Now for some pictures:

Kenyaku at level 10 with his imp.


Kenyaku and his minion showing their darker sides.

Kenyaku dinging 20 with his Felguard.

And finally the statistics panel complete with 35 silver missing from Total Gold Acquired due to the one random I ran...

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my blog. The purpose of this blog is to document my progress as I attempt to level from 1-85 without spending one copper. I was inspired to do this challenge by an article I read on WoW Insider about a woman who recently completed this exact same challenge. For those curious about the person who inspired my attempt at this challenge here is a link to her blog documenting the challenge: http://doraslog.blogspot.com/p/thriftees-challenge.html

I have decided to take this challenge as an opportunity to also level a character class I have never liked, the Warlock. So Kenyaku the Troll Warlock was born.

The rules for this challenge are as follows:

• No spending any money. Period.
• No gifts of any kind from other players.
• I will accept the occasional summon to an out of the way place from a guildie if offered, but will try to avoid abusing it.
  
• I will do guild dungeon runs at appropriate level if possible as long as I am not carried by higher level members.

At the end of this challenge I will post a screenshot of my dinging 85 and then a screenshot showing my current gold alongside my statistics tab showing Total Gold Acquired. To be successful the numbers have to match.