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85 levels, 0 kills
A while back, I read a bunch of articles on people who leveled characters on World of Warcraft in strange ways: the warrior who leveled without weapons, the folks who grinded to 80 without getting any achievements other than the ones they got for their levels, getting to max level without dying, etc. There were also two people who were slowly leveling as "pacifists": trying to get to as high a level as possible without killing anything.
Now that Blizzard has included experience for gathering professions and archaeology, SC and I think it actually might be possible to get to max level without killing anything. So I'm giving it a shot.
This is Dovie. Say hello, Dovie!
Making her a rogue was a no-brainer; rogues have Stealth, Vanish, Sap, Distract, Blind... They have tons of ways to avoid combat, get out of combat, and otherwise accomplish their goals without killing. There are enough "Go into the bad guys' camp and fetch their papers" quests that it's worth doing this as a rogue. Plus, picking pockets and lockpicking is going to rule!
I decided to roll her as Alliance because unlike the ones in Orgrimmar, none of the Stormwind fishing or cooking quests require combat-type killing. (Obviously catching fish is technically killing, and many of the cooking quests involve meat, but I'm going to allow them because my character doesn't like stabbing stuff to death, but that doesn't necessarily make her a vegan, you know?) I went with a human basically for the racials. As far as I can tell all the 1-5 zones for Alliance races that aren't phased out and have rogues pretty much start off with kill quests, although I'm not 100% on that.
Here are my rules:
1. No killing blows on NPCs.
2. No killing blows on PCs.
3. No partying with someone else who is killing NPCs or PCs.
4. No battlegrounds at all: I know some people who have tried to do this did it by healing battlegrounds or running flags in them, which is totally reasonable, but I think it kind of goes against the challenge, and it breaks the "no partying with people who are killing PCs" rule.
5. No unlearning/relearning professions to game the XP system. Waiting to train my skills higher so I can continue to get XP from gathering in at-level areas is appropriate.
6. The cooking/fishing dailies often involve the deaths of fish and the caught canal crabs; however, since the quests don't involve entering combat, I think it's reasonable to allow them.
7. This is more applicable as Horde, but quests where the character doesn't know the end result will be an NPC's death (some of the apothecary quests) are allowable, in that your character is tricked into doing them and could be doing them in good faith.
8. I'm allowing myself to buy quest items on the auction house for quests like the Clamlette Magnifique cooking quest (buying meat to learn to cook a recipe is not a violent act unless you feel strongly about the consumption of meat), but not for quests like the Encrypted Twilight Texts quest. (Arguably, my character could have picked them from the cultists' pockets, but I think it's cheating.)
9. I'm unsure where I stand on quests where your character roughs someone up but does not kill them. I think I'm against doing them, but I'm leaving my options open on that one.
Anyway, Dovie is now level 4, through cunning use of exploration, herbing, mining, and taking all the quests to go to each race's starting inn. I'm currently working my way through "Red Snapper - Very Tasty!" but I got sick of running away from murlocs and decided to take a break. So excited for level 5 and Stealth. I'll be able to do some of the quests in my log, then! Yay!
Until then, I'm going to be looking at this a lot.
Now that Blizzard has included experience for gathering professions and archaeology, SC and I think it actually might be possible to get to max level without killing anything. So I'm giving it a shot.
This is Dovie. Say hello, Dovie!
Making her a rogue was a no-brainer; rogues have Stealth, Vanish, Sap, Distract, Blind... They have tons of ways to avoid combat, get out of combat, and otherwise accomplish their goals without killing. There are enough "Go into the bad guys' camp and fetch their papers" quests that it's worth doing this as a rogue. Plus, picking pockets and lockpicking is going to rule!
I decided to roll her as Alliance because unlike the ones in Orgrimmar, none of the Stormwind fishing or cooking quests require combat-type killing. (Obviously catching fish is technically killing, and many of the cooking quests involve meat, but I'm going to allow them because my character doesn't like stabbing stuff to death, but that doesn't necessarily make her a vegan, you know?) I went with a human basically for the racials. As far as I can tell all the 1-5 zones for Alliance races that aren't phased out and have rogues pretty much start off with kill quests, although I'm not 100% on that.
Here are my rules:
1. No killing blows on NPCs.
2. No killing blows on PCs.
3. No partying with someone else who is killing NPCs or PCs.
4. No battlegrounds at all: I know some people who have tried to do this did it by healing battlegrounds or running flags in them, which is totally reasonable, but I think it kind of goes against the challenge, and it breaks the "no partying with people who are killing PCs" rule.
5. No unlearning/relearning professions to game the XP system. Waiting to train my skills higher so I can continue to get XP from gathering in at-level areas is appropriate.
6. The cooking/fishing dailies often involve the deaths of fish and the caught canal crabs; however, since the quests don't involve entering combat, I think it's reasonable to allow them.
7. This is more applicable as Horde, but quests where the character doesn't know the end result will be an NPC's death (some of the apothecary quests) are allowable, in that your character is tricked into doing them and could be doing them in good faith.
8. I'm allowing myself to buy quest items on the auction house for quests like the Clamlette Magnifique cooking quest (buying meat to learn to cook a recipe is not a violent act unless you feel strongly about the consumption of meat), but not for quests like the Encrypted Twilight Texts quest. (Arguably, my character could have picked them from the cultists' pockets, but I think it's cheating.)
9. I'm unsure where I stand on quests where your character roughs someone up but does not kill them. I think I'm against doing them, but I'm leaving my options open on that one.
Anyway, Dovie is now level 4, through cunning use of exploration, herbing, mining, and taking all the quests to go to each race's starting inn. I'm currently working my way through "Red Snapper - Very Tasty!" but I got sick of running away from murlocs and decided to take a break. So excited for level 5 and Stealth. I'll be able to do some of the quests in my log, then! Yay!
Until then, I'm going to be looking at this a lot.