/hug

Well, I had fun, at least.

Cross-faction leveling isn't so much a matter of actually leveling as it is of circumventing the system. It's not that it was especially hard to do once we found each other and got to the site where we were going, it was the setup.

To start, I'm a horde tank and she's an alliance druid. I was around 3 to 4 levels above her, so I wasn't looking for XP here. So I fly on over to Ashenvale where she's leveling and try to meet up, only to run headlong into problems.

First, we can't track each other on the map or group up to find each other. Second, WoW doesn't come with map co-ordinates installed by default, requiring that Rachelle install an add-on to figure out where she was. Third, if we ever broke line of sight, there was a chance we'd lose each other. Fourth, I couldn't keep an eye on Rachelle's health easily to see if she was in trouble. Fifth, THEY ALL HAD RED NAMES! It's not my fault if I accidentally attacked her boyfriend (who was in game on Alliance, helping her) and killed him. Well, maybe it is.

Those were pretty much the roadblocks to this endeavor. I think we got one quest done in 2 hours, which--considering the actual physical location and the spread between quest areas--should have taken no more than 30 minutes. Efficient, it is not.

Aside from all the frustrations, it was pretty cool. I just had to make sure what I was attacking. Mikey joined us on Horde, and Rachelle's boyfriend was there, which made for a 2-horde, 2-alliance group. Only one other player came by, and he left the alliance characters alone. I was just like:

"It's cool, they're with us."

And Mikey was like:

"They're cool, they're our friends"

And the guy was like:

"kk"

and rode off.

Moral of the story? Cool in concept, but certainly not an efficient way to level.