wow Doubleagent Dings 110 on Herb and Mining Alone

[Starym 3,800]

The factionless Pandaren has made it to level 110 without ever leaving Wandering Isle and only level through mining and herbalism.

 

He's back! Everyone's favorite indecisive Pandaren has made it through Legion as well without ever having left the Wandering Isle and never having to chose a faction. Doubleagent has been leveling solely through mining and herbalism from level one onward, having reached the level cap several expansions in a row. Here's the momentous occasion of his final (for now anyway) ding, at 110:

You can really feel the excitement there, right? He needed around 600k xp for the final level alone and each node grants around 90, so the line between dedication to a cause and insanity is very much blurred here (and his title clearly indicates which side he's on). In Legion he also got an in-game homage in the Monk Class Hall that you can see here.

Here's FAQ he did back when he dinged 90 in MoP that may help explain some things or you can check out his twitter.

The story behind this is that I leveled this character without doing what most people do after finishing the initial starting zone quests, and that is picking either Alliance or Horde. I stayed on the isle and refused to betray the "Neutral" by choosing a side. I probably would have given up on it awhile back had my friend not suggested that I would never be able to do it. But now I will be able to say I have a 90, max level, of every faction.

Probably the #1 Question I'm asked by people on the servers, who've never heard of me... How did you get back here?
I didn't leave. I'm not Alliance or Horde. I'm still Neutral or as some would say, without a faction.

How long have you been working on this?
Off and on since September 2012. I've never ran out of rested experience since about level 55 (Can't level fast enough to catch up to it) When I hit 90 the rested experience will have run out, but I don't predict it being a problem in Warlords either.

What is your /played? (until 90)
173.5 days on Doubleagent alone, which is about half of my mains /played. I spent A LOT of time farming Bloodsail before Cata to exalted as well as a lot of time on Arathi Basin rep on my main which is why my main has more time in comparison to Doubleagent (Granted my main has been around a few more years too)

Why not use the Level 90 free boost or purchased boost for 60 dollars?
Boosting a Pandaren requires you to choose a faction, both a low level one as well as a High Level one. Which also of course transports you off the isle.

Why did you do this?
Thought about doing this when I heard about Pandaren being neutral until level 10. Knowing that herbalism and mining nodes gave experience, I figured if the zone had any of them it would probably be possible to level higher than intended. And when I did finally start, one of my friends thoguht I'd reach some kind of cap on the isle and that I wouldn't reach 90... So it kind of encouraged me to continue even moreso than before.

How do you level up?
Picking herbs, mining, and quests. Initially there was also mob kills, zone quests, and possibly exploration, but it's been a very long time since I've gotten any experience from that.

How much experience per node?
Starting at around level 29 or so the experience for these nodes stay the same all the way to 90. Provided you have rested experience the figures are:
Peacebloom, Silverleaf, Copper - 20 experience
Earthroot - 30 experience
Of course if you're not rested the experience value is half of that. But once I got to the higher levels, running out of rested experience wasn't an issue.

Any way off the isle?
Nope, monks can't Zen Pilgrimage, Inscription Scroll of Recall will not port you, and Mages need to learn their teleports and portals from a Portal Trainer in which there isn't one. You cannot queue for any dungeons and leave via that method either or R-a-F summoning, party breaks when one person leaves the isle and you can't group to use that option.
If you try to swim off the isle you get ported back, and there are also invisible barriers at the end the water. You can see that in my video of me using farsight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAmSDfyAAsw (About 5:15 I start leaving the isle)

No Dungeons? What about PvP?
Can't do any PvP content since you are neither Alliance or Horde. I cannot group with either.

Did you get bloodlust or heroism?
As of now, still don't have either spell, most likely due to them being faction specific, like faction specific titles and mounts that I do not have access to.

Isn't this BORING?
At times I can find it relaxing, a change from the normal. Plus it's pretty easy to do when I have TV shows or movies that I need to catch up on, moreso than trying to do that during a battleground or raid.

[Stan 5,240]

His tenacity is admirable. Madness would consume me!

[leech6590 1]

19 minutes ago, Stan said:

His tenacity is admirable. Madness would consume me!

Some people might say you should... Surrender to it.

[Tenjen 1]

I was wondering if he would do it again this expansion!

[Valks 2,375]

I can't even hit 700 on my gathering professions.. 

I guess my chance of being a double agent is 0.

[Stan 5,240]

5 hours ago, Blainie said:

I can't even hit 700 on my gathering professions.. 

I guess my chance of being a double agent is 0.

There's still hope! Double Agent 

[Orthios 271]

My favorite thing about this is that there is a lone shaman NPC named the venerable shaman wandering the Monk Class Hall (and the pandaren starting area, by extension), picking herbs and mining.  http://www.wowhead.com/npc=99048/venerable-shaman

[Valks 2,375]

On 11/26/2016 at 10:14 PM, Orthios said:

My favorite thing about this is that there is a lone shaman NPC named the venerable shaman wandering the Monk Class Hall (and the pandaren starting area, by extension), picking herbs and mining.  http://www.wowhead.com/npc=99048/venerable-shaman

Absolutely love all of the little things that are hidden in WoW. They've done an awesome job to honour people both in the community and from the world outside of WoW too.

[PatrickHenry 293]

Props to this guy for doing something nobody else has. 

In a game with this many players that is truly saying something.

[Valks 2,375]

34 minutes ago, PatrickHenry said:

Props to this guy for doing something nobody else has. 

Definitely. It's like when the first Ironman challenges started appearing. It might have been in other games etc., but it was awesome that it was brought to WoW as it was.